Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you."The Golden Rule.

"As ye sow, so shall ye reap."The Law of Compensation.

The first of these is a command, but the second is an edict. It does not only imply, but it is a clear statement that we will be paid in the same coin with which we pay others; that not by hook or crook can we hand out tinsel and have gold returned.

The Law of Compensation, now becoming more generally known as the Law of Karma, is the Law of Exact Justice. It promises, without the possibility of evasion, the reaction upon us of all destructive thoughts we think, desires we countenance or acts we commit.

Whatever natural or spiritual Law is set into motion by us, that Law must be appeased. We must pay "unto the utmost farthing" every debt we owe, be this on the physical, moral, spiritual or Soul plane. This is the one universal, all-embracing Law taught by the Ancient Initiates and was by them known as the Law of Karma, or the Law of Reaction. The Nazarene called it the Golden (the highest, noblest, best) Rule, and the great writer Emerson first gave it the designation Law of Compensation.

If we suffer, there is a reason. It is because in some manner we have been untrue to ourselves. If we do an act that is not constructive, we violate a Law; we do that which is either against our own best interests or is in some way detrimental. If it is detrimental to another it is by its very nature against our own best interests. In either instance, we attempt an interference with the Divine Law and this brings a reaction according to the actual harm done.

When we suffer in some manner we are merely being obliged to accept the penalty resulting from personal acts, the pain or loss being due to the normal action of the Karmic Law.

Do unto your neighbor, your friends, even your enemy and your foe, even to those unknown to you with whom you must deal as you would have them do unto you. If you do this you will be in harmony with the Law, you will uphold justice and work out your own destiny. It is not at all difficult to thus deal with those whom we love; the struggle comes when we are called upon to deal justly with one who has dealt unjustly with us, or who we know is trying his best to take advantage of us. It is then we are tested for our innate honesty and justice.

This definition of the Law does not in any sense imply that we should permit anyone to take advantage of us, to bring us loss or sorrow if we are able to prevent it. If we did so, we would be equally guilty in the commission of the wrong. On the contrary, it requires of us that we seek justice in all dealings with others; that we do all in our power to prevent acts of wrong, the while we pursue methods that are just, and such as we would ourselves expect of others.

Were men without enemies, loving all and beloved by all, there would be little need for the operation of the Law of Justice, since we are all normally inclined to give all that is good and desirable to those we love. However, under such a condition this world would not be a school of trial and experience, a school where needed lessons must be learned; but a haven of the blessed, the world to come as foreseen by John the Revelator.

We reap as we sow; neither more nor less. The Nazarene did His best by both teaching and demonstrating the Law. When we sow thistles and thorns we should not be so foolish as to expect a harvest of wheat and corn, nor should we expect others to supply us with the food that would have been ours had we sown wisely.

We came into this world because of our own longing to know both good and evil. We descended or "fell" of our own free Will. No one forced the decision upon us. God never made a thing, never placed anything where it did not belong, or to which it did not gravitate by its own free action and under the Law of Attraction. We left, were drawn from the plane of purity, because we desired it. With our descent we were forced by the creative fiat to be governed by the Absolute Law and to abide by its reaction upon us.

The Soul never suffers as a result of doing deeds of kindness and helpfulness. If there is suffering, it is the reaping of reactions from actions by us. The body may be tortured and the mind agonized as a result of our efforts in behalf of others, or by the acts of others, but this never reaches the Soul and is as so much "bread cast upon the water, which, after many days returns laden with many blessings."

When we perform deeds of kindness or acts of benefits unto others and they in return persecute us or cause us loss, defame or scourge us, and these are the cause of suffering to the body and agony to the mind, then this pain and suffering is transmuted and when it, or what there is left of it, finally reaches the Soul, it becomes the fuel for the Fire of the Soul and brings life with it.

The Law is absolute over all that exists. That which appears as most evil to us is neither more nor less than the reaction of the Law and in its final action, punishes the guilty and blesses those who are innocent.

