Increasing our powers

There is one power that we should seek to cultivate, and that is our spiritual willpower. 

Every time we give in to a selfish or unworthy impulse we weaken our will and our moral sense and make it a little easier to yield to that impulse again.

While every time we resist a selfish or unworthy impulse we strengthen our will and our moral sense and make the next victory a little easier. 

By developing our will we become able to gradually improve the quality of our thoughts.

And therefore of our desires, feelings, and actions.

It cannot be too strongly emphasized that there are no short cuts to self-transformation and spiritual enlightenment. 

Listening to a meditation tape.

Chanting a mantra.

Following a weekend course.

Or reading a book will not automatically lead to the attainment of cosmic consciousness. 

They may help us.

Or they may hinder us.

But lasting progress can never be achieved by external means alone. 

Nor can it be bought. 

Self-realization is the fruit of many lives of self-purification and altruism. 

In the words of H. P. Blavatsky:

The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of metempsychoses and reincarnations. -- The Secret Doctrine 1:17

In other words, there is no favouritism in nature. 

Or in the circumstances of our birth.

Or in our basic character traits.

And the trials we undergo in the course of our lives are not the result of chance.

Nor are they dictated by the whim of some scheming deity.

They are of our own making.

The product of our own thoughts and deeds in past lives. 

And while we cannot change our past karma.

We can mold our future by how we live now.

David Pratt