Mankind has been endowed with mind and will. These are God’s greatest gifts to living, conscious beings. Furthermore, God intended Man to use his mind, to exercise and express personal will and determination, and become master over the inanimate things of the earth and over his own evil desires as well.
Each of us is not yet infallible in his comprehension and understanding. It may be that we believe we are right in our judgment of persons and conditions, but just because we have an honest belief in that regard does not make our judgment correct. And, while we make occasional mistakes in judging other persons and their affairs, we do not make many mistakes in the judgment of our own selves and our own affairs. Naturally, we are biased in our own favour, and most naturally we believe that we understand our own selves so well that we can see many reasons for condoning, excusing, and overlooking essential points.
Perhaps the one great error made in regard to the application of mystical laws is in the effort to use them to force certain conclusions of our own into the minds of other persons. For instance: a common desire is to make someone agree to or concede to some point that is contrary to his belief.
Here we have a serious problem indeed. It may be that one is seeking a certain privilege, a grant, a concession. It must come from some person in power or legal authority to give it. That person, for certain definite reasons, refuses to comply. Should the mystic use some occult powers to make that person do as desired, even against his desires to do so? That is the question often put to us.
Let us analyse such a problem. Let us say that A is seeking a loan on fair security from the bank, and the bank president, B, after due consideration declines to comply. Not expecting such a result, A makes further pleas to the bank president, and he promises to look into the matter a little more - and again refuses. Now A wonders if he can use any mystical principle to make B compel, even against his decision. Naturally, we tell A that it cannot be done – and furthermore, he should not try to do it.
If occult or mystical training and development would give to one person the power to override the decisions and will of another, or to inhibit the reason faculties of another person, it would be the most unfair, unjust, and ungodly principle to be found in the whole universe. Fortunately, and praise be to all the Divine Laws, it is not so. Man’s mind is just as safe in its sovereign domain against the domination of other minds as is God in His domain against the dominations of evil.
It is not possible for one mind to arbitrarily control another against its will, and therefore, it is useless for the student of mysticism to think of trying it. However, it is also a serious matter to try to do so. It is a violation of the ethics of mysticism to attempt, by any process that is occult, to refute the honest decision that another mind has reached.
Cosmic and Man-made Laws
Who established such ethical laws? The Cosmic! Perhaps you have never realized that there are ethical laws in the mystical world and that it is more dangerous to attempt to violate those laws than it is to attempt to violate any of the man-made laws of this earth.
The Cosmic Laws say that a man’s personal, private affairs are to remain private and personal so long as he chooses to have them so. Any attempt on the part of another person to use mystical or occult methods to pry into those affairs is a violation of the ethics of mysticism. The Cosmic Laws also say that whatever a group or body of men or women have agreed upon as sacred, private and limited to certain times and conditions, shall remain so, and any attempt on the part of one or more persons to use occult or mystical laws to thwart that decision is also a violation of the ethical laws of mysticism.
The Cosmic Laws also say that a man’s ability and divine gift to reason, analyse, conclude, and decide for himself shall remain his privilege and prerogative, and he shall also have the right and will power to carry out his decisions – whether wrong or right – without any occult means being used to inhibit that power. Any attempt to interfere with that power by occult or mystical means is a violation of the ethical laws.
All violations of the ethical laws are punished automatically by the laws of karma or compensation, as are all other violations of natural or divine laws.
Each person is guaranteed by the Cosmic the power to reach his own decisions – when in sane and sound mind and body – and to carry out such decisions, whether right or wrong. God has given man a mind that can reason; and his memory was given to him so that he could remember and bring to his aid all the experiences and lessons he has learned so that he may be able to make proper and logical decisions. MAN IS MOST CERTAINLY FREE TO CHOOSE, and is a free agent in all his acts; but he must compensate if he makes a wrong decision and acts, just as he receives reward for deciding correctly and acting correctly. God might have arranged the scheme of things so that man had the mind of God and the love of God in his heart and being, and could do no wrong or even think no wrong. In that case, man would not have been a free agent and he would have no need for a mind that can reason, a consciousness that could choose or a will that could determine what to do.
