What The Ancient Wisdom Expects of Its Diciples Manly P. Hall
What The Ancient Wisdom Expects of Its Diciples Manly P. Hall
What The Ancient Wisdom Expects of Its Diciples Manly P. Hall
By Manly P. Hall
Published by
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PREFACE
This publication was originally written to protect sincere
persons from the confusion of conflicting beliefs which came to
be known as popular metaphysics. This was a conglomerate of
European psychology, Asiatic mysticism, and New England
psychism. Most of the dialogue was well intended, but the public
in general was not qualified to judge the merits or demerits of
teachers or their teachings. It was assumed that spiritual
education could be communicated in easy lessons; however, it
soon became obvious that the situation was out of hand. The
only practical solution was to restate the original teachings of
those esoteric orders which have descended to us from the
ancient worldthat enlightenment must be earned by personal
dedication to an enlightened code of conduct.
In the ancient system of initiation, the truth seeker must pass
through a second birth, and those who attained this exalted state
were known thereafter as the twice born. Only one who has
been born again can understand the mysteries of heaven. This
new birth, however, is not attained by merely joining a sect. It
must be personally earned through a complete regeneration of
character and conduct.
It is a mistake to assume that all persons whose actions are
mysterious, or who claim to be members of secret orders are
adepts or initiates in the true meaning of these words. There has
been a vast amount of pretension and only discrimination can
protect the truth seeker from imposture. If we can free our
minds from the glamour which surrounds the esoteric sciences
and attain a solid knowledge of the principles of true philosophy,
we will not be long deceived. Legitimate teachers in the field of
mystical religions are known by their works and not by their
claims.
The commercialization which is currently disfiguring most
fields of human endeavor is undermining the integrity of modern
religions. The exploitation of the spiritual emergency in human
A WARNING TO ESOTERISTS
Great as is the number of present-day religious movements,
both heterodox and orthodox, few of them inspire their
followers to serve their fellow men along practical and intelligent
lines. One by one the various cults are being involved in
materialism and commercialism, among which by necessity they
have been established. This is not to be wondered at, for it is
difficult to separate our religion from our daily lives. We may
call it by many different names, but it still reflects the thoughts
and moral character of those who form its organization.
Modern attitudes on life are not healthy, and organizations
built up by unhealthy people cannot be normal. Commercialism
has attacked every plane of society. It has entered into all the
walks of life. Our race is money mad. It is insane on the subject
of personal gain. It will give nothing to serve others, but will give
everything to gain the knowledge which will make it possible for
the mediocre to become a commercial power overnight. The
struggle inseparable from the ethics of competition is largely
responsible for this condition. Graft has appeared in almost every
walk of life. Nearly every existing institution is overrun by some
mild form of moral dishonesty, and if every walk of life is
commercialized and perverted, we cannot expect religion to
escape.
History records no graft or prostitution equal to the grafts that
today masquerade under the names of psychology and new
thought. The art of duping the public has evolved from the
disreputable buffoonery of the Middle Ages to the polished
pharisaism of the twentieth century. As seagulls follow a ship, so
this curse has followed in the wake of that great wave of
selfishness and moral perversion which is the product of our
commercial age.
When correctly understood and properly used for the service
of humanity, psychology, metaphysics, and new thought are
highly commendable and their truths are sorely needed by
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only wisdom. And God told Solomon that because he had asked
only for wisdom that all the other things should be added unto
him and that from this day to the end of the world there would
never be another king so rich, so great, or so blest. These are facts
well worthy of consideration in the light of modem psychology.
As we listen to the words of the modern exponents of things
divine, we see them making converts by offering to the ignorant
the very things by which the ancient Masters were tempted by
the demons of the air. Again and again the new cult leader
promises his disciples the cities of the plains. His credulous
followers fall over each other to study at his feet and learn how,
through magnetic personalities or mental gymnastics, they can
acquire the earthly possessions which he promises them. The
crime does not lie in desiring the things of this world, for to a
certain degree they are both necessary and good. Man would not
be placed in his present environment unless he were expected to
study and benefit by his experiences. The great crime lies in
claiming these perverted doctrines to be spiritually inspired and
representing Gods chief desire to be making people financially
independent.
3. Compare the initiates of days gone by, fighting a people
who could not understand, struggling with idolatry and
superstition and seeking to mold out of these things a truer and
nobler concept of life, wandering day after day over the blistering
sands like Moses in the wildernesscompare those master minds
with the self-termed master minds of today and then ask yourself
if you should follow them. The human race has never desired
that which was best for it, but like a child it reaches out its
hands and cries for the moon. Today the race does not know
what is good for it, and individuals, instead of seeking to unfold
their constitutions symmetrically, have gone mad over a system
of philosophical hocus-pocus which promises something for
nothing and exchanges divine wisdom for a moderate fee.
