Many people think that they understand what this maxim says and what it asks of the one who wishes to adhere to it. But when we consider that there is already, amongst all of mankind, a very narrow understanding of all words, including the words “do” and “harm”, then we can conclude that in most cases, if not all cases, the right conception of what is harmful and how this harm can be done, is really not known. As a result, much harm has been done, and is still being done, where people have thought and think that they are doing what is good.

We can leave those who do not wish to do what is good out of the discussion for the moment and focus on those who wish to, and who wish to make use of the maxim; first, do no harm, as a guide in their execution of this their volition.

Without delving into the acts themselves, let us consider the definitions and understandings of the words “do” and “harm”. The willing reader can then view his actions or those of others that he is able to examine, in this light, in order to see whether what is written here holds true.

First, the word: “do”, the expression “to do”. What does it mean for a person to do something? 

Does he do something only when the act is visible, or also when it is not? What are the various ways that one can carry out an act, seen or unseen?

The actions that we are able to examine with our physical eyes and perceive with our physical senses have their beginnings, their foundations, in the inner stirrings within us, which give rise to the thoughts that we form, and then to the words that we use to express those thoughts, and finally to the physical deeds that accord with the same thoughts. It is always the same in all that man does, that is, that his physically visible actions have a beginning in the inner perceptions and vibrations that constitute his inner attitude.

The “doing” by man, therefore, begins and lies mainly in what goes on within him. The physically visible actions are the final manifestations of the goings-on within him, and reveal for all to see the nature of his inner self. 

What is it that lies within man and does the perceiving, the thinking, speaking and acting? What makes use of the brain, the nervous system and all the organs of the body for this purpose? Who is it that carries out the visible actions and is impacted by those of other people?

This question is an important one to note because it is able to help broaden, and make more accurate, one’s notion of what is indeed helpful. What is helpful in this regard would have to be what helps this largely unknown entity, that is, the real man, develop in the right way into its actual purpose as a creature of the Universe. Only this would help it grow and mature, everything else must have the opposite effect. There cannot logically be any middle ground in this.

It is either helpful or it is not. If it is not, then it is harmful, because it would be wasteful and in opposition to what is helpful. It would be in the way of what is useful.

Harm is done to the growing plant if it does not receive what it needs to grow well. It experiences something that opposes its normal and right development. Understanding the true nature of what makes the decisions within man, the actual living being that is impressed upon and that transmits impressions through its own “actions”, would be very important in trying to adhere to the maxim: First, do no harm. For, any harm done to this entity, either through preventing its normal development or standing in the way of its maturation, must show itself also in the physical world as something disturbing to the peace and harmony in the surroundings of the one concerned.

And without this right understanding, that which comes out of him as a consequence of the ignorance would also not be rightly understood and must, as a result, lead to further wrong actions that would beg for more misunderstandings and misreadings, and so on.

The entity within man, which brings about all the effects that can then be seen outwardly expressed, is not the human brain, as this is only a tool for the transmission of what this entity desires to express in the physical world, and also of what it wishes to take in from this physical world. For this reason also, the physical tools invented using the physical brain and the intellect, cannot be used to answer the question about the nature and activity of this entity, which only uses the brain itself as a tool. The difference in species cannot allow for such a happening.

It is because of this that those who make use of the brain and its product, the intellect, for this investigation, are only able to go so far in their quest. They go as far as the limitations of the intellect would take them. When they, however, reach conclusions based on these greatly limited experiments and observations, then they widely miss the mark. They must do harm if they base their actions on these conclusions, because much would already not be taken into consideration due to the narrowness of the perception. They would feel the pressure of not knowing and thus of not address something that is vital for the right development of the entity in question.

The actions carried out under such conditions must do harm to the entity whose nature and true needs have not been known and factored in.

It is because of this neglect that, in spite of the numerous “highly educated” persons in the civilizations of past and present, mankind have always followed the same trends in their developments, which have ended in collapse. It is the distortion in the flow of energy currents, meant to travel through the entity that uses the physical body on earth, which manifests in the collapse of the works of men, upon men themselves, just when the fruits of these works are to show themselves. The period just after the blossoming of the peoples and civilizations in question, together with their works, when, like developing plants, these works have to show their fruits for harvesting by those who sowed them. They reveal the barrenness that is the unavoidable consequence of building on a false foundation.

Only the entity within man is able to investigate matters that are related to it.

This entity is the spirit of man. Spirit is the Life Elixir in Creation or the Universe. Creation or the Universe formed under the effect of the radiation of the Will of God, His Spirit. It is the Will of this Spirit, Its Volition, that we experience as natural laws also here on earth, and in every other part of the Universe that we are able to examine with the variety of tools available to us.

These laws would also be seen to be at work in the future discoveries that mankind would make as their tools evolve and further develop. Every creature that we are able to observe follows and adheres to these laws, causing men often to regard them as “smart” and “incredible”, since many of them could not possibly possess the brain and intelligence that is associated with the human capacity.

The animating force provided by the Creative Spirit shows itself through all that goes on with every species in the Universe, right down to the “lowest” forms of life, clearly revealing the nature of the Will of the One in Whom It originates.

The human spirit developing in matter and on earth is part-bearer of this Spirit. It is a creation of this Spirit. So far from the beginning of Creation as the earth and the world of matter are, the human spirit residing here possesses a correspondingly low replica of the Creative Spirit of God’s ability to create; so that every movement within a human spirit results in the formation of something, whether good and uplifting or wrong, and therefore harmful and hindering to upward development. It is the expression of the human spirit’s will, its creative capacity, whether or not it is aware of this fact.

