Understanding and Practice

Our practice continues. We don't compell a man to find relevance in masonry and we never have. We are cautious the trust we hold in one another is not overrun by charlatans. But when they slip in they are of little subsequence to masonic purposes.  Draw your attention to what is happening around you. Look carefully into the shadows and you are likely to find students of the craft. They are not trying to dominant the conversation. They have embraced humility because that is what they found in ritual, the influence of service to mankind. Character that does not require the limelight, or compensation. To be motivated by altruistic reasoning is liberating. It is one of the moments a man is free and knows he is free.  Yes of course there are rewards for surrendering to main stream thinking, to look and sound like everyone else, but don't call it freedom.  Freedom is free will, to think and act independently is not anarchy or subversion. It is agency, independence. But is it your truth? These beliefs are about using what the Creator have us at birth, enfused with what we gained as we walked through life. If we coould all agree on what it meant to be a decent person, much of our work would be done. At least masonry attempts the impossible. It attempts to draw men together by resetting our our fliters. Gautama Buddha — 'Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Imagine the possiblities. Do we choose material gain? Do we choose dominance? Do we choose a path of enlightenment and brotherly love? Choices made clearer when we sit at the side of philosophers.s