4. Without labor, there is no inspiration, and none can do our
work for us but ourselves. The Ancient Wisdom demanded many
years of purification and preparation before the adepts were
willing to instruct in even the simplest things. Many modern
occultists are glibly teaching Pythagorean mathematics and
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numerology, and if you come every afternoon for a week you will
be greatly amazed how little you will discover. They wonder why
it is that many of the keys of the Pythagorean mysteries have
been lost to the world. The answer is simple. Pythagoras never
instructed his disciples in any of his philosophical concepts until
after they had passed through five years of the strictest
discipline, among other things one provision being that during
the entire time they were not to speak a word, in order that
afterwards they might know how to hold their tongues. We
would have much less trouble if our psychologists refrained
from speaking for the first five years, for most of them are
preaching with no more foundation for their eloquence than two
weeks study with someone no better informed than themselves.
5. There is another class of people who go about discussing
the Infinite with ease and fluency who as yet have never
acquainted themselves with the finite. A most interesting rule of
the Ancient Wisdom is that none of its initiates discuss the
Absolute. They explain the hypothesis of First Cause, but state
finally that no human being, themselves included, know
sufficient concerning it to give an intelligent opinion or
definition; and no wise man presumes to discuss that about
which he knows nothing.
When Buddha was asked concerning the Absolute, he declined
to discuss the subject. He was also silent concerning the gods,
feeling that they were beyond the range of human intelligence. As
a result, it has been said that he was an atheist, or at least a
pantheist, when in reality it was his respect and reverence for
Deity that led him, in his sublime wisdom, to refrain from giving
utterance to words whose very inadequacy would but defile.
When the disciples of Socrates questioned him concerning the
Absolute, he also refused to discuss it, stating that it was beyond
his wisdom and that it played no practical part in everyday life.
But again and again fools dash in where angels fear to tread.
While the greatest minds ever evolved by the human race dare
not speak for fear they will desecrate that which is too sacred for
words, some person, with neither record of accomplishment nor
prospect of anything better, seeks to impress the uninformed by
glibly discussing things he knows nothing about.
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of eternity, for it has led a thousand nations into being and buried
as many when they turned from its course. The nations of
antiquity which still exist are the ones which have preserved its
laws, while those that have fallen are the ones that have ignored
its commandments.
There is no greater honor than to be called to the service of
this eternal Wisdom which was before the beginning and which
will ultimately become the visible exoteric ruling body of the
planet. Through the doors of its temple man passes from the
temporal to the eternal, from ignorance to wisdom. It is strong
and great, this Ancient Wisdom. It is the earth moistened with
the waters of life in which are planted the seeds of doctrines,
faiths, and religions. All these are dependent upon it for
nourishment and growth. They blossom forth and are glorified,
but the dark and mysterious soil in which they all grow is the
Ancient Wisdom. From it they come; to it they will again return.
They are temporal; it is eternal.
they do not appreciate them. They are the dark earthy ones who
must ever bow before intelligence. They do not love God, for they
cannot know Him. They are like the hairy anthropoids, raising
their hands to unknown elements.
The second division is made up of the artisans and those who
labor both with mind and hand. They are the brown men of the
Indian myth. They buy, sell, and exchange. To their basic
dullness has been added a certain cunning and some intelligence.
Having a mind, they control the mindless. They are the petty
shopkeepers and those of a similar class who are gradually
exchanging the labor of the hand for the labor of the head. Not
having the mental organism with which to reason, they fill the
places of worship where thinking is done for them. They are the
ones who allow their clergy to decide all spiritual problems for
them, feeling themselves incapable of assuming the onus of
heavy thinking. As a result, their ideas of eternity are rather
abstract and their credulity is utilized as a commercial asset by
certain types of minds who consider it legitimate to capitalize on
the ignorance of others.
The third class is made up of the scientists. With microscope,
telescope, and other apparatus still more complex, they attack
the boundary lines of the known and wage war upon the limitless
chaos. Those who wage this war in the cause of science are
mostly concrete thinkers who follow as far as their instruments
will lead them and then must wait for instruments still more
powerful. Most of these minds are atheistic or at least agnostic
that is, of course, unless they have two standards, one to last six
days in the laboratory and the other to be assumed Sunday
morning in church. The miracles of theology are incapable of
chemical analysis and are consequently taken cum grano salis by
the scientific world. Therefore the controversy between science
and theology is bequeathed as a legacy to have and to hold upon
that helpless posterity who come into the world to inherit the
debate.
