Initiation

There is an attribute which at this stage, of initiation has to be especially considered,—quite a healthy and sure faculty of judgment. Attention must be directed to the education of this faculty during all the previous stages, and in the course of them it must be proved whether the candidate has developed this quality sufficiently to make him fit to tread the path of true knowledge. Further progress is now only possible for him if he is able to distinguish illusion, superstition, unsubstantial fancies, and all manner of such things, from the true realities. At first, this is much more difficult to accomplish upon the higher stages of existence than upon the lower. Every prejudice, every cherished opinion regarding these matters, in whatever connection, must vanish away. Truth alone must guide. There must be perfect readiness to surrender at once any existing opinion, idea, or inclination, when the logical idea demands it. Absolute certainty in the higher worlds is only to be obtained when one never obtrudes one's own opinions.