Konx Om Pax

38 KONX OM PAX He would not, however, care an obolus whether he was lying or not —unless he happened to be making experiments involving the subject. What he would care about was whether or no his answer showed that he was thinking as a sceptical philosopher. If so, good. This brings us—how subtly !—to a statement which I do not wish to support by proofs. I imagine that he who is able to receive it will receive it. This is Truth, that one should be concerned with one’s own busi ness, and with nothing else whatever. If I enter thy laboratory, 0 Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry, who protestest that thou dost aspire to the Great White Brotherhood, and demand of thee, “ What are thou doing?” wilt thou reply, “I am extracting the enzymes from this ferment,” or rather, “I am aspiring to the Great White Brotherhood ”? And if that question puzzle thee, as well it may, seeing that either answer is in some sense or other a lie—then see to it, I say, that thou lie not to the Holy Ghost! Shakespeare is perhaps thought by some (may it be credited?) to have written the lines: To thine own self be true, And it will follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man. ’Tis a worthy aphorism. Let the consciousness be ever directed towards the Self—by whatever Name I call Thee, Thou art Nameless to all Eternity !—and the possibility of lying is avoided. For one speaketh not, nor, if one spake, is there any to hear. Know that the greater the Adept, the more truthful; should he—in error—speak, the more must he appear a liar to those of his fellows who hear his voice. For he speaks, as beholding the Face of God; they hear, as idols the work of men’s hands that have ears and hear not, neither have they any understanding. Therefore, have the chance words of Adepts been ill-heard through the ages; therefore, has the world run red with blood because the Adepts have spoken Truth,