{"timeout":"7000","width":"990"}
  • Wisdom for practice
  • Wisdom is applied knowledge
  • Wisdom spreads itself

Wisdom for practice

Wisdom is for practice, not for continuous speaking. If we keep on speaking about the Masters, the Rays, and the Hierarchies, we are only missing our duties for the present.

Wisdom is applied knowledge

Knowledge, when applied becomes wisdom. We gain a lot of knowledge, but it has to be applied in daily life, then it transforms itself into wisdom. Through wisdom we will experience the existence.

Wisdom spreads itself

We need not be anxious to spread the wisdom without working it with ourselves. It is a wrong understanding if one thinks that he can spread wisdom. Wisdom knows how to spread itself. It only needs channels.

The Play of Life

The One and the Many

Play of Life The wisdom teachings regard the entire creation as a play of the eternal being. The One existence descends into the qualities of creation, in order to play different roles. The One makes all beings feel that they are different from Him, and thus the Oneness appears as multiplicity. Without this illusion there wouldn’t be the play of becoming and passing. While the eternal Being externalises as time, force and nature, the background consciousness as eternal existence remains untouched by it, just like an observer observing the thoughts coming out of him remains untouched by them.

In its interplay with matter the fire generated from out of the spirit interacts with the matter and then it brings matter into the grosser states. This is also called the play between Father Spirit and Mother Nature, between Shiva and Shakti. Shakti is twofold; it is the primordial matter as well as the fire that animates matter. In the theosophical teachings the matter and the fire aspect are seen as separate, and the fire part is taken as the Son. This fire springing from the source which we call “The God Unspeakable” conducts all the creation, and finally it turns again to the Father. This process is symbolically also presented as a circular serpent encircling time and space. When the creation enters into matter it is described as a serpent unrolling itself. The unrolling has an apparent beginning; it comes towards the gross material, and then once again ascends into the subtle. The descent is described in the scriptures as the “Descent of the Serpent from the Tree of Life”. It is not something evil as it is misunderstood by the ignorant, but is a part of the total play, just like there is day and night and each full moon is followed by a new moon.

Nature unfolds all through time, and through time it again re-absorbs all. If we like it or not, when we come out, we are already on the playground and have to go through everything and play our role in the whole. Each of the billions upon billions of beings behaves in a unique way, different from all others. It is like in a big film. If all actors behaved in the same way and said the same thing, the film wouldn’t make sense. Because of the various standpoints there are the differing views and infinite patterns of behaviour. There is no such thing as opposition in creation; it is a seeming opponent, so that the play can proceed. When in a game two persons play against each other, this does not mean they are enemies, and also the hero and the villain in the cinema only fight against each other in the movie, not in life.

Role Play

The whole thing is a role play where we learn to play skillfully and with joy, but we are not the role. We mostly forget that we only play the role and thus become the role. Then the play becomes a reality for us and we are deceived by the big play. This illusion is the cause for all the problems and crises, for the different views and opinions we have about others and where we suffer from. We should remain in soul consciousness and realise: we are units of consciousness who always play various roles. In some lives the soul plays a female and in others a male role. Sometimes it plays the role of a businessman, another time the role of a policeman. But the soul is neither the woman nor the man, neither businessman nor policeman. There are actors who have participated in more than 100 films, and they know that they are not the movie roles. We, too, have participated in very many films, that is in very many incarnations. But we identify with the roles of the personality and become with what we identify. We define ourselves as a man or as a woman, as European, as Asian etc. We fix our definitions, lose our original identity and get into wrong identity. The purpose of yoga is to regain the original identity through self-knowledge and self-realisation.

We play so many roles: In relation to the partner we become husband or wife, for our children father or mother. Roles come and pass: Before marriage the man is not a husband and the woman is not a wife. After marriage they get the feeling that they are husband and wife. To be husband or wife is only a relationship, a role you play with regard to another person. We are a teacher only for people who let themselves be taught, a consultant only for people whom we consult. Many people fix plates at their houses and call themselves consultants. However, they are not consultants for people who don’t want to be consulted. When we travel we are travellers. If we then have missed a plane and have to wait like many others, waiting becomes worse when we consider ourselves as an important consultant.

For ourselves we are none of these roles, we aren’t father or mother, not even man or woman but localised consciousness, “I am”. “I am” is permanent and also doesn’t know gender. “I am this or that” is only true in relation to something or to another person. There is an occult saying: “Live in good relations, but don’t develop relations. Be friendly, but don’t develop friendship.”

Rules of the Game

A good artist plays the role in a way that the viewers accept it as true. He acts as if he is weeping, but he doesn’t really weep. If he were really weeping, he would continue to be sad after the play is over. The play gives joy, when we remember that it is a play and don’t have the feeling it is serious. If we play to win, the play is no longer playful. Tension and fear of losing arise. We might even try to manipulate in order to realise a result, especially when it comes to money. When we make money by playing foul upon individuals or the society, this leads to dissatisfaction and miserable states of mind. The purity of our income decides the purity of our lives, meaning we better keep away from foul plays.

Just like every play has its own rules and regulations, it is the same with the play of Nature. We cannot say it is only a game and consider the rules as meaningless or break them. On the playground the rules are valid. With football the rule is, “Don’t shoot the ball into your own goal.” The players accept the rules voluntarily and start the game without complaining about them. He who complains hasn’t understood the game. The play becomes embarrassing for us when we don’t know how to play and don’t follow the rules. We then wish the play would end quickly. When, however, we play skilfully, the game gives joy and we aren’t in a hurry to leave the playground. We also cannot withdraw from the play of creation. The secret of the right attitude is, “It is not me who has started the whole game, therefore I don’t worry, but I play my role in the whole.”

Playing Masterly

To act playfully doesn’t mean to act irresponsibly. A master sees the play of duality and plays his role in it without being himself affected by the game. He does the things playfully in such a perfect way that they could not be done better. We are only about to learn this game and still have many problems with it. However, if the master would tell us, “It is only a game”, we would react angrily. It is normal that time and again we experience failures, and we shouldn’t be discouraged. Slowly we learn to smile away every failure and try it anew.

Krishna remained playful in all acts which happened through him and around him in life. He was original and of a deep interest for every individual he encountered. Every master lives out of the source of existence and thus is totally different from the way and the experience of another master. He has no fixed standpoint and no defined structures. We cannot expect that he conducts things according to a certain pattern. He is beyond all patterns and can adapt to every structure. His behaviour is original, new, and therefore so charming and enlivening, a beautiful play of being. The whole play of our life consists of gaining perfection and mastery in the play and to realize that He who is playfully working through all is only the ONE.

Sources: K.P. Hercules / notes from seminars. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India.