Version: October 10, 2004
FAITH is one glorious step beyond Hope, the measure by which fulfillment is drawn, and the whole sublime structure for both.
When darkness overwhelms the senses and deflects the light of the heart and mind -- when defeat of purpose seems inevitable -- then the sustaining step of Hope appears, alerting and urging the Soul on anew, while the glorious Light of the Star of Faith illumines the next step with its resplendent beauty, binding the links of the eternal golden chain of Principles to the clearing vision of the courageous climber to the Heights on Life's Ascending Stairway.
"By working for other people we put in practice the inner beliefs which rest upon unity, we develop certain faculties in our nature, we increase our spirituality; for the first and most important step in the cultivation of spiritual faculties is the practice of good thoughts, good acts, and constant endeavors for other people.
"By following this you will find yourself growing from within more and more, which is what you want, for all light that comes from without is deceptive and when it is gone leaves just what you have yourself."
These words from William Quan Judge express with clarity and wisdom the means by which we obtain true inner growth. This growth must, of necessity, be slow growth. All too often we want it now, at whatever price, just to be "first" or "best." Keeping the Unity of All Life firmly in mind, we come to appreciate and understand that all of us are growing together, that this is the only way we can grow. If we take up the simplest duty at hand and do it lovingly and well, we contribute to the good of the whole. Our duty lies close to our doorstep every day, every hour. The Temple Teachings tell us that the big things of life are made by the doing of the little things in the right spirit. These are the miracles of daily living. Someone once said: "Small miracles occur for ordinary people day by ordinary day. There is grace in knowing what might have been but wasn't, and bliss in living a day when nothing special happens but life just works." At this time in our inner unfoldment, although it is not given to us to be able to see when "life just works," we have faith that there is much greater harmony and light available for everyone, through our efforts.
- Eleanor L. Shumway
Guardian in Chief
All of us who are striving to put deeper meaning and purpose into action in our lives, might well take a personal inventory. This inventory needs to be an inner as well as an outer one, done with as much honesty and insight as we can bring to the process. We are not expected to achieve mastery in one incarnation, and yet we must not -- indeed, cannot -- put off self-analysis, self-direction, and increasing self-knowledge. Where and how do we find ourselves?
Master Morya, in the message "Seek Within," clearly and directly says that the only place to find anything is within our own selves. Everything we want is there. Do we want to be kinder, truer, more courageous, poised, compassionate, and noble; do we want to learn, admit our faults and make them good by better living? If so, the way to do it is to Seek Within!
An early Gnostic teacher, Monoimus, told us: "Abandon the search for God and the creation and other matters of a similar sort. Look for Him by taking yourself as the starting point. Learn who it is within you who makes everything his own and says, `My God, my mind, my thought, my soul, my body.' Learn the sources of sorrow, joy, love, hate -- If you carefully investigate these matters you will find Him in yourself."
More and more attention is given today to the techniques of seeking within. The vocabulary is varied -- prayer, meditation, visualization, self-imaging, self-healing, self-transformation, and many more. All are aspects of the process of seeking within. But we are not born consciously knowing the best techniques for us -- in fact, there is no single technique that brings the transcendent experience we seek. This transcending journey, this ultimate connection with all that is, is gained through step by tiny step of knowledge and experience that finally results in wisdom.
The Temple Teachings are filled with clues on how best to further this search within ourselves. However, we are told that our greatest difficulty in learning the Way, the Truth and the Life is our impatience, our unwillingness to grow naturally and normally, as well as our impatience with what we view as old or simple methods of instruction. All too often, such methods have to be new and different, or fast, or easy. Master Hilarion said early in the work, "I could very easily show you how to evoke certain Occult powers, but if you had not in yourself the power to command these forces, they would simply turn and rend you, and I would be an accessory in your crime. I have made you certain promises which I am willing and able to perform; but your share in this work is no light one, and, while I desire to give you all possible encouragement, it is needful that you realize possible dangers from without as well as within -- to be able to distinguish between what is possible and what is impossible in your own development. All this is quite within your present power if you will but be true to yourselves; will but face yourselves up courageously and determinedly. A fault acknowledged is half conquered; a virtue recognized is capable of expansion and growth."
