POKROV IS A SPIRITUAL ASSOCIATION OF ESOTERIC.
The Friendly Philosopher-Eternal Verities
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The friendly philosopher
THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THREE KINDS OF FAITH
Every human being has faith—faith in something, some ideal, some conception, some religion, some formula—but while
the faiths of different people have one or another object, the faith itself proceeds from the Highest, and is inherent in the
heart of every being. Faith is the very basis of our nature. Whatever way we follow is because of the faith we have—the
conviction that it is the best way. That the world is full of false faiths is because of the differing ideas, beliefs and
philosophies which limit faith itself to the means thought necessary for obtaining a particular object of faith.
In the seventeenth chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita faith is said to be of three kinds: faith of the quality called sattwa, the good
and the true; faith of the quality called rajas, of action, and of passion; and faith of the quality called tames, of indifference
and ignorance. These three qualities given to faith are, in fact, the three limitations placed on faith by every human being; for
the power of faith in itself is limitless. We continually limit that power to its operation within the range of some minor object
or ideal based on externalities. “The embodied soul being gifted with faith, each man is of the same nature as that ideal on
which his faith is fixed.” Man has that quality of faith in accordance with his disposition; and he also continually becomes of
the nature of the ideal on which his faith is fixed. It is evident, then, that we ought to be sure of the nature of the faith upon
which our ideal is placed.
If one places his faith on any externality, whatever it may be—gods or men, religions or systems of thought—he has placed
it upon a broken reed; he has limited the very power of his own spirit to expand itself beyond the limitations of his ideal.
When, for instance, we accept the idea that nothing is real but that which we can see or hear or taste or smell or touch, we
have placed our faith on a very low basis. There is some reason for our falsity of thought and action, when we have
assumed the present moment to be the only moment, the outward terrestrial world and this one existence to be the only life,
from which we go, we know not where, nor to what purpose it all has been. To look on all beings according to one’s own
limitation of mind and range of perception, and to see only their externalities of speech or action in accordance, is not
seeing them as they really are. An outside God, or an outside devil, an outside Law, an outside atonement for sins, the idea
of sin being other than a denial of our own spiritual nature (the unpardonable sin), are All external faiths of the nature of
tamas, or ignorance. Ignorance always leads to superstition. Superstition leads to false belief, and false belief to false faith.
We are all in constant conflict with each other because of false bases of faith, for the very reason that faith fixed on any thing
will bring results, and men are blinded to real and true faith by the results of even false faith. Yet so long as we have a false
faith shall we continue to create for ourselves lives of misery. The results flowing from a false faith in a selfish ideal must
bring us bad effects in wrong conditions. They are the very limitations we have imposed upon ourselves by external faiths in
other lives, and we must come again and again into bodies until we have rid ourselves of the defects in our nature which
those external faiths have engendered. We have to get a better basis for thought and action than the false faith of the likes
and dislikes we have obtained by heredity. We have produced the effects we see, but we need not go on repeating the
same mistakes life after life, if we will but change our ideals. We have to find a true basis of faith. We have to place our faith
upon that which is not external, but internal.
The Internal is the very source of the powers that we possess of every kind, and that Internal is the same in every living one.
At the very root of our being is that changeless Self which we can know only within ourselves. To reach in and in to It, we
must first divest ourselves of all our ideas—of everything which changes. First of all, let man divest himself of the idea that
he is his body. He occupies it; he uses it; but he knows that it is ever changing, that never for one single instant is it the
same as it was the moment before. Let him divest himself further of the idea that he is his mind; for he himself can change
the ideas that compose it—throw them out bodily and take their very opposite, if he chooses—yet he is still acting with other
ideas. We are not bodies; we are not minds; nor are we both together; but we are That which uses and sustains them both.
Through all the changes of the past and present, and those that are to come, we shall always be ourselves. Even when
death comes we shall still be operating in another way than in the physical body. The basis of the Changeless Self places
the whole universe within the reach of any being’s mind—a stable basis for thought and action and realization within himself.
