Latest / Literary Tales Collection / Above Life's Turmoil - James Allen

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Above Life's Turmoil - James Allen · Literary Tales Collection

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  Speaker 1: We cannot alter external things, nor shape other people to
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  Speaker 1: our liking, nor mold the world to our wishes. But
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  Speaker 1: we can alter internal things, our desires, passions, thoughts. We
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  Speaker 1: can shape our liking to other people, and we can
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  Speaker 1: mold the inner world of our own mind in accordance
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  Speaker 1: with wisdom, and so reconcile it to the outer world
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  Speaker 1: of men and things. The turmoil of the world we
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  Speaker 1: cannot avoid, but the disturbances of mind we can overcome.
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  Speaker 1: The duties and difficulties of life claim our attention, but
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  Speaker 1: we can give rise above all anxiety concerning them. Surrounded
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  Speaker 1: by noise, we can yet have a quiet mind involved
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  Speaker 1: in responsibilities. The heart can be at rest in the
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  Speaker 1: midst of strife. We can know the abiding peace. The
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  Speaker 1: twenty pieces which comprise this book, unrelated as some of
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  Speaker 1: them are in the letter, will be found to be
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  Speaker 1: harmonious in the spirit, in that they point the reader
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  Speaker 1: towards those heights of self knowledge and self conquest, which,
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  Speaker 1: rising above the turbulence of the world, lift their piques
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  Speaker 1: where the heavenly silence reigns. James Allen, Chapter one, True Happiness.
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  Speaker 1: To maintain an unchangeable sweetness of disposition to think only
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  Speaker 1: thoughts that are pure and gentle, and to be happy
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  Speaker 1: under all circumstances. Such blessed conditions, and such beauty of
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  Speaker 1: character and life should be the aim of all, and
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  Speaker 1: particularly so of those who wish to lessen the misery
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  Speaker 1: of the world. If any one has failed to lift
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  Speaker 1: himself above ungentleness, impurity, and unhappiness, he is greatly deluded
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  Speaker 1: if he imagines he can make the world happier by
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  Speaker 1: the properation of any theory or theology. He who is
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  Speaker 1: daily living in harshness, impurity, or unhappiness, is day by
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  Speaker 1: day adding to the sum of the world's misery. Whereas
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  Speaker 1: he who continually lives in good will and does not
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  Speaker 1: depart from happiness, is day by day increasing the sum
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  Speaker 1: of the world's happiness, and this independently of any religious beliefs,
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  Speaker 1: which these may or may not hold. He who has
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  Speaker 1: not learned how to be gentle, or giving, loving and
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  Speaker 1: happy has learned very little great though his book learning
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  Speaker 1: and profound his acquaintance, which the letter of Scripture may be.
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  Speaker 1: For it is in the process of becoming gentle, pure
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  Speaker 1: and happy, that the deep, real and enduring lessons of
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  Speaker 1: life are learned unbroken sweetness of conduct in the face
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  Speaker 1: of all outward antagonism, is the infallible indication of a
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  Speaker 1: self conquered soul, the witness of wisdom, and the proof
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  Speaker 1: of the possession of truth. A sweet and happy soul
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  Speaker 1: is the ripened fruit of experience and wisdom, and it
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  Speaker 1: sheds abroad the invisible yet powerful aroma of its influence,
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  Speaker 1: gladdening the hearts of others and purifying the world. And
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  Speaker 1: all who will and who have not yet commenced, may
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  Speaker 1: begin this day if they will so resolve to live
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  Speaker 1: sweetly and happily, as becomes the dignity of a true
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  Speaker 1: manhood or womanhood. Do not say that your surroundings are
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  Speaker 1: against you. A man's surroundings are never against him. They
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  Speaker 1: are there to aid him. And all those outward occurrences
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  Speaker 1: over which you lose sweetness and peace of mind are
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  Speaker 1: the very conditions necessary to your development, and it is
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  Speaker 1: only by meeting and overcoming them that you can learn
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  Speaker 1: and grow and ripen. The fault is in yourself. Pure
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  Speaker 1: happiness is the rightful and healthy cans condition of the soul,
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  Speaker 1: and all may possess it if they will live purely
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  Speaker 1: and unselfish, have good will to all that lives, letting
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  Speaker 1: unkindness die and greed and wrath, so that your lives
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  Speaker 1: be made like soft airs passing by. Is this too
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  Speaker 1: difficult for you, then unrest and happiness will continue to
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  Speaker 1: dwell with you. Your belief and aspiration and resolve are
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  Speaker 1: all that are necessary to make it easy to render
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  Speaker 1: it in the near future. A thing accomplished, a blessed
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  Speaker 1: state realizes despondency, irritability, anxiety and complaining, condemning and grumbling.
