We
are associated with The Rosicrucian Fellowship,
"On
that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in
you”
John
14:20
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An essential motivation for a man is to wish to attain
the highest possible because of a tender spiritual love for all beings.
By attaining a higher level of consciousness, you will acquire also
discernment and wisdom, which are necessary to be real useful on a
higher scale. In many traditions it has been pointed out with how
much intensity one should go and practice the way which has been shown
to us. It has been said that
we should practice with as much intensity as a drowning
man is in need of air, or as a man whose head is burning needs ardently to
extinguish the fire or as a man who is dying of thirst and is in need of
water. Try to think about these images and feel the implicit messages.
Yet a spiritual resolution should be practiced with total confidence and
equipoise. Another aspect is that all kinds of negative emotions,
thoughts and deeds make it impossible for you to perceive the reality as
it is, and make it also impossible for you to understand and follow a
true spiritual teaching. In every situation it is possible to react mechanically,
primitively or like an animal or even worse, or one decides to behave in
a noble form through conscious work. So, let’s try to learn nobility,
beauty, harmony and eventually love in our behaviour. It is necessary to leave behind these unwanted stepping
stones and work with tranquillity of mind to transmute these negative
conditions by using your creativity in cultivating all that is good.
When you see that these destructive emotions, thoughts and deeds not
only create problems for you, but also in your family, group, society
and world in which you live, you can develop great intensity in doing
what is beautiful, truthful and good. You will naturally accept that it
is necessary to work consciously and cultivate love and reverence for
the divine in you, in others and everywhere. Let’s keep in mind and
remember that the heart and center of any spiritual group is constituted
and guarded by those individuals who daily put into practice the
teachings and by so doing they become a living example of goodness.
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We would like to announce to you that the next
International Meeting of the Rosicrucian Fellowship will be held in
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Exerpts from “RCC ”, page 107,111 , by Max Heindel
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There is in the universe neither reward nor punishment.
All is the result of invariable law. The action of
this law will be more fully elucidated in the next chapter, where
we shall find it associated with another Great Law of the Cosmos, which
also operates in the evolution of man. The law we are now considering is
called the law of Consequence. In the Desire World it operates in purging man of the
baser desires and the correction of the weaknesses and vices which hinder his progress, by
making him suffer in the manner best adapted to that purpose. If he had
made others suffer, or has dealt unjustly with them, he will be made to
suffer in that identical way. Be it noted, however, that if a person has
been subject to vices, or has done wrong to others, but has overcome his
vices, or repented and, as far as possible, made right the wrong done,
such repentance, reform and restitution have purged him of those special
vices and evil acts. The equilibrium has been restored and the lesson
learned during that embodiment, and therefore will not be a cause of
suffering after death. To do good to others because we want them to do good to
us is essentially selfish. In time we must learn to do good regardless
of how we are treated by others; as Christ said, we must love even our
enemies. There is an inestimable benefit in knowing about the method and object of this purgation, because we are thus enabled to forestall it by living our purgatory here and now day by day, thus advancing much faster than would otherwise be possible.
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An exercise is given in the latter part of this work,
the object of which is purification as an aid to the development of
spiritual sight. It consists of thinking over the happenings of the day
after retiring at night. We review each incident of the day, in reverse
order, taking particular note of the moral aspect, considering whether
we acted rightly or wrongly in each particular case regarding actions,
mental attitude and habits. By thus judging ourselves day by day,
endeavoring to correct mistakes and wrong actions, we shall materially
shorten or perhaps even eliminate the necessity for purgatory and be
able to pass to the first heaven directly after death. If in this manner,
we consciously overcome our weaknesses, we also make a very material
advance in the school of evolution. Even if we fail to correct our
actions, we derive an immense benefit from judging ourselves, thereby
generating aspirations toward good, which in time will surely bear fruit
in right action. In reviewing the day's happenings and blaming ourselves
for wrong, we should not forget to impersonally approve of the good we have done and
determine to do still better. In this way we enhance the good by
approval as much as we abjure the evil by blame. Repentance and reform are also powerful factors in
shortening the purgatorial existence, for nature never wastes effort in
useless processes. When we realize the wrong of certain habits or acts in
our past life, and determine to eradicate the habit and to redress the
wrong committed, we are expunging the pictures of them from the
subconscious memory and they will not be there to judge us after death.
