Latest / Educational Book Collection / Out from the Heart - James Allen
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The heart and the life. As the heart, so is
- 0:05Speaker 1: the life. The within is ceaselessly becoming the without. Nothing
- 0:10Speaker 1: remains unrevealed. That which is hidden is but for a time,
- 0:15Speaker 1: it ripens and comes forth at last, seed, tree, blossom,
- 0:20Speaker 1: and fruit are the fourfold order of the universe. From
- 0:24Speaker 1: the state of a man's heart precede the conditions of
- 0:28Speaker 1: his life. His thoughts blossom into deeds, and his deeds
- 0:33Speaker 1: bear the fruitage of character and destiny. Life is ever
- 0:37Speaker 1: unfolding from within and revealing itself to the light, and
- 0:41Speaker 1: thoughts engendered in the heart at last reveal themselves in words, actions,
- 0:47Speaker 1: and things accomplished. As the fountain from the hidden spring,
- 0:52Speaker 1: so flows forth a man's life from the secret recesses
- 0:56Speaker 1: of his heart. All that he is and does is
- 1:00Speaker 1: generated there. All that he will be and do will
- 1:04Speaker 1: take its rise from there. Sorrow and happiness, suffering and enjoyment,
- 1:10Speaker 1: fear and hope, hatred and love, ignorance and enlightenment are
- 1:16Speaker 1: nowhere but in the heart. They are solely mental conditions.
- 1:21Speaker 1: Man is the keeper of his heart, the watcher of
- 1:24Speaker 1: his mind, the solitary guard of his citadel of life.
- 1:29Speaker 1: As such, he can be diligent or negligent, He can
- 1:33Speaker 1: keep his heart more and more carefully. He can strenuously
- 1:37Speaker 1: watch and purify his mind, and he can guard against
- 1:41Speaker 1: the thinking of unrighteous thoughts. This is the way of
- 1:44Speaker 1: enlightenment and bliss. On the other hand, he can live
- 1:49Speaker 1: loosely and carelessly, neglecting the supreme task of rightfully ordering
- 1:54Speaker 1: his life. This is the way of self, delusion and suffering.
- 2:00Speaker 1: Man realize that life, in its totality proceeds from the mind,
- 2:04Speaker 1: and lo the way of blessedness is opened up for him,
- 2:08Speaker 1: For he will then discover that he possesses the power
- 2:11Speaker 1: to rule his mind and to fashion it in accordance
- 2:15Speaker 1: with his ideal. So he will elect to strongly, insteadfastly,
- 2:20Speaker 1: walk those pathways of thought and action which are altogether
- 2:24Speaker 1: excellent to him. Life will become beautiful and sacred, and
- 2:30Speaker 1: sooner or later he will put to flight all evil, confusion,
- 2:34Speaker 1: and suffering. For it is impossible for a man to
- 2:38Speaker 1: fall short of liberation, enlightenment, and peace who guards with
- 2:43Speaker 1: unwearying diligence the gateway of his heart, the nature and
- 2:48Speaker 1: power of mind. Mind is the arbiter of life. It
- 2:53Speaker 1: is the creator and shaper of conditions and the recipient
- 2:57Speaker 1: of its own results. It can taians within itself both
- 3:02Speaker 1: the power to create illusion and to perceive reality. Mind
- 3:06Speaker 1: is the infallible weaver of destiny. Thought is the thread
- 3:11Speaker 1: good and evil deeds are the warp and woof or foundation,
- 3:16Speaker 1: and the web woven upon the loom of life is character.
- 3:21Speaker 1: Mind close itself in garments of its own making. Man
- 3:25Speaker 1: as a mental being possesses all the powers of mind
- 3:29Speaker 1: and is furnished with unlimited choice. He learns by experience,
- 3:34Speaker 1: and he can accelerate or retard his experience. He is
- 3:38Speaker 1: not arbitrarily bound at any point, but he has bound
- 3:42Speaker 1: himself at many points, and having bound himself, he can,
- 3:47Speaker 1: when he chooses, liberate himself. He can become beastial or pure, ignorant,
- 3:54Speaker 1: or noble, foolish, or wise, just as he chooses. He can,
- 4:00Speaker 1: by reoccurring practice, form habits, and he can, by renewed effort,
- 4:06Speaker 1: break them off. He can surround himself with illusions until
- 4:10Speaker 1: truth is completely lost, and he can destroy each of
- 4:14Speaker 1: those illusions until truth is entirely recovered. His possibilities are endless,
- 4:21Speaker 1: his freedom is complete. It is the nature of the
- 4:25Speaker 1: mind to create its own conditions, and it chooses the
- 4:28Speaker 1: states in which it shall dwell. It also has the
- 4:32Speaker 1: power to alter any condition, to abandon any state that
- 4:36Speaker 1: it is continually doing, as it gathers knowledge of state
- 4:40Speaker 1: after state by repeated choice and exhaustive experience. Inward processes
- 4:47Speaker 1: of thought make up the sum of character and life.
- 4:50Speaker 1: Man can modify and alter these processes by bringing will
- 4:55Speaker 1: and effort to bear upon them. The bonds of habit, impotence,
- 5:00Speaker 1: and sin are self made and can only be destroyed
- 5:04Speaker 1: by one's self. They exist nowhere but in one's mind,
- 5:08Speaker 1: and although they are directly related to outward things, they
- 5:12Speaker 1: have no real existence in those things. The outer is
- 5:16Speaker 1: molded and animated by the inner, and never the inner
- 5:20Speaker 1: by the outer. Temptation does not arise in the outer object,
- 5:24Speaker 1: but in the lust of the mind for that object.
- 5:28Speaker 1: Nor do sorrow and suffering belong by nature to the
- 5:31Speaker 1: external things and happenings of life, but in an undisciplined
- 5:35Speaker 1: attitude of mind towards those things and happenings. The mind
- 5:40Speaker 1: that is disciplined by purity and fortified by wisdom avoids
- 5:45Speaker 1: all those lusts and desires which are inseparably bound up
- 5:49Speaker 1: with affliction, and so arrives at enlightenment and peace to
- 5:54Speaker 1: condemn others as evil and to curse at outside conditions.
- 5:59Speaker 1: As the source of earth, evil increases and does not
- 6:02Speaker 1: lessen the world's suffering and unrest. The outer is but
- 6:07Speaker 1: the shadow and effect of the inner, And when the
- 6:10Speaker 1: heart is pure, all outward things are pure. All growth
- 6:15Speaker 1: in life is from within outward. All decay and death
- 6:19Speaker 1: is from without inward. This is the universal law. All
- 6:25Speaker 1: evolution proceeds from within, All adjustment must take place within.
- 6:31Speaker 1: He who ceases to strive against others and employs his
- 6:35Speaker 1: powers and transformation, regeneration and development of his own mind
- 6:41Speaker 1: conserves his energies and preserves himself. And as he succeeds
- 6:46Speaker 1: in harmonizing his own mind, he leads others, by consideration
- 6:51Speaker 1: and charity, into a like blessed state. The way of
- 6:55Speaker 1: enlightenment and peace is not gained by assuming authority in
- 6:59Speaker 1: god guidance over other minds, but by exercising a lawful
- 7:04Speaker 1: authority over one's own mind, and by guiding one's self
- 7:08Speaker 1: in pathways of steadfast and lofty virtue. A man's life
- 7:14Speaker 1: proceeds from his heart and his mind. He has compounded
- 7:18Speaker 1: that mind by his own thoughts and deeds. It is
- 7:22Speaker 1: within his power to refashion that mind by his choice
- 7:26Speaker 1: of thought. In this manner he can transform his life.
