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Good thoughts, though God accept them, yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act.

— Sir Francis Bacon, Essays

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Buddha taking care of a sick monk as a fraternal duty and model example for his monks to emulate Illustration from The Life of Buddha in Pictures by the Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist Temple in Penang

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Act Maketh Joy and Woe

“Pray not! the Darkness will not brighten! Ask Nought from the Silence, for it cannot speak! Vex not your mournful minds with pious pains! Ah! Brothers, Sisters! seek

Nought from the helpless gods by gift and hymn, Nor bribe with blood, nor feed with fruits and cakes; Within yourselves deliverance must be sought; Each man his prison makes.

Each hath such lordship as the loftiest ones; Nay, for with Powers above, around, below, As with all flesh and whatsoever lives, Act maketh joy and woe.”

— Edwin Arnold, The Light of Asia

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There is no such thing as ‘guardian angels’ or ‘protecting angels.’ It is our own HIGHER EGO which guards and protects us, to the extent, and in the way, that our own individual Karma – which is the product of our own making – permits.

— Anon., We Do Not Have Guardian Angels

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Statue of Khafre Protected by Horus (c. 2520-2494 BCE) — From the Lower Temple of Khafre, Giza, Egypt. 4th Dynasty, Old Kingdom.

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Guardian Angels and Personal Daemons

“They are neither ‘ministering’ nor ‘protecting’ angels; nor are they ‘Harbingers of the Most High’ still less the ‘Messengers of wrath’ of any God such as man’s fancy has created. To appeal to their protection is as foolish as to believe that their sympathy may be secured by any kind of propitiation; for they are, as much as man himself is, the slaves and creatures of immutable Karmic and Kosmic Law. ...

Every ‘Spirit’ so-called is either a disembodied or a future man. As from the highest Archangel (Dhyan Chohan) down to the last conscious ‘Builder’ (the inferior class of Spiritual Entities), all such are men, having lived aeons ago, in other Manvantaras, on this or other Spheres; so the inferior, semi-intelligent and non-intelligent Elementals—are all future men. That fact alone—that a Spirit is endowed with intelligence—is a proof to the Occultist that that Being must have been a man, and acquired his knowledge and intelligence throughout the human cycle. ...

The Occultists do not accept the doctrine of ‘guardian angels,’ for reasons heretofore fully explained, in these pages. They do, however, believe most firmly in the personal, divine spirit in man, the source of his inspiration and his all-sufficient ‘angel’ and ‘guardian.’”

— H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine

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By our trust in the divine beauty in every person we develop that beauty in ourselves.

— Hazrat Inayat Khan

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O Seer of the secrets of my heart, it is enough for me that You look at me!

— Imam Abdullah Al-Haddad

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The Sufi Vision

“To discover the light and power latent within all human beings, that is the secret of all religion, the power of mysticism, and the essence of philosophy, without interfering with customs or belief.

The Message is to make humanity conscious of the words in the Bible, where it is said ‘We live and move and have our being in God’, to realize this and recognize the kinship of humanity in the realization of God.

This is not the time to advance any particular sect, church, or belief. We have too many sects. They are only outer forms. The things that really matter are deeper.”

— Hazrat Inayat Khan

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Mohannad Husam, Love (2023)

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Do not go to the garden of flowers! O Friend! go not there; In your body is the garden of flowers. Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty.

— Kabir, Songs of Kabir

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Kamal Rao, Sadhu with Shank (2015)

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“He is the real Sadhu, who can reveal the form of the Formless to the vision of these eyes: Who teaches the simple way of attaining Him, that is other than rites or ceremonies: Who does not make you close the doors, and hold the breath, and renounce the world: Who makes you perceive the Supreme Spirit wherever the mind attaches itself: Who teaches you to be still in the midst of all your activities. Ever immersed in bliss, having no fear in his mind, he keeps the spirit of union in the midst of all enjoyments. The infinite dwelling of the Infinite Being is everywhere: in earth, water, sky, and air: Firm as the thunderbolt, the seat of the seeker is established above the void. He who is within is without: I see Him and none else.”

