“In the second case, that is, in relation to the functions of the four bodies, the automatism of the physical body depends upon the influences of the other bodies. Instead of the discordant and often contradictory activity of different desires, there is one single I, whole, indivisible, and permanent; there is individuality, dominating the physical body and its desires and able to overcome both its reluctance and its resistance. Instead of the mechanical process of thinking there is consciousness. And there is will, that is, a power, not merely composed of various often contradictory desires belonging to different “I’s,” but issuing from consciousness and governed by individuality or a single and permanent I. Only such a will can be called “free,” for it is independent of ACCIDENT and cannot be altered or directed from without. Chapter Two

“It sometimes happens that the bodies are quite good and in order, but that the ‘connections’ are not working. What then is the use of the whole organization? Just as in the case of undeveloped bodies, the whole organization is inevitably controlled from below, that is, not by the will of the master, but by ACCIDENT. Chapter Five

“In order to know the future it is necessary first to know the present in all its details, as well as to know the past. Today is what it is because yesterday was what it was. And if today is like yesterday, tomorrow will be like today. If you want tomorrow to be different, you must make today different. If today is simply a consequence of yesterday, tomorrow will be a consequence of today in exactly the same way. And if one has studied thoroughly what happened yesterday, the day before yesterday, a week ago, a year, ten years ago, one can say unmistakably what will and what will not happen tomorrow. But at present we have not sufficient material at our disposal to discuss this question seriously. What happens or may happen to us may depend upon three causes: upon ACCIDENT, upon fate, or upon our own will. Such as we are, we are almost wholly dependent upon ACCIDENT. We can have no fate in the real sense of the word any more than we can have will. If we had will, then through this alone we should know the future, because we should then make our future, and make it such as we want it to be. If we had fate, we could also know the future, because fate corresponds to type. If the type is known, then its fate can be known, that is, both the past and the future. But ACCIDENTs cannot be foreseen. Today a man is one, tomorrow he is different: today one thing happens to him, tomorrow another.” Chapter Six

“The right development of these octaves is based on what looks an ACCIDENT. It sometimes happens that octaves going parallel to the given octave, intersecting or meeting it, in some way or another fill up its ‘intervals’ and make it possible for the vibrations of the given octave to develop in freedom and without checks. Observation of such rightly developing octaves establishes the fact that if at the necessary moment, that is, at the moment when the given octave passes through an ‘interval,’ there enters into it an ‘additional shock’ which corresponds in force and character, it will develop further without hindrance along the original direction, neither losing anything nor changing its nature. Chapter Seven

“We must now dwell on the idea of the ‘additional shocks’ which make it possible for the lines of forces to reach a projected aim. As I said before, shocks may occur ACCIDENTally. Accident is of course a very uncertain thing. But those lines of development of forces which are straightened out by ACCIDENT, and which man can sometimes see, or suppose, or expect, create in him more than anything else the illusion of straight lines. That is to say, he thinks that straight lines are the rule and broken and interrupted lines the exception. This in its turn creates in him the illusion that it is possible to do; possible to attain a projected aim. In reality a man can do nothing. If by ACCIDENT his activity gives a result, even though it resembles only in appearance or in name the original aim, a man assures himself and others that he has attained the aim which he set before himself and that anyone else would also be able to attain his aim, and others believe him. In reality this is illusion. A man can win at roulette. But this would be ACCIDENT. Attaining an aim which one has set before oneself in life or in any particular sphere of human activity is just the same kind of ACCIDENT. The only difference is that in regard to roulette a man at least knows for certain whether he has lost or won on each separate occasion, that is, on each separate stake. But in the activities of his life, particularly with activities of the kind that many people are concerned in and when years pass between the beginning of something and its result, a man can very easily deceive himself and take the result ‘obtained’ as the result desired, that is, believe that he has won when on the whole he has lost. Chapter Seven

