Remembering That the Universal
Law Lives in Us, And Around Us
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
It doesn’t matter whether you are at home, in a library or on the streets. Imagine, right now, that you stand before a divine presence.
What would you think, if you knew that a great spiritual intelligence, of infinite wisdom, is at your side? What would your attitude be if you perceived that a holy and wise being, a teacher of mankind, observes in this exact moment your emotions and thoughts? Would you feel ashamed? Would you be proud, or overwhelmed by emotion? Calm or anxious?
Whatever our answers are to the above questions, they constitute no mere exercise in imagination. Each human being is, indeed, always in the presence of the divine world and the highest principle of the universe. Even if he has a chronic tendency to forget the fact.
Many are so used to the idea that the divine world is something distant that they think the great sages and teachers of mankind are beyond their reach. This, of course, stimulates laziness and tranquilizes those who are attached to routine. Based on this opinion they think they can insist on the same mistakes without being disturbed by the uncomfortable realization that a much bigger consciousness observes them, records whatever they do and tries to lead them along the good path. Nothing occurs without being recorded, for our debit or credit.
If the divine energy and the supreme universal principle are everywhere, how could they possibly not be also in my own soul, and by my side, like my masters, protectors and counsellors? The spiritual journey is about the challenge to consciously perceive the presence of sacred energies at each moment of our lives.
The difficulties are more apparent than real. They emerge from the hypnotic effect that the external world exerts over our consciousness, and from our excessive worrying about ourselves. The philosophy of the Kleshas, in the Raja Yoga tradition, explains it well: first, spiritual ignorance (Avidya) causes the impression that we are a “self” existing separate from life around us. This sensation is named Asmita. Then selfishness makes us prisoners to the basic emotions of attraction and rejection. These are the two arms of a “desire to live” that is spiritually blind (Abhinivesha).
However, with the birth of new values and the crisis of dogmatic religiosity, the obstacles to spiritual liberation have been losing strength. Millions of people are getting tired of the old ostrich’s posture and stop burying their heads in the sands of blind belief or selfish thoughts, in an attempt to avoid seeing the immense and bright sky under the sun of brotherhood.
Each individual who raises his consciousness becomes aware of his condition as a planetary citizen, and can better recognize a divine presence in human lives. The practice of austerity, altruism, contemplation and common sense is a way to simplify our inner life, to liberate our consciousness from smaller issues, and open room to a direct experience of sacredness.
As one mentally looks at the anxious multitudes moving in the streets of modern cities, it is not difficult to recognize the divine presence in them. Hundreds of thousands of people hurry up all day long, aiming at short term material goals. They may go to and fro, yet they lack a real sense of individual purpose. Human noise is the noise of life. In any situation, people look for what seems to be good in their view, and they help one another in the struggle. The sum of human conflicts is less important than the unceasing mutual help which defines us as “social animals”.
The very act of living in society implies an attitude of cooperation and common work. Envy, competition, and violence are lesser episodes in the life of the noisy Brotherhood of Mankind, whose survival depends on love. There is in each person an inner light that is eternal. The millions of small generous actions which constitute daily life in our civilization silently express a sacred feeling of unconditional respect for life.
To think of the Law of Universal Equilibrium is enough to heal our psychological wounds. The injustices one may have suffered lose their importance, and one’s heart is filled with a sense of peace. For thousands of years the act of remembering the divine presence has been a spiritual practice, and everyone can adapt it any time to his or her own specific reality. More than five centuries before the Christian Era, the technique was used in ancient Greece when Pythagoras gave impetus to Western esoteric tradition. The fact is well registered, and Sextus, the Pythagorean, wrote:
“In all your actions place God [the Universal Law] before your eyes. Invoke God [the Law] as a witness to whatever you do.” [1]
On the other hand, Sextus also warned:
“You will not be concealed from divinity when you act unjustly, nor even when you think of doing so. Neither do nor even think of that which you are not willing God should know.” [2]
Democrates said:
“He who believes that Divinity beholds all things, will not sin either secretly or openly.”[3]
And a third Pythagorean sage, Demophilus, taught thus about the practice of the Presence:
“If you are always careful to remember that in whatever place either your soul or body accomplishes any deed, Divinity is present as an inspector of your conduct; in all your words and actions you will venerate the presence of an inspector from whom nothing can be concealed, and will, at the same time, possess Divinity as an intimate associate.”[4]
The technique was later adopted by the Christian tradition. This is one example among others of the widely unknown fact that the Pythagorean wisdom has exerted a strong influence over the higher aspects of Christianity. The essenes and neoplatonists, which are associated to the origins of Christianism, were up to a certain extent the heirs of Pythagorean tradition.