- 7:32Speaker 1: Let us see how this is to be done. Formation
- 7:36Speaker 1: of habit. Every establishmental condition is an acquired habit, and
- 7:42Speaker 1: has become such by continuous repetition of thought. Despondency and cheerfulness,
- 7:49Speaker 1: anger and calmness, covetuousness and generosity. Indeed, all states of
- 7:56Speaker 1: mind are habits, built up by choice, until they have
- 8:00Speaker 1: become automatic. A thought constantly repeated, at last becomes a
- 8:06Speaker 1: fixed habit of the mind, and from such habits precedes
- 8:11Speaker 1: one's life. It is in the nature of the mind
- 8:14Speaker 1: to acquire knowledge by the repetition of its experiences. A thought,
- 8:19Speaker 1: which is very difficult at first to hold and dwell upon,
- 8:24Speaker 1: at last becomes, by constantly being held in the mind,
- 8:28Speaker 1: a natural and habitual practice. A boy, when commencing to
- 8:34Speaker 1: learn a trade, cannot even handle his tools right, much
- 8:38Speaker 1: less use them correctly. But after long repetition in practice,
- 8:43Speaker 1: he applies them with perfect ease and consummate skill. Likewise,
- 8:49Speaker 1: a state of mind, at first apparently incapable of realization,
- 8:54Speaker 1: is by perseverance in practice, at last acquired and built
- 8:59Speaker 1: into the care character as a natural and spontaneous condition.
- 9:04Speaker 1: In this power of the mind to form and reform
- 9:06Speaker 1: its habits its conditions is contained the basis of a
- 9:11Speaker 1: man's salvation. It is the open door to perfect liberty
- 9:15Speaker 1: by the mastery of self. For as a man has
- 9:19Speaker 1: the power to form harmful habits, so he equally has
- 9:23Speaker 1: the same power to create habits that are essentially good.
- 9:28Speaker 1: And here we come to a point which needs some clarifying,
- 9:31Speaker 1: and which calls for deep and earnest thought on the
- 9:34Speaker 1: part of my reader. It is commonly said to be
- 9:38Speaker 1: easier to do wrong than right, to sin, than to
- 9:41Speaker 1: be holy. Such a condition has come to be regarded
- 9:46Speaker 1: almost universally as a self evident truth. No less a
- 9:51Speaker 1: teacher than the Buddha has said, bad deeds and deeds
- 9:55Speaker 1: hurtful to ourselves are easy to do. What is benefit
- 10:00Speaker 1: official and good that is very difficult to do. And
- 10:04Speaker 1: with regards to humanity generally this is true. But it
- 10:09Speaker 1: is only true as a passing experience, a fleeting factor
- 10:13Speaker 1: in human evolution. It is not a fixed condition of things.
- 10:18Speaker 1: It is not the nature of an eternal truth. It
- 10:21Speaker 1: is easier for men to do wrong than right because
- 10:24Speaker 1: of the prevalence of ignorance, because the true nature of
- 10:28Speaker 1: things and the essence and meaning of life are not understood.
- 10:33Speaker 1: When a child is learning to write, it is extremely
- 10:37Speaker 1: easy to hold the pen wrongly and to form his
- 10:40Speaker 1: letters incorrectly, but it is painfully difficult to hold the
- 10:44Speaker 1: pen and to write properly. This is because of the
- 10:48Speaker 1: child's ignorance of the art of writing, which can only
- 10:52Speaker 1: be dispelled by persistent effort and practice, until at last
- 10:57Speaker 1: it becomes natural and easy to hold the pen correctly,
- 11:00Speaker 1: and difficult as well as altogether unnecessary to do the
- 11:05Speaker 1: wrong thing. It is the same in the vital things
- 11:08Speaker 1: of mind and life. To think and do rightly requires
- 11:12Speaker 1: much practice and renewed effort. But the time comes at
- 11:16Speaker 1: last when it becomes habitual and easy to think and
- 11:20Speaker 1: do rightly, and difficult, as it is then seen to
- 11:24Speaker 1: be altogether unnecessary to do that which is wrong. Just
- 11:29Speaker 1: as an artisan becomes by practice accomplished in his craft,
- 11:34Speaker 1: so you can become by practice accomplished in goodness. It
- 11:40Speaker 1: is entirely a matter of forming new habits of thought,
- 11:44Speaker 1: and he to whom right thoughts have become easy and natural,
- 11:48Speaker 1: and wrong thoughts and acts difficult to do, has attained
- 11:52Speaker 1: to the highest virtue, to pure spiritual knowledge. It is
- 11:57Speaker 1: easy and natural for men to sin because they have formed,
- 12:01Speaker 1: by incessant repetition, harmful and unenlightened habits of thought. It
- 12:06Speaker 1: is very difficult for the thief to refrain from stealing
- 12:10Speaker 1: when the opportunity occurs, because he has lived so long
- 12:14Speaker 1: in covetuous and greedy thoughts. But such difficulty does not
- 12:19Speaker 1: exist for the honest man, who has lived so long
- 12:22Speaker 1: with upright and honest thoughts. He has thereby become so
- 12:26Speaker 1: enlightened as to the wrong, folly, and fruitlessness of theft,
- 12:31Speaker 1: that even the remotest idea of stealing does not enter
- 12:34Speaker 1: his mind. The sin of theft is a very extreme one,
- 12:39Speaker 1: and I have introduced it in order to more clearly
- 12:42Speaker 1: illustrate the force and formation of habit. But all sins
- 12:47Speaker 1: and virtues are formed in the same way. Anger and
- 12:51Speaker 1: impatience are natural and easy to thousands of people because
- 12:55Speaker 1: they are constantly repeating anger and impatient thoughts and acts,
- 13:00Speaker 1: and with each repetition the habit is more firmly established
- 13:04Speaker 1: and more deeply rooted. Calmness and patience can become habitual
- 13:10Speaker 1: in the same way by first grasping through effort a
- 13:14Speaker 1: calm and patient thought, and then continuously thinking it and
- 13:19Speaker 1: living in it, until use becomes second nature, and anger
- 13:23Speaker 1: and impatience pass away forever. It is in this manner
- 13:28Speaker 1: that every wrong thought may be expelled from the mind,
- 13:32Speaker 1: that every untrue act may be destroyed, and that every
- 13:36Speaker 1: sin may be overcome doing and knowing. Let a man
- 13:42Speaker 1: realize that his life, in its totality, proceeds from his mind.
- 13:48Speaker 1: Let him realize that the mind is a combination of habits,
- 13:52Speaker 1: which he can, by patient effort, modify to any extent,
- 13:57Speaker 1: and over which he can thus gain complete ascendency, mastery,
- 14:02Speaker 1: and control. At once he will have obtained possession of
- 14:06Speaker 1: the key which shall open the door to his complete emancipation.
