Superior men and superior women are born or evolved. They are those whose natural thinking and conception of life are higher and beyond the average. I do not believe that it is right to speak of the superior men and superior women in the sense of greater divinity, for we all have the same degree of divinity, all have the same soul of God; but there is something else in such men and women that make them above the average, something that gives them a natural or easy understanding of God and His Laws, and our relation to Him.

It also makes them superior in mental power, in ability to see and understand, to hear and realize, to be intuitive, clairvoyant and clairaudient. These people become successful in life, happy, prosperous, learned, mighty. Often, some special mental training is necessary to help them attain these things, and that is why there is such a school as ours, with its higher teachings, intended to bring out and make useful the superior qualities of man.

I would not shut the door to any of those who think they can achieve the heights of a true follower, for all will learn something, gain some help and some advantage, even though it may not manifest until their next incarnation.

Why are some persons superior? It is because of high attainments in the last incarnation. We begin in each incarnation where we left off in the last. As childhood develops in us the ability to think, we acquire certain tastes, likes and dislikes, and later, as we learn to sit alone and meditate, we find that we are becoming conscious of the attitude of mind we had at the close of the last incarnation.

If the last one ended with high aspirations, noble thinking, and longing for greater knowledge, and greater happiness — with no bitterness toward mankind, no hatred toward enemies, no sinful desires, no injustice, no cruelty — then early in this incarnation, this same high, super-attainment or development will have come forward, regardless of the place of our birth, our environment, our station in life, our wealth or our outer education.

In this sense, we are not all born equal, and because of this fact, our present life is due, to a great extent, to what we made it in the last incarnation. Of course, there are those who start early in this life to overcome the bad effects of the last incarnation, and finally end this one in a much higher state than when they came into it.

They are the ones this School is designed to help. However, when it comes to our real workers, those who constitute the backbone of the Holy Order of MANS, they must be found among those who prepared themselves in the last incarnation and who will constitute the supermen and superwomen of this Age.

What does it mean to be such a one? It means everything that is heartily discouraging to others. Did you ever stop to think that there is nothing so thankless in this world as devoting one’s self to humanitarian work? If you develop yourself to where the healing gift is easy to apply and you quickly and conveniently go about giving personal treatments or absent treatments that are almost like miracles, you will find that seldom do the sick express the words “thank you” when they are well. They may even say, as I have heard them say so many hundreds of times: “Perhaps I was not as sick as I thought I was,” or, “Perhaps nature would have cured me anyway.”

When so little thanks or appreciation is expressed when health has been helped, one can easily imagine how much less is thought of help in other personal problems. The attitude on the part of the masses seems to be that if a man or woman has any Divine power expressing through him or her, then it is a gift of God and is no credit to him, and he should not be thanked for his effort, or for the possession of such a gift. It is as though God bestowed these gifts on one without that one using any effort to be prepared or to be worthy.

The most discouraging thing is the fact that your whole life is made up of two phases of experience — you are either very happy at one hour or very sad. You sense joy as but few can sense it, and you get the utmost of happiness out of life; then at times you are sorrowful, sad at heart, and it seems as though the sorrow of the world rests on your consciousness.

The Master Jesus typified that condition often. Few understand you, few sympathize with you, and that is what makes it so hard; but you must be prepared to meet these changing conditions. You must be able to meet everyone and anyone, and admit that he is different in nature, different in development, but one in Christ.

As success comes to you in life and you attain the necessary things, even abundance, and great joy seems to be present, you must be able to go apart from it all for an hour sometimes, and alone pass through sadness and sympathy for those who have not, those who are in sorrow or pain; you must be ready and anxious to share your abundance, for you know that if you do not share it, it may all be taken away from you, and when you again desire what is necessary, it will not manifest and will not be forthcoming. You learn how true are the words of one who said, “The things we value the most are the things we have given away.” He was referring to material things, to beautiful things given away to others to make them happy.

When once the mystic on the path understands that in all his planning, all his thinking, all his building, he must have others in mind, then he begins to attune himself with the universal mind. He then attracts, receives, and gives; but, for this very reason, his life is discouraging at times, to himself and to others.

He must be willing to see his family do without some luxuries, so that he may give to others who need greater help; he must be willing to face criticism for his acts, which are seldom under-stood by his friends, and always misinterpreted by his enemies. Even his success in life brings forth criticism, for he is envied, and some may say that he has secret powers that are uncanny.

He finds his greatest trial, however, in living his vows to the Holy Order of MANS. Well meaning friends, not knowing the true value of his present association, will recommend other channels for his altruistic activities. He may yield, believing that they may better widen his scope of activities and that he might better help humanity through diversified methods.

Also at times, his powers, his abilities, will become so great that he is tempted to feel that as a chosen Son of God, he can go on alone independently, and needs no longer any contact with the Holy Order of MANS or its leaders. This, as some have learned, is a serious mistake.

The true adept, one who has reached far heights, and development in his mastership of the principles of the Law, never cuts himself off from his brother workers and teachers and the Science of Man. He realizes that in a Cosmic sense, this displays an ingratitude and a lacking of the true mystical spirit of humility. Almost all who have done this have severed the golden thread that has helped them to keep in attunement with the Cosmic. It is not because they have severed connections with the Holy Order of MANS that such has come about, but rather, because of the particular reason they have done so.

Stop right here and ponder over the words just given. You want to advance to the very highest level of the work. You want to be a true disciple and attain self-mastery and be a power for good, with health and prosperity. Are you willing to face the difficulties, tests and trials mentioned in the foregoing? If you are, you must express that determination.

The Tree of Life is a unique method of presenting fundamental truths in their proper sequence, in their natural order, so they may be grasped and easily understood and effectively applied. The Cosmic truths are like parts of a picture puzzle. When they are all properly combined and united, their nature or subject is easily ascertained.

There is a substitution of simplicity for complexity. The many parts of a picture puzzle when in a disorganized pile, without the proper relationship to each other, give no idea of their importance to the finished puzzle. In the finished puzzle, we have not taken away any of the parts that were before us, nor have we added any. But each part which was necessary was related in such a way as to add its significance to the significance of every part and the whole idea becomes apparent.

It is the same with the study of nature’s truths. We may go through life and accidentally discover here and there some great fundamental truth, and that truth in and by itself may be inspiring, yet, it is not practical unless it can be related to other truths of the Cosmic. When we accidentally discover a truth we do not know its sequence in the Cosmic plan.

The Tree of Life, therefore, gives you these truths, in their sequential order. As you receive a new truth each week, or each month, as the case may be, you gradually conceive the whole plan. You finally know just exactly where to fit that truth into your life where it will do the most good.

This helps the individual by providing him with a blueprint of the proper life. By proper life, we mean one that is compatible with Cosmic law and order. It proves a method for the assembling of knowledge, presented in a manner that will best serve the student.

About one out of every five becomes discouraged when he finds he must really study; he expected short, easily remembered laws to be given him with no notes, no practicing, no thinking. He seems to feel that the Holy Order of MANS can “wish” some power into his hands and that is all there is to it. Others think that merely being initiated is enough. But Jesus said, “Follow me.”

The teachings of this School does not interfere with any religion, East or West. Our teaching will not interfere, for they all contain the TRUTHS, all the laws, and all the principles that make for a religious worship and reverence toward God. The higher teachings of the Holy Order of MANS do more than any other school of thought to inspire Bible reading and study together with the reading of all sacred literature.