Regarding the practice of divine presence, one of the most inspiring among the personal examples I know belongs to the Christian world, and took place in the 17th century.
Nicholas Herman of Lorraine or “Brother Lawrence” was born in France in 1611 and had humble origins. When he was 18 years old, he had an experience of spiritual enlightenment which transformed his life. During a typical day of European winter, Nicholas observed with a feeling of love a half-dead, leafless tree suffering from the constant snow, and thought of the new life which springtime would soon bring to his friend. He was taken by an irresistible experience of love for the divinity, and of direct knowledge of It. From that moment on, Nicholas lived every situation in life “as if he were in the presence of God”.
It is not our priority here to discuss the concept of “God”. In the text “A Psychoanalysis of Religions”[5] we have seen that the idea of an authoritarian God who makes decisions according to whimsical wishes is a childish fancy. Some of the main religions of humanity – like Taoism and Buddhism – do not work with the concept of God.
However, esoteric philosophy knows and teaches how to know the divine world and the law of the universe. The mistake of Western religiosity lies in believing in a singular almighty god separated from the rest of the universe who makes piecemeal decisions without being responsible for their consequences. It is from such a conception of God that dogmatic religions emerge to legitimize wars and social injustice. A Master of the Wisdom wrote about the theological fabrication:
“The fact is your western philosophical conceptions are monarchical; ours democratic. You are only able to think of the universe as governed by a king, while we know it to be a republic in which the aggregate indwelling intelligence rules.” [6]
Esoteric philosophy denies the existence of a personal or “almighty” God. Based on the direct experience of Mahatmas, it states that there is a divine world with many different cosmic intelligences, which are dynamic, living in eternal movement.
In practice, if not in theory, the concept of God experienced by the Christian mystics – Francis of Assis and John of the Cross among them – is broadly compatible with esoteric wisdom. “God”, for the mystic, is but the name of the universal law of harmony, the cosmic intelligence, the supreme and indescribable principle. Even when they pray to a God and call him “Lord”, mystics are evoking basically Unlimited Love and Wisdom, the divine principle dwelling in all things and in every being alike, which is also the center of peace eternally present in human hearts.
In this context, the personification of the idea of deity, falsely identifying the deity and the teacher, is a fact of lesser importance. It could be acceptable as a metaphor, a symbolic image, a poetical expression serving as a bridge between the human and the divine worlds and attempting to humanize that which is supreme. The problem gets much worse, however, when priestly and ritualistic bureaucracies are built on the basis of the imaginary existence of a personal god who must be celebrated from a utilitarian point of view, so that the believer will hope to obtain personal favors from him.
Mystics from different religions admit the direct experience of sacredness is beyond words. Their sense of inner unity with the divine world corresponds to the higher states of consciousness mentioned in Raja Yoga and other Eastern traditions.
The perception of the divine presence did not leave Nicholas, the Brother Lawrence, any longer. It became part of his life. However, the consciousness of a mystic often finds it difficult to adapt itself to the world of “practical” things, and he cannot easily adapt the external world to the universal love he lives in his heart. Young Nicholas had to be a soldier. He later worked as the servant of a rich family in France. His contemplative nature did not remain unnoticed, and had unpleasant consequences. He was a bungler: being absent-minded, he broke by accident a number of domestic objects belonging to his masters.
At the age of 55, Brother Lawrence joined the Carmelite Order in Paris as a lay brother and became a cook. One of his religious superiors, M. Beaufort, took notes on his life, got them together with a few letters written by the mystic and published them as a small volume. [7]
Lawrence felt that human beings must create a sense of the divine presence by mentally talking to it all the time. He considered it shameful to stop talking to sacredness in one’s mind, in order to think of personal trifles. [8] However, the divine presence according to him is not an occasion to ask for personal favors; its right practice helps us instead to get rid of short term human worries. That humble cook who had no religious instruction could directly live the mystic experience, and felt no inclination to make theoretical discourses on it.