This is just one small example of the marvelous way we are taught what to do. In one short paragraph we are told, not as children, but more as brothers and sisters, or partners in a great endeavor, that we will be given power when we have earned it, we earn it by doing the job closest at hand, and that we are trusted to do our jobs because He knows we have the ability if we will but use it. What we need to bring to the process is our commitment and courage. There is the comforting statement that we CAN acknowledge our faults, without guilt, and we CAN acknowledge our virtues without inflating our lower egos. Then we must get on with the task of self-evaluation and the search for the means to build on our virtues while correcting our faults.
If, indeed, a fault acknowledged is half conquered, then the task is really easier than we anticipate or give ourselves credit for. We are often much too critical of our efforts and those of our brothers and sisters. We all too often magnify negative qualities while denigrating the positive ones. How do we know if a fault exists to be worked on? We might ask ourselves these questions:
1. Have I learned to be more still in the midst of excitable situations? Has my immediate home and private life benefited thereby?
2. Do I realize and implement my pledge of "all I am or hope to be, here and now I offer Thee"?
3. Has my effort been of any practical use to the Temple work in its different aspects and functions?
4. Have I contributed anything worthwhile to the Great White Lodge that the Trail for the March of Progress may have been made brighter and easier for my brothers and sisters near or far?
5. Am I allowing time and space for my realization of the Christly Presence to grow stronger, sweeter, more active and satisfying to my own and others' needs? If not, what is the cause? Have I looked too far?
6. Has more constant, deeper, purer joy entered into my life?
7. Have I shed gladness and encouragement upon all with whom I come into contact, including myself?
8. Am I trying to put the ten rules of Discipleship into daily, hourly action?
9. Have I made any effort to clear my personal debts on any and all planes? What do I owe in the coin of thoughts, words, feelings or deeds?
10. How can I add to my spiritual steadfastness?
Do we have the courage to answer these 10 questions honestly, without rationalization or justification? Do we have the courage to acknowledge any faults and so immediately begin to work on them? Do we have the enlightened self-confidence to acknowledge our strengths and thereby begin the process of expansion and growth? No one is keeping score on our answers to such questions -- no one except our Higher Selves. The Higher Self waits with patience for us to tune in, to listen carefully to its experience and then to use that experience with an ever-expanding consciousness.
How do we tune in? We might work with this instruction: "Endeavor to cast every thought out of your mind except the one of obtaining perfect tranquillity of mind and body. Do not hold your will rigid. Do not make a strong effort at what so many of you term concentration, for you frequently defeat the desired end by awakening too much energy. Try to reach the condition between sleeping and waking, as far as possible, through listening with the inner ear." All too often our lower mind, the one that has such a desperate need to be in control, the one that can convince us that it is more powerful, more right, more present in all situations, simply will not shut up and listen. And yet all we have to do, using the power of our real selves, is to endeavor to cast every thought out of our minds except the thought of having perfect tranquillity of mind and body. To endeavor is to try and to keep on trying, and trying, and trying until we make it so.
Hiawatha Lodge, circa 1930
-- Eleanor L. Shumway
Why be disturbed by will-o'-the-wisp flickerings from untoward minds? They are but efforts to lure you from the Path that you may be lost in the thickets and quagmires of personal judgments, confused by the argumentative demons that reside therein, watching ever for opportunity to trap and ensnare all who pass their borders on high purpose bent.
There is but One True Light, One Only, straight ahead, which shines through thicket and mire and fog, steady, clear, calm, high. Keep your gaze on that. Do not be deceived by the mirage of lower levels, the fluctuating uncertainties of that which comes and goes.
Your feet are well started on the Path of Light. Keep them secure from the foes that would entice and delude. They know your purpose, its importance, delicacy of character, its sensitiveness, the criticalness of each step; and they would gainsay your defeat if possible by wresting your gaze from the goal, by weakening your concentration.
