When the Sun of Divine Knowledge rises, all modes of knowledge become ignorance; when Divine aspiration appears, all desires melt away....
Whoever is bound to his exterior—his turban, his robe, the size and colour of his garment—is still attached to the personality and a worshipper thereof. Thou canst serve either personality or the Law: two contraries cannot unite. So long as you hanker after approbation and dignity, so long as you become angry at an insult, you are with your old genius and self-conceit, and have not been accepted by the Law. You should sacrifice yourself in the SELF. To no purpose do you change your dress and food. If you eat a single blade of grass in a lifetime, remain clad in a single garment for a thousand years, are shut up in a monastery away from the sight of men,—beware, lest you should be deluded. All these are but the subtleties of the desire-nature, its cunning and craft.
Many pious men are as motionless as a serpent or a scorpion frozen with cold. Their piety is not due to rectitude and purity, but to lack of opportunity. When summer comes in and the surroundings change, one may behold what they do.... No one can safely tread the Path without a Guide.... In the beginning, a disciple is not a fit recipient of the Divine Light. He is like a bat, unable to bear the light of the Sun. As it is dangerous folly to travel in utter darkness, he needs a light less dazzling than the Sun, in order to illumine the Path for his safety. Such a light is that coming from the Masters, who, like the moon [reflecting the light of the sun], have become fit reflectors of the Spiritual Light.—Letter 51.
Speech and Conduct.
All learned men base conduct on speech. They have gathered their learning through the avenues of hearing and speaking. The Masters of Truth have received Their Knowledge through divine inspiration, which depends on following the Law. With Them, knowledge does not depend upon words or speech. It has no connection with the tongue. Knowledge is that which makes a man follow the Law. Secular learning deals with words. Knowledge deals with Truth, and is not to be found save in the region of the Real. The province of the tongue is letters, and they are limited. Knowledge comes from the Heart, and the Heart does not perish. God has not given Knowledge to all, whereas He has not withheld speech from any. Knowledge is that which controls desire and leads to God. That which contributes to the gratification of desire and leads to the courts of chiefs and oppressors is not Knowledge, but a snare. Knowledge makes one humble and frees from ostentation and disputes.... The end of all learning is the beginning of Discipleship.
The first robe worn by a Disciple consists in coming out of the self. The second robe consists in setting no value on what he heretofore took as divine, so that the flame of Discipleship burns all things in him. Then, he begins to see lights and utter charming words, leading to self-conceit and the admiration of others. This is a snare of the desire-nature, and stops his progress. Here comes in the necessity of a Teacher to help him cross this stage and bring him from stagnation to motion. Thus light is a thicker veil than darkness. Hence is it that the Wise are dumb and blind, unaffected by the opinion of the people. Hence is it, again, that the difficulties of a Disciple cannot be solved by a learned man, as the latter is but versed in religion, while the difficulties of the former are connected with the Path. It is useless for a Disciple to follow the learned, as the dicta of the latter are concerned with outer conduct, while he has to deal with the inner life. The one is preparing for the destruction of self; the other seeks salvation for the self through knowledge. The business of the learned is to gather up what has been left by others, and store in his bosom the knowledge of the past. The business of the Disciple is to throw away and renounce what he has, and to unlearn what he has learned. So they are opposites and cannot be reconciled in any way.—Letter 52.
Magnanimity.
A disciple lacking in magnanimity makes no progress at all. One whose aspiration does not go beyond heaven, is not fit for this battle. The Wise hold that the desire to have everything in the world according to one's own wishes, befits a woman, not a man.... In short, a magnanimous disciple should first of all tread upon his own life, and try his sword on his own desire-nature, not on an infidel. For the infidel can only hurt the body, and plunder earthly possessions; whereas the desire-nature injures the very root of religion and destroys faith....