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From Passion to Peace - James Allen · Above Life's Turmoil

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  Speaker 1: Forward of From Passion to Peace. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Andrea Fiori. From Passion to Peace by James Allen Forward.
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  Speaker 1: The first three parts of this book, Passion, aspiration, and temptation,
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  Speaker 1: represent the common human life with its passion, pathos, and tragedy.
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  Speaker 1: The last three parts, Transcendence, beautitude, and Peace, represent the
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  Speaker 1: divine life, calm, wise and beautiful of the Sage and Savior.
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  Speaker 1: The middle part, Transmutation, is the transitional stage between the two.
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  Speaker 1: It is the su the alchemic process linking the divine
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  Speaker 1: with the human life. Discipline, denial, and renunciation do not
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  Speaker 1: constitute the divine state. They are only the means by
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  Speaker 1: which it is attained. The divine life is established in
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  Speaker 1: that perfect knowledge which bestows perfect peace. James Allen amid
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  Speaker 1: the din and strife of men, the call Divine, I
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  Speaker 1: hear again. Its telling is of things apart above the
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  Speaker 1: tumult of the heart, high over where sins, dark pathways,
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  Speaker 1: wind waits the wise willing of the mind. Beyond strong passions,
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  Speaker 1: guarded gates, their peace awaits, their piece awaits end of Forward.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Andrea Fiori, Chapter one of From Passion to Peace.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Andrea Fiori. From Passion
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  Speaker 1: to Peace by James Allen, Chapter one Passion the pathway
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  Speaker 1: of the Saints and Sages, the road of the wise
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  Speaker 1: and the Pure, the highway along which the saviors have trod,
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  Speaker 1: and which all saviors do come will walk. Such is
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  Speaker 1: the subject of this book. Such is the high and
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  Speaker 1: holy theme which the author briefly expounds in these pages.
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  Speaker 1: Passion is the lowest level of human life. None can
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  Speaker 1: descend lower. In its chilling swamps and concealing darkness, creep
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  Speaker 1: and crawl the creatures of the sunless world lust, hatred, anger, covetuousness, pride, vanity, greed, revenge, envy, backbiting, lying, theft, deceit, treachery, cruelty, suspicion, jealousy.
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  Speaker 1: Such are the brute forces and blind, unreasoning impulses that
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  Speaker 1: inhabit the underworld of passion and rome, devouring and devoured.
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  Speaker 1: In the rank, primeval jungles of the human mind, there
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  Speaker 1: also dwell the dark shapes of remorse, pain and suffering,
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  Speaker 1: and the drooping forms of grief, sorrow, and lamentation. In
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  Speaker 1: this dark world, the unwise live and die, not knowing
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  Speaker 1: the peace of purity, nor the joy of that divine
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  Speaker 1: light which forever shines above them and for them. Yet
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  Speaker 1: it shines in vain so long as it falls on
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  Speaker 1: the unseeing eyes, which look not up, but are ever
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  Speaker 1: bent earthward. But the wise look up. They are not
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  Speaker 1: satisfied with this passion world. They bend their steps towards
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  Speaker 1: the upper world of peace, the light and the glory
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  Speaker 1: of which they behold, at first far off, but nearer,
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  Speaker 1: and with ever increasing splendor. As they ascend. None can
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  Speaker 1: fall lower than passion, but all can rise higher. In
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  Speaker 1: that lowest place where further descent is impossible, All who
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  Speaker 1: move forward must ascend. The ascending pathway is always at hand,
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  Speaker 1: near and easily accessible. It is the way of self conquest.
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  Speaker 1: He has already entered into it, who has begun to
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  Speaker 1: say nay to his selfishness, who has begun to discipline
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  Speaker 1: his desires, and to control and command the unruly elements
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  Speaker 1: of his mind. Passion is the arc enemy of mankind,
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  Speaker 1: the slayer of happiness, the opposite and enemy of peace.
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  Speaker 1: From it precedes all that defiles and destroys. It is
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  Speaker 1: the source of misery and the promulgator of mischief and disaster.
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  Speaker 1: The inner world of selfishness is rooted in ignorance, ignorance
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  Speaker 1: of divine law, of divine goodness, ignorance of the pure
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  Speaker 1: way and the peaceful path. Passion is dark, and it
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  Speaker 1: thrives and flourishes in spiritual darkness. It cannot enter the
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  Speaker 1: regions of spiritual light in the enlightened mind. The darkness
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  Speaker 1: of ignorance is destroyed. In the pure heart, there is
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  Speaker 1: no place for passion. Passion in all its forms, is
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  Speaker 1: a mental thirst, a fever, a torturing unrest. As a
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  Speaker 1: fire consumes a magnificent building, reducing it to a heap
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  Speaker 1: of unsightly ashes. So are men consumed by the flames
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  Speaker 1: of passions, and their deeds and works fall and perish.
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  Speaker 1: If one would find peace, he must come out of passion.
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  Speaker 1: The wise man subdues his passions. The foolish man is
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  Speaker 1: subdued by them. The seeker for wisdom begins by turning
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  Speaker 1: his back on folly. The lover of peace enters the
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  Speaker 1: way which leads there too, and with every step he
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  Speaker 1: takes he leaves further below and behind him the dark,
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  Speaker 1: dwelling place of passion and despair. The first step towards
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  Speaker 1: the heights of wisdom and peace is to understand the
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  Speaker 1: darkness and misery of selfishness, and when that is understood,
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  Speaker 1: the overcoming of it, the coming out of it will follow.
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  Speaker 1: Selfishness or passion not only subsists in the gross forms
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  Speaker 1: of greed and glaringly ungoverned conditions of the mind. It
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  Speaker 1: informs also every hidden thought which is subtly connected with
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  Speaker 1: the assumption and glorification of one's self. It is most
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  Speaker 1: deceiving in sight when it prompts one to dwell upon
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  Speaker 1: the selfishness in others, to accuse them of it, and
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  Speaker 1: to talk about it. The man who continually dwells upon
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  Speaker 1: the selfishness and others will not thus overcome his own selfishness.
