From the final chapter of “The Initiate In The New World – Cyril Scott”:
The ultimate goal is the attainment of Love as a permanent consciousness, and Bliss as a permanent consciousness.
Once there was a man who complained the earth was so covered with stones and thorns. He thought he had a brilliant idea, he said; let us collect all the leather in the world and cover all the earth’s surface so it is smooth to walk on. A child overheard, and having better imagination, suggested that we should just put the leather on our feet, so wherever we walk the ground will be smooth.
This is just the effect you are aiming at when, instead of trying to alter the external world in order to adjust it to your own desires, you strive to alter your own consciousness instead.
It is true you may endeavor to do a bit of good here and there, but what you actually achieve is, when all is said, but very little. It is almost like trying to empty a pond by means of a spoon.
Still, we must not forget that if a thousand or ten thousand people were to start ladling out that pond with even so small an implement, an appreciable effect would be produced. But-to carry my simile further – who would wish to do something so monotonous and fatiguing unless they were possessed of an internal joy which no task, however arid and strenuous, could take from them? And it’s the same with the task of trying to do good in the world. As long as we have not attained Love and Joy as permanent states of consciousness, our capacity to do good will be limited by our desire to do good – at least very largely so.
Do you not wish to help those you love more than those you do not love? Most certainly you do. Therefore think what it would mean if you could love everybody – not because all persons in the world are so attractive and lovable that they awaken your love, but because an ever-present consciousness of love exists within yourself and, like the sun, rays out in all directions on the ‘just and unjust’ alike.