There are those who protest that they have suffered, or are now suffering, not due to sins of their own, but due to the machinations of others. The Nazarene passed through mental and physical agonies, not because of His own misdeeds, but due to the ignorance and maliciousness of others. In the final analysis, He was rewarded for the suffering; He lived constructively; He helped others to help themselves and showed them the way; in a sense He suffered for this, but the Cross brought Him Immortality. He sowed goodness and kindness, helpfulness and generosity; He reached Sonship with the Father.

Some will say: "Why was He persecuted and made to suffer; why was injustice heaped upon Him, though He sowed only seeds of love, mercy and justice?" He did not actually reap these things, He accepted them and transmuted them into eternal life. Here, as nowhere else, is exemplified the Law that: "...things are not always what they appear to be."

Souls, this includes the Soul of the Nazarene, came to earth in order that they might come to know "good and evil." These things cannot be known unless we experience; to experience we must suffer. If we retaliate with passion for passion, we create greater suffering; if we accept it without hatred, resentment or malice; if we transmute it, then we experience; we come to know both good and evil, YET WE KEEP OURSELVES FREE. This is just what the Nazarene did.

The Nazarene overcame all enmity and became the interpreter of the Law to all humanity that would accept Him. He sowed the seeds of correct (righteous) behavior. He lifted the Soul to the Godhead by both His inculcations and His works. Is it not written that He understood this and said: "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." Those who had the idea that they might destroy Him and end His ministry were actually helping Him in the process of transmutation and the final attainment of Godhood.

Unenlightened men do not know the real meaning of the emotion of love. What they feel and think is love is a selfish emotion for their own benefit. These imagine they have the power to destroy; they are able to destroy only themselves and others of like nature who are under the same law.

In the ultimate, as we do, so will we be done by. If we are guilty of a premeditated unkind thought or wicked act, we will draw unkindness to us. We surround ourselves with the atmosphere, or aura, of other minds harmonizing with our own.

The things we think, the words we utter, the acts we commit, the desires we harbor, all these compose the human being. A pure, kindly thought never caused an evil deed, a destructive act. The free, exalted mentality cannot accumulate thoughts of envy, hatred, jealousy or malice and therefore does not store in the Soul the poisons these passions create.

He who defrauds you in exchange for a favor, who takes advantage of you, abuses you, does not in the last analysis actually hurt you, unless as a result of this experience, resentment and hatred is born in you. It is then not what another has done that is harmful to you, but the poison of your own passion. Another's ungrateful acts are potent to hurt your feelings, cause you loss, possibly sorrow. If you accept these without the feeling of hatred or resentment, the mental reaction will transmute the ill and unjust treatment in the Fires of the Soul and this will be of help in bringing the seeking Soul to Individualization and Consciousness.

We by no means wish to convey the idea that one should sit calmly by and permit actual loss in return for a favor, persecution as payment for a kindly act, hatred for a kindness. On the contrary, both justice and manhood obligate us to demand justice, the payment to the "utmost farthing," but this must be free from passion, in the same manner and with the same feeling that the father who dearly loves his child nevertheless punishes it for deliberate disobedience or any act that is contrary to the code of good behavior. Such punishment is meted out in sorrow and where there is sorrow in the heart there cannot be malice or hatred also.

If you have been kind and helpful to a person and he in turn hates or despises you for doing so, he does not thereby hurt you; he but hates himself and brings upon himself the reaction of that feeling.

Some will explain, "It is not possible for one to think kindly and do good all the time."

Possibly this same statement had been made to the Nazarene when He said: "Let the tares and the wheat grow together until the harvest [the period required for the awakening of the mind to its possibilities and before you are capable of judging what is right], then gather first the tares [the things you have learned to know as conferring no lasting benefit or which are not of any constructive use] and bind them into bundles to burn [to transmute into the Flame that builds the Soul] them; but gather the wheat [all that is good or can be used for a good purpose] into your barn [store it for the building of the Conscious, Immortal self]."

