The So-Called Dangers of Initiation

What already occurs in the ordinary theosophist can occur even more so in the student. In him, the faults that are present at the core of his being become very clear when he has to gain his free judgment—and he must gain it. But that is necessary. If someone wants to develop more quickly, then a whole host of bad qualities may come out in him from one day to the next. These traits might otherwise have been spread out over sixty years. When you dissolve something in a large body of water, you cannot see the color; in a drop, it may appear very colored. The same is true of the student. What is to come out in a few days becomes noticeable. But when something has sixty years to play out, you don't notice it. Yes, in the secret science itself, many a devil of pride comes to the fore. Very soon one had to experience that people who are not proud in themselves approach one with wishes. They then come and say: I want to start being a student and become an adept as quickly as possible. — One hears this quite often. It is something that experience shows, that the devil of pride seizes someone. They often become most arrogant in the presence of greatness, and then find it difficult to understand that this feeling is the greatest obstacle to their further development, and that the best thing for their further development is to renounce this feeling of arrogance. — But this is also connected with the fact that we are strong laughers and also strong talkers.