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  Speaker 1: All these are thought cankers, mind diseases. They are the
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  Speaker 1: indications of a wrong mental condition, and those who suffer
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  Speaker 1: they are from would do well to remedy their thinking
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  Speaker 1: and conduct. It is true there is much sin and
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  Speaker 1: misery in the world, so that all our love and
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  Speaker 1: compassion are needed. But our misery is not needed. There
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  Speaker 1: is already too much of that. Know, it is our
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  Speaker 1: cheerfulness and happiness that are needed, for there is too
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  Speaker 1: little of that. We can give nothing better to the
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  Speaker 1: world than beauty of life and character. Without this, all
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  Speaker 1: other things are vain. This is pre eminently excellent. It
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  Speaker 1: is enduring, real, and not to be overthrown, And it
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  Speaker 1: includes all joy and blessedness. Cease to dwell pessimistically upon
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  Speaker 1: the wrongs around you. Dwell no more in complaints about
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  Speaker 1: and revolt against the evil in others, and commence to
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  Speaker 1: live free from all wrong and evil. Yourself, Peace of mind,
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  Speaker 1: pure religion, and truer form lie this way. If you
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  Speaker 1: would have others true, be true. If you would have
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  Speaker 1: the world emancipated from misery and sin, emancipate yourself. If
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  Speaker 1: you would have your home and your surroundings happy, be happy.
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  Speaker 1: You can transform everything around you if you will transform yourself.
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  Speaker 1: Don't bewail and bemoan. Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor
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  Speaker 1: bark against the bad, but chant the beauties of the good.
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  Speaker 1: And this you will naturally and spontaneously do as you
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  Speaker 1: realize the good in yourself. Chapter two, The Immortal Man.
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  Speaker 1: Immortality is here and now, and is not a speculative
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  Speaker 1: something beyond the grave. It is the lucid state of consciousness,
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  Speaker 1: in which the sensations of the body, the varying and
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  Speaker 1: unrestful states of mind, and the circumstances and events of
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  Speaker 1: life are seen to be of a fleeting and therefore
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  Speaker 1: of an illusory character. Immortality does not belong to time,
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  Speaker 1: and never will be found in time. It belongs to eternity.
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  Speaker 1: And just as time is here and now, so is
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  Speaker 1: it turnity here and now. And a man may find
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  Speaker 1: that eternity and establish in it if he will overcome
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  Speaker 1: the self that derives its life from the unsatisfying and
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  Speaker 1: perishable things of time. Whilst a man remains immersed in sensation, desire,
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  Speaker 1: and the passing events of his day by day existence,
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  Speaker 1: and regards those sensations, desires, in passing events as of
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  Speaker 1: the essence of himself, he can have no knowledge of immortality.
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  Speaker 1: The thing which such a man desires, and which he
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  Speaker 1: mistakes for immortality, is persistence. That is a continuous succession
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  Speaker 1: of sensations and events in time, living in, loving and
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  Speaker 1: clinging to the things which stimulate and minister to his
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  Speaker 1: immediate gratification, and realizing no state of consciousness above an
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  Speaker 1: independent of this, he thirsts for its continuance, and strives
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  Speaker 1: to banish the thought that he will at last have
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  Speaker 1: to part from those earthly luxuries and delights to which
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  Speaker 1: he has become enslaved, and which he regards as being
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  Speaker 1: inseparable from himself. Persistence is the anti thesis of immortality,
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  Speaker 1: and to be absorbed in it is spiritual death. Its
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  Speaker 1: very nature is change impermanence. It is a continual living
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  Speaker 1: and dying. The death of the body can never bestow
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  Speaker 1: upon a man immortality. Spirits are not different from men
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  Speaker 1: and live their little, feverish life of broken consciousness and
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  Speaker 1: are still immersed in change immortality. The mortal man, he
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  Speaker 1: who thirst for the persistence of his pleasure loving personality,
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  Speaker 1: is still mortal after death, and only lives another life
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  Speaker 1: with a beginning and an end, without memory of the
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  Speaker 1: past or knowledge of the future. The immortal man is
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  Speaker 1: he who has detached himself from the thing of time
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  Speaker 1: by having ascended into the state of consciousness, which is
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  Speaker 1: fixed and unvariable and is not affected by passing events
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  Speaker 1: and sensations. Human life consists of an ever moving process
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  Speaker 1: of events, and in this procession the mortal man is
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  Speaker 1: immersed and he is carried along with it, and being
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  Speaker 1: so carried along, he has no knowledge of what is
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  Speaker 1: behind and before him. The immortal man is he who
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  Speaker 1: has stepped out of this procession, and he stands by, unmoved,
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  Speaker 1: and watches it. And from his fixed place he sees
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  Speaker 1: both the before, the behind, in the middle of the
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  Speaker 1: moving thing called life. No longer identifying himself with the
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  Speaker 1: sensations and fluctuations of the personality or with the outward
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  Speaker 1: changes which make up the life in time, he has
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  Speaker 1: become the passionless spectator of his own destiny and of
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  Speaker 1: the destinies of the men and nations. The mortal man
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  Speaker 1: all also is one who is caught in a dream,
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  Speaker 1: and he neither knows that he was formally awake, nor
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  Speaker 1: that he will awake again. He is a dreamer without knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: nothing more. The immortal man is as one who has
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  Speaker 1: awakened out of his dream, and he knows that his
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  Speaker 1: dream was not in enduring reality, but a passing illusion.
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  Speaker 1: He is a man with knowledge, the knowledge of both states,
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  Speaker 1: that of persistence and that of immortality, and is in
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  Speaker 1: full possession of himself. The mortal man lives in the
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  Speaker 1: time or world's state of consciousness, which begins and ends.
