Masters of Compassion

The title of my talk for this morning is Masters of Compassion.

Now, when we think of compassion, many of us have, I would say, rather varying ideas and attitudes relating to that word.

Some of us perhaps think of compassion more as pity some of us think of compassion as being more objective rather than involved with something indeed when I have asked various people what compassion means to them I've been interested to discover that usually almost everyone speaks of his or her own need yearning or sometimes failure failure to comprehend or inability to feel a certain something and therefore it's not quite understandable for example think how often we have heard certain criticisms made of some of the things that jesus had to say like when he said do Do good to them that despitefully use you.

And love your enemies.

Of course, with most of us, that is those of us who have had enemies, has anyone here never had an enemy?

I confess to having had an enemy or two.

However, those of us who have had enemies or who have felt that we have one, to our emotions it was real, whether it was real or not in other ways.

Surely we know that the hardest thing in the world to do is to feel benevolent towards anyone who we feel or figure has wished us ill or has attempted to do us ill, or who has attempted to do ill to someone near and dear to us. I think it's harder there yet, if it's a child or someone very close that is when we have the most difficult time in feeling benevolent towards a person I must confess that that's one area I still watch myself because if it comes to anyone criticizing me well I figure that's their right it doesn't seem very important but for example what do you think would happen to you if you criticized my Jacob. You see, I would become very indignant and yet what, that's a mild term, and yet what would have called this forth, this emotion? You see, the whole point I'm trying to make is that if we want to understand compassion, which we want to and try to understand together here at least, then we'll be able to better discuss what the masters of compassion are and what they are not.

It will help us to relieve ourselves of some of our misconceptions and perhaps help us to develop a certain quality in our natures more fully than we have had in the past. Now, one of the things we want to bear in mind is that compassion is not maudlin sentimentality, or more than sentimental pitying. As a matter of fact, pity is not compassion. We can have pity quite often on many creatures.

We can have pity regarding people. But compassion is a much larger something because, Kabbalistically speaking, compassion is involved with the depth of memory that the higher self has in other words your higher self my higher self which really is one in the self capital S there is a type of memory that is never lost and this is the memory of all experience which has brought us the understanding which has brought us the wisdom which has brought us the growth growth, which has brought us the capacity to know, to be, to feel, to think even. This memory, and on the Qabalistic tree of life, incidentally, it's assigned to that blue Sephirah. Sephirah, remember, means a divine emanation. It is a sphere of activity. It is therefore a sphere of the activity of qualities of consciousness, both divine and human, because because one is not separate from the other. One is, they are of the same kind, they're just different in quality and quantity, because all consciousness is basically one.

Now on this Qabalistic tree of life, that blue sephirah called mercy is assigned to the thing we call the grade of expression, the grade of attainment that relates also to masters of wisdom now what is this mirth does this mercy involve we can analyze it with some of its symbols which is always a good idea and then enter into the deeper aspects of what these symbols mean now the sphere of the activity activity of jupiter is involved and astrologically we know that jupiter is called the greater benefic jupiter is supposed to bring us good fortune of course people always think of getting a lot of money and they think of good fortune they don't realize that money is the very least of anything and a person can have all the billions of dollars in the world and be the most poverty-stricken individuals in the world as a matter of fact qabalah shows this very clearly because not Not only is that Sephirah assigned to the sphere of the activity of Jupiter, but it is also assigned, remember, to memory, therefore to the memory of the higher mind, the memory of the soul, and indeed it is the memory of the mind, the memory of the soul, it's the real riches, because memory comes from experience.

Again, we can say it is in the ability to measure the significance of our experience that we have true riches. And so the measuring intelligence is one of the terms Qabalists give this area. Let's get an idea or two about the difference that's involved. We have to know the difference between richness of heart and richness materially if we're going to understand what compassion is and is not. So let's analyze it a bit first I'll tell you a story some of you have heard this story but I'm sure you don't mind hearing it again so that those who didn't hear it can share it with us let me tell you a story that my mother told me when I was a child and her father told it to her when she was a child and his father told it to him as a matter of fact it goes right back down the line of our our Qabalistic tradition.