- 14:11Speaker 1: But freedom from the ills of life, which are the
- 14:13Speaker 1: ills of one's mind, is a matter of steady growth
- 14:17Speaker 1: from within, and not a sudden acquisition from without. Hourly
- 14:22Speaker 1: and daily must the mind be trained to think stainless
- 14:26Speaker 1: thoughts and adapt right in dispassionate attitudes. Under those circumstances
- 14:32Speaker 1: in which it is prone to fall into wrong and passion.
- 14:36Speaker 1: Like the patient's sculptor upon his marble, the aspirant to
- 14:40Speaker 1: the right life must gradually work upon the crude material
- 14:44Speaker 1: of his mind until he is wrought out of it
- 14:47Speaker 1: the ideal of his holiest dreams. In working towards such
- 14:51Speaker 1: supreme accomplishment, it is necessary to begin at the lowest
- 14:56Speaker 1: and easiest steps, and proceed by natural, aggressive stages to
- 15:01Speaker 1: the higher and more difficult. The law of growth, progress, evolution,
- 15:07Speaker 1: and unfoldment by gradual and ever ascending stages is absolute
- 15:12Speaker 1: in every department of life and in every human accomplishment.
- 15:17Speaker 1: Where it is ignored, total failure will result. In acquiring education,
- 15:23Speaker 1: in learning a trade, or in pursuing a business, this
- 15:27Speaker 1: law is fully recognized and minutely obeyed by all, But
- 15:32Speaker 1: in acquiring virtue, in learning truth, and in pursuing the
- 15:37Speaker 1: right conduct and knowledge of life, it is unrecognized and
- 15:41Speaker 1: disobeyed by nearly all. Hence virtue, truth, and the perfect
- 15:47Speaker 1: life remain unpracticed, unacquired, and unknown. It is a common
- 15:53Speaker 1: error to suppose that the higher life is a matter
- 15:56Speaker 1: of reading and the adoption of theological or menis meta
- 16:00Speaker 1: physical hypotheses, and that the spiritual principles can be understood
- 16:05Speaker 1: by this method. The higher life is higher living in
- 16:10Speaker 1: thought word. Indeed, and the knowledge of those spiritual principles
- 16:15Speaker 1: which are imminent in man and in the universe, can
- 16:18Speaker 1: only be acquired after long discipline. In the pursuit and
- 16:22Speaker 1: practice of virtue. The lesser must be thoroughly grasped and
- 16:27Speaker 1: understood before the greater can be known. Practice always proceedes
- 16:32Speaker 1: real knowledge. The schoolmaster never attempts to teach his pupils
- 16:37Speaker 1: the abstract principles of mathematics. At the start, he knows
- 16:42Speaker 1: that such a method of teaching would be in vain
- 16:44Speaker 1: and learning impossible. He first places before them a simple sum, and,
- 16:50Speaker 1: having explained it, leaves them to do it. When, after
- 16:54Speaker 1: repeated failures and ever renewed effort, they have succeeded in
- 16:59Speaker 1: doing it correctly, a more difficult task is set before them,
- 17:03Speaker 1: and then another and another. It is not until the
- 17:07Speaker 1: pupils have, through many years of diligent application, mastered all
- 17:12Speaker 1: the lessons in arithmetic that he attempts to unfold to
- 17:16Speaker 1: them the underlying mathematical principles. In learning a trade, say
- 17:21Speaker 1: that of a mechanic. A boy is not at first
- 17:24Speaker 1: taught the principles of mechanics, but a simple tool is
- 17:28Speaker 1: put in his hand and he is told how to
- 17:31Speaker 1: rightly use it. He is then left to do it
- 17:34Speaker 1: by effort and practice. As he succeeds implying his tools correctly,
- 17:39Speaker 1: more and more difficult tasks are set before him, until
- 17:43Speaker 1: after years of successful practice, he is prepared to study
- 17:47Speaker 1: and grasp the principles of mechanics. In a properly governed household,
- 17:53Speaker 1: the child is first taught to be obedient and to
- 17:56Speaker 1: conduct himself properly under all circumstances. The child is not
- 18:01Speaker 1: even told why he must do this, but is commanded
- 18:05Speaker 1: to do it. Only after he has far succeeded in
- 18:08Speaker 1: doing what is right and proper is he told why
- 18:11Speaker 1: he should do it. No father would attempt to teach
- 18:15Speaker 1: his child the principles of ethics before extracting from him
- 18:19Speaker 1: the practice of family duty and social virtue. Thus, practice
- 18:24Speaker 1: ever precedes knowledge, even in the ordinary things of the
- 18:27Speaker 1: world and in spiritual things. In the living of the
- 18:31Speaker 1: higher life, this law is rigid in its demands. Virtue
- 18:36Speaker 1: can only be known by doing, and the knowledge of
- 18:40Speaker 1: truth can only be arrived at by perfecting oneself in
- 18:43Speaker 1: the practice of virtue. To be complete in the practice
- 18:48Speaker 1: and acquisition of virtue is to be complete in the
- 18:51Speaker 1: knowledge of truth. Truth can only be arrived at by
- 18:56Speaker 1: daily and hourly doing the lessons of virtue, beginning with
- 19:00Speaker 1: the simplest and passing on to the more difficult. A
- 19:05Speaker 1: child patiently and obediently learns his lessons at school by
- 19:09Speaker 1: constantly practicing and ever exerting himself, until all failures and
- 19:15Speaker 1: difficulties are surmounted. Likewise does the child of truth, undaunted
- 19:21Speaker 1: by failure and made stronger by difficulties, apply himself to
- 19:26Speaker 1: right doing and thought and action. As he succeeds in
- 19:30Speaker 1: acquiring virtue, his mind unfolds itself in the knowledge of truth,
- 19:35Speaker 1: and it is a knowledge in which he can securely
- 19:38Speaker 1: rest first steps in the higher life, Seeing that the
- 19:44Speaker 1: path of virtue is the path of knowledge, and that
- 19:47Speaker 1: before the all embracing principles of truth can be comprehended,
- 19:51Speaker 1: perfection in the more lowly steps must be acquired. How then,
- 19:56Speaker 1: shall a disciple of truth begin, Show one who aspires
- 20:01Speaker 1: to the writing of his mind and the purification of
- 20:04Speaker 1: his heart that heart, which is the fountain and repository
- 20:08Speaker 1: of all the issues of life. Learn the lessons of virtue.
- 20:13Speaker 1: How does he thus build himself up in the strength
- 20:15Speaker 1: of knowledge, destroying ignorance and the ills of life? What
- 20:20Speaker 1: are the lessons the first steps? How are they learned?
- 20:25Speaker 1: How are they practiced? How are they mastered and understood?
- 20:30Speaker 1: The first lessons consist in overcoming those wrong mental conditions
- 20:34Speaker 1: which are most easily eradicated, and which are the common
- 20:38Speaker 1: barriers to spiritual progress, as well as in practicing the
- 20:42Speaker 1: simple domestic and social virtues. The reader will be better
- 20:47Speaker 1: aided if I group and classify the first ten steps
- 20:51Speaker 1: in three lessons as follows. Vices of the body to
- 20:55Speaker 1: be overcome and eradicated. First lesson discipline of the body.