As we gain in wisdom we will be enabled to gather the tares one by one, the thoughts that work for evil, the desires that are productive of evil and the acts that create evil. It is then we can separate without loss the good from the non-good and undesirable, storing that which is of use in building an Immortal Soul and at the same time helping others who are on the way or may be weak or as yet not able to see clearly.

If we do unto others the things we honestly believe to be good or right, we are within the Law and we are gathering "the wheat" for future use.

Those of evil intent are not always altogether blind. They are nearly always able to differentiate between that which is good and that which is evil, between the constructive and the destructive. When they do those things that are not for good, they are aware within themselves that they are not doing that which is right, but they proceed nevertheless, harboring the mistaken idea that it will either benefit them or work to their profit.

How few, in giving vent to their thoughts, have stopped to think or to reason of the possibility of the thoughts being a snare to help in the degradation of the Soul, of their being envious, lustful or malicious, and therefore directly harmful? Such thoughts are creative of a deadly poison, a virus that saturates the entire being; body, mind and the spiritual self. By giving such thoughts a place in the mentality they first create a poison and then transfuse it throughout the entire being. This may ultimately work to the destruction of the body by the creation of disease and end by the demoralization of the spiritual self.

It is written that the Nazarene demonstrated all the Laws of Love and Kindness; that the multitudes, though they did not understand Him, or had little sympathy for Him, nevertheless knew Him as "that great serene man." He was able to remain calm and serene though all the evil forces of the world and hades were arrayed against Him. Why? Because THERE WAS NO EVIL IN HIM. THERE WAS NOTHING WITHIN HIM TO OPEN THE DOORS OF HIS BEING TO THESE FORCES. HE WAS IMMUNE BECAUSE HE WAS PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY AND SPIRITUALLY CLEAN. Here is a mighty lesson for all those who do not fear to learn.

Every act, though known as "pleasure," which usurps honor, truth, duty or loyalty, is a destroying archangel. They open the door of the self to other evils. Lustful, sensual thoughts, the keen thrill of delight felt over the downfall or destruction of a hated or envied one, even though "justified," are delusions that create poisons in the Soul. Justice must come to the evil doer, but we should sorrow, not feel pleasure, in the enemy's reaping of the "reward."

All evil has its origin in the mind. Its birth is in the mind, although we could truthfully state that most evil enters through the eyes and is impressed upon the mind by the desires created as a result of sight. Evil is like a destructive tenant domiciled in a beautiful palace. If permitted to remain, it quickly destroys all that is beautiful within.

Sin is doing that which the Law forbids. Sin is not good for either mind, body or Soul. It is not really an evasion of the Law because that is something no man can accomplish. It might be said to be an "attempted evasion." The Law cannot be set aside. It cannot be side-stepped. It cannot be broken. The commission of that which is not good is an attempt to sidestep the Law, but it always fails because the Law is. It is inflexible. It will not bend. It will not excuse.

Man consciously disobeys the Divine or governing Law in the foolish belief that by so doing he can gain that which he has not earned, which does not belong to him or which will not work a benefit to himself or another. It is seeking a possession without first "paying the utmost farthing."

When we are unkind, we transgress the Law of Kindness; every time we speak falsely, we know not the truth. In either instance we have violated a Law.

When we permit hatred to enter the heart, even though we have been wronged or reviled, it is as though we had encouraged the most poisonous serpent to enter and find a resting place there; moreover, we know not love and love is the "saving grace."

We are as we think. Each thought is indelibly impressed upon the Soul and becomes a part of it as certainly as the spoken word is recorded (impressed) on a recording tape or record. It is there to bear "witness against" us.

Through thoughts that lead to desire and then to action, we build or destroy the Soul. We are the architect, the builder of what may be a Temple of Solomon the King or of Demon the destroyer.

The one certain method by which evil may be destroyed or eradicated is to give up thinking evilly, substituting constructive, creative, uplifting thoughts; by planning business, social and spiritual success based on a firm, honest foundation.

When destructive thoughts creep into the mind, stop short, call a halt and immediately replace them with thoughts of beautiful, desirable things, with plans for some important work to be accomplished. In the beginning this requires deliberate effort, but by practice we quickly become proficient in the process of substitution.