It is a Qabalistic story. In Qabalah, one of the terms for master wisdom is tzaddik.

And incidentally, that's the Hebrew word for Jupiter. And it really means a merciful one, a master of compassion, as a matter of fact. Now, therefore, in the Qabalistic tradition, certain stories are told. You know how Jesus taught him parables? It's because he was born of a Qabalistic family down the line of David and is a sort of you might call him a relative of mine according to dr case and believe me I do not disown him at all now this story that my mother told me had to do with itsotic she said there were two sisters lived in this very small town uh in an isolated area in the old country and one of the sisters fell upon very bad fortune because her husband died she was left a widow and not having any ability to handle the affair she lost everything so she lived in a very drafty hut and she eked out a meager existence by spinning very rough linen threads into a cloth and selling with cloth so she barely survived earning what little she could in this manner now there was a very great storm one night it was thundering it was lightning and the rain was coming down in sheets and she heard this knock on the door first she couldn't be sure it was a knock because everything rattled she went to the door and opened it and there was this very old very wet very cold man and he said daughter could you give me some hospitality could you take me in and give me a dry place to sleep and a bite to eat I am caught in the storm and she said oh holy father come in immediately oh what a terrible night for you to be out in alas I am very poor all I have is this one very hard mat but it is yours I shall gladly sleep on the bare floor because your bones are too old to be able to stand that.

And all I have is a very small portion of a loaf of bread, but I gladly give it to you and share it with you. You need it more than I do. So she gave him the little bread she had left, and he ate it. And she gave him her hard mat with the covers, and she did the best she could through the night. And in the morning, the storm had stopped. He looked at her he said daughter for your mercy for your kindness I bless you the first thing you put your hands to when I leave shall be blessed beyond measure remember what I said about the measuring intelligence beyond measure see this is expansive and stupider so she thought what a sweet blessing and she just bowed her head he left and then she said well I better get to my weaving you know after all she had to try to get enough cloth together so she could have something to eat so she sat down at her loom and she started to weave she had the spool of rough linen thread and she was weaving and weaving and weaving and weaving and discovered the thread did not go down it remained exactly the same so she kept weaving and weaving and she had masses of cloth till finally she had to stop because the call of the body comes to all mortals as we know and we have to attend to these delicate needs by going to that little private room to attend to it so since this call came she went to attend to her needs and uh when she came back she discovered the spell had been broken and now the spool had returned to normal.

Well, this woman, she had a sister, a very wealthy sister, whose husband did very well, and she excitedly told her wealthy sister about this marvelous miracle where a true exotic had come to her home. And the sister said, Now, my sister, if he should come again, you must send him immediately to me. After all, an old man like that, he will appreciate having a feather bed that's warm and a house with no draft and being fed chicken and chicken soup you know that and all the finest of food so should he come again you send him to me and the poor sister said yes you are right he would certainly have greater comfort and food and care in this manner and sure enough a few weeks later he He knocked on the door again and he asked her for hospitality and she said, Holy Father, I would gladly take you in and share all I have with you, but I have a wealthy sister who can take much better care of you than I and she would like you to come there to have her soft feather bed and to have the fine hot food that will make you feel so much better.

So he graciously bowed his head, received the instructions and he went to the rich sister's house. And the minute he knocked on the door the rich sister recognized who it was and she took him in and she gave him of the very best and she gave him the most wonderful soft feathered bed with lovely covers he really was treated like a king and when he got up in the morning he said to her my daughter for your kindness and hospitality I bless you the first thing you do after I leave shall be blessed beyond measure into the expansion of the universe and so and then he left so the rich sister thought aha that stupid sister of mine she's so dumb she doesn't know whether she's coming or going now I'm gonna go on attend to that private duty first and then I'll go and weave my gold cloth and she had this gold thread all prepared so she went and I asked my mother mama then then what happened? What happened?

