"Why do you not help me?" cries the disturbed mind of the youth of today. "Help me to progress and to know the meaning of life."

Young men and women today hold many mistaken notions, however much they may think they are after self-expression and individualism. Having discarded the dogmas and taboos of the past, they are at the stage when they are trying to swim in a raging torrent, while refusing to learn how to swim, even though there are those who can help them. They cannot be helped unless they are willing to listen.

The whole trouble stems from non-recognition of the purpose of life as explained, age after age, by the philosophers of the past. The youth of today believe that no one in the past has answered the questions they ask, and hope that someone in the present may be able to answer them, or that they will be able to find out for themselves. They stand in their own light, while seeking light to illuminate the present and the future.

Truth eludes them partly because they are not content with mere hearsay and require proof as to what is true; and proof today means something which can be demonstrated in the laboratory, something which can be seen with the eyes, or heard with the ears, or felt by the touch. Our youth refuse to acknowledge that to understand anything is proof enough to him who understands. Understanding is a faculty of the mind and functions either through the senses, or through mental perception, or, higher still, through spiritual-mental perception.

Youth, by mind-changing drugs, are trying to get out of the realm of the physical senses into a different world. The mystic tries to get out of the physical sense world into another world, not of the senses with objects to perceive, but of the essence of things, beyond form, ideas themselves ceasing to exist in the flood of mystic vision. Can we deny that some have had these visions? Do we know whether they are true or not? Can we prove them?

Here is the most important thing for all of us to grasp; we can neither prove they are wrong, nor prove they are true. Denial is a sign of the times. The youth of today deny all things which cannot be proved by sense-perception. Let us look at some of the things that are denied.

We deny reincarnation because it cannot be proved to us. Why not deny that we have only one life on earth, for this, too, cannot be proved to us?

We deny that there is a subtle form of matter beyond the reach of material instruments, or of the senses, or of feelings. Why not deny that there is no such subtle form, because this also cannot be proved to us? Many things are proved today that were denied yesterday.

We deny the spirit in man. Why not deny that there is no spirit in man, for that, too, cannot be proved to our satisfaction?

We deny that the words of great Teachers and Philosophers are true. Why not deny that they are untrue? Unless we experiment with them, we cannot prove whether they are true or not, and until we have as great a knowledge as they had, how can we prove either way?

We deny that there is God. Why not deny that there is no God? Neither proposition can be proved in the laboratory or by the physical senses.

Only logic and the innate feeling common to all human beings can take the middle position and say: "I do not know."

This difficulty has always been with us, and the cry in the Christian scripture, "Lord, help thou mine unbelief," is a pointer to us, provided we do not fall into the error of taking anything on trust. To prove anything we must use the laboratory of our own nature.

It would be worth while if the youth of today would take a good look at the ethics of theosophy, which are the same as the ethics of Jesus, Buddha, and of every other great Teacher and Philosopher.

The most important moral precept given to us by ancient buddhism and reiterated by Theosophy is: Stop living the life of pleasure. Live not for yourself; live to benefit mankind. To do this, knowledge is necessary.

Put very simply, we have the Panchasila of the Buddhist, the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus, the code of Zoroaster, the teachings of Phythagoras. These are ethical principles which all can apply.

The first important precept given to us is: "Kill not." Study this. What does it mean? Does it mean we can go hunting or fishing, and kill for pleasure, or even for food? Does it mean we can kill "pests"? Does it mean we can use insecticides and poisonous sprays? Or does it mean that we must help Nature to keep her balance by not giving opportunities for the proliferation of rats, insects, etc.? Not by various processes of extermination but by cleanliness can we help Nature and Nature can help us. There is another form of killing—the killing of reputations. Do we hurt others by slander, harsh words and ill feeling? Non-injury to others has many ramifications.

"Steal not." This, too, covers all forms of stealing, the theft of worldly possessions being the least. There is the stealing of another's job, of another's ideas, etc. Let us remember to say, when we have lost a material possession, "I have returned it," for law works, and whatever we take that does not belong to us, we shall in some life or another have to return.

"Bear not false witness." This, too, covers many aspects of life. To slander others, to make excuses for oneself, to psychologize people by advertisements etc., to deny without a reason what others say—all this, as well as the telling of untruths in business or personal life, comes under this head.

"Covet not." Is not the mass of advertisements and films making us covet the life of others, tempting us to act as they do, to possess what they possess? What are wars—not all wars, but most—caused by save covetousness for the land or possessions of others?

"Lust not." Here is a field in which more damage is being done today than perhaps at any time, for the youth are being taught that lust is a physical necessity. Impurity is lust, wrath and delusion, said the Buddha. We are blindly following those who delude us, and we also delude ourselves. People follow what they want to follow for the gratification of sense-life. But the toll will have to be paid.

Why is this so? Because law rules every aspect of the universe, not just the physical aspect. Causes produce effects in every department of life, and effects become future causes. There is no possible escape from this. All is governed by LAW. The Buddha made that one of his prime teachings. Learn and obey the law; that is all we have to do.

We hear of moral education in shools. The ethics of all religions and philosophies can be taught in story form as also be given as laws. These laws were not produced by a "god" any more than they were found out in the laboratory, but they are the means by which Nature works. We teach children the mathematical tables, the rules of grammar. Why not also the rules of conduct so that we can live more harmoniously together?

By teaching ethics, not as a superimposed set of rules, but as statements of law which have to be learnt and applied; by teaching that man has his life in his own hands and must decide for himself what his future is to be, we shall turn out a new generation of thinking beings consciously ruling their lives for the good of the whole. A real civic sense must be cultivated; from that will come a national sense, and then an international sense. But all this needs cultivating, and here is where education can help. True education should give the youth the capacity to live their lives to the best of their ability and to learn the nature and purpose of the universe and of man; the capacity to understand all creatures and know the relationship that exists between every aspect of Nature, known and unknown.

Have the older students of Theosophy taken their responsibility seriously? Have they taken to heart the words of the Master, that what constitutes the true Theosophist is "the self-sacrificing pursuit of the best means to lead on the right path our neighbour, to cause to benefit by it as many of our fellow creatures as we possibly can"? Have they spoken to the "awakening Spirit of Humanity, to the human Spirit and the Spirit in man"? Have they taken to heart the suggestion that the great mission of true Theosophy is, "first, the working out of clear unequivocal conceptions of ethic ideas and duties, such as shall best and most fully satisfy the right and altruistic feelings in men; and second, the modelling of these conceptions for their adaptation into such forms of daily life, as shall offer a field where they may be applied with most equitableness"?

It is pointed out that

our age...is inferior in Wisdom to any other, because it professes, more visibly every day, contempt for truth and justice, without which there can be no Wisdom. Because our civilization, built up of shams and appearances, is at best like a beautiful green morass, a bog, spread over a deadly quagmire. Because this century of culture and worship of matter...has no encouragement to offer to morality; no prize to give for any moral virtue....Because it encourages, legally and tacitly, vice under every form, from the sale of whiskey down to forced prostitution and theft brought on by starvation wages, Shylock-like exactions, rents, and other comforts of our cultured period. ("The Dual Aspect of Wisdom": U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 32, p. 2)

It is time we did some stocktaking of our own (not other people's) shortcomings. And let each one of us say "mea culpa." That way we may change our criticisms of others into active work on and by ourselves.

If we mean by peace slavery, then nothing is more wretched. Peace is the harmony of strong souls, not the fightless impotence of slaves.

—Spinoza