He who would escape from the bondage of Karma must raise his individuality out of the shadow into the shine; must so elevate his existence that these threads do not come in contact with soiling substances, do not become so attached as to be pulled awry.  He simply lifts himself out of the region in which Karma operates.  He does not leave the existence which he is experiencing because of that.  The ground may be rough and dirty, or full of rich flowers whose pollen stains, and of sweet substances that cling and become attachments—­but overhead there is always the free sky.  He who desires to be Karmaless must look to the air for a home; and after that to the ether.  He who desires to form good Karma will meet with many confusions, and in the effort to sow rich seed for his own harvesting may plant a thousand weeds, and among them the giant.  Desire to sow no seed for your own harvesting; desire only to sow that seed the fruit of which shall feed the world.  You are part of the world; in giving it food you feed yourself.  Yet in even this thought there lurks a great danger which starts forward and faces the disciple, who has for long thought himself working for good, while in his inmost soul he has perceived only evil; that is, he has thought himself to be intending great benefit to the world while all the time he has unconsciously embraced the thought of Karma, and the great benefit he works for is for himself.  A man may refuse to allow himself to think of reward.  But in that very refusal is seen the fact that reward is desired.  And it is useless for the disciple to strive to learn by means of checking himself.  The soul must be unfettered, the desires free.  But until they are fixed only on that state wherein there is neither reward nor punishment, good nor evil, it is in vain that he endeavors.  He may seem to make great progress, but some day he will come face to face with his own soul, and will recognise that when he came to the tree of knowledge he chose the bitter fruit and not the sweet; and then the veil will fall utterly, and he will give up his freedom and become a slave of desire.  Therefore be warned, you who are but turning toward the life of occultism.  Learn now that there is no cure for desire, no cure for the love of reward, no cure for misery of longing, save in the fixing of the sight and hearing upon that which is invisible and soundless.  Begin even now to practise it, and so a thousand serpents will be kept from your path.  Live in the eternal.

The operations of the actual laws of Karma are not to be studied until the disciple has reached the point at which they no longer affect himself.  The initiate has a right to demand the secrets of nature and to know the rules which govern human life.  He obtains this right by having escaped from the limits of nature and by having freed himself from the rules which govern human life.  He has become a recognised portion of the divine element, and is no longer affected by that which is temporary.  He then obtains a knowledge of the laws which govern temporary conditions.  Therefore you who desire to understand the laws of Karma, attempt first to free yourself from these laws; and this can only be done by fixing your attention on that which is unaffected by those laws.