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  Speaker 1: Not by accusing others do we come out of selfishness,
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  Speaker 1: but by purifying ourselves. The way from passion to peace
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  Speaker 1: is not by hurling painful charges against others, but by
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  Speaker 1: overcoming one's self. By eagerly striving to subdue the selfishness
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  Speaker 1: of others, we remain passion bound. By patiently overcoming our
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  Speaker 1: own selfishness, we ascend to freedom. Only he who has
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  Speaker 1: conquered himself can subdue others, and he subdues them not
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  Speaker 1: by passion, but by love. The foolish man accuses others
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  Speaker 1: and justifies himself, but he who is becoming wise justifies
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  Speaker 1: others and accuses himself. The way from passion to peace
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  Speaker 1: is not in the outer world of people. It is
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  Speaker 1: in the inner world of thoughts. It does not consist
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  Speaker 1: in altering the deeds of others. It consists in perfecting
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  Speaker 1: one's own deeds. Frequently, the man of passion is most
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  Speaker 1: eager to put others right, but the man of wisdom
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  Speaker 1: puts himself right. If one is anxious to reform the world,
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  Speaker 1: let him begin by reforming himself. The reformation of self
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  Speaker 1: does not end with the elimination of the sensual elements.
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  Speaker 1: Only that is its beginning. It ends only when every
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  Speaker 1: vain thought and selfish aim is overcome. Short of perfect
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  Speaker 1: purity and wisdom there is still some form of self
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  Speaker 1: slavery or folly which needs to be conquered. Passion is
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  Speaker 1: at the base of the structure of life. Peace is
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  Speaker 1: at its crown and summit. Without passion to begin with,
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  Speaker 1: be no power to work with and no achievement to
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  Speaker 1: end with. Passion represents power, but power misdirected, power producing
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  Speaker 1: hurt instead of happiness. Its forces. While instruments of destruction
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  Speaker 1: in the hands of the foolish, are instruments of preservation
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  Speaker 1: in the hands of the wise. When curbed and concentrated
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  Speaker 1: and beneficially directed, they represent working energy. Passion is the
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  Speaker 1: flaming sword which guards the gates of paradise. It shuts
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  Speaker 1: out and destroys the foolish, It admits and preserves the wise.
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  Speaker 1: He is the foolish man who does not know the
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  Speaker 1: extent of his own ignorance, who is the slave of
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  Speaker 1: thoughts of self, who obeys the impulses of passion. He
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  Speaker 1: is the wise man, who knows his own ignorance, who
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  Speaker 1: understands the emptiness of selfish thoughts, who masters the impulses
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  Speaker 1: of passion. The fool descends into deeper and deeper ignorance.
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  Speaker 1: The wise man ascends into higher and higher knowledge. The
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  Speaker 1: fool desires, suffers, and dies. The wise man aspires, rejoices,
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  Speaker 1: and lives with mind intent on wisdom and mental gaze
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  Speaker 1: raised upward. The spiritual warrior perceives the upward way and
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  Speaker 1: fixes his attention upon the heights of peace. End of
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  Speaker 1: chapter one. Recording by Andrea Furi. Chapter two of From
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  Speaker 1: Passion to Peace. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Andrea Fury.
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  Speaker 1: From Passion into Peace by James Allen, Chapter two. Aspiration,
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  Speaker 1: with the clear perception of one's own ignorance, comes the
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  Speaker 1: desire for enlightenment, and thus in the heart is born aspiration,
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  Speaker 1: the rapture of the saints. On the wings of aspiration,
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  Speaker 1: man rises from earth to Heaven, from ignorance to knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: from the under darkness to the upper light. Without it,
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  Speaker 1: he remains a groveling animal, earthly, sensual, unenlightened, and uninspired.
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  Speaker 1: Aspiration is the longing for heavenly things, for righteousness, compassion, purity, love,
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  Speaker 1: as distinguished from desire, which is the longing for earthly things,
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  Speaker 1: for selfish possessions, personal dominance, low pleasures, and sensual gratifications.
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  Speaker 1: As a bird deprived of its wings cannot soar, so
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  Speaker 1: a man without as aspiration cannot rise above his surroundings
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  Speaker 1: and become a master of his animal inclinations. He is
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  Speaker 1: the slave of passions, is subject to others, and is
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  Speaker 1: carried hither and thither by the changing current of events.
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  Speaker 1: For one to begin to aspire means that he is
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  Speaker 1: dissatisfied with his low status and is aiming at a
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  Speaker 1: higher condition. It is a sure sign that he has
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  Speaker 1: aroused out of his lethargic sleep of animality and has
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  Speaker 1: become conscious of nobler attainments and a fuller life. Aspiration
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  Speaker 1: makes all things possible. It opens the way to advancement,
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  Speaker 1: even the highest state of perfection conceivable. It brings near
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  Speaker 1: and makes real and possible, for that which can be
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  Speaker 1: conceived can be achieved. Aspiration is the twin angel to inspiration.
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  Speaker 1: It unlocks the gates of joy, singing, a company's soaring music, poetry, prophecy,
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  Speaker 1: and all high and holy instruments are at last placed
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  Speaker 1: in the hands of those whose aspirations flag, not whose
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  Speaker 1: spirit does not fail. So long as animal conditions taste
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  Speaker 1: sweet to a man, he cannot aspire. He is already satisfied.
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  Speaker 1: But when their sweetness turns to bitterness, then in his
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  Speaker 1: sorrow he thinks of nobler things. When he is deprived
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  Speaker 1: of earthly joy, he aspires to the joy which is heavenly.
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  Speaker 1: It is when impurity turns to suffering that purity is sought. Truly.
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  Speaker 1: Aspiration rises phoenix like from the dead ashes of repentance.