And my mother shrugged her shoulders as her father had shrugged his shoulders before and his father before.

You know, shrugged her shoulders. She said, who knows? No doubt she's attending to her duties yet.

Now, now, Now, you see, there's quite a fantastic lesson involved in this delightful story, because we get such erroneous ideas as to what compassion or mercifulness really is.

Now, Kabbalistically, if we want to understand true compassion, and therefore at least to have an inkling as to what to expect from masters of compassion, So I pointed out more than sentimentality, it better go by the board.

Because you see, in order to attain to that grade, one has to previously come through the number five Sephirah, the one that is red, and it is called severity. It is also called justice.

Now, a sense of justice is something that every single master would automatically have before you could remotely think of him as a master of wisdom, because you have to have gone through this tests and trials of handling power. And as we know, one of the major things wrong in the world is the fact that almost everyone Everyone who is in public life is there for one reason only, because they have a power drive and they fight and bite and claw and cheat and they'll do anything to get that power.

And those that have the power are easily bought in order to be able to retain their power. There it's a disease this sense this need for power and those who have such an appetite certainly could not remotely understand what true compassion is because they would not yet have gone through the tests and trials that have to do with how we handle power all we have to do is look at the world to find find out how power is being handled by the ones who claw their way through anything to get it. Now, a master of compassion has been through more than one incarnation, where without having a drive for power, he or she has had to go through having the various kinds of power and have utilized that power with justice and with mercy so that it is the balance of justice and mercy as we see the red and the blue it is the balancing of justice and compassion it is the ability to recognize what is for the greater good and to act in that manner that which is for the greater good which really helps to describe at least one aspect of what a master of compassion really is we have a tendency to think that a master of compassion is one who knows how to feel sorry for all of us because we hurt you know and this is nonsense uh we have we feel sorry for children that are whooping it up because we don't give them a knife to cut themselves with I mean we feel sorry that they're crying that is but we certainly aren't in the least inclined to want to give them the knife and in the same way a master of compassion can be aware of the rest of us weeping and crying out but if we're weeping and crying out for something that is self damaging certainly we can't or shouldn't be thinking of a master of compassion sentimentally saying oh poor baby you know and I thought oh poor little one I do but that's different you know poor baby poor little one oh let's see what we can do to help the darling uh so that the darling won't cry no what a master of compassion does to help is to do exactly nothing wherever we are making all of these painful situations for ourselves you know it's the master of compassion having this great depth of wisdom when we deliberately go out to get ourselves involved in situations because we just want excitement or we're bored or we're trying to fool ourselves or kid ourselves that we want a special something mainly because it sounds exciting. The Master of Compassion has gone through enough of the lives, the tests and the trials so that there is an awareness of what the true motivation is and so a Master of compassion usually hasn't got time to waste over the infants who are going to still have a need to whoop it up in other words a parent lets children work out the excess energy in the playground you know and very happily if it rains of course they have to put up with them in the house and of course it rains and spiritually speaking a master of compassion occasionally puts up with a a little nonsense here and there, but not too much, because the Master of Compassion has this realization as to what is damaging to an individual.

And when you love, when you love, the one thing you're going to be careful about is to see to it that you do not aid and abet that which is damaging to the loved one. You see, our lack of wisdom makes us want so many things that aren't really for our benefit for example let's take the idea of security going back to the things a master wisdom knows the kind of riches a master of wisdom would have now too too many of us have the erroneous idea that security is being able to get enough money stuck away in a bank or an investments in other words we think of security as a material thing and yet as Jesus said lay Lay not up for yourself treasures where dust and moths can corrupt.

Because this is not true riches. As a matter of fact, some of the richest people in the world are the most insecure. And also the stingiest, incidentally. The more money, the more they look at a bunch of numbers in a book, you know, that says I'm worth so much, the more excited they become at trying to add numbers. And they live poverty-stricken lives basically while they excitedly read the numbers you know, ooh, two million, my God, six million ooh, I wonder, I'm going to make it a billion and then slash, hit, you know if a person is insecure and decides material things will bring the security this then becomes a temptation to step over anything and anyone ethics, morals go by the wayside and are rationalized. After all, we have to live or something like that. Some living.