“The greatest insult for a ‘man-machine’ is to tell him that he can do nothing, can attain nothing, that he can never move towards any aim whatever and that in striving towards one he will inevitably create another. Actually of course it cannot be otherwise. The ‘man-machine’ is in the power of ACCIDENT. His activities may fall by ACCIDENT into some sort of channel which has been created by cosmic or mechanical forces and they may by ACCIDENT move along this channel for a certain time, giving the illusion that aims of some kind are being attained. Such ACCIDENTal correspondence of results with the aims we have set before us or the attainment of aims in small things which can have no consequences creates in mechanical man the conviction that he is able to attain any aim, ‘is able to conquer nature’ as it is called, is able to ‘arrange the whole of his life,’ and so on. Chapter Seven

“In the life of an ordinary man truth and falsehood have no moral value of any kind because a man can never keep to one single truth. His truth changes. If for a certain time it does not change, it is simply because it is kept by ‘buffers.’ And a man can never tell the truth. Sometimes ‘it tells’ the truth, sometimes ‘it tells’ a lie. Consequently his truth and his falsehood have no value; neither of them depends upon him, both of them depend upon ACCIDENT. And this is equally true when applied to a man’s words, to his thoughts, his feelings, and to his conceptions of truth and falsehood. Chapter Eight

“The question of will, of one’s own will and of another man’s will, is much more complicated than it seems at the first glance. A man has not sufficient will to do, that is, to control himself and all his actions, but he has sufficient will to obey another person. And only in this way can he escape from the law of ACCIDENT. There is no other way. Chapter Eight

“I mentioned before about fate and ACCIDENT in man’s life. We will now take the meaning of these words in more detail. Fate also exists but not for everyone. Most people are separated from their fate and live under the law of ACCIDENT only. Fate is the result of planetary influences which correspond to a man’s type. We will speak about types later. In the meantime you must grasp one thing. A man can have the fate which corresponds to his type but he practically never does have it. This arises because fate has relation to only one part of man, namely to his essence. Chapter Eight

“If essence is subject to the influence of fate, does it mean that compared with ACCIDENT fate is always favorable to a man?” asked somebody present. “And can fate bring a man to the work?” Chapter Eight

“No, it does not mean this at all,” G. answered him. “Fate is better than ACCIDENT only in the sense that it is possible to take it into account, it is possible to know it beforehand; it is possible to prepare for what is ahead. In regard to ACCIDENT one can know nothing. But fate can be also unpleasant or difficult. In this event, however, there are means for isolating oneself from one’s fate. The first step towards this consists in getting away from general laws. Just as there is individual ACCIDENT, so is there general or collective ACCIDENT. And in the same way as there is individual fate, there is a general or collective fate. Collective ACCIDENT and collective fate are governed by general laws. If a man wishes to create individuality of his own he must first free himself from general laws. General laws are by no means all obligatory for man; he can free himself from many of them if he frees himself from ‘buffers’ and from imagination. All this is connected with liberation from personality. Personality feeds on imagination and falsehood. If the falsehood in which man lives is decreased and imagination is decreased, personality very soon weakens and a man begins to be controlled either by fate or by a line of work which is in its turn controlled by another man’s will; this will lead him until a will of his own has been formed, capable of withstanding both ACCIDENT and, when necessary, fate.” Chapter Eight

“Man lives in life under the law of ACCIDENT and under two kinds of influences again governed by ACCIDENT. Chapter Ten

“They are let out into life for a definite purpose, and become mixed with influences of the first kind. But it must be borne in mind that these influences are conscious only in their origin. Coming into the general vortex of life they fall under the general law<law of ACCIDENT and begin to act mechanically, that is, they may act on a certain definite man or may not act; they may reach him or they may not. In undergoing change and distortion in life through transmission and interpretation, influences of the second kind are transformed into influences of the first kind, that is, they become, as it were, merged into the influences of the first kind. Chapter Ten

“If the magnetic center works rightly and if a man really searches, or even if he does not search actively yet feels rightly, he may meet another man who knows the way and who is connected directly or through other people with a center existing outside the law of ACCIDENT, from which proceed the ideas which created the magnetic center. Chapter Ten