— Kabir

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“And within the soul of every man is found the Christ Principle, striving ever to elevate and lift up the individual toward that realization of the Real Self—and this is what ‘redemption’ and ‘salvation’ really means.”

— William Walker Atkinson

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William Blake, Christ Appearing to His Disciples After the Resurrection (1795)

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The Master Within, part II

“Whether we prefer to call the master within Christ or some other name does not matter. However we choose to refer to him, all the questions we may have about the great adventure of life are resolved in his light. From the mystic’s point of view it’s only from the master within that each of us can discover our destiny as well as our true nature and place in the scheme of things. It’s only through him that we can find our true purpose in life, over and above the various material duties and responsibilities we all have.

Such was the change to their lives it’s not surprising that each of the mystics who recorded their inner reception of the light of Christ considered themselves reborn as a new kind of man; that a miracle had happened, that they had been saved by the grace of God, and that they had been led from darkness unto light.

Christ the redeemer was a fact proven to them beyond any doubt by their own inner transformation. From that day onwards He was the sun of their being, the light and the life within, the Saviour, the Lord of Heaven and Prince of Peace enthroned in the centre of their mystic heart. He was indeed the Master Within.”

— The Master Within (via Lead Kindly Light)

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“It is that in every man there is a latent Christ. The touch of the Divine Spirit wakens that Christ within and brings Him into union with the Christ above.”

— R.J. Campbell

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Man-spirit proves God-spirit, as the one drop of water proves a source from which it must have come.

— H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled

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Briton Riviere, Christ in the Wilderness (1898)

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The Master Within, part I

“Down through the centuries, the various terms used to denote the master within have been many if not countless. The ancient traditions have also used many different metaphors to describe the process of discovering the place wherein he dwells. Various journeys, voyages, pilgrimages, quests, transmutations and so on were used by the ancients to symbolise the progress of the mystical search. Some of them represented it as akin to climbing a ladder. And the subsequent testimony of all the greatest mystics suggests that while the ladder stretches even to the very kingdom of God, its lower rungs are wherever we are, in the here and now. This is important. If the first gem to be gathered in is ‘do not doubt your ability to discover the master within’ then the next must surely be ‘he is closer to us than we sometimes realise.’

What we might think of as the unselfish, healthy, vibrant side of our nature, the positive, seeking side, are the lower rungs on the ladder that lead to and indirectly are our own master within. Often an inner word of warning, an inspiring thought, or an appreciation of true beauty can be traced to their origin in a higher part of our selves of which we are not normally conscious. The aspiring mystic needs only to recognise these higher elements already existing in his nature, to identify their source as the master within, and then use them to take the next step up the ladder. It sounds simple; and in essence it is simple. However everyone who has ever tried it agrees that while it may be simple, it is far from easy. The problem seems to be that the other side of our nature, the negative, selfish, doubting and fearful side, interferes with the process.

While in other traditions connections are made to Krishna, Horus and so on, mystics writing in the Christian tradition associate the master within with Christ. The mystic life for them is a gradual unfolding of the Christ within, whose influence upon their lives increases as they establish inner control and peace. Eventually when we’re ready and the necessary preparations are complete, the Christ, or the master within, awakens.”

— The Master Within (via Lead Kindly Light)

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Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

— Revelation 3:20 (KJV)

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William Holman Hunt, The Light of the World (1851–1854)

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Lead Kindly Light

“Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th'encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home, Lead Thou me on! Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene; one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou Shouldst lead me on; I loved to choose and see my path; but now Lead Thou me on! I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still Will lead me on. O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till The night is gone, And with the morn those angel faces smile, Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!”

— John Henry Newman

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...the whispering pines; the streams that splash; the dark tresses that float and swirl upon the surface of the deep loch hidden in the trees; the holy vespers that rise from the woods in the West amid the evening scent of woodbine… yea, all, even all, within my woods, sings its glory to the Lord.

— Wandering the Woods