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  Speaker 1: But on its powerful opinions man can reach the heaven
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  Speaker 1: of heavens. The man of aspiration has entered the way
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  Speaker 1: which ends in peace, and surely he will reach that
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  Speaker 1: end if he neither stays nor turns back. If he
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  Speaker 1: constantly renews his mind with glimpses of the heavenly vision,
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  Speaker 1: he will reach the heavenly state. Man attains to the
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  Speaker 1: measure that he aspires. His longing is to be the
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  Speaker 1: gauge of what he can be. To fix the mind
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  Speaker 1: is to foreordain the achievement. As a man can experience
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  Speaker 1: and know all low things, so he can experience and
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  Speaker 1: know all high things. As he has become human, so
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  Speaker 1: he can become divine. The turning of the mind in
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  Speaker 1: high and divine directions is the sole and needful task.
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  Speaker 1: What is impurity but the impure thoughts of the thinker?
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  Speaker 1: What is purity but the pure thoughts of the thinker.
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  Speaker 1: One man does not do the thinking of another. Each
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  Speaker 1: man is pure or impure of himself alone. If a
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  Speaker 1: man thinks it is through others, or circumstances, or heredity
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  Speaker 1: that I am impure, how can he hope to overcome
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  Speaker 1: his errors? Such a thought will check all holy ass
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  Speaker 1: options and will bind him to the slavery of passion.
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  Speaker 1: When a man fully perceives that his errors and impurities
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  Speaker 1: are his own, that they are generated and fostered by himself,
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  Speaker 1: that he alone is responsible for them, then he will
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  Speaker 1: aspire to overcome them. The way of attainment will be
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  Speaker 1: opened up to him, and he will see from where
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  Speaker 1: and to what destination he is traveling. The man of
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  Speaker 1: passion sees no straight path before him, and behind him
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  Speaker 1: all his fog and gloom. He seizes the pleasure of
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  Speaker 1: the moment and does not strive for understanding or think
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  Speaker 1: of wisdom. His way is confused, turbulent, and troubled, and
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  Speaker 1: his heart is far from peace. The man of aspiration
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  Speaker 1: sees before him the pathway up the heavenly heights, and
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  Speaker 1: behind him are the circuitous routes of passion, up which
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  Speaker 1: he has hitherto blindly groped. Striving for understanding, and his
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  Speaker 1: mind set on wisdom, his way is clear, and his
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  Speaker 1: heart already experiences a foretaste of the final peace. Men
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  Speaker 1: of passions strive mightily to achieve little things, things which
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  Speaker 1: speedily perish, and in the place where they were, leave
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  Speaker 1: nothing to be remembered. Men of aspiration strive with equal
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  Speaker 1: might to achieve great things, things of virtue, of knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: of wisdom, which do not perish, but stand as monuments
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  Speaker 1: of inspiration for the uplifting of humankind. As the merchant
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  Speaker 1: perceives worldly success by persistent exertion, so the saint achieves
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  Speaker 1: spiritual success by aspiration and endeavor. One becomes a merchant,
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  Speaker 1: the other a saint, by the particular direction in which
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  Speaker 1: his mental energy is guided. When the rapture of aspiration
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  Speaker 1: touches the mind, it at once refines it. The dross
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  Speaker 1: of its impurities begin to fall away. While aspiration holds
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  Speaker 1: the mind, no impurity can enter it, for the impure
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  Speaker 1: and the pure cannot at the same moment occupy the thought,
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  Speaker 1: but the effort of aspiration is at first spasmodic and
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  Speaker 1: short lived. The mind falls back into its habitual error
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  Speaker 1: and must be constantly renewed. The lover of the pure
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  Speaker 1: life renews his mind daily with the invigorating glow of aspiration.
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  Speaker 1: He rises early and fortifies his mind with strong thoughts
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  Speaker 1: and strenuous endeavor. He knows that the mind is of
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  Speaker 1: such a nature that it cannot remain for a moment unoccupied,
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  Speaker 1: and that if it is not held and guided by
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  Speaker 1: high thoughts and pure aspirations, it will assuredly be enslaved
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  Speaker 1: and misguided by low thoughts and base desires. Aspiration can
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  Speaker 1: be fed, fostered, and strengthened by daily habit, just as desire.
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  Speaker 1: It can be sought and admitted into the mind as
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  Speaker 1: a divine guide, or it can be neglected and shut out.
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  Speaker 1: To retire for a short time each day to some
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  Speaker 1: quiet spot, preferably in the open air, and there call
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  Speaker 1: up the energies of the mind in surging waves of
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  Speaker 1: holy rapture. Is to prepare the mind for great spiritual
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  Speaker 1: victories and destinies of divine import. For such a rapture
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  Speaker 1: as the preparation for wisdom and the prelude to peace.
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  Speaker 1: Before the mind can contemplate pure things, it must be
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  Speaker 1: lifted up to them. It must rise above impure things,
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  Speaker 1: and aspiration is the instrument by which this is accomplished.
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  Speaker 1: By its aid, the mind sore swiftly and surely into
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  Speaker 1: heavenly places and begins to experience divine things. It begins
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  Speaker 1: to accumulate wisdom and to learn to guide itself by
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  Speaker 1: an ever increasing measure of the de fine light of
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  Speaker 1: pure knowledge, to thirst for righteousness, to hunger for the
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  Speaker 1: pure life, to rise in holy rapture on the wings
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  Speaker 1: of angelic aspiration. This is the right road to wisdom.
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  Speaker 1: This is the right striving for peace. This is the
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  Speaker 1: right beginning of the way divine. End of chapter two.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Andrea Fiuri. Chapter three of From Passion to Peace.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Andrea Fiori. From Passion
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: to Peace by James Allen, Chapter three. Temptation Aspiration can
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  Speaker 1: carry a man into heaven, but to remain there he
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  Speaker 1: must learn to conform his entire mind to the heavenly conditions.
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  Speaker 1: To this end, temptation works. Temptation is the reversion in
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  Speaker 1: thought from purity to passion. It is going back from
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  Speaker 1: aspiration to desire. It threatens aspiration until the point is
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  Speaker 1: reached where desire is quenched in the waters of pure
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  Speaker 1: knowledge and calm thought. In the early stages of aspiration.
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  Speaker 1: Temptation is subtle and powerful, and is regarded as an enemy.
