Latest / Classic Educational Library / Mastering the Heart and Mind - James Allen
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The life triumphant mastering the heart and mind by James
- 0:04Speaker 1: Allen forward. Every being lives in his own mental world.
- 0:11Speaker 1: His joys and sorrows are the creations of his own
- 0:14Speaker 1: mind and are dependent upon the mind for their existence.
- 0:20Speaker 1: In the midst of the world darkened with many sins
- 0:23Speaker 1: and sorrows in which the majority live, there abides another world,
- 0:29Speaker 1: lighted up with shining virtues and unpolluted joy in which
- 0:33Speaker 1: the perfect ones live. This world can be found and entered,
- 0:39Speaker 1: and the way to it is by self control and
- 0:42Speaker 1: moral excellence. It is the world of the perfect life,
- 0:46Speaker 1: and it rightly belongs to man, who is not complete
- 0:51Speaker 1: until crowned with perfection. The perfect life is not the
- 0:55Speaker 1: far away, impossible thing that men who are in darkness
- 0:58Speaker 1: imagine it to be. It is supremely possible and very
- 1:03Speaker 1: near and real. Man remains a craving, weeping, sinning, repenting
- 1:10Speaker 1: creature just so long as he wills to do so
- 1:14Speaker 1: by clinging to those weak conditions. But when he wills
- 1:18Speaker 1: to shake off his dog dreams and to rise, he
- 1:22Speaker 1: arises and achieves. James Allen, Hail to thee Man Divine,
- 1:30Speaker 1: the conqueror of sin and shame. And sorrow. No more weak,
- 1:36Speaker 1: worm like and groveling art thou no, nor wilt thou
- 1:41Speaker 1: again bow down to things that week scourgings and death
- 1:46Speaker 1: upon thee Thou dost rise triumphant in thy strength, good,
- 1:53Speaker 1: pure and wise faith and courage. For those who will
- 2:00Speaker 1: fight bravely and not yield, there is triumphant victory of
- 2:04Speaker 1: all the dark things of life. I state this at
- 2:08Speaker 1: the beginning that the reader may know there is no
- 2:10Speaker 1: uncertainty about it. In the course of this book, I
- 2:13Speaker 1: shall show what other elements in character and conduct which
- 2:17Speaker 1: go to build up the life of calm, strength and
- 2:20Speaker 1: superlative victory, to stand face to face with truth, to
- 2:25Speaker 1: arrive oft innumerable wanderings and pains at wisdom and bliss,
- 2:30Speaker 1: not to be finally defeated and cost out, but ultimately
- 2:34Speaker 1: to triumph over every inward foe. Such is man's divine destiny,
- 2:40Speaker 1: such his glorious goal. And this every saint, sage and
- 2:44Speaker 1: savior has declared. In the present stage of the life
- 2:48Speaker 1: of humanity, Comparatively few reach this place of triumph, though
- 2:53Speaker 1: all will reach it at last. Yet there is a
- 2:56Speaker 1: glorious company of perfect ones who have attained in the
- 3:00Speaker 1: and their numbers being added to with each succeeding age.
- 3:04Speaker 1: Men are as yet learners in the school of life,
- 3:07Speaker 1: and most men die learners. But there are some who,
- 3:11Speaker 1: in this life, through fixity of purpose and strenuous fighting
- 3:14Speaker 1: against darkness, pain and ignorance, acquire a right knowledge of
- 3:18Speaker 1: life and pause joyfully beyond the people's stage. Man is
- 3:23Speaker 1: not to remain forever a schoolboy in the universe, to
- 3:26Speaker 1: be whooped for follies and errors. When he wills and wishes,
- 3:30Speaker 1: he can sit his mind upon his task and master
- 3:33Speaker 1: the lessons of life, becoming a confident and skilled scholar,
- 3:37Speaker 1: living in understanding, in peace, and not in ignorance and misery.
- 3:42Speaker 1: The sorrows of life are profound and deeply rooted, but
- 3:45Speaker 1: they can be fathomed and rooted out. The passions and
- 3:49Speaker 1: emotions of human nature are, in their ungoverned state, overwhelming
- 3:54Speaker 1: and painfully conflicting, but they can be so softened down, harmonized,
- 3:58Speaker 1: and widely directed in understood as to become obedient servants
- 4:03Speaker 1: for the outworking of enlightened purposes. The difficulties of life
- 4:07Speaker 1: are great. Its battle fears and its wished for issues
- 4:11Speaker 1: are uncertain and elusive, so much so that every hour
- 4:15Speaker 1: men and women are breaking down under the strain. Yet
- 4:18Speaker 1: these conditions have no objective and arbitrary existence in their
- 4:22Speaker 1: true nature. They are subjective and purely mental, and can
- 4:26Speaker 1: be transcended. There is no inherent and permanent evil in
- 4:30Speaker 1: the universal order, and the mind can be lifted up
- 4:33Speaker 1: to the moral altitude where evil can touch it no
- 4:36Speaker 1: more as stead fast faith in an eternal and universal justice,
- 4:41Speaker 1: in an overruling good is the prelude to the life triumphant.
- 4:47Speaker 1: The man who aims to become strong, serene, and steadfast
- 4:50Speaker 1: at heart must at the onset have no doubt that
- 4:54Speaker 1: the heart of life is good. He is to gaze
- 4:57Speaker 1: upon the cosmic order and experience the rap sure of emancipation.
- 5:01Speaker 1: Must realize that there is no disorder in his life
- 5:05Speaker 1: but that which he creates. This realization is difficult, so
- 5:09Speaker 1: prone is the mind in its imperfect stages, to self
- 5:13Speaker 1: pity and self justification. But it can be attained, and
- 5:17Speaker 1: must be attained by him who is to live the
- 5:19Speaker 1: freed life. At first, it must be believed, and the
- 5:24Speaker 1: belief must be adhere to until it ripens into realization
- 5:28Speaker 1: and knowledge. The sufferings of life are greatly reduced when
- 5:32Speaker 1: they are accepted as disciplinary experiences, and the man of
- 5:36Speaker 1: faith does so accept them. The sufferings of life are
- 5:40Speaker 1: transcended and put away when all experiences are accounted good
- 5:44Speaker 1: and are utilized in the development of character, and the
- 5:47Speaker 1: man of knowledge does so regard and utilize them. Faith
- 5:51Speaker 1: is the great dawn which precedes the full and perfect
- 5:54Speaker 1: day of knowledge. Without it, there can be no attainment
- 5:57Speaker 1: of strength, no permanent security of heart. The man of
- 6:01Speaker 1: faith does not succumb when difficulties present themselves. He does
- 6:05Speaker 1: not despair when troubles overtake him. However steep and dark
- 6:09Speaker 1: his path may seem, he looks forward to a brighter
- 6:12Speaker 1: pathway ahead. He sees a destination of rest and light beyond.
- 6:17Speaker 1: They who have no faith in the triumph of good
- 6:20Speaker 1: ignominiously succumb to the elements of evil. And this must
- 6:24Speaker 1: be so, for he who does not elevate good elevates evil,
- 6:29Speaker 1: and seeing evil as the master of life, he receives
- 6:32Speaker 1: the wages of evil. They are those who, having yielded
- 6:36Speaker 1: to defeat in the battle of life, talk thoughtlessly about
- 6:41Speaker 1: the wrongs they have suffered at the hands of others.
- 6:44Speaker 1: They believe, and try to make others believe, that they
- 6:47Speaker 1: would have been successful, or rich or famous but for
- 6:51Speaker 1: the treachery and villany of those about them. They tell
- 6:54Speaker 1: for the thousandth time how they have been deceived, defrauded,
- 6:59Speaker 1: and degraded by us. They imagine that they themselves are
- 7:02Speaker 1: all trust or innocence, all honesty and good nature, and
- 7:06Speaker 1: that nearly everyone else is all that is bad and malicious.
- 7:10Speaker 1: They tell how they would have been just as prosperous
- 7:12Speaker 1: and honored as others if they had been as selfish
- 7:16Speaker 1: as those others, and that their great drawback and chief
- 7:19Speaker 1: source in themselves of their failures is that they were
- 7:23Speaker 1: born with too great an endowment of unselfishness. Such self
- 7:28Speaker 1: praising complainants cannot distinguish between good and evil, and their
- 7:32Speaker 1: faith in human nature and the goodness of the universe.
- 7:34Speaker 1: As dead looking upon others, they have eyes for evil.
- 7:38Speaker 1: Only looking upon themselves, they see only suffering innocence. Rather
- 7:44Speaker 1: than discover any evil in themselves, they would have all
- 7:47Speaker 1: humanity bad in their hearts. They have enthroned the rich,
- 7:51Speaker 1: a deemon of evil, as the lord of life, and
- 7:54Speaker 1: seeing the course of things only a selfish scramble, in
- 7:57Speaker 1: which the good is always crushed and the evil rise triumphant.
- 8:01Speaker 1: Blind to their own folly, ignorance, and weakness, they see
- 8:05Speaker 1: nothing but injustice in their fate, nothing but misery and
- 8:08Speaker 1: wretchedness in their present condition. He who would have even
- 8:13Speaker 1: a useful and successful life yet alone, a spiritually noble
- 8:17Speaker 1: and victorious one, must at once root out and caust
- 8:21Speaker 1: away this rigid condition of mind that negates all that
- 8:24Speaker 1: is good and pure, and gives pre eminence to all
- 8:27Speaker 1: that is base and impure. Misfortune, misery, and defeat most
- 8:32Speaker 1: surely await the man who believes that dishonesty, deceit, and
- 8:36Speaker 1: selfishness are the best weapons whereby to achieve a successful life.
- 8:41Speaker 1: What courage and strength can a man develop? And what
- 8:44Speaker 1: quiet and happiness can he enjoy? Who believes that in
- 8:47Speaker 1: order to keep pace with others, he must continually deny
- 8:50Speaker 1: and discourage the better qualities of his nature. The man
- 8:54Speaker 1: who believes that evil is more powerful than good, and
- 8:57Speaker 1: that bad men have the best of life, is still
- 8:59Speaker 1: involved in the elements of evil, and being so involved
- 9:04Speaker 1: he suffers must necessarily suffer defeat. It may appear to
- 9:09Speaker 1: you that the world is given over to wickedness, that
- 9:12Speaker 1: the bad prosper and the good fail. That there is
- 9:15Speaker 1: nothing but chance in justice and disorder. But do not
- 9:18Speaker 1: believe this, regard it as an elusive appearance. Conclude that
- 9:22Speaker 1: you do not see life as it really is, that
- 9:25Speaker 1: you have not yet fathomed the causes of things, and
- 9:28Speaker 1: that when you can look upon life through a pure
- 9:30Speaker 1: heart and the wiser mind, you will see and understand
- 9:33Speaker 1: its equity. And truly, when you do so look at life,
- 9:37Speaker 1: you will seek good. When you now see evil order
- 9:40Speaker 1: where now appears disorder, and justice where now injustice seems
- 9:44Speaker 1: to prevail. The universe is a cosmos, not a chaos,
- 9:49Speaker 1: and the bad do not prosper. It is true there
- 9:51Speaker 1: is much evil in the world, otherwise there be no
- 9:54Speaker 1: necessity for moral aims. But there is also much misery
- 9:58Speaker 1: in the world, and the evil and misery are related
- 10:01Speaker 1: as cause and effect. It is equally true that there
- 10:04Speaker 1: is much good in the world, and much abide in gladness,
- 10:07Speaker 1: and the good and gladness are related as cause and effect.
- 10:11Speaker 1: He who has acquired that faith in the power and
- 10:13Speaker 1: supremacy of good, which no apparent injustice, no amount of suffering,
- 10:17Speaker 1: and no catastrophe can shake will pass through all emergencies,
- 10:21Speaker 1: all trials and difficulties, with a sublime courage that defiles
- 10:25Speaker 1: the demons of doubt and despair. He may not succeed
- 10:29Speaker 1: in all his plans. He may even encounter much failure.
- 10:32Speaker 1: But when he fails, it will be that he may
- 10:35Speaker 1: frame nobler purposes and assent to higher achievements. He will
- 10:39Speaker 1: only fail in order to reach a success greater than
- 10:42Speaker 1: that of which he first dreamed. His life will not
- 10:46Speaker 1: cannot be a failure. Some of its details will fail,
- 10:50Speaker 1: but this will be but the breaking of weak links
- 10:52Speaker 1: in the chain of character and events, in order that
- 10:55Speaker 1: the whole may be made strong and complete. There is
- 10:59Speaker 1: an animal courage which can calmly face the fire of
- 11:02Speaker 1: an enemy in battle, or the fierce rage of beasts,
- 11:05Speaker 1: but which fails in the battle of life, and breaks
- 11:08Speaker 1: down when confronted with the beasts that rage within one's
- 11:11Speaker 1: own heart. It requires a higher diviner courage to remain
- 11:15Speaker 1: calm in the hour of deprivation and calamity than in
- 11:18Speaker 1: the heat of battle, to overcome self and to overcome another,
- 11:22Speaker 1: And this diviner courage is the companion of faith. A
- 11:26Speaker 1: mere theological belief commonly confused with faith, will not avail.
- 11:32Speaker 1: Believes about God, Jesus, creation, et cetera are merely served
- 11:36Speaker 1: as opinions, derived chiefly from custom, which do not reach
- 11:40Speaker 1: down to the real life of a man and have
- 11:42Speaker 1: no power to bestow faith. Such beliefs may accompany faith,
- 11:47Speaker 1: but they are distinct from it. Frequently, those who hold
- 11:51Speaker 1: most tenaciously to particularly believes about God, Jesus the Bible,
- 11:56Speaker 1: are most lacking in faith. That is, they give way
- 12:00Speaker 1: to complaint, despondency, and grief immediately after some pity trouble
- 12:05Speaker 1: overtakes them. If one is given to irritability, anxiety, hopelessness,
- 12:10Speaker 1: and lamentations over the simple things of life, let him
- 12:14Speaker 1: know that, in spite of his religious belief for metaphysical philosophy,
- 12:18Speaker 1: he lacks faith. For where faith is, there is courage,
- 12:23Speaker 1: there is fortitude, there is steadfastness and strength. The opinions
- 12:29Speaker 1: of men are likely to be considered, for they are
- 12:31Speaker 1: changing with every new breeze of thought. They have very
- 12:35Speaker 1: little part in the reality of things, being the bubbles
- 12:38Speaker 1: of a surface effervescence. But behind all opinions there is
- 12:42Speaker 1: the same human heart, the Godless are they who are goodless,
- 12:47Speaker 1: even though they may be members of churches and make
- 12:49Speaker 1: great profession of faith in God. The godly are they
- 12:54Speaker 1: who are goodly even though they make no profession of religion.
- 12:58Speaker 1: The complainers and bewailers, or faithless and unbelieving, those who deny,
- 13:02Speaker 1: belittle the power of good, and in their lives and
- 13:05Speaker 1: actions of firm and magnify the power of evil are
- 13:09Speaker 1: the only real atheists. Faith bestows that sublime courage that
- 13:13Speaker 1: arises superior to the pity and selfish disappointments and troubles
- 13:17Speaker 1: of life, that acknowledges no defeat except as a step
- 13:20Speaker 1: to victory, that is strong to endure, patient to wait,
- 13:24Speaker 1: and energetic to struggle. It perceives the benign law of
- 13:28Speaker 1: truth in all things, and is assured of the final
- 13:31Speaker 1: triumph of the heart and the kingly power of the mind.
- 13:35Speaker 1: Light up, then, the lamp of faith in your heart,
- 13:38Speaker 1: and walk through the darkness, guided by its illuminating rays.
- 13:42Speaker 1: Its lightest doom, and cannot be compared with the sunlight
- 13:46Speaker 1: brilliance of knowledge, But it suffices to lead one safely
- 13:49Speaker 1: through the mists of doubt and the black darkness of
- 13:52Speaker 1: despair along the narrow, thorny ways of sickness and sorrow,
- 13:56Speaker 1: and over the treacherous plains of temptation and uncertainty. It
- 14:00Speaker 1: enables man to ward off and outstrip the fog beasts
- 14:03Speaker 1: that rage in the jungle of his heart, and to
- 14:06Speaker 1: reach safety the open plains of a pure life and
- 14:09Speaker 1: the modern levels of conquest, where the dim light of
- 14:11Speaker 1: faith is no longer needed. For Leaving behind him all
- 14:15Speaker 1: the darkness or the doubt, error, and sorrow, he enters
- 14:18Speaker 1: into a new consciousness, and upon a higher round of life,
- 14:23Speaker 1: works and acts and lives self contained and peaceful in
- 14:27Speaker 1: the full and glorious light of knowledge, manliness, womanliness, and sincerity.
- 14:36Speaker 1: Before a man can be truly godly, he must be manly.
