It is always difficult to sift the chaff from the wheat, the dross from the gold, because duality (maya’s illusion) gives us such opposite feelings . . . we can love and hate at the same time, be spiritual and lustful, have fear and be courageous. The balancing of these opposites, the finding of a middle way, is the art of life. As we begin to ponder, “Where am I going? Why am I here? What does it all mean?” we will be helped to find an answer, to see the pattern. “When the pupil is ready, the Teacher appears.”

Usually we have to get down to rock-bottom, with its attendant suffering and pain and tears; but when we cease to struggle against life and allow it to flow through us, accepting whatever it brings, then often a small voice gives us the answer, and truth begins to unfold like a flower. It is an expanding of consciousness, this process of bringing GOD to birth . . . finding HIM in the center and very core of our being, where HE has been all the time!

Many great Masters in the past have given us their pointers: “Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time, hatred ceases by love: this is an old rule.” . . . Dhammapada; “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” . . . Jesus of Nazareth; “Whosoever forsaketh all desires and goeth onwards free from yearnings, selfless and without egoism, he goeth to peace.” . . . Bhaghavad Gita”; “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that despitefully use you and persecute you.” . . . Jesus of Nazareth. The Masters of Zen Buddhism often just said to their pupils, “Talk on,” or pointed to a Circle, or some other symbol.

Most of us give these words lip-service; that is why there is such chaos in the world today; for until words are illuminated by conscious experience, they cannot truly be put into practice; they must be applied, in truth, to every waking hour. It is a question of inner knowing and feeling.

Yet all who have trod the Path have left their signposts . . . poets, saints, prophets. The Masters have shown the Way because they were the Way. To come into personal contact with a Master is the greatest of all blessings, for he is a gauge for all our conduct; by him we can measure and find true values. He is our hope and promise, our Light in the darkness. In loving him, we are helped to live outside ourselves, and the fire, once lit, can never be put out. However often we fall . . . he helps us out of his infinite compassion to rise again and again. He stirs and shakes us to the depth of our