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  Speaker 1: The immortal man lives in the cosmic or heaven state
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  Speaker 1: of consciousness, in which there is neither beginning nor end,
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  Speaker 1: but an eternal now. Such a man remains poised and
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  Speaker 1: steadfast under all changes, and the death of his body
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  Speaker 1: will not in any way interrupt the eternal consciousness in
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  Speaker 1: which he abides. Such a one, it is said he
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  Speaker 1: shall not taste of death, because he has stepped out
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  Speaker 1: of the stream of mortality and established himself in the
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  Speaker 1: abode of truth. Bodies, personalities, nations, and worlds pass away,
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  Speaker 1: but truth remains, and its glory is undimmed by time.
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  Speaker 1: The immortal man, then, is he who has conquered himself,
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  Speaker 1: who no longer identifies with the self seeking forces of
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  Speaker 1: the personality, but who has trained himself to direct those
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  Speaker 1: forces with the hand of a master, and so has
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  Speaker 1: brought them into harmony with the causal energy and the
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  Speaker 1: source of all things. The fret and fever of life
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  Speaker 1: has ceased. Doubt and fear are cast out, and death
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  Speaker 1: is not for him who has realized the fathless splendor
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  Speaker 1: of that life of truth, by adjusting heart and mind
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  Speaker 1: to the eternal and unchangeable verities. The overcoming of self.
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  Speaker 1: Many people have very confused and erroneous ideas concerning the
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  Speaker 1: terms the overcoming of self, the eradication of desire, and
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  Speaker 1: the annihilation of the personality. Some, particularly the intellectual, who
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  Speaker 1: are prone to theories regarded as a metaphysical theory altogether
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  Speaker 1: apart from life and conduct, while others conclude that it
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  Speaker 1: is the crushing out of all life, energy, and action,
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  Speaker 1: and the attempt to idolize stagnation and death. These errors
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  Speaker 1: and confusions, arising as they do in the minds of individuals,
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  Speaker 1: can only be removed by the individuals themselves, but perhaps
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  Speaker 1: it might make their removal a little less difficult for
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  Speaker 1: those who are seeking the truth by presenting the matter
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  Speaker 1: in another way. The doctrine of the overcoming or annihilation
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  Speaker 1: of self is simplicity itself. Indeed, so simple, practical and
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  Speaker 1: close at hand is it that a child of whose
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  Speaker 1: mind has not yet become clouded with theories, theological schemes,
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  Speaker 1: and speculative philosophies would be far more likely to comprehend
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  Speaker 1: it than many older people who have lost their hold
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  Speaker 1: upon simple and beautiful truths by the adoption of complicated theories.
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  Speaker 1: The annihilation of self consists in weeding out and destroying
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  Speaker 1: all those elements in the soul which lead to division, strife, suffering, disease,
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  Speaker 1: and sorrow. It does not mean the destruction of any
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  Speaker 1: good and beautiful and peace producing quality. For instance, when
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  Speaker 1: a man is tempted to irritability or anger, and by
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  Speaker 1: a great effort overcomes the selfish tendency, casts it from him,
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  Speaker 1: and acts from the spirit of patience and love. In
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  Speaker 1: that moment of self conquest, he practices the annihilation of self.
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  Speaker 1: Every noble man practices it in part, though he may
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  Speaker 1: deny it in his own words. And he who carries
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  Speaker 1: out this practice to its completion, eradicating every selfish tendency
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  Speaker 1: until only the divinely beautiful qualities remain, He is said
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  Speaker 1: to have annihilated the personality, all the personal elements, and
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  Speaker 1: to have arrived at truth. The self, which is to
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  Speaker 1: be annihilated is composed of the following ten worthless and
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  Speaker 1: sorrow producing elements lust, hatred, avarice, self indulgence, self seeking, vanity, pride, doubt, dark, belief, delusion.
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  Speaker 1: It is the total abandonment, the complete annihilation of these
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  Speaker 1: ten elements, for they comprise the body of desire. On
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  Speaker 1: the other hand, it teaches the cultivation, practice, and preservation
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  Speaker 1: of the following ten divine qualities purity, patience, humility, self sacrifice,
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  Speaker 1: self reliance, fearlessness, knowledge, wisdom, compassion, love. These comprise the
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  Speaker 1: body of truth and to live entirely in them is
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  Speaker 1: to be a doer and knower of the truth, is
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  Speaker 1: to be an embodiment of truth. The combination of the
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  Speaker 1: ten elements is called self or the personality. The combination
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  Speaker 1: of the ten qualities produces what is called truth, the impersonal,
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  Speaker 1: the abiding, real, and immortal man. It will thus be
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  Speaker 1: seen that it is not the destruction of any noble, true,
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  Speaker 1: and enduring quality that is taught, but only the destruction
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  Speaker 1: of those things that are ignoble, false, and evanescent. Neither
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  Speaker 1: is this overcoming of self the deprivation of gladness, happiness,
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  Speaker 1: and joy, but rather it is the constant possession of
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  Speaker 1: these things, by living in the joy, begetting qualty. It
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  Speaker 1: is the abandonment of the lust for enjoyment, but not
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  Speaker 1: of enjoyment itself, the destruction of the thirst for pleasure,
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  Speaker 1: but not of pleasure itself, the annihilation of the selfish
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  Speaker 1: longing for love and power and possessions themselves. It is
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  Speaker 1: the preservation of all those things which draw and bind
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  Speaker 1: men together in unity and concord, and, far from idolizing
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  Speaker 1: stagnation and death, urges men to the practice of those
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  Speaker 1: qualities which lead to the highest noblest and most effective
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  Speaker 1: and enduring action. He whose actions proceed from some or
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  Speaker 1: all of the ten elements wastes his energies upon negations,
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  Speaker 1: and does not preserve his soul. But he whose actions
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  Speaker 1: proceed from some or all of the ten qualities, he
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  Speaker 1: truly and wisely acts, and so preserves his soul. He
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  Speaker 1: who lives largely in the ten earthly elements, and who
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  Speaker 1: is blind and deaf to the spiritual varidities, will find
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  Speaker 1: no attraction in the doctrine of self surrender, for it
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  Speaker 1: will appear to him as the complete extinction of his being.