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  Speaker 1: But it is only an enemy in the sense that
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  Speaker 1: the one tempted is his own enemy, in the sense
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  Speaker 1: that it is the revealer of weakness and impurity. It
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  Speaker 1: is a friend, a necessary factor in spiritual training. It
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  Speaker 1: is indeed an accompaniment of the effort to overcome evil
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  Speaker 1: and apprehend good. To be successfully conquered, the evil in
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  Speaker 1: a man must come to the surface and present itself,
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  Speaker 1: And it is in temptation that the evil hidden in
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  Speaker 1: the heart stands revealed and exposed. That which temptation appeals
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  Speaker 1: to and arouses is unconquered. Desire and temptation will again
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  Speaker 1: and again assail a man until he has lifted himself
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  Speaker 1: above the lusting impulses. Temptation is an appeal to the impure.
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  Speaker 1: That which is pure cannot be subject to temptation. Temptation
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  Speaker 1: waylays the man of aspiration until he touches the rein
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  Speaker 1: of the divine consciousness, and beyond that border temptation cannot
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  Speaker 1: follow him. It is when a man begins to aspire
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  Speaker 1: that he begins to be tempted. Aspiration rouses up all
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  Speaker 1: the latent good and evil in order that the man
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  Speaker 1: may be fully revealed to himself. For a man cannot
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  Speaker 1: overcome himself unless he fully knows himself. It can scarcely
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  Speaker 1: be said of the merely animal man that he is tempted,
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  Speaker 1: for the very presence of temptation means that there is
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  Speaker 1: a striving for a purer state. Animal desire and gratification
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  Speaker 1: is the normal condition of the man who has not
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  Speaker 1: yet risen into aspiration. He wishes for nothing more, nothing
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  Speaker 1: better than his sensual enjoyments, and this for the present satisfied.
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  Speaker 1: Such a man cannot be tempted to fall, for he
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  Speaker 1: has not yet risen. The presence of aspiration signifies that
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  Speaker 1: a man has taken one step at least upward, and
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  Speaker 1: is therefore capable of being drawn back. This backward attraction
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  Speaker 1: is called temptation. The allurements of temptation subsist in the
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  Speaker 1: impure thoughts and downward desires of the heart. The object
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  Speaker 1: of temptation is powerless to attract when the heart no
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  Speaker 1: longer lusts for it. The stronghold of temptation is within
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  Speaker 1: a man, not without, and until a man realizes this,
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  Speaker 1: the period of temptation will be prolonged. While a man
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  Speaker 1: continues to run away from outward objects and tell the
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  Speaker 1: delusion that temptation subsists entirely in them, and does not
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  Speaker 1: attack and purge away his impure imaginings, his temptations will increase,
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  Speaker 1: and his falls will be many and grievous. When a
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  Speaker 1: man clearly perceives that the evil is within and not without,
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  Speaker 1: then his progress will be rapid, his temptations will decrease,
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  Speaker 1: and the final overcoming of all temptation will be well
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  Speaker 1: within the range of his spiritual vision. Temptation is torment.
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  Speaker 1: It is not an abiding condition, but is a passage
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  Speaker 1: from the lower condition to the higher. The fullness and
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  Speaker 1: perfection of life is bliss, not torment. Temptation accompanies weakness
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  Speaker 1: and defeat, but a man is destined for strength and victory.
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  Speaker 1: The presence of torment is the signal to rise and conquer.
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  Speaker 1: The man of persistence, in every renewed aspiration does not
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  Speaker 1: allow him solf to think that temptation cannot be overcome.
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  Speaker 1: He is determined to be the master of himself. Resignation
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  Speaker 1: to evil is an acknowledgment of defeat. It signifies that
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  Speaker 1: the battle against self is abandoned, that good is denied,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: that evil is made supreme. As the energetic man of
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: business is not daunted by difficulties, but studies how to
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: overcome them. So the man of ceaseless aspiration is not
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: crushed into submission by temptations, but meditates how he may
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: fortify his mind. For the tempter is like a coward.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: He only creeps in at weak and unguarded points. The
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: tempted one should study thoughtfully the nature and meaning of temptation,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: for until it is known, it cannot be overcome. A
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: wise general, before attacking the opposing force, studies the tactics
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: of his enemy. Likewise, he who is to overcome temptation
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: must understand how how it arises in his own darkness
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: and error, and must study by introspection and meditation, how
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: to disperse the darkness and supplement the error by truth.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: The stronger a man's passions, the fiercer will be his temptations,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: The deeper his selfishness, the more subtle his temptations, the
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: more pronounced his vanity, the more flattering and deceptive his temptations.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: A man must know himself if he is to know
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: the truth. He must not shrink away from any revelation
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: which will expose his error. On the contrary, he must
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: welcome such revelations as it aids to that self knowledge,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: which is the handmaid of self conquest. The man who
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: cannot endure to have his errors and shortcomings brought to
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: the surface and made known, but tries to hide them,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: is unfit to walk the highway of truth. He is
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: not properly equipped to battle with and overcome temptation. He
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: who cannot fearlessly face his lower nature cannot climb the
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: rugged heights of renunciation. Let the tempted one know this,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: that he himself is both tempter and tempted, That all
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: his enemies are within that The flatterers which seduce, the
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: taunts which stab, and the flames which burn, all spring
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: from that inner region. Of ignorance and error in which
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: he has hitherto lived. Knowing this, let him be assured
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: of complete victory over evil. When he is sorely tempted,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Let him not mourn therefore, but let him rejoice in
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: that his strength is tried and his weakness is exposed.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: For he who truly knows and humbly acknowledges his weaknesses
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: will not be slow in setting about the acquisition of strength.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Foolish men blame others for their lapses and sins. But
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: let the truth lover blame only himself. Let him acknowledge
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: his complete responsibility for his own conduct, and not say
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: when he falls this thing or such and such a
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: circumstance or that man was to blame for The most
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: which others can do is to afford an opportunity for
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: our own good or evil to manifest itself. They cannot
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: make us good or evil. Temptation is at first sore,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: grievous and hard to be borne, and subtle and persistent
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: is the assailant. But if the tempted one is firm
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and courageous and does not give way, he will gradually
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: subdue his spiritual enemy, and will finally triumph in the
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: knowledge of good. The adverse one is compounded of a
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: man's own lust, selfishness, and pride. When these are put away,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: evil is seen to be naught, and good is revealed
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: in all victorious splendor. End of chapter three. Recording by
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Andrea Fiori, Chapter four of From Passion to Peace. This
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Andrea Fiori. From Passion to
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: Peace by James Allen, Chapter four. Transmutation, midway between the