Beware and slay their ill intent by outshining them with radiance of Light from the Central Sun, the Spiritual Sun of Light and Growth. Be that Light. Be One With It, as the Father and Son are One; and nothing can lead you astray, nothing hold you from victory.
The Child of Love -- My Child of Light, of Truth and of Peace it is who is haunted, whom the evil ones would pursue, harass, haunt with their tricks of undoing, could they accomplish their purpose; but they shall not this time succeed. The Powers of Light are too strong for them; and they shall retreat into the darkness from which they originally sprang. But the Child shall rise into greater and greater strength and beauty to be revealed more and more to the hearts and minds of men as days pass.
-- Morya
Halcyon Store, circa 1945 -- one-half block north of current location
If you wish to progress on the road to perfection, take lessons in love. Learn to love the highest, and you will be attracted by it. Seek in every man those qualities which appear to be high, and cover his mistakes by charity and love. If you speak ill of another you speak ill of yourself, because he who prominently notices the faults of another must have the elements of those faults in himself. A vain person is repulsed by the vanity of another; a liar expects from others the truth; a thief does not wish his own property taken away. Virtues attract each other, producing harmony, but vices repulse each other, and discord is the result. Each man is a mirror in which every other man may see his own image reflected, either as he is or as he may become in the future, for in every human soul exist the same elements, although in different states of development, and their development often depends on external conditions over which man has but little control.
-- Franz Hartmann
Over and over again, in some slightly changed form, some of you put the same questions to me; over and over again I make the same replies. Unconsciously to yourselves you often ask that the governing laws of the Universe be changed in order that some personal idiosyncrasy or desire be gratified. You ask that the great law of Karma -- cause and effect -- be modified or changed in order that you may obtain some favor or win some power which you have not earned -- that place, position, or opportunity be given you for which you are as yet unfitted, unaware that unfulfilled duties pertaining to such places or opportunities would result in unspeakable anguish to you. You are told that hatred, unbrotherly conduct, harsh criticism of others, whether deserved or not, generates within your own auras a corroding, devitalizing form of force, which not only results in illness of the physical body, but which acts on the astral body and the organs of consciousness, on the mind plane, similarly to some of the noxious metallic poisons on the physical body; and yet some among your number are passing cruel to each other and to others who are dependent on you, and who justly or unjustly excite your anger. You often think you are justified in assuming a judicial air, or in violently condemning wrongdoers; but it is not your possible justification that we are called upon to consider now; it is the action of universal laws, as applied to a would-be occultist. If you are satisfied to evolve with the masses, well and good; if you would pass beyond the masses, you must be subject to higher laws than those which govern material substance. You must try to realize that I, too, am limited.
I can tell you of things to come, as I am able to judge by the visible signs, as well as by my knowledge of interior laws; I can tell you how certain catastrophes might be averted if the humanity of this age would listen and obey; but bear in mind, I cannot change the laws that govern manifesting matter; I cannot make two and two five, I cannot take two pecans from five and leave four, although I might be able to make you believe that I had accomplished that feat by means of hypnosis or some other ultra-physical power.
One of the greatest difficulties you experience lies in your inability to accept as literally true the statements given out by myself and others in positions similar to my own, regarding the action of universal laws.
The unyielding, unpliable man is invariably the man that is broken on the wheel of the world; the pliable man bends beneath the storm, and the storm either passes over his head and leaves him untouched, or touches him so lightly by comparison, that his rebound to a normal position is accomplished with very little difficulty when the danger is over.
The strained, tense condition of the nerves from which countless thousands of people are now suffering is responsible for much of the evil that falls upon them. The same law that renders a relaxation of the body necessary is behind an equal necessity for soul relaxation -- the law commonly known as gravitation -- and true prayer should result in this relaxation of soul. The energy which should be evenly distributed throughout all the nerves and muscles is used up thoughtlessly or ignorantly in sustaining this tension, while for the time being it enables the ambitious man or woman to accomplish Herculean tasks in business or pleasure; consequently, the body is robbed of necessary force, and the mind cannot function evenly and naturally; antagonism is engendered, and finally, incipient disease or decay manifests. You must learn to relax this tension by power of will, and I have already told you how you must evolve such will power if you are to obtain it.
