Rosicrucian Writings Online


The Keynote of Advancement

By Frater O. F. Haupt, F.R.C.
 
[From The Rosicrucian Digest January 1938]
 
 
IN considering the facts with which I have come in contact, I believe the present purpose of existence, in so far as we are immediately concerned, is evolution--the term "evolution" being taken to mean the gradual change or rise toward perfection.
 
The responsibility of the individual to this purpose is not the responsibility of one individual person to himself but his responsibility to the whole of mankind. In other words, one man's action may and does influence the whole body of mankind. As a crude illustration--each grain of sand taken off or put on to a sensitive balance affects the relative position of all other grains of sand on the balance. So, each advancing soul affects the whole body of mankind by his advancement. Therein each individual is linked to and linked by every other individual.
 
Now, as each individual advances along the Path, he, of a necessity, influences all others to some degree. The Path becomes more plain, the relative position of all individuals is changed with respect to the purpose.
 
The keynote of advancement seems to be: "Thou shalt serve, thou shalt become a power, a force in action." This is the essence of practicality. Therein is the responsibility of the individual to the whole fulfilled. Therein is harmony with Cosmic Law accomplished.
 
Not by study and meditation only may one scale the heights, but by practical application in action of that which is learned and assimilated through study and meditation. Through action, points of strength and weakness are brought to light. Through tests and trials of personal experience we forge the links which bind the rest of humanity more and more closely to us. As more and more electrical current is fed into an electro-magnet its field of influence becomes wider. As experience follows experience and weakness is transmuted into strength, so the individual field of influence is widened and becomes more useful to the purpose of evolution.
 
Possibly, the greatest usefulness is in the helping of another to find the Path--not by coercion or argument, or by holding one's self as an example, even though the example be fairly good, but by the tactful appeal to latent, submerged desires and forces within him.
 

Section IndexHome Page
Copyright © 2007 Aswins Rabaq. All Rights Reserved.