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: hell of passion and the heaven of peace is the
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: purgatory of transmutation, not a speculative purgatory beyond the grave,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: but a real purgatory in the human heart. In its
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: separating and purifying fire, the base metal of error is
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: sifted away, and only the clarified gold of truth remains.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: When temptation has culminated in sorrow, in deep perplexity, than
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: the tempted one, strenuously striving for deliverance, finds that his
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: moral servitude is entirely from himself. Instead of fighting against
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: outer circumstances, he must alter inner conditions. The fight against
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: outer things is necessary at the start. It is the
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: only course which can be adopted at first because of
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: the prevailing ignorance of mental causation. But it never of
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: itself brings about emancipation. What it does bring about is
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: the knowledge of the mental cause of temptation. This knowledge
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: of the mental cause of temptation leads to the transmutation
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: of thought, and the transmutation of thought leads to the
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: deliverance from the bondage of error. The preliminary fighting is
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: a necessary stage in spiritual development, just as the crying
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: and kicking of a helpless babe is necessary to its growth.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: But as the crime buying in kicking is not needed
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: beyond the infant stage, so the fear struggling with and
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: falling under temptation ends when the knowledge of mental transmutation
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: is acquired. The truly wise man, he who is enlightened
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: in concerning the source and cause of temptation, does not
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: fight against outward allurements. He abandons all desire for them.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Thus they cease to be allurements, and the power of
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: temptation is destroyed at its source. But this abandonment of
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: unholy desire is not the final process. It is the
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: beginning of a regenerative and transforming power, which, when patiently employed,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: leads to the clear and cloudless heights of spiritual enlightenment.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Spiritual transmutation consists of an entire reversal of the ordinary
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: self seeking attitude of the mind toward people and things,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: and this reversal brings about an entirely new set of experiences. Thus,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: the desire for a certain pleasure is abandoned, cut off
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: at its source, and not allowed to have any place
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: in the consciousness. But the mental force which that desire
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: represented is not annihilated. It is transferred to a higher
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: region of thought, transmuted into a purer form of energy.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: The law of conservation of energy prevails universally in the mind,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: as it does in matter, and the force shut off
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: in lower directions is liberated in higher realms of spiritual
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: activity along the saintly way towards the divine life. The
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: midway region of transmutation is the country of sacrifice, the
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: plane of renunciation. Old passions, old ambitions and thoughts are
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: cast away and abandoned, but only to reappear in some
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: more beautiful, more permanent, more eternally satisfying form. Valuable jewels,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: long guarded and cherished, when thrown tearfully in the melting pot,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: are remolded into new and more perfect adornments. Likewise, the
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: spiritual alchemist, at first reluctant to part company with long
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: cherished thoughts and habits, at last gives them up to
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: discover a little later, to his joy that they come
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: back to him in the form of new faculties, rarer powers,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: and purer joys, spiritual jewels, newly polished, beautiful and resplendent.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: In transmuting his mind from evil to good, a man
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: comes to distinguish more and more clearly between error and truth,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: and so distinguishing he ceases to be swayed and prompted
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: by outward things and by the actions and attitudes of others. Instead,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: he acts from his knowledge of truth, first acknowledging his
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: errors and then canfronting them with a searching mind and
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: a humble heart, he subdues, conquers, and transmutes them. The
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: early stage of transmutation is painful, but brief, for the
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: pain is soon transformed into pure spiritual joy, the brevity
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: of the pain being measured by the intelligence and energy
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: with which the process is pursued. While a man thinks
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: that the cause of his pain is the attitude of others,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: he will not pass through it. But when he perceives
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: that its cause is in himself, then he will soon
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: pass beyond it into joy. The unenlightened man allows himself
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: to be disturbed, wounded, and overthrown by what he regards
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: as the wrong attitude of others towards him. This is
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: because the same wrong attitude is in himself. He indeed
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: doles out to them in return the same actions, regarding
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: as right in himself that which is wrong in others.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Slander is given for slander, hatred for hatred, anger for anger.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: This is the action and reaction of evil. It is
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: the clash of selfishness with selfishness. It is only the
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: self or selfish elements within a man that can be
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: aroused by the evil in another. The truth or divine
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: characteristics in a man cannot be approached by that evil,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: much less can be disturbed and overthrown by it. It
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: is the conversation or complete reversal of this self or
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: selfishness into truth that constitutes transmutation. The enlightened man has
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: abandoned the delusion that evil in others has the power
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: to hurt and subdue him, and he has grasped the
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: profound truth that he is only overthrown by the evil
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: in himself. He therefore ceases to blame others for his
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: sins and sofas sufferings, and applies to himself to purifying
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: his own heart. In this reversal of his mental attitude,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: he transmutes the lower selfish forces into the higher moral attributes.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: The base ore of error is cast into the fire
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: of sacrifice, and there comes forth the pure gold of truth.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Such a man stands firm and unmoved when assailed by
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: outward things. He is self's master, not its slave. He
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: has ceased to identify himself with the impulses of passion,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: and has identified himself with truth. He has overcome evil
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: and has become merged with good. He knows both error
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: and truth, and has abandoned error and brought himself into
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: harmony with truth. He returns good for evil. The more
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: he is assailed by evil from without, the greater is
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: his opportunity of manifesting the good from within, that which
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: supremely differentiates the fool from the wise man. As this,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: the fool meets passion with passion, hatred with hatred, and
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: returns evil for evil, whereas the wise man meets passion
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: with peace, hatred with love, and returns good for evil.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Men inflicts suffering upon themselves through the active instrumentality of
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: their own unpurified nature. They rise into perfect peace in
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: the measure that they purify their hearts. The mental energy
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: which men waste in pursuing dark passions is all sufficient
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: to enable them to reach the highest wisdom when it
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: is turned in the right direction. As water when transmuted
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: into steam, becomes a new, more definite, and wide reaching power,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: so passion, when transmuted into intellectual and moral force, becomes
