Father Basil, Prior

<<< Harmlessness >>>
   Thus humanity serves, and in the development of a
conscious aptitude for-service, in the growth of a con-
scious" understanding of the individual part to be played
in the working out of the plan and in the rendering of
the personality subject to the soul, will come the steady
progress of humanity towards its goal of world service.
May I speak a word here so as to make this consum-
mation a practical goal in your life? Harmful magnetic
conditions, as the result of man's wrong handling of
force are the causes of evil in the world around us.
How can we, as individuals, change this ? By the
development in ourselves of Harmlessness. Therefore,
study yourself from this angle. Study your daily conduct
and words and thoughts so as to make them utterly harmless.
Set yourself to think those thoughts about yourself and others
which will be constructive and positive, and hence harm-
less in their effects. Study your emotional effect on
others so that by no mood, no depression, and no emo-
tional reaction can you harm a fellow-man. Remember
in this connection, violent spiritual aspiration and en-
thusiasm, misplaced or misdirected, may quite easily
harm a fellow-man, so look not only at your wrong ten-
dencies but at the use of your virtues.
   If harmlessness is the keynote of your life, you will do
more to produce right harmonious conditions in your
personality than any amount of discipline along other
lines. The drastic purgation brought about by the at-
tempt to be harmless will go far to eliminate wrong
states of consciousness. See to it therefore, and bring
this idea. in your evening review. practice harmlessness with
zest and understanding, for it is (if truly carried out) the
destroyer of all limitation. Harmfulness is based on
selfishness, and on an ego-centric attitude. It is the
demonstration of forces concentrated for self-enforce-
ment, self-aggrandisement, and self-gratification. Harm-
lessness is the expression of the life of the man who
realizes himself to be everywhere, who lives consciously
as a soul, whose nature is love, whose method is inclu-
siveness, and to whom all forms are alike in that they
veil and hide the light, and are but externalizations of
the one Infinite Being. This realization, let me remind
you, will demonstrate in a true comprehension of a
brother's need, divorced from sentiment and expediency.
It will lead to that silence of the tongue which grows out
of non-reference to the separate self. It will produce
that instantaneous response to true need which charac-
terizes the Great Ones who (passing beneath the outer
appearance) see the inner cause which produces the con-
ditions noted in the outer life, and so, from that point of
wisdom, true help and guidance can be given. Harmless-
ness brings about in the life caution in judgment, reti-
cence in speech, ability to refrain from impulsive action,
and the demonstration of a non-critical spirit. So, free
passage can be given to the forces of true love, and to
those spiritual energies which seem to vitalize the per-
sonality, leading consequently to right action.
   Let harmlessness, therefore, be the keynote of your
life. An evening review should be carried forward en-
tirely along this line; divide the review work in three
parts and consider:
   1. Harmlessness in thought. This will primarily result
        in the control of speech.
    2. Harmlessness in emotional reaction. This will re-
        sult in being a channel for the love aspect of the
        soul.
    3. Harmlessness in act. This will produce poise, skill
        in action and the release of the creative will.
    These three approaches to the subject should be studied
from their effects upon one's own self and development,
and from their effect upon those whom one contacts and
upon one's environing associates.

<<< The Safety of the One Who Thus Co-Creates >>>
It might be said here with emphasis, even if it is a
recognized truism, that people are frequently slain by
their own thought-forms. Thought creation, through
concentration and meditation, is a potently dangerous
matter. This must never be forgotten. There are forms
of thought, unencumbered by much desire matter, which,
failing to pass downward, poison the man on mental
levels. This they do in two ways:
    1. By growing so potent on the mental plane that the
man falls a victim to the thing he has created. This
is the "idee fixe" of the psychiatrist; the obsession
which drives to lunacy; the one-pointed line of thought
which eventually terrorises its creator.
    2. By multiplying so fast that the mental aura of the
man becomes like unto a thick and dense cloud, through
which the light of the soul must fail to penetrate, and
through which the love of human beings, the lovely and
beautiful and comforting activities of nature fail to pierce.
The man is smothered, is suffocated by his own thought-
forms, and succumbs to the miasma which he himself
has engendered.
    Or again, there are lines of thought which draw forth
from the emotional body a reaction of a poisonous na-
ture. A certain line of thought is followed by a human
being in relation to his brethren. It breeds hatred, jeal-
ousy and envy, and works through into manifestation in
such a manner that it produces those physical plane ac-
tivities which cause the death of their creator. This may
be literal as in the case of murder, which is in many cases
the result of crystallised intent, or it may result in dis-
ease. Pure thought, right motive and loving desire are
the true correctives of disease, and where the desire for
these (which does animate many) is raised to constructive
thinking there will be the gradual elimination of disease.
As yet, though many desire, few think. Let it never be
forgotten that our spiritual guides do not look for those
who only desire and aspire. They look for those who blend
with their desire the determination to learn to use their
mental bodies and become co-creators, and who will work
constructively towards these ends.
   Thus it will be seen why, in all systems of true spiritual
training, the emphasis is laid on right thinking, loving
desire, and pure, clean living. Only thus can the creative
work be carried forward with safety, and only thus can
the thought-form pass downward into objectivity, and be
a constructive agent on the plane of human existence.


				Father Basil, Prior