Victory Must Be Seen With Humbleness
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
* Whenever the obstacles before you seem to be too many or too challenging, confirm in the first place whether you have enough detachment regarding short-term events. Then, expand your inner connection with the unlimited source of peace in your soul.
* Suppose the stimuli coming from the external world multiply. What should we do if constantly changing circumstances make it harder to listen to our conscience? The answer is in strengthening our priorities. A focussed mind grants us liberty, and self-discipline is a profound blessing.
* Perhaps it sounds like boring to remember it every day, but controlling oneself is better than controlling others. The first step to improve the world is in improving oneself. One’s example is a stronger teaching than one’s words, and true peace can only be found within.
* “Deserve, then desire”, wrote Helena Blavatsky. Before making the harvest, one must sow that which one desires. True results come after the causes are set into motion – not before – and victory must be looked at humbly.
* That which cannot be expressed in a few words often does not deserve to be said at all. The brevity of speech preserves one’s connection to silence, and silence expands the meaning of the words said.
Socratic Questions to Oneself
* At any moment a pilgrim can expand his horizon while avoiding attachment to automatic and blind action. It is useful to ask himself a few questions: Do I act in accordance with my highest ideal and decisions? Am I using my vital energies in the best way I can? Do I humbly listen to my conscience?
* As we concentrate on our duty, it is wise to keep external events at a reasonable distance emotionally. One’s average interaction with the world ought to be moderate. “And how exactly can one do that?” Each pilgrim must follow his own discernment.
* From the point of view of the pilgrim who wants to learn theosophy and ethics from every situation, there is an evolutionary value in having to face excessive noise, physical or mental. Confusing circumstances force us to become innerly stronger before life. One’s will gets firmer by facing consistent obstacles.
* While confronting unfavourable conditions, we expand our determination to tread the path. Easy victories are easy to dismantle: hard-won progress can endure a long time. On the other hand, real victories are often invisible to the eyes of the many.
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“Thoughts Along the Road – 47” was published as an independent text on 07 July 2020. An initial version of it, with no indication as to the name of the author, is included in “The Aquarian Theosophist”, April 2019 edition, p. 13. (There was no “Thoughts Along the Road” in the February 2019 and March 2019 editions.)
The note “Socratic Questions to Oneself”, included in the present article, is on p. 04 of the Aquarian, April 2019 edition, and was also written by CCA.
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See other writings of Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
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