Each time Lawrence faced a difficulty and challenge, or needed to practice a virtue, he prayed and said:
“Lord, I cannot do this unless Thou enablest me”. [9]
He then received strength enough. The idea of a Lord was from an esoteric point of view the personification of his own Buddhic consciousness and his spiritual soul.
“…Knowing only by the [Buddhic] light of faith that God was present, he contented himself with directing all his actions to Him” [10], and thus wasted no thoughts in personal expectations. The word “faith” here means confidence in the Law and in the fact that there is a divinity present in all things and in each of us. Such a confidence results from goodness. The only object of Lawrence was not to offend the divine will [11], id est, the universal Law.
Esoteric tradition says that the truth-seeker gradually learns along the path how to unite his small individual will to the greater will of the divine world, establishing a magnetic syntony with it through the purity of his heart and mind. Because of this, he becomes an outpost of the divine consciousness in the world.
Brother Lawrence accumulated such an experience in asking for divine help at every moment that, when he had a practical task to perform, he did not have to think of it in anticipation. As the time came to perform his duty, he found in the deity, like in a clear mirror, the vision of what was correct to do.[12] Just before starting an external work he prayed:
“O my God, since Thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to Thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to continue in Thy presence, and to this end do Thou prosper me with Thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections.” [13]
After the task was performed, he used another Pythagorean technique: the practice of revising one’s actions. Brother Lawrence’s life spontaneously belonged to the Pythagorean tradition, without ceasing to be Christian.
“When he had finished he examined himself how he had discharged his duty”, writes M. Beaufort; “if he found well, he returned thanks to God; if otherwise, he asked pardon; and without being discouraged he set his mind right again, and continued his exercise” of the divine presence. Lawrence died in 1691, at 80 years of age, after teaching many individuals how to attain a direct experience of contact with sacredness.
Some might think the practice of divine presence is mainly devotional. In fact, it constitutes a central part of esoteric philosophy. It belongs to the Pythagorean tradition and is taught by various Eastern disciplines including Jnana Yoga, the yoga of the contemplation of universal truth, and Raja Yoga, whose main goals include the strengthening of individual self-knowledge and self-responsibility.
“…Man is the microcosm”, Helena Blavatsky wrote. “As he is so, then all the Hierarchies of the Heavens exist within him. But in truth there is neither Macrocosm nor Microcosm but ONE EXISTENCE. ‘As is the inner, so is the outer; as is the great, so is the small; as it is above, so it is below; there is but One Life and Law’.” [14]
In the Diagram of Meditation which H. P. Blavatsky transmitted to one of her disciples in 1887-1888, she recommends a practical way to strengthen the connection and the identity between each individual and the boundless universe:
“First conceive of UNITY by Expansion in space and infinite in Time. (Either with or without self-identification.) Then meditate logically and consistently on this in reference to states of consciousness.”
In the same Diagram one finds a formula to practice self-identification with unlimited space and time. It consists in slowly and repeatedly meditating in the following words: “I am all Space and Time.” Blavatsky proceeds:
“Then the normal state of our consciousness must be moulded by the perpetual Presence in imagination in all Space and Time. From this originates a substratum of memory which does not cease in dreaming or waking.” [15]
Such an exercise is essentially the same as the practice of divine presence.