- 14:41Speaker 1: Before a woman can be truly godly, she must be womanly.
- 14:45Speaker 1: There can be no true goodness apart from moral strength,
- 14:49Speaker 1: simpering pretense, artificial behavior, flatteries, insincerities, and smiling hypocrisies. Let
- 14:56Speaker 1: these things be forever destroyed and banished from our minds.
- 15:00Speaker 1: Evil is inherently weak, ineffectual, and cowardly. Good is essentially strong, effective,
- 15:08Speaker 1: and courageous. In teaching men and women to be good.
- 15:12Speaker 1: I teach them to be strong, free, self reliant. They
- 15:16Speaker 1: greatly misunderstand me in the principles which I enunciate. Who
- 15:20Speaker 1: imagine that because I teach gentleness, purity and patience, I
- 15:24Speaker 1: teach the cultivation of an effeminate weakness. It is only
- 15:28Speaker 1: the manly man and the womanly woman who can properly
- 15:32Speaker 1: understand those divine qualities. No one is better equipped to
- 15:36Speaker 1: achieve the life triumphant than they, who, along with active
- 15:39Speaker 1: moral qualities and the high sense of purity and honor,
- 15:42Speaker 1: are also possessed of the strong animal nature of the
- 15:46Speaker 1: normal man. That animal force which in various forms surges
- 15:52Speaker 1: within you, and which in the hour of excitement, carries
- 15:55Speaker 1: you blindly away, causing you to forget your higher nature
- 15:59Speaker 1: and to forfeit you manly, dignity and honor. That same force, controlled, mastered,
- 16:04Speaker 1: and rightly directed, will endow you with the divine strength
- 16:08Speaker 1: by which you can achieve the highest, noblest, most blissful
- 16:11Speaker 1: victories of true living. The savage within you is to
- 16:15Speaker 1: be scourged and disciplined into obedience. You are to be
- 16:19Speaker 1: the master of your heart, your mind, yourself. Man is
- 16:23Speaker 1: only weak and abject when he gives up the reins
- 16:26Speaker 1: of government to the lower, instead of directing the lower
- 16:29Speaker 1: by the higher. Your passions are to be your servants
- 16:33Speaker 1: and slaves, not your masters. See that you keep them
- 16:36Speaker 1: in their places duly controlled and commanded, and they shall
- 16:40Speaker 1: render you faithful, strong, and happy service. You are not vile.
- 16:47Speaker 1: There is no part of your body or mind that
- 16:49Speaker 1: is vile. Nature does not make mistakes. The universe is
- 16:53Speaker 1: framed on truth. All your functions, faculties, and powers are good,
- 16:59Speaker 1: and to direct them rightly is wisdom, holiness happiness. To
- 17:04Speaker 1: direct them wrongly is folly, sin and misery. Men waste
- 17:10Speaker 1: themselves in excesses, in bad tempers, hatreds, gluttonies, and unworthy
- 17:16Speaker 1: and unlawful pleasures, and then blame life. They should blame themselves.
- 17:22Speaker 1: A man should have more self respect than to abuse
- 17:24Speaker 1: his nature in any way. He should command himself always,
- 17:28Speaker 1: should avoid excitement and hurry, should be too noble to
- 17:32Speaker 1: give way to anger, to resent the actions and opinions
- 17:35Speaker 1: of others, or fruitlessly to argue with an abusive and
- 17:39Speaker 1: cantankerous assailant. A quiet, unobtrusive, and unoffending dignity is the
- 17:46Speaker 1: chief mark of a ripe and perfect manhood. Honor others
- 17:51Speaker 1: and respect yourself. Choose your own path and walk it
- 17:54Speaker 1: with a firm, unflinching step, but avoid a meddlesome interference
- 17:59Speaker 1: with others. In the true man, opposing qualities are blended
- 18:03Speaker 1: and harmonized. A yielding kindness accompanies an unbending strength. He
- 18:09Speaker 1: adapts himself gently and wisely to others without sacrificing the
- 18:13Speaker 1: steadfast principles upon which his manhood is built. To have
- 18:18Speaker 1: that iron strength that can go calmly to death rather
- 18:21Speaker 1: than yield one jot of truth, along with that tender
- 18:24Speaker 1: sympathy that can shield the weak and mistaken enemy, is
- 18:28Speaker 1: to be manly with a divine manhood. Be true to
- 18:33Speaker 1: the dictates of your own conscience, and respect all who
- 18:36Speaker 1: do the same, even though their conscience should lead them
- 18:39Speaker 1: in a direction the reverse of your own. One of
- 18:42Speaker 1: the most unmanly tendencies is to pity in her that
- 18:45Speaker 1: because he chooses opinions or religion contrary to those of
- 18:48Speaker 1: one's self. Why pity a man because he is agnostic
- 18:52Speaker 1: or an atheist, or a Buddhist or a Christian because
- 18:56Speaker 1: he does not hold this opinion or that belief. Such
- 18:59Speaker 1: pity should be rightly named contempt. It is the office
- 19:03Speaker 1: of pity to feel for the weak, the afflicted, and
- 19:07Speaker 1: the helpless. Pity never says I pity you, it does
- 19:12Speaker 1: kind deeds. It is superciliousness that professes pity for the strong,
- 19:17Speaker 1: the self reliant, for those who have the courage to
- 19:19Speaker 1: mark out their own path and to walk it boldly.
- 19:22Speaker 1: Why should he be forced to hold my opinion of yours?
- 19:26Speaker 1: If what I say and to appeal to his reason
- 19:28Speaker 1: and conscience is right, then he will be one with
- 19:30Speaker 1: me and work hand in hand with me. But if
- 19:33Speaker 1: my work be not his work, he is none the
- 19:36Speaker 1: less a man. He has his duty, though it not
- 19:40Speaker 1: be my duty. When I meet one who is self
- 19:44Speaker 1: respecting and who dares to think for himself, I will
- 19:47Speaker 1: salute him as a man, and not harbor in my
- 19:50Speaker 1: heart are contemptible pity for him, because indeed he rejects
- 19:55Speaker 1: my conclusions. If we are to be responsible, self ac
- 20:00Speaker 1: beings in the law, begoten universe, let us be masters
- 20:03Speaker 1: of our own wills and respect the free will of others.
- 20:07Speaker 1: If we are to be strong and manly, let us
- 20:10Speaker 1: be large hearted and magnanimous. If we are to triumph
- 20:13Speaker 1: of the miseries of life. Let us rise superior to
- 20:16Speaker 1: the pettiness of our own nature. Men weep in their
- 20:21Speaker 1: weakness and cry out in misery of heart and degradation
- 20:24Speaker 1: of mind. How plain, then is the way of emancipation,
- 20:29Speaker 1: how sublime the task of triumph. Be master of yourself,
- 20:33Speaker 1: Eliminate weakness, exercise the mocking fiend selfishness, in whom is
- 20:39Speaker 1: all weakness and richedness. Do not pander to unnatural cravings,
- 20:44Speaker 1: to unlawful desires, or to morbid self love and self pity.
- 20:49Speaker 1: Give them no quarter, but promptly stamp them out with
- 20:52Speaker 1: disciplinary decision and strength. A man should hold himself, as
- 20:56Speaker 1: it were, in the hollow of his hand. He should
- 21:00Speaker 1: be able to take up and to lay down. He
- 21:02Speaker 1: should know how to use things and not be used
- 21:05Speaker 1: by them. He should neither be the helpless captive of
- 21:08Speaker 1: luxury nor the whipped slave of want, but should be
- 21:11Speaker 1: self contained and self sufficient, master of himself under all conditions.
- 21:17Speaker 1: He must train and direct his will in the way
- 21:19Speaker 1: of self mastery, which is the way of obedience, obedience
- 21:23Speaker 1: to the law of his nature. Disobedience to law is
- 21:26Speaker 1: the supreme evil in man. The source of all his
- 21:28Speaker 1: sin and sorrow. In his ignorance, he imagines he can
- 21:32Speaker 1: triumph over law and subdue the wills of others. He
- 21:35Speaker 1: thus destroys his power. Man can triumph over his disobedience,
- 21:40Speaker 1: over ignorance, sin, egotism, and lawlessness. He can conquer self,
- 21:48Speaker 1: and herein lies his manly strength and divine power. He
- 21:52Speaker 1: can comprehend the law of his being and obey it,
- 21:55Speaker 1: as a child obeys the will of its father. He
- 21:58Speaker 1: can sit the crown of all his functions and faculties,
- 22:02Speaker 1: using them wisely and un selfish service, and not as
- 22:05Speaker 1: instruments of selfishness and greed. There is no bad habit
- 22:10Speaker 1: that he cannot a root, no sin that he cannot subdue,
- 22:13Speaker 1: no sorrow that he cannot comprehend and conquer. Let a
- 22:17Speaker 1: man then know his worth and keep things under his feet.
- 22:21Speaker 1: Let him not peep, or steal, or skulk up and
- 22:24Speaker 1: down with the air of a charity boy or an
- 22:27Speaker 1: interloper in the world which exists for him. A manly
- 22:32Speaker 1: self reliance is not only compatible with, but is the
- 22:35Speaker 1: accompaniment of, a divine humility. A man is only arrogant
- 22:40Speaker 1: and egotistic when he uses soaps authority over others, he
- 22:44Speaker 1: cannot claim nor exercise too great an authority over himself.
- 22:48Speaker 1: Strong self command with gentle consideration for others combine to
- 22:53Speaker 1: make the truly manly man. To begin with, a man
- 22:57Speaker 1: must be honest upright, since here deceit is the blindest folly,
- 23:03Speaker 1: hypocrisies the weakest thing on earth. In trying to deceive others,
- 23:07Speaker 1: a man most of all deceives himself. A man should
- 23:10Speaker 1: be so free from guile, meanness, and deceit as to
- 23:15Speaker 1: be able to look everybody in the face with a clear, open,
- 23:18Speaker 1: unflinching gaze, free from shame and confusion, and with no
- 23:23Speaker 1: inward shrinking or misgivings. Without sincerity, a man is but
- 23:28Speaker 1: a hollow mask, and whatsoever work he attempts to do,
- 23:32Speaker 1: it will be lifeless and ineffectual. Out of a hollow vessel,
- 23:35Speaker 1: nothing but the sound of holiness can come, and from
- 23:39Speaker 1: insincerity nothing but empty words can proceed. Many are not
- 23:44Speaker 1: consciously hypocrites, yet fall victims thoughtlessly to little insincerities which
- 23:51Speaker 1: undermine happiness and destroy the moral fabric of their character.
- 23:55Speaker 1: Some of these people go regularly to their place of worship.
- 23:58Speaker 1: They pray daily, year after year for a purer heart
- 24:02Speaker 1: and life. Yet come from the devotions to vilify an enemy,
- 24:07Speaker 1: or worse still, to ridicule, slander and absent friend, for
- 24:11Speaker 1: whom when they meet him or her they will have
- 24:14Speaker 1: nothing but smiles and smooth words. The pitiful part of
- 24:18Speaker 1: it is that they are totally unconscious of their insincerity,
- 24:22Speaker 1: and when their friends desert them, they speak complainingly of
- 24:25Speaker 1: the faithlessness and hollowness of the world and of people generally,
- 24:30Speaker 1: and tell you sadly that they are no true friends
- 24:33Speaker 1: in this world. Truly, for such there are no abiding friendships.
- 24:39Speaker 1: For insincerity, even if not seen, is fault, and those
- 24:44Speaker 1: who are incapable of bestowing trust and truth cannot receive it.
- 24:49Speaker 1: Be true to others, and others will be true to you.
- 24:53Speaker 1: Think well of an enemy, and defend the absent friend.
- 24:56Speaker 1: If you have lost faith in human nature, discover where
- 24:59Speaker 1: ye have gone wrong yourself. In the Confusion Code of Morals,
- 25:04Speaker 1: sincerity is one of the five great virtues, and Confucius
- 25:09Speaker 1: thus speaks of it quote it is sincerity which places
- 25:13Speaker 1: a crown upon your lives. Without it, our best actions
- 25:18Speaker 1: would be valueless. The seemingly virtuous, mere hypocrites, and the
- 25:23Speaker 1: shining light which dazzles us with its splendor, but a
- 25:27Speaker 1: poor passing gleam, ready to be extinguished by the slightest
- 25:31Speaker 1: breath of passion. To be pure in mind, you must
- 25:35Speaker 1: be free from self deception. You must hate vice as
- 25:39Speaker 1: you would a disagreeable odor, and love virtue as you
- 25:43Speaker 1: would some beautiful object. There can be no self respect
- 25:47Speaker 1: without it, and this is why the superior man must
- 25:51Speaker 1: be guarded. In his hours of solitude. The worthless man
- 25:56Speaker 1: secretly employs his idle moments in vicious and there is
- 26:01Speaker 1: no limit to his wickedness. In the presence of the peer,
- 26:05Speaker 1: he plays the hypocrite and puts forward none but his
- 26:09Speaker 1: good qualities. Yet how does this disguise hide him when
- 26:13Speaker 1: his true characters reveal to the first scrutinizing glance. It
- 26:19Speaker 1: has been said that there is a strict watch kept
- 26:21Speaker 1: over that which is pointed at by many hands and
- 26:25Speaker 1: gazed at by many eyes. It is in solitude, then,
- 26:29Speaker 1: that the upright man has the greatest reason to be guarded. Unquote.
- 26:36Speaker 1: Thus the sincere man does not do or say that
- 26:39Speaker 1: which he would be ashamed of if it were broad
- 26:41Speaker 1: to light. His uprightness of spirit enables him to walk
- 26:45Speaker 1: upright and confident amongst his fellow men. His presence is
- 26:49Speaker 1: a strong protection, and his words are direct and powerful
- 26:53Speaker 1: because they are true. Whatever may be his work, it prospers.
- 26:57Speaker 1: Though he may not always please the ears of men,
- 27:00Speaker 1: he wins their hearts. They rely on him, trust him
- 27:05Speaker 1: and honor him. Courage, self, alliance, sincerity, generosity, and kindness.
- 27:12Speaker 1: These are the virtues which constitute a robust manhood. Without them,
- 27:17Speaker 1: a man is but clay in the hands of circumstances,
- 27:20Speaker 1: a weak, wavering thing that cannot rise into the freedom
- 27:24Speaker 1: and joy of a true life. Every young man should
- 27:27Speaker 1: cultivate and foster these virtues, and as he succeeds in
- 27:30Speaker 1: living them, will he prepare to achieve the life triumphant.
- 27:35Speaker 1: I see coming upon the earth a new race of
- 27:37Speaker 1: men and women. Men who will be men indeed strong, upright, noble,
- 27:44Speaker 1: too wise to stoop to anger, uncleanness, strife and hatred.
- 27:49Speaker 1: Woman who would be women indeed gentle, truthful, pure, too
- 27:55Speaker 1: compassionate to stoop to gossip, slander, and deception. From their laws,
- 28:00Speaker 1: will proceed superior beings of the same noble type, and
- 28:04Speaker 1: the dark fiends of error and evil will fall back
- 28:06Speaker 1: at their approach. These noble men and women will regenerate
- 28:11Speaker 1: the earth. They will dignify man and vindicate nature, restoring
- 28:15Speaker 1: humanity to love, happiness and peace, and the life of
- 28:19Speaker 1: victory of a sin and sorrow will be established in
- 28:22Speaker 1: the earth. Energy and power. How wonderful is the universal energy,
- 28:28Speaker 1: never tiring, inexhaustible, and apparently eternal in its operation. It
- 28:34Speaker 1: moves in atom and in star, in forming the fleeting
- 28:37Speaker 1: shapes of tune with its restless, glowing, pulsating power. Man
- 28:43Speaker 1: is a portion of this creative energy, and in him
- 28:46Speaker 1: it manifests through a combination of mental faculties as affection, passion, intelligence, morality, reason, understanding,
- 28:57Speaker 1: and wisdom. He is not merely a blome conductor of energy,
- 29:02Speaker 1: but he consciously uses, controls and directs it. Slowly, but
- 29:07Speaker 1: with certainty. Is he gaining control of the forces without
- 29:10Speaker 1: and is making them do obedient service, And just as
- 29:14Speaker 1: surely will he gain control of the forces within the
- 29:17Speaker 1: subtle energies of thought and direct them into channels of
- 29:20Speaker 1: harmony and happiness. Man's true place in the cosmosis that
- 29:24Speaker 1: of a king, not a slave, a commander under the
- 29:27Speaker 1: law of good, and not a helpless tool in the
- 29:29Speaker 1: reign of evil. His own body and mind are the
- 29:32Speaker 1: due dominion over which he is to reign, a lord
- 29:36Speaker 1: of truth, the master of himself, the wise useer and
- 29:39Speaker 1: control of his store of pure, eternal creative energy. Let
- 29:44Speaker 1: him walk the earth unshamed, strong, valiant, tender and kind,
- 29:50Speaker 1: no longer prostrate in self abasement, but walking erect in
- 29:54Speaker 1: the dignity of perfect manhood, not groveling in selfishness and remorse,
- 30:00Speaker 1: crying for pardon and mercy, but standing firm and free
- 30:03Speaker 1: in the sublime majesty of a sinless life. Long has
- 30:07Speaker 1: man regarded himself as vile, weak and unworthy, and has
- 30:11Speaker 1: been content to remain so. But in the new era,
- 30:14Speaker 1: which has now just burst upon the world, he is
- 30:17Speaker 1: to make a glorious discovery that he is pure, powerful,
- 30:21Speaker 1: and noble when he rises up in worlds. The rising
- 30:24Speaker 1: up is not against any outward enemy, not against neighbor,
- 30:28Speaker 1: nor governments, nor laws, nor spirits, nor principalities, but against
- 30:32Speaker 1: the ignorance, folly, and misery which beset him in the
- 30:36Speaker 1: dominion of his own mind. For it is only by
- 30:39Speaker 1: ignorance and folly. That man is slavish. By knowledge and wisdom,
- 30:42Speaker 1: his kingdom is restored. Let him who will preach man's
- 30:47Speaker 1: weakness and helplessness, but I will teach his strength and
- 30:50Speaker 1: power a right for men, not for babes, for those
- 30:54Speaker 1: who are eager to learn and earnest to achieve, For
- 30:58Speaker 1: those who will put away for the war good, a
- 31:01Speaker 1: petty personal indulgence, a selfish desire, a mean thought, and
- 31:06Speaker 1: live on as though it were not without craving and regret.