If the positive energy of intense selfish desire is sent forth in prayer, and the energy is not powerful enough to force accomplishment of the desire, that energy is dissipated, and the body in which it was generated and by which it was sent forth, is broken or beaten down by the reflex action.
If from the higher point of renunciation the soul, while in a perfect state of relaxation, sends forth a prayer to the Infinite -- not for some personal favor, but of faith, of love for that Infinite -- the same law which compels one pole of electricity to respond to the other will compel a response from those Infinite domains, and the response will be in accordance with the real needs of the aspiring soul. You will frequently find that the surest way of winning a thing is to give up even the desire for that thing.
Thought is one form of energy, words are other forms of the same energy; combined, they create a third form, and true prayer is of this other form. Created and sent out from the human heart, it can go as far as its inherent power can take it. If the prayer of aspiration is selfish, it meets on an interior plane other forms of the same energy, the desires of which are in opposition to it, and one neutralizes or destroys the other, and the consequence is that neither desire reaches those who have the power to answer.
The wisdom of the ages is compressed in the words spoken by Jesus, "Not my will, but thine be done." It is only prayers preceded by that sentence and winged by an unselfish love, that asks only to love, not for love, that Omnipotence can answer. The highest power is only won by renunciation. Renounce with thy whole heart -- love with thy whole heart -- work with thy whole heart, and all things in heaven and earth are thine.
Construction of the Blue Star Memorial Temple was begun in 1923 under the guidance of Dr. William H. Dower, second Guardian in Chief of the Temple of The People. The Temple was built as a memorial to the first Guardian in Chief, Francia A. LaDue, known as Blue Star.
The architect was Theodore Eisen of Los Angeles, who was hired to bring the inspirations and directions of Dr. Dower into manifestation. The center stone was laid in a ceremony held January 19, 1923, the birthdate anniversary of Blue Star. Plans were drawn, discussed and finalized by March, and construction began in April.
Aphorisms on Karma [The Path, Vol. VII, March, 1893, pp. 36 69]
The following, among others not yet used, were given to me by teachers, among them being H. P. Blavatsky. Some were written, others communicated in other ways. To me they were declared to be from manuscripts not now accessible to the general public. Each one was submitted for my judgment and reason; and just as they, aside from any authority, approved themselves to my reason after serious consideration of them, so I hope they will gain the approval of those my fellow workers to whom I now publish them.
-- W. Q. Judge
(1) There is no Karma unless there is a being to make it or feel its effects.
(2) Karma is the adjustment of effects flowing from causes, during which the being upon whom and through whom that adjustment is effected experiences pain or pleasure.
(3) Karma is an undeviating and unerring tendency in the Universe to restore equilibrium, and it operates incessantly.
(4) The apparent stoppage of this restoration to equilibrium is due to the necessary adjustment of disturbance at some other spot, place, or focus which is visible only to the Yogi, to the Sage, or the perfect Seer: there is therefore no stoppage, but only a hiding from view.
(5) Karma operates on all things and beings from the minutest conceivable atom up to Brahma. Proceeding in the three worlds of men, gods, and the elemental beings, no spot in the manifested universe is exempt from its sway.
(6) Karma is not subject to time, and therefore he who knows what is the ultimate division of time in this Universe knows Karma.
(7) For all other men Karma is in its essential nature unknown and unknowable.
(8) But its action may be known by calculation from cause to effect; and this calculation is possible because the effect is wrapped up in and is not succedent to the cause.
(9) The Karma of this earth is the combination of the acts and thoughts of all beings of every grade which were concerned in the preceding Manvantara or evolutionary stream from which ours flows.
(10) And as those beings included Lords of Power and Holy Men, as well as weak and wicked ones, the period of the earth's duration is greater than that of any entity or race upon it.
(11) Because the Karma of this earth and its races reaches into a past too far back for human minds to reach, an inquiry into its beginning is useless and profitless.