In “The Secret Doctrine”, Blavatsky wrote:
“The ever unknowable and incognizable Karana alone, the Causeless Cause of all causes, should have its shrine and altar on the holy and ever untrodden ground of our heart – invisible, intangible, unmentioned, save through ‘the still small voice’ of our spiritual consciousness. Those who worship before it, ought to do so in the silence and the sanctified solitude of their Souls; making their spirit the sole mediator between them and the Universal Spirit, their good actions the only priests, and their sinful intentions the only visible and objective sacrificial victims to the Presence.” [16]
Since boundless divinity and unlimited space-time are present everywhere, including ourselves, the challenge ahead is to make a conscious contact with them and listen to them in wordless ways.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, the neostoic philosopher, wrote about the divine presence in the heart of honest men. He said that one ought “not to defile the divinity which is planted in his breast, not disturb it by a crowd of images, but to preserve it tranquil, following it obediently as a god, neither saying anything contrary to the truth, nor doing anything contrary to justice.” [17]
Esoteric philosophy teaches that as long as we cannot find the sacred light within us, it will be useless to search for it outside. One of the most beautiful aspects of spiritual path consists in being aware of this subtle presence. Socrates teaches in one of the Dialogues of Plato:
“…The mind of the philosopher alone has wings; and this is just, for he is always, according to the measure of his abilities, clinging in recollection to those things in which God abides, and in beholding which He is what He is. And he who employs aright these memories is ever being initiated into perfect mysteries and alone becomes truly perfect. But, as he forgets earthly interests and is rapt in the divine, the vulgar deem him mad, and rebuke him; they do not see that he is inspired.” [18]
And according to the New Testament, Paul says in Corinthians, 1, 3: 16-17:
“Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (…) For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”
Can we live consciously immersed in the divine presence? Every human being has moments of sacred inspiration. One undergoes experiences of mystical elevation and spiritual strength as time passes by. During these moments, one forgets the short-term interests of his lower self, attains a different and “magic” state of mind and sees a much deeper meaning in his life.
And this may be not enough.
Instead of receiving short visits from time to time of higher states of consciousness, some individuals prefer to live permanently in the presence of true wisdom and intuition, and abandon those behavior patterns which produce suffering or anxiety. A classical book in Christian Mysticism, “The Imitation of Christ”, says:
“If only you had just once been perfectly united with Christ, or had a small taste of his love, you would forget all about your own comfort and welcome the enmity of others. To love Christ is to know how little one deserves to be loved. A person who loves Christ, also loves truth. Such a one has a well-developed spiritual life and is in charge of his emotions and appetites. Such a one can turn to God at any moment and, by rising above himself, be filled with spiritual peace.”
According to “Imitation”, “blessed are the ears that can catch divine whisperings but ignore world murmurings”. Truth speaks to us “without the need for words”. [19]
It is not possible to totally separate oneself from divinity, for the sacred world is part of our essence. Jorge Luis Borges wrote that we try to escape from cosmic consciousness because, if we would look into it too close, it would annihilate us. In fact, as we contemplate universal truth, our small superficial view of life disappears. The feeling we experience is then at the same time one of happiness through the perception of infinite life, and one of pain, for the loss of that psychological world which is made of attachments.
Divine inspiration can be attained any time. We all have access to spiritual light. We were born in it and are still guided by it. However, it is not necessarily easy to recognize its presence.
The book “Taoist Meditation”, a compilation made by Thomas Cleary, says:
“The spiritual light of basic nature has no creation or destruction, no increase or decrease. Even though it be tightly covered for a long time, one flash of the spiritual light can extinguish a thousand evils and give birth to ten thousand virtues. As long as you keep the spiritual light always present, how are you different from sages? Some ask how to keep the spiritual light always present. It seems essential to be respectful. Only by respecting it can the spiritual light be kept always present. Carefulness and caution are certainly respect; industriousness is also respect. When you are respectful, you do not entertain fantasies, you do not slip into oblivion, and you do not dwell in fullness. This seem to be essential to presence of mind, guidelines for self-cultivation.” [20]
Awareness of the divine presence requires preparation. The main condition is a gradual but irreversible renunciation to selfish actions and thoughts. The spiritual path shows the uselessness of egotistical goals, and it teaches at the same time how to be confident about life. The truth-seeker gives up superficial self-esteem in the same moment and rhythm as he makes direct contact with the divine essence in his heart. He leaves personal pride aside as he feels a serene respect for the divine life within himself. The final abandonment of all self-centred feelings coincides with supreme spiritual enlightenment. And the absence of worry about oneself does not mean the individual will be careless while crossing the street, or that he will not reasonably protect his physical health. The sage lives in the cosmos and uses the necessary common sense in daily life.
A truth-seeker must know that, in order to make room in his life to the practice of divine presence, he has to eliminate personal complications one by one.