- 21:02Speaker 1: First step idleness, laziness or indolence. Second step self indulgence
- 21:11Speaker 1: or gluttony. Second lesson discipline of speech. Third step slander.
- 21:19Speaker 1: Fourth step gossip and idle conversation. Fifth step abusive and
- 21:26Speaker 1: unkind speech. Sixth step frivolity or irreverent speech. Seventh step critical,
- 21:37Speaker 1: captious or fault finding speech. Third lesson discipline of tendencies.
- 21:44Speaker 1: Eighth step unselfish performance of duty, ninth step unswerving rectitude
- 21:52Speaker 1: or moral integrity. Tenth step unlimited forgiveness. Two vices of
- 22:00Speaker 1: the body and the five of the tongue are so
- 22:04Speaker 1: called because they are manifested in the body and tongue. Also,
- 22:09Speaker 1: by so definitely classifying them, the mind of the reader
- 22:13Speaker 1: will be better helped. But it must be clearly understood
- 22:16Speaker 1: that these vices arise primarily in the mind and are
- 22:20Speaker 1: wrong conditions of the heart worked out in the body
- 22:24Speaker 1: and the tongue. The existence of such chaotic conditions is
- 22:29Speaker 1: an indication that the mind is altogether unenlightened as to
- 22:32Speaker 1: the real meaning and purpose of life, and their eradication
- 22:36Speaker 1: is the beginning of a virtuous, steadfast, and enlightened life.
- 22:42Speaker 1: But how shall these vices be overcome and eradicated? By
- 22:46Speaker 1: first and at once checking and controlling their outward manifestations,
- 22:52Speaker 1: and by suppressing the wrong act. This will stimulate the
- 22:56Speaker 1: mind to watchfulness and reflection, until by repeated practice it
- 23:01Speaker 1: will come to perceive and understand the dark, wrong and
- 23:04Speaker 1: erroneous conditions of mind out of which such acts spring.
- 23:09Speaker 1: It will then abandon them entirely. It will be seen
- 23:13Speaker 1: that the first step in The discipline of the mind
- 23:16Speaker 1: is the overcoming of indolence or laziness. This is the
- 23:20Speaker 1: easiest step, and until it is perfectly accomplished, the other
- 23:24Speaker 1: steps cannot be taken. The clinging to indolence constitutes a
- 23:29Speaker 1: complete barrier to the path of truth. Indolence consists in
- 23:33Speaker 1: giving the body more ease and sleep than it requires,
- 23:37Speaker 1: in procrastinating, and in shirking and neglecting those things which
- 23:41Speaker 1: should receive immediate attention. This condition of laziness must be
- 23:46Speaker 1: overcome by rousing up the body at an early hour,
- 23:50Speaker 1: giving it just the amount of sleep it requires for
- 23:52Speaker 1: complete recuperation, and by doing promptly and vigorously every task,
- 23:58Speaker 1: every duty, no matter matter how small, as it comes along.
- 24:03Speaker 1: On no account should food or drink be taken in bed,
- 24:07Speaker 1: and to lie in bed after one has awakened. Indulging
- 24:10Speaker 1: in ease and reverie is a habit fatal to promptness
- 24:14Speaker 1: and resolution of character and of purity of mind. Nor
- 24:19Speaker 1: should one attempt to do his thinking at such a time. Strong,
- 24:23Speaker 1: pure and true thinking is impossible under such circumstances. A
- 24:28Speaker 1: man should go to bed to sleep, not to think.
- 24:32Speaker 1: He should get up to think and work not to sleep.
- 24:36Speaker 1: The next step is the overcoming of self indulgence or gluttony.
- 24:41Speaker 1: The gluttoness he who eats for animal gratification only without
- 24:45Speaker 1: considering the true end and object of eating. He eats
- 24:49Speaker 1: more than his body requires, and is greedy after sweet
- 24:53Speaker 1: things and rich dishes. Such undisciplined desire can only be
- 24:59Speaker 1: overcome by reduce using the quantity of food eaten and
- 25:02Speaker 1: the number of meals per day, and by resorting to
- 25:05Speaker 1: a simple and uninvolved diet. Regular hours should be set
- 25:10Speaker 1: apart for meals, and eating at other times should be
- 25:13Speaker 1: rigidly avoided. Supper should be abolished, as they are altogether
- 25:18Speaker 1: unnecessary and promote heavy sleep and cloudiness of mind. The
- 25:24Speaker 1: pursuit of such a method of discipline will rapidly bring
- 25:28Speaker 1: the once ungoverned appetite under control, and as the sensual
- 25:32Speaker 1: sin of self indulgence is taken out of the mind,
- 25:35Speaker 1: the right selection of foods will be instinctively and infallibly
- 25:39Speaker 1: adapted to the purified mental condition. It should be well
- 25:44Speaker 1: borne in the mind that a change of heart is
- 25:47Speaker 1: the needful thing, and that any change of diet which
- 25:50Speaker 1: does not promote this end is futile. When one eats
- 25:54Speaker 1: for enjoyment, he is gluttonous. The heart must be purified
- 25:58Speaker 1: of sensual crave and glustatory lust. When the body is
- 26:03Speaker 1: well controlled and firmly guided, When that which is to
- 26:07Speaker 1: be done is done vigorously, when no task or duty
- 26:11Speaker 1: is delayed, when early rising has become a delight, When frugality, simplicity, temperance,
- 26:19Speaker 1: and abstinence are firmly established. When one is contented with
- 26:24Speaker 1: the food which is put before him, no matter how
- 26:27Speaker 1: scanty and plain, and the craving for gustatory pleasure is
- 26:31Speaker 1: at an end, then the first two steps in the
- 26:34Speaker 1: higher life are accomplished. Then is the first great lesson
- 26:39Speaker 1: in truth learned thus is established in the heart, the
- 26:43Speaker 1: foundation of a poised, self governed, virtuous life. The next
- 26:48Speaker 1: lesson is the lesson of virtuous speech, in which there
- 26:52Speaker 1: are five orderly steps. The first of these is overcoming
- 26:56Speaker 1: the habit of slanderous speech. Slander consists of inventing or
- 27:01Speaker 1: repeating unkind and evil reports about others, in exposing and
- 27:06Speaker 1: magnifying the faults of others or of absent friends, and
- 27:10Speaker 1: in introducing unworthy insinuations. The elements of thoughtlessness, cruelty, insincerity,
- 27:19Speaker 1: and untruthfulness enter into every slanderous act. He who aims
- 27:25Speaker 1: at the living of the right life will commence to
- 27:28Speaker 1: check the cruel word of slander before it has gone
- 27:31Speaker 1: forth from his lips. He will then check and eliminate
- 27:35Speaker 1: the insincere thought which gave rise to it. He will
- 27:39Speaker 1: watch that he does not vilify or defame anyone. He
- 27:43Speaker 1: will refrain from disparaging, defaming, and condemning the absent friend
- 27:49Speaker 1: whose face he has so recently smiled into or kissed,
- 27:53Speaker 1: or whose hand he has shaken. He will not say
- 27:56Speaker 1: of another that which he dare not say to his face. Thus,
- 28:01Speaker 1: coming at last to think sacredly of the character and
- 28:04Speaker 1: reputation of others, he will destroy those wrong conditions of
- 28:08Speaker 1: mind which gave rise to slander. The next step is
- 28:13Speaker 1: the overcoming of gossip and idle conversation. Idle speech consists
- 28:18Speaker 1: in talking about the private affairs of others, in talking
- 28:22Speaker 1: merely to pass away the time, and engaging an aimless
- 28:26Speaker 1: and irrelevant conversation. Such an ungoverned condition of speech is
- 28:31Speaker 1: the outcome of an irregulated mind. The man of virtue
- 28:36Speaker 1: will bridle his tongue and thus learn how rightly to
- 28:39Speaker 1: govern the mind. He will not let his tongue run
- 28:43Speaker 1: idly and foolishly, but will make his speech strong and pure,
- 28:48Speaker 1: and will either talk with a purpose or remain silent.