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: a new life, a new power for the accomplishment of
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: high and unfailing purposes. Mental forces, like molecular have their
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: opposite poles or modes of action. Where the negative pole is,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: there is also the positive. Where ignorance is, wisdom is possible,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: where passion abounds, Peace awaits. Where there is much suffering,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: much bliss is near. Sorrow is the negation of joy.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: Sin is the opposite of purity. Evil is the denial
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: of good. Where there is an opposite, there is that
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: which is opposed the adverse. Evil, in its denial of
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: the good, testifies to its presence. The one thing needful, therefore,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: is the turning around from the negative to the positive,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: the conversion of the heart from impure desires to pure aspirations,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: the transmutation of passional forces into moral paths. The wise
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: purify their thoughts. They turn from bad deeds and do
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: good deeds. They put error behind them and approach truth.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Thus do they rise above the allurements of sin, above
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: the torments of temptation, above the dark world of sorrow,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: and enter the divine consciousness, the transcendent life. End of
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: chapter four. Recording by Andrea Fiori, Chapter five of From
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Passion to Peace. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Andrea Fiori.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: From Passion to Peace by James Allen, Chapter five transcendence.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: When a man passes from the dark stage of temptation
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: to the more enlightened stage of transmutation, he has become
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: a saint. A saint is one who perceives the need
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: for self purification, who understands the way of self purification,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: and who has entered that way and is engaged in
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: perfecting himself. But there comes a time in the process
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: of transmutation when with the decrease of evil and the
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: accumulation of good, there dawns in the mind a new vision,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: a new consciousness, a new man. When this is reached,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the saint has become a sage. He has passed from
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: the human life to the divine life. He is born again,
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: and there begins for him a new round of experiences.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: He wields a new power, A new universe opens out
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: before his spiritual gaze. This is the stage of transcendence
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Psy call the transcendent life. When there is no more
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: consciousness of sin, When anxiety and doubt, and grief and
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: sorrow are ended, when lust and animosity and anger and
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: envy no more possess the thoughts, When there remains in
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: the mind no vestige of blame towards others for one's
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: own condition, And when all conditions are seen to be
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: good because they are the result of causes, so that
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: no event can afflict the mind, then transcendence is attained.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Then the limited personality is outgrown, and the divine life
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: is known evil as transcended, and good is all in all.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: The divine consciousness is not the intensification of the human.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: It is a new form of consciousness. It springs from
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: the old, but it is not the continuance of it.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Born of the lower life of sin and sorrow. After
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: a period of painful torment, it yet transcends that life
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: and has no part in it, just as the perfect
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: flower transcends the seed from which it sprang. As passion
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: is the key to the self life, so serenity is
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: the keynote of the transcendent life. Rising into it, man
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: is lifted above disharmony and disturbance. When perfect good is
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: realized and known not as an opinion or an idea,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: but as an experience or a possession, then calm vision
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: is acquired and tranquil joy abides through all hardships. The
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: transcendent life is ruled not by passions but by principles.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: It is founded not upon fleeting impulses, but upon abiding laws.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: In its clear atmosphere, the orderly sequence of all things
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: is revealed, so that there is seen to be no
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: room for sorrow, anxiety, or regret. While men are involved
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: in the passions of self, they burden themselves with cares
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: and trouble themselves over many things. Above all, else, they
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: trouble over their own little, burdened, pain stricken personality, being
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: anxious for its fleeting pleasure, for its protection and preservation,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: and for its eternal safety and continuance. Now, in the
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: life that is wise and good, all this is transcended.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: Personal interests are replaced by universal purposes, and all cares, troubles,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: and anxieties concerning the pleasure and fate of the personality
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: are dispelled. Like the feverish dreams of a night. Passion
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: is blind and ignorant. It sees and knows only of
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: its own gratification. Self recognizes no law. Its object is
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: to get and to enjoy. The getting is a graduated skill,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: varying from sensual greed through many subtle vanities up to
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: the desire for a personal heaven or personal immortality. But
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: it is self still. It is the old sensual craving
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: coming out in a more subtle and deceptive form. It
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: is longing for some personal delight, along with its accompanying fear.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: That delight should be lost forever. In the transcendent state,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: desire and dread are ended, and the thirst for gain
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: and fear of loss are things that are no more.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: Where the universal order is seen, and where perennial joy
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: in that good is a normal condition. What is there
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: left to desire? What remains to be feared? He who
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: has brought his entire nature into conformity and harmony with
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: the law of righteousness, and who has made his thoughts
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: pure in his deeds blameless, has entered liberty. He has
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: transcended darkness and morality, and has passed into light and immortality.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: For the transcendent state is at first a higher order
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: of morality than a new form of perception, and at
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: last a comprehensive understanding of the universal moral causation. And
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: this morality, this vision, and this understanding constitute the new consciousness,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: the divine life. The transcendent man is he who is
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: above and beyond the dominion of self. He has transcended
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: evil and lives in the practice and knowledge of good.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: He is like a man who, having long looked upon
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: the world with darkened eyes, is now restored to sight
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: and sees things as they are. Evil is an experience
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: and not a power. If it were an independent power
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: in the universe, it could not be transcended by any being.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: But though not as real as a power, it is
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: real as a condition and an experience. For all experience
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: is of the nature of reality. It is a state
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: of ignorance, of undevelopment, and as such it recedes and
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: disappears before the light of knowledge, as the intellectual ignorance
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: of a child vanishes before gradually accumulating learning, or as
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: darkness dissolves before the rising light. The painful experience of
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: evil passes away as the new experiences of good enter
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: into and possess the field of consciousness. And what are
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: the new experiences of good? They are many and beautiful,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: such as the joyful knowledge of the freedom from sin.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: They are the absence of remorse and deliverance from all
