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Lesson II: More Light on the Path.251
But now for the other side of the shield. Let us learn to stand alone—we
must learn this lesson in order to advance. Our life is our own—we must live
it ourselves. No one else may live it for us—and we may live the life of no
one else. Each must stand squarely upon his own feet. Each is accountable
for his own acts. Each must reap that which he has sown. Each must suffer
or enjoy according to his own acts. Man is responsible only to himself and
the Eternal. Nothing outside of the Eternal and himself can aid him. Each
soul must work out its own destiny, and no other soul may do the work of
another. Each soul contains within it the light of the Spirit, which will give it
all the help it requires, and each soul must learn to look within for that help.
The lesson of Courage and Self-Reliance must be learned by the growing
soul. It must learn that while nothing from without can help it, it is equally
true that nothing from without can harm it. The Ego is proof against all harm
and hurt, once it realizes the fact. It is indestructible, and eternal. Water
cannot drown it—fire cannot burn it—it cannot be destroyed—it is and
always will be. It should learn to be able to stand erect—upon its own feet.
If it needs the assurance of the presence of an unfailing helper—one that is
possessed of unlimited power and wisdom—let it look to the Eternal—all
that it needs is there.
The sixth precept tells us to “Kill out desire for sensation.” And the eighth
tells us to “Learn from sensation, and observe it, because only so can you
commence the science of self-knowledge, and plant your foot upon the first
step of the ladder.” Another paradox. Let us try to find the key.
The warning in the sixth precept bids us to let drop the desire for sense
gratification. The pleasures of the senses belong to the relative plane. We
begin by enjoying that which appeals to the grosser senses, and from that we
gradually work up the enjoyment of that which comes through higher senses.
We outgrow certain forms of sense gratification. We pass from sensuality to
sensuousness, in its lower and higher degrees. There is a constant evolution
in sense gratification in man. The things we enjoyed yesterday, seem crude
and gross to us to-day, and so it will always be, as we pass onward and