Anyway, the master of wisdom has gone through enough experiences, has developed the insight and the wisdom, the knowledge, the understanding that the only security there is is in the security of self. In other words, what I feel in my heart what I feel in my spirit, in my soul. That's the only security I have. I could have $10 billion. I'd like to, incidentally. I'm not against it. Look at the nice temple we could build, you know, with stained glass tarot key windows and stained glass tree of life, you know. That would be fun. But I mean, that isn't... You see what I mean? I'm not against having it. We're talking about the appetites and what it is we consider potent or important as against what isn't. Now then, the Master Wisdom would see that there isn't anything material, that we don't have to leave. Sooner or later, you see, you could have a trillion dollars.

I don't know if anybody has it, but at least some of them act like they think they do.

You could have a trillion dollars, and sooner or later, somebody else is going to get it. Sooner or later, because we are not physically immortal. Mortal we are spiritually immortal so sooner or later we're going to either drop dead of a coronary if god is good to us or we'll go some slow route if that's the kind of karma we've earned and our soul needs it but sooner or later our soul will withdraw from the physical body and then what is it going to take with it what will it have it will have only that riches which it has really made earned the spinning and weaving of the stuff of life have I been kind have I been just have I given love have I given tenderness have I brought light whatever amount have I developed my own light have I got something to give you know you can give money and believe me sometimes money can can save a life this is true we're not saying it can't we're not underestimating the importance of you of its use for exchange what we're talking about is the evaluation and what is and is not security and therefore what we have to come to realize is that we if we give up our lives into a sort of physical material level ambitiousness we have sold ourselves we have been Judas we have sold ourselves visit what was it for six was it six pieces of silver 30 pieces you see I guess maybe that's why he was tempted it's more than 6 the 30 pieces of silver actually each and every one of us any time materialistic values make us go against our true integrity the integrity of the soul we have become, any time we do that that we have been faithless to ourselves.

We have truly sold our self, the Christ self, down the river for those pieces of silver.

Or if you want to call them green pieces of paper, what difference? This is what we have done to ourselves because the story of Jesus, remember, the story of the whole crucifixion, it's the story of the evolution of humanity. Humanity and each and every one of us are a crucified anointed one of god in various stages of our own unfoldment having to find out what counts what are we going to take with us a master of compassion has found out so completely that the only riches there is as riches of consciousness that's why the jupiter is assigned to the higher mind you know even astrologically sagittarius is the ninth house of which jupiter is the ruler and the ninth house is the higher mind religion philosophy uh long journeys and you see expanded consciousness is what it is a vast the journey of consciousness expanded extended so jupiter is the expansion Jupiter is the richness, it's the extension, but when we make the mistake of limiting it to a physical expansion, in other words, a lot of money, or a lot of whatever is worth a lot of money, physical plane, we have, because of our illusion, delusion, because of our false materialistic orientation, we have, as I said, usually sold ourselves down the river.

And the judases are really always the judases that betray their own Christhood, their own divinity. Because remember, we are, humanity is the begotten of God. We are made in the image and likeness of the Most High.

And every time we make something that is a changing and certainly non-lasting aspect of life a goal, Like, you know, I'll put in so many men, particularly, and sometimes because they're goaded by their women who have appetites that can't stop, though sometimes it's by their own ambition they're goaded. They work, say, 10, 12, 15 hours every day in order, you know, I want to make more money, I want to get more of this and more of that, and then I'll feel secure, and then all of a sudden, there they are. They find themselves in the hereafter we always hope up upstairs but you remember the story of the of the man who died and appeared at the pearly gates asking for admission into heaven and when the book of his life was investigated they hunted and hunted and they couldn't find any good deeds and they questioned him and questioned him but isn't there something you did isn't there even one thing you ever did that was a good deed and he just tried tried oh finally he remembered he once gave a nickel to a blind man and so at least they had found one good deed and saint peter went to god and said you know told god uh you know this was a case they didn't quite know what to do about him because at least they did find this one good deed there was this nickel that he'd once given and so god thought a while and he said well I'll tell you what you do you you give them back as nickel and tell them go to hell.