- 31:10Speaker 1: The truth is not for the frivolous and the thoughtless.
- 31:13Speaker 1: The life triumphant is not for triflers and loiterers. Man
- 31:18Speaker 1: is a master. If he were not, he could not
- 31:20Speaker 1: act contrary to law. Thus his so called weakness is
- 31:24Speaker 1: an indication of strength. His sin is the inversion of
- 31:28Speaker 1: his capacity for holiness. For what is his weakness and
- 31:32Speaker 1: sin but misdirected energy misapplied power. In this sense, the
- 31:37Speaker 1: wrongdoer is strong, not weak, but he is ignorant and
- 31:41Speaker 1: exerts his strength and wrong directions instead of right, against
- 31:45Speaker 1: the law of things, instead of with it. Suffering is
- 31:49Speaker 1: the recoil of misdirected strength. The bad man becomes good
- 31:53Speaker 1: by reversing his conduct. If you are weeping over your sins,
- 31:56Speaker 1: cease to commit those sins and establish yourself in their
- 31:59Speaker 1: opposing virtues. It is thus that weakness is converted into strength,
- 32:04Speaker 1: helplessness into power, and suffering into bliss. By turning his
- 32:08Speaker 1: energies from the old channels of vice and directing them
- 32:12Speaker 1: into the new channels of virtue, the sinner becomes a saint.
- 32:16Speaker 1: While the universal energy may be unlimited in particular forms,
- 32:20Speaker 1: its sum is strictly limited. A man is possessed of
- 32:23Speaker 1: a given amount of energy, and he can use it
- 32:26Speaker 1: or mist use it, can conserve and concentrate it, or
- 32:29Speaker 1: dissipate and disperse it. Power is concentrated energy. Wisdom is
- 32:34Speaker 1: that energy adapted to beneficent ends. He is the man
- 32:38Speaker 1: of influence and power, who directs all his energies towards
- 32:42Speaker 1: one great purpose, and patiently works and waits for its fulfillment,
- 32:46Speaker 1: sacrificing his desires and other and more pleasant directions. He
- 32:50Speaker 1: is the man of folly and weakness, who, thinking chiefly
- 32:54Speaker 1: of pleasure, gratifies the desire of the hour, or follows
- 32:57Speaker 1: the women and impulse of the moment, and so drifts
- 33:00Speaker 1: thoughtlessly into peevishness and poverty of mind. The energy used
- 33:04Speaker 1: in one direction is not available for use in other directions.
- 33:08Speaker 1: This is a universal law, both in mind and matter.
- 33:11Speaker 1: Emerson calls it the law of compensation. Gain in a
- 33:14Speaker 1: given direction necessitates lost in its opposite direction. The force
- 33:19Speaker 1: placed in one scale is deducted from the other scale.
- 33:22Speaker 1: Nature is always endeavoring to strike a balance. The energy
- 33:26Speaker 1: which is dissipated in idleness is not given to work.
- 33:29Speaker 1: The pleasure seeker cannot be a truth seeker. The force
- 33:33Speaker 1: wasted in a fit of bad temper is drawn from
- 33:36Speaker 1: the man's store of virtue, particularly the virtue of patience. Spiritually,
- 33:41Speaker 1: this law of compensation is the law of sacrifice. Selfish
- 33:44Speaker 1: pleasure must be sacrificed to purities to be gained. The
- 33:48Speaker 1: force wasted in a fit of bad temper is drawn
- 33:50Speaker 1: from the man's store of virtue, particularly the virtue of patience. Spiritually,
- 33:56Speaker 1: this law of compensation is the law of sacrifice self
- 34:00Speaker 1: which pleasure must be sacrificed if purity is to be gained.
- 34:03Speaker 1: Hatred must be yielded up. If love is to be acquired.
- 34:06Speaker 1: Vice must be renounced to virtues to be embraced, ernest
- 34:09Speaker 1: men soon discover that if they are to accomplish anything
- 34:12Speaker 1: that is successful, strong, and enduring in worldly, intellectual, spiritual channels,
- 34:16Speaker 1: they must curb their desires and sacrifice much that seems sweet, yea,
- 34:21Speaker 1: even much that seems important. Hobbies, bodily and mental indulgences,
- 34:27Speaker 1: enticing companionships, alluring pleasures, and all work that does not
- 34:31Speaker 1: tend to some central purpose in his life must be sacrificed.
- 34:34Speaker 1: By the man of strong resolve, he opens his eyes
- 34:37Speaker 1: to the fact that time and energy are strictly limited,
- 34:40Speaker 1: and so he economizes the one and concentrates the other.
- 34:43Speaker 1: Foolish men waste their energies in swinish ease and gluttonous indulgence,
- 34:47Speaker 1: and frivolous pleasures, and empty talk and hateful thoughts and
- 34:50Speaker 1: irritable outbursts of passion, in vain controversy and meddlesome interference.
- 34:55Speaker 1: They then complain that many or more quote fortunately equip
- 35:00Speaker 1: than they are for a useful, successful, or great life,
- 35:03Speaker 1: And they envy the honored neighbor who has sacrificed self
- 35:06Speaker 1: to duty and has devoted all his energies to the
- 35:10Speaker 1: faithful performance of the business of his life unquote. He
- 35:14Speaker 1: who is just speaks the truth and does what is
- 35:17Speaker 1: his own business him the world will hold dear. Let
- 35:22Speaker 1: a man attend to his own business, concentrating all his
- 35:26Speaker 1: energies upon the perfect accomplishment of the task of his life,
- 35:29Speaker 1: not stepping aside to condemn or interfere with the duties
- 35:32Speaker 1: of others, and he will find life simple, strong and happy.
- 35:37Speaker 1: The universe is girt with goodness and strength, and it
- 35:39Speaker 1: protects the strong and the good. Evil and weakness or
- 35:43Speaker 1: self destructive dissipation, is annihilation. All nature loves strength. I
- 35:48Speaker 1: see no inherent cruelty in quote the survival of the
- 35:52Speaker 1: fittest unquote. It is as spiritual as well as a
- 35:55Speaker 1: natural law. The stronger qualities of the beast are the
- 35:58Speaker 1: fittest to evolve to higher type. The nobler moral qualities
- 36:02Speaker 1: in man are his emancipators, and it is well that
- 36:05Speaker 1: they should dominate and ultimately crush out the ignoble tendencies.
- 36:09Speaker 1: The most certain is it that he who gives dominion
- 36:12Speaker 1: to the lower courts destruction and does not survive ere
- 36:16Speaker 1: then the struggle of life without or the battle of
- 36:18Speaker 1: truth within the life given to the lower is lost
- 36:21Speaker 1: to the higher, yea, it is finally also lost to
- 36:24Speaker 1: the lower, and so all is lost. For evil is
- 36:28Speaker 1: ultimately nothingness. But the life given to the high is
- 36:32Speaker 1: preserved and is not lost to anything. For while it
- 36:35Speaker 1: sacrifices much that the world holds precious, it does not
- 36:39Speaker 1: sacrifice anything that is precious. In reality, the untrue and
- 36:43Speaker 1: worthless must perish, And he who consecrates himself to the
- 36:46Speaker 1: good and the true is content that they should perish.
- 36:49Speaker 1: And so at last he stands with sacrifice ends and
- 36:53Speaker 1: all is gain. Such a one survives in the struggle
- 36:55Speaker 1: of life without, and he conquers the battle of truth within. First,
- 37:00Speaker 1: then be strong. Strength is the firm basis on which
- 37:03Speaker 1: is built the temple of the triumphant life. Without a
- 37:07Speaker 1: central motive and fixed resolve, your life will be a poor, weak, drifting,
- 37:11Speaker 1: unstable thing. Let the act of the moment be governed
- 37:15Speaker 1: by the deep, abiding purpose of the heart. You will
- 37:17Speaker 1: act differently at different times, but the act will not
- 37:20Speaker 1: be wrong if the heart is right. You may fall
- 37:23Speaker 1: and go astray at times, especially under great stress, but
- 37:26Speaker 1: you will quickly regain yourself, and you will grow wise
- 37:29Speaker 1: and stronger. Thereby, so long as you guide yourself by
- 37:31Speaker 1: the moral compass within, and do not throw it away
- 37:34Speaker 1: to gratify indulgence, and give yourself up to on certain drifting.
- 37:38Speaker 1: Follow your conscience, be true to your convictions. Do it
- 37:41Speaker 1: the moment which you regard is right, and put away
- 37:44Speaker 1: all procrastination, vacillation, and fear. If you are convinced that
- 37:48Speaker 1: in the performance of your duty under certain circumstances, the
- 37:51Speaker 1: severest measures are necessary, carry out those measures, and let
- 37:55Speaker 1: there be no uncertainty about it. Ern the side of
- 37:58Speaker 1: strength rather than weakness. The measures you adopt may not
- 38:02Speaker 1: be the best, but if there are the best, you know,
- 38:04Speaker 1: then your plain duties to carry them out. By so
- 38:07Speaker 1: doing you will discover the better way. If you are
- 38:10Speaker 1: anxious for progress and are willing to learn, deliberate beforehand,
- 38:14Speaker 1: but in the tune of action, do not hesitate. Avoid
- 38:17Speaker 1: anger and stubbornness, lust and greed. The angry man is
- 38:21Speaker 1: the weak man. The stubborn man who refuses to learn
- 38:24Speaker 1: or mend his ways is the foolish man. He grows
- 38:26Speaker 1: old in folly and gray. Hate do not bring him
- 38:28Speaker 1: reverence or honor. The sensualist has energy for pleasure only,
- 38:32Speaker 1: and reserves none for manliness and self respect. The greedy
- 38:36Speaker 1: man is blind to the nobility of human nature and
- 38:38Speaker 1: the glory of a true life. He spends his energies
- 38:41Speaker 1: in perpetuating the miseries of hell instead of enjoying the
- 38:45Speaker 1: happiness of heaven. Your strength is within you, and you
- 38:48Speaker 1: can spend it in burrowing downward or climbing upward. You
- 38:52Speaker 1: can dissipate it in selfishness or conserve it in goodness.
- 38:56Speaker 1: The same energy you will enable you to become a
- 38:58Speaker 1: beast or a god. The course along which you direct
- 39:01Speaker 1: it will determine its effect. Do not think the thought
- 39:05Speaker 1: my mind is weak, but convert weakness into strength and
- 39:09Speaker 1: energy into power. By redirecting your mental forces, turn your
- 39:13Speaker 1: thoughts into noble channels. Put away vain longings and foolish regrets,
- 39:17Speaker 1: abandon complaint and self condolence, and have no dalliance with evil.
- 39:23Speaker 1: Lift your face upward, rise up in your divine strength,
- 39:26Speaker 1: and spurn from your mind and life all meanness and weakness.
- 39:30Speaker 1: Do not live the false life of a whining slave,
- 39:33Speaker 1: but live the true life of a conquering master. Self
- 39:36Speaker 1: control and happiness when mental energy is allowed to flow
- 39:42Speaker 1: in the line of least resistance and to fall into
- 39:45Speaker 1: easy channels. It is called weakness. When it is gathered, focused,
- 39:49Speaker 1: and forced into upward in different directions, it becomes power.
- 39:54Speaker 1: And this concentration of energy, an acquisition of power, is
- 39:57Speaker 1: brought about by means of self control. In speaking of
- 40:00Speaker 1: self control, one is easily misunderstood it should not be
- 40:05Speaker 1: associated with the destructive repression, but with a constructive expression.
- 40:09Speaker 1: This process is not one of death, but of life.
- 40:13Speaker 1: It is a divine and masterly transmutation in which the
- 40:16Speaker 1: weak is converted into the strong, the course into the fine,
- 40:19Speaker 1: and the base into the noble, in which virtue takes
- 40:23Speaker 1: the place of vice and dark passion is lost in
- 40:25Speaker 1: bright intellectuality. The man who merely smothers up and hides
- 40:30Speaker 1: away his real nature, without any higher object in view
- 40:33Speaker 1: than to create a good impression upon others concerning his
- 40:36Speaker 1: character is practicing hypocrisy and not self control. As the
- 40:40Speaker 1: mechanic transmutes call into gas and water into steam, and
- 40:44Speaker 1: then concentrates and utilizes the finer forces for the confident
- 40:48Speaker 1: convenience of others, so the man who intellectually practices self
- 40:52Speaker 1: control transmutes his lower inclinations into the finer qualities of
- 40:56Speaker 1: intelligence and morality, to the increase of his own and
- 41:00Speaker 1: the world's happiness. A man is happy, wise, and great
- 41:05Speaker 1: in the measure that he controls himself. He is wretched, foolish,
- 41:09Speaker 1: and mean in the measure that he allows his animal
- 41:11Speaker 1: nature to dominate his thoughts and actions. He who controls
- 41:15Speaker 1: himself controls his life, his circumstances, his destiny, and wherever
- 41:20Speaker 1: he goes he carries his happiness with him as an
- 41:23Speaker 1: abiding possession. He who does not control himself is controlled
- 41:27Speaker 1: by passions, by his circumstances, and his fate. And if
- 41:30Speaker 1: he cannot gratify the desire of the moment, he is
- 41:33Speaker 1: disappointed and miserable. He depends for his fitful happiness on
- 41:38Speaker 1: external things. There is no force in the universe which
- 41:41Speaker 1: can be annihilated or lost. Energy is transformed but not destroyed.
- 41:46Speaker 1: To shut the door on old and bad habits is
- 41:48Speaker 1: to open it to new and better ones. Renunciation precedes regeneration.
- 41:54Speaker 1: Every self indulgence, every forbidden pleasure, every hateful thought renounced
- 41:58Speaker 1: is transformed into something more purely and permanently beautiful. Where
- 42:03Speaker 1: debilitating excitements are cut off, their spring up rejuvenating joys.
- 42:08Speaker 1: The sea dies, that the flower may appear. The grub perishes,
- 42:12Speaker 1: but the dragonfly comes forth. Truly, the transformation is not instantaneous,
- 42:17Speaker 1: nor is the transition a pleasant and painless process. Nature
- 42:21Speaker 1: demands effort and patience as the price of growth. In
- 42:24Speaker 1: the march of progress. Every victory is contested with struggle
- 42:27Speaker 1: and pain. But the victory is achieved and it abides
- 42:31Speaker 1: the struggle passes. The pain is temporary only to demolish
- 42:35Speaker 1: a firmly fixed habit, to break up a mental tendency
- 42:38Speaker 1: that has become automatic with long use, and to force
- 42:42Speaker 1: into birth and growth a fine characteristic of lofty virtue.
- 42:46Speaker 1: To accomplish this necessitates a painful metamorphosis, a transitional period
- 42:50Speaker 1: of darkness to pass through which patience and endurance are required.
