Mental Warpings

Here we are, Sister. You have learned the best way to us now, doing duties first. This always leaves your mind and heart open to our influences. Harry wishes to talk again. This time it is for Tee only.

Tee, old pal, let's have another heart to heart talk, which isn't possible, as I expect to do another monologue. I want to tell what I saw in your past lives, in order that you may save both time and energy in eliminating the unprofitable elements you have acquired along the unknown path.

I suppose the Creator knows his own business best, but there have been moments when I felt I could suggest improvements. For instance, had I been running affairs I should have been a little more open about this reincarnation plan of elevating the individual. Why let a soul boggle along blindly for numberless lives when just a friendly tip would have illuminated the whole situation and enabled him to plan with far less waste?

I can't for the life of me reconcile myself to the waste I see repeatedly going on all through nature, from acorns and seeds to people. Of course I'm no such fool as to imagine I could have planned things better. But being limited in vision I see apparent waste all along the line. However, that is neither here nor there, such discussion being jolly pure and simple. God knows; I don't. That's the whole thing in a nutshell.

Well, to continue. A man's memory of his plural past would save repetition of mistakes, as it takes numberless incidents of the same type to cut a dent deep enough to mould conduct.

For instance, if you were aware that you had been born and bred a tyrant or ruler repeatedly, you would examine carefully into the qualities likely to develop as a consequence, and watch with keenest interest the mental and moral warpings which are the logical fruit of such environment. Intolerance and self-will being the commonest traits developing under these conditions, one should in each subsequent life make an effort to cultivate such opposite tendencies as would balance the character.

He who is master oftener than slave, develops the selfish pleasure of the monarch, and enjoys doing rather than being, giving rather than taking. I have my doubts about its being better to give than to receive. I find it requires a far higher type of man to accept favours with dignity and grace than it does to shower blessings on a flattering populace.

Of course there is a giving which is splendid, and a taking which is degrading, but many of us have not yet reached the stage where we enjoy accepting from others. We have this big thing yet to learn: to be ennobled by a favour, humbled by giving.

We must give that which we cherish most, ourselves, our ideas, our privacy, our sacred reserves, all with love.

You desire what your heart cries out for, and should Fate deny you, life would be more or less a makeshift. Isn't that true? Could you ever give up your chosen work gladly? Not yet, I fancy. I didn't. No man does until the truth has been rubbed in so often that it reaches the bones. But if you knew and believed, as I do now, that one does not need one's fancied heart's desire to get the utmost out of life, that any life spent chasing one's heart's desire is pure waste, one would sit down and figure out just what would net him the most progress in the long rim, and forget everything else of a strictly personal nature.

Far be it from me to coerce any human being, but I will lay open your past in its main points and let you look at it.

You owe a great deal to John. He has been your stepping stone to success over and over throughout the past, and this is your first opportunity to repay him for these repeated favours. It looks to me as though you would have a great chance to make good. Sister is also in his debt, and it is up to her too.

Your instinct would suggest there was a duty in that quarter, and, being parents, you would see in convention an added help. But it strikes me that a knowledge of facts would help even more and preclude the chance of any mistake. John is the one person you two are put here to further on his way. Whatever move brings more into his life is the move you should make. You both will best further your ultimate progress by seeing to his.

This is the main subject about which I wished to speak. Think it over, Tee, and you, too. Sister. Be sure you do everything gladly, freely, and because you honestly wish it. Otherwise, it is all wasted sacrifice with a sting in it. A shadow of regret renders worthless; remember that.

Better trot right along as you are unless you can hand over your entire output without a qualm or reservation of any sort. If you can hand over everything, then his debt is paid in full, and you two are again free.

How is it?

Harry

As we are so far along the road to self knowledge, I wish to say something more about the difficulty of seeing and doing what is best in the ultimate.

Being aware that I am of necessity a most imperfect product, I have sometimes an almost panicky feeling of self-distrust. But after sitting down quietly and taking my bearings, I see that while I am in a most humiliating state of partial development, I may, in spite of that fact, be nearer the light than you, and so I am in a position to help you at least a little way toward illumination.

You are blind. I am just opening my eyes a trifle. Then if I refuse to give what I have, however pitifully small the gift, I am vain, and therefore hold back that little because of its smallness, when perhaps you could only receive that much, and more would pass your comprehension.

I want you to know that I do not preach to you as from an eminence, for I am lifted only the merest trifle above your own range of vision, seeing merely a bit more of the vast horizon we all long to achieve. I beg you won't take the small fragments of truth I write as the gospel of final truth. I only pass you the best I have, with the assurance of a sincere desire to help, and the belief that one's progress is never ending, but is, in fact, continuous, toward Godhood.

Always believe in change and growth, as well here with us as there with you. As we evolve we perceive the higher law, law being progressive as well as other things. I want to make this quite clear to both you and 'Tee.

Another thing I wish to ask of you is never to take any statement from me without first testing it out in the crucible of your own highest judgment. It is difficult to transmit ideas across the border of differing life elements, and errors often occur through no fault that can be avoided. Up to now these errors have been so few as to count but little. However, I realise the danger of possible mistakes and errors as our work widens out, and I want to warn you to allow for such possible accidents. Common sense is your one safeguard. Accept nothing which fails to pass that test, and you are safe.

Of course, we are all happy that our small efforts have proved so helpful, and this makes us feel that we may do even better with your help. What people need is hope and comfort, and the conviction that life is continuous, both before and after death. The more people who believe this, the sooner will arrive the age of brotherhood. One's ambition must be transferred from material success to spiritual insight. Work to get must be altered into effort to become. Happiness follows the one who is on the upward path of becoming.

Of course one should be a doer, but one must also be. To do the decent thing one is just obliged to be decent. Be decent then first, or the veneer of doing decently will some day crack off and show the sham beneath, and to be discovered a sham is about the greatest humiliation one can undergo.

To the one who has fought the fight for self-mastery sympathy is easy, so if you find yourself judging some fellow traveller harshly because of some particularly mean trait, that will be positive proof you yourself have never conquered it within your own heart. For if you had, you would realise the struggle entailed, and so accord a sympathy both deep and sincere. The victor is always generous, and in moral conflicts the victory is gained by such a narrow margin invariably, that one feels he has escaped only by the grace of God, and so feels a true sympathy for the one who must fight the same bitter and perilous battle with his inner enemy. No one ever wins an easy victory. It takes his utmost effort, and the result rests upon a hair's breadth, so no one can feel superior to his neighbour.

Give each struggling soul the helping hand of a kindly sympathy. He needs all he can get, and then may fail. Do you care to be the one who helped his failure? Are you in a position to cast the first stone?

Each harsh thought we indulge in is a drag on the soul who is battling for his eternal life. How cowardly in anyone to cripple another, either before or during his conscientious struggle to master his inner enemy. How dare we, when we know we shall reap what we sow? How dare we throw that boomerang? No one who knows oppresses in any way the weak, I hate to appeal to your desire for self preservation, but I can.

You may save your life by willingly giving it up, but you lose it permanently by saving it, by sacrificing another. You gain by giving, not by grasping. The miser is the greatest pauper of them all. But I have spoken of this law often before.

Adios,

Harry