- 28:52Speaker 1: Abusive and unkind speech is the next vice to be overcome.
- 28:57Speaker 1: The man who abuses and accuses others has himself wandered
- 29:01Speaker 1: far from the right. Way To hurl hard words and
- 29:05Speaker 1: names at others is to sink deeply into folly. When
- 29:09Speaker 1: a man is inclined to abuse, curse, and condemn others,
- 29:14Speaker 1: let him restrain his tongue and look within himself. The
- 29:18Speaker 1: virtuous man refrains from all abusive language and quarreling. He
- 29:22Speaker 1: employs only words that are useful, necessary, pure, and true.
- 29:28Speaker 1: The sixth step is the overcoming of levity or a
- 29:32Speaker 1: revelant speech, light and frivolous talking, The repeating of crude jokes,
- 29:38Speaker 1: the telling of vulgar's stories having no other purpose than
- 29:42Speaker 1: to raise an empty laugh, offensive familiarity, and the employment
- 29:47Speaker 1: of contemptuous and disrespectful words when speaking to or of others,
- 29:53Speaker 1: and particularly of one's elders and those who rank as
- 29:57Speaker 1: one's teachers, guardians, or superior All of this will be
- 30:01Speaker 1: put away by the lover of virtue and truth upon
- 30:05Speaker 1: the altar of irreverence. Absent friends and companions are immolated
- 30:10Speaker 1: for the passing excitement of a momentary laugh, and all
- 30:14Speaker 1: the sanctity of life is sacrificed to the zest for ridicule.
- 30:20Speaker 1: When the respect towards others and the giving of reverence
- 30:23Speaker 1: where reverence is due are abandoned. Virtue is abandoned when modesty, significance,
- 30:30Speaker 1: and dignity are eliminated from speech and behavior. Truth is
- 30:35Speaker 1: lost yea, even its entrance gate is hidden away and forgotten.
- 30:41Speaker 1: Irreverence is degrading even in the young. But when it
- 30:45Speaker 1: accompanies gray hairs and appears in the demeanor of the preacher,
- 30:50Speaker 1: this is indeed a piteous spectacle. And when this can
- 30:54Speaker 1: be imitated and followed after, then are the blind leading
- 30:58Speaker 1: the blind? Then have ells preachers and people lost their way.
- 31:04Speaker 1: The virtuous will be of earnest and reverent speech. He
- 31:08Speaker 1: will think and speak of the absence as he thinks
- 31:10Speaker 1: and speaks of the dead, tenderly and sacredly. He will
- 31:15Speaker 1: put away all thoughtlessness, and watch that he does not
- 31:18Speaker 1: sacrifice his dignity to gratify a passing impulse of frivolity
- 31:23Speaker 1: and superficiality. His humor will be pure and innocent, his
- 31:28Speaker 1: voice will be subdued and musical, and his soul will
- 31:32Speaker 1: be filled with grace and sweetness as he succeeds in
- 31:35Speaker 1: conducting himself as becomes a man of truth. The last
- 31:40Speaker 1: step in the second lesson is the overcoming of criticism
- 31:45Speaker 1: or fault finding speech. This vice of the tongue consists
- 31:49Speaker 1: in magnifying and harping on small or apparent faults, in
- 31:54Speaker 1: foolish quibbling and hair splitting, and in pursuing vain arguments
- 31:59Speaker 1: based upon on groundless suppositions, beliefs, and opinions. Life is
- 32:05Speaker 1: short and real, and sins, sorrow, and pain are not
- 32:09Speaker 1: remedied by carping and contention. The man who is ever
- 32:13Speaker 1: on the watch to catch at the words of others
- 32:17Speaker 1: in order to contradict and dispute them has yet to
- 32:20Speaker 1: reach the higher way of holiness, the truer life of
- 32:24Speaker 1: self surrender. The man who is ever on the alert
- 32:28Speaker 1: to check his own words in order to soften and
- 32:32Speaker 1: purify them will find the higher way. In the truer life.
- 32:36Speaker 1: He will conserve his energies, maintain his composure of mind,
- 32:41Speaker 1: and preserve within himself the spirit of truth. When the
- 32:46Speaker 1: tongue is well controlled and wisely subdued, when selfish impulses
- 32:51Speaker 1: and unworthy thoughts no longer rush to the tongue demanding utterance.
- 32:56Speaker 1: When the speech has become harmless, pure genie, gracious and purposeful,
- 33:03Speaker 1: and no word is uttered but in sincerity and honesty,
- 33:07Speaker 1: then are the five steps to virtuous speech accomplished. Then
- 33:11Speaker 1: is the second great lesson in truth learned and mastered.
- 33:16Speaker 1: And now some will ask, but why all this discipline
- 33:20Speaker 1: of the body and restraint of the tongue. Surely the
- 33:23Speaker 1: higher life can be realized and known without such strenuous labor,
- 33:27Speaker 1: such incessant effort and watchfulness. No, it cannot. In the
- 33:33Speaker 1: spiritual as the material nothing is done without labor, and
- 33:37Speaker 1: the higher cannot be known until the lower is fulfilled.
- 33:41Speaker 1: Can a man make a table before he has learned
- 33:44Speaker 1: to handle a tool and drive a nail? And can
- 33:47Speaker 1: a man fashion his mind in accordance with truth before
- 33:51Speaker 1: he has overcome the slavery of his body? As the
- 33:54Speaker 1: intricate subtleties of language cannot be understood, and wielded before
- 33:59Speaker 1: the alphabet and the simplest words are mastered. Neither can
- 34:03Speaker 1: the deep subtleties of the mind be understood and purified
- 34:07Speaker 1: before the abc of rite conduct is perfectly acquired. As
- 34:12Speaker 1: for the labour involved, does not the youth joyfully and
- 34:15Speaker 1: patiently submit himself to seven years apprenticeship in order to
- 34:20Speaker 1: master a craft? And does he not day by day
- 34:24Speaker 1: carefully and faithfully carry out every detail of his master's instructions,
- 34:29Speaker 1: looking forward to a time when perfected through obedience and practice,
- 34:34Speaker 1: he shall himself become a master. Where is the man
- 34:39Speaker 1: who sincerely aims at excellence in music, painting, literature, or
- 34:44Speaker 1: any trade, business, or profession, who is not willing to
- 34:48Speaker 1: give his whole life to the acquirement of that particular perfection.