If we succeed in this method of substitution we lose our inclination of trying to force others to our way of thinking, to do as we do or want to do. This one thing has been the curse of the ages and is a habit of most people whatever their activity or position in life. No one, however high in power or position, has the right to force others to his way of thinking, or to try to force them to believe as he does. Every man has free Will. Each man must assume responsibility for his own acts. Every man has the right to either destroy himself or build unto eternity.

If we act justly and amiably toward our fellow men, if we offer help in time of need, if we point out the way when they seek, we build all these qualities into our Souls. If men fail to appreciate our efforts in their behalf, if they condemn and persecute us, we reap the reward while they reap the penalty. Our duty is done and that is all the Law demands. Doing the part assigned to us by the Law helps us to build our own Immortal Soul "unto eternity."

When we become conscious that a righteous man is made to suffer by those of evil minds or malicious inclinations, we should shrink from sitting in judgment; it is not necessarily an indication that he is reaping the fruits of former sowing. It may well be that he is "laying up spiritual treasures in heaven" that will benefit him when he will be most in need. Even though there may be sorrow and suffering because of injustice, this is nowise an indication that the Soul is not climbing upward toward Conscious Individualization or that the heart within is not at peace.

As you seek the solution to the mystery of life, analyze your thoughts before you give them an abiding place in your mind; remember that thoughts are as seeds; they create desire and desire does the sowing. The grain and fruit will ripen in due season and will be according to the sowing.

Karma, the Law of Compensation, is the reaping of that which was sown by you and never that sown by any one else unless, as sometimes happens, you were the cause of his sowing.

You do not reap another's sowing unless you are responsible for it or accept it as your own. You cannot excuse
either a thought, a desire or an act under the plea that another was the cause of it, because you are not justified in hating anyone, irrespective of what that one may have attempted to do to you or caused you to do. Whatever others do, they must compensate for, must "pay to the utmost farthing" unless, as already said, you react to it in like manner.

Ignorance will not excuse us for any thought, desire or act. If we are ignorant and therefore guilty of an undesirable act, we must suffer for it and as a result gain experience which will teach us the right from the wrong.

There are few so ignorant as not to sense the difference between right and wrong, good and evil; few sin in blindness. The violent commit violence because they love violence or falsely believe benefits will result to them from it. Those who are spiritually blind dwell in darkness because the darkness hides the evil of their desire. Every living being consciously or unconsciously seeks for, and clings to, that which is the dominant feeling within the innermost self. Love seeks love because it can harmonize only with love. Evil seeks that which is destructive because only in doing so does it find satisfaction.

All the rules of life, every Law of being is written in the fiat: "Love ye one another." "Bear ye one another's burden." "Do unto others as you would be done by."

Man requires no other Law. If he follows the spirit of this inculcation he will attain to the highest estate and accomplish all that the Saviors and Initiates of the past ages did. "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart [let none but thy Soul dwell within the Temple], with all thy Soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy might," and it is certain that there can be no evil within the heart, no evil things come forth, no destructive thoughts find entrance there. Above your heart would be written as it was over the ancient temples of Initiation: DAMED BE HE WHO ENTERS HERE WITH EVIL INTENT. He who loves his fellow man, weak as he is, likewise to that degree loves his God and, to the same degree, builds an Immortal Soul. We may not condone the weakness and evil in other men, but we can love them for WHAT THEY MIGHT BE.

It requires no effort on our part to love those who love us, who are good, kind, gentle and at our service. We naturally are drawn to them, gravitate to them, respond to their love; but it requires real effort to hush the critical, condemning, judging self and have a kindly feeling for the lowly outcast, the man engaged in deliberately destroying body and Soul. It is difficult to call him "brother" and offer to help him to reestablish himself in society and the good opinion of men. Nevertheless, it is through such efforts made in the right attitude of mind and feeling in the heart THAT WE ARE ABLE TO GAIN MOST FOR OURSELVES.

