Getting to a Higher Level of Confidence in Life
 
 
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
 
 
 
 
 
* Strengthening the soul is the unavoidable task, and it must be done by confronting challenges.
 
* Every civilization has its own karma and its own (limited) duration. Transitions from one civilization to another may take place in many different ways, some of which are disastrous, and some are not.
 
* Whenever a society forgets the fact that the purpose of life is the learning of the souls, such a collective “loss of memory” will attract the corresponding lessons, some of which may become painful and catastrophic. However, the door of individual and collective regeneration is always open to all, on a transcendent level.
 
* An instant contains the eternity. Any minute, in any circumstances, is the right moment to strengthen the contact with peace in one’s soul.
 
There is Nothing Outside the Law
 
* Misinformed students of theosophy suppose that “there can be no Karma, unless there is someone to produce it or feel its results.”
 
* The idea is plainly false. Unfortunately the mistake is common in esoteric circles and even esoteric authors share such an illusion. In fact, the word “Karma” means “action and its reactions”, or, in other words, “movement in its context”. Karma is omnipresent; it is to be found therefore everywhere and all the time.
 
* Perhaps such students have a pleasure in saying beautiful, unexamined sentences that sound as true axioms.  The habit should be abandoned, because idle words and false ideas are also not “outside karma” and create unpleasant effects.
 
* The cause of tests and probations is in the need to gradually eliminate spiritual ignorance, which includes the neglect of one’s duty, and a childish attachment to short term comfort.
 
* In spite of the naiveté of many – William Judge among them -, the fact remains that there is nothing outside or above the law of karma. Swindlers will not escape from it. The childish fancy of “saints transcending the law” should be avoided. [1] On the physical plane, even the three laws of Newton are but aspects of the Law. Above present humanity, immortal masters of the wisdom are humble servants of the Law of Equilibrium.
 
Peace and Alertness
 
* When external facts multiply and take place in growing velocity, that which we see as ‘objective reality’ becomes liquid. Reality then visibly behaves like a wave of facts and possibilities, having no stable outward forms to which we might develop an attachment.
 
* As we face the sudden transformation of reality around us – and our daily life -, it gets more important to make sure we focus in correct ways our attention and our ability to look and see. Our clarity of vision depends on the strength of the relation with the internal silence of the soul; in other words, with unconditional peace.
 
* What should one do, to compensate the excess of urgent external information, mainly uncertain and fragmentary? One must perceive – in silence – that kind of knowledge which  does not depend on reasoning, the knowledge which goes beyond this or  that specific factor; the pure knowledge in itself, eternal, luminous, uncontaminated. Then we can look at external changes from the point of view of peace, and attain to a higher level of alertness and confidence in life.
 
The Opportunities in the Obstacles
 
* “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. By spending some time away from comfortable routine, one can better understand himself, and it is easier to make further progress in the daily building of his own character.
 
* Living in a social context that includes uncertainties and obstacles is an unforgettable learning process. It helps us liberate our souls from various levels of blind attachment to external comfort.
 
* Life itself is our elementary school teacher; and it is the university professor, too.
 
* Steel can only be produced in high temperatures. One’s spiritual will gets stronger while confronting adverse circumstances.
 
* Hector Durville quotes these words by J.J. Rousseau: “There is no safer path to happiness than the path of virtue”. [2] By strengthening virtue or discipline during the tests given by the living Karma, one approaches an endless source of contentment.
 
NOTES:
 
 
[2] From the book “Magnétisme Personnel”, Hector Durville, Hector & Henri Durville Imprimeurs – Éditeurs, Paris, 1918, 526 pp., see p. 384.  
 
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Thoughts Along the Road – 57was published as an independent text on 30 October 2021. An initial version of it, with no indication as to the name of the author, is part of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, April 2020 edition, pp. 5-6 and 01.
 
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See other writings of Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
 
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