- 42:54Speaker 1: This is where men fail. This is where they slip
- 42:57Speaker 1: back into their old, easy animal ruts and abandoned self
- 43:00Speaker 1: control is too strenuous and severe. They thus fall short
- 43:04Speaker 1: of permanent happiness, and the life of triumph over evil
- 43:07Speaker 1: is hidden from their eyes. The permanent happiness which men
- 43:11Speaker 1: seek in dissipation, excitement, and abandonment to unworthy pleasure, is
- 43:16Speaker 1: found only in the life which reverses all this, the
- 43:19Speaker 1: life of self control. So far as a man deviates
- 43:22Speaker 1: from perfect self command, just so far does he fall
- 43:25Speaker 1: short of perfect happiness. He sinks into misery and weakness,
- 43:30Speaker 1: the lowest limit of which is madness, entire lack of
- 43:33Speaker 1: mental control, the condition of irresponsibility. In so far as
- 43:37Speaker 1: a man approximates to perfect self command, just so near
- 43:41Speaker 1: does he approach to perfect happiness and rise into joy
- 43:44Speaker 1: and strength. So glorious are the possibilities of such divine
- 43:48Speaker 1: manhood that no limit can be said to its grandeur
- 43:51Speaker 1: and bliss. If a man will understand how intimately, yea,
- 43:55Speaker 1: how inseparably self control and happiness are associated, he has
- 43:59Speaker 1: but to look into his own heart and upon the
- 44:01Speaker 1: world around, to find that there are joy destroying effects
- 44:05Speaker 1: of uncontrolled tendencies. Looking upon the lives of men and women,
- 44:10Speaker 1: he will perceive how the hasty word, the bitter retaught,
- 44:13Speaker 1: the act of deception, the blind prejudice, and foolish resentment
- 44:17Speaker 1: bring wretchedness and even ruin in their train. Looking into
- 44:21Speaker 1: his own life, what days of consuming remorse, of restless anxiety,
- 44:25Speaker 1: and of crushing sorrow rise up before his mind? Periods
- 44:28Speaker 1: of intense suffering through which he has passed through lack
- 44:31Speaker 1: of self control. But in the right life, though while
- 44:34Speaker 1: governed life, the victorious life, all these things pass away.
- 44:38Speaker 1: New conditions obtain, and purer, more spiritual instruments are employed
- 44:43Speaker 1: for the achievements of happy ends. There is no more
- 44:46Speaker 1: remorse because there is no more wrongdoing. There is no
- 44:49Speaker 1: more anxiety, because there is no more selfishness. There is
- 44:52Speaker 1: no more sorrow because truth is the source of action.
- 44:56Speaker 1: The much desired thing which self pursues with breathless and
- 44:59Speaker 1: uncontrolled eagerness, yet fails to overtake, comes unbidden and begs
- 45:03Speaker 1: to be admitted to him who works and waits in
- 45:06Speaker 1: perfect self command. Hatred, impatience, greed, self indulgence, vain ambitions,
- 45:13Speaker 1: and blind desires, the instruments by which self shapes its
- 45:17Speaker 1: ill finished existence. What clumsy tools they are, and how
- 45:21Speaker 1: ignorant and unskillful are they who employ them. Love, patience, kindness,
- 45:27Speaker 1: self discipline, transmuted ambitions, and chastened desires, instruments of truth
- 45:33Speaker 1: by which is shaped the well finished existence. What perfect
- 45:37Speaker 1: tools they are, and how wise and skillful are they
- 45:40Speaker 1: who use them? What slavery is gained by feverish haste
- 45:44Speaker 1: and selfish desire is attained in fuller measure by quietness
- 45:48Speaker 1: and renunciation. Nature will not be hastened. She brings all
- 45:52Speaker 1: perfection in due season. Truth will not be commanded. He
- 45:56Speaker 1: has his conditions and must be obeyed. Nothing is more
- 46:00Speaker 1: superfluous in haste and anger. A man has to learn
- 46:03Speaker 1: that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself,
- 46:06Speaker 1: That he cannot coerce the wilds of others, but that
- 46:08Speaker 1: he can mold and master his own will. And things
- 46:11Speaker 1: serve him. Who serve truth, people seek guidance of him
- 46:14Speaker 1: who is master of himself. It is a little understood,
- 46:18Speaker 1: yet simple and profound truth that the man who cannot
- 46:21Speaker 1: command himself under the severest external stress is unfit to
- 46:24Speaker 1: guide others or to control affairs. It is the fundamental
- 46:28Speaker 1: principles in the moral and political teachings of Confucius that
- 46:31Speaker 1: before attempting to govern affairs, a man should learn to
- 46:34Speaker 1: govern himself. Men who habitually give way under pressure to
- 46:39Speaker 1: hysterious suspicions, outbursts of resentments, and explosions of anger are
- 46:43Speaker 1: unfit for way to responsibility and lofty duties, and usually
- 46:47Speaker 1: fail sooner or later. Even in the ordinary duties of life,
- 46:51Speaker 1: such as the management of their own family or business.
- 46:54Speaker 1: Lack of self control is foolishness, and folly cannot take
- 46:57Speaker 1: precedence of a wisdom. He who is learning and how
- 47:00Speaker 1: to subdue and control his turbulent wandering thoughts, is becoming
- 47:03Speaker 1: wiser every day. Though for a time the Temple of
- 47:06Speaker 1: Joy will not be completed, he will gather strength in
- 47:08Speaker 1: laying its foundations, in building its walls, And the day
- 47:12Speaker 1: will come when, like a wise master builder, he will
- 47:15Speaker 1: rest at peace in the beautiful habitation which he has built.
- 47:18Speaker 1: Wisdom inhears in self control, and in wisdom is pleasantness
- 47:22Speaker 1: and peace. The life of self control is no barren deprivation,
- 47:27Speaker 1: no wilderness of monotony. Renunciation there is, but it is
- 47:31Speaker 1: a renunciation of their ephemeral and false, in order that
- 47:34Speaker 1: the abiding and true may be realized. Enjoyment is not
- 47:38Speaker 1: cut off, It is intensified. Enjoyment is life. It is
- 47:42Speaker 1: the slavish desire for it that kills. Is there anyway
- 47:46Speaker 1: a more miserable man than he who is all his
- 47:48Speaker 1: longing for some new sensation? Is there anyway a more
- 47:51Speaker 1: blessed being? Than he who, by self control is satisfied, calm,
- 47:55Speaker 1: and enlightened, who has most of physical life and joy,
- 47:59Speaker 1: the glutton, the drunkard, and the sensualist who lives for
- 48:02Speaker 1: pleasure only, or the temperate man who holds his body
- 48:05Speaker 1: in subjection, considering its needs and obeying its uses. I
- 48:09Speaker 1: was once eating a ripe, juicy apple as it came
- 48:12Speaker 1: from the tree, and a man near me said, quote,
- 48:15Speaker 1: I would give anything if I could enjoy an apple
- 48:18Speaker 1: like that un quote. I asked, why can't you? His
- 48:22Speaker 1: answer was, quote, I have drunk whisky and smoked tobacco
- 48:26Speaker 1: until I have lost all enjoyment in such things unquote.
- 48:30Speaker 1: In pursuit of elusive enjoyments, men lose the abiding joys
- 48:34Speaker 1: of life. And as he who controls his senses as
- 48:37Speaker 1: most of physical life joy and strength, so he who
- 48:40Speaker 1: controls his thoughts has most of spiritual life. Bliss and power.
- 48:44Speaker 1: For not only happiness, but knowledge and wisdom also are
- 48:47Speaker 1: revealed by self control. As the avenues of ignorance and
- 48:51Speaker 1: selfishness are closed, the open gates of knowledge and enlightenment appear.
- 48:55Speaker 1: Virtue attained is knowledge gained. The pure mind is an
- 48:59Speaker 1: enlightened mind. He has well being who controls himself well.
- 49:04Speaker 1: I hear men speak of quote, the monotony of goodness unquote.
- 49:10Speaker 1: If looking for things in the spirit which one has
- 49:12Speaker 1: given up in the letter were goodness, then indeed would
- 49:16Speaker 1: it be monotonous. The man of self control does not
- 49:19Speaker 1: merely give up his base pleasures. He abandons all longing
- 49:23Speaker 1: for them. He presses forward and does not look back,
- 49:26Speaker 1: and fresh beauties, new glories, sublime of vistas await him
- 49:30Speaker 1: at every step. I am astonished at the revelations which
- 49:34Speaker 1: lie hidden in self control. I am captivated by the
- 49:37Speaker 1: infinite variety of truth. I am filled with joy at
- 49:40Speaker 1: the grandeur of the prospect. I am gladdened by its
- 49:42Speaker 1: splendor and its peace. Along the way of self control
- 49:46Speaker 1: there is the joy of victory, the consciousness of expanding
- 49:49Speaker 1: and increasing power, the acquisition of the imperishable riches of
- 49:53Speaker 1: divine knowledge, and the abiding bliss of service to human kind.
- 49:57Speaker 1: Even he who travels only a portion of the way
- 49:59Speaker 1: will develop strength, achieve a success, and experience a joy
- 50:03Speaker 1: which the idle and the thoughtless cannot know. And he
- 50:06Speaker 1: who goes all the way will become a spiritual conqueror.
- 50:09Speaker 1: He will triumph over all evil, and will blot it out.
- 50:12Speaker 1: He will gaze with in rapid vision upon the majesty
- 50:14Speaker 1: of the cosmic order, and will enjoy the immortality of truth, simplicity,
- 50:20Speaker 1: and freedom. You have known what it is to be
- 50:24Speaker 1: physically encumbered by some superfluous load. You have experienced the
- 50:28Speaker 1: happy relief of dispensing with such a load. Your experience
- 50:32Speaker 1: illustrates the difference between a life burdened with a complexity
- 50:36Speaker 1: of desires, beliefs, and speculations, and one rendered simple and
- 50:40Speaker 1: free by the satisfaction of its natural needs and a
- 50:44Speaker 1: calm contemplation of the facts of existence, eliminating all argument
- 50:48Speaker 1: in speculation. There are those who cumber their drawers, cupboards,
- 50:52Speaker 1: and rooms with rubbish and clutter. To such an extent
- 50:56Speaker 1: is this carried sometimes that the house cannot be properly clean,
- 51:00Speaker 1: and vermin swarms. There is no use for the rubbish,
- 51:04Speaker 1: But they will not part with it, even though by
- 51:06Speaker 1: so doing they would also get rid of the vermin.
- 51:09Speaker 1: But they like to think that it is there, like
- 51:12Speaker 1: to feel that they have got it, especially if they
- 51:14Speaker 1: are convinced that nobody else has its like. They reason
- 51:18Speaker 1: that it may be of some use some day, or
- 51:20Speaker 1: it may become valuable what brings up all the associations
- 51:23Speaker 1: which they occasionally resuscitate and take paradoxical pleasure in sorrowing over.
- 51:29Speaker 1: In a sweet, methodical, well managed house. Such superfluities bring
- 51:34Speaker 1: with them dirt, discomfort, and care are not allowed to accumulate,
- 51:38Speaker 1: or should they have accumulated, they are gathered up and
- 51:41Speaker 1: consigned to the fire and the trash bin, when it
- 51:44Speaker 1: is decided to cleanse and restore the house and give
- 51:48Speaker 1: it light, comfort and freedom. In a like manner, men
- 51:52Speaker 1: hold up in their minds mental rubbish and clutter, cling
- 51:55Speaker 1: tenaciously to it and fear its loss. In sation, she
- 52:00Speaker 1: ate desires, thirsty cravings for unlawful and unnatural pleasures, conflicting
- 52:05Speaker 1: beliefs about miracles, gods, angels, demons, and interminable theological complexities.
- 52:13Speaker 1: Hypotheses is piled upon hypotheses, Speculation is added to speculation,
- 52:19Speaker 1: until the simple, beautiful, all sufficient facts of life are
- 52:22Speaker 1: lost to sight and knowledge beneath the metaphysical pile. Simplicity
- 52:28Speaker 1: consists in being rid of this painful confusion of desires
- 52:31Speaker 1: and superfluity of opinions, and adhering only to that which
- 52:36Speaker 1: is permanent and essential, and what is permanent in life,
- 52:39Speaker 1: what is essential? The virtue alone is permanent. Character is essential.
- 52:45Speaker 1: So simple is life when it is freed from all
- 52:47Speaker 1: the superfluities and rightly understood and lived, that it can
- 52:50Speaker 1: be reduced to a few unmistakable, easy to understand, though
- 52:54Speaker 1: hard to practice, principles. And all great minds have so
- 52:58Speaker 1: simplified life. Buddha reduced it to eight virtues, in the
- 53:02Speaker 1: practice of which he declared that men would acquire perfect enlightenment.
- 53:06Speaker 1: And these eight virtues he reduced to one, which he
- 53:09Speaker 1: called compassion. Confucius taught that the perfection of knowledge was
- 53:13Speaker 1: contained in five virtues, and these he expressed in one,
- 53:16Speaker 1: which he called reciprocity or sympathy. Jesus reduced the whole
- 53:21Speaker 1: of life to the principle of love. Compassion, sympathy, love,
- 53:26Speaker 1: These three are identical. How simple they are too. Yet
- 53:30Speaker 1: I cannot find a man who fully understands the depths
- 53:32Speaker 1: and heights of these virtues. For who so fully understood
- 53:35Speaker 1: them would embody them in practice, he would be complete, perfect, divine.
- 53:41Speaker 1: There would be nothing lacking in him of knowledge, virtue,
- 53:44Speaker 1: and wisdom. It is only when a man sits earnestly
- 53:48Speaker 1: to work to order his life in accordance with the
- 53:51Speaker 1: simple precepts of virtue that he discovers, what piles of
- 53:54Speaker 1: mental rubbish he has hoarded up, and which is now
- 53:56Speaker 1: compelled to throw away. The exactions too, which such a
- 54:00Speaker 1: course of conduct make upon his faith, endurance, patience, kindness, humility, reason,
- 54:06Speaker 1: and strength of will are until the mind approaches the
- 54:10Speaker 1: necessary condition of purity and simplicity, painful in their severity.
- 54:15Speaker 1: The clearing out process, whether of one's mind, home, or
- 54:19Speaker 1: place of business, is not a light and easy one,
- 54:22Speaker 1: but it ends in comfort and repose. All complexities of detail,
- 54:27Speaker 1: whether in things material or mental, are reducible to a
- 54:30Speaker 1: few fundamental laws or principles by virtue of which they
- 54:33Speaker 1: exist and are regulated. Wise men gather their lives by
- 54:37Speaker 1: few simple rules. A life governed by the central principle
- 54:40Speaker 1: of love will be found to be divinely consistent in
- 54:43Speaker 1: all its details. Every thought, word, act will fall into
- 54:47Speaker 1: proper place, and there will be no conflict in confusion.
- 54:50Speaker 1: What aske the learned man of the Buddhist saint, who
- 54:54Speaker 1: had acquired a wide reputation for sanctity and wisdom, what
- 54:58Speaker 1: is the most fundamental thing in Buddhism? The saint replied,
- 55:03Speaker 1: The most fundamental thing in Buddhism is to cease from
- 55:06Speaker 1: evil and to learn to do good. I did not
- 55:10Speaker 1: ask you, said the learned man, to tell me what
- 55:12Speaker 1: every child of three knows. I want you to tell
- 55:15Speaker 1: me what is the most profound, the most subtle, and
- 55:18Speaker 1: the most important thing in Buddhism. The most profound, the
- 55:23Speaker 1: most subtle, The most important thing in Buddhism, said the saint,
- 55:27Speaker 1: is to cease from evil and to learn to do well.
- 55:31Speaker 1: It is true that a child of three may know it,
- 55:33Speaker 1: but gray haired men fail to put it into practice.
- 55:38Speaker 1: The commentator then goes on to say that the learned
- 55:41Speaker 1: man did not want facts. He did not want truth.
- 55:45Speaker 1: He wanted to be given some subtle mate of physical speculation,
- 55:48Speaker 1: which would give rise to another speculation, and then to
- 55:51Speaker 1: another and another, and so afford him an opportunity of
- 55:54Speaker 1: bringing into play the wonderful intellect of which he was
- 55:58Speaker 1: so proud. A member of arosophical school once proudly said
- 56:02Speaker 1: to me, our system of metaphysics is the most perfect
- 56:05Speaker 1: and the most complicated in the world. I discovered how
- 56:08Speaker 1: complicated it was by becoming involved in it and then
- 56:11Speaker 1: pursuing the process of disentanglement back to the effects of life, simplicity,
- 56:16Speaker 1: and freedom. I have since learned how to better utilize
- 56:20Speaker 1: my energy and occupy my time in the pursuit and
- 56:23Speaker 1: practice of those virtues that are firm and sure, rather
- 56:26Speaker 1: than to waste it in the spinning of the pretty
- 56:29Speaker 1: but unsubstantial threads of metaphysical cobwebs. But while regarding with
- 56:33Speaker 1: disfavor assumption and pride, and that vanity which mistakes its
- 56:38Speaker 1: own hypothesis for reality, I set no premium on ignorance
- 56:41Speaker 1: and stupidity. Learning is a good thing as an end
- 56:45Speaker 1: in itself, as a possession to be proud of. It
- 56:48Speaker 1: is a dead thing. But as a means to the
- 56:51Speaker 1: high ends of human progress and human good it becomes
- 56:54Speaker 1: a living power. Accompanied with a lowly mind, it is
- 56:57Speaker 1: a powerful instrument for the good. The Buddhist saint was
- 57:01Speaker 1: no less learned than his proud questioner, but he was
- 57:04Speaker 1: more simple and wise. Even hypotheses will not lead us
- 57:07Speaker 1: astray if they are perceived as mere hypotheses and are
- 57:10Speaker 1: not confounded with facts. Yet the wisest men dispense with
- 57:13Speaker 1: all hypotheses and fall back on the simple practice of virtue.
