The Conditions of Discipleship

He who enters an occult school must be quite sure that his intention is to construct by means of it, and not to destroy. The student ought, therefore, to bring with him the will for sincere and devoted work and not the desire to criticise and destroy. He ought to be capable of devotion, for one should be anxious to learn what one does not yet know; he should look reverently on that which discloses itself. Work and devotion, these are the fundamental attributes which must be claimed from the disciple. Some have to learn that they do not make real progress in the school, even if in their own opinion they are unceasingly active; they have not grasped in the right manner the meaning of work and meditation. The work which is done for the sake of success will be the least successful, and that kind of learning which is undertaken without meditation will advance the student least. Only the love of work itself, and not of its fruit, only this brings any advance. If he who is learning seeks for wholesome thoughts and sound judgment, he need not spoil his devotion with doubts and suspicions.