Valentina: ...God bless you, Danny. It is a late Tuesday morning, but I am very aware of the vibrations of the early morning, and I am going to transmit them to you.
...Not at any time are enmities appeased here on earth through enmity; hostility through hostility, but they are appeased through non-enmity, through non-hostility. This is the Eternal Law....
So this is a very simple axiom, is it not? Should be, but apparently it is an axiom only when it is realized. When it is simply theorized, it is a mechanical slogan. Danny, we have to use these morning meditations for our spiritual food, getting into contact with the Infinite Wisdom. Then this is a great benefit, not only for us, but for everybody, for if one realizes some Truth or all Truth, it is benefitting everyone else. All Truth, Christ realized; some Truth, the prophets. Buddha̓s Truth is the Truth too. You can see that the centuries go, that millennium goes but their influence remains... but it is not because of the simple axiom which they utter, but it is because of what they are when they are uttering it.
...Not at any time are enmities appeased here through enmities; hostility through hostility; hatred through hatred, but they are appeased through non-enmity. This is the Eternal Law....
What is the opposite to hostility and hatred, Danny?
Student: Love, Guru,
Valentina: Right, Danny, Love is. So this is the Pathway of Truth - Love, and it is open to every single human being, in any possible circumstance. It does not need any dictionary, it does not need any erudition. I asked you, “What is the opposite of hatred?” You did not have to look it up in the dictionary, you just said, “Love.” So it is very clear. There is such thing as the Law of Love which is the only thing which appeases, .destroys and transforms ugliness, of which hatred is the ugliest.
Now, can one have Love to something which is very obviously full of hatred and diabolical? That̓s just the question, right?
Student: Yes, Guru.
Valentina: Okay, Danny, I will tell you. One can have Love. Eliminate the second part, just “have Love.” You cannot direct your Love to something which is opposite to Love, - that̓s impossible, but you have to substitute it with one of the ingredients of Love, and it is either compassion or pity. In the case of something which is very absurd, extremely harmful and very ugly, it should be pity. How about disgust? Could that be part of Love? What do you think?
Student: Well, the background would be Love, Guru, and then disgust would just be surface.
Valentina: Well, that, and also disgust is like a broom which sweeps the dirt. Definitely it is backed by the endurance of Love. There are very horrible things in this dual universe - very, very, very, very horrible, but they can be swept away. They cannot be transformed, because they are decay; decay cannot be transformed, only that which has some health can. But this can be at least swept away. Shall we say that destruction could take part in Love? What do you think?
Student: Yes, Guru.
Valentina: Sure, just like fire̓s heat is the propensity of Fire. [Referring to personal instructions to a student] There are many ways to sweep away the things which are no material for evolution, and that does not contradict Love, as you said, - its background. This is the Durga element of Love. The fact remains, however, that only when there is that root of Love, which is the Eternal Law according to the Lord, the hostility can be removed either by sweeping it away, or, if there be any sense left, by transforming it through the force of Love.
How can we cultivate this background of Love and, consequently, love in action, love in consciousness? Danny, the only way is to take seriously the spiritual food which you receive. Because like a beautiful body of a gymnast or a dancer or a sportsman is developed day after day through training, even so there should be a daily exercise to develop your mind, consequently your intuition, and consequently your Love-consciousness. When you acquire Love-consciousness, the rest is easy. Then follows spiritual development automatically; Love-consciousness alone can transform your environment and other people, can heal, illumine, lead, redeem, conquer - everything.... Amen....
Student: Thank You, Guru.
(May 4, 1982 Tues. Morning)
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May 5, 2010
[Humorously, when Danny answers the phone: “Ashram, Danny speaking.”]
Valentina: Yes, “Ashram,” yes, Danny, God bless you!...
...Some who are not wise (literal translation - who are not learned, but it is not intellectual learning, but it is the learning of the Soul - S-V), - so those who are not learned or wise do not know that we must all come to an end here (that is to say, man lives in false imaginations, in complete oblivion of Reality, in taking the unreal for the Real, and the Real for the unreal, and so this is ignorance - S-V). But those who know, their dissensions cease at once by their knowledge.
That also means that the ignorant do not know that here we must restrain ourselves. Yama... Yama means the god of Death and also the art of self-restraining, so it has the deep meaning that we have to know that all comes to an end, that is to say, Yama is the final end of the visible Universe and, therefore, we have to get acquainted with the Invisible, and also we have to restrain ourselves. It is a play of words. So now without my intervening, I shall reread this sloka.
...Those who are not learned, (who are not wise) do not know that we must all come to an end here. But those who know, their dissensions cease at once by their knowledge.
As the wind throws down a tree of little strength, so indeed does Mara, the Tempter, overthrow him who lives, looking for indulgences, who is uncontrolled in his animal nature, immoderate in eating, indolent and of low vitality.