- 57:16Speaker 1: They thus become divine and arrive at the acme of simplicity,
- 57:20Speaker 1: enlightenment and emancipation. To arrive at the freedom of joy
- 57:24Speaker 1: of simplicity, one must not think less. He must think more.
- 57:29Speaker 1: Only the thinking must be set to a high and
- 57:31Speaker 1: useful purpose, and must be concentrated upon the facts and
- 57:34Speaker 1: duties of life, instead of dissipated in unprofitable theorizing. A
- 57:40Speaker 1: life of simplicity is simple in all its parts because
- 57:42Speaker 1: the heart which governs it has become pure and strong,
- 57:45Speaker 1: because it is centered and rested in truth. Harmful luxuries
- 57:49Speaker 1: and food and vain superfluities in dress, exaggerations of speech
- 57:53Speaker 1: and insincerities of action, thoughts that tend to intellectual display,
- 57:58Speaker 1: and empty speculation. All these are set aside in order
- 58:01Speaker 1: that virtue may be better understood and more earnestly embrace.
- 58:06Speaker 1: The duties of life are undertaken in a spirit from
- 58:08Speaker 1: which self is eliminated, and they become transfigured with a
- 58:11Speaker 1: new and glorious light, even the light of truth. The
- 58:15Speaker 1: great fundamental facts of life, heretofore hidden from knowledge, are
- 58:20Speaker 1: plainly revealed and the eternal verities about which the worldly
- 58:25Speaker 1: theorizers can only guess and argue, become substantial possessions. The
- 58:29Speaker 1: simple hearted, the true hearted, the virtuous, and wives are
- 58:33Speaker 1: no longer troubled with doubts and fears about the future
- 58:36Speaker 1: and the unknown and unknowable. They take their stand upon
- 58:40Speaker 1: the duty of the hour, and on the known and
- 58:43Speaker 1: the noble. They do not barter away the actual for
- 58:46Speaker 1: the hypothetical. They find in virtue and abiding security. They
- 58:50Speaker 1: find in truth and illuminating light, which, while it reveals
- 58:54Speaker 1: to them the true order of the facts of life,
- 58:56Speaker 1: throws a halo of divine promise about the abyss of
- 58:59Speaker 1: the un And so they are at rest. Simplicity works
- 59:04Speaker 1: untrammeled and becomes greatness and power. Suspicions, deceptions, impurities, despondencies, bewailings,
- 59:11Speaker 1: doubts and fears, all these are cast away, left behind,
- 59:15Speaker 1: and ignored, and the freedman, strong, self possessed, calm and pure,
- 59:20Speaker 1: works in unclouded assurance and in habits heavenly plains, right thinking,
- 59:27Speaker 1: and repose. Life is a combination of habits, some baneful,
- 59:32Speaker 1: some beneficent, all of which take their rise in one
- 59:36Speaker 1: habit of thinking the thought makes the man. Therefore, right
- 59:42Speaker 1: thinking is the most important thing in life. The essential
- 59:45Speaker 1: difference between a wise man and a fool is that
- 59:48Speaker 1: the wise man controls his thinking, the fool is controlled
- 59:52Speaker 1: by it. A wise man determines how and what he
- 59:55Speaker 1: shall think, and does not allow external things to divert
- 59:59Speaker 1: his thoughts the main purpose. But a fool is carried
- 1:00:02Speaker 1: captive by every tyrant thought as it is aroused within
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: him by external things, and he goes through life the
- 1:00:08Speaker 1: helpless tool of impulse, womb and passion, careless slovenly thinking,
- 1:00:14Speaker 1: commonly called thoughtlessness, is the companion of failure, wrongdoing, and wretchedness. Nothing,
- 1:00:21Speaker 1: no prayers, nor religious ceremonies, not even acts of charity,
- 1:00:25Speaker 1: can make up for wrong thinking. Only right thinking can
- 1:00:28Speaker 1: rectify a wrong life. Only the right attitude of mind
- 1:00:31Speaker 1: towards men and things can bring repose and peace. The
- 1:00:34Speaker 1: triumphant life is only for him whose heart and intellect
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: are attuned to lofty virtue. He must make his thought logical, sequential, harmonious, symmetrical.
- 1:00:44Speaker 1: He must mold in shape his thinking to fixed principles,
- 1:00:47Speaker 1: and thereby establish his life on the sure foundation of knowledge.
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: He must not merely be kind. He must be intelligently kind,
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: must know why he is kind. His kindness must be
- 1:00:58Speaker 1: an invariable quality, and not an intermittent impulse interspersed with
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: fits of resentment and acts of harshness. He must not
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: merely be virtuous under virtuous circumstances. His virtue must be
- 1:01:10Speaker 1: of a kind that shall continue to shine with unabated
- 1:01:13Speaker 1: light when he is assailed with vicious circumstances. He must
- 1:01:17Speaker 1: not allow himself to be hurled from the throne of
- 1:01:19Speaker 1: divine manhood by the shocks of fate or the praises
- 1:01:22Speaker 1: and blame of those around him. Virtue must be his
- 1:01:24Speaker 1: abiding habitation, his refuge from the whirlwind and the storm.
- 1:01:29Speaker 1: And virtue is not only of the heart, it is
- 1:01:31Speaker 1: of the intellect also, And without this virtue of the intellect,
- 1:01:34Speaker 1: the virtue of the heart is imperiled. Reason, like passion,
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: has its vices. Metaphysical speculations are the riot of the intellect,
- 1:01:43Speaker 1: as sensuality is the right of the affections. The highest
- 1:01:47Speaker 1: flights of speculation, pleasing as they are, reveal no place
- 1:01:50Speaker 1: of rest, and the strained mind must return to facts
- 1:01:54Speaker 1: and moral principles to find that truth which it seeks.
- 1:01:57Speaker 1: As the soaring bird returns for refugeon rest to its
- 1:02:00Speaker 1: nest in the rock, so must a speculative thinker return
- 1:02:03Speaker 1: to the rock of virtue for surety and peace. The
- 1:02:06Speaker 1: intellect must be trained to comprehend the principles of virtue
- 1:02:10Speaker 1: and to understand all that is involved in their practice.
- 1:02:12Speaker 1: Its energies must be restrained from wasteful indulgence in vain subtleties,
- 1:02:17Speaker 1: and be directed in the path of righteousness, in the
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: way of wisdom. The thinker must distinguish in his own
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: mind between reality and assumption. He must discover the extent
- 1:02:27Speaker 1: of his actual knowledge. He must know what he knows.
- 1:02:32Speaker 1: He must also know what he does not know. He
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: must learn to discriminate between belief and knowledge, error and truth.
- 1:02:39Speaker 1: In his search for the right attitude of mind, which
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: perceives truth and works out a wise and radiant life,
- 1:02:45Speaker 1: he must be more logical than logic, more merciless in
- 1:02:48Speaker 1: exposing the errors of his own mind than the most
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: sarcastic logician is in exposing the errors of the minds
- 1:02:53Speaker 1: of others. After pursuing this course of discrimination for a
- 1:02:57Speaker 1: short time, he will be astonished to find how small
- 1:03:00Speaker 1: all is the extent of his actual knowledge, yet he
- 1:03:02Speaker 1: will be gladdened by its possession. For small as it is,
- 1:03:05Speaker 1: it is the pure gold of knowledge. And what is
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: better to have a few grains of gold hidden away
- 1:03:11Speaker 1: in tons of oree where it is useless, or to
- 1:03:14Speaker 1: extract the gold and throw away the ore. As the
- 1:03:17Speaker 1: miner sifts away bush shells of dull earth to find
- 1:03:20Speaker 1: the sparkling diamond, so the spiritual minder, the truth thinker,
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: sifts away from his mind the accumulation of opinions, beliefs, speculations,
- 1:03:29Speaker 1: and assumptions, to find the bright jewel of truth, which
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: bestows upon his possessor wisdom and enlightenment, and the concentrated knowledge,
- 1:03:37Speaker 1: which is ultimately brought to light. By this sifting process,
- 1:03:40Speaker 1: is found to be so closely akin to virtue that
- 1:03:42Speaker 1: it cannot be divided from it, cannot be set apart
- 1:03:45Speaker 1: as something different. In his search for knowledge, Socrates discovered virtue.
- 1:03:51Speaker 1: The divine maxims of the great teachers are maxims of virtue.
- 1:03:55Speaker 1: When knowledge is separated from virtue, wisdom is lost. What
- 1:03:58Speaker 1: a man practices that he knows, what he does not practice,
- 1:04:02Speaker 1: that he does not know. A man may write treatises
- 1:04:06Speaker 1: or preach sermons on love, But if he treats his
- 1:04:08Speaker 1: family harshly or thinks spitefully of his enemy, what knowledge
- 1:04:11Speaker 1: has he concerning love? In the heart of the man
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: of knowledge, there dwells a silent and abiding compassion that
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: shames the fine words of the noisy theorist. He only
- 1:04:22Speaker 1: knows what peace is, whose heart is free from hatred,
- 1:04:25Speaker 1: who lives in peace. With all cunning definitions of virtue
- 1:04:28Speaker 1: only serve to deepen ignorance when they proceed from vice
- 1:04:31Speaker 1: stained lips. Knowledge is the deepest source than the mere
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: memorizing of information. That knowledge is divine, which proceeds from
- 1:04:39Speaker 1: acquaintance with virtue. The humility, which purges the intellect of
- 1:04:42Speaker 1: its empty opinions and vain assumptions, also fortifies it with
- 1:04:47Speaker 1: a searching insight and invincible power. There is a divine
- 1:04:50Speaker 1: logic which is indistinguished from love. The reply quote he
- 1:04:55Speaker 1: that is without sin among you, let him cast the
- 1:04:58Speaker 1: first stolen unquote unanswerable logic. It is also perfect love.
- 1:05:04Speaker 1: The wrong thinker is known by his vices. The right
- 1:05:06Speaker 1: thinker is known by his virtues. Troubles and unrest assail
- 1:05:10Speaker 1: the mind of the wrong thinker, and he experiences no
- 1:05:12Speaker 1: abiding repose. He imagines that others can injure, snub, cheat, degrade,
- 1:05:18Speaker 1: and ruin him. Knowing nothing of the protection of virtue,
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: he seeks the protection of self and takes refuge in suspicion, spite, resentment,
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: and retaliation, and is burnt in the fire of his
- 1:05:29Speaker 1: own vices. When slandered, he slanders in return. When accused,
- 1:05:33Speaker 1: he discriminates. When assailed, he turns upon his adversary with
- 1:05:37Speaker 1: double fierceness. Quote I have been treated unjustly unquote, exclaims
- 1:05:42Speaker 1: the wrong thinker, and then abandons himself to resentment and misery.
- 1:05:46Speaker 1: Having no insight and unable to distinguish evil from good,
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: he cannot see that his own evil, and not his neighbors,
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: is the cause of all his trouble. The right thinker
- 1:05:55Speaker 1: is not concerned with thoughts about self and self protection,
- 1:05:58Speaker 1: and the wrong actions of others towards him cannot cause
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: him trouble or unrest. He cannot think quote this man
- 1:06:05Speaker 1: has wronged me unquote. He perceives that no wrong can
- 1:06:08Speaker 1: reach him, but by his own evil deeds. He understands
- 1:06:11Speaker 1: that his welfare is at his own hands, and thus
- 1:06:14Speaker 1: none but himself can rub him of his repose. Virtue
- 1:06:17Speaker 1: is his protection, and retaliation is foreign to him. He
- 1:06:20Speaker 1: holds himself steadfastly in peace, and resentment cannot enter his heart.
- 1:06:25Speaker 1: Temptation cannot find him unprepared, and it assails in vain
- 1:06:29Speaker 1: the strong citadel of his mind. Abiding in virtue, he
- 1:06:32Speaker 1: abides in strength and peace. The right thinker has discovered
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: and acquired the right attitude of mind toward men and things,
- 1:06:39Speaker 1: the attitude of a profound and loving repose. And this
- 1:06:42Speaker 1: is not resignation, It is wisdom. It is not indifference,
- 1:06:45Speaker 1: but watchful and penetrating insight. He has comprehended the facts
- 1:06:49Speaker 1: of life. He sees things as they are. He does
- 1:06:51Speaker 1: not overlook the particulars of life, but reads them in
- 1:06:54Speaker 1: the light of cosmic law, sees them in their right
- 1:06:56Speaker 1: relations as the proportions of the universal scheme. He sees
- 1:07:00Speaker 1: the universe is upheld by justice. He watches, but does
- 1:07:03Speaker 1: not engage in the pity, quarrels and fleeting strikes of men.
- 1:07:06Speaker 1: He cannot be partisan, his sympathies withal. He cannot favor
- 1:07:10Speaker 1: one portion more than another. He knows that good will
- 1:07:13Speaker 1: ultimately conquer in the world, as it is conquered in individuals.
- 1:07:16Speaker 1: That there is a sense in which good already conquers,
- 1:07:18Speaker 1: for evil defeats itself. Good is not defeated. Justice is
- 1:07:23Speaker 1: not set aside. Whatever man may do. Justice reigns, and
- 1:07:29Speaker 1: its eternal throne cannot be assailed and threatened, much less
- 1:07:32Speaker 1: conquered and overthrown. This is the source of the true
- 1:07:35Speaker 1: thinker's abiding repose. Having become righteous, he perceives the righteous law.
- 1:07:40Speaker 1: Having acquired love, he understands the eternal love. Having conquered evil,
- 1:07:45Speaker 1: he knows that good is supreme. He is only the
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: true thinker, whose heart is free from hatred, lust and pride,
- 1:07:52Speaker 1: who looks out upon the world through eyes watched free
- 1:07:54Speaker 1: from evil, whose bitterest enemy arouses no enmity, but only
- 1:07:58Speaker 1: tender pity in his heart. He does not talk vainly
- 1:08:00Speaker 1: about things of which he has no knowledge, and whose
- 1:08:03Speaker 1: heart is always at peace. And by this a man
- 1:08:06Speaker 1: may know that his thoughts are in accordance with the truth,
- 1:08:09Speaker 1: that there is no more bitterness in his heart, that
- 1:08:11Speaker 1: malice has departed from him, that he loves who he
- 1:08:14Speaker 1: formerly condemned. A man may be learned. But if he
- 1:08:17Speaker 1: is not wise, he will not be a true thinker.
- 1:08:20Speaker 1: Not by learning will a man triumph of the evil.
- 1:08:22Speaker 1: Not by much study will he overcome sin and sorrow.
- 1:08:25Speaker 1: Only by conquering himself will he conquer evil. Only by
- 1:08:28Speaker 1: practicing righteousness will he put an end to sorrow. Not
- 1:08:31Speaker 1: for the clever, nor the learned, nor the self confident
- 1:08:34Speaker 1: is the life triumphant. But for the peer the virtues
- 1:08:38Speaker 1: the wise. The former achieved they particular success in life.
- 1:08:42Speaker 1: But the latter alone achieved great success, a success so
- 1:08:45Speaker 1: invincible and complete that even an apparent defeat shines with
- 1:08:49Speaker 1: added victory. Virtue cannot be shaken, Virtue cannot be confounded,
- 1:08:53Speaker 1: Virtue cannot be overthrown. He who thinks in accordance with virtue,
- 1:08:58Speaker 1: who acts righteously, whose life mind is the servant of truth,
- 1:09:01Speaker 1: heed is who conquers in life and in death. For
- 1:09:04Speaker 1: virtue must triumph, and righteousness and truth are the pillars
- 1:09:08Speaker 1: of the universe. Calmness and resource. He who has truth
- 1:09:14Speaker 1: is all his self possessed. Hurry and excitement, anxiety and
- 1:09:18Speaker 1: fear have no place in the purified mind, and the
- 1:09:20Speaker 1: true life. Self conquest results in perpetual calm. Calmness is
- 1:09:25Speaker 1: the radiant light which adds a luster to all the virtues.
