“To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books.”

“Man’s status in the natural world is determined by the quality of his thinking.”

“Perfect freedom of expression is the goal of all life.”

Life is the span of time appointed for accomplishment. Every fleeting moment is an opportunity, and those who are great are the ones who have recognized life as the opportunity for all things.

Man is climbing an endless flight of steps, with his eyes fixed upon the goal at the top. Many cannot see the goal, and only one or two steps are visible before them. He has learned, however, one great lesson—namely, that as he builds his own character he is given strength to climb the steps. The principal purpose of life then is to release oneself from the domination of government by the perfection of personal character.

The world is the schoolroom of God. Our being in school does not make us learn, but within that school is the opportunity for all learning. It has its grades and its classes, its sciences and its arts, and admission to it is the birthright of man. Its graduates are its teachers, its pupils are all created things. Its examples are Mature, and its rules are God’s laws. Those who would go into the greater colleges and universities must first, day by day, and year by year, work through the common school of life and present to their new teachers the diplomas they have won, upon which is written the name that none may read save those who have received it. The hours may be long, and the teachers cruel, but each of us must walk that path, and the only ones ready to go onward are those who have passed through the gateway of experience.

“Man is never truly wise until he has fathomed the riddle of his own existence.”

If the infinite had not desired man to be wise, he would not have bestowed upon him the faculty of knowing. Wisdom fears no thing, but still bows humbly to its own source, with its deeper understanding, loves all things, for it has seen the beauty, the tenderness, and the sweetness which underlie Life’s mystery.

Centuries ago, one of the secret masters of the Quest wrote: “The Eternal Good reveals its will and pleasure through the body of Nature and the motions of Universal Law. Within the body of Nature and Law there is a soul which must be discovered by great thoughtfulness. And within that soul of Nature and Law there is a spirit which must be sought with great understanding; for verily I say unto you, my brothers, that it is this spirit concealed from the profane but revealed to the thoughtful, which giveth life.” This, then, is the design of our foundations: that men shall abide together in peace and shall devote their energies to the common cause of discovery.

Man is greater than the animal, not in strength of body, nor in shrewdness, nor in the power of his senses, nor even in skill and patience; man is superior because he contains within himself the faculties and powers by which he can perceive his true place in a divine order of life. His power lies in his dreams, his visions, and his ideals. If these intangibles are left uncultivated, man is at best but a superior kind of beast, subject to all the ills and vicissitudes of an unenlightened creation. It is not by destroying the lower nature that man becomes virtuous; it is by the transmutation and regeneration of every base quality and attitude that he achieves divinity.

Man is given by Nature, a gift, and that gift is the privilege of labor. Through labor he learns all things. The world is a great prison; its bars are the Unknown. And each is a prisoner until, at last, he earns the right to tear these bars from their moldering sockets, and pass, illuminated and inspired, into the darkness, which becomes lighted by that presence. All peoples seek the temple where God dwells, where the spirit of the great Truth illuminates the shadows of human ignorance, but they know not which way to turn nor where this temple is. They wander in darkness seeking light, failing to realize that the light is in the heart of the darkness. Man tries weakly to follow in the steps of those who have attained [truth and illumination], but all too often finds the path more difficult than he even dreamed. So he kneels in prayer before the mountain he cannot climb, from whose top gleams the light which he is neither strong enough to reach nor wise enough to comprehend.

“An unhealthy mind, even in a healthy body, will ultimately destroy health. Man’s body is a living temple and he is a high priest, placed there to keep the House of the Lord in order. Man’s security comes from within himself.”

We are here to gain balance in a sphere of unbalance; to find rest in a restless thing; to unveil illusion; and to slay the dragon of our own animal natures. Man is born with eyes, yet only after long years of sorrow does he learn to see clearly and in harmony with the Plan. He is born with senses, but only after long experience and fruitless strivings does he bring these senses to the temple and lays them as offerings upon the altar of the great Father, who alone does all things well and with understanding. Man is, in truth, born in the sin of ignorance, but with a capacity for understanding. He has a mind capable of wisdom, a heart capable of feeling, and a hand strong for the great work in life—truing the rough ashlar into the perfect stone.

Much has been said of the loneliness of wisdom, and how much the Truth seeker becomes a pilgrim wandering from star to star. To the ignorant, the wise man is lonely because he abides in distant heights of the mind. But the wise man himself does not feel lonely. Wisdom brings him nearer to life; closer to the heart of the world than the foolish man can ever be. Bookishness may lead to loneliness, and scholarship may end in a battle of beliefs, but the wise man gazing off into space sees not an emptiness, but a space full of life, truth, and law.

We can only escape from the world by outgrowing the world. Death may take man out of the world but only wisdom can take the world out of the man. As long as the human being is obsessed by worldliness, he will suffer from the Karmic consequences of false allegiances. When however, worldliness is transmuted into Spiritual Integrity he is free, even though he still dwells physically among worldly things. The supreme human purpose is the perfection of man. This must come first, and when this end has been achieved all good things will inevitably follow. Only enlightened men can sustain enlightened leadership; only the wise can recognize and reward wisdom. Only the illumined reason can carry the understanding part of man upward to the light.

“If woman dreams true, and shares her dream with the men who are close to her, these same men will find their greatest joy and sense of completeness in the service of her vision. It has always been so, and will always be so.”

“We are the gods of the atoms that make up ourselves but we are also the atoms of the gods that make up the universe.”

“The way of heaven can be known and experienced through the heart.”

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~Manly Palmer Hall was a Canadian author, lecturer, astrologer, mystic and Freemason. Over his 70-year career he gave thousands of lectures and published over 150 volumes, of which the best known is The Secret Teachings of All Ages. In 1934 he founded the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles.

Excerpts from The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Spiritual Centers in Man, The Dark Night of the Soul: Man’s Instinctive Search for Reality, The Illumined Mind: The Universal Savior, Woman, The Mother of All Living

Excellence Reporter 2023