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  Speaker 1: But he who is endeavoring to live in the ten
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  Speaker 1: heavenly qualities will see the glory and beauty of the doctrine,
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  Speaker 1: and will know it as the foundation of life eternal.
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  Speaker 1: He will also see that when men apprehend and practice it, industry, commerce, government,
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  Speaker 1: and every worldly activity will be purified, and action, purpose,
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  Speaker 1: and intelligence, instead of being destroyed, will be intensified and enlarged,
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  Speaker 1: but free from strife and pain. Chapter four, The Uses
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  Speaker 1: of temptation. The soul, in its journey towards perfection, passes
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  Speaker 1: through three distinct stages. The first is the animal stage,
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  Speaker 1: in which the man is content to live in the
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  Speaker 1: gratification of his senses, unawaken into the knowledge of sin
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  Speaker 1: or of his divine inheritance, and altogether unconscious of the
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  Speaker 1: spiritual possibilities within himself. The second is the dual stage,
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  Speaker 1: in which the mind is continually oscillating between its animal
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  Speaker 1: and divine tendencies, having become awakened to the consciousness of both.
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  Speaker 1: It is during this stage that temptation plays its part
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  Speaker 1: in the progress of the soul. It is a stage
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  Speaker 1: of continual fighting, of falling and rising, of sinning and repenting.
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  Speaker 1: For the man, still loving and reluctant to leave the
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  Speaker 1: gratifications in which he has so long lived, yet also
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  Speaker 1: aspires to the purity and excellence of the spiritual state,
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  Speaker 1: and he is continually mortified by an undecided choice urged
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  Speaker 1: on by the divine life within him. This stage becomes
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  Speaker 1: at last one of deep anguish and suffering, and then
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  Speaker 1: the soul is ushered into the third stage, that of knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: in which the man rises above both sin and temptation
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  Speaker 1: and enters into peace. Temptation, like contentment in sin, is
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  Speaker 1: not a lasting condition, as the majority of people suppose.
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  Speaker 1: It is a passing phase. An experience through which the
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  Speaker 1: soul must pass. But as to whether a man will
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  Speaker 1: pass through that condition in this present life and realize
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  Speaker 1: holiness and heavenly rest here and now will depend entirely
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  Speaker 1: upon the strength of his intellectual and spiritual exertions, and
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  Speaker 1: upon the intensity and order with which he searches for truth. Temptation,
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  Speaker 1: with all its attendant torments, can be overcome here and now,
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  Speaker 1: but it can only be overcome by knowledge. It is
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  Speaker 1: a condition of darkness or of semi darkness. The fully
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  Speaker 1: enlightened soul is proof against all temptation. When a man
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  Speaker 1: fully understands the source, nat and meaning of temptation, in
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  Speaker 1: that hour, he will conquer it and will rest from
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  Speaker 1: his long travel. But whilst he remains in ignorance, attention
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  Speaker 1: to religious observances and much praying and reading of scripture
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  Speaker 1: will fail to bring him peace. If a man goes
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  Speaker 1: out to conquer an enemy, knowing nothing of his enemy's strength, tactics,
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  Speaker 1: or place of ambush, he will not only ignomomously fall,
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  Speaker 1: but will speedily fall into the hands of an enemy.
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  Speaker 1: He who would overcome his enemy, the tempter must discover
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  Speaker 1: his stronghold and place of concealment, and must also find
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  Speaker 1: out the unguarded gates in his own fortress where his
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  Speaker 1: enemy affects so easily an entrance. This necessitates continual meditation,
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  Speaker 1: ceaseless watchfulness, and constant and rigid introspection, which lays bare
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  Speaker 1: before the spiritual eyes of the tempted one the vain
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  Speaker 1: and selfish motives of his soul. This is the holy
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  Speaker 1: warfare of the saints. It is the fight upon which
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  Speaker 1: every soul enters when it awakens out of its long
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  Speaker 1: sleep of animal indulgence. Men fail to conquer, and the
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  Speaker 1: fight is indefinitely prolonged because they labor almost universally under
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  Speaker 1: two delusions, first that all temptations come from without, and
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  Speaker 1: second that they are tempted because of their goodness. Whilst
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  Speaker 1: demand is held in bondage by these two delusions, he
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  Speaker 1: will make no progress. When he has shaken them off,
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  Speaker 1: he will pass on rapidly from victory to victory, and
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  Speaker 1: will taste of spiritual joy and rest. Two searching truths
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  Speaker 1: must take the place of these two delusions, and those
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  Speaker 1: truths are first that all temptation comes from within, and
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  Speaker 1: second that a man is tempted because of the evil
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  Speaker 1: that is within him. The idea that God, a devil,
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  Speaker 1: evil spirits, or outward objects are the source of temptation
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  Speaker 1: must be dispelled. The source and cause of all temptation
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  Speaker 1: is in the inward desire that being purified or eliminated.