Mara is the Tempter. It is similar in Buddhist terminology to the Devil of Christians.. It is the evil spirit which deceives and misleads man, making his Path very difficult, sorrowful. It is the power for evil which makes for all kinds of troubles and for death.
It sounds, for a person who is on the lowest rung of spiritual awakening, as something pessimistic, because such a man lives only in indulgences, precisely, and is like an ostrich who is hiding his head in the sand and wants just to know nothing. But those who are even slightly awakened understand that it is not pessimistic, but it is realistic, and that it only shows us that if we are acting in harmony with the Will of the Supreme Law, then we are improving ourselves, then our lives become, in all respects, harmonious and then we are helping others and saving ourselves from misery. But when we use destructively our life, we, of course, hurt ourselves, first of all, completely retard our development and waste 41 possibilities to influence the mankind correctly.
Now, Danielle, when is it that we turn away from Truth mostly, and when we use the Divine Sakti destructively?
Student: When we want our own gain?
Valentina: In what way?
Student: In the sense of I-ness?
Valentina: When we want to have our own way in sense indulgences? Or what?
Student: I guess the ego, Guru.
Valentina: Well, definitely the ego, but there is a precise sign when we use the Divine Sakti destructively. You see, the Divine Energy is energy, and you can use it as a life force or as a death force. As a death force we use it when we think wrongly or talk wrongly or fear or limit ourselves, even when we grumble or when we have acute self-pity, or when we indulge in useless negative recollections. You see, that Mara, that Tempter, or in the parlance of the blessed Dobrotolubye, the demons, the dark force, - it is a very concrete force. Every single human being (and you too) know that sometimes you are overwhelmed by the attacks of pessimism. Does it happen with you?
Student: Yes, Guru.
Valentina: It has to come from this Tempter. In this we are not at fault. Dobrotolubye, who is so austere and ever-ready to blame the aspirant for weaknesses, in this respect, totally justifies the aspirant. He is not at fault when Mara, or the Tempter, or the demons are bringing that pessimism upon him. Then come all kinds of recollections, perhaps breast-beating, feeling yourself unworthy, and then great pity for yourself, and then grudges, and then criticism, and then feeling that other people are doing just the thing which they don̓t have to do and which disgusts you, - all those things happen to everybody. Okay, that’s not our fault, that̓s brought from the world mind stuff through the, definitely, unclean spirit.
Where does our self-destruction start? It starts when we do not struggle against it, when we become passive, when we allow it to overwhelm us and then start indulging in it. That̓s the most sad thing. That it happens - okay, - not that it is very pleasant, but that it is unavoidable. This is the play of forces and they try to put their net of stink upon saint and sinner, on everybody, everywhere. But here we are tested, and here is again the Blessed Lord Buddha, when He says that “as the wind throws down a tree of little strength, so indeed does Mara, the Tempter, overthrow him who is uncontrolled, who looks for indulgences, who is immoderate. And, indeed, as the wind does not throw down a rocky mountain, so Mara, indeed, does not overthrow him who lives free from indulgences, well-controlled in his senses, moderate and full of faith in Buddha, in Dhamma and in Sanga,” that is to say, Buddha, the Law and the Community, Buddhist Order.
So these are the profoundest statements of absolute facts. It is descriptive. And Buddha again and again emphasizes that the greatest reality in this world is character. There is nothing greater and nothing more precious. So our destruction starts when we are lacking in character. We can be beat, we can be shaken, we can be slapped by Mara and really laughed upon by her, - all this happens, but she has no power to overthrow us. We are not that kind of a tree which she can bend, break and throw out from evolution. That̓s the difference between those who are using their own energy, destructively, whenever they allow to prolong the idle talk, the insensible panic, the limitation, - rub in everything which is not right, and these who, although suffer from intrusion, but overthrow it.
There are many ways of self-destruction and giving yourself to Mara, but the greatest temptation is to use the Divine Sakti, given to us by the Almighty (for everyone has this Energy in himself), in feelings of hatred, or in criticism, in condemnation of others; that is the most horrible thing, because it will be thrown back to us in suffering. Bitterness, resentment, holier-than-thou, self-righteousness, self-justification, - these are the sure methods to put yourself in the arms of Mara. And this causes a horrible zig-zag in mankind in general. That̓s why we have those indescribably horrifying wars, destructions, maniacs of hatred around the leaderships and whatnot. And that̓s why the opposite to this, the spiritual giants, always insist upon the need of total unselfishness in motive, the ability to forgive everything and everybody, but never to justify, which Is a great art, - also forgive ourselves but not justify our mistakes, and to cultivate the general peace and goodwill. This is the way we overpower Mara. Amen.
Student: Thank You, Guru.
(May 5, 1982 Wed. Morning)