- 1:09:29Speaker 1: Like the numbers round the head of the saint, it
- 1:09:32Speaker 1: surrounds virtue with its shining halo. Without calmness, a man's
- 1:09:37Speaker 1: greatest strength is but a kind of exaggerated weakness. Where
- 1:09:41Speaker 1: is a man's spiritual strength, where indeed is his ordinary
- 1:09:45Speaker 1: manly strength, who loses his balance with almost every petty
- 1:09:49Speaker 1: disturbance from without? And what enduring influence can a man
- 1:09:53Speaker 1: have who forgets himself in sinful abandonment or unseemly rage
- 1:09:58Speaker 1: in the hour of temptation and c The virtuous put
- 1:10:02Speaker 1: a check upon themselves and set a watch upon their
- 1:10:05Speaker 1: passions and emotions. In this way they gain possession of
- 1:10:08Speaker 1: the mind and gradually acquire calmness. And as they acquire calmness,
- 1:10:13Speaker 1: they acquire influence, power, greatness, abiding, joy, and fullness, and
- 1:10:19Speaker 1: completeness of life. Those who do not put a check
- 1:10:22Speaker 1: upon themselves, whose emotions and passions are their masters, who
- 1:10:26Speaker 1: crave excitement and race, often unholy pleasures, These are not
- 1:10:31Speaker 1: yet fit for a life of joyful victory, and can
- 1:10:33Speaker 1: neither appreciate nor receive the beautiful jewel of calmness. Such
- 1:10:39Speaker 1: may pray for peace with their lips, but they do
- 1:10:41Speaker 1: not desire it in their hearts. Or the word quote
- 1:10:45Speaker 1: peace unquote may only mean to them another kind of
- 1:10:49Speaker 1: periodic pleasure which they desire to enjoy. In the life
- 1:10:53Speaker 1: of the calm there are no fitful periods of sinful
- 1:10:56Speaker 1: excitement followed by reactionary hours of sorrow and remorse. There
- 1:11:00Speaker 1: are no foolish elations followed by equally foolish depressions, no
- 1:11:04Speaker 1: degrading actions followed by misery and loss of self respect.
- 1:11:08Speaker 1: All these things are put away, and what remains is truth,
- 1:11:12Speaker 1: and truth is forever encircled with peace. The calm life
- 1:11:16Speaker 1: is new, unbroken bliss. Duties which are irksome to the ungoverned,
- 1:11:20Speaker 1: are things of joy to the calm man. Indeed, in
- 1:11:23Speaker 1: the calm life, the word quote duty unquote receives a
- 1:11:28Speaker 1: new meaning. It is no longer opposed to happiness, but
- 1:11:32Speaker 1: it is one with happiness. The calm man, the right
- 1:11:36Speaker 1: seeing man, cannot separate joy from duty. Such separation belongs
- 1:11:40Speaker 1: to the mind and life of the pleasure hunter and
- 1:11:43Speaker 1: lover of excitement. Calmness is difficult to attain because men
- 1:11:47Speaker 1: cling blindly to the lower disturbances of the mind for
- 1:11:50Speaker 1: the passing pleasure which these disturbances are for. Even sorrow
- 1:11:54Speaker 1: is sometimes selfishly gloated over as a kind of occasional luxury.
- 1:11:58Speaker 1: But though difficult to attain, the way which leads to
- 1:12:01Speaker 1: its attainment is simple. It consists of abandoning all those
- 1:12:05Speaker 1: excitements and disturbances which are opposed to it, and fortifying
- 1:12:09Speaker 1: oneself in these dead fast virtues, which do not change
- 1:12:13Speaker 1: with changing events and circumstances, which have no violent reactions,
- 1:12:17Speaker 1: and which therefore bestow perpetual satisfaction and abiding peace. He
- 1:12:23Speaker 1: only finds peace who conquers himself, who strives day by
- 1:12:28Speaker 1: day after self possession, greater self control, greater calmness of mind,
- 1:12:33Speaker 1: one can only be a joy to himself and a
- 1:12:36Speaker 1: blessing to others in the measure that he has command
- 1:12:38Speaker 1: of himself. And such self command is gained only by
- 1:12:42Speaker 1: persistent practice. A man must conquer his weakness by daily effort.
- 1:12:47Speaker 1: He must understand them and study how to eliminate them
- 1:12:49Speaker 1: from his character. If he continues to strive, not giving way,
- 1:12:54Speaker 1: he will gradually become victorious. Each little victory gained, though
- 1:12:59Speaker 1: there is a sense in which no victory can be
- 1:13:01Speaker 1: called little, will be so much more calmness acquired and
- 1:13:04Speaker 1: added to his character as an eternal possession. He will
- 1:13:08Speaker 1: thus make himself strong, capable, and blessed, fit to perform
- 1:13:12Speaker 1: his duties faultlessly, and to meet all events with an
- 1:13:16Speaker 1: untroubled spirit. But even if he does not, in this
- 1:13:20Speaker 1: life reach that supreme calm which no shock can disturb,
- 1:13:24Speaker 1: he will become sufficiently self possessed and pure to enable
- 1:13:28Speaker 1: him to fight the battle of life furiously, and to
- 1:13:30Speaker 1: leave the world a little richer for having known the
- 1:13:33Speaker 1: goodness of his presence. By constantly overcoming self, a man
- 1:13:37Speaker 1: gains a knowledge of the subtle intricacies of his mind,
- 1:13:41Speaker 1: and it is this divine knowledge which enables him to
- 1:13:44Speaker 1: become established in calmness. Without self knowledge, there can be
- 1:13:48Speaker 1: no abiding peace of mind, and those who are carried
- 1:13:51Speaker 1: away by temptuous passions cannot approach the holy place where
- 1:13:55Speaker 1: calmness reigns. The weak man is like one who, having
- 1:13:59Speaker 1: mounted fiery steed, allows it to run away with him
- 1:14:03Speaker 1: and carry him whithersoever it wills. The strong man is
- 1:14:07Speaker 1: like one who, having mounted this deed, governs it with
- 1:14:11Speaker 1: a masterly hand, and makes it go in whatever direction
- 1:14:14Speaker 1: and whatever speed he commands. Calmness is the crowning beauty
- 1:14:19Speaker 1: of a character that has become or is becoming, divine,
- 1:14:22Speaker 1: and is RESTful in peace, giving to all who come
- 1:14:24Speaker 1: in contact with it. Those who are still in their
- 1:14:27Speaker 1: weakness and doubt find the presence of the calm mind,
- 1:14:31Speaker 1: RESTful to their troubled minds, inspiring to their faltering feet,
- 1:14:35Speaker 1: and rich with healing and comfort in the hour of sorrow.
- 1:14:38Speaker 1: For he who is strong to overcome self is strong
- 1:14:42Speaker 1: to help others. He who has conquered soul weariness is
- 1:14:46Speaker 1: strong to help the weary On the way. That calmness
- 1:14:49Speaker 1: of mind, which is not disturbed or overthrown by trials
- 1:14:53Speaker 1: and emergencies, or by the accusations, slanders and misrepresentations of others,
- 1:15:00Speaker 1: is born of great spiritual strength. It is the true
- 1:15:03Speaker 1: indication of an enlightened and wise understanding. The calm mind
- 1:15:07Speaker 1: is the exalted mind, divinely gentle and externally strong. Is
- 1:15:11Speaker 1: that man who does not lose his serenity nor forget
- 1:15:14Speaker 1: his peace when falsehoods and indignities are heaped upon him.
- 1:15:18Speaker 1: Such calmness is the perfect flower of self control. It
- 1:15:21Speaker 1: has been slowly and laboriously gained by patiently passing through
- 1:15:25Speaker 1: the fires of suffering, by subjecting the mind to a
- 1:15:27Speaker 1: long process of purification. The calm man has discovered the
- 1:15:31Speaker 1: spring of both happiness and knowledge within himself, and it
- 1:15:35Speaker 1: is a spring that can never run dry. His powers
- 1:15:38Speaker 1: are at his full command, and there is no limit
- 1:15:40Speaker 1: to his resources. In whatever direction he employs his energies,
- 1:15:44Speaker 1: he will manifest the regionality and power. And this is
- 1:15:48Speaker 1: so because he deals with things as they are, and
- 1:15:50Speaker 1: not with mere opinions about things. If he has any
- 1:15:54Speaker 1: opinions left, he is no longer enamored of them, but
- 1:15:57Speaker 1: sees them as they are mere opinions and therefore of
- 1:16:00Speaker 1: no intrinsic value. He has abolished egotism, and by obedience
- 1:16:05Speaker 1: to law, has become one with the power and nature
- 1:16:07Speaker 1: in the universe. His resources are untrammeled by selfishness, his
- 1:16:12Speaker 1: energies unhindered by pride. There is a sense in which
- 1:16:15Speaker 1: he has ceased to regard anything as his own. Even
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: his virtues belong to truth and not exclusively to his person.
- 1:16:23Speaker 1: He has become a conscious principle of cosmic power, and
- 1:16:26Speaker 1: is no longer a mean, dwarfed thing seeking petty personal ends.
- 1:16:31Speaker 1: And having put away his self, he has put away
- 1:16:33Speaker 1: the greed, the misery, the troubles and fears which belong
- 1:16:36Speaker 1: to self. He acts calmly and accepts all consequences with
- 1:16:40Speaker 1: equal calmness. He is efficient and accurate, and perceives all
- 1:16:44Speaker 1: that is involved in any undertaking. He does not work blindly.
- 1:16:48Speaker 1: He knows that there is no chance of favor. The
- 1:16:52Speaker 1: mind of the calm man is like the surface of
- 1:16:54Speaker 1: a still lake. It reflects life and the things of
- 1:16:57Speaker 1: life truly, where as the troubled mind, like the troubled
- 1:17:00Speaker 1: surface of the lake, gives back a distorted image of
- 1:17:03Speaker 1: all things which fall upon it. Gazing into the serene
- 1:17:07Speaker 1: depths within him, the self conquered man sees a just
- 1:17:09Speaker 1: reflection in the universe. He sees the cosmic perfection, sees
- 1:17:13Speaker 1: the equity in his own lot. Even those things which
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: are regarded by the world as unjust and grievous, and
- 1:17:19Speaker 1: which formerly appeared so to him, are now known to
- 1:17:22Speaker 1: be the effects of his own past deeds, and are
- 1:17:24Speaker 1: therefore joyfully accepted as portions of the perfect whole. Thus
- 1:17:29Speaker 1: his calmness remains with him, with its illimitable fund of
- 1:17:32Speaker 1: resource in joy and enlightenment. The calm man succeeds where
- 1:17:35Speaker 1: the disturbed man fails. He is fit to deal with
- 1:17:39Speaker 1: any external difficulty, who has successfully grappled with the most
- 1:17:42Speaker 1: intricate difficulties and problems within his own heart. He who
- 1:17:46Speaker 1: has succeeded in governing though within, is best equipped to
- 1:17:49Speaker 1: govern the without. The calm mind perceives a difficulty in
- 1:17:53Speaker 1: all its bearings, and understands best how to meet it.
- 1:17:56Speaker 1: The disturbed mind is the lost mind. It has become blind,
- 1:18:00Speaker 1: seeing not whither to go, but only feeling its own
- 1:18:02Speaker 1: unhappiness and fear. The resource of the calm man or
- 1:18:06Speaker 1: superior to all incidents which may befall him. Nothing can
- 1:18:11Speaker 1: alarm him, nothing can find him unprepared, nothing can shake
- 1:18:15Speaker 1: his strong, insteadfast mind. Wheresoever duty may call him, there
- 1:18:20Speaker 1: will his strength manifest itself. There will his mind, free
- 1:18:24Speaker 1: from the frictions of self, exhibit its silence and patient power.
- 1:18:28Speaker 1: Whether he be engaged in things worldly or things spiritual,
- 1:18:31Speaker 1: he will do his work with concentrated vigor and penetrating insight.
- 1:18:36Speaker 1: Calmness means that the mind is harmoniously adjusted, perfectly poised.
- 1:18:41Speaker 1: All its extremes, once so antagonistic and painful, are reconciled,
- 1:18:47Speaker 1: merged into one grand central principle with which the mind
- 1:18:51Speaker 1: has identified itself. It means that the runaway passions are
- 1:18:55Speaker 1: tamed and subjected, the intellect is purified, and the will
- 1:18:59Speaker 1: is urged into the cosmic world. That is, it is
- 1:19:03Speaker 1: no longer centered upon narrow personal ends, but is concerned
- 1:19:07Speaker 1: with the good of all. A man is not wholly
- 1:19:10Speaker 1: victorious until he is perpetually calm while passing things disturb him.
- 1:19:14Speaker 1: His understanding is unripe, his heart is not altogether pure.
- 1:19:18Speaker 1: A man cannot advance in the triumph of life while
- 1:19:20Speaker 1: he flatters and deceives himself. He must awake and be
- 1:19:24Speaker 1: fully alive to the fact that his sins, sorrows, and
- 1:19:27Speaker 1: troubles are of his own making and belong to his
- 1:19:30Speaker 1: own imperfect condition. He must understand that his miseries have
- 1:19:34Speaker 1: their root in his own sins and not in the
- 1:19:36Speaker 1: sins of others. He must strive off to calmness as
- 1:19:39Speaker 1: the covetous man strives off to riches, and he must
- 1:19:42Speaker 1: not rest satisfied with any partial attainment. He will thus
- 1:19:46Speaker 1: grow in grace and wisdom, in strength and peace, and
- 1:19:50Speaker 1: calmness will descend upon his spirit as the refreshing dew
- 1:19:53Speaker 1: descends upon the flowers. Where the calm mind is, there
- 1:19:57Speaker 1: is strength and rest, there is love and wisdom. There
- 1:20:00Speaker 1: is one who has fought successfully innumerable battles against self, who,
- 1:20:06Speaker 1: after long toil and secret against his own failings, has
- 1:20:10Speaker 1: triumphed at last insight and nobility in the pursuit and
- 1:20:16Speaker 1: practice of virtue. There at last comes a time when
- 1:20:20Speaker 1: a divine insight dawns upon the mind. It searches into
- 1:20:23Speaker 1: the causes and principles of things, which, once attained, establishes
- 1:20:28Speaker 1: its possessor firmly in virtue. It renders him invulnerable to
- 1:20:31Speaker 1: the assaults of temptation and invincible in his work for
- 1:20:35Speaker 1: the world. When the understanding is ripened by the culture
- 1:20:38Speaker 1: of virtue, vicious inclinations disappear, and wrongdoing becomes impossible. When
- 1:20:43Speaker 1: individual conduct is perceived as an unbroken series of causes
- 1:20:47Speaker 1: and effects, the perceiving mind finally decides for virtue, and
- 1:20:51Speaker 1: the lower selfish elements are just cast away forever until
- 1:20:55Speaker 1: a man perceives the just law which operates in human life,
- 1:20:58Speaker 1: whatever virtue may manifest it in a given time. He
- 1:21:01Speaker 1: is not firmly established in nobility of character. He is
- 1:21:04Speaker 1: not fully armored with righteousness, and is not safely lodged
- 1:21:07Speaker 1: in his final refuge, not having acquired that perfect insight
- 1:21:12Speaker 1: which knows good and evil, and which perceives the effects
- 1:21:15Speaker 1: of all deeds, both good and bad. He breaks down
- 1:21:18Speaker 1: when assailed by temptation, at those points in his character
- 1:21:21Speaker 1: which are not well fortified, those which have so far
- 1:21:24Speaker 1: dimmed his spiritual insight and barred him from perfect vision.
- 1:21:28Speaker 1: By thus breaking down, he discovers that within which has
- 1:21:32Speaker 1: hindered him, and by setting to work to remove the hindrance,
- 1:21:35Speaker 1: he ascends still high in the scale of virtue, and
- 1:21:38Speaker 1: approaches nearer to the perfect insight into the true order
- 1:21:41Speaker 1: of life which makes a man divine. Under certain circumstances,
- 1:21:44Speaker 1: a man held in restraint by the influence of friends,
- 1:21:48Speaker 1: by a custom and environment, and not by his own
- 1:21:50Speaker 1: inhering purity and strength, will appear to have and may
- 1:21:54Speaker 1: believe he possesses a virtue of which he knows nothing
- 1:21:57Speaker 1: in reality, and his lack of such virtue only appears
- 1:22:00Speaker 1: when all outward restraints are withdrawn, and under temptation, the
- 1:22:04Speaker 1: concealed weakness and vice make themselves manifest. On the other hand,
- 1:22:09Speaker 1: the man of superior virtue will seem, in a familiar
- 1:22:12Speaker 1: environment to be much the same as his weaker fellows,
- 1:22:15Speaker 1: and his virtue will not be apparent to those about him.
