There is a correspondence between this rule and the 17th of the 2nd series.  When after ages of struggle and many victories the final battle is won, the final secret demanded, then you are prepared for a further path.  When the final secret of this great lesson is told, in it is opened the mystery of the new way—­a path which leads out of all human experience, and which is utterly beyond human perception or imagination.  At each of these points it is needful to pause long and consider well.  At each of these points it is necessary to be sure that the way is chosen for its own sake.  The way and the truth come first, then follows the life.

Note on Rule 20.—­Seek it by testing all experience, and remember that when I say this I do not say, Yield to the seductions of sense in order to know it.  Before you have become an occultist you may do this; but not afterwards.  When you have chosen and entered the path you cannot yield to these seductions without shame.  Yet you can experience them without horror:  can weigh, observe and test them, and wait with the patience of confidence for the hour when they shall affect you no longer.  But do not condemn the man that yields; stretch out your hand to him as a brother pilgrim whose feet have become heavy with mire.  Remember, O disciple, that great though the gulf may be between the good man and the sinner, it is greater between the good man and the man who has attained knowledge; it is immeasurable between the good man and the one on the threshold of divinity.  Therefore be wary lest too soon you fancy yourself a thing apart from the mass.  When you have found the beginning of the way the star of your soul will show its light; and by that light you will perceive how great is the darkness in which it burns.  Mind, heart, brain, all are obscure and dark until the first great battle has been won.  Be not appalled and terrified by this sight; keep your eyes fixed on the small light and it will grow.  But let the darkness within help you to understand the helplessness of those who have seen no light, whose souls are in profound gloom.  Blame them not, shrink not from them, but try to lift a little of the heavy Karma of the world; give your aid to the few strong hands that hold back the powers of darkness from obtaining complete victory.  Then do you enter into a partnership of joy, which brings indeed terrible toil and profound sadness, but also a great and ever-increasing delight.

Note on Rule 21.—­The opening of the bloom is the glorious moment when perception awakes:  with it comes confidence, knowledge, certainty.  The pause of the soul is the moment of wonder, and the next moment of satisfaction, that is the silence.

Know, O disciple, that those who have passed through the silence, and felt its peace and retained its strength, they long that you shall pass through it also.  Therefore, in the Hall of Learning, when he is capable of entering there, the disciple will always find his master.