Establishing the Source
And Foundation of Honesty
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
“… Remember that fear can be conquered.
Know that you are capable of courage and that you
are designed to succeed – that’s half the battle. Then
go full throttle, and the odds will be on your side.”
(Donald J. Trump)
1. An Ability to Be Honest
How important is loyalty along the path to wisdom?
No quality can exist in isolation. The different personal characteristics flow together, interacting with each other. Spiritual qualities are like birds that fly together.
No one is loyal just because he decided on a certain day to be sincere and constant. Honesty is like the sunlight: it basically radiates in every direction.
Loyalty to others arises from loyalty to oneself. It emerges from one’s ability to be honest with his own conscience. Because the foundation of the honesty to other people is one’s connection with his own higher self.
Therefore, the strength of one’s loyalty directly depends on his relationship with his spiritual soul.
In theosophy as in all aspects of life, loyalty to common principles, to shared ideals and goals makes it possible for deep bonds of cooperation and mutual help to exist among people. This fact is largely independent from the realm of appearances. Let’s look at the example of Donald J. Trump, who does not present himself as a yogi and never wrote about Helena Blavatsky.
Trump says:
“The thing that’s most important to me is loyalty. You can’t hire loyalty. I’ve had people over the years who I swore were loyal to me, and it turned out that they weren’t. Then I’ve had people that I didn’t have the same confidence in and turned out to be extremely loyal. So you never really know. The thing I really look for though, over the longer term, is loyalty.” [1]
Loyal persons tend to have a degree of humility. They are simple people: they have spiritual lucidity and the ability to be true friends.
In the case of the theosophical movement, the degree of loyalty and sincerity of the person expresses the extent to which he is capable of directly living the teaching, or makes it clear that he simply admires its literature, with little relationship between what he reads and speaks, and what he lives.
Each truth-seeker must regularly examine himself in this aspect and in other aspects as well. Everyone can improve. Success depends on integrity. Courage is necessary. If there is persistence, progress will be constant, towards the light and the highest. However, true progress is often invisible and imperceptible, and for a long time there may be no outward signs of it.
2. Loyalty to Your Own Decisions
If you want to deserve victory, you must start by being loyal to your own conscience.
That is the foundation of the process, and loyalty to oneself needs several different things. Among other factors, you have to be loyal to your own decisions.
Let us ask ourselves:
“How many theosophists make elegant collections of beautiful spiritual ideas, and how many among them actually apply such ideas to daily life?”
There is an oceanic difference between the two things.
“Theosophist is, who theosophy does”, writes Helena Blavatsky on page 20 of her book “The Key to Theosophy”.[2]
The idea is decisive and constitutes a true axiom. However, it is often also not an easy thing to do. In order to consistently act according to the theosophical ideal one also has to purify, educate and train his own will, a task which may demand quite some time – and effort.
In one of his books, Donald J. Trump writes that one must learn to be “a doer, not a dreamer”.
Trump adds:
“Passion is more important than brains or talent. I have seen some really talented, brainy people fail because of lack of passion. They are what I call ‘idea people’. You have probably seen them, too. They always seem to have great new ideas they are thinking about doing someday – but they never do anything about them.”
“The ideas always stay in their heads and never get in their hearts. Without heart the ideas fizzle out fast. Ideas themselves are light and fluffy. They need tremendous passion to make them into concrete, stone and glass. You have to bring your ideas down to earth. Take your ideas and add the weight of passion to them as soon as possible before they disappear into thin air. Passion is the magic ingredient that zaps you with the fierce drive for completion of every endeavor. I have seen less-talented people propel themselves to great success on high-octane passion. You must have it to compete and thrive in this world” [3]
H.P. Blavatsky confessed in writing during the nineteenth century the complete failure of a large number of the students of theosophy who were aspirants to discipleship. More than one century later, we can and must ask ourselves: why were they defeated?
They started with the best of intentions, but failed miserably at the beginning of action, because they did not have the willpower that was necessary to attain their goals in self-training.
The practical lesson to be learned in our century is simple.
The deficit in purification and education of the will among theosophists and citizens of good will must be eliminated, and the truth-seekers have to become “doers” as well as “dreamers”, before the theosophical movement can duly fulfil its mission.
3. Loyalty Requires Courage
There is a strong inner relation between attachment to personal comfort, and the feeling of fear. The two things are inseparable.
You are fearful of losing your comfort if you stand up for justice. You are fearful of losing your friend as soon as you tell him what you really think. From fear comes an excessive prudence. From cautiousness insincerity is born. Insincerity opens the door to hypocrisy, and the person then becomes a whited sepulchre.
On the other hand, loyalty to one’s own spiritual soul and loyalty to one’s supreme goals both require courage. No one can seek the truth unless he speaks the truth. He who is afraid of being sincere needs to strengthen his courage and educate his will, so that he finds the path to sincerity.
As we shall see later, a master of the wisdom defined true theosophists as warriors of truth, not as worshippers of personal comfort. According to the Mahatmas, the journey of the truth-seeker is the journey of the hero.
It is wise to keep silent, if silence is necessary to remain sincere. In most situations it is correct to speak frankly only if frankness will be accepted; but one must know that in the absence of sincerity there can be no mutual trust and no friendship is possible, much less any efficient cooperation.
The feeling of friendship requires frankness. But frankness can only flow in harmony when at least three conditions exist. First, the one who speaks must have the courage to be sincere. Second, the one who listens must have the courage to accept sincerity. Third, the goal (as well as the mind) of the people involved must be pure and noble, and focused on sacred topics.
