II

“BEFORE THE EAR CAN HEAR, IT MUST HAVE LOST ITS SENSITIVENESS.”

The first four rules of “Light on the Path” are, undoubtedly, curious though the statement may seem, the most important in the whole book, save one only.  Why they are so important is that they contain the vital law, the very creative essence of the astral man.  And it is only in the astral (or self-illuminated) consciousness that the rules which follow them have any living meaning.  Once attain to the use of the astral senses and it becomes a matter of course that one commences to use them; and the later rules are but guidance in their use.  When I speak like this I mean, naturally, that the first four rules are the ones which are of importance and interest to those who read them in print upon a page.  When they are engraved on a man’s heart and on his life, unmistakably then the rules become not merely interesting, or extraordinary, metaphysical statements, but actual facts in life which have to be grasped and experienced.

The four rules stand written in the great chamber of every actual lodge of a living Brotherhood.  Whether the man is about to sell his soul to the devil, like Faust; whether he is to be worsted in the battle, like Hamlet; or whether he is to pass on within the precincts; in any case these words are for him.  The man can choose between virtue and vice, but not until he is a man; a babe or a wild animal cannot so choose.  Thus with the disciple, he must first become a disciple before he can even see the paths to choose between.  This effort of creating himself as a disciple, the re-birth, he must do for himself without any teacher.  Until the four rules are learned no teacher can be of any use to him; and that is why “the Masters” are referred to in the way they are.  No real masters, whether adepts in power, in love, or in blackness, can affect a man till these four rules are passed.

Tears, as I have said, may be called the moisture of life.  The soul must have laid aside the emotions of humanity, must have secured a balance which cannot be shaken by misfortune, before its eyes can open upon the super-human world.

The voice of the Masters is always in the world; but only those hear it whose ears are no longer receptive of the sounds which affect the personal life.  Laughter no longer lightens the heart, anger may no longer enrage it, tender words bring it no balm.  For that within, to which the ears are as an outer gateway, is an unshaken place of peace in itself which no person can disturb.

As the eyes are the windows of the soul, so are the ears its gateways or doors.  Through them comes knowledge of the confusion of the world.  The great ones who have conquered life, who have become more than disciples, stand at peace and undisturbed amid the vibration and kaleidoscopic movement of humanity.  They hold within themselves a certain knowledge, as well as a perfect peace; and thus they