- 1:22:18Speaker 1: But when he suddenly brought into contact with great temptations
- 1:22:21Speaker 1: or extraordinary events, his latent virtue appears in all its
- 1:22:25Speaker 1: beauty and strength. Insight destroys the dominion of evil and
- 1:22:30Speaker 1: reveals the faultless operation of the good law. The man
- 1:22:33Speaker 1: of perfect insight cannot sin because he fully understands the
- 1:22:37Speaker 1: nature of good and evil. And it is impossible for
- 1:22:39Speaker 1: one who knows good and evil in all their ramifications
- 1:22:42Speaker 1: of cause and effect, to choose the evil and reject
- 1:22:45Speaker 1: the good. Just as the sane man would not choose
- 1:22:48Speaker 1: ashes in preference to food, so the spiritually awakened man
- 1:22:52Speaker 1: would not choose evil in preference to good. The presence
- 1:22:55Speaker 1: of sin is an indication of self delusion and of ignorance.
- 1:22:59Speaker 1: The spiritual vision is warped or undeveloped, and there is
- 1:23:02Speaker 1: confusion of mind concerning the nature of good and evil.
- 1:23:05Speaker 1: In the early stages of virtue, a man raised himself
- 1:23:08Speaker 1: against the forces of evil, which appear to him to
- 1:23:10Speaker 1: be overpowering in their might and almost, if not entirely, unconquerable.
- 1:23:16Speaker 1: But with the advent of insight, a new light is
- 1:23:18Speaker 1: thrown upon the nature of things, and evil appears as
- 1:23:21Speaker 1: it actually is, a small, dark, powerless thing, a mere negation,
- 1:23:26Speaker 1: and not a formidable force or combination of forces. The
- 1:23:29Speaker 1: man of insight knows that the root of evil is
- 1:23:31Speaker 1: ignorance and not an intelligent power, and that all sin
- 1:23:35Speaker 1: and suffering proceed therefrom Thus, knowing evil to be merely
- 1:23:39Speaker 1: a deprivation of good, he cannot hate it, but manifest
- 1:23:42Speaker 1: compassion for all sinning and suffering beings. Indeed, he who
- 1:23:46Speaker 1: has so far conquered the evil in his own heart
- 1:23:49Speaker 1: as to know the nature and source of evil, cannot
- 1:23:52Speaker 1: possibly hate, dislike, or despise any being, no matter how
- 1:23:57Speaker 1: far removed from virtue it may be. But while fully
- 1:24:00Speaker 1: perceiving the degradation of character, he understands the dark spiritual
- 1:24:04Speaker 1: condition from which such degradation springs, and so he pities
- 1:24:08Speaker 1: and helps where without insight he would hate and despise.
- 1:24:12Speaker 1: Love ever, attends upon insight, and pity waits on knowledge.
- 1:24:17Speaker 1: That insight, which proceeds from self purification and long acquaintance
- 1:24:21Speaker 1: with virtue, makes itself manifest in the form of ripeness
- 1:24:24Speaker 1: of character. There is an unchanging strength and sweetness, combined,
- 1:24:28Speaker 1: a clearness of intellect, a viral strength of will, and
- 1:24:32Speaker 1: a gentleness of heart, a combination which denotes a cultured, mellowed,
- 1:24:36Speaker 1: perfect being, one who has acquiet, sympathy, compassion, purity, and wisdom. Thus,
- 1:24:44Speaker 1: while quote goodness gives insight, unquote insight renders goodness permanent,
- 1:24:50Speaker 1: fixes the mind and love and practice of all that
- 1:24:53Speaker 1: is pure and noble, and stamps upon a man's brow
- 1:24:55Speaker 1: the seal of divinity. The man whose goodness is of
- 1:24:59Speaker 1: the kind that does not altar with altered environment or
- 1:25:02Speaker 1: with the changing altitudes of those around him, has reached
- 1:25:05Speaker 1: the divine goodness. He understands the supreme good. He is
- 1:25:09Speaker 1: no longer concerned with evil as the thing that can harm,
- 1:25:11Speaker 1: but he is concerned with good only, and so he
- 1:25:14Speaker 1: ignores evil and recognizes only good. He perceives that men
- 1:25:19Speaker 1: commit evil out of the mistaken idea of good, and
- 1:25:22Speaker 1: thus perceiving no hatred can enter his peaceful heart. The
- 1:25:26Speaker 1: life of such a man is powerful, no matter how
- 1:25:29Speaker 1: obscure it may be, for goodness is the most powerful
- 1:25:31Speaker 1: thing in the world. The fact of his living and
- 1:25:34Speaker 1: moving among men confers incalculable benefit upon the race, although
- 1:25:38Speaker 1: during his lifetime this may not be perceived or understood.
- 1:25:42Speaker 1: So powerful is goodness that the destiny of the world was, is,
- 1:25:46Speaker 1: and will be in the hands of the good. Those
- 1:25:48Speaker 1: who are good are the guides and emancipators of humanity
- 1:25:52Speaker 1: in the present period of its development. They are taking
- 1:25:55Speaker 1: the race rapidly along its evolutionary journey, and this not
- 1:25:59Speaker 1: in any mysteric or miraculous sense, but in a very
- 1:26:02Speaker 1: practical and normal sense, by their exemplary lives and the
- 1:26:05Speaker 1: power of their deeds. The good men who help the
- 1:26:08Speaker 1: world are not wonder workers, though undeveloped minds have ever
- 1:26:11Speaker 1: tried to make them such, but the workers of righteousness,
- 1:26:15Speaker 1: servants of the good law. The world never was, is not,
- 1:26:19Speaker 1: and will not be, under the dominion of evil, for
- 1:26:23Speaker 1: such a condition would mean non existence, evil being merely
- 1:26:26Speaker 1: the negation of good, as darkness is the negation of light.
- 1:26:30Speaker 1: It is light and not darkness, which is the sustaining power.
- 1:26:34Speaker 1: Evil is the weakest thing in the world and cannot
- 1:26:36Speaker 1: accomplish anything. The universe not only makes for good. The
- 1:26:40Speaker 1: universe is good, and evil always falls short and fails.
- 1:26:45Speaker 1: Inside is the seeing in the light of truth, that
- 1:26:48Speaker 1: light which is the revealer of all things. As the
- 1:26:51Speaker 1: light of day reveals all objects in the world in
- 1:26:54Speaker 1: their proper forms, so when the light of truth enters
- 1:26:57Speaker 1: the mind, it reveals all things of life in their
- 1:27:00Speaker 1: proper proportions. He who searches his own heart by the
- 1:27:04Speaker 1: aid of truth, searches all hearts. He who, by long
- 1:27:08Speaker 1: searching has perceived the perfect law which is operative in
- 1:27:11Speaker 1: his mind, has revealed the divine law, which is the
- 1:27:14Speaker 1: stay and substance of the universe. Inside disperses error and
- 1:27:18Speaker 1: puts an end to superstition. Sin is the only error.
- 1:27:22Speaker 1: Men attack each other's beliefs and remain in ignorance. When
- 1:27:26Speaker 1: they get rid of their own sins, they will become enlightened.
- 1:27:29Speaker 1: Superstition springs from sin. Looking through dark and eyes, men
- 1:27:33Speaker 1: see evil things which are delusions of ignorance, conceiving in
- 1:27:37Speaker 1: their hearts, and lawful things their imagination is troubled with
- 1:27:41Speaker 1: monsters and terrors, which have no existence in reality. Where
- 1:27:45Speaker 1: there is pure insight, there is no fear, devils, demons,
- 1:27:49Speaker 1: wrathful and jealous gods, vampires and evil spirits, and all
- 1:27:53Speaker 1: the hideous hosts of ideological monsters have vanished from the
- 1:27:57Speaker 1: universe along with the feverish nightmare which gave birth to them,
- 1:28:01Speaker 1: and before erect gaze of the purified one, there spreads
- 1:28:05Speaker 1: a universe of orderly beauty and inviolate law. The man
- 1:28:09Speaker 1: of insight lives in the beautific vision of the saints,
- 1:28:12Speaker 1: not as a fleeting experience in a moment of exceptional purity,
- 1:28:16Speaker 1: but as a constant, normal condition of mind. He has
- 1:28:20Speaker 1: completed his long journey through self and sorrow and is
- 1:28:23Speaker 1: at peace. He has conquered and is glad. He sees
- 1:28:28Speaker 1: all the sin, misery, and pain that are in the
- 1:28:30Speaker 1: world more plainly and vividly than other men. But he
- 1:28:34Speaker 1: now sees it as it is in its cause inception,
- 1:28:37Speaker 1: growth and fruitage, not as it appeared to him when
- 1:28:40Speaker 1: he was blindly involved in it and his mind was
- 1:28:42Speaker 1: distorted by impurities. He watches the growth of beings from
- 1:28:46Speaker 1: the immature to the mature through periods of change and pain,
- 1:28:50Speaker 1: with tender compassion and solicitude, as the mother watches the
- 1:28:54Speaker 1: growth of a child through the helpless period of its infancy.
- 1:28:57Speaker 1: He sees justice operating in all things. While men are
- 1:29:01Speaker 1: waxing wrathful over the triumph of wrong. He knows that
- 1:29:04Speaker 1: wrong has not triumphed, but is brought to naught. He
- 1:29:07Speaker 1: sees the overruling right, which, though concealed from worldly eyes,
- 1:29:11Speaker 1: remains forever unshaken. He sees the littleness, the puny, weakness,
- 1:29:16Speaker 1: and the blind folly of evil as compared with the majesty,
- 1:29:19Speaker 1: invincible power, and the all seeing wisdom of good. And
- 1:29:23Speaker 1: thus knowing and seeing, his mind is finally fixed in
- 1:29:26Speaker 1: that which is good. He is devoted to truth, and
- 1:29:29Speaker 1: his delight is in the doing of righteousness. When insight
- 1:29:33Speaker 1: is borne in the mind, reality stands revealed. Not a
- 1:29:37Speaker 1: metaphysical reality distinct from the universe, not a speculative reality
- 1:29:41Speaker 1: other than the things of life, but the reality of
- 1:29:44Speaker 1: the universe itself, the reality of things in themselves. Insight
- 1:29:49Speaker 1: is triumphant of a change in decay, for it perceives
- 1:29:52Speaker 1: the abiding in change, the eternal in the transient the
- 1:29:56Speaker 1: immortal in the things which pass away. And herein is
- 1:30:00Speaker 1: the meaning of that fixed nobility of character of the
- 1:30:02Speaker 1: saints and sages, and superlatively of the great teachers of
- 1:30:06Speaker 1: the race, that they perceive and abide in reality. They
- 1:30:10Speaker 1: know life in its completion. They understand and obey the
- 1:30:13Speaker 1: righteous law. Having conquered self, they have conquered all delusions,
- 1:30:18Speaker 1: have triumphed over sin, They have triumphed over sorrow, Having
- 1:30:23Speaker 1: purified themselves, they see the perfect cosmos. He who chooses
- 1:30:27Speaker 1: the right, the pure, the good, and clings to them
- 1:30:31Speaker 1: through all misunderstandings, insults, and defeat, reaches at last the
- 1:30:37Speaker 1: place of insight, and his eyes open upon the world
- 1:30:40Speaker 1: of truth. Then his painful discipline is ended. The lower
- 1:30:44Speaker 1: conditions no more affect him or cause him sorrow. Purity
- 1:30:47Speaker 1: and joy abide with him, and the universe again rejoices
- 1:30:51Speaker 1: in the triumph of good and hails another conqueror man,
- 1:30:56Speaker 1: the master. By the mastery of self, distinct form of
- 1:31:00Speaker 1: consciousness is evolved, which some would call divine. It is
- 1:31:04Speaker 1: distinguished from that ordinary human consciousness which craves personal advantages
- 1:31:09Speaker 1: and gratifications on the one hand, and is involved in
- 1:31:12Speaker 1: remorse and soil. On the other the divine consciousness concerns
- 1:31:16Speaker 1: itself with humanity and the universe, with eternal verities, with righteousness, wisdom,
- 1:31:21Speaker 1: and truth, and not with pleasures, protection and preservation of
- 1:31:25Speaker 1: the personality. Not that personal pleasure is destroyed, but that
- 1:31:29Speaker 1: it is no longer craved in sought. It no longer
- 1:31:33Speaker 1: takes a foremost place. It is purified, and it is
- 1:31:36Speaker 1: received as the effect of right thought and action, and
- 1:31:40Speaker 1: is no longer an end in itself. In the divine consciousness,
- 1:31:43Speaker 1: there is neither sin nor sorrow. Even the sense of
- 1:31:46Speaker 1: sin has passed away, and the true order and purpose
- 1:31:49Speaker 1: of life being revealed, no cause is found for lamentation.
- 1:31:53Speaker 1: Jesus called the state of consciousness quote the Kingdom of
- 1:31:56Speaker 1: Heaven unquote. Buddha named it quote Nirvana unquote, and loud
- 1:32:02Speaker 1: Serve's term for it was quote Tao unquote. Emerson refers
- 1:32:08Speaker 1: to it as quote the over soul unquote, and doctor
- 1:32:13Speaker 1: Bucky calls it quote cosmic consciousness unquote in his valuable
- 1:32:19Speaker 1: work bearing that title. The ordinary human consciousness is self
- 1:32:23Speaker 1: consciousness self. The personality is placed before everything else. There
- 1:32:29Speaker 1: are ceaseless anxieties and fears concerning the self. Its possible
- 1:32:33Speaker 1: loss is thought to be the most grievous calamity, and
- 1:32:36Speaker 1: its eternal preservation the most important thing in the universe.
- 1:32:39Speaker 1: In divine consciousness, all this has passed away. Self has disappeared.
- 1:32:44Speaker 1: Therefore they can be no more fears and anxieties concerning
- 1:32:48Speaker 1: the self. And things are considered and known as they are,
- 1:32:51Speaker 1: and not as they afford pleasure or cause pain to self,
- 1:32:54Speaker 1: not as self wishes them to be for its own
- 1:32:56Speaker 1: temporal or eternal happiness. The self conscious man is subject
- 1:33:01Speaker 1: to desire. The divinely conscious man is master of desire.
- 1:33:05Speaker 1: The former considers what is pleasant or unpleasant. The latter
- 1:33:09Speaker 1: acts from the righteous law without reference to pleasure or pain.
- 1:33:13Speaker 1: The race is passing through self consciousness to divine consciousness,
- 1:33:17Speaker 1: through the slavery of self with its sense of sin
- 1:33:20Speaker 1: and shame, to the freedom of truth, with its sense
- 1:33:23Speaker 1: of purity and power. The great teachers and saviors of
- 1:33:26Speaker 1: the race have already attained in former existences. They have
- 1:33:30Speaker 1: already passed through all forms of self consciousness, and now,
- 1:33:33Speaker 1: having subjugated self, have become divinely conscious. They have reached
- 1:33:38Speaker 1: the summit of evolution. On this earth, and have no
- 1:33:40Speaker 1: further need to be reborn in the self conscious form.
- 1:33:44Speaker 1: They are masters of life. Having conquered self, they have
- 1:33:47Speaker 1: acquired the supreme knowledge. Some of them are worshiped as
- 1:33:50Speaker 1: God because they manifest a wisdom and consciousness which is
- 1:33:54Speaker 1: quite distinct from the normal self consciousness of humanity, and
- 1:33:57Speaker 1: which is therefore regarded with and ard by incomprehensible mystery.
- 1:34:02Speaker 1: Yet in this divine consciousness there is no mystery, but
- 1:34:07Speaker 1: on the contrary, a transparent simplicity, which becomes apparent when
- 1:34:11Speaker 1: the confusions of self are dispersed, the abiding gentleness, the
- 1:34:16Speaker 1: sublime wisdom, the perfect calm of the great teachers, qualities
- 1:34:19Speaker 1: which appear supernatural when viewed from the self consciousness state,
- 1:34:23Speaker 1: are seen to be simple and natural when the first
- 1:34:25Speaker 1: glimmering of divine consciousness dawns in the mind. And such
- 1:34:29Speaker 1: divine consciousness does not appear until a high degree of
- 1:34:31Speaker 1: morality is attained by the self conscious man. Man becomes
- 1:34:35Speaker 1: divinely conscious, divinely wise, divinely gentle, and strong in the
- 1:34:40Speaker 1: measure that he subdues and dominates within those passions by
- 1:34:43Speaker 1: which humanity is subdued and dominated. Man becomes divinely conscious,
- 1:34:48Speaker 1: divinely wise, divinely gentle, and strong in the measure that
- 1:34:52Speaker 1: he subdues and dominates within those passions by which humanity
- 1:34:56Speaker 1: is subdued and dominated. The divine master is one who
- 1:34:59Speaker 1: has attained mastery of a self. The abiding nobility, beneficent characteristics,
- 1:35:04Speaker 1: and unobtrusive virtue which mark off the spiritually enlightened man
- 1:35:08Speaker 1: from others are the fruits of self conquest, the logical
- 1:35:11Speaker 1: outcome of a long struggle to master and comprehend those
- 1:35:14Speaker 1: mental forces which self conscious man blindly obeys without understanding.