- 34:53Speaker 1: Shall labour then be considered where the very highest excellence
- 34:57Speaker 1: is concerned, the excellence of truth. He who says the
- 35:02Speaker 1: path which you have pointed out is too difficult, I
- 35:05Speaker 1: must have truth without labour, salvation without effort. That man
- 35:10Speaker 1: will not find his way out of the confusions and
- 35:13Speaker 1: sufferings of selfhood. He will not find the calm, well
- 35:16Speaker 1: fortified mind, and wisely ordered life. His love is for
- 35:21Speaker 1: ease and enjoyment, and not for truth. He who deep
- 35:25Speaker 1: in his heart adores truth and aspires to know it,
- 35:30Speaker 1: will consider no labor too great to be undertaken, but
- 35:34Speaker 1: will adopt it joyfully and pursue it patiently. By perseverance
- 35:39Speaker 1: in practice, he will come to the knowledge of truth.
- 35:43Speaker 1: The necessity for this preliminary discipline of the body and
- 35:46Speaker 1: tongue will be more clearly perceived when it is fully
- 35:50Speaker 1: understood that all these wrong outward conditions are merely the
- 35:54Speaker 1: expressions of the wrong conditions of the heart. An indolent
- 35:58Speaker 1: body means an indolent mind mind, an ill regulated tongue
- 36:02Speaker 1: reveals an ill regulated mind, and the process of remedying
- 36:07Speaker 1: the manifested condition is really a method of rectifying the
- 36:10Speaker 1: inward state. Moreover, the overcoming of these conditions is only
- 36:17Speaker 1: a small part of what is really involved in the process.
- 36:21Speaker 1: The ceasing from evil leads to and is inseparably connected
- 36:25Speaker 1: with the practice of good. While a man is overcoming
- 36:29Speaker 1: laziness and self indulgence, he is really cultivating and developing
- 36:34Speaker 1: the virtues of abstinence, temperance, punctuality, and self denial. He
- 36:40Speaker 1: is acquiring the strength, energy, and resolve, which are indispensable
- 36:45Speaker 1: to the successful accomplishment of the higher tasks. While he
- 36:49Speaker 1: is overcoming the vices of speech, he is developing the
- 36:53Speaker 1: virtues of truthfulness, sincerity, reverence, kindliness, and self control, and
- 37:00Speaker 1: is gaining that mental steadiness and fixedness of purpose, without
- 37:05Speaker 1: which the more remote subtleties of the mind cannot be regulated,
- 37:09Speaker 1: and the higher stages of conduct and enlightenment cannot be reached. Also,
- 37:15Speaker 1: as he has to do right, his knowledge deepens and
- 37:19Speaker 1: his insight is intensified. Just as a child's heart is
- 37:24Speaker 1: glad when a school task is mastered, so with each
- 37:27Speaker 1: victory achieved, the man of virtue experiences a bliss which
- 37:32Speaker 1: the seeker after pleasure and excitement can never know. And
- 37:37Speaker 1: now we come to the third lesson in the higher life,
- 37:40Speaker 1: which consists of practicing and mastering in one's daily life
- 37:45Speaker 1: three great fundamental virtues. One unselfish performance of duty, two
- 37:53Speaker 1: unswerving rectitude, moral integrity, three unlimit forgiveness. Having prepared the
- 38:03Speaker 1: mind by overcoming the more surface and chaotic conditions mentioned
- 38:07Speaker 1: in the first two lessons, the striver, after virtue and
- 38:11Speaker 1: truth is now ready to enter upon greater and more
- 38:14Speaker 1: difficult tasks and to control and purify the deeper motives
- 38:18Speaker 1: of the heart. Without the right performance of duty, the
- 38:22Speaker 1: higher virtues cannot be known, and truth cannot be apprehended.
- 38:27Speaker 1: Duty is generally regarded as an irksome labor, a compulsory
- 38:31Speaker 1: something which must be toiled through or in some way avoided.
- 38:36Speaker 1: This way of regarding duty proceeds from a selfish condition
- 38:39Speaker 1: of mind and a wrong understanding of life. All duty
- 38:44Speaker 1: should be regarded as sacred in its faithful and unselfish performance.
- 38:48Speaker 1: One of the leading rules of conduct. All personal and
- 38:52Speaker 1: selfish considerations should be extracted and cast away from the
- 38:56Speaker 1: doing of one's duty, and when this is done, duty
- 39:00Speaker 1: ceases to be irksome and becomes joyful. Duty is only
- 39:05Speaker 1: irksome to him who craves some selfish enjoyment or benefit
- 39:09Speaker 1: for himself. Let the man who is chafing under the
- 39:12Speaker 1: irksomeness of his duty look to himself, and he will
- 39:16Speaker 1: find that his wearisomeness proceeds not from the duty itself,
- 39:21Speaker 1: but from his selfish desire to escape it. He who
- 39:25Speaker 1: neglects duty, be a great or small, or of a
- 39:28Speaker 1: public or private nature, neglects virtue. When duty becomes a
- 39:33Speaker 1: thing of love, and when every particular duty is done accurately, faithfully,
- 39:38Speaker 1: and dispassionately, there is much subtle selfishness removed from the heart,
- 39:44Speaker 1: and a great step is taken toward the heights of truth.
- 39:47Speaker 1: The virtuous man concentrates his mind on the perfect doing
- 39:51Speaker 1: of his own duty and does not interfere with the
- 39:54Speaker 1: duty of another. The ninth step is the practice of
- 39:58Speaker 1: unswerving rectitute, dude, or moral integrity. This virtue must be
- 40:04Speaker 1: firmly established in the mind, and so enter into every
- 40:07Speaker 1: detail of a man's life. All dishonesty, deception, trickery, and
- 40:14Speaker 1: misrepresentation must be forever put away, and the heart purged
- 40:19Speaker 1: of every vestige of insincerity and deception. The least digression
- 40:24Speaker 1: from the path of rectitude or righteousness is a deviation
- 40:28Speaker 1: from virtue. There must be no extravagance and exaggeration of speech,
- 40:34Speaker 1: but the simple truth should be stated. Engaging in deception,
- 40:39Speaker 1: no matter how apparently insignificant, for boastful pride or with
- 40:44Speaker 1: the hope of personal advantage, is a state of delusion
- 40:48Speaker 1: which one should make efforts to dispel. It is demanded
- 40:52Speaker 1: of the man of virtue that he shall not only
- 40:55Speaker 1: practice the most rigid honesty in thought word indeed, but
- 41:00Speaker 1: that he shall be exact in his statements, omitting and
- 41:03Speaker 1: adding nothing to the actual truth. In thus shaping his
- 41:07Speaker 1: mind to the principle of rectitude or moral integrity, he
- 41:12Speaker 1: will gradually come to deal with people and things in
- 41:15Speaker 1: a just and impartial spirit, considering equity before himself, and
- 41:20Speaker 1: viewing all things with freedom from personal bias, passion, and prejudice.
- 41:26Speaker 1: When the virtue of rectitude is fully practiced and comprehended,
- 41:30Speaker 1: so that all temptation to untruthfulness and insincerity has ceased,
- 41:36Speaker 1: then is the heart made purer and nobler than is.
- 41:39Speaker 1: Character strengthened and knowledge enlarged, and life takes on a
- 41:44Speaker 1: new meaning and a new power. Thus is the ninth
- 41:48Speaker 1: step accomplished. The tenth step is the practice of unlimited forgiveness.
