Discrimination

1. "To discern the principal issue and to remain on the path to it means to proceed to victory." [Fiery World I, 146]

 

2. "Whoever makes assertions about his devotion to the real and the authentic must particularly welcome the discernment of reality." [New Era Community, 162]

 

3. "… The so-called gift of discrimination is no gift at all but the result of labor and experience. The ridiculous word intuition is based on nothing but a limited understanding. One can acquire discrimination not through intuition but through many accumulations. ... Human beings have gone through many situations and have thereby refined their ability to judge. You can be sure that a person who lacks discrimination led a crude existence, which he made no attempt to leave behind, and thus deprived himself of the benefit of perceiving through the heart. The human heart is not young, for its substance is permanent." [Heart, 579]

 

4. "Only a spirit that has passed through countless forms and existences can accumulate that experience, that basis of feelings and imagination, without which there is no discrimination, no thought, no creativity." [Letters of Helena Roerich in 9 Volumes - 3.  99]

 

5. "True spirituality requires true discrimination, which is inherent only in the heart, but in a heart completely free and not obscured by the self." [Letters of Helena Roerich in 9 Volumes - 3. 100]

 

6. "Of course, it is difficult to develop or awaken straight-knowledge… All discrimination and knowledge comes only this way. And the main difficulty is that straight-knowledge does not awaken in us while feelings of selfishness, conceit, hypocrisy or insincerity prevail in our heart. Only when these echidnas are banished, the straight-knowledge takes their place and the voice of the heart becomes clear and unmistakable." [Letters of Helena Roerich in 9 Volumes - 4. 169]

 

7. "The ancient Covenant – "Know thyself" remains the basis of all Teachings. Discrimination is commanded by all Great Teachers, and, of course, it must begin first of all with oneself." [Letters of Helena Roerich in 9 Volumes - 7. 208]

 

8.  “…He who progresses spiritually knows how to discern what is the most important and the most undelayable. Do not think that the reasoning mind can help in this. The mind can lead one astray into an abyss of faulty interpretation. Only psychic energy, when in communion with the Higher World, can direct one’s discernment to the way of truth.." [Supermundane, 755]

 

9. "...One should know which forces are admissible for construction and which can bring harm. Discrimination can be attained only through adherence to the Highest Consciousness, because only the scope of pure striving can reveal the affirmed Covenant of Service. Hence, one should learn to acknowledge all the higher laws, constructing life upon them." [Hierarchy, 143]

 

10. "Verily, only the heart is able to penetrate into all actions, into all motives, into all entities, manifesting discernment. …Only that source which is saturated with the fire of subtle energies can offer a true measure of the judgments. For the affirmation of one’s forces in the Higher Spheres it is indispensable to intensify the forces of the heart, for there is no other quality of Fire which can replace these energies." [Fiery World III,101]

 

11. "...Only the heart allows you to penetrate into all actions and motives, into the very essence, showing recognition. Nothing can replace the creative fire of the heart." [Letters of Helena Roerich in 9 Volumes - 5. 098]

 

12. "Where the cognition of the heart is aglow, there will be discrimination." [Fiery World III, 102]

 

13. " Discernment of good and evil is already a pledge of the cognition of the true path. Transformation of the spirit is affirmed by the striving of transmutation and by the unification of the will with the Light. On the path to the Fiery World let us strive for the linking of our will with the Higher Light." [Fiery World III, 244]

 

14. "How can one explain why one thing is permitted, yet another, differing from it by only a hair’s breadth, is an unthinkable violation? Only a broadened consciousness can discern the border between creation and destruction. Many ancient cults combined creation and destruction into one symbol, thus indicating the closeness of these concepts, which are so crudely evaluated by the ordinary mind." [Supermundane, 215]

 

15. "The ability to recognize opposites ... grows only with the development of ... ardent love or attraction to Progress, to Beauty, to the Ideal. But this quality of discrimination accumulates slowly, because it encounters passionate obstacles in opposites that slow down or accelerate the development of recognition. ... The discrimination and accommodation of opposites incomparably contribute to the development of spirituality." [Letters of Helena Roerich in 9 Volumes - 9. 178]

 

16. "...Discrimination is one of the most pronounced fiery qualities. It is not straight-knowledge, but a glimmer, as it were, of the language of the Fiery World. …But such discrimination needs cultivation. It exists in the seed of the spirit, but one must evoke it from the storehouse of the Unmanifest. Therefore a sharpening of the consciousness must be urged. …Let one begin to judge according to the eyes; another by the intonation of voice; a third according to the bodily movements. It is immaterial where one begins, because the inner fire is reflected on all the nerve centers. And it is instructive to observe how words often fail to reflect the inner condition. With patience one can attain great results and disclose signs of fiery understanding." [Fiery World I, 660]

 

17. "Correct discrimination grows in the garden of optimism." [The Benefits of Trust by Nicholas Roerich]

 

18. "Discrimination is not distrust, but only a subtle action of reason in a sensitive person." [Letters of Helena Roerich in 9 Volumes - 9. 142]

 

19. "Discrimination is observation and knowledge, but suspicion is the beginning of distrust and destruction." [Letters of Helena Roerich in 9 Volumes - 9. 155]

 

20. "It is necessary to learn at any given moment to distinguish what is the most important in order to remove everything else that hinders him from consciousness." [Facets of Agni Yoga 1955, 158]