In Search of the Miraculous
“Man lives in life under the law of accident and under two kinds of influences again governed by accident.
“The first kind are influences created in life…or by life itself. Influences of race, nation, country, climate, family, education, society, profession, manners and customs, wealth, poverty, current ideas, and so on. The second kind are influences created outside this life, influences of the inner circle, or esoteric influences… These influences differ from the former… in being conscious in their origin…
“…But…these influences are conscious only in their origin. Coming into the general vortex of life they fall under the general law of accident and begin to act mechanically… In undergoing change and distortion in life through transmission and interpretation, influences of the second kind…become, as it were, merged into the influences of the first kind. —Chapter 10
Views From the Real World
…it was established… that, in general, human life on the Earth should flow in two streams. Great Nature foresaw and…fixed in…humanity a…property, so that, before the dividing of the waters, in each drop…there might arise… “something,” thanks to which certain properties are acquired which give the possibility, at the place of the branching of the waters of life, of entering one or the other stream.
Thus there are two directions in the life of humanity: active and passive. Laws are the same everywhere. These two laws, these two currents, continually meet, now crossing each other, now running parallel. But they never mix; they support each other, they are indispensable for each other.
Now, the life of all ordinary men taken together can be thought of as one of these rivers in which each life…is represented by a drop in the river…
…(E)very drop plays a part insofar as it is part of the river… There is no individual law for it, no personal fate. Only the whole river has a fate, which is common to all the drops. The changes of position, movement and direction of the drops are completely accidental. Personal
sorrow and joy, happiness and suffering—in that current, all these are accidental.
But the drop has, in principle, a possibility of escaping from this general current, and jumping across to the other, the neighboring, stream.
This too is a law of Nature. But, for this, the drop must know how to make use of accidental shocks, and…the momentum of the whole river… It must choose not only the right place but also the right time, to make use of winds, currents and storms. Then the drop has a chance to rise with the spray and jump across into the other river…
From the moment it gets into the other river, the drop is in a different world… and therefore is under different laws. In this second river a law exists for individual drops… A drop comes to the top or goes to the bottom, this time not by accident, but by law…
To float on the surface is good for it—to be deep down is bad. Much depends here on skill and on effort. In this second river…(t)he drop must float on the surface as long as possible in order to prepare itself, to earn the possibility of passing into another current, and so on.
But we are in the first river. As long as we are in this passive current it will carry us wherever it may; as long as we are passive we shall be pushed about and be at the mercy of every accident. We are the slaves of these accidents…
At the same time Nature has given us the possibility of escaping from this slavery. Therefore when we talk about freedom we are talking precisely about crossing over into the other river.
But…you cannot cross over merely because you wish. Strong desire and long preparation are necessary. You will have to live through being identified with all the attractions in the first river. You must die to this river…
This possibility depends on desire, strong wish of a very special kind, wishing with the essence, not with the personality…
This question about two rivers refers to essence, as all real things do. Your essence is permanent; your personality is your education, your ideas, your beliefs—things caused by your environment; these you acquire, and can lose. —New York, February 22, 1924 – The two rivers
In Search of the Miraculous
“…Today is what it is because yesterday was what it was. And if today is like yesterday, tomorrow will be like today… What happens…may depend upon three causes: upon accident, upon fate, or upon our own will. Such as we are, we are almost wholly dependent upon accident… If we had will, then through this alone…we should…make our future, and make it such as we want it to be. …(F)ate corresponds to type. If the type is known, then its fate can be known, that is, both the past and the future. But accidents cannot be foreseen. Today a man is one, tomorrow he is different: today one thing happens to him, tomorrow another.” —Chapter 6
The Reality of Being
Two opposite poles act on my Presence and communicate entirely different vibrations. I know their action by my sensation of them. I am sensitive to the attraction of the earth; I obey it. And I am sensitive to the attraction coming from higher spheres, and I also obey it… Here are two forces, two currents…without a relation with each other. In order for the higher force to be absorbed and influence the heavier matter, there must be a current of intermediate intensity, another voltage that could galvanize the whole. This would be a purer emotional current in which the material of my usual subjective emotions does not enter… As soon as I awaken to this vision, I am seized by a will, a wish that is the essence of the feeling of “I” in all its purity… —104. Obedience and will