- 41:55Speaker 1: This consists in overcoming the sense of injury which springs
- 41:59Speaker 1: from vanity, selfishness, and pride, and in exercising disinterested charity
- 42:05Speaker 1: and large heartedness towards all spite, retaliation, and revenge are
- 42:12Speaker 1: so utterly ignoble, so base, so small and foolish, as
- 42:17Speaker 1: to be altogether unworthy of being noticed or harbored. No
- 42:21Speaker 1: one who fosters such conditions in his heart can lift
- 42:25Speaker 1: himself above folly and suffering and guide his life aright.
- 42:31Speaker 1: Only by casting them away and ceasing to be moved
- 42:34Speaker 1: by them can a man's eyes be open to the
- 42:37Speaker 1: true way of life. Only by developing a forgiving and
- 42:41Speaker 1: charitable spirit can he hope to approach and perceive the
- 42:45Speaker 1: strength and beauty of a well ordered life. In the
- 42:49Speaker 1: heart of the strongly virtuous man, no feeling of personal
- 42:53Speaker 1: injury can arise. He has put away all retaliation and
- 42:58Speaker 1: has no enemies. If other men should regard themselves as
- 43:02Speaker 1: his enemies, he will regard them kindly, understanding their ignorance
- 43:07Speaker 1: and making full allowance for it. When this state of
- 43:11Speaker 1: heart is arrived at, then the tenth step in the
- 43:15Speaker 1: discipline of one's self seeking inclinations is accomplished. Then the
- 43:20Speaker 1: third great lesson in virtue and knowledge is learned and mastered.
- 43:24Speaker 1: Having thus laid down the first ten steps and three
- 43:27Speaker 1: lessons in right doing and right knowing, I leave those
- 43:31Speaker 1: of my readers who are prepared for them to learn
- 43:34Speaker 1: and master them in their everyday life. There is, of
- 43:37Speaker 1: course a still higher discipline of the body, a more
- 43:41Speaker 1: far reaching discipline of the tongue, and greater and more
- 43:45Speaker 1: all embracing virtues to acquire and understand before the highest
- 43:49Speaker 1: state of bliss and knowledge can be grasped. But it
- 43:53Speaker 1: is not my purpose to deal with them. Here. I
- 43:56Speaker 1: have expounded only the first and easiest lessons on them
- 44:00Speaker 1: higher path, And by the time these are thoroughly mastered,
- 44:04Speaker 1: the reader will have become so purified, strengthened, and enlightened
- 44:09Speaker 1: that he will not be left in the dark as
- 44:11Speaker 1: to his future progress. Those of my readers who have
- 44:15Speaker 1: completed these three lessons will already have perceived beyond and
- 44:20Speaker 1: above the high altitudes of truth and the narrow, imprecipitous
- 44:25Speaker 1: tract which leads to them, and will choose whether they
- 44:28Speaker 1: shall proceed. The straight path which I have laid down
- 44:32Speaker 1: can be pursued by all with greater profit to themselves
- 44:36Speaker 1: and to the world. And even those who do not
- 44:39Speaker 1: aspire to the attainment of truth will develop greater intellectual
- 44:43Speaker 1: and moral strength, finer judgment, and deeper peace of mind
- 44:48Speaker 1: by perfecting themselves in this path. Nor will their material
- 44:52Speaker 1: prosperity suffer by this change of heart. Nay, it will
- 44:57Speaker 1: be rendered truer, purer, and more. For if there is
- 45:02Speaker 1: one who is capable of succeeding and fitted to achieve,
- 45:05Speaker 1: it is the man who has abandoned the petty weaknesses
- 45:09Speaker 1: and everyday vices of his kind, who is strong enough
- 45:12Speaker 1: to rule his body and mind, and who pursues with
- 45:16Speaker 1: fixed resolve the path of unswerving integrity and sterling virtue.
- 45:22Speaker 1: Mental conditions and their effects. Without going into the details
- 45:28Speaker 1: of the greater steps and lessons in the right life
- 45:31Speaker 1: a task outside the scope of this small work, a
- 45:35Speaker 1: few hints concerning those mental conditions from which life, in
- 45:39Speaker 1: its totality springs, seem in order. These hints will prove
- 45:44Speaker 1: helpful to those who are ready and willing to penetrate
- 45:47Speaker 1: further into the inner realm of heart and mind, where love, peace,
- 45:52Speaker 1: and wisdom await the rapidly progressing student of life. All
- 45:57Speaker 1: sin is ignorance. It is a condition of darkness and undevelopment.
- 46:02Speaker 1: The wrong thinker and the wrongdoer is in the same
- 46:05Speaker 1: position in the school of life as the ignorant pupil
- 46:09Speaker 1: is in the school of learning. He has yet to
- 46:12Speaker 1: learn how to think and act correctly. That is, in
- 46:16Speaker 1: accordance with law. The pupil in learning is not happy
- 46:21Speaker 1: so long as he does his lessons wrongly. Likewise, unhappiness
- 46:26Speaker 1: cannot be escaped, while sin remains unconquered. Life is a
- 46:31Speaker 1: series of lessons. Some are diligent in learning them, and
- 46:35Speaker 1: they become pure, wise, and altogether happy. Others are negligent
- 46:41Speaker 1: and do not apply themselves. They remain impure, foolish, and unhappy.
- 46:48Speaker 1: Every form of unhappiness springs from a wrong condition of mind.
- 46:53Speaker 1: Happiness is inherent in right conditions of mind. Happiness is
- 46:58Speaker 1: mental harmony on us. Happiness is mental in harmony. While
- 47:03Speaker 1: a man lives in wrong conditions of mind, he will
- 47:06Speaker 1: live a wrong life and will suffer continually. Suffering is
- 47:11Speaker 1: rooted in error. Bliss is inherent in enlightenment. There is
- 47:16Speaker 1: salvation for man only in the destruction of his own ignorance, error,
- 47:22Speaker 1: and self delusion. Where there are wrong conditions of mind,
- 47:26Speaker 1: there is bondage and unrest. Where there are right conditions
- 47:30Speaker 1: of mind, there is freedom and peace. Here are some
- 47:35Speaker 1: of the leading wrong mental conditions and their disastrous effects
- 47:39Speaker 1: upon one's life. One hatred, which leads to injury, violence, disaster,
- 47:47Speaker 1: and suffering. Two lust which leads to confusion of intellect, remorse, shame,
- 47:56Speaker 1: and wretchedness. Three of virtuousness, which leads to fear, unrest, unhappiness,
- 48:06Speaker 1: and loss. Four pride which leads to disappointment, humiliation, and
- 48:14Speaker 1: lack of self knowledge. Five vanity, which leads to distress
- 48:21Speaker 1: and mortification of spirit. Six condemnation which leads to persecution
- 48:28Speaker 1: and hatred from others. Seven ill will which leads to
- 48:34Speaker 1: failures and troubles. Eight self indulgence which leads to misery,
- 48:42Speaker 1: loss of judgment, grossness, disease, and neglect. Nine anger which
- 48:51Speaker 1: leads to the loss of power and influence. Ten desire
- 48:57Speaker 1: or self slavery, which leads to grief, folly, sorrow, uncertainty,
- 49:04Speaker 1: and loneliness. The above wrong conditions of mind are merely negations.
