Aphorisms

From Max Heindel's Writings

As our body is the visible garment of the invisible ego, so does the visible fire clothe the true invisible fire. Fire and the ego are both spirits and both manifest under analogous laws.

A good memory is one that forgets the faults of others, but remembers the lessons.

A small man is always anxious for a big position because he feels that the position will confer dignity and prestige upon him, but there are ninety-nine chances that he will disgrace the position. A big man dignifies any position, big or little, by the efficient way he handles it.

No matter how high that ideal seems or how far below it we feel, Saints have realized it. They were men, and what man has done man can do again.

THE LOST WORD--You cannot say it unless you have first learned to live it.

PRAYER is magic incantation, but unless your life is a prayer, you will never get the answer.

When you have set your goal, never harbor a thought of fear or failure, but cultivate an attitude of invincible determination to accomplish your object despite all obstacles, holding the thought of success constantly.

The Black Grail feeds on evil, while the Holy Grail feeds on Love. If evil did not exist the powers of darkness would starve.

Prayer is like the turning on of the electric switch, that does not create the current but simply provides a channel through which the electric current may flow. In like manner prayer creates a channel through which the divine life and light pour itself into us for our spiritual illumination.

There is but one safe way to develop our latent faculties. No matter what anyone may say to the contrary, experience will prove that attainment to spiritual powers depends upon purification and unselfish aspiration; and that is what the mysteries taught in olden times.

Nature is the symbolic expression of God. She does nothing gratuitously, but there is a purpose behind everything and every act.

It is one thing to go out in the mountains where there is no one to contradict or to jar upon our sensibilities and keep our poise; but it is another thing entirely to maintain our spiritual aspirations and keep our balance in the world where everything jars upon us; but when we stay on this path we gain a self-control which is unattainable in any other manner.

When we work and pray, and make our lives a living prayer for opportunities to serve others, then all earthly things will come of their own accord as we need them, and they will continue to come according to the degree that they are used in the service of God.

A great and wonderful allegory is written in cosmic characters in the sky. It is also written in our own lives, and warns us to forsake the fleeting life of the material and to seek the eternal life of God.

There can be no contradiction in nature, therefore the heart and mind must be capable of uniting. To indicate this common ground is precisely the purpose of this book; to show where and how the mind, helped by the intuition of the heart, can probe more deeply into the mysteries of being then either could alone, where the heart by union with the mind, can be kept from going astray, where each can have full scope for action, neither doing violence to the other, where both mind and heart can be satisfied.

The Founder of the Christian Religion stated an occult maxim when He said, "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." (Mark 10). All occultists recognize the far-reaching importance of this teaching of Christ, and endeavor to live it day by day.

If, having knowledge and choice, man ranges himself on the side of good and right, he cultivates virtue and wisdom. If he succumbs to temptation and does wrong knowingly, he fosters vice.

In service is the only true greatness. Yet no matter how efficiently we may serve, if we glory in our services, that self-glory is our only reward.

It should be our aim to think little of that which we do, to esteem ourselves as nothing, for no matter how well we work, none of us are able to serve God worthily even for one single day. So HUMILITY in service should be our chief end and aim. The more thoroughly we can attain to that ideal, the smaller we are in our own eyes, the greater shall we be in the sight of God.

It is always easy to get people to do big things, where they are bolstered up by the dignity of the position. Lots of little men can always be found to fill the conspicuous places, for this man enjoys to have everybody bowing before him, but it takes a BIG MAN to do the little things, the things which are called menial, which are not menial for the personality dignifies the task.

No matter what people say to us or about us their words have no intrinsic power to hurt. It is our own mental attitude towards their utterances which determines the effect of their words upon us for good or ill. Paul, when facing persecution and slander, testified that, "None of these things moved us."