“Here again there are many possibilities. But this will be spoken of later on. For the moment let us imagine that he has met a man who really knows the way and is ready to help him. The influence of this man upon him goes through his magnetic center. And then, at this point, the man frees himself from the law of ACCIDENT. This is what must be understood. The influence of the man who knows the way upon the first man is a special kind of influence, differing from the former two, first of all in being a direct influence, and secondly in being a conscious influence. Influences of the second kind, which create magnetic center, are conscious in their origin but afterwards they are thrown into the general vortex of life, are intermixed with influences created in life itself, and are equally subject to the law of ACCIDENT. Influences of the third kind can never be subject to the law of ACCIDENT; they are themselves outside the law of ACCIDENT and their action also is outside the law of ACCIDENT. Influences of the second kind can proceed through books, through philosophical systems, through rituals. Influences of the third kind can proceed only from one person to another, directly, by means of oral transmission. Chapter Ten

“So far I have spoken of the right magnetic center, of the right guide, and of the right way. But a situation is possible in which the magnetic center has been wrongly formed. It may be divided in itself, that is, it may include contradictions. In it, moreover, may enter influences of the first kind, that is, those created in life, under the guise of influences of the second kind, or the traces of influences of the second kind but distorted to such an extent that they have become their own opposite. Such a wrongly formed magnetic center cannot give a right orientation. A man with a wrong magnetic center of this kind may also look for the way and he may meet another man who will call himself a teacher and will say that he knows the way and that he is connected with a center standing outside the law of ACCIDENT. But in reality he may not know the way and may not be connected with such a center. Moreover here again there are many possibilities: “1. He may be genuinely mistaken and think that he knows something, when in reality he knows nothing. “2. He may believe another man, who in his turn may be mistaken. “3. He may deceive consciously. Chapter Ten

At one of the following meetings, in the presence of G., when he made me repeat what he had said about the way and about magnetic center, I embodied his idea in the following diagram: V …life; H … an individual man; A … influences created in life, that is, in life itself — the first kind of influences; B … influences created outside life but thrown into the general vortex of life — the second kind of influences; Hi … a man, connected by means of succession with the esoteric center or pretending to it; E … esoteric center, standing outside the general laws of life; M … magnetic center in man; C … influence of man h1 on man h; in the event of his actually being connected with the esoteric center, directly or by succession, this is the third kind of influences. This influence is conscious, and under its action at the point m, that is, in the magnetic center, a man becomes free from the law of ACCIDENT; H2 … a man, deceiving himself or deceiving others and having no connection, either directly or by succession, with the esoteric center. Chapter Ten

“But it must be remembered in this connection that a ‘black magician,’ whether good or evil, has at all events been at a school. He has learned something, has heard something, knows something. He is simply a ‘half-educated man’ who has either been turned out of a school or who has himself left a school having decided that he already knows enough, that he does not want to be in subordination any longer, and that he can work independently and even direct the work of others. All ‘work’ of this kind can produce only subjective results, that is to say, it can only increase deception and increase sleep instead of decreasing them. Nevertheless something can be learned from a ‘black magician’ although in the wrong way. He can sometimes by ACCIDENT even tell the truth. That is why I say that there are many things worse than ‘black magic.’ Such are various ‘occult’ and theosophical societies and groups. Not only have their teachers never been at a school but they have never even met anyone who has been near a school. Their work simply consists in aping. But imitation work of this kind gives a great deal of self-satisfaction. One man feels himself to be a ‘teacher,’ others feel that they are ‘pupils,’ and everyone is satisfied. No realization of one’s nothingness can be got here and if people affirm that they have it, it is all illusion and self-deception, if not plain deceit. On the contrary, instead of realizing their own nothingness the members of such circles acquire a realization of their own importance and a growth of false personality. Chapter Eleven

“There is not and there cannot be any choice of the people who come into touch with the ‘ways.’ In other words, nobody selects them, they select themselves, partly by ACCIDENT and partly by having a certain hunger. Whoever is without this hunger cannot be helped by ACCIDENT. And whoever has this hunger very strongly can be brought by ACCIDENT to the beginning of a way in spite of all unfavorable circumstances.” Chapter Seventeen