An ancient Taoist treatise says:
“…Nothing is better for people who cultivate the Way than to resolutely simplify things. Discern whether they are inessential or essential, assess whether they are trivial or serious, distinguish whether to eliminate them or take to them. Whatever is not essential and not serious should be abandoned. (….) Those who arrive at the truth of life do not strive for anything that has nothing to do with life. (….) Possessions have an injurious energy, which hurts people when it builds up. Even if you have few possessions, you will still worry about them; how much the more when you have a lot!” [21]
Many would like to know more about divine intelligences; few take objective steps to live in communion with Them.
In order to start gaining experience in the practice of divine presence, there are at least three possibilities.
* First, we can meditate upon and constantly remember one of the great teachers of mankind, like Buddha, Pythagoras, Jesus or Francis of Assisi, among others. The basic condition is that the chosen sage must be a deep source of inspiration for us. One must be vigilant and make sure that the voluntary personification of the practice does not make it narrow, and does not allow it to become a sort of “imaginary personal devotion”. From the practical point of view, the teachers of humanity are but mirrors reflecting our sacred potentialities.
* Second, one can firmly visualize one’s own immortal soul. It is always next to us. It guides and protects us, and its substance is pure spirituality. This practice elevates us while keeping our feet firmly on the ground. Our own higher self, which is impersonal, constitutes in fact the great bridge between our conscious, thinking personality and the divine world.
* A third possibility is to visualize the eternal time and infinite space, perceiving that we are part of such unlimited space-time. This exercise can be done as proposed by Helena Blavatsky in her Diagram of Meditation. Its effects are extremely beneficial and include inner calm, detachment and full attention.
Once the choice is made, and the procedure defined as to how we will visualize the divine presence, the second step is to remember of the presence in every possible moment of the daily life, and to act in accordance with it. Whenever our mind has a moment of liberty, instead of getting distracted with any object we should remember the divine presence in our heart and mind, or next to us.
Such a visualization opens horizons. That which is really divine is beyond all form and any thought, but the practice of divine presence is a way to awaken our consciousness to the continuous perception of the sacred and infinite life of which we are part.
The act of living as if we were in the silent presence of a great being and remembering that we are immersed in Universal Law has potentially revolutionary effects. Through it we may have access to inspiration coming from higher forms of intelligence.
Followers of different religions practice the remembrance of divine presence. In fact, every prayer presupposes a dialogue between the mortal world and a divine presence. As you pray, talking to a divine being, your spiritual soul is involved in the process and you can feel a higher presence. The possibility exists that this non-verbal dialogue becomes continuous. If you make of your whole life a prayer, you will remember at every moment that a divinity observes your thoughts, feelings and actions; and you will be able to make commitments with your source of inspiration. Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote, in a text dedicated to the supreme universal principle:
“Life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body pure, knowing that thy living touch is upon all my limbs. I shall ever to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind. I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my love in flower, knowing that thou has thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart. And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions, knowing it is thy power gives me strength to act.” [22]
As other independent thinkers, Tagore challenged ritualistic dogmas. He raised an important point: because we can have direct access to the divine presence, the temples of religious bureaucracies have no real importance.
Tagore wrote:
“Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee! He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!” [23]
According to esoteric philosophy, it is not in the routine of ceremonial procedures that one can find the most authentic of divine energies. Writing in the 15th century, Indian poet and sage Kabir ascribed a few lines to God in one of his poems, and made the divine presence say to its seeker:
“O Servant, where dost thou seek Me? Lo! I am beside thee. I am neither in temple nor in mosque: I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash: Neither am I in rites or ceremonies, nor in Yoga and renunciation. If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me: thou shalt meet Me in a moment of time.” [24]
Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) was another practitioner of the divine presence. She taught the mystical exercise with these words:
“We need to find God and God cannot be found in noise and restlessness. We cannot place ourselves directly in God’s presence without imposing upon ourselves interior and exterior silence. That is why we must accustom ourselves to stillness of the soul, of the eyes, of the tongue. There is no life of prayer without silence. (…) Then you can hear God everywhere: in the closing of the door, in the person who needs you, in the birds that sing, in the flowers, the animals – that silence which is wonder and praise. The contemplatives and ascetics of all ages and religions have sought God in the silence and solitude of the desert, forest, and mountain.”[25]
The divine presence can be experienced while observing a plant as its leaves are touched by the wind. It may be seen in the eyes of a poor child; in any anonymous action of selfless help; or in the joy of a dog wagging its tail as a way of expressing friendly feelings. It is also in the brightness of stars and in the progress of galaxies through sky. It enables us to love and awakens in us a natural need to have respect for truth and justice.
