Path of Initiation
Corrective
Thinking
By Lucille Cedercrans
Lesson 5
In our last lesson I told you to give advice when asked for it. Today I wish to take this little matter of advice into greater consideration for it is very important. All of you who are led to read these lessons feel the urge within you to help others. That is part of evolution and characteristic of all who approach the Path of Initiation. The Soul is stirring within them and they feel a desire to help others. This desire becomes so great as to be defined as a need. One of the characteristics of the Soul is service. Out of love for his brothers and out of his compassion for them, he serves. It is this call to service that motivates most ministers, sincere teachers, many doctors, social workers, etc.
As the call to service becomes greater and greater, man finds himself hampered by his inability to help others. He may give them money, food, clothing, etc., but he knows that is not the answer. There is something else, something he could give them which would really help. Then he begins to seek, to search for truth. This is true seeking, where man is motivated by a real desire to help others. This motivation will lead him unerringly to Truth.
I realize that often you become frustrated in the desire to help. You don't know how or what to do and often make mistakes. One of the first ways in which the student learns to help is by the giving of advice, and this can be, if he is not very careful, where he makes his greatest mistake.
Before he is qualified to give advice, he must learn certain things and one of them is, "judge not lest ye be judged". He cannot decide what is right or wrong action for another person. He must realize that what is right for him may be wrong for another. He must not criticize nor condemn even silently another for his actions, and therefore the only standard of right and wrong is for himself.
He cannot then consider even for a minute that something someone is doing, or has done, is wrong. He must realize that what the man is doing is right for him because that is where he is in understanding. He realizes that the things the man is doing will teach him needed lessons and give him a full rich understanding.
Realizing these things, he then attempts to understand what it is the other doesn't realize. He sees, when he does not judge, what the man's next lesson is and is then enabled to help him.
Another thing the student must realize before he can give the right kind of advice is that he must not impose his will upon another. He must not force his brother to accept that which he is not ready to accept. A refusal on the part of a brother to accept advice means that he is not ready to leave the experience behind. He must continue with it until he himself seeks a way out.
The student of Truth then learns to hold his tongue until he is asked to speak. Even when the request is made, the student is very careful not to impose his will. He becomes impersonal and explains clearly, but without pressure, where the trouble is. His advice is in the nature of pointing out the way; in bringing the cause of the other's present difficulty into sight, and of bringing the way in which the difficulty can be overcome into sight. In other words, he brings the forked path into sharp focus and the other is left free to choose the way he will go.
All the while he is doing this he is pouring forth love to his brother, realizing in the back of his mind the great healing power of love.
After the brother has seen the forked path and made his decision, the student must then abide by that decision. He does not say or think "You are making a mistake." He knows the other is doing what he must do in order to grow and that even if his words have not been sufficiently understood to immediately clear up the other's situation, he has nevertheless planted a seed which will in time grow and bear fruit.
I would speak a few words with you anent this planting of seeds for that is what you are going to do when you give advice. To be sure your seeds will grow, you must know and recognize the planting season. You must know what is fertile ground and you must help produce the conditions which are conducive to growth. The farmer sows his fields after they have been made ready by clearing and cultivation and when the sun is in the right position to stimulate growth. Then after the seeds are safely in the ground, he works with nature by giving them water and sometimes added food and by continued cultivation.
The student of Truth must learn to do this if he is going to be of real help to others. He recognizes the season; that is, he responds to the other's indications that he wants help by preparing the ground for planting.
This preparation is the pouring forth of love and silent understanding spoken of earlier in the lesson.
When the other asks for help, the student plants his seed; a realization of the forked path.
After the planting he aids nature by his continued projection of love and silent understanding, plus pulling the weeds as they grow with the seed planted.
This subject of pulling weeds we shall take up in our next lesson. In the meantime, think more about planting seeds, about what constitutes productive ground and how it can best be prepared for sowing.