Viveka

Viveka
"Viveka - The Sanskrit "discrimination" . The very first step in the path of occultism is the discrimination between the real and the unreal, between substance and phenomenon, between the Self and the Not-self, between spirit and matter." - LOOM, Glossary, pg 361

"Wisely therefore have all aspirants been enjoined to study and work at the development of viveka or that discrimination which safeguards from deception. If this quality is laboriously built in and cultivated in all events, big and little, in the daily life, the risks of being led astray will be nullified. [...] A third method [of attack by the DB] frequently employed is to envelop the disciple in a thick cloud of darkness, to surround him with an impenetrable night and fog through which he stumbles and often falls. It may take the form of a black cloud of emotional matter, of some dark emotion that seems to imperil all stable vibration and plunges the bewildered student into a blackness of despair; be feels that all is departing from him; he is a prey to varied and dismal emotions; he deems himself forsaken of all; he considers that all past effort has been futile and that naught remains but to die. At such times he needs much the gift [133] of viveka, and to earnestly weigh up and calmly reason out the matter. He should at these times remind himself that the darkness hides naught from the God within, and that the stable center of consciousness remains there, untouched by aught that may betide. He should persevere until the end, - the end of what? The end of the enveloping cloud, the point where it merges itself into sunlight; he should pass through its length and out into the daylight, realizing that nothing can at any time reach to and hurt the inner consciousness. God is within, no matter what transpires without. We are so apt to look out at environing circumstances, whether physical, astral or mental, and to forget that the inmost center of the heart hides our points of contact with the Universal Logos." - LOOM, pg 133