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  Speaker 1: Outward objects and extraneous powers are utterly powerless to move
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  Speaker 1: the soul to sin or to temptation. The outward object
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  Speaker 1: is merely the occasion of the temptation, never the cause.
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  Speaker 1: This is the desire of the one tempted. If the
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  Speaker 1: cause existed in the object, all men would be tempted alike.
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  Speaker 1: Temptation could never be overcome, and men would be hopelessly
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  Speaker 1: doomed to endless torment. But seated as it is in
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  Speaker 1: his own desires, he has the remedy in his own hands,
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  Speaker 1: and can become victorious over all temptation by purifying those desires.
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  Speaker 1: A man is tempted because there are within him certain desires,
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  Speaker 1: are states of mind which he has come to regard
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  Speaker 1: as unholy. These desires may lie asleep for a long time,
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  Speaker 1: and the man may think that he has gotten rid
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: of them, when suddenly, on the presentation of an outward object,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the sleeping desire wakes up and thirsts of immediate gratification.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: And this is the state of temptation. The good in
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: man is never tempted. Goodness destroys temptation. It is the
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: evil in a man that is aroused and tempted. The
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: measure of a man's temptations is the exact register of
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: his own unholiness. As a man purifies his heart, temptation ceases.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: For when a certain unlawful desire has been taken out
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: of the heart, the object which formerly appealed to it
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: can no longer do so, but becomes dead and powerless,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: for there is nothing left in the heart that can
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: respond to it. The honest man cannot be tempted to steal,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: let the occasion be ever so opportune. The man of
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: purified appetites cannot be tempted to gluttony and drunkenness, though
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the viands and wines be the most luscious. He of
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: an enlightened understanding, whose mind is calm and the strength
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: of inward virtue, can never be tempted to anger, irritability,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: or revenge. And the wiles and charms of the wanton
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: fall upon the purified heart as empty, meaningless shadows. Temptation
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: shows a man just where he is sinful and ignorant,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: and is a means of urging him onto higher altitudes
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: of knowledge and purity. Without temptation, the soul cannot grow
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: and become strong. There could be no wisdom, no real virtue,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: and though there would be lethargy and death, there could
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: be no peace and no fullness of life. When temptation
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: is understood and conquered, perfection is assured, and such perfection
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: may become any man's who is willing to cast every
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: selfish and impure desire by which he is possessed, into
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the sacrifice fire of knowledge. Let men therefore search diligently
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: for truth, realizing that whilst they are subject to temptation,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: they have not comprehended truth and have much to learn. You,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: who are tempted, know then that ye are tempted of yourselves.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: For every man is tempted when he is drawn away
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: from his own loss, says the apostle James, you are
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: tempted because you are clinging to the animal within you
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and are unwilling to let go, because you are living
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: in the false mortal self, which is ever devoid of
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: all true knowledge, knowing nothing, seeking nothing but its own
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: immediate gratification, Ignorant of every truth and of every divine principle.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Clinging to that self, you continually suffer the pains of
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: three separate torments, the torment of desire, the torment of repletion,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: and the torment of remorse. So flameth trishna, lust and
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: thirst of things. Eager, ye cleave to shadows, dote on dreams,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: a false self in the midst ye plant and make
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: a world around which seems blind to the height beyond,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: deaf to the sound of sweet airs breathed from far
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: past Indra's sky, dumb to the summons of the true
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: life kept for him who false puts by. So grow
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: the strifes and lusts which make Earth's war so grief poor,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: cheated hearts and flow, salt tears so wax, The passions
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: envies anger's hates, So years chase blood stained years with
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: wild red feet. In that false self lies the germ
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: of every suffering, the blight of every hope, the substance
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: of every grief. When you are ready to give it up,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: when you are willing to have laid bare for you,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: all its selfishness, impurity, and ignorance, and to confess its
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: darkness to the uttermost. Then will you enter upon the
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: life of self knowledge and self mastery. You will become
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: conscious of the God within you, of that divine nature which,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: seeking no gratification, abides in a region of perpetual joy
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: and peace, where suffering cannot come, and where temptation can
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: find no foothold. Establishing yourself day by day more and
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: more firmly in that inward divinity, the time will at
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: last come when you will be able to stay with
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: him whom millions worship, few understand, and fewer still follow.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: the man of integrity. There are times in the life
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: of every man who takes his stand on high moral
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: principles when his faith in and knowledge of these principles
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: is tested to the uttermost, and the way in which
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: he comes out of the fiery trial decides as to
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: whether he has sufficient strength to live as a man
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: of truth and join the company of the free, or
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: shall still remain a slave and a hireling to the
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: cruel taskmaster self. Such times of trial generally assume the
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: form of a temptation to do a wrong thing and
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: continue in comfort and prosperity, or to stand by what
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: is right and accept poverty and failure. And so powerful
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: is the trial that to the tempted one it plainly
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: appears on the face of things, as though if he
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: chooses the wrong his material success will be assured for
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the remainder of his life, but if he does what
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: is right, he will be ruined forever. Frequently the man
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: at once quails and gives way before this appalling prospect,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: which the path of righteousness seems to hold out for him.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: But should he prove sufficiently strong to withstand this onslought
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: of temptation than the inward seducer, the spirit of self
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: assumes the grab of an angel of light and whispers,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Think of your wife and children, Think of those who