The fourth and highest group embraces philosophers,
musicians, and artists, all living in an abstract mental world
surrounded by dreams and visions wholly unrecognizable by the
other types. They have reached beyond the world of academic
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profane. It has been said that wisdom lies not in seeing things but
in seeing through things. For the occultist at least, this is doubly
true.
During the Atlantean periods of which Plato dreamed, the
work of gathering and arranging the Ancient Wisdom went on
apace, for the people of Atlantis were the greatest exponents of
concrete thought the world has ever known. The Atlanteans
never fully understood the wisdom that was theirs, for even in
those early times the gods had withdrawn from the mass of
humanity, and spoke to man only through appointed priests and
oracles. The method of communication used by the spiritual
powers is faithfully set out by Josephus in his description of the
Ark of the Covenant and the priests who served it. This ark was
an oracle, and the gods spoke to the high priest by means of the
language of symbolism. From the Atlanteans, with their ancient
Tabernacle Mysteries, we have secured nearly all that we know
concerning the Ancient Wisdom and its Mysteries. According to
the Sacred Book, they were the keepers of the spiritual records
which had been given to them by their progenitors, the Serpent
Kings, who reigned over the earth.
It was these Serpent Kings who founded the Mystery Schools
which later appeared as the Egyptian and Brahman Mysteries and
other forms of ancient occultism. The serpent was their symbol,
for they taught man the use of the creative energy which courses
through Nature and his own bodies as a serpentine line of force.
They were the true Sons of Light, and from them have descended
a long line of adepts and initiates duly tried and proven according
to the law. These have kept alight the divine truths through
many generations of ignorance and thoughtlessness. The later
Atlantean world crumbled because it wavered from the law. It
forgot that Nature was the ruler of all things, and in attempting
to survive unnaturally it was destroyed. Before its disintegration,
however, the Ancient Wisdom passed into the new Aryan world,
where from the heart of the lofty Himalayas its adepts and
initiates began the process of building a new people to be the
living tabernacles of the gods among men.
Man has not always been a material being. Eternities ago he
was a spiritual creature, of radiant and glorious powers.
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deals only with fancies, theorems, and beliefs, the initiates of the
Ancient Wisdom go straight to the fountainhead of wisdom and,
learning the will of the gods, make that will the law of their lives.
The initiate does not guess, wonder or soliloquize; he labors with
facts for he is one with the truths of Nature.
The secret path of spiritual illumination is the way which the
planetary Logos has established that His children might learn to
know of Him and accomplish His ends. The Logos is surrounded
by a hierarchy of superhuman beings and also by a group of great
initiates who may be called the fruitage of the human world
period. These great initiates, with their divinely-inspired minds,
are established as mighty pillars in the House of their God. They
are the supports of the Temple of Human Progress. These great
minds were called by the ancient Jewish mystics The Cedars of
Lebanon. These are the trees which Solomon is supposed to
have cut from the forests of earth to use as the mainstays of his
divine temple.
From north, east, south, and west the secret truths of these
initiated minds have been gathered. The adepts and mystics of all
nations have given to their disciples the fruitage of their
investigations while functioning in the invisible worlds. The
Mysteries Schools, fulfilling the ancient law, are fashioned in the
pattern of Nature, and we know them today as the seven Great
Schools of the Mysteries. All these are branches of one tree
which grows in the center of the Garden of the Lord, watered by
the four rivers (the wisdom of the four worlds). As every ray of
light breaks into seven colors when it strikes a prism, so this
ancient truth, striking the prismatic body of the material world,
appears in a septenary body. This body is called the seven-headed
serpent, for although it speaks with seven mouths it has but one
brain, one life, one origin.
The priests of the Mysteries were symbolized as a serpent,
sometimes called Hydra. From this word we have secured our
common word, hydrant. As the hydrant carries water, so through
the hydra-body of the initiate pass the waters of life. He is,
therefore, a tube or channel through which they are
disseminated like water from the nozzle of a hydrant.
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pilgrims and taken up their search for truth, seeking amid the
hills and valleys of the human soul for the answer to the riddle of
destiny. They are seeking for those mystic Masters of Wisdom
known to legend but of whom history bears no record.
Throughout all this searching there is a great uncertainty, but
one or two facts stand out very clearly. First, the majority of
people do not know what they are looking for. If they should
meet truth, they would not recognize it. The Masters they seek
are about them every day; but like Sir Launfal they journey into
distant lands, seeking for those things which are upon their own
doorsteps. Secondly, they would not accept wisdom if they
should find it. They would all be glad to have the power that the
Masters have, but few would labor unselfishly and untiringly for
ages to secure that power and then consecrate it unreservedly to
the good of humanity.