The more man brings his inner nature, and thus his actions, in line with the Laws of Nature, the Laws of Creation, the more he would allow for the radiation that bears life to pass through him, spreading upbuilding energy currents as it does so, and drawing in response, like a huge magnet, substances of the plane in which he resides into beautiful forms, for the service of the Light, the Owner of the power at work in the process.

As this happens, he experiences within himself the processes at play and through this knows more of the working of the Laws to which he must adhere for his continued existence. The recognitions gained in the process are nourishment for his spirit. It grows in the process of the normal, upbuilding working of this process.

He suffers pain and distress when he does not align himself thus, because his actions will place him in opposition to the upward-tending activity of these light rays, causing him to bump up against them through his wrongly formed works, which always come back to him to give him a taste of what he has caused to developed in Creation using the ability granted him as a part-bearer of spirit.

In the end, he succeeds when he is able to return from his long sojourn in matter to his spiritual home, a mature and conscious spiritual being, able to consciously transmit energy currents onward for the furtherance and expansion of Creation, in service to the Creative Spirit. He fails when he proves himself useless for this one task through not developing the latent gifts that lie within him like a promise to be unearthed and polished, tended and nurtured only through following the Laws that express and teach the Will of the One he is to serve.

 Therefore, only what leads to the right development of the spirit of man can result in what is good overall. Also, where the development of the spirit of man is hindered by anyone or any policy, then those involved in bringing about this hindrance implicate themselves in it, and cannot be freed from their entanglements until they have helped those that they led astray, whose paths to spiritual maturity they blocked, back to the paths from which they were initially diverted.

This is the case even if those so implicated had good intentions in mind when they committed the sin of such hindrance. Ignorance of all this cannot prevent it from taking place promptly and exactly, because the ignorance itself is always the fruit of a prior not-wanting-to-know, which will always be respected and allowed to develop into corresponding fruit, since the human spirit has free will to make its own decisions. It possesses the free will to make decisions, but remains bound to the corresponding consequences, whatever they may be, until they have been lived off and thus redeemed. Until he no longer feeds the forms that he caused to arise from his actions and these forms have completely withered away from being starved of sustaining energy.

One can then imagine that it must be even more serious when the actions in this regard have been intended to cause harm, such as is the case when peoples are provoked to anger or violence, and also when others carry out violent acts against perceived opponents, with the aim of causing them certain grief. In such cases the prevailing volitions or inner attitudes of such persons does not even permit them to take in a different and lighter perspective, and also does not allow them to be impressed upon by the suffering that they cause, which could lead to their desiring (willing) for something different.

Today, the narrow perspective that mankind cultivate, through focusing mainly on what is physically tangible and visible, and also on material resources as the primary reason for actions, has closed them in and kept them from seeing the cause and effect that occurs with their thoughts, words and actions, and so they go about spreading seeds that can only lead to great harm.

In the first place, they cause those affected by what they put out to also vibrate in ways that would not be helpful to the latter, thus urging them on to sow seeds that would only bring them more grief. Secondly, they reap the consequences or fruits of what they spread as seeds, forming for themselves worlds of perception that allow them to reap much more of the same kind as they sowed, further narrowing the possibility of their seeing clearly enough to recognize the Laws of Creation, thus guaranteeing their standing in opposition to the working of these Laws, a position that guarantees pain and leads to spiritual death through slow disintegration.

If these factors were taken into consideration, men would be very careful with how they compose themselves within, how they think about others and situations, and how they use their words and carry out visible deeds. They would see how they form their own psychic and physical environments with what they intuitively perceive, think, say and do.

The political fights and attack ads, which work towards damaging reputations and destroying the confidence that members of the public may have in an opponent, the attacks on others who may believe differently in whatever contexts, thus expressing various forms of fear and lack of confidence in the strength of the foundations of the attackers’ own convictions, as well as the words spoken in suspicion of others’ intentions due to one’s own fears, all lead to the growth, development and materialization of just those things directed at others, but coming back to their originators as developed fruits.

Today, a purification is taking place in all of matter, which includes the earth upon which we currently reside. This is happening to rid Creation of all the distorted forms placed in it by lost mankind over millennia, and also to give the few who yearn for it the breathing space for nurturing their good volitions to productive fruits.

A surge of energy now penetrates the earth and matter, accelerating all developments to rates that would increasingly alarm mankind. The works of men would in the process be quickly driven to the point of bearing fruits, so that their barrenness or usefulness can be experienced, and their originating seeds forever abandoned or further developed accordingly. It is no longer requiring the span of decades or several lifetimes for fruits to mature and return to their originators. All intuitive perceptions, thoughts, words and actions are now quickly leading to corresponding fruits so that everyone can see this for himself. A final opportunity presents itself, making every excuse even more nonsensical than it already is.

Man should therefore take heed to leave vengeance to the Creator, for His perfect machinery does not leave a single stirring within a person, a single action, unaddressed, whether the action is a good one or one that does harm in any way. He who wishes to see this at work must now strive with all of his strength to leave all of what is old, including previously held views of battles, success, revenge, love and everything else, so that he can experience and take in the new, how all this really should be. This will happen quickly, but all that he is tied to will still have to be addressed in the process of this development towards seeing more clearly. In fact, everything tied to him will have to be resolved in order to make way for the new, one step at a time. But no one would be able to do so for another.

So let no man bother himself with fixing his neighbour, either through punishing verbal or physical attacks, or through a wrongly conceived act of love. The need to know how to truly live and be, thus to know the working of the Laws of Creation, the Creative Will of God, is urgent and paramount. Leave others and their actions to Him and His Laws.