(12) Karmic causes already set in motion must be allowed to sweep on until exhausted, but this permits no man to refuse to help his fellows and every sentient being.
(13) The effects may be counteracted or mitigated by the thoughts and acts of oneself or of another, and then the resulting effects represent the combination and interaction of the whole number of causes involved in producing the effects.
(14) In the life of worlds, races, nations, and individuals, Karma cannot act unless there is an appropriate instrument provided for its action.
(15) And until such appropriate instrument is found, that Karma related to it remains unexpended.
(16) While a man is experiencing Karma in the instrument provided, his other unexpended Karma is not exhausted through other beings or means, but is held reserved for future operation. Any lapse of time during which no operation of the Karma is felt causes no deterioration in its force or change in its nature.
(17) The appropriateness of an instrument for the operation of Karma consists in the exact connection and relation of the Karma with the body, mind, intellectual and psychical nature acquired for use by the Ego in any life.
(18) Every instrument used by any Ego in any life is appropriate to the Karma operating through it.
(19) Changes may occur in the instrument during one life so as to make it appropriate for a new class of Karma, and this may take place in two ways: (a) through intensity of thought and the power of a vow, and (b) through natural alterations due to complete exhaustion of old causes.
(20) As body and mind and soul have each a power of independent action, any one of these may exhaust independently of the others, some Karmic causes more remote from or nearer to the time of their inception than those operating through other channels.
Work continues, early 1924
He would indeed be without the faculty to feel who could have been here at Halcyon during the past few days without experiencing a great uplift from the surges of Spiritual Force which have poured into and through us all since we gathered together in this, the 39th Annual Convention (1938) of our Temple organization. For forty years our members have met annually in Convention assembly, and each year felt the influx of something we find it difficult to express in words and yet which we all recognize and feel. At our opening meeting yesterday afternoon not a person was present but registered, to his or her ability and capacity to feel, an uplift and a unification which he or she knows came from a source outside of himself. He feels today, and he will feel through the days to come, a better man than he was a few days ago. Each year this phenomenon takes place. At each Convention those who get together here at Halcyon for a few days are favored in this same way.
Looking back over the years and calling back the memory of Convention after Convention, I cannot recall one of them when this has not been the case. We talk to each other of the feeling of uplift, and experience again and again the same difficulty of putting into concrete words these feelings and the sense of understanding which is ours. Why is it that we find this difficulty?
We have been impelled to gather together each year with a common cause and for a common end. In our physical bodies we are all units differing each from the other in appearance and in habits of life and of thought. It is questionable that in any other gathering of this size one could find so varied an assortment of personalities. We come from different countries and various races, drawn to this point and to this gathering -- by what? Among us are those who have sailed this far through life easily and leisurely, and there are those whose conditions have been difficult and full of struggle and conflict. We have those who know what poverty means, and those to whom it is only a word; those who have dipped into life and experienced its thrills, and the emptiness of them, and those to whom they are but a name. And yet we all meet together at this Convention time, drawn together -- by what?
Can any of us paint a word picture, understandable to all, telling just what this is which draws us together at these times? I think not. But we all feel it.
Last evening we were privileged to listen to a number of musical selections in this Temple, and we all enjoyed them, each in his own way and to his own capacity. Good music does something to one which it is hard to describe. After listening to it we feel more peaceful and harmonious than we were. We feel better and kinder, and more pulled together. It has built something into our character which nothing else can. But who can describe accurately, in words, just what has happened to him? As a result of his decision to attend last night's concert here, each person who heard it is a little better person than he would be if he had essayed to turn on the radio and listen in on a jazz program or a swing band.
And so it is with this mysterious force which we all feel has been poured out in some mysterious manner and which has keyed us all up into a little higher vibratory rate and thereby made us a little more understanding and a little kinder and a little more forgiving. And that is what we mean when we speak of Building the Temple.