The divine presence is the center of peace in our hearts. It constitutes the source of inspiration for our mankind to build in the near future a civilization of brotherhood. The silent and secret Presence makes us search for happiness.
NOTES:
[1] “The Golden Verses of Pythagoras and Other Pythagorean Fragments”, fragments selected by Florence M. Firth, Kessinger Publishing Co., Montana, EUA. See p. 48 (items 58 and 67).
[2] “The Golden Verses of Pythagoras and Other Pythagorean Fragments”, fragments selected by Florence M. Firth, see p. 45 (items 17 and 22).
[3] “The Golden Verses of Pythagoras and Other Pythagorean Fragments”, p. 21, paragraph 79.
[4] “The Golden Verses of Pythagoras and Other Pythagorean Fragments”, p. 25, paragraph 13.
[5] The article “A Psychoanalysis of Religions” is available at our associated websites. In Portuguese language, its title is “A Psicanálise das Religiões” and it is chapter 11 of the book “Três Caminhos Para a Paz Interior”, Ed. Teosófica, Brasília, 2002.
[6] “The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett”, TUP, Pasadena, USA, Appendix II, Cosmological Notes, Item 22, p. 382. These Notes are also published in “The Mahatma Letters”, Chronological Edition, TPH, Philippines.
[7] “The Practice of the Presence of God”, Conversations and Letters of Brother Lawrence, Oneworld Publications, UK/USA, 1993, 79 pp.
[8] “The Practice of the Presence of God”, p. 4.
[9] “The Practice of the Presence of God”, p. 9.
[10] See p. 11.
[11] See p. 13.
[12] Page 15.
[13] Pages 24-25.
[14] “The ‘Secret Doctrine’ and its Study”, H.P. Blavatsky, Notes taken by P. G. Bowen, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, a 6-page pamphlet, see pp. 4-5.
[15] “Diagram of Meditation”, in “The Inner Group Teachings of H.P. Blavatsky”, a volume compiled by H. Spierenburg, Point Loma Publications, 1985, San Diego, California, USA, see p. 130.
[16] “The Secret Doctrine”, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, volume I, p. 280.
[17] “Meditations”, Marcus Aurelius, in Encyclopaedia Britannica Great Books, Lucretius-Epictetus-Marcus Aurelius, Book III, item 16, pp. 262-263.
[18] Plato in “Phaedrus”, [249], Encyclopaedia Britannica Great Books, “The Dialogues of Plato”, 1952, p. 126.
[19] “The Imitation of Christ”, Thomas À Kempis, Translated by P. G. Zomberg, Dunstan Press, USA, 1984, 250 pp., see p. 55. On the divine voice, see the opening paragraphs of the Book Three (pp. 85-86). On this work by Thomas À Kempis, see the article “The Imitation of Christ”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline, at our associated websites.
[20] “Taoist Meditation”, translated by Thomas Cleary, Shambhala, 2000, 130 pp., see p. 62.
[21] “Taoist Meditation”, translated by Thomas Cleary, Shambhala, 2000, 130 pp., see pp. 87-88.
[22] “Gitanjali”, Rabindranath Tagore, Macmillan India, 1994, first edition 1913, 72 pp., see text IV, p. 3.
[23] “Gitanjali”, Macmillan India, 1994, text XI, pp. 6-7.
[24] “One Hundred Poems of Kabir”, translation into English by Rabindranath Tagore, Macmillan and Co., London/Calcutta, 1954. See p. 01.
[25] “Everything Starts from Prayer”, Mother Teresa, Selected and Arranged by Anthony Stern, M.D., White Cloud Press, Oregon, USA, 141 pp., see pp. 18-22.
000
The above article is translated from Chapter 18 of the book “Três Caminhos Para a Paz Interior”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline, Ed. Teosófica, Brasília, 2002, 191 pages. See pp. 161-177. The chapter is entitled “A Prática da Presença Divina”.
000
In September 2016, after a careful analysis of the state of the esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students decided to form the Independent Lodge of Theosophists, whose priorities include the building of a better future in the different dimensions of life.
000