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: are dependent upon you. Will you bring them down to
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: disgrace and starvation? Strong, indeed, and pure must be the
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: man who can come triumphant out of such a trial.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: But he who does so enters at once a higher
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: realm of life, where his spiritual eyes are open to
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: see beautiful things. And then poverty and ruin, which seemed inevitable,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: do not come, but a more abiding success comes and
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: a peaceful heart and a quiet conscience. But he who
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: fails does not obtain the promised prosperity, and his heart
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: is restless and his conscience troubled. The right doer cannot
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: ultimately fail, the wrongdoer cannot ultimately succeed. For such is
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the law which moves to righteousness, which none at last
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: can turn aside or stray. And it is because justice
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: is at the heart of things, because the great law
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: is good, that the man of integrity is superior to
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: fear and failure and poverty and shame and disgrace. As
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: the poet further says, of this law, the heart of
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: its love, the end of it is peace and consummation,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: sweet obey. The man who, fearing the loss of present
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: pleasures or material comforts, denies the truth within him, can
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: be injured and robbed and degraded and trampled upon, because
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: he first injured, robbed, and degraded and trampled upon his
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: own nobler self. But the man of steadfast virtue, of
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: unblemished integrity cannot be subject to such conditions, because he
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: has denied the craven self within him, and has taken
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: refuge in truth. It is not the scourge in the
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: chains which make a man a slave, but the fact
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: that he is a slave. Slander, accusation, and malice cannot
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: affect the righteous man, nor call from him any bitter response.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Nor does he need to go about to defend himself
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: and prove his innocence. His innocence and integrity alone are
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: a sufficient answer to all that hatred may attempt against him.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Nor can he ever be subdued by the forces of darkness,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: having subdued all those forces within himself. But he turns
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: all evil things to good account out of darkness. He
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: brings light out of hatred, love, out of dishonor, Honor
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: and slanders, envies, and misrepresentations only serve to make more
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: bright jewel of truth within him, and to glorify his
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: high and holy destiny. Let the man of integrity rejoice
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: and be glad when he is severely tried. Let him
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: be thankful that he has been given an opportunity of
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: proving his loyalty to the noble principles which he has expoused.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: And let him think, now is the hour of holy opportunity.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Now is the day of triumph for truth. Though I
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: lose the whole world. I will not desert the right,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: so thinking he will return good for evil, and will
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: think compassionately of the wrong doer, the slanderer, the backbiter,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: and the wrong doer. May seem to succeed for a time,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: but the law of justice prevails. The man of integrity
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: may seem to fail for a time, but he is invincible,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: and in none of the world's visible or invisible can
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: there be forged a weapon that shall prevail against him.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter six. Discrimination. There is one quality which is pre
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: eminently necessary to spiritual development, the quality of discrimination. A
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: man's spiritual progress will be painfully slow and uncertain until
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: their opens with him the eye of discrimination. For without
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: this testing proving searching quality, he will but grope in
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: the dark, will be unable to distinguish the real from
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: the unreal, the shadow from the substance, and will so
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: confuse the false with the true as to mistake the
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: inward promptings of his animal nature for those of the
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: spirit of truth. A blind man left in a strange
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: place may go grope his way in the darkness, but
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: not without much confusion and many painful falls and bruisings.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Without discrimination, a man is mentally blind, and his life
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: is a painful groping in darkness, a confusion in which
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: vice and virtue are indistinguishable one from the other, where
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: facts are confounded with truths, opinions with principles, and where ideas, events, men,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: and things appear to be out of all relation to
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: each other. A man's mind and life should be free
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: from confusion. He should be prepared to meet every mental, material,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: and spiritual difficulty, and should not be inextricably caught, as
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: many are, in the meshes of doubt, indecision, and uncertainty
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: when troubles, in so called misfortunes, come along. He should
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: be fortified against every emergency that can come against him.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: But such mental preparedness and strength cannot be attained in
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: any degree without discrimination, and discrimination can only be developed
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: by bringing into play and constantly exercising the analytical faculty. Mind,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: like muscle, is developed by use, and the assiduous exercise
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: of the mind in any given direction will develop in
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: that direction mental capacity and power. The merely critical faculty
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: is developed and strengthened by continuously comparing and analyzing the
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: ideas and opinions of others. But discrimination is something more
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: and greater than criticism. It is a spiritual quality from
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: which the cruelty and egotism which so frequently accompany criticism
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: are eliminated, and by virtue of which a man sees
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: things as they are and not as he would like
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: them to be. Discrimination, being a spiritual quality, can only
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: be developed by spiritual methods, namely, by questioning, examining, and
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: analyzing one's own ideas, opinions, and conduct. The critical fault
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: finding fact faculty must be withdrawn from its merciless application
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: to the opinions and conduct of others, and must be
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: applied with undiminished severity to one's self. A man must
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: be prepared to question his every opinion, his every thought,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: in his every line of conduct, and rigorously and logically
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: tests them. Only in this way can the discrimination which
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: destroys confusion be developed. Before a man can enter upon
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: such mental exercise, he must make himself of a teachable spirit.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: This does not mean that he must allow himself to
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: be led by others. It means that he must be