You know, as you remember now.

You know, in other words, what price?

You know, what price, or what do we put a price on what? That's for how much. The master of compassion, then, is not a maudlin sentimentalist. A master of compassion has reached the point where having gone through the certain previous grades of realization and awareness having gone through pain and anguish because we all do, you know every one of us in order to find out what's important having done this the master of wisdom has come to the realization recognizes thoroughly that to work 10, 12, 15 hours every day in order to be free to do other things means that you've sold those all that time down the river because finally you drop dead and then what chance did you get to perform your good deeds to expand your consciousness to aspire to work at becoming something more beautiful wiser something more in accordance with the highest ideals of the soul you see when we keep putting these things off we We don't seem to realize that we are within time and space right now.

Within our consciousness is concentrated into this strange miracle that we call time and space. And this is the gift of God. Because in timelessness, we're not going to have any opportunity to expand consciousness since it's an all-overness. But what will we have in this all-overness? Will we have the richness of our own self-awareness, full of the depth of experience, the everlasting individuality, full of beauty, how much of it will we have grown for ourselves? These are the questions. What is worthwhile?

The only worthwhile thing there is in life we finally come to recognize, and we all have to have wept quite a bit through untold numbers of incarnations to finally develop the kind of value that is able to say, for the richness of awareness, this I am grateful, to use my awareness in order to grow more awareness, more awareness of who and what I am, of the significance of life of the significance of evolution of the significance of awareness itself of senses the significance of being able to sense color to taste food to have interactions with other centers of life which is such a miracle well this I give my all if somebody offered you all the wealth in the universe if you would give up say a certain amount of your individuality or a certain amount of the richness of past experience would you be willing to do it of course not or would you the master of compassion has achieved such a feeling of unity with the rest of life that there isn't a single pain going on anywhere that isn't shared.

But it is shared in a way other than, shall we say, those of us who become too maudlin or sentimental.

Not that I'm against sentimentality, I'm talking about the maudlin sentimentality that is all wrong. For example, the only way we can really have compassion for another is to have at some time or other in past incarnations or this one, to have gone through some kind of experience where we are able to put ourselves in the other person's place. Place, do you know that it actually takes an act of imagination and an act of consciousness to put yourself in another person's place, even when it's done automatically? It's just that we've done it so often that we don't have to think about it, just like it took an act of imagination and an act of consciousness to learn how to do anything, to dress ourselves, to walk, to read, to draw, to sew, to cook, no matter what it is. Now this ability to know what another human being is feeling has with it a type of tenderness, that is to the Master of Compassion, which does not involve even the slightest desire to stop that person from having the privilege of that painful experience.

Now this may surprise you. When I first had certain impacts with Master R, I was pretty upset with him, I can tell you that. In fact, I even wondered if he was really a master of wisdom at all, let alone a master of compassion, because I had false ideas as to what compassion really is and what compassion is not. And I thought he should be feeling very sorry for me.

You know, after all, I was pretty noble and I was quite aspiring.

I was also quite young and nonsensical, but that I didn't recognize naturally, and he did. Today I marvel at the patience. That Master R did show in my connection with him.

And I marvel at the patience that Dr. Paul Foster Case showed, who was the channel for him to get us together until I attained my own ability to have my consciousness attuned to Master R. I marvel at the patience either of them had. When I think back at the nonsense and the unrealistic ideas I had as to what a master was and was not.

And, of course, today lots of people marvel at me, that I have patience about certain things.

Yes, one of my beloveds is shaking her head because she has been very impatient with me many a time, for my sake, you understand.

