The Conditions of Discipleship

3. Now with this, the third condition for occult training is intimately connected. The student must be able to realise the idea that his thoughts and feelings are as important for the world as his deeds. It must be recognised that it is as pernicious to hate a fellow-being as to strike him. One can then discern also that by perfecting oneself one accomplishes something not only for oneself but for the whole world. The world profits by one's pure thoughts and feelings as much as by one's good behaviour, and as, long as one cannot believe in this world-wide importance of one's inner Self, one is not fit for discipleship. Only when one works at one's inner Self as if it were at least as important as all external things, only then is one permeated with a true conception of the soul's importance. One must admit that one's feelings produce an effect as much as the action of one's hand.