I wish I could answer your letter as you ought to have it done. But I
feel my inability. However, our duty is to never consider our ability,
but to do what comes to be done in whatever way we can, no matter how
inadequate the work appears to others. When we stop to consider our
weakness, we think, by comparison, of how another would do it. Our
_only right is in the act itself_. The consequences are in the great
Brahm. So I will just say what comes.
I feel the sadness in your letter, but know that you will rebound from
that. Do not let the sadness of knowledge create despair; that sadness
is less than the joy of Truth. Abstract Truth, even, has necessarily
in it all the mercy there is in the whole. Its sternness is only a
reflection from our own imperfections, which make us recognize the
stern aspect alone. We are not the only ones to suffer upon the Path.
Like ourselves, Masters have wept, though They do not now weep. One of
them wrote some years ago: "Do you suppose we have not passed through
many times worse trials than you now think you are in?" The Master
often seems to reject and to hide his (spiritual) face, in order that
the disciple may try. On the doors and walls of the temple the word
"TRY" is written. ("The Brothers" is a better designation than Mahâtmas
or Masters.)
Along the path of the true student is sadness, but also there is
great joy and hope. Sadness comes from a more just appreciation of
the difficulties in one's way, and of the great wickedness of the
individual and collective heart of man. But look at the great fountain
of hope and of joy in the consideration that the Brothers exist,
that They were men too; They had to fight the fight; They triumphed,
and They work for those left after Them. Then beyond Them are "the
Fathers," that is, the spirits of "just men made perfect," those Who
lived and worked for humanity ages ago and Who are now out of our
sphere, but Who nevertheless still influence us in that Their spiritual
forces flow down upon this earth for all pure souls. Their immediate
influence is felt by Masters, and by us through the latter.
Now, as you say, it is all Faith; but what is Faith? It is the
intuitional feeling--"_that is true_." So formulate to yourself certain
things as true that you feel to be true, and then increase your faith
in them.
Don't be anxious. Don't get "maddened." Because in the fact that you
are "maddened" (of course in the metaphorical sense) is found the
proof that you are anxious. In a worldly sense it is perhaps well to
be anxious about a highly important matter, but in occultism it is
different, for the Law takes no account of our projects and objects,
or our desire to be ahead or behind. So, if we are anxious, we raise a
barrier against progress, by perturbation and straining harshly. You
wrote to B. that what is his, is his. Then the converse is true; what
is not, is not. Why don't you take your own medicine?
Yours,
Z.