- 1:35:19Speaker 1: Self conscious man is a slave to self, obeying self
- 1:35:22Speaker 1: centered inclinations. He is in submission to his passions and
- 1:35:26Speaker 1: to the sorrows and pains which allegiance to those passions
- 1:35:29Speaker 1: inflict upon him. He is conscious of sin and sorrow,
- 1:35:33Speaker 1: but sees no way out of these conditions, and so
- 1:35:35Speaker 1: he invents theologies which he substitutes for effort, and which,
- 1:35:39Speaker 1: while affording him fitful comfort to uncertain hope, leave him
- 1:35:43Speaker 1: the easy victim of sin and the willing prey of sorrow.
- 1:35:46Speaker 1: Divinely conscious man is the master of self. He obeys
- 1:35:50Speaker 1: truth and not self. He curbs and directs his inclinations,
- 1:35:54Speaker 1: and is conscious of a growing power of a sin
- 1:35:56Speaker 1: and sorrow. He sees that there is a way out
- 1:35:58Speaker 1: of these conditions by the path of self mastery. He
- 1:36:02Speaker 1: needs no theologies to aid him, but exerts himself in
- 1:36:05Speaker 1: right doing, and is gladdened by a sense of victory
- 1:36:08Speaker 1: and increasing purity and power. When his mastery is complete,
- 1:36:12Speaker 1: he has no inclinations but those which accord with truth.
- 1:36:15Speaker 1: He has then become the conqueror of sin, and is
- 1:36:18Speaker 1: no longer subject to sorrow. Enlightened, wise, and even more
- 1:36:22Speaker 1: peaceful and happy is he who has subjected, overcome, and
- 1:36:26Speaker 1: cast out the turbulent self that reigned within. The Tempests
- 1:36:30Speaker 1: of sorrow do not chill him. The cares and troubles
- 1:36:33Speaker 1: which beset man pass him by, and no evil thing
- 1:36:36Speaker 1: overtakes him. Secure in divine virtue, no enemy can overthrow him,
- 1:36:41Speaker 1: no foe can do him harm. Kind and peaceful, no person, power,
- 1:36:46Speaker 1: nor place can rob him of repose. There is no
- 1:36:49Speaker 1: enemy but self, no darkness but ignorance, no suffering but
- 1:36:53Speaker 1: that which springs from the insubordinate elements of one's own nature.
- 1:36:58Speaker 1: No man is truly wise who is involved in likes
- 1:37:00Speaker 1: and dislikes, wishes and regrets, desires and disappointments, sins and sorrow.
- 1:37:06Speaker 1: All these conditions belong to the self conscious states and
- 1:37:09Speaker 1: are indications of folly, weakness, and subjection. He is truly wise, who,
- 1:37:15Speaker 1: in the midst of worldly duties is all is calm,
- 1:37:18Speaker 1: all is gentle, all is patient. He accepts things as
- 1:37:22Speaker 1: they are, and does not wish nor grieve, desire nor regret.
- 1:37:27Speaker 1: These things belong to the divinely conscious state, the dominion
- 1:37:31Speaker 1: of truth and our indications of enlightenment, strength, and mastery.
- 1:37:36Speaker 1: He who does not desire riches, fame or pleasures, who
- 1:37:39Speaker 1: enjoys what he has, he does not lament when it
- 1:37:42Speaker 1: is taken from him, He is indeed wise. He who
- 1:37:45Speaker 1: desires riches, fame and pleasure, who is discontented with what
- 1:37:49Speaker 1: he has, yet laments when it is taken from him,
- 1:37:52Speaker 1: he is indeed foolish. Man is fitted for conquest, but
- 1:37:56Speaker 1: the conquest of territory will not avail. He must resort
- 1:37:59Speaker 1: to the conquest of self. The conquest of territory renders
- 1:38:03Speaker 1: a man at temporal ruler, but the conquest of self
- 1:38:06Speaker 1: makes him an eternal conqueror. Man is destined for mastery,
- 1:38:10Speaker 1: not the master of his fellow men by force, but
- 1:38:13Speaker 1: the master of his own nature by self control. The
- 1:38:16Speaker 1: mastery of his fellow men by force is the crown
- 1:38:18Speaker 1: of egotism, but the mastery of self by self control
- 1:38:21Speaker 1: is the crown of humility. He is man, the master
- 1:38:24Speaker 1: who has shaken off the service of self for the
- 1:38:27Speaker 1: service of truth, who has established himself in the eternal verities.
- 1:38:31Speaker 1: He is crowned not only with perfect manhood, but with
- 1:38:34Speaker 1: divine wisdom. He has overcome the disturbances of the mind
- 1:38:37Speaker 1: and the shocks of life. He is superior to all circumstances.
- 1:38:41Speaker 1: He is the calm spectator, but no longer the helpless
- 1:38:44Speaker 1: tool of events. No more sinning, weeping, repenting mortal. He
- 1:38:49Speaker 1: is pure, rejoicing, upright, immortal. He perceives the course of
- 1:38:54Speaker 1: things with a glad and peaceful heart, a divine conqueror,
- 1:38:57Speaker 1: master of life and death, Knowledge and victory. Faith is
- 1:39:03Speaker 1: the beginning of the triumphant life, but knowledge is its consummation.
- 1:39:08Speaker 1: Faith reveals the way, but knowledge is the goal. Faith
- 1:39:13Speaker 1: suffers many afflictions. Knowledge has transcended affliction. Faith endures, knowledge loves,
- 1:39:20Speaker 1: Faith walks in darkness, but believes knowledge adds in light
- 1:39:25Speaker 1: and knows. Faith inspires to effort knowledge crown's effort with success. Quote.
- 1:39:31Speaker 1: Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Unquote. Knowledge
- 1:39:35Speaker 1: is the substance of those things possessed. Faith is the
- 1:39:38Speaker 1: helpful staff of the pilgrim. Knowledge is the city of
- 1:39:42Speaker 1: refuge at the journey's end. Without faith, there will be
- 1:39:46Speaker 1: no knowledge. But when knowledge is acquired, the work of
- 1:39:50Speaker 1: faith is finished. The life triumphant is a life of knowledge,
- 1:39:54Speaker 1: and by knowledge is meant not book learning, but life learning.
- 1:39:58Speaker 1: Not superficial facts committed to memory, but the deep facts
- 1:40:02Speaker 1: and truths of life grasped and comprehended. Apart from this knowledge,
- 1:40:07Speaker 1: there is no victory for man, no rest for his
- 1:40:09Speaker 1: weary feet, no refuge for his aching heart. There is
- 1:40:13Speaker 1: no salvation for the foolish except by becoming wise. There
- 1:40:17Speaker 1: is no salvation for the sinful except by becoming pure.
- 1:40:21Speaker 1: There is no liberation for man from the turmoil and
- 1:40:24Speaker 1: troubles of life. But through divine knowledge, reached by the
- 1:40:27Speaker 1: pathway of a pure and blameless life. Nowhere is their
- 1:40:31Speaker 1: permanent peace, except in an enlightened condition of mind and
- 1:40:35Speaker 1: a pure life and an enlightened mind are identical. But
- 1:40:38Speaker 1: there is salvation for the foolish because wisdom can be acquired.
- 1:40:42Speaker 1: There is salvation for the sinful, because purity can be embraced.
- 1:40:46Speaker 1: There is liberation for all men from the troubles and
- 1:40:49Speaker 1: turmoil of life, because whosoever wills to do so, whether
- 1:40:53Speaker 1: rich or poor, learned or unlearned, can enter the lowly
- 1:40:57Speaker 1: way of blamelessness, which leads to perfect noveed. And because
- 1:41:01Speaker 1: of this that there is deliverance for the captives and
- 1:41:04Speaker 1: victory for the defeated. There is rejoicing in the high places,
- 1:41:08Speaker 1: and the universe is glad. The man of knowledge, being
- 1:41:12Speaker 1: victorious over himself, is victorious over sin, over evil, over
- 1:41:17Speaker 1: all the disharmonies of life. Out of the old mind,
- 1:41:20Speaker 1: marred by sin and sorrow, he has framed a new mind,
- 1:41:23Speaker 1: glorified by purity and peace. He has died out of
- 1:41:27Speaker 1: the old world of evil, and is reborn in a
- 1:41:29Speaker 1: new world where love and faultless law prevail, where evil
- 1:41:33Speaker 1: is not, and he has become deathless in immortal good.
- 1:41:36Speaker 1: Anxiety and fear, grief and lamentation, disappointment and regret, richedness
- 1:41:41Speaker 1: and remorse. These things have no part in the world
- 1:41:44Speaker 1: of the wives. They are the shadowy inhabitants of the
- 1:41:47Speaker 1: world of self, and cannot live. Nay, they are seen
- 1:41:51Speaker 1: to have no substantiality in the light of wisdom. The
- 1:41:55Speaker 1: dark things of life are the dark conditions of a
- 1:41:57Speaker 1: mind not yet illumined by the life of wisdom. They
- 1:42:01Speaker 1: follow self as the shadow of substance. Where selfish desires go,
- 1:42:05Speaker 1: there they follow, where sin is there they are. There
- 1:42:09Speaker 1: is no rest in self, there is no light in self,
- 1:42:12Speaker 1: and where the flames of turbulent passions and fires of
- 1:42:15Speaker 1: consuming desires or life, the cool airs of wisdom and
- 1:42:18Speaker 1: peace are not felt. Safety and assurance, happiness and repose,
- 1:42:23Speaker 1: satisfaction and contentment, joy and peace. These are the abiding
- 1:42:28Speaker 1: possessions of the wise, earned by right of self conquest,
- 1:42:31Speaker 1: the results of the righteousness, the wages of a blameless life.
- 1:42:36Speaker 1: The substance of a right life is enlightenment, knowledge, and
- 1:42:40Speaker 1: the spirit of knowledge is peace. To be victorious over
- 1:42:43Speaker 1: self in all the issues of life is to know
- 1:42:45Speaker 1: life as it is in reality, and not as it
- 1:42:48Speaker 1: appears in the nightmare of self. It is to be
- 1:42:51Speaker 1: in peace in all passages, and not to be stricken
- 1:42:54Speaker 1: with trouble and grief in the common happenings of life.
- 1:42:57Speaker 1: As the scholar is no more troubled by incorrect work
- 1:43:00Speaker 1: and lessons imperfectly done, and the painful reproof and punishment
- 1:43:05Speaker 1: formerly inflicted by his teachers are left behind forever. So
- 1:43:08Speaker 1: the perfected scholar in virtue, the wise man and woman,
- 1:43:12Speaker 1: the enlightened doer of righteousness is no more trouble with
- 1:43:15Speaker 1: wrongdoing and follow which are merely the imperfectly accomplished lessons
- 1:43:19Speaker 1: of life, and the scourging sorrow and remorse have passed
- 1:43:23Speaker 1: away forever. The skilled scholar is no more doubt of
- 1:43:26Speaker 1: fear concerning his ability. He has overcome and dispersed the
- 1:43:30Speaker 1: ignorance of his intellect. He has attained to learning, and
- 1:43:33Speaker 1: he knows that he has attained. And he so knows because,
- 1:43:37Speaker 1: having undergone innumerable tests in the form of lessons and examinations,
- 1:43:42Speaker 1: he has at last proved his skill by passing successfully
- 1:43:46Speaker 1: through the severest tests of scholarship. And now he no
- 1:43:49Speaker 1: longer fears but rejoices when severe tests are applied to
- 1:43:52Speaker 1: prove his ability. He is capable, confident, and glad. Even so,
- 1:43:59Speaker 1: the skilled do who of righteousness is nor more troubled
- 1:44:02Speaker 1: with doubt and fear concerning his destiny. He has overcome
- 1:44:06Speaker 1: and dispersed the ignorance of his heart. He has attained
- 1:44:09Speaker 1: to wisdom, and he knows that he has attained. And
- 1:44:12Speaker 1: he so knows because where he formerly failed and fell
- 1:44:15Speaker 1: when tested by the wrong conduct of others, he now
- 1:44:18Speaker 1: maintains his patience and calmness under the severest tests of
- 1:44:22Speaker 1: accusation and reproof. Herein is the glory and victory of
- 1:44:26Speaker 1: divine knowledge, that, understanding the nature of deeds, both good
- 1:44:30Speaker 1: and bad, the enlightened do of good deeds no longer
- 1:44:33Speaker 1: suffers through the bad deeds of others. Their actions towards
- 1:44:36Speaker 1: him can never cause him pain and sorrow, nor rob
- 1:44:38Speaker 1: him of his peace. Having taken refuge in good, evil
- 1:44:42Speaker 1: can no more reach him nor harm him. He returns
- 1:44:45Speaker 1: good for evil and overcomes the weakness of evil by
- 1:44:48Speaker 1: the power of good. The man who is involved in
- 1:44:51Speaker 1: bad deeds imagines that the bad deeds of others are
- 1:44:53Speaker 1: powerful to do him injury, and are fulled with grievous
- 1:44:56Speaker 1: harm against him. He is stung with pain and overwhelmed
- 1:44:59Speaker 1: with sorrow, not for his own bad deeds for these
- 1:45:02Speaker 1: he does not see. But for the wrong deeds of others.
- 1:45:06Speaker 1: Involved in ignorance, he has no spiritual strength, no refuge,
- 1:45:10Speaker 1: and no abiding peace. The man victorious over self is
- 1:45:14Speaker 1: the true seer. He is not the seer of spirits
- 1:45:17Speaker 1: or supernatural phenomena, for such seeing is narrow and illusory.
- 1:45:22Speaker 1: He is the seer of life as it is, both
- 1:45:24Speaker 1: in his particular aspects and in his divine principles, the
- 1:45:28Speaker 1: seer of the spiritual universe, of the cosmic law, cosmic love,
- 1:45:33Speaker 1: cosmic liberty. The man of knowledge and victory, who has
- 1:45:37Speaker 1: shaken off the painful dreams of self, has awakened with
- 1:45:40Speaker 1: a new vision which beholds a new and glorified universe.
- 1:45:44Speaker 1: He is the seer of the eternal and is blessed
- 1:45:47Speaker 1: with perfect love and endless peace. He is lifted far
- 1:45:50Speaker 1: above all sordid desires, narrow aims, and selfish love and hate.
- 1:45:55Speaker 1: And being so lifted up, he perceived the lawful course
- 1:45:58Speaker 1: of things and does not grieve when overtaken by the inevitable.
- 1:46:03Speaker 1: He is above the world of sorrow, not because he
- 1:46:06Speaker 1: has become cold and cruel, but because he abides in
- 1:46:09Speaker 1: love where no thought of self can enter, and where
- 1:46:11Speaker 1: the well being of others is all in all, he
- 1:46:14Speaker 1: is sorrowless because he is selfless. He is serene because
- 1:46:17Speaker 1: he knows that whatever he receives it is good, and
- 1:46:20Speaker 1: whatever is taken from him, that also is good. He
- 1:46:24Speaker 1: has transmitted sorrow into love and his fool's infinite tenderness
- 1:46:28Speaker 1: and abounding compassion. His power is not violent, ambitious, worldly,
- 1:46:34Speaker 1: but pure, peaceful, heavenly, and he is possessed of a
- 1:46:37Speaker 1: hidden strength which knows how to stand and when to
- 1:46:40Speaker 1: bend for the good of others and the world. He
- 1:46:44Speaker 1: is a teacher, though he speaks but little. He is
- 1:46:47Speaker 1: a master, yet he has no desire to rule others.
- 1:46:50Speaker 1: He is a conqueror, but makes no attempt to subdue
- 1:46:54Speaker 1: his fellow men. He has become a conscious instrument for
- 1:46:57Speaker 1: the outworking of cosmic law, and is an intelligent, enlightened
- 1:47:01Speaker 1: power directing the evolution of the race. At this the
- 1:47:05Speaker 1: beginning of a new epoch, Let the good news again
- 1:47:09Speaker 1: go forth throughout the world, that there is purity for
- 1:47:12Speaker 1: the sinful, comfort for the afflicted, healing for the broken hearted,
- 1:47:16Speaker 1: and triumph for the defeated. In your heart, O man o,
- 1:47:20Speaker 1: woman stained as it is with sin and torn with
- 1:47:24Speaker 1: conflicting desires, there is a place of power, a citadel
- 1:47:28Speaker 1: of strength. You are the dwelling place of the supreme Good,
- 1:47:32Speaker 1: and the scepter of victory awaits you. Deep in your
- 1:47:36Speaker 1: consciousness is the high seat of empire. Arise, o, stricken one,
- 1:47:41Speaker 1: Ascend to your rightly throne.