THE HIGH IDEAL

THE HIGH IDEAL

Lecture by the Master Beinsa Douno to General Occult Class, given on September 11, 1923, in Sofia

Nature loves only men who have high ideals. She calls them her beloved children and knows them by name. Those who have no ideals are not listed in her book. They are discarded as scrap; they are put into her cellar for faraway days, for faraway times.

And so, at those times when you feel as if no one pays any attention to you, or as if you are abandoned by God, "by Nature," you must know that the mistake is your own, that you lack a high ideal. This is a rule, a law. It cannot be otherwise. Therefore, every one of you can correct his life, his misfortune, you can come out of this forgotten cellar. If one of the most abandoned, "at the bottom of the cellar," some day creates for himself a high ideal, he will start crawling up like a snail and in not too long a time he will find himself up on the surface. And Nature will say: "Here is one of my children who has risen from the dead."

What is death in the world? Death: is the misfortune of the forgotten children, of children with no ideals. Resurrection? - it is the promise to the children of high ideals, who are coming out of the bottom of the cellars of the material world. In order to crawl out of such a cellar you must have will, you must have unprecedented, incomparable faith.

There are some people in the world who say: "I can dress in anything, I eat anything, I eat everything." This is not right. The man who says that he eats everything is a man with a low ideal - he is an all-eating animal. Man must eat only the most carefully chosen foods of nature which give a good effect. That is all! Nature knows every one of you. How does she know you? She puts you under examination everyday. And do you know what excellent tests she conducts? In order to see what is hidden in the folds of your soul, what is hidden in the folds of your mind, of your heart, to see that which you try to hide, to see what, your impulses are and what might come out, of you,Nature grows in her garden the most wonderful trees and decorates them with fruits of various qualities. She lets you into this garden and watches what fruit you will take. If you have a high ideal and if you look out for the most beautiful fruit and take it, she will say to herself: "Here I have a wise child!" And she will note down in her book: "You will become a Man." But if you are too lazy to climb up for the best fruit, she will form another opinion of you. You must get the best fruit of the tree. It might, cost you your life to climb and pick it, but if you climb up and take it, she will say: "This child of mine is brave, it takes the best." But if this child looks up and says: "Who will climb so high!" and looks around to see whether some fruit has not fallen on the ground and if not, reaches out towards the nearest branch to pick one, Nature will say: "This is one of the forgotten children, it will not grow up into a Man."

All take note! She takes into account only your inward longings. She establishes the facts, watches them only and notes down what she sees. Therefore,if she takes down the best note about you, you are the reason for that. And if she chronicles something that is not good the reason, again, is you. She notes neither more nor less. She just enters the facts in her notebook and from these facts she draws her conclusions. Now, which are the conclusions that will influence your lives? They are the choices you have made.

I will give you an example in order to clarify this idea. There was an Egyptian woman named Eltamar. She was the daughter of the poorest peasant in Egypt but was very wise and intelligent, chaste and modest. When she went to school her teacher asked her: " Will you marry or will you remain a virgin?" She answered: "I have only one ideal on earth. I have decided thus: I can marry only the king's son. Whoever comes to ask me, I shall refuse if he is not the king's son. I have just one choice and if I can't have that, I shall remain a virgin." You might say: "What foolishness!" Not so, she has an ideal! "If the king's son asks me I shall marry, if not - I need no marriage! "

How is this great ideal applied in the world? If you would have just one faith, if you would have just one teaching, if you would have just one measure, just one image, if you would have just one heart, if you would have just one mind, if you would have just one soul, one spirit, this spirit must be the son of Truth. Let us take up now a comparison. You go out to meet the sunrise. Do not go to meet it when it has risen four fingers over the horizon. You must meet its first ray. That is the most important. That is the king's son. If you do not see the first, the others are not good. If you do no see it, you have lost the sunrise. You catch just this one, you do not need the others. Take the first ray and bring it home. Some ask: "Did you go to see the sunrise?" I did. I saw how the sun came up. I say: you have not seen the first ray. The others are the last fruits of this great tree. You will not become a Man.

When you go up the mountain do not say: "I drink any kind of water." No, if you find the best spring, from where the purest water bubbles up, you are a man of high ideal. If you do not climb high enough up the mountain and say: "I can drink from this water here too," you have a low ideal. Some of you say: "I can drink from here." No, this shows lack of character.

The pupil of the occult school must differ from all others. If you go up to the spring in spite of the difficulties, you will drink from the source . If you take the purest water, you have already an ideal. If you climb some mountain peak, the same law works. Some say: "I can climb anywhere."No, you will choose the best place of this mountain peak, the most beautiful place, so that it will impress your soul deeply. And when you come down you must carry in your heart, "this peak" as an alive peak. When you read books - the same law applies. Read the books of the most famous writer, of the most notable philosopher, of the most eminent preacher!

If you go to an exhibit, look at the paintings of the most notable artist, not those of a mediocre one, but of the most prominent. The ordinary paintings you can see if you watch the people: how every one eats... when you observe them you will see the ordinary pictures. But when you have a choice you will go and see only one painting.

The foremost one in the world, that is enough. When you choose a friend, observe the same law. Choose the noblest, the wisest, the most intelligent, with the purest of hearts. If a man chooses a wife - the same law works: if a woman chooses a husband - again the same. Do not deviate from this principle! Deviation brings forth the thousands of misfortunes in this world.

Now I speak ideologically, about principles which you must apply daily. Sometimes you may think that your ideal is not the right one. Well, it might not be the best now, but what kind of ideal will you choose next? Let us presume that today you have let the day pass by - you have not seen the first sunray. But tomorrow you might see it. If you meet the sunrise again in the same way, you have again lost the day; but if today you have been excellent, if you have met the first ray - tomorrow you will meet it again. In this way your whole life will be changed.

When we decide to correct our lives, the same law is in effect. If you wish to correct yourself take up your biggest mistake, do not busy yourself with the small ones. Take up that biggest error, hold it up for a day, two, three days, a week,a month, a year, ten years, and at last this error will understand that it has a real man to cope with, and it will say to you: "I surrender, You deserve your new position." There are some pupils who, when they stumble two or three times, when they are thrown down two or three times, say: "We shall not grow up into real men," and they run away from the battlefield. These are people with no ideals.

Why have you been called down to earth? To a feast? No! You have been called so that your character and your mind might be tested. And eating at Nature's table, she observes you, she has eyes and watches how you behave. The forks, the spoons, the napkins - she sees all and from this she concludes what will become of you. If you are invited to a feast and are given a plate out of which others have eaten, do you think you have a high ideal? You will ask me: "What shall we do then?" You will bring your own plate with you. You will ask: "Do you have a clean plate? " - "No, we have not. " "I have my own plate." You will hand it to them and they will serve you food on it. And thus you will eat. Then you will ask: "Has anybody eaten with the spoon you give me?" And you will bring out your own spoon, your own fork, your knife... Do you understand? This is a rule for occult pupils.

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