- 49:11Speaker 1: They are states of darkness and deprivation, and not of
- 49:14Speaker 1: positive power. Evil is not a power, It is ignorance
- 49:19Speaker 1: and misuse of good. The hater is he who has
- 49:23Speaker 1: failed to do the lesson of love correctly, and he
- 49:26Speaker 1: suffers in consequence. When he succeeds in doing it rightly,
- 49:31Speaker 1: the hatred will have disappeared, and he will see and
- 49:35Speaker 1: understand the darkness and impotence of hatred. This is so
- 49:39Speaker 1: with every wrong condition. The following are some of the
- 49:43Speaker 1: more important right mental conditions and their beneficial effects upon
- 49:48Speaker 1: one's life. One love, which leads to gentle conditions, bliss
- 49:55Speaker 1: and blessedness. Two purity, which leads to intellectual clearness, joy,
- 50:04Speaker 1: invincible confidence. Three selflessness, which leads to courage, satisfaction, happiness,
- 50:13Speaker 1: and abundance. Four humility, which leads to calmness, restfulness, knowledge
- 50:22Speaker 1: of truth. Five gentleness, which leads to emotional equilibrium, contentment
- 50:30Speaker 1: under all circumstances. Six compassion, which leads to protection, love,
- 50:38Speaker 1: and reverence from others. Seven good will which leads to gladness, success.
- 50:48Speaker 1: Eight self control, which leads to peace of mind, true judgment, refinement, health,
- 50:57Speaker 1: and honor. Nine patience, which leads to mental power, far
- 51:03Speaker 1: reaching influence. Ten self conquest which leads to enlightenment, wisdom, insight,
- 51:13Speaker 1: and profound peace. The above right conditions of mind are
- 51:18Speaker 1: states of positive power, light, joyful possession, and knowledge. The
- 51:24Speaker 1: good man knows he has learned to do his lessons correctly,
- 51:29Speaker 1: and thereby understands the exact proportions which make up the
- 51:33Speaker 1: sum of life. He is enlightened, and he knows good
- 51:38Speaker 1: and evil. He is supremely happy, doing only which is
- 51:43Speaker 1: divinely right. The man who is involved in the wrong
- 51:46Speaker 1: conditions of mind does not know. He is ignorant of
- 51:50Speaker 1: good and evil, of himself, of the inward causes which
- 51:55Speaker 1: make his life. He is unhappy and believes other people
- 51:59Speaker 1: are in entirely the cause of his unhappiness. He works
- 52:03Speaker 1: blindly and lives in darkness, seeing no central purpose in existence,
- 52:10Speaker 1: and no orderly and lawful sequence in the course of things.
- 52:15Speaker 1: He who aspires to the attainment of the higher life
- 52:17Speaker 1: in its completion, who would perceive with unveiled vision the
- 52:22Speaker 1: true order of things and the meaning of life. Let
- 52:26Speaker 1: him abandon all the wrong conditions of the heart and
- 52:29Speaker 1: persevere unceasingly in the practice of good. If he suffers,
- 52:35Speaker 1: or doubts, or is unhappy, let him search within until
- 52:39Speaker 1: he finds the cause, and having found it, let him
- 52:43Speaker 1: cast it away. Let him so guard and purify his heart,
- 52:48Speaker 1: that every day less of evil and more of good
- 52:51Speaker 1: shall issue therefrom so he will daily become stronger, nobler,
- 52:57Speaker 1: and wiser. So will his blessedness increase, and the light
- 53:02Speaker 1: of truth growing ever brighter and brighter within him will
- 53:06Speaker 1: dispel all gloom and illuminate his pathway. Exhortation, Disciples of truth,
- 53:15Speaker 1: lovers of virtue, seekers of wisdom, You also, who are
- 53:20Speaker 1: sorrow stricken, knowing the emptiness of the self life, and
- 53:25Speaker 1: who aspire to the life that is supremely beautiful and
- 53:29Speaker 1: serenely joyful, Take now yourselves in hand, Enter the door
- 53:34Speaker 1: of discipline and know the better life. Put away self delusion,
- 53:40Speaker 1: behold yourself as you are, and see the path of
- 53:43Speaker 1: virtue as it is. There is no lazy way to truth.
- 53:48Speaker 1: He who would stand upon the mountain's summit must strenuously climb,
- 53:53Speaker 1: and must rest only to gather strength. But if the
- 53:57Speaker 1: climbing is less glorious than the cloudless sund it is
- 54:01Speaker 1: still glorious. Discipline in itself is beautiful, and the end
- 54:06Speaker 1: result of discipline is sweet. Rise early and meditate. Begin
- 54:12Speaker 1: each day with a conquered body and a mind fortified
- 54:15Speaker 1: against error and weakness. Temptation will never be overcome by
- 54:20Speaker 1: unprepared fighting. The mind must be armed and arrayed in
- 54:25Speaker 1: the silent hour. It must be trained to perceive, to know,
- 54:30Speaker 1: to understand sin and temptation, disappear when right understanding is developed.
- 54:37Speaker 1: Right understanding is reached through unabated discipline. Truth cannot be reached,
- 54:43Speaker 1: but through discipline. Patience will increase by effort and practice,
- 54:48Speaker 1: and patience will make discipline beautiful. Discipline is irksome to
- 54:53Speaker 1: the impatient man and the lover of self, so he
- 54:56Speaker 1: avoids it and continues to live loosely and confusedly. Discipline
- 55:02Speaker 1: is not irksome to the lover of truth, and he
- 55:05Speaker 1: will find the infinite patience which can wait, work and overcome.
- 55:11Speaker 1: Just as the joy of the gardener who sees his
- 55:13Speaker 1: or her flowers develop day by day, so is the
- 55:17Speaker 1: joy of the man of discipline, who sees the divine
- 55:21Speaker 1: flowers of purity, wisdom, compassion, and love grow within his heart.
- 55:28Speaker 1: The loose liver cannot escape sorrow and pain. The undisciplined
- 55:33Speaker 1: mind falls weak and helpless before the fierce onslaught of passion.
- 55:39Speaker 1: Array your mind, then, lover of truth, Be watchful, thoughtful,
- 55:44Speaker 1: and resolute. Your salvation is at hand. Your readiness and
- 55:50Speaker 1: effort are all that are needed. If you fail ten times,
- 55:54Speaker 1: do not be disheartened. If you should fail a hundred times,
- 55:59Speaker 1: rise up and per sue your way. If you should
- 56:02Speaker 1: fail a thousand times, do not despair. When the path
- 56:07Speaker 1: is entered, success is sure if the path is not
- 56:11Speaker 1: utterly abandoned. First strife and then victory, First labor and
- 56:17Speaker 1: then rest, First weakness and then strength. In the beginning
- 56:22Speaker 1: the lower life, and the glare and confusion of battle,
- 56:26Speaker 1: and at the end the life beautiful, the silence and
- 56:31Speaker 1: the peace, all common things each day's events, that with
- 56:37Speaker 1: the hour begin an end. Our pleasures and our discontents
- 56:42Speaker 1: are rounds by which we may ascend. We have not wings,
- 56:47Speaker 1: we cannot soar, but we have feet to scale and climb, longfellow,