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: prepared to yield up any cherished thoughts to which he
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: clings if it will not bear the penetrating light of reason.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: If it shrivels up before the pure flames of searching aspirations.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: The man who says I am right, and who refuses
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: to question his position in order to discover whether he
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: is right, will continue to follow the line of his
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: passions and prejudices, and will not acquire discrimination. The man
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: who humbly asks, am I right, and then proceeds to
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: test and prove his position by earnest thought and the
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: love of truth, will always be able to discover the
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: true and to distinguish it from the false, and he
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: will acquire the priceless possession of discrimination. The man who
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: is afraid to think searchingly upon his opinions and to
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: reason critically upon his position will have to develop moral
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: courage before he can acquire discrimination. A man must be
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: true to himself, fearless with himself, before he can perceive
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: the pure principles of truth, before he can receive the
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: all revealing light of truth. The more truth is inquired of,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: the brighter it shine. It cannot suffer under examination and analysis.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: The more error is questioned, the darker it grows. It
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: cannot survive the entrance of pure and searching thought. To
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: prove all things is to find the good and throw
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: the evil. He who reasons and meditates learns to discriminate.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: He who discriminates discovers the eternally true. Confusion, suffering, and
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: spiritual darkness follow the thoughtless harmony, blessedness and the light
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: of truth attend upon the thoughtful. Passion and prejudice are
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: blind and cannot discriminate. They are still crucifying the Christ
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: and releasing Barabbas. Belief the basis of action. Belief is
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: an important word in the teachings of the Wise, and
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: it figures prominently in all religions. According to Jesus, a
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: certain kind kind of belief is necessary to salvation or regeneration,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: and Buddha definitely thought that the right belief is the
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: first and most essential step in the way of truth,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: as without right belief there cannot be right conduct, and
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: he who has not learned how to rightly govern and
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: conduct himself has not comprehended the simplest rudiments of truth. Belief,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: as laid down by the great teachers, is not belief
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: in any particular school, philosophy, or religion, but consists of
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: an attitude of mind determining the whole course of one's life.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Belief in conduct are therefore inseparable, for the one determines
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: the other. Belief is the basis of all action, and
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: this being so, the belief which dominates the hearts or minds,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: is shown in the life. Every man acts, thinks, lives
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: in exact accordance with the belief which is rooted in
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: his innermost being. And such is the mathematical nature of
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: the laws which govern mind, that it is absolutely impossible
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: for any one to believe in two opposing conditions at
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: the same time. For instance, it is impossible to believe
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: in justice and injustice, hatred and love, peace and strife,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: self and truth. Every man believes in one or the
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: other of these opposites, never in both, and the daily
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: conduct of every man indicates the nature of his belief.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: The man who believes in justice, who regards it as
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: an eternal and indestructible principle, never boils over with righteous indignation,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: does not grow cynical and pessimistic over the inequalities of life,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: and remains calm and untroubled through all trials and difficulties.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: It is impossible for him to act otherwise, for he
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: believes that justice reigns, and that Therefore all that is
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: called injustice is fleaading and illusory. The man who is
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: continually getting enraged over the injustice of his fellow man
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: who talks about himself being badly treated, or who mourns
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: the lack of justice in the world around him, shows
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: by his conduct his attitude of mind, that he believes
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: in injustice. However he may protest to the contrary. In
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: his inmost heart, he believes that confusion and chaos are
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: dominant in the universe, the result being that he dwells
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: in misery and unrest, and his conduct is faulty. Again.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: He who believes in love, in its stability and power,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: practices it under all circumstances, never deviates from it, and
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: bestows it alike upon enemies as upon friends. He who
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: slanders and condemns, speaks disparagingly of others, or regards them
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: with contempt, believes not in love but hatred. All his
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: actions prove it, even though with tongue or pen he
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: may eulogize love. The believer in peace is known by
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: his peaceful conduct. It is impossible for him to engage
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: in strife. If attacked, he does not retaliate, for he
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: has seen the majesty of the Angel of Peace, and
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: can no longer pay homage to the demon of strife,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: the stirrer up of strife, the lover of argument. He
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: who rushes into self defense upon any or every provocation
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: believes in strife, and will have naught to do with peace. Further,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: he who believes in truth renounces himself, that is, he
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: refuses to center his life in those passions, desires, and
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: characteristics which crave only their gratification, And by thus renouncing
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: he becomes steadfastly fixed in truth and lives a wise,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: beautiful and blameless life. The believer in is known by
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: his daily indulgences, gratifications, and vanities, and by the disappointments, sorrows,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: and mortifications which he continually suffers. The believer in truth
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: does not suffer, for he has given up that self
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: which is the cause of such suffering. It will be
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: seen by the foregoing that every man believes either in
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: permanent and eternal principles directing human life towards law and harmony,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: or in the negation of those principles, with the resultant
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: chaos and human affairs, and in his own life belief
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: in the divine principles of justice, compassion, love constitutes the
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: right belief laid down by Buddha as being the basis
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: of right conduct, and also the belief unto salvation, as
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: emphasized in the Christian scriptures. For he who so believes
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: cannot do otherwise than build his whole life upon these principles,
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: and so purified his heart and perfects his life. Belief