Most of us are familiar with the story of the man who went down Jericho's road only to fall victim among thieves, who, stopping him, stripped him of all he possessed, wounded him and left him to die.

Few of those who have read the story really appreciate what this Jericho road really means, even though all but a very few of us have fallen by the wayside of this same Jericho road. We are daily traveling this road. Thieves are continually lying in wait, watching for an opportunity to take from us all things of value. Little do we appreciate the fact that the sinful thoughts and destructive desires of the heart are the "thieves" and "robbers" taking from us all that is of real value, leaving us by the wayside, denuded of everything but the husks of life.

Many have said that man is possessed of many devils. In a sense this is true. Every passion is a "devil" clamoring that we do his (its) bidding, that we satisfy the weakness or desire. Bunyan in his Pilgrim's Progress was correct in picturing every passion or evil within us as an animal clamoring for attention.

The destructive forces which are part of us might almost be thought of as possessing personalities. Their influence upon us has the cunningness of demons who appear to know just where the weakest point is in even the strongest and have the power to cause this weakness to betray us when we least expect it.

Knowing this we yet permit ourselves to be the victim time and again. We indulge time after time in sinful pleasures but are never satisfied. Regardless of what man does to satisfy evil desires, sin (nonbeneficial desires) keeps right on demanding more and more. It is the usurer from whom we foolishly borrow money and who, having us in his power, demands interest on interest, and all the while we get deeper and deeper into his clutches until the interest is far greater than the total sum of the amount first borrowed.

The evil passions within us are restless and ever in quest of a nameless something, like the wicked spirit spoken of in sacred literature: "It seeketh rest and findeth none." Constantly self-seeking, sapping our moral strength and power of resistance, taking from us all we possess and returning nothing to us but sorrow and regret. Sin consists in constantly doing things that have no constructive value for us or for humanity.

These (sins) are the thieves waiting for us along Jericho (life's) road. Against these we must ever be on guard, fortified by a knowledge of just what they are and how dangerous to our welfare.

The priest comes by the way, finds the victim which the thieves have left to die, but self-righteously passes him by, taking the other side of the road.

The wayfarer is the Soul journeying down life's pathway, fighting continually against the unrighteous desires of the flesh, the carnal man. The priest here is the bigoted self-righteous mentality that refuses to offer help in other than the present accepted dogmatic, creed bound, usage-corroded manner. It is the mind that reverences the opinion of the world at large more than it loves the Soul within. This mentality of the hidebound orthodox is worldly-wise and heartless, cold and unmoved by misery and suffering. Its verdict is: "He did not comply with the edicts of church or common opinion so let him suffer."

The Levite comes by; he stops only long enough to look upon the sufferer, then like the priest he also passes by. The Levite is the possessor of the proud, haughty, self-righteous mind, self-satisfied and seldom does more than to pause long enough to satisfy curiosity and offering the age-old, "I told you so."

Then, after long last, approaches the despised Samaritan, an outcast from the association of good society, of the self-appointed guardians of smugness, misnamed goodness, that countless millions of self-righteous personalities who believe themselves saved by a blind faith irrespective of their unhallowed thought, unholy desires and acts in daily intercourse with other men. It is the Samaritan who, unacceptable to those entrenched in authority and generally unacceptable to society, is nevertheless possessed by a mind filled with kindness and compassion, ministers to the needs of the suffering and neglected Soul, who gives ear to the voice of sorrow and suffering and responds to the cry of distress.

This Samaritan is the mind that has learned to think for itself. Unconsciously it performs righteous deeds without even a thought of what others may think or of any reward to be received. This is the mentality that will ultimately bring to birth the Illuminated, Individualized Consciousness. It is the one of whom God will say: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."

The earnest, aspiring Soul does not seek either recognition or reward; the efforts made are in themselves rewards. It does not expect glory; it performs its duty for the sole reason that it is possessed with a longing to fulfill its destiny. It unconsciously does unto others as it would have others do unto it.

The Nazarene was, or possessed such a Soul. He lived the truth BECAUSED HE LOVED THE TRUTH, so that others might profit by His works and His example.