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: torments of temptation. They are ineffable joy in conditions and
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: circumstances which formally cause deep affliction and imperviousness to be
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: hurt by the actions of others. They are great patience
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: and sweetness of character, serenity of mind under all circumstances,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: in emancipation from doubt, fear, and anxiety. They are freedom
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: from all dislike, envy, and animosity, with the power to
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: feel and act kindly toward others, those who see fit
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: to constitute themselves as one's enemies or opponents. They are
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: the divine power to give blessings for curses and to
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: return good for evil, a deep knowledge of the human heart,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: with a perception of its fundamental goodness, an insight into
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: the law of moral causation and the mental evolution of beings,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: with a prophetic foresight of the sublime good that awaits humanity.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: Above all, they are a glad rejoicing in the limitation
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: and impotency of evil, and in the eternal supremacy and
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: power of good. All these and the calm, strong, far
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: reaching life that these implying contain are the rich experiences
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: of the transcendent man, along with all the new and
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: varied resources, the vast powers, the quickened abilities, and enlarged
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: capacities that spring to life in the new consciousness. Transcendence
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: is surpassing virtue. Evil and good cannot dwell together. Evil
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: must be abandoned, left behind, and transcended before good is
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: grasped and known. When good is practiced and fully comprehended,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: then all the afflictions of the mind are at an end.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: For that which is accompanied with pain and sorrow in
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: the consciousness of evil is not so accompanied in the
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: consciousness of good. Whatsoever happens to the good man cannot
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: cause him perplexity or sorrow, for he knows its cause
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: and issue knows the good good which is ordained to
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: accomplish in himself, and so his mind remains happy and serene.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Though the body of the good Man may be bound,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: his mind is free, though it may be wounded and
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: in pain, joy and peace abide within his heart. A
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: spiritual teacher had a pupil who was apt in earnest.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: After several years of learning and practice, the pupil one
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: day offered a question for discussion which his master could
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  Speaker 1: not answer. After days of deep meditation, the master said
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  Speaker 1: to his pupil, I cannot answer the question which you
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: have asked. Have you any solution to offer? Whereupon the
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: pupil formulated a reply to the question which he had propounded.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: The master then said to him, you have answered that
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: which I could not, and henceforth neither I nor any
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: man can instruct you, for now you are indeed, instructed
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: by truth, you have soared like the kingly eagle, where
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: no man can follow. Your work is now to instruct others.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: You are no longer the pupil. You have become the master.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: In looking back on the self life which he had transcended,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: the divinely enlightened man sees all the afflictions of that
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: life as though his school masters were teaching and leading
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: him upward. And in the measure that he penetrated their
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: meaning and lifted himself above them, they departed from him,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: their mission to teach him having ended, they left him
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: the triumphant master of the field. For the lower cannot
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: teach the higher. Ignorance cannot instruct wisdom. Evil cannot enlighten good,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: nor can the pupil set lessons for the master. That
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: which is transcended cannot reach up to that which transcends.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Evil can only teach in its own sphere, where it
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: is regarded as masters. In the sphere of good, it
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: has no place and no authority. The strong traveler on
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: the highway of truth knows no such thing as resignation
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: to evil. He only knows obedience to good. He who
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: submits to evil saying sin cannot be overcome, and evil
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: must be borne. Thereby acknowledges that evil is his master.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: It is not his master to instruct him, but to
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: bind and oppress him. The lover of good cannot be
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: a lover of evil, nor can he for one moment
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: admit its ascendency. He elevates and glorifies good, not evil.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: He loves light, not darkness. When a man makes truth
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: his master, he abandons error. As he transcends error, he
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: becomes more like his master, until at last he becomes
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: one with truth, teaching it as a man master by
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: his actions, and reflecting it in his life. Transcendence is
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: not an abnormal condition. It belongs to the orderly process
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: of evolution, though as yet few have reached it, all
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: will come into it in the course of the ages.
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  Speaker 1: And he who ascends into it sins no more, sorrows
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: no more, and is no more troubled. Good are his thoughts,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: good are his actions, and good is the tranquil tenor
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: of his way. He has conquered self and has submitted
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: to truth. He has mastered evil and has comprehended good. Henceforth,
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: neither men nor books can instruct him, for he is
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: instructed by the supreme good, the spirit of truth. End
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: of chapter five. Recording by Andrea Fiori, Chapter six of
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: From Passion to Peace. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: Andrea Fury. From Passion to Peace by James Allen, Chapter
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: six Beautitude. When divine good is practiced, life is bliss.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Bliss is the normal condition of the good man. Those
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: outer assaults, harassments, and persecutions which bring about such suffering
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: to others only serve to heighten his happiness, for they
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: cause the deep fountain of good within him to well
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: up to greater abundance. To have transcended virtue is to
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: enjoy transcendent happiness. The beatific blessedness which Jesus holds out
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: is promised to those having the heavenly virtues, to the merciful,
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and so on. The
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: higher virtue does not merely and only lead to happiness.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: It is happiness. It is impossible for a man of
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: transcendent virtue to be unhappy. The cause of Unhappiness must
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: be sought and found in the self loving elements, and
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: not in the self sacrificing qualities. A man may have
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: virtue and be unhappy, but not so if he has
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: divine virtue. Human virtue is mingled with self and therefore
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: with sorrow. But from divine virtue every taint of self
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: has been purged away, and with it every vestige of misery.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: One comparison will suffice to illustrate this. A man may
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: have the courage of a lion in attack and self defense,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: such courage being a human virtue, but he will not
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: thereby be rendered stremely happy. However, he whose courage is
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: that of the divine kind, which enables him to transcend
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: both attack and defense, and to remain mild, serene, and
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: lovable under attack, such a man will thereby be rendered
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: supremely happy. Moreover, his assailant will be rendered more happy,
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: in that a more powerful good will overcome and cast
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: out the fierce and unhappy evil of the other. The
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: acquisition of human virtue is a great step towards truth,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: but the divine way transcends it. Truth lies upward and
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: beyond doing good. In order to gain a personal heaven
