The Discipline of the Inner Flame
There is in every man a hidden flame, which may serve either as a lamp before the altar of God or as a wildfire to consume his strength. It is not enough to speak of “good intentions”; the fire must be governed, the life must be ordered, the will must be schooled to obedience. Without discipline, even noble impulses burn out into mere smoke and ashes.
Many in this age call themselves “seekers,” yet refuse the first condition of seeking: the willingness to be corrected. They will gladly read a page that praises, but they turn away from a line that reproves. Such souls desire to feel spiritual, but not to become truly spiritual, for that would require them to put away cherished habits, practices, and companions which drag them down.
The inner flame is disciplined, first, by a firm decision to renounce whatever we know to be unclean. This is not a matter of mood, but of will. One cannot cling to impurity and expect illumination. The man who asks for light while he still loves his darkness, lies to himself.
Secondly, the flame is fed by daily acts of duty: prayer, quiet reading of sound doctrine, honest labor, faithfulness to one’s obligations in the home and in one’s calling. These things are not “little”; they are the very channels by which strength descends. No man becomes an Initiate by neglecting the simple duties set plainly before him.
Lastly, the flame is guarded by watchfulness. The world, the flesh, and the lower mind will seize every idle opening. Therefore the earnest Soul does not permit itself the luxury of continual distraction. It chooses its words, its companions, its pastimes; and where these are hostile to its inward vow, it quietly withdraws.
Such discipline is not harshness for its own sake. It is the necessary schooling of a being that would, in the end, stand as a conscious Immortal in the light of God. To those who will not endure this schooling, the higher Mysteries must remain closed.