In the very beginning of His conscious existence He realized that man, as a Soul, cannot exist by the material breath of life alone. Worldly fame, glory and position, while desirable if honestly obtained, will not in the least help to build a Soul or bring it into Consciousness. These worldly possessions are like building a palace on a foundation of sand. The first real storm will wash away the foundation and the building, though beautiful in appearance, is destroyed. The Soul alone is eternal. If we build on this rock (the Soul) we will have built unto eternity.

There are as many different Souls as there are bodies they inhabit. There are selfish, jealous, envious, malicious, hateful, resentful and cold but self-righteous Souls. All these are built on a foundation of sand. They exist for a day, then pass to be known no more. These Souls are not destroyed by God. He neither condemns, damns nor destroys them. If they are destroyed or lose personality, it is as a result of their own thoughts, desires and acts or lack of action; the sins of omission being as great as those of commission. God does not punish. He does not destroy. Man punishes himself. Man is either his own Savior or destroyer. "The Soul that sinneth it shall die." Could there be a plainer statement? NOWHERE IS IT WRITTEN: "The Soul that sinneth, it shall be destroyed by God."

Fire and brimstone, the substances of the "hell" of orthodoxy, will burn up material substances, but have no effect upon that which is spiritual. The fire and brimstone, having the power to destroy the Soul, are created by the unregenerated mind and bring destruction to the Soul by starving it through refusing to supply it with the constructive material it needs: Love, compassion, kindness, generosity, forgiveness and the other emotions that have their domain in the heart.

God neither countenances nor forgives evil; nor does He compromise with evil. He who compromises is lost. These are eternal fiats. The good in man's Soul either counterbalances the evil and "saves" him or the evil is greater than the good and is his destroyer.

The Soul may reach a stage where it is momentarily balanced between good and evil, "weighed in the balance," as it were, but it cannot remain so for long. It must either push forward toward its righteous destiny of Cosmic Consciousness, or gradually retrograde. Nothing in nature can stand still for any length of time.

In following Divine dictates, whether enunciated by the lowly Nazarene or the great Initiate Apollonius of Tyana, we soon learn that it is possible to overbalance, replace evil by good, and thus build a Soul by deeds that benefit mankind and thereby build the Soul into Consciousness by deliberate effort.

"Love ye one another" and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" will gradually weaken and then sever every bond that has the power to bind you to the dead past or to the destructive evils of the present and help you to attain that freedom which is the rightful inheritance of every Soul that comes to earth. This is the "washing of your robes, making them white as snow, though they may have become as scarlet."

He who wrote as John in Revelation tells us that those who wear robes of white are those who have succeeded in overcoming many errors. Man does not answer for the sins of others, nor for the hatred and wickedness of those who hate him. He suffers only for the deeds of which he himself is guilty or for the work he should have done or the services he failed to render to others less fortunate than he, and which might have started such others on the Path forward and upward.

No man is or can become so truly and fully good as to remove the possibility of a temporary fall. He in whom abides truth and goodness may be tempted more frequently than the one in whom there is more evil. The man who is truly good may fall, but he will again rise through trials and tribulations that follow, and, readjusting himself, he becomes stronger than ever. No man has truly failed or fallen who will refuse to stay down, but arises and tries once more. Try, and try again, and you will succeed at last. That is the Law.

We may pass through trials without sinning; nevertheless, the man who has sinned deeply and despite his experiences has developed the Will and strength to triumph over all that besets him is just as worthy as he who has sinned little but has been of little help to his fellow men. "Though your sins be as scarlet"; let this encourage you in your efforts to become free.

All the tares a man may have sown are gathered together and then consumed by the fierceness of his own Soul's fire, will raise that Soul to greater enlightenment (Light) and build it to greater glory in the image of the Father.

The Law of Compensation, the action of Karma, is absolute and cannot be set aside. God established the Law; we are judged by the Law. We must, and we will, reap that which we sowed; either now, soon, or in the distant future. Let nothing induce us to believe otherwise, lest it be the betrayal of our better self and to our own detriment.
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