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: or personal immortality is human virtue, but it is not
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: unmixed with self and not emancipated from sorrow. In the
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: transcendent virtues, all is good, and good is all, and
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: there is no personal or ulterior aim. Human virtue is imperfect,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: It is mixed with the baser selfish elements and needs
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: to be transmuted. Divine virtue is unblemished and pure. It
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: is complete and perfect in itself. And what are the
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: transcendent virtues that embody all happiness and joy. They are impartiality,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: the seeing so deeply into the human heart and into
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: human actions that it becomes impossible to take sides with
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: one man or one party against the other, and therefore
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: the power to be perfectly just. Unlimited kindness towards all men, women,
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: and all creatures, whether enemies or friends. Perfect patience at
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: all times, in all circumstances and under the severest trials.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: Profound humility, the total surrender of self, the judging of
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: one's own actions as though they were the actions of another,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: stainless purity of mind and deed, freedom from all evil
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: thoughts and impure imaginings, unbroken calmness of mind, even in
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: the midst of outward strife, or surrounded by the turmoil
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: of many hardships and difficulties. Abiding goodness of heart, impervious
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: to evil, returning good for evil. Compassion, deep pity for
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: all creatures and beings in their sufferings, shielding the weak
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: and helpless, and protecting out of pity even one's enemies
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: from injury and slander. Abounding love towards all living things,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: rejoicing with the happy and successful, and sympathizing with the
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: sorrowing and defeated. Perfect peace toward all things, being at
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: peace with all the world, a profound reconciliation to the
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: divine order of the universe. Such are the virtues that
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: transcend both vice and virtue. They include all that virtue
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: and bodies, while going beyond it into divine truth. They
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: are the fruits of innumerable efforts to achieve the glorious
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: gifts of Him that overcomes. They constitute the ten jeweled crown,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: prepared for the calm brow of Him who has conquered
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: himself with these majestic virtues. Is the mind of the
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: sage adorned by them, He is eternally shielded from sin
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: and sorrow, from harm and hurt from trouble and turmoil.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: In them, he abides in happiness, a blessedness, a bliss
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: so pure and tranquil, so deep and high, so far
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: transcending all the fleeting excitements of self as to be
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: unknown and incomprehensible to the self seeking consciousness. The sage
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: has conquered passion and has come to lasting peace. As
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: the mighty mountain remains unmoved by the turbulent ocean that
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: beats at its so the mind of the Sage, towering
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: in lofty virtue, remains unshaken by the tempests of passion,
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: which beat unceasingly upon the shores of life good and wise.
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: He is ever more happy and serene, transcendingly virtuous. He
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: lives in beautific bliss. End of chapter six. Recording by
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: Andrea Fiori, Chapter seven of From Passion to Peace. This
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Andrea Fiori. From Passion to
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: Peace by James Allen, Chapter seven, Peace where passion is
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: piece is not. Where peace is passion is not to know.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: This is to master the first letter in the divine
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: language of perfect deeds. To know that passion and peace
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: cannot dwell together is to be well prepared to renounce
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: the lesser and embrace the greater. Men pray for peace,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: yet cling to passion. They foster strife, yet pray for
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: heavenly rest. This is ignorance, profound spiritual ignorance. It is
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: not to know the first letter in the alphabet of
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: things divine Hatred and love. Strife and peace cannot dwell
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: together in the same heart. Where one is admitted as
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: a welcome guest, the other will be turned away as
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: an unwelcome stranger. He who despises another will be despised
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: by others. He who opposes his fellow man will himself
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: be resisted. He should not be surprised and mourn that
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: men are divided. He should know that he is proper
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: gating strife. He should understand his lack of peace. He
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: is brave who conquers another, but he who conquers himself
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: is supremely noble. He who is victorious over another may
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: in turn be defeated. But he who overcomes himself will
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: never be subdued by the way of self conquest is
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: perfect peace achieved. Man cannot understand it, cannot approach it,
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: until he sees the supreme necessity of turning away from
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: the fierce fighting of all things without and entering the
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: noble warfare against evils within. He who has realized that
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: the enemy of the world is within and not without,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: that his ungoverned thoughts are the source of confusion and strife,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: that his own unchastened desires are the violators of his
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: peace and of the peace of the world. Such a
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: man as already on the saintly way. If a man
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: has conquered less and anger, hatred and pride, selfishness and greed,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: he has conquered the world. He has slain the enemies
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: of peace, and peace remains with him. Peace does not fight,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: It is not partisan. It has no blatant voice. The
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: triumph of peace is an unassailable silence. He who is
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: overcome by force is not thereby overcome in his heart.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: He may be a greater enemy than before, but he
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: who is overcome by the spirit of peace is thereby
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: changed at heart. He that was an enemy has become
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: a friend. Force and strife work upon the passions and fears.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: But love and peace reach and reform the heart. The
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: pure hearted and wise have peace in their hearts. It
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: enters into their actions. They apply it in their lives.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: It is more powerful than strife. It conquers where force
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: would fail. Its wingshield righteous. Under its protection, the harmless
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: are not harmed. It affords a secure shelter from the
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: heat of selfish struggle. It is the refuge for the defeated,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: a tent for the lost, and a temple for the pure,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: where peace is practiced and possessed and known. Then sin
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: in remorse, grasping and disappointment, craving in temptation, desiring and grieving.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: All the turbulence and torment of the mind are left
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: behind in the dark sphere of the self, to which
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: they belong and beyond which they cannot go. Beyond where
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: these dark shadows move, the radiant plains of divine beautitude
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: bask in eternal light. And to these the traveler on
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: the high and Holy Way comes in due time from
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: the blinding swamps of passion, through the thorny forests of
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: many vanities, across the arid deserts of doubt and despair,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: he travels on, not turning back nor straying from his course.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: He ever moves towards his sublime destination, until at last
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: he comes, a humble and lowly, yet strong and radiant
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: conqueror to the beautiful city of Peace. End of Chapter
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: seven recording by Andrea Fiory W W W dot A
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: N d r e A f I O r E
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: dot name end of From Passion to Peace by James
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: Allen