Page 66 - Gnosis volume 2

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But on another hand:

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise... but is long suffering to un-ward, not

willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance... Nevertheless
we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwellest

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righteousness .
The gulf between man's moral weakness and his strength in the technical domain is
evident: marking time on the moral plane and rushing forward in leaps and bounds on

the technical plane. This widening gap is the outward proof of contemporary man's

incapacity to cross over from Knowing to Understanding.

We have proof that, from times immemorial, Tradition taught man the method of

bridging this gulf: by knowing oneself and working upon oneself.
It is imperative that we apply all our strength to the task of knowing ourselves, if we

wish to obtain a complete mastery over ourselves — mastery which will suffice to avoid

a catastrophe similar to the one to which the Holy Scriptures refer.

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* *

In order to understand the creative side of this self-discipline, we have to place it in

the context of the creative forces at work in the Universe.
We have seen already that the very principle of the creative energy, proceeding from

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Absolute I, is LOVE .

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II Peter, III, 9 & 13.
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I John, IV, 8.