In an atmosphere of depression, despair, or disaster, we find conditions that are easily absorbed. Then, when the newspapers dwell upon horrors or scenes of illusion and disaster, panic seizes upon people’s minds and in such atmosphere, which is not healthy, or conducive to vitality, people are liable to collect all sorts of mental refuse and debris which press painfully against the silken fabric of their mind bodies, and react upon the physical.
The condition of our mental and physical bodies affects the aspiration atom within us, therefore happiness and laughter are good. Through our nervous system and by breathing, we induce the same conditions we aspire for into our bodies. Unhappiness or melancholia is as contagious as smallpox.
The person who worries reflects his distraught condition into the minds about him, and it matters not whether it is the worry of a moment, or a disease which can only be thrown off with the utmost difficulty. In the deeper states of Yoga, we learn the folly of worry and discover love and happiness, and a state of bliss and intelligence. Since these are the conditions of our heaven world, we aspire for their expression within us in our daily life.
When has worry ever done any good to a single individual? Ask yourself which you prefer, the sour cynic, or the genial philosopher? Shall we retreat into the darkness and ignorance of the past, or shall we press forward into the light of realization? These questions are for each to answer in the light of his experience.
By experience, we find it best to sail through life on an even keel, being neither too happy nor too sad, for when we can balance happiness and sadness, we find peace. By balancing the good and evil in things, we find a common starting point from which to go forward, and we observe that the fear of things to come can and does harass the ordinary mind more than the actual conditions of the present.
It is fear of a coming war that attracts the conditions of war, for the fear vibration draws into its vortex the conditions for its fulfillment. Through Yoga we can develop a condition of assurance, and discover a state of bliss and intelligence within us in which there is no fear. Once this consciousness is tapped, nothing else matters, but to attain permanent union.
Innocent minds suffer much through living within the environment of those who worry about things which might happen. Worry is the egotism of selfishness, and the worrier invariably concentrates upon his own position. Attachment to things and to persons is the cause of worry, and like a whirlpool, the worrying person draws others down into his condition of unrest. It is only by conserving our power that we can build up a reservoir of strength, and Yoga teaches us how to find peace, even in the midst of the conflict and agitation around us.
Yoga teaches us to use our powers inwardly, and not to expend them outwardly. We must accept our burdens gracefully, for when the student takes the Path, he is often plunged into ranges of experience which other men escape, in order to teach him to have command of himself in his environment, and thus learn the reason why he has been placed there. It is by this means that the student acquires a knowledge of the conditions about him, and the Law is that when one realizes why he has been placed in a certain distasteful position, and has solved the problem of adapting himself to it, he is freed from it.
The student of Yoga learns in time that he must give of his light to those about him, though this often means sacrifice of his own personal desires and wishes. A man in a workshop under a “boss” often kicks against the pricks, and wonders why he is so chained to circumstance. It is natural that he desires something better, but when he realizes that he has been placed in that position in order to gain a certain type of experience, so that he may be able to help those in his environment, then he achieves his freedom.
Whatever a man desires most in his heart, that he will ultimately achieve, but not before he has gained through experience, the knowledge of its proper use. A distinguished surgeon once said to me, “All my life I have desired to be a clog dancer, and I will some day, for I am only happy when I am practicing my steps. Do not give me away to my friends, but I must express myself in rhythm.”
At the present time the world is going through a clarifying process, and a newer vibration is slowly and intermittently manifesting purpose in the human mind world. There are impulses of this glorious Dayspring of Youth which scientists call cosmic waves, that will bring humanity into closer union with the spirit of all nature which is about us.
There have been periods in history when the consciousness of this Dayspring in Nature was allied to the human understanding, and the Yogi finds moments of instruction given to him through this vibration. This instruction shows him the newer universe, when the human mind will be engendered with a new quality of perception, and will come to observe movements in nature and things close at hand which his forebears seldom noticed.
It is for humanity to return to the knowledge possessed in hyperborean days, which will bring about a close alliance between man and nature, and when men come to understand nature’s laws and systems of government, they will begin to know themselves.
It is not until we become natural and childlike that we can remedy our faults, and gain the perception of God Realization. In other words, it is the return of the objective man towards union with his natural man in nature’s consciousness—his higher self, that solves his problem of finding peace and happiness.
