These great Masters are above all petty sectarian distinctions. They
may have ascended to their exalted position along the paths of the many
religions, or they may have walked the path of no-denomination, sect,
or body.

They may have mounted to their heights by philosophical
reasoning alone, or else by scientific investigation. They are called
by many names, according to the viewpoint of the speaker, but at the
last they are of but one religion; one philosophy; one belief--TRUTH.

The state of Adeptship is reached only after a long and arduous
apprenticeship extending over many lives. Those who have reached the
pinnacle were once even as You who read these lines.

And some of you--yes, perhaps even You who are now reading these words may have
taken the first steps along the narrow path which will lead you to
heights equally as exalted as those occupied by even the highest of
these great beings of whom we are speaking. Unconsciously to yourself,
the urge of the Spirit has set your feet firmly upon The Path, and will
push you forward to the end. In order to understand the occult custom
that finds its full fruit in the seclusion of the Masters, one needs to
be acquainted with the universal habit among true occultists of
refraining from public or vulgar displays of occult power.

While the inferior occultists often exhibit some of the minor manifestations to
the public, it is a fact that the true advanced occultists scrupulously
refrain from so doing. In fact, among the highest teachers, it is a
condition imposed upon the pupil that he shall refrain from exhibitions
of his developing powers among the uninitiated public. "The Neophyte is
bound over to the most inviolable secrecy as to everything connected
with his entrance and further progress in the schools.

In Asia, in the same way, the _chela_, or pupil of occultism, no sooner becomes a
_chela_ than he ceases to be a witness on behalf of the reality of
occult knowledge," says Sinnett in his great work on "Esoteric
Buddhism," And he then adds: "I have been astonished to find, since my
own connection with the subject, how numerous such _chelas_ are.

But it is impossible to imagine any human act more improbable than the
unauthorized revelation by any such _chela_, to persons in the outer
world, that he is one; and so the great esoteric school of philosophy
guards its seclusion."