MKE Round 3 – Pilgrimage, Haanel, and Brierly

The last three lessons of the Master Key has given me a few things to ponder.  As I was reading Haanel’s words, I came across a similar passage in a Camino guidebook, by John Brierly. Do you think he could be a student of the Master Key as well?

Being one

In Part 13 of the Master Key, Haanel talks about how we are One with the Universal Mind:

Recognize the fact that you are part of the whole, and that a part must be the same in kind and quality as the whole; the only difference there can possibly be, is in degree.

When this tremendous fact begins to permeate your consciousness, when you really come into a realization of the fact that you, the spirit which thinks, is an integral part of the great whole, that it is the same in substance, in quality, in kind, that the Creator could create nothing different from Himself; then you are able to say ‘the Father and I are one’ and you come into an understanding of the beauty, the grandeur, the transcendental opportunities which have been placed at your disposal.  Charles Haanel, Master Key 13:26-27

That is SO powerful!  We are One with the Universal Mind – how cool is that?  You and I are pretty special, aren’t we?  And everyone else – they just don’t know it yet.  But you and I do.  This is how and why we can create our own blueprint – we are Creators, just like THE Creator!

And when I picked up the Camino guidebook just to read a bit and reminisce, I came across something that made me stop and think.  John Brierly wrote the most popular English language Camino guidebooks (though I personally prefer the Village to Village guides) and in his introduction, he talks about the past, present and future of the Camino.  He is talking about how Catholicism in Spain is declining (less than 20% of the population are active Catholics); yet the popularity of the Camino de Santiago, a Catholic pilgrimage, has soared in recent years (not including 2020 of course).

How do we interpret these trends?  There seems little doubt that there is a great thirst for genuine spiritual experience and a deep desire to refresh and enliven our religious (or spiritual) life.

I favour the emerging concept of a new and unprecedented flowering of human consciousness that is so positive and so profound that we have no collective idea where it will lead us.  We are awakening to a new spiritual age – one less dependent on an outer authority and more attuned to the God within.  John Brierly, A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino de Santiago

The God within – Wow, John Brierly, that sounds like what Haanel said – that the Father (or Universal Intelligence) and I are One.  It seems like I often come across bits of information or quotes or something happens in my life that just meshes with what I am learning in the Master Key Experience.  Everything IS connected!

More evidence for the mental diet

Almost every lesson in the Master Key seems to remind us to keep our thoughts positive, on what we want and NOT what we don’t want.  A few recent passages really spoke to me:

We know that thought is building for us the thing we think of and actually bringing it nearer, yet we find it difficult to banish fear, anxiety or discouragement, all of which are powerful thought forces, and which continually send the things we desire further away, so that it is often one step forward and two steps backward.  Charles Haanel, Master Key 12:3

Of course, worry, fear, and all negative thoughts produce a crop after their kind; those who harbour thoughts of this kind must inevitably reap what they have sown.  Charles Haanel,  Master Key 12:11

So how do I get all my steps to go in the same direction?  The direction I WANT them to go, that is.  I guess by persisting in the Mental Diet, right?  In fact, Haanel asks this question in lesson 13:

What then, is the proper method of procedure?  What are we to think in order to secure what we truly desire?  What you and I desire, what we all desire, what everyone is seeking, is Happiness and Harmony.  If we can be truly Happy we shall have everything the world can give.  If we are happy ourselves we can make others happy.  Charles Haanel, Master Key 13:18

Then in Lesson 14 we are asked to concentrate on Harmony:

But the thought must be clear cut, fixed, definite, unchangeable; you cannot take one step forward and two steps backward, neither can you spend twenty or thirty years of your life building up negative conditions as the result of negative thoughts, and then expect to see them all melt away as the result of fifteen or twenty minutes of right thinking.

If you enter into the discipline necessary to bring about a radical change in your life, you must do so deliberately, after giving the matter careful thought and full consideration, and then you must allow nothing to interfere with your decision.

This discipline, this change of thought, this mental attitude, not only brings you the material things which are necessary for your highest and best welfare, but brings health and harmonious conditions generally.

If you wish harmonious conditions in your life, you must develop a harmonious mental attitude.

Your world without is a reflection of your world within.  Charles Haanel, Master Key 14:26-30

My apologies, that is a lot of quoting.  But it all ties it together, doesn’t it?  It explains why we must maintain the vigilant guardsman at the gate, not allow negative thoughts and feelings to overwhelm us, and to focus on the positive and harmonious – on what we want to manifest in our lives.

I am looking forward to more of this in the coming weeks.  I find it interesting to follow the threads that weave themselves through the lessons.  The threads?  The Seven Laws of the Mind, the Four Little Habits – all the things Mark talks about each week.