Every year at this time we are privileged, by virtue of our attendance here, to draw on this mysterious reservoir of building force. It is poured out from the Lodge, which is the custodian of this Force, and we all draw on it -- just as we might draw upon a deposit of money which is placed to our credit in the bank. Day by day through the year, after we are drawn back into the petty cares and circumstances of everyday existence, we will draw on this bank deposit of Lodge Force and expend a little here and a little there. It is just as existent and far more real a thing than any few dollars we might have in the bank. Its use will tincture our lives; and, as we draw on it and apply it, a strange thing happens, which again distinguishes it from a deposit in the bank. The oftener we draw on it, and the more of it we spend, the larger our deposit seems to grow. That is because we are using our gift from the Lodge to help build the Temple of Humanity. Our Temple here is just a symbol of that greater Temple.
The Lodge Force which we have all felt so strongly is like the leaven which leavens the whole loaf. Wherever we apply a little of it, it starts a process which is quite closely analogous to the fermentative process of the yeast in the bread. It begins to bubble and fuss round and stir everything up, and soon another Lodge bank account is opened and another deposit of Lodge Force is placed to some other person's credit in the Bank of Life. And this is the only way we ever can do our bit in the Building of the Temple.
I do not wish to be understood as saying that at these Convention gatherings only is this Lodge Force poured out. That is not the case. It is available at all times and can be drawn upon by anyone at any time -- provided they have the key to the safe deposit box. But it must be used for the building of the Temple, or soon the ability to draw upon it will disappear -- and then we turn sour and bitter and find many reasons why the Temple is a delusion and a fake.
One of the sacred books of the East describes, in very vivid clearness, how everything seems to turn to dust and ashes when the Heart-light dies out. It burns more brightly at times in all of us. Sometimes it is dimmer. We see it shining in each other's eyes when we help each other in any way at all. It may be a helpful word or an understanding glance, or even only a sympathetic silence; but, whatever form it takes, if the impulse is kindly and we are striving for harmony and understanding, we are drawing a little on this bank deposit which is so inestimably valuable and laying another stone in the Great Temple which we are all building.
We have been told many times that there are two great forces at work today and all the time; the one a building force pushing the evolutionary wave along and making for growth and happiness and prosperity, and the other great force working at cross purposes to this and impeding it and working for discord and disharmony everywhere. If we can realize this, we can apply our knowledge and influence on one side or the other.
Many years ago I asked for definite information as to what the Great Temple meant and how we could help build it. I treasure the answer I received very highly and have referred to parts of it many times through the years, from this platform. It was given to me written in Dr. Dower's handwriting, and is a list of the twelve basic forces of which the Universe is built, their correspondences in spiritual terms, and the twelve basic qualities of human character which manifest these forces and express them.
The Twelve Forces are:
1. Sound, corresponding to The Word.
2. Light, corresponding to The Life Within.
3. Electricity, corresponding to The Male or Positive Basis of Matter.
4. Magnetism, corresponding to The Female or Negative Basis of Matter.
5. Heat, corresponding to Molecular (Astral) Motion.
6. Cohesion, corresponding to Unification.
7. Chemical Affinity, corresponding to Attraction of Opposites.
8. Attraction, corresponding to Seeking Unity.
9. Repulsion, corresponding to Seeking Diversity.
10. Inertia, corresponding to Law of Changelessness.
11. Motion, corresponding to Deity in Expression.
12. Gravitation, corresponding to The Central Cause.
Completion in 1924
And the Twelve Basic Principles are: 1. Love, 2. Hope, 3. Faith, 4. Justice, 5. Charity, 6. Devotion, 7. Courage, 8. Humility, 9. Endurance, 10. Perseverance, 11. Compassion, 12. Unselfishness.
A comparison of the action of these basic forces will disclose a remarkable analogy between their action in Nature and in human character. For example:
Compassion corresponds to Attraction and brings Unity.
Devotion corresponds to Cohesion and brings Unification in effort.
Light is the Life Within and gives Faith.
And so on with all twelve of the Basic Forces and Qualities.