Before passing on to our next subject, let us sum up a few
points to be remembered concerning the Great Work and its
workers in the world.
1. The instinct of reverence for the Unknown is implanted in
all human life. It seems that even many of the higher animals
must have it, for as they sit at the feet of their beloved masters
their animal souls speak through upturned eyes filled with love
and tenderness. The love of the dog for its master and the love of
the disciple for his teacher are closely allied. The dog asks for
nothing but kind words and will lay down its life for its master.
Such is true devotion. From the savage upward, reverence and
devotion to the gods form part of the moral code of all humanity.
Many may deny it, but in the form of either faith, fear, or
superstition it persists.
2. The Maker of the great plan which we call life, the Being
from which we have been differentiated, has given man certain
potentialities; these when awakened to dynamic powers will give
to each the faculties whereby he may know that plan. By learning
it himself and applying his wisdom, he may then reach the
position where he can assist others to harmonize their lives with
the same law.
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life and who have, of their own free will, joined themselves to
the cause of human progress. This does not mean that they have
sworn adherence to any individual or material organization. It
means that they have sanctified their lives and dedicated their
efforts to humanitarian service, which is the true path of
mastery and the only road which escapes the pitfalls of egotism
and commercialism.
Service is a great word. It means a devotion to the needs of the
masses which is so strong, perfect, and unselfish that wealth,
honors, and all things this world holds dear, will be given up
instantly, gladly, and without the sense of sacrifice in the service
of the ideal it has espoused. The class of student includes all who
think, read, study, and aspire along the lines of the Ancient
Wisdom. In its ranks are all so-called independent occultists,
various kinds of untrained psychics, mediums, psychologists and
others who have no direct connection with the teachers from any
division of the Great School but who are seeking according to
their own light to understand the initiates words as they have
heard them or found them recorded in literature.
In this group we also find many student teachers who, while
not initiated into the Mysteries, are seeking to assist others on
the path of wisdom. Such a one was Socrates, who, while
himself ignorant concerning many things, gave to the world two
of its greatest initiates, Plato and Aristotle.
The student is generally without any actual proof of the thing
he believes. Some intuitive voice within, however, tells him that
the studies he is laboring with are true. He must so accept them.
The privilege of knowing the reason for the things that he does,
is not given to him as yet. He must obey blindly the great laws as
they are revealed to him and await the pleasure of the Elder
Brothers. During these years of spiritual darkness he must spend
his life in self-improvement along those lines which he normally
recognizes as virtuous and true. He must consecrate himself to
the labor of preparing his nature for the greater responsibilities
that are to come.
Over a hundred years ago a great disciple of alchemy and
magical philosophies compiled a series of suggestive rules for
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doing.
The second degree is that of Disciple. In this grade are the
accepted chelas students of an Initiate, Master or Guru. For
them the veil is beginning to lift. They have placed their feet
firmly upon the winding path that leads to the Temple of one of
the seven Great Schools. Instead of wandering far in the search
for wisdom, they gather at the feet of their appointed Master and
learn from him.
Today in occult work there is too much wandering from one
place to another, too much uncertainty in the soul of the student.
Let him choose one path and, having established the integrity of
the teacher and the teaching, remain with that.
One day while the student was laboring in the vineyard of life,
tired but faithful and patient withal, the Master came that way
and stopped to watch the student at his work. The student was
singing at his toil. Each thing he did was accomplished with love
and sincerity. Trust, hope, and consecration were his tools. He
was laboring not for himself but for his brother and his God.
Accompanying every act was a prayera silent consecration of
the work of his hands and the meditations of his heart to that
great invisible Thing in whom he lived and moved and had his
being.
The heavier the load, the greater his joy, for he was doing
good. All this and other things the Master saw. But the student
did not see the Teacher, for the sweat from the laborers brow
ran down into his eyes and blinded him. The Master stepped over
to the student, saying, Leave now your labors and follow me.
The vineyard vanished, the dirt fell from the hands of the
worker, and for a moment he dwelt in space, while before him
was the shining figure of his Master. He sank on his knees at the
feet of the Master and kissed the hem of his robe. Again the
Master spoke: You are my disciple. You have not chosen me; I
have chosen you. You have been faithful unto a few things; now
you shall have power over more and greater things.
Thus is the disciple chosen by his Master and brought into
personal contact with the Teacher, his cosmic benefactor. Each
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