To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

Western Occultism / 111
own advancement, our own stature and achievements. After
all, where we stand — spiritually or otherwise — is of
small moment compared to the quality of our contribution
to the whole. The real issue is: Are we giving the best of
ourselves to this world so that we bring warmth and courage
instead of chill and gloom to our surroundings?
Meister Eckhart, 14th-century mystic, whose purity of
life gives luster to his instructions and sermons even today,
put it eloquently:
If some one were in a rapture like Saint Paul’s, and there were
a sick man needing help, it would be better to come out of
the rapture and exercise practical love by serving the one in
need. ...
In this life no man reaches the point at which he can be
excused from practical service.*
The finest type of meditation is a turning of the soul
toward the light within in aspiration to be of greater service,
without exaggerated longing for some special revelation.
Any method of meditation that helps us to lessen our selfcenteredness
is beneficial; if it increases egocentricity, it is
harmful.
It is indeed our duty to search for truth, wherever it may
be; also, to use our keenest discrimination in every circumstance,
appreciative of worth yet alert for falsity, knowing
that every human being has the inalienable right to follow
the path which seems best to him. In reality, the only pathway
we can follow is the one we unfold from within ourself
*Sheldon Cheney, Men Who Have Walked with God, p. 194; cf.
Meister Eckhart, A Modern Translation, trans. Raymond Bernard
Blakney, p. 14.