These three things we have to know: Each one is the Self in his innermost nature; every power that he has arises in that
Self; every being of every kind is conscious, with the power of the extension of its range of perception and action, while
every instrument is due to the limitation of the conception of the individual’s real nature. Never by looking at other beings,
nor by any kind of faith whatever can man realize his oneness with the One Great Life; he can realize it only by looking into
his own nature. His own nature is realized by seeing that which is not the nature of the Self. For anything seen, heard, or felt,
or tasted or perceived is not the Self, but merely a perception of the Self. The Self perceives what may be perceived
according to its own ideas, according to its own faith, but that which is perceived is never the Self. Within every being from
whom we obtain any action or from whom we perceive anything, there is the Self, but we do not perceive That. It is only by
realizing It within our selves that we realize its existence in every other being. Then honor the spiritual nature of every being
and strive to aid that being to see for himself the true path by which he can realize his true nature! We all have to think and
act with that true nature as our guide.
We find ourselves prevented on every hand from taking the position of the true nature—it seems impossible. But this is only
a delusion born from the false faith we have held. We have established ideas, likes and dislikes, and feelings which under
the law of the return of impressions recur again and again. The moment we attempt to take an opposite stand we meet the
result of the combined action of all these forces within ourselves. This is what we may call “the war in heaven”—the war in
the man’s own nature. But if he remains true to his own spiritual nature, he is bound to be the conqueror. If he has faith in the
law of his own nature, he will go forward and gradually the obstacles will disappear. But we must hold on grimly and have
confidence and faith in That which is the only Real anywhere—Life itself Consciousness. Then the fetters we have made for
ourselves will fall away. Every force in nature begins to act for us and with us because we have no desire of our own, but
only for the good, for the salvation of all. Every soul and every thing seems to work for our advantage, but not because we
want it. We begin to see the spiritual meaning of the saying that the man who desires to save his life must lose it. He gives
up everything as an acquisition for himself, devoting every power he has or gains to the service of others, and the whole
universe is before him. He can take all—but let him take nothing save to give it out again, accept nothing save to lay it at the
feet of others!
There is no question of sin, or sinner. There is no question of good or evil. There is only the question: Are you working for
yourself as you understand yourself, or are you working for the Self as you ought to understand you are, and not for anything
else? If you want nothing for yourself, require nothing for this body, but think only to do for others, what is needed comes
under the law of the very force for which you make attraction. Support comes in every direction. The whole nature—spiritual,
intellectual, psychical, astral and physical—is strengthened; even the surroundings are improved. It is our lack of faith—our
Unfaith in That, which puts us where we would not be. Denying the Christ within, the Krishna within, the Spirit within, is “the
unpardonable sin,” and so long as we crucify that Christ within, just so long will we suffer on the cross of human passions
and desires. Service for ourselves is a creation which ties us fast to wrong conditions. We may strive for better bodies,
better positions, for possessions of all kinds, better qualities, better understanding on one condition only, that the motive be
to make ourselves the better able to help and teach others.
The only true faith is that in the Highest—in the Changeless, in That which each in his innermost nature is. The only true path
is the trusting to the law of our own spiritual nature. Men may go from faith to faith, from faith in one thing to faith in some
other thing, moving along from life to life and obtaining some results according to the nature of the ideal upon which their
faith is fixed, but the only way out is through the faith in the spiritual, essential nature of all beings. And no greater gift could
be given to any human being than the inalienable fact that he—and each one—has the power to realize it. This is a part of
the ancient knowledge known by a few, followed by a few, which They have ever brought into a world of false faiths and tried
to teach the people in general.
Those who follow the Path of true faith are not drawn away from their fellow-men. One’s fellow-men are more to him than
they ever were before. He sees more in them. He sees more clearly the difficulties under which they labor, and desires to
help them in every way. So he is more of a living man. He acts more knowingly than do the rest. He gets more from nature
than they do, because he sees the whole and the aspects of the individuals that compose the whole. He gets as much out of
this life and more, far more, than the man who lives for enjoyment, for happiness, whose ambition is for himself. But he lives
not for himself. The whole aim of his life is that men may know these truths; for he knows that knowledge means the
destruction of false faiths, and hence of all the suffering and horrors of physical existence. Then, evolution will go on by leaps
and bounds. Men will be extricated from the places to which they have consigned themselves, and move on without limit in a
universe of infinite possibilities.
When all our false beliefs, our desires and passions, our likes and dislikes have fallen away from us like cast-off garments,
and we have resumed that nature of us which is divine, then we shall be able to build a civilization as much higher than this
as we can possibly imagine. For we cannot get away from the Karma of the race to which we belong, and those effects
which have been produced by us together, we must work out together. The best way, the highest way, and the surest way, is
to proceed along the line of our own inner nature, and, so doing, give the suggestion to others by which they may realize
their inner nature. Then, dwelling on That which is immortal, changeless, limitless, which is our very self and the Self of all
creatures, the realization will come—little by little, but it will surely come.