Just as the material universe is built out of these twelve basic forces, so are our spiritual selves built up by their twelve corresponding spiritual qualities: and the Great Temple is building -- all the time -- out of them. Each time anyone applies justice or compassion or faith or devotion or any of these building forces to any problem, no matter how small, he is laying a stone in the wall of the Great Temple of Humanity.
-- Ernest Harrison
To Thee, Almighty Father-Mother-Son, Creator of Life Spiritual and Material.
I lift my heart in faith that, if it be according to Thy Will,
The Sun of Thy Righteous and Omnipotent Love may shine upon and within me,
Lifting the fallen shadow of disease and suffering,
And restoring me to mental, moral, and physical health.
-- B. S.
What a pity it seems that we poor, struggling, sinning, suffering souls have not yet attained to the height of development requisite to enable us to speak to each other heart to heart, without being misunderstood, barely endured or ridiculed -- and, what is of infinitely more importance, without being denied the help it is possible for one sympathizing, experienced, intelligent soul to give another in climbing the rugged path of life. But, almost invariably, we are either too cowardly, too reserved, too suspicious or egotistical to open the inner pages of our souls to the criticism and inspection of another, or too selfish to meet the demands made on us by the confidences of that other, inspired by our own outbursts.
And so we go on, heart-starved, soul-sick, hungering and thirsting for the love and intelligent understanding of others, while all around us are countless numbers of people in exactly the same state of spiritual desolation. Writhing in an agony of yearning in the stillness of their leisure moments, crying out to whatever ideals of God they may have formed or, in desperation and despair, almost cursing that God whose ears seem deaf to their cries, some of our fellow creatures go on, permitting their faith to be filched from them by other poor souls, who at heart are just as hungry as they. Stifling the still small voice in our souls that would lead us home to our Father's house if we would permit it, filling our lives with the things of the flesh or of mind; building up barriers between ourselves and others which cannot be passed by them or ourselves; attributing motives to each other which, be they either true or false, react upon ourselves by making us morbid, mentally unbalanced, or combative -- while all the time great waves of the ocean of divine love are beating up against our souls, striving to break down the walls we have made and give us power to launch our frail crafts on its bosom, drifting sweetly and peacefully out into its depths and on, on to the port where all old things are made new.
O, my comrades! What matters it if we are sometimes deceived in each other; what matters it that someone has robbed us of a good name, a little gold or silver or a few jewels -- things that are but chains that bind us to this car of Juggernaut we call "our world"? What matters anything, everything save the God within, over and around us -- the God that dwells in our sin-diseased brother or sister, just as surely as in us!
View of the Temple from the Halcyon Store, circa 1932
Our settled convictions of Time and Space have made slaves of us all. If we had the patience to wait for that God to do its perfect work in our brother and in ourselves, it would alter our course of action, alter our feeling toward that brother. Even if he did not respond to our advances, even if he did not at once change the whole tenor of a lifetime at our demand, we would know that all is well with us and with him, because Law rules -- and those particular experiences are teaching us both some necessary lessons.
If we could gain the faintest idea of the real nature of that Love which we call "God," but which we have clothed in a form a little larger, a little better looking and more powerful than ourselves, or believe to be an unthinkable, unconscious, unfeeling force -- if we could even conceive of the real character of those attributes of the Infinite that we call Mercy, Justice and Loyalty -- would we be content, would we even endure to be robbed of our right to profit by the exercise of these attributes to attain to them, for the sake of clinging to the poor truck we have loaded up our consciousness with, in the line of material things, intellectual advantages, fleeting joys and pleasures? The very stones -- the hard places in our souls -- would cry out against this robbery of our birthright. And yet the great majority pass on, with eyes bent over the mud in which they are partially engulfed, searching for some tawdry thing that will make them appear of consequence in the eyes of the rest of the poor slaves of desire, passion and greed.
O would to God that something would awaken us from the lethal state, the poppy dream, that most of us are in, and bring us to a realization of the truth as it exists, something which would make us realize once for all that we have sold our birthright for a mess of pottage, and give back to us the faith, the trust, the purity of motive and, above all, the Love we had when the world was young and fresh-made from the hand of the Infinite. Without these, all things else -- ourselves included -- are as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, mere creatures of noise and confusion. But if we get them back, it must be in the way we lost them -- little by little, moment by moment.