Even though we are not able to make restitution for a wrong, the
sincerity of our regret will suffice. Nature does not aim to "get
even," or to take revenge. Recompense may be given to our victim in
other ways. Much progress ordinarily reserved for future lives will
be made by the man who thus takes time by the forelock, judging himself
and eradicating vice by reforming his character. This practice is
earnestly recommended. It is perhaps the most important teaching in the
present work. |
The
three green branches: compiled by the brothers Grimm
There
was once an eremite. He lived in the woods at the foot of a mountain and used
his time in praying and in doing good works. Each evening he took, in order to
praise God, some pitchers with water the way up to the mountain. Some animals
drank from this water, some plants were refreshed with it. On the high mountain
there was usually a strong wind which dried the air and the grounds, so that the
birds around were looking where to pick up some water for drinking.
And because the eremite was a very good man, an angel of God, whom he
could see, accompanied him the way upwards, counted his steps and gave him to
eat when the work was done, like the prophet of God who was fed by the birds.
When
the eremite in his holiness reached an old age, it came to pass, that from far
away he saw a man who was not good and vicious, that was taken to the gallows.
He thought and said for himself: “Now happens to him what he merits.” At
night, when he took the water upwards the angel who usually accompanied him did
not appear to him. He also did not bring food for him.
In
that moments he feared and searched in his heart what he had done, that God was
not anymore in harmony with him. Yet, he did not know. He
did not drink, nor eat anymore and prayed day and night. And once in the woods
as he was bitterly crying he heard a bird that sang so beautifully and touching.
With these impressions he was more touched in his soul and said: “Why do you
sing so happily?” God is with you in harmony, but not with me. Can you tell
with what behaviour I have offended him, so that I can clean myself from these,
and make my hearth again joyful? The bird said: You made a mistake because you
condemned a poor sinner who was taken to the gallows, that is why God turned
away from you. He alone can judge. But he will pardon you if you do confess and
repent your sin. Then the angel of God appeared to him and he had a dry branch
in his hand and said: you should carry with you this dry branch until it brings
forth three green branches, but in the evening when you want to sleep you should
put it under your head. The meals you should ask from the doors of others and
not stay more than one night in the same house. This is the task that God gives
to you.
The
eremite took this dry wood and went into the world which he had not seen for so
long. He drank and ate nothing, but what others gave to him; many times when he
asked he got nothing and the doors remained closed, so that he often did not
take any food for his body the whole day long. One day he again received nothing
and nobody wanted to take him for a night into their home, so that he went into
the woods and after a search he found a constructed cave and also an old lady
that was inside. He
said: Good lady, let me sleep one night in your cave. But she answered: “No, I
can not do this, even if I wanted, because I have three sons which are bad and
when they come back from plundering and find you here, they will kill you and
also will kill me.” He said: “Let me remain here, they will not do anything
to me and will also not injure you.” She was moved by his words and consented.
He stretched himself under the staircase and put the branch beneeth his head.
When
she saw this, she asked why he was doing that. He told her his story and said
that he saw a bad man who was taken to dead and that he spoke that he gets what
he has merited and also told her about the penance that he took …She said:
when God punished only one word, how it will be with my sons when they appear
before God for judgement. At
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimmtales.html
Thoughts
Existence begins in every instant.
Nietzsche
Only a brave person is willing to honestly admit, and fearlessly to face,
what a sincere and logical mind discovers.
Rodan of
If you love the good that you see in another, you make it your own.
St Gregory the Great
Aquarian art
My
soul is occupied,
And all my substance in His service;
Now I guard no flock,
Nor have I any other employment:
My sole occupation is love.
The
bride has entered
The pleasant and desirable garden,
And there reposes to her heart's content;
Her neck reclining
On the sweet arms of the Beloved.
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Selected articles from The Rosicrucian Fellowship Magazine
