The Complete Works of Yogy Ramacharaka. William Walker Atkinson

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      "He is thyself; yet thou are but finite, and liable to error. He is eternal, and is sure. He is eternal truth." The distinction between the lower, temporary, consciousness of self, and the reality, is there pointed out. The paradox of the self and the Self is here presented to you. Think well over it, and the truth will gradually reach you—and having … you will never again depart from you, no matter how dim it may seem at times.

      "When once he has entered thee, and become thy warrior, he will never utterly desert thee." Wonderful promise. The consciousness of the existence of the Spirit within you, once obtained, is never entirely lost. Though you may learn to doubt it, as not having come through your ordinary senses, yet will the memory linger with you—and when it is most needed you will be able to recall the experience and again open yourself to the inflow of the divine wisdom and power.

      "And, at the day of the great peace, he will become one with thee." In the time when sheath after sheath has been cast off and the flower of Spirit unfolds in full bloom—when man shall become more than man—then will the consciousness of the individual melt into the "knowing" of Spirit, and the soul will be at one with its highest principle. This will not be a surrender of individualitybut, on the contrary will be such an enlargement of individuality and consciousness as can scarcely be imagined by the greatest intellect of today. Then the great knowing, power, and joy, of which we have gained a faint glimpse during the flash of illumination, will become a permanent consciousness with us. Then will we pass from the realms of the relative into the regions of the absolute.

      We come now to another group of four precepts. Let us consider them.

      5. Listen to the song of life.

       6. Store in your memory the melody you hear.

       7. Learn from it the lesson of harmony.

       8. You can stand upright now, then as a rock amid the turmoil, obeying the warrior who is thyself and thy king. Unconcerned in the battle wave to do his bidding, having no longer any care as to the result of the battle—for one thing only is important, that the warrior shall win; and you know he is incapable of defeatstanding thus, cool and awakened, use the hearing you have acquired by pain and by the destruction of pain. Only fragments of the great song come to your ears while yet you are but man. But, if you listen to it, remember it faithfully, so that none which has reached you is lost, and endeavor to learn from it the meaning of the mystery which surrounds you. In time you will need no teacher. For as the individual has voice, as has that in which the individual exists. Life itself has speech and is never silent. And its utterance is not, as you that are deaf may suppose, a cry: it is a song. Learn from it that you are a part of the harmony; learn from it to obey the laws of the harmony.

      "Listen to the song of life."

      The note that is attached to this precept is so beautiful—so full of truth—so instructive—that we can find nothing to add to it, and we insert it in this place as the best possible explanation of the precept to which it is attached:

      NOTE.-Look for it, and listen to it, first in your own heart. At first you may say it is not there; when I search I find only discord. Look deeper. If again you are disappointed, pause, and look deeper again. There is a natural melody, an obscure fount, in every human heart. It may be hidden over and utterly concealed and silenced—but it is there. At the very base of your nature, you will find faith, hope and love. He that chooses evil refuses to look within himself, shuts his ears to the melody of his heart, as he blinds his eyes to the light of his soul. He does this because he finds it easier to live in desires. But underneath all life is the strong current that cannot be checked; the great waters are there in reality. Find these, and you will perceive that none, not the most wretched of creatures, but is a part of it, however be blind himself in the fact, and built up for himself a phantasmal outer form of horror. In that sense it is that I say to you: All those beings among whom you struggle on are fragments of the Divine. And so deceptive is the illusion in which you live, that it is hard to guess where you will first detect the sweet voice in the hearts of others. But know that it is certainly within yourself. Look for it there and, once having heard it, you will more readily recognize it around you.

      The sixth precept: "Store in your memory the melody you hear," and the seventh precept: "Learn from it the lesson of harmony," relate to the fifth precept and need no special explanation.

      The eighth precept is full of information. It starts with the assurance that you (now being open to the guidance of Spirit) can stand upright, firm as a rock amid the turmoil, obeying the warrior (Spirit), who is spoken of as being "thyself and thy king" (again a reference to the relative and the absolute relation).

      It speaks of the soul led by Spirit as being unconcerned in the battle, save to do his (Spirit's) bidding, and "having no longer any care as to the result of the battle" (that is, caring nothing about the apparent result—the temporary defeats, pains, and trying circumstances)—for only one thing is important and that is that Spirit should win, and win it must, for it is invincible, and incapable of defeat. The soul is spoken of as "standing thus, cool and awakened," and using the hearing which it has acquired by pain and by the destruction of pain. This paradox of "pain and the destruction of pain” is interesting. One necessarily learns lessons from pain—many lessons may be learned in no other way—and yet after the true nature of pain is learned and fully impressed upon the mind, then pain no longer is pain—pain is destroyed, and another lesson is learned. And so the voice of the Spirit—the song of life—comes to the hearing which has been awakened both by pain and by the destruction of pain.

      “Only fragments of the great song come to your ears while you are but man.” For when you reach the stage when you may listen (a the grand volume of the divine song, then you are no longer man, but are something far higher in the scale of spiritual evolution and life. But the mere fragments of the song are so far beyond any other human experience that the mere echo is worth living a life to hear. We are further told that “if you listen to it, remember it faithfully, so that none which has reached you is lost, and endeavor to learn from it the meaning of the mystery which surrounds you,” the voice of Spirit will beat upon your ears, so that, in spite of the material interferences you will from time to time have horne in upon your consciousness bits of knowledge which will seem to come from another world. Light will be thrown gradually upon the great problems of existence, and veil after veil will be withdrawn.

      The precept then gives us the glad tidings that: "In time you will need no teacher. For as the individual has voice. so has that in which the individual exists. Life has speech and is never silent. And it is not, as you that are deaf may suppose, a cry; it. is a song. Learn from it that you are a part of the harmony; learn from it to obey the laws of the harmony.” In time you will have passed beyond the need of a human teacher, for the light of Spirit will illuminate every object upon which you gaze, and the ears opened by Spirit will hear the lessons coming from every object in nature. In the stone; in the plant; in the mountain; in the tempest; in the sunshine; in the stars; in all things high or Iow; will you perceive that great throbbing intelligent life of which you are a part from them will you hear notes of the great song of life: “All is One;. All is One.” As the precept tells us, the sound from nature and nature’s things, is not a cry, as many have supposed, but a great triumphant song—a song rejoicing in the Row of Life of the singer, and vibrating in unison with the Absolute. “Learn from the song that you are a part of the harmony; leam from it to obey the law of the harmony.”

      The next group of four precepts are along the same lines as those preceding:

      9. Regard earnestly all the life that surrounds you.

       10. Learn to look intelligently into the hearts of men.

       11. Regard more earnestly your own heart.

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