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The Rosicrucian Mysteries by Max Heindel

V. LIFE AND DEATH

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The Rosicrucian Mystery teaching gives a scientific method whereby an aspirant to higher life may purge himself continually, and thus be able to entirely avoid existence in purgatory. Each night after retiring the pupil reviews his life during the past day _in reverse order_. He starts to visualize as clearly as possible the scene which took place just before retiring. He then endeavors to impartially view his actions in that scene examining them to see whether he did right or wrong. If the latter, he endeavors to _feel and realize as __ vividly as possible_ that wrong. For instance, if he spoke harshly to someone, and upon later consideration finds it was not merited, he will endeavor to _feel_ exactly as that one felt whom he wronged and at the very earliest opportunity to apologize for the hasty expression. Then he will call up the next scene in backward succession which may perhaps be the supper table. In respect of that scene he will examine himself as to whether he ate to live, sparingly and of foods prepared without suffering to other creatures of God, (such as flesh foods that cannot be obtained without taking life). If he finds that he allowed his appetite to run away with him and that he ate gluttonously, he will endeavor to overcome these habits, for to live a clean life we must have a clean body and no one can live to his highest possibilities while making his stomach a graveyard for the decaying corpses of murdered animals. In this respect there occurs to the writer a little poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

“I am the voice of the voiceless;
Through me the dumb shall speak,
Till a deaf world’s ear
Shall be made to hear
The wrongs of the wordless weak.

The same force formed the sparrow
That fashioned man the king;
The God of the whole
Gave a spark of soul
To furred and feathered thing.

And I am my brother’s keeper
And I will fight his fight,
And speak the word
For beast and bird
Till the world shall set things right.

Thus the pupil will continue to review each scene _in reverse order_ from night till morning, and to _feel really sorry_ for whatever he has done amiss. He will not neglect to _feel glad_ either when he comes to a scene where he has done well, and _the more intensely he can feel, the more thoroughly he will eradicate the record upon the tablet of the heart and sharpen his conscience_, so that as time goes on from year to year, he will find less cause for blame and enhance his soul power enormously. Thus he will grow in a measure impossible by any less systematic method, and there will be no necessity for his stay in purgatory after death.

This evening exercise and another, for the morning, if persistently performed day by day, will in time awaken the spiritual vision as they improve life. This matter has, however, been so thoroughly treated in number 11 of the lecture series: “_Spiritual Sight and Insight; its safe culture and control_,” that it is unnecessary to dwell upon the matter further in this place.

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