We have often heard it said, "Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap," and we have perhaps believed it. But have we ever applied it in another way, that whatever we are reaping we must have sown? The Law of Periodicity, of Cycles, being universal, must apply in every particular to every particular being. That is justice. If Law is not universal then this is not a universe of law, but of chance. If it is a universe of law, then our very conditions, our possessions, our intelligence, our beliefs, everything that comes to us, comes as the result of our thought and action. As we are reaping at any time, so we must have sown at some time. As we are sowing at any time, so we must reap at some time. Our birth, our circumstances, are reapings. Our attitude towards them, our use of them, are sowings. We are born into any body, any conditions, as the result of our past sowing -- our past lives. This is justice, and it alone explains the differences between people. We are responsible beings, and the feeling of responsibility is the first step towards selflessness. The thought that Law is imposed upon us by any being or beings, is destroyed by the recognition that Law is inherent in ourselves: as each one acts -- that is, affects others, so is the re-action upon himself. The differences between people, and the contradictions in ourselves, are in the fundamental ideas held; for as a man thinks, so he acts. If he thinks this is the first time he has been on earth, that it is the only time; if he believes that some being brought him here, governs him while here, is going to take care of him when he dies -- if he has those ideas, he will act in accordance with them, and will receive the inevitable reaction. But if we see that the Spirit is behind everything, that all Law is the action of Spirit, that we are Spirit, we shall have a true perception of our own natures. We will begin to think in ages, instead of the days of one short life; the basis of our actions will be those Eternal Verities that have been proven again and again by Supermen -- those Beings above us who once passed through our stage, and who are now the Knowers of the Eternal. They hold this knowledge, and that which has been given out by Them as Theosophy is a statement of a portion of Their knowledge. It is as much as we can assimilate, or understand, or use. So, being Spirit, and acting under the Law of our own Being, we grow to realize what the whole Universe means: that the Universe exists for no other purpose than the evolution of Soul -- the embryonic souls below us, the partially developed souls here among us, and the perfectly developed souls above us -- all climbing the great stair of development, of Self- evolution. No one can force us up the stair. We may go on and on, remaining on the same level for myriads of lives; we may go lower; but if we are ever to make the ascent from Man to Superman, from Soul to Great Soul, we ourselves must fulfill the conditions that will enable us to do so.

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