“On the way of the monk a man has a teacher, and a part of his duty, a part of his work, consists in having absolute faith in the teacher, in submitting to him absolutely, in obedience. But the chief thing on the way of the monk is faith in GOD, in the love of GOD, in constant efforts to obey and serve GOD, although, in his understanding of the idea of GOD and of serving GOD, there may be much that is subjective and contra­dictory. Fragments: Two

“In order to grasp the essence of this teaching it is necessary clearly to understand the idea that the ways are the only possible methods for the development of man’s hidden possibilities. This in turn shows how difficult and rare such development is. The development of these possibilities is not a law. The law for man is existence in the circle of mechanical influences, the state of ‘man-machine.’ The way of the development of hidden possibilities is a way against nature, against GOD. This explains the difficulties and the exclusiveness of the ways. The ways are narrow and strait. But at the same time only by them can anything be attained. In the general mass of everyday life, especially modern life, the ways are a small, quite imperceptible phenomenon which, from the point of view of life, need not exist at all. But this small phenomenon contains in itself all that man has for the development of his hidden possibilities. The ways are opposed to everyday life, based upon other principles and subject to other laws. In this consists their power and their significance. In everyday life, even in a life filled with scientific, philosophical, religious, or social interests, there is nothing, and there can be nothing, which could give the possibilities which are contained in the ways. The ways lead, or should lead, man to immortality. Everyday life, even at its best, leads man to death and can lead to nothing eke. The idea of the ways cannot be understood if the possibility of man’s evolution without their help is admitted. Fragments: Two

“The monk knows what he wants a little better; he is guided by religious feeling, by religious tradition, by a desire for achievement, for salvation; he trusts his teacher who tells him what to do, and he believes that his efforts and sacrifices are ‘pleasing to GOD.’ Let us suppose that a week of fasting, continual prayer, privations, and so on, enables him to attain what the fakir develops in himself by a month of self-torture. Fragments: Two

“In a man with a religious conception of the world, a Christian, the word ‘world’ will call up a whole series of religious ideas, will necessarily become connected with the idea of GOD, with the idea of the creation of the world or the end of the world, or of the ‘sinful’ world, and so on. Fragments: Four

“The next idea which it is necessary to master is the materiality of the universe which is taken in the form of the ray of creation. Everything in this universe can be weighed and measured. The Absolute is as material, as weighable and measurable, as the moon, or as man. If the Absolute is Cod it means that GOD can be weighed and measured, resolved into component elements, ‘calculated,’ and expressed in the form of a definite formula. Fragments: Five

“This question has many different sides to it. First of all what does immortal mean? Are you speaking of absolute immortality or do you admit different degrees? If for instance after the death of the body something remains which lives for some time preserving its consciousness, can this be called immortality or not? Or let us put it this way: how long a period of such existence is necessary for it to be called immortality? Then does this question include the possibility of a different ‘immortality* for different people? And there are still many other different questions. I am saying this only in order to show how vague they are and how easily such words as ‘immortality’ can lead to illusion. In actual fact nothing is immortal, even GOD is mortal. But there is a great difference between man and GOD, and, of course. GOD is mortal in a different way to man. It would be much better if for the word ‘immortality’ we substitute the words ‘existence after death.’ Then I will answer that man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing. Fragments: Five

The story is about an over-aged student of a seminary who, at a final examination, does not understand the idea of GOD’s omnipotence. Fragments: Five

“Even our division of time, that is, the days of the week into work days and Sundays, is connected with the same properties and inner conditions of our activity which depend upon the general law. The Biblical myth of the creation of the world in six days and of the seventh day in which GOD rested from his labors is also an expression of the law of octaves or an indication of it, though an incomplete one. Fragments: Seven

“You know the prayer ‘Holy GOD, Holy the Firm, Holy the Immortal’? This prayer comes from ancient knowledge. Holy GOD means the Absolute or All. Holy the Firm also means the Absolute or Nothing. Holy the Immortal signifies that which is between them, that is, the six notes of the ray of creation, with organic life. All three taken together make one. This is the coexistent and indivisible Trinity. Fragments: Seven

“There are certain states in ordinary sleep in which a man wants to awaken but cannot. He tells himself that he is awake but, in reality, he continues to sleep — and this can happen several times before he finally awakes. But in ordinary sleep, once he is awake, he is in a different state; in hypnotic sleep the case is otherwise; there are no objective characteristics, at any rate not at the beginning of awakening; a man cannot pinch himself in order to make sure that he is not asleep. And if, which GOD forbid, a man has heard anything about objective characteristics, Kundalini at once transforms it all into imagination and dreams. Fragments: Eleven

“That is something people always ask,” he said. “Whatever they may be speaking about, they ask: Ought it to be like that and how can it be changed, that is, what ought to be done in such a case? As though it were possible to change anything, as though it were possible to do anything. You at least ought to have realized by now how naive such questions are. Cosmic forces have created this state of affairs and cosmic forces control this state of affairs. And you ask: Can it be left like that or should it be changed! GOD himself could change nothing. Do you remember what was said about the forty-eight laws? They cannot be changed, but liberation from a considerable portion of them is possible, that is to say, there is a possibility of changing the state of affairs for oneself, it is possible to escape from the general law. You should understand that in this case as well as in all others the general law cannot be changed. But one can change one’s own position in relation to this law; one can escape from the general law. The more so since in this law about which I speak, that is, in the power of sex over people, are included many different possibilities. It includes the chief form of slavery and it is also the chief possibility of liberation. This is what you must understand. Fragments: Twelve

“Take the ordinary GOD have mercy upon me! What does it mean? A man is appealing to GOD. He should think a little, he should make a comparison and ask himself what GOD is and what he is. Then he is asking GOD to have mercy upon him. But for this GOD must first of all think of him, take notice of him. But is it worth while taking notice of him? What is there in him that is worth thinking about? And who is to think about him? GOD himself. You see, all these thoughts and yet many others should pass through his mind when he utters this simple prayer. And then it is precisely these thoughts which could do for him what he asks GOD to do. But what can he be thinking of and what result can a prayer give if he merely repeats like a parrot: ‘GOD have mercy! GOD have mercy! GOD have mercy!’ You know yourselves that this can give no result whatever. Fragments: Fifteen

“People who are not serious for the obyvatel are people who live by fantasies, chiefly by the fantasy that they are able to do something. The obyvatel knows that they only deceive people, promise them GOD knows what, and that actually they are simply arranging affairs for themselves — or they are lunatics, which is still worse, in other words they believe everything that people say.” Fragments: Seventeen