The higher wisdom seeks perfection of character guided by the law of discretion. This higher wisdom can only be obtained through knowledge of the law of discretion, and the student must always be discreet and not give knowledge of the Truth to those who are not yet ready to receive it.
Now what is it that the law of discretion requires the student to conceal from the unprepared? It is a knowledge of the consciousness of nature as manifested in her different divisions. In order to gain this knowledge, we must enter into a conscious relationship with nature and her governing powers. To the great majority of people nature is a closed book; they perceive her objective semblance, but they do not realize or apprehend why she so expresses, what her relationship with humanity is, or her endeavor to bring into the world the law of her understanding.
Humanity knows little of the beings and intelligences in nature, or of the relationship which should exist between nature and man. Therefore, knowledge of the law of discretion comes from the instruction gained through Yoga practice, during which we enter into conscious rapport with the hidden intelligence and knowledge in nature. This instruction is similar to reading history.
We can study the rise and fall of a nation by studying the previous incarnations of its former inhabitants. We contemplate its end by observing gestation and birth of some new nation, composed in part of the reincarnated souls, from its school of experience. This is why history is said to repeat itself.
We appreciate the zeal of the pilgrims and the Crusaders, who for the sake of an ideal often walked barefooted to Jerusalem. Observe these reincarnated men of former days, doing with their hands today what formerly as crusaders they did with their feet. These men working with their hands today have the same ideal as in the former incarnations, but a more refined nature, and we find the higher ideals of socialism, communism, and bolshevism entertained by these manual workers, who are more intelligent than of old. Their ideal is to deliver humanity from oppression. In these modern crusades we have to remember the law of discretion which conceals, until the proper time, the higher truths. Others more evolved in knowledge and intelligence and living more in the mind world have the same noble aspirations as these workers. To them the governing power of this world will ultimately be given. These minds, which are becoming spiritualized, have a knowledge of the law of discretion, and although working for the good of humanity, they still do not cast their pearls before the ignorant swine.
There has always been a caste of intelligence on this earth, composed of those who have acquired the greater wisdom through a knowledge of the law of discretion, which nature’s consciousness gives. When the student is ready for it, he becomes conscious of the conflict between nature and man, and is taught how to remedy it, through the process of knowing himself.
Then we perceive that it is through a knowledge of the law of discretion that man acquires the higher wisdom, which nature’s consciousness withholds from the ignorant mind. Therefore we go to nature to gain knowledge and understanding, for man can only govern himself and his powers intelligently when he has been passed by nature’s guardians. It is through knowledge of the laws of nature that man gains knowledge of his Lord God of Truth within, for God is never apart from his creation.
When the student makes the great discovery that his real self is his “man in nature,” the union between the higher and lower self is quickly brought about. We often hear the phrase, “If man could only live according to nature!” but man must first remove from himself those conditions which nature proclaims as unnatural, for her higher beings stand in the presence of Truth. When we remove our unnatural conditions, we also remove the ignorance within our mental atmosphere, for nature’s devas proclaim their teachings from the knower consciousness, and this is what nature seeks to give humanity.