And I very lovingly understood it. But, for example, let's just take a little homely example or two. For example, suppose right here in the temple some member of the temple got, as we, as us young ones say today, uptight. You know, you older people have to get used to that, but I'm just barely, not quite 21, you understand, but I have to speak the lingo of my generation now. So suppose one of the members of the temple got uptight with me, quite annoyed, and made cracks against me. Now suppose another member of the temple hearing this would get very indignant, say, well which is a good thing to do, always get indignant if that happens.

But this indignation actually had a need to project itself into action and so suppose this member would come to me and say you know and that particular member said so and so and thus and thus and this and this incidentally that's happened many times yeah don't tell anybody and uh I've listened to what was said and thought well yeah I see poor darling and then I've had a frown from the precious one who's come to tell me and say what do you mean poor darling are you going to permit that to take place I said well I can't stop it well why don't you do something about it I said well those that are listening have to go through the test of whether they can be can be be pulled into such nonsense and negativity. If they haven't got gratitude that somebody loves them enough to have the ecstasy and rapture and joy of sharing whatever light possible, then that's their problem.

Then I feel sorry even for them. And if the one who has the need to tear down is succeeding, then everybody has been tested and this is the only way they're going to grow. To get take hold of the one who has to up the moment needs to tear down actually the thing that's really happening when anyone has a need to tear down they're really tearing down themselves and don't know it in other words they're meeting up with something in their own nature and because they're unable to cope with it they're projecting it and a teacher expects this if you're going to get hot and bothered at what other people think and feel then you can't really be receptive to the master of compassion vibratory level at all because automatically then there is a need to react on their level and a master of compassion never reacts on the level of the childish attitude that the most beautiful aspirants can have at times after all none of our personalities personalities are perfected and we should all expect that the personality will get in a stew here and there. It will get angry and indignant, especially if a certain pattern is being shaken up a bit. And it will project itself in the wrong area. Always in the higher occult training we sit back and we permit everyone to make their mistakes. This is one of the things that aspirants have not understood about masters of compassion because if we didn't we would really be cheating everyone why is it that we have such a love for the word freedom in truth all of us have the freedom to go in the direction that we choose to go we have that freedom it depends on whether we're going to be run by our negatives you know by our immaturities or whether we're going to hold on to that level where the masters of compassion can help us now the moment we are willing to overcome our own immaturity we immediately are attuned to the master that's in charge of the particular line of work with us its master are is in charge of this work at this time although I remember master jesus of nazareth was and is a member of this tradition and in fact went through his entire initiation in this tradition but the ability to be able to say I want to transmute this quality and that quality in myself this is what gives us the capacity to receive the help from the masters of compassion and they are there at all times you see my loves to try is what's important to make a mistake is to be expected every true knower of the mysteries knows that we have to make mistakes in order to learn and so there's a tender lovingness that we have towards all of our beloved children the youngest as well as the older ones.

Every time there's a fall and there are bruises, we tenderly wait in order to let our beloved children develop the strength to fall, recognize it, get up, and become more and more sure-footed. And in that manner, as our beloveds become more and more sure-footed, they gain the ability to have more and more of that eternal treasure, which is the treasure you take with you that you cannot lose, the capacity to love because compassion and love can be called synonymous if you will I love you and I care what happens to you I care with my heart my soul my mind my body my spirit in fact that's all I care about I care what happens to every single living creature and that's all I care about because I see this as as having the rich privilege of serving God, the divine. This is light, this is beauty, this is richness. And my only prayer would be always, God, just keep me with thee, that I keep having the capacity to give of thy riches.

This is being so wealthy that there isn't, if you counted all of the stars in the heaven and multiplied them by infinity, that would be poverty, as against the richness of having this kind of consciousness the consciousness that wants nothing but to do the will of the father and is just full of joy and rejoicing this privilege is here for you my darlings you are being trained to have that awareness you are under the guidance of true love the love of compassion that feels for your errors but does not weaken you as you are being being helped on your own with wisdom to develop your own spiritual muscles so that you too can have the ecstasy and the rapture of being an eternal giver of life and love.

That's our talk for this morning.