It’s Easier to Walk If One Gets
Free From Unnecessary Weight
John Garrigues
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The following article was first published at “Theosophy”
magazine, Los Angeles, in December 1920, p. 58, with no
indication as to its author. Original Title: “Traveling Light”.
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There are still in the world today uncivilized men who are concerned alone with physical supremacy.
Not far removed there are others for whom life has become a sort of contest of wits in which the sharpest carries off the prize. Still others, thoughtless, play their way along in enjoyments of the moment. All these beings are travelers on the Great Journey of evolution, although they travel in unthinking darkness.
But there are those souls for whom life has become a conscious pilgrimage. The light of certain guidance is ever on their path. By this light they see a plan and feel a mighty purpose in all the winding ways. The obstructions they know are of their own making. The rough and stony miles that hurt their feet were put there by no other. These are not timid, shrinking souls, bound by a cruel fate to wander far from fire-lit homes. Voluntarily, the choice was made: firelight was renounced for starlight, – sunlight. The way was shown in answer to a cry from the heart for that Light which all men need and most men crave – the Light – our real home towards which we journey – the Light within, obscured for a time.
Why should this “small old path that stretches far away” seem so often a path of woe? Could we not feel as we journey along more of that joy of the road felt by the adventurer who fares forth, shorn of all obstructing possessions? Or do we weigh ourselves down with unnecessary things? Are we careful to make a fine selection as to our needs for the journey, eliminating the useless weight?
It would seem from the heaviness that accompanies most of us – for “Few pass this way without bitter complaint” – that we are making our difficulties by reaching up towards the imperishable while attached to the transitory and perishable. And this is as impossible as to be at once afraid and fearless; or, to consider the eternal from the standpoint of the non-eternal. We think of equal-mindedness as an end – a goal – whereas it is a step immediately before us on the path.
To the one who travels with a heart full of trouble there is an ache in the glory of the sunset; the dark woods waving above him echo and prolong his sighs; there is no consolation in the restless waves. But when one knows the happiness of the heart within, all things contribute.
We might take the phrase of a mighty Traveler and say:
“Henceforth I ask no good-fortune. I myself am good fortune!”
And although the old smooth prizes are not offered, and the new only make a greater struggle necessary, we could remember that the joy of the road is always ours – if we will – the joy of moving along, part of, and essential to, the glorious scheme of things – the Way, the Truth and the Light.
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In September 2016, after a careful analysis of the state of the esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students decided to form the Independent Lodge of Theosophists, whose priorities include the building of a better future in the different dimensions of life.
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E-Theosophy e-group offers a regular study of the classic, intercultural theosophy taught by Helena P. Blavatsky (photo).
Those who want to join E-Theosophy e-group at YahooGroups can do that by visiting https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/E-Theosophy/info.
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