Re: [BardonPraxis] RE: Step V - a few questions (cont)

[Jwingate2002@...]

Hi Rawn -

I understand your answer here but there is one thing that is still slightly 
ambiguous. On the one hand it is being said that pursuing certain abilities at 
Step V is a waste of time, since in later steps one will be able to do 
everything without having had to pursue it earlier, and one will attain it 
quicker. Well and good! On the other hand, it's being said that one's character 
is 
being tested, and this is where I need a small clarification. It seems one's 
character is tested a) because the very *desire* to do the 'miracle' indicates 
a problem - perhaps impatience, and at the same time b) because working on 
being *able* to do the 'miracle' will in itself create an elemental imbalance.

If this is right, the problem is not desiring to do the actual lighting 
candles (or whatever) but simply desiring to do it too soon. Is this correct?

The reason I lay such stress on this is that it seems to me there is such an 
issue at *every* step of the training! For example, the making of 
elementaries. By the time one has mastered evocation, is the ability to make an 
elementary laboriously and slowly really so valuable? Doesn't one continously 
outstrip one's previous abilities and thus render what was very difficult 
previously extremely easy?

If this is so it might at 1st appear better *never* to test abilities at 
all, because one will always outstrip them later! I must admit that I mistook 
the minor deeds we are talking about in Step V for tests that one must pass, 
just like some others did (on a casual reading). What I think now is that when 
*detailed instructions* are given, it is a sign that one must certainly do 
the work - even though later it might seem insignificant. But when Bardon 
mentions little effects such as these as an aside, and gives no specific 
further 
instructions, it is better to ignore the aside except as a curiosity, not to 
be pursued. Is this right?

There is an element of temptation, it seems, to some of this. So one has to 
tread carefully... Jason




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]