But, thanks be to God, it is something to know that we once had them, even if they be lost; something to know that we have not always been as we now are, and that hope and longing may again set our feet on the narrow path which leads to life eternal; something to know that, at the earnest cry of the tortured soul, hell must deliver up the riches it has filched and hidden and unloose the strands of the rope it has woven about our forms, and let us go free to seek our Home and our Father's face.
-- Blue Star
The fundamental doctrines of Theosophy are of no value unless they are applied to daily life. To the extent to which this application goes they become living truths, quite different from intellectual expressions of doctrine. The mere intellectual grasp may result in spiritual pride, while the living doctrine becomes an entity through the mystic power of the human soul.
-- William Quan Judge
For all that the material things of life mean so much to us and are so insistent in their call, the real thing that builds and molds our life is the Inner Voice -- that quality or factor in us that sums up and synthesizes the experiences we meet.
It is the conflict between that voice or urge and the external physical world of experience that builds character, and character is the dynamic things. Character I take to be the sum of past experience in action. It is to evolve that vital, virile force for character along true lines, lines of poise and power, that we are here -- not for pleasure or knowledge of this or that, not for experience for its own sake, but for the development of the consciousness of the one thing that is in you and me, and that is in degree in the jellyfish and the Master: the Inner Voice of all.
As our eyes see only an arc of the circle of vision and our ears hear only an arc of the circle of sound, so our mental grasp, however clear-sighted we may think ourselves, is only a tiny section of any subject.
The broadest vision, the widest conception of facts, even the kindest, most comprehending judgments are inevitably incomplete because of the limitations of our consciousness. It is to broaden that consciousness of the unity of all manifested life that we live and try as best we can to hear that Inner Voice, that divine call; then, having heard, to put it to the test and prove its quality and so build an extension of our soul mansion that will in time become character. Character is our firm foundation, the rock on which we stand when we again listen for the Inner Voice that still say, "Come."
-- Agnes Varian
Temple groups: There are groups in New York City and London, England, as well as several in locations in Germany. Anyone wishing more information about these groups can call the Temple offices in Halcyon.
William Quan Judge Library serves Temple members, residents of Halcyon, and friends with an interest in Theosophy or who are doing research involving some of our special collections. Our library is staffed by volunteers; hours are Mondays, 9-11 a.m. and 6-8 p.m., and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Other hours are by appointment through the Temple office.
The University Center Gallery is open by appointment. Please call the Temple office at (805) 489-2822 for information. This year the exhibition consists of paintings by Harold E. Forgostein, fourth Guardian in Chief of the Temple. This exhibit, "The Refreshing Green of Nature," features both watercolors and oils depicting Harold's deep insights into the the world of nature about us. Also on display are many interesting articles and artifacts accumulated through Temple history.
The Temple Healing Service is held at 12:00 noon each day in the Temple. All are welcome to attend. A Meditation Meeting is held in the Temple on Sunday evening from 7 to 7:30.
Study Classes under the auspices of Temple Officers and various Temple Orders are held regularly in the University Center on Tuesdays and Fridays at 5:30 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Sunday Services are held at 10:30 a.m. in the Temple. The Feast of Fulfillment (the Communion Service of the Temple) is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month. The last Sunday of each month is a prayer and meditation meeting. Other Sundays are speakers' meetings. The public is cordially invited to all services.
Speakers in the Sunday services were: March 10, Eleanor L. Shumway, Theosophy by Ernest Harrison; March 17, Caren Elin, Om Tat Sat; March 24, Will Comfort, The Flow of Life; April 14, Eleanor L. Shumway, To Light a Thousand Lamps; April 21, Linda Rollison, Why Theosophy?; May 12, Valerie Blustin, Friendship; May 19, Eleanor L. Shumway, The Search; June 9, Eleanor L. Shumway, Living the Paradox.
ginc templeofthepeople.org -- Send e-mail to the Temple directly