BACK
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THE ETERNAL VERITIES
THREE KINDS OF FAITH
Every human being has faith—faith in something, some ideal, some conception, some religion, some formula—but while
the faiths of different people have one or another object, the faith itself proceeds from the Highest, and is inherent in the
heart of every being. Faith is the very basis of our nature. Whatever way we follow is because of the faith we have—the
conviction that it is the best way. That the world is full of false faiths is because of the differing ideas, beliefs and
philosophies which limit faith itself to the means thought necessary for obtaining a particular object of faith.
In the seventeenth chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita faith is said to be of three kinds: faith of the quality called sattwa, the good
and the true; faith of the quality called rajas, of action, and of passion; and faith of the quality called tames, of indifference
and ignorance. These three qualities given to faith are, in fact, the three limitations placed on faith by every human being; for
the power of faith in itself is limitless. We continually limit that power to its operation within the range of some minor object
or ideal based on externalities. “The embodied soul being gifted with faith, each man is of the same nature as that ideal on
which his faith is fixed.” Man has that quality of faith in accordance with his disposition; and he also continually becomes of
the nature of the ideal on which his faith is fixed. It is evident, then, that we ought to be sure of the nature of the faith upon
which our ideal is placed.
If one places his faith on any externality, whatever it may be—gods or men, religions or systems of thought—he has placed
it upon a broken reed; he has limited the very power of his own spirit to expand itself beyond the limitations of his ideal.
When, for instance, we accept the idea that nothing is real but that which we can see or hear or taste or smell or touch, we
have placed our faith on a very low basis. There is some reason for our falsity of thought and action, when we have
assumed the present moment to be the only moment, the outward terrestrial world and this one existence to be the only life,
from which we go, we know not where, nor to what purpose it all has been. To look on all beings according to one’s own
limitation of mind and range of perception, and to see only their externalities of speech or action in accordance, is not
seeing them as they really are. An outside God, or an outside devil, an outside Law, an outside atonement for sins, the idea
of sin being other than a denial of our own spiritual nature (the unpardonable sin), are All external faiths of the nature of
tamas, or ignorance. Ignorance always leads to superstition. Superstition leads to false belief, and false belief to false faith.
We are all in constant conflict with each other because of false bases of faith, for the very reason that faith fixed on any thing
will bring results, and men are blinded to real and true faith by the results of even false faith. Yet so long as we have a false
faith shall we continue to create for ourselves lives of misery. The results flowing from a false faith in a selfish ideal must
bring us bad effects in wrong conditions. They are the very limitations we have imposed upon ourselves by external faiths in
other lives, and we must come again and again into bodies until we have rid ourselves of the defects in our nature which
those external faiths have engendered. We have to get a better basis for thought and action than the false faith of the likes
and dislikes we have obtained by heredity. We have produced the effects we see, but we need not go on repeating the
same mistakes life after life, if we will but change our ideals. We have to find a true basis of faith. We have to place our faith
upon that which is not external, but internal.
The Internal is the very source of the powers that we possess of every kind, and that Internal is the same in every living one.
At the very root of our being is that changeless Self which we can know only within ourselves. To reach in and in to It, we
must first divest ourselves of all our ideas—of everything which changes. First of all, let man divest himself of the idea that
he is his body. He occupies it; he uses it; but he knows that it is ever changing, that never for one single instant is it the
same as it was the moment before. Let him divest himself further of the idea that he is his mind; for he himself can change
the ideas that compose it—throw them out bodily and take their very opposite, if he chooses—yet he is still acting with other
ideas. We are not bodies; we are not minds; nor are we both together; but we are That which uses and sustains them both.
Through all the changes of the past and present, and those that are to come, we shall always be ourselves. Even when
death comes we shall still be operating in another way than in the physical body. The basis of the Changeless Self places
the whole universe within the reach of any being’s mind—a stable basis for thought and action and realization within himself.
These three things we have to know: Each one is the Self in his innermost nature; every power that he has arises in that
Self; every being of every kind is conscious, with the power of the extension of its range of perception and action, while
every instrument is due to the limitation of the conception of the individual’s real nature. Never by looking at other beings,
nor by any kind of faith whatever can man realize his oneness with the One Great Life; he can realize it only by looking into
his own nature. His own nature is realized by seeing that which is not the nature of the Self. For anything seen, heard, or felt,
or tasted or perceived is not the Self, but merely a perception of the Self. The Self perceives what may be perceived
according to its own ideas, according to its own faith, but that which is perceived is never the Self. Within every being from
whom we obtain any action or from whom we perceive anything, there is the Self, but we do not perceive That. It is only by
realizing It within our selves that we realize its existence in every other being. Then honor the spiritual nature of every being
and strive to aid that being to see for himself the true path by which he can realize his true nature! We all have to think and
act with that true nature as our guide.
