LETTERS
THAT
HAVE HELPED ME
COMPILED BY
JASPER NIEMAND
Reprinted from "The Path"
SEVENTH EDITION
THE
UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS
Los Angeles, California
1920
To
Z. L. Z.
the Greatest of
the Exiles, and Friend
of all Creatures, from his
Younger Brother, the Compiler.
JASPER NIEMAND
1891
PREFACE
"Seeking for freedom I go to that Godwho is the light of his own thoughts. Aman who knows him truly passes overdeath; there is no other path to go"—Upanishads.
In the Path for May, 1887, we find these words:"We need a literature, not solely for highly intellectualpersons, but of a more simple character, which attemptsto appeal to ordinary common-sense minds who arereally fainting for such moral and mental assistance asis not reached by the more pretentious works."
The experience of one student is, on the whole, theexperience of all. Details differ, however. Some aremade more instantly rich than others: they are thosewho put forth more vigorous and generous effort; orthey have a Karmic store which brings aid. WhatTheosophists know as Karma, or the law of spiritualaction and reaction, decides this, as it works on all theplanes, physical, moral, mental, psychical, and spiritualalike. Our Karma may be worked out on any one ofthese planes when our life is chiefly concentrated uponit, no matter upon what other plane any special initiativeimpulse or branch of it originated.
The writer, when first he became a Theosophical student,had the aid of an advanced occultist in his studies.This friend sent him, among others, the letters which,in the hope that they may assist others as they have theoriginal recipient, are here published. They are notexhaustive treatises; they are hints given by one whoknew that the first need of a student is to learn how tothink. The true direction is pointed out, and the studentis left to clarify his own perceptions, to drawviupon and enlarge his own intuitions, and to develop, asevery created thing must at last develop, by his owninward exertions. Such students have passed the pointwhere their external environment can affect theirgrowth favorably. They may learn from it, but thetime has also come to resist it and turn to the internaladjustment to higher relations only.
The brevity of these letters should not mislead thereader. Every statement in them is a statement of law.They point to causes of which life is an effect; thatlife arising from the action of Spirit in Nature, andwhich we must understand as it is manifested withinus before we can advance on the Path. There is a scientificmeaning within all these devotional or ethicalinjunctions, for the Wisdom-Religion never relaxesher hold upon Science or attempts to dissever an effectfrom its cause. Most of these admonitions have theirbase in the constitution of the Archæus, or World-Soul,and the correlation of its energies; others, still,adhere in the Eternal.