In Search of the Miraculous

good or evil, has at all events been at a school. He has learned something, has heard

something, knows something. He is simply a 'half-educated man' who has either been

turned out of a school or who has himself left a school having decided that he already

knows enough, that he does not want to be in subordination any longer, and that he

can work independently and even direct the work of others. All 'work' of this kind can

produce only subjective results, that is to say, it can only increase deception and

increase sleep instead of decreasing them. Nevertheless something can be learned

from a 'black magician' although in the wrong way. He can sometimes by accident

even tell the truth. That is why I say that there are many things worse than 'black

magic.' Such are various 'occult' and theosophical societies and groups. Not only have

their teachers never been at a school but they have never even met anyone who has

been near a school. Their work simply consists in aping. But imitation work of this

kind gives a great deal of self-satisfaction. One man feels himself to be a 'teacher,'

others feel that they are 'pupils,' and everyone is satisfied. No realization of one's

nothingness can be got here and if people affirm that they have it, it is all illusion and self-deception, if not plain deceit. On the contrary, instead of realizing their own

nothingness the members of such circles acquire a realization of their own importance

and a growth of false personality.

"At first it is very difficult to verify whether the work is right or wrong, whether the directions received are correct or incorrect. The theoretical part of the work may prove

useful in this respect, because a man can judge more easily from this aspect of it. He

knows what he knows and what he does not know. He knows what can be learned by

ordinary means

and what cannot. And if he learns something new, something that cannot be learned in

the ordinary way from books and so on, this, to a certain extent, is a guarantee that the other, the practical side, may also be right. But this of course is far from being a full guarantee because here also mistakes are possible. All occult and spiritualistic

societies and circles assert that they possess a new knowledge. And there are people

who believe it.

"In properly organized groups no faith is required; what is required is simply a little trust and even that only for a little while, for the sooner a man begins to verify all he hears the better it is for him.

"The struggle against the 'false I,' against one's chief feature or chief fault, is the most important part of the work, and it must proceed in deeds, not in words. For this

purpose the teacher gives each man definite tasks which require, in order to carry them

out, the conquest of his chief feature. When a man carries out these tasks he struggles

with himself, works on himself. If he avoids the tasks, tries not to carry them out, it

means that either he does not want to or that he cannot work.

"As a rule only very easy tasks are given at the beginning which the teacher does

not even call tasks, and he does not say much about them but gives them in the form of

hints. If he sees that he is understood and that the tasks are carried out he passes on to more and more difficult ones.

"More difficult tasks, although they are only subjectively difficult, are called

'barriers.' The peculiarity of barriers consists in the fact that, having surmounted a

serious barrier, a man can no longer return to ordinary sleep, to ordinary life. And if,

having passed the first barrier, he feels afraid of those that follow and does not go on, he stops so to speak between two barriers and is unable to move either backwards or

forwards. This is the worst thing that can happen to a man. Therefore the teacher is

usually very careful in the choice of tasks and barriers, in other words, he takes the

risk of giving definite tasks requiring the conquest of inner barriers only to those

people who have already shown themselves sufficiently strong on small barriers.

"It often happens that, having stopped before some barrier, usually the smallest and the most simple, people turn against the work, against the teacher, and against other

members of the group, and accuse them of the very thing that is becoming revealed to

them in themselves.

"Sometimes they repent later and blame themselves, then they again blame others,

then they repent once more, and so on. But there is nothing that shows up a man better

than his attitude towards the work and the teacher after he has left it. Sometimes such tests are arranged intentionally. A man is placed in such a position that he is obliged to leave and he is fully justified in having a grievance either against the teacher or against some other person. And then he is watched to see how he will behave. A decent man

will behave decently even if he thinks that he has been

treated unjustly or wrongly. But many people in such circumstances show a side of