We find ourselves prevented on every hand from taking the position of the true nature—it seems impossible. But this is only
a delusion born from the false faith we have held. We have established ideas, likes and dislikes, and feelings which under
the law of the return of impressions recur again and again. The moment we attempt to take an opposite stand we meet the
result of the combined action of all these forces within ourselves. This is what we may call “the war in heaven”—the war in
the man’s own nature. But if he remains true to his own spiritual nature, he is bound to be the conqueror. If he has faith in the
law of his own nature, he will go forward and gradually the obstacles will disappear. But we must hold on grimly and have
confidence and faith in That which is the only Real anywhere—Life itself Consciousness. Then the fetters we have made for
ourselves will fall away. Every force in nature begins to act for us and with us because we have no desire of our own, but
only for the good, for the salvation of all. Every soul and every thing seems to work for our advantage, but not because we
want it. We begin to see the spiritual meaning of the saying that the man who desires to save his life must lose it. He gives
up everything as an acquisition for himself, devoting every power he has or gains to the service of others, and the whole
universe is before him. He can take all—but let him take nothing save to give it out again, accept nothing save to lay it at the
feet of others!
There is no question of sin, or sinner. There is no question of good or evil. There is only the question: Are you working for
yourself as you understand yourself, or are you working for the Self as you ought to understand you are, and not for anything
else? If you want nothing for yourself, require nothing for this body, but think only to do for others, what is needed comes
under the law of the very force for which you make attraction. Support comes in every direction. The whole nature—spiritual,
intellectual, psychical, astral and physical—is strengthened; even the surroundings are improved. It is our lack of faith—our
Unfaith in That, which puts us where we would not be. Denying the Christ within, the Krishna within, the Spirit within, is “the
unpardonable sin,” and so long as we crucify that Christ within, just so long will we suffer on the cross of human passions
and desires. Service for ourselves is a creation which ties us fast to wrong conditions. We may strive for better bodies,
better positions, for possessions of all kinds, better qualities, better understanding on one condition only, that the motive be
to make ourselves the better able to help and teach others.
The only true faith is that in the Highest—in the Changeless, in That which each in his innermost nature is. The only true path
is the trusting to the law of our own spiritual nature. Men may go from faith to faith, from faith in one thing to faith in some
other thing, moving along from life to life and obtaining some results according to the nature of the ideal upon which their
faith is fixed, but the only way out is through the faith in the spiritual, essential nature of all beings. And no greater gift could
be given to any human being than the inalienable fact that he—and each one—has the power to realize it. This is a part of
the ancient knowledge known by a few, followed by a few, which They have ever brought into a world of false faiths and tried
to teach the people in general.
Those who follow the Path of true faith are not drawn away from their fellow-men. One’s fellow-men are more to him than
they ever were before. He sees more in them. He sees more clearly the difficulties under which they labor, and desires to
help them in every way. So he is more of a living man. He acts more knowingly than do the rest. He gets more from nature
than they do, because he sees the whole and the aspects of the individuals that compose the whole. He gets as much out of
this life and more, far more, than the man who lives for enjoyment, for happiness, whose ambition is for himself. But he lives
not for himself. The whole aim of his life is that men may know these truths; for he knows that knowledge means the
destruction of false faiths, and hence of all the suffering and horrors of physical existence. Then, evolution will go on by leaps
and bounds. Men will be extricated from the places to which they have consigned themselves, and move on without limit in a
universe of infinite possibilities.
When all our false beliefs, our desires and passions, our likes and dislikes have fallen away from us like cast-off garments,
and we have resumed that nature of us which is divine, then we shall be able to build a civilization as much higher than this
as we can possibly imagine. For we cannot get away from the Karma of the race to which we belong, and those effects
which have been produced by us together, we must work out together. The best way, the highest way, and the surest way, is
to proceed along the line of our own inner nature, and, so doing, give the suggestion to others by which they may realize
their inner nature. Then, dwelling on That which is immortal, changeless, limitless, which is our very self and the Self of all
creatures, the realization will come—little by little, but it will surely come.
BACK
NEXT