He who is honest with himself tends to be honest with others. The light of truth usually shines in all directions, although some people may keep their eyes closed.
Every liar must lie to himself before he lies to others. As a result he loses his sense of reality, and no longer knows where exactly he is standing. Humans are mirrors to each other.
Falsehood towards others is inseparable from inner falsehood towards oneself: as a result, the Judases hate themselves.
However, sincerity is not an easy path. Anyone who is sincere needs wisdom and common sense. Parents cannot say everything they think to a child, for they will not be understood. In the adult world, one must be careful regarding the childishness of those with whom one speaks.
The effective way to be sincere consists in developing one’s purity of thoughts and feelings first. Despicable thoughts and feelings must be rejected at the root. Self-purification and constant self-vigilance form the basis of the daily practice of sincerity.
Generally speaking, as long as your feelings and thoughts are elevated and good, you can be utterly sincere. And yet you will irritate many. Sincerity often mortally offends those who have chosen hypocrisy: but when this takes place, the honest individual is not at fault. The hypocrite often suffers and becomes irritated when he sees moral integrity at work, because this is a clear sign that he has failed.
The theosophical path teaches us that elevating oneself in thought is indispensable, yet it is not enough. One must also have courage, good sense and discernment. These three qualities are necessary not only to challenge organized ignorance, but to do this correctly, in a patient, effective, victorious and permanent way.
What are the prospects of the cowardly?
Every coward has a task before him: to strengthen his will. With a firm will pointing to a valuable goal, cowardice disappears, self-confidence arises, loyalty is born, and the person becomes fully capable of seeking the truth and following the spiritual path.
The cowardly individual of today is the courageous pilgrim of tomorrow. Timidity constitutes the childish phase of the future warrior. A lack of frankness is the temporary absence of confidence in life and of faith in oneself. Three sisters exist therefore who are not eternal, but only temporary: Cowardice, Falsehood and Disloyalty.
4. Four Items from the Golden Stairs
In the Mahatma Letters one reads these words on the process of learning theosophy:
“Courage then, you all, who would be warriors of the one divine Verity; keep on boldly and confidently; husband your moral strength not wasting it upon trifles but keeping it against great occasions (…).” [4]
The above recommendation is not an isolated fact in theosophical literature. We find these four items among the most important steps of the Golden Stairs of esoteric philosophy:
* A courageous endurance of personal injustice,
* A brave declaration of principles,
* A valiant defence of those who are unjustly attacked, and
* A constant eye to the ideal of human progression and perfection. [5]
Courage is necessary in every aspect of life, and Donald Trump has written about this virtue.
“Courage means never giving up”, he said. “It’s much easier to give up, and that’s exactly what losers do. Being knocked down is one thing – staying down is another. Some very ordinary people have accomplished remarkable things by simply being persistent and never giving up. Abraham Lincoln is a good example – his courage made him extraordinary.”
A few lines later, Trump remembers:
“Hemingway wrote the now familiar phrase: ‘Courage is grace under pressure.’ Think about it. Some days we are faced with challenges that we’d rather not have to deal with, but we get up and deal with them anyway. That’s courage. It requires a certain poise. Maybe it’s not heroic, maybe every day isn’t going to bring a calamitous situation, but it’s an example of bravery that we can all understand.”
“Self-confidence is a component of courage that we all need. Sometimes we need a push in the right direction.” [6]
And Trump clarifies that courage must be combined with positive thoughts and feelings:
“Another important thing about courage is that it will help you think and act in the right way. It will help you focus on the opportunities in front of you instead of on the problems. Problems are often opportunities coming at us in packaging that isn’t what we expect or want. This has happened to me more times than I can count. So when I say I welcome problems, there’s a reason for it. Keep your mind flexible and open to creative solutions to your problems. Einstein said, ‘You can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that created the problem’. That’s a good way to avoid brain cramps as well as find a solution.”
“… Remember that fear can be conquered. Know that you are capable of courage and that you are designed to succeed – that’s half the battle. Then go full throttle, and the odds will be on your side.” [7]
Every pilgrim must adequately manage that valuable courage which allows him to be loyal to his highest goals, as well as honest with the voice of his own conscience, and sincere with his fellow men.
NOTES:
[1] From the book “Think Big”, by Donald J. Trump and Bill Zanker, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, USA, copyright 2007, 367 pages, see p. 308.
[2] “The Key to Theosophy”, by HPB.
[3] From the book “Think Big”, by Donald J. Trump and Bill Zanker, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, USA, copyright 2007, 367 pages, see pp. 46-47.
[4] Letter 55, page 322, in “The Mahatma Letters”.
[5] “The Golden Stairs”. See also “Commentaries to the Golden Stairs”.
[6] “Never Give Up”, by Donald J. Trump, with Meredith McIver, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., copyright 2008 Trump University, New Jersey, USA, 180 pages, see pp. 54-55.
[7] “Never Give Up”, by Donald J. Trump., see p. 56.
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The article “Loyalty and Courage Lead to Victory” was published by the websites of the Independent Lodge of Theosophists on 16 October 2024. An initial version of it, with no indication of the name of the author, is part of the August 2024 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, pp. 1-6.
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Read more:
* Give Your Higher Self a Chance (by Donald J. Trump).
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Helena Blavatsky (photo) wrote these revealing words: “Deserve, then desire”.
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