But, as it is, man has always had the mind to analyse, reason, and reach an INDEPENDENT DECISION OF HIS OWN, with the still greater power and ability to CARRY OUT HIS DECISION. God does not attempt to stop man when he reaches a wrong decision and is about to yield and carry out an error. Instead, man is permitted to work out his decision, discover his error, suffer the consequences and learn a lesson that will enable him to make a better choice the next time he is confronted with the same problem.
And, if God does not attempt to use his OMNIPOTENT powers to stay a man in his decisions, or checkmate him in his determination to commit an error, it is most certainly not within the power of another earthly mortal to do it, even in the name of mysticism; and any attempt on the part of man to do it is an attempt to use a power not even assumed by God or more privileged than the Father of all.
Can no laws or principle be used to help ourselves, in such cases as the one cited? Suppose that the loan from the bank was an absolute necessity, and not wholly a selfish need; and suppose that the security was good and my motives right, and I knew that I could repay the loan in the proper way; can I do nothing to make that bank president see the truth of the matter and agree to the loan? Here we have another matter altogether. The very wording of the question suggests the answer. It is one thing to convince a man that his reasoning is faulty, his decision unjust or unfair, and have him agree to your proposition. It is an entirely different thing to attempt to inhibit the man’s reasoning, and while he still believes he is doing the wrong thing, will submit to some psychological or mystical power and agree to what he believes is wrong. Do you see the point of difference? It is an ethical point, it is a godly point.
Truly we may use every means to convince another of a sound argument based on truth. In fact it is our duty to use every method available to help another human being to reason properly and reach a correct conclusion. But the conclusion must be reached after free and independent reasoning. The conclusion must be a result of analysis and study.
Unfounded Prejudices
In the case of the bank president – and this case is simply typical of hundreds of others – he may be labouring under some false impressions which he would freely and quickly cast aside if he knew the truth. But it is his inalienable right to reason freely and exercise every bit of his reasoning powers without external inhibition. He may be prejudiced against the person asking for the loan, and every reasonable method should be used to help him see that his prejudice is unfounded. He may not see or realize the safety of the security offered, and every reasonable method may be used to help him see that point. Mystical methods may also be used to help in these matters, by concentrating on him and sending to him the true facts as you know them, but not attempting to force him to make his decision. That he must be allowed to do of his own accord after you have sent him, mystically or otherwise, the facts that he should consider.
Some systems or occult or mystical philosophy try to make the student believe he is justified in using any occult method that he thinks he knows, or any psychological trick they try to teach, to make himself a master of other persons’ minds. But it is a false system, it is a harmful system, it is a failure in producing results and a harm in the reaction it brings to the student from the Cosmic.
A mystic must understand the proper process of reasoning. This is to enable him to reach better decisions. This will eventually prevent him from reaching erroneous conclusions and acting in error. He may transmit to the mind of another the impressions he wishes to transmit, but to attempt to transmit falsehoods, evil, and unjust thoughts will not only fail in its sinister purpose, but bring a cosmic reaction upon him as a rebuke from the Cosmic Laws.
There is no need for moral laws made by man, nor legal rulings by the courts of the land. If one cannot ethically do anything, he cannot do it at all. The cosmic code of ethics will cover every act of man, and all of the man-made laws are simply attempts on the part of man to interpret the Cosmic Laws. The interpretations are generally very crude, indeed, and do not serve the mystic nearly so well as the ethical laws of the Cosmic.
Take the Ten Commandments as interpreted by Moses. Is there one of them that the true mystic cannot find in its pristine form in the ethical laws of the Cosmic? There is no need for the words “Thou shall not kill!” as a moral commandment, for ethically he could not dare to kill. The same is true of all the commandments.
To the mystic, the ethics of mysticism and of life generally, constitute all the principles of every religion, of every code of law that man has made. He knows that he dares to do many things if he is willing to pay the price of the cosmic Laws of karma – but, what a price! Man, too has arranged a set of punishments for violations of his interpretations of the Cosmic Laws, but man smiles at these very often. Many men have been willing to pay the price that man demands, but would never agree to pay the price that the Cosmic inevitably and relentlessly exacts.
Men who are ignorant of the Cosmic Laws and the price exacted or the reward bestowed for our actions, are willing to take a chance with man-made laws, and often succeed in evading punishment at the hands of man. But the mystic knows better than to attempt any violation for he knows also that he can never evade a just compensation – never in his whole life, eternally and forever.
- Author Unknown
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