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: in the negation of this divine principle constitutes what is
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: called in all religions unbelief, and this unbelief is manifested
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: as a sinful, troubled, and imperfect life. Where there is
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: right belief, there is a blameless and perfect life. Where
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: there is false belief, there is sin, there is sorrow.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: The mind and life are improperly governed, and there is
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: affliction and unrest. By their fruits, ye shall know them.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: There is much to talk about belief in Jesus. But
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: what does belief in Jesus mean. It means belief in
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: his words, in the principles he enunciated and lived, in
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: his commandments, and in his exemplary life of perfection. He
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: who declares belief in Jesus and yet is all the
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: time living in his lusts and indulgences, or in the
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: spirit of hatred and condemnation, is self deceived. He believes
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: not in Jesus. He believes in his own animal self,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: as a faithful servant delights in carrying out the commands
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: of his master. So he who believes in Jesus carries
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: out his commandments, and so is saved from sin. The
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: supreme test of belief in Jesus is this, do I
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: keep his commandments? And this test is applied by Saint
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: John himself in the following words. He is that Saint
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: I know him Jesus and keepeth not his commandments, is
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: a liar, and the truth is not in him. But
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: whose keepeth his word in him? Verily is the word
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: of God perfected. It will be found, after a rigid
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: and impartial analysis that belief lies at the root of
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: all human conduct, Every thought, every act, every habit is
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: the direct outcome of a certain fixed belief, and one's
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: conduct altars only as one's belief are modified. What we
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: cling to in that we believe, we practice in that
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: we believe. When our belief in a thing ceases, we
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: can no longer cling to or practice it. It falls
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: away from us as a garment. Outworn men cling to
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: their lusts and lies in vanities because they believe in them,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: believe there is gain and happiness in them. When they
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: transfer their belief to the divine qualities of purity and humility,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: those sins trouble them no more. Men are safe from
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: error by belief in the supremacy of truth. They are
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: saved from sin by belief in holiness or perfection. They
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: are saved from evil by belief in good. For every
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: belief is manifested in the life. It is not necessary
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: to inquire as to a man's theological belief, for that
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: is of little or no account. For what can it
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: avail a man to believe that Jesus died for him,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: or that Jesus is God, or that he is justified
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: by faith if he continues to live in his lower,
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: sinful nature. All that is necessary to ask is this,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: how does a man live? How does he conduct himself
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: under trying circumstances. The answer to these questions will show
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: whether a man believes in the power of evil or
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: in the power of good. He who believes in the
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: power of good lives a good, spiritual, or godly life.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: For Goodness is God, yea verily is God himself, and
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: he will soon leave behind him all sins and sorrows.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: Who believes with steadfast and unwavering faith in the Supreme
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: Good Chapter eight, The belief that saves. It has been
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: said that a man's whole life and character is the
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: outcome of his belief, and also that his belief has
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: nothing whatever to do with his life. Both statements are true.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: The confusion and contradiction of these two statements are only
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: apparent and are quickly dispelled when it is remembered that
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: there are two entirely distinct kinds of beliefs, namely head
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: belief and heart belief. Head or intellectual belief, is not
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: fundamental and causative, but it is superficial and consequent, and
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: that it has no power in the molding of a
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: man's character. The most superficial observer may easily see. Take
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: for instance, half a dozen men from any creed. They
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: not only hold the same theological belief, but confess the
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: same articles of faith in every particular, and yet their
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: characters are vastly different. One will be just as noble
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: as another is ignoble. One will be mild and gentle
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: another course and irascable. One will be honest, another dishonest.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: One will indulge certain habits which another will rigidly abjure,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: and so on, plainly indicating that theological belief is not
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: an influential factor in a man's life. A man's theological
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: belief is merely his intellectual opinion or view of the universe, God,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: the Bible, et cetera. And behind and underneath this head
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: belief there lies deeply rooted in his innermost being, the hidden, silent,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: secret belief of his heart. And it is this belief
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: which molds and makes his whole life. It is this
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: which makes those six men who whilest holding the same theology,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: are yet so vastly at variance in their deeds. They
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: differ in the vital belief of the heart. What, then,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: is this heart belief? It is that which a man
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: loves and clings to and fosters in his soul. For
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: he thus loves and cling to and fosters in his
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: heart because he believes in them, and believing in them
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: and loving them, he practices them. Thus is his life
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: the effect of his belief. But it has no relation
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: to the particular creed which comprises his intellectual belief. One
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: man clings to impure and immoral things because he believes
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: in them. Another man does not cling to them because
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: he has ceased to believe in them. A man cannot
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: cling to anything unless he believes in it. Belief always
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: precedes action. Therefore man's deeds in life are the fruits
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: of his belief. The priest and the levite, who passed
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: by the injured and helpless man, held no doubt very
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: strongly to the theological doctrines of their fathers. That was
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: their intellectual belief. But in their hearts they did not
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: believe in mercy, and so live and acted accordingly. The
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: good Samaritan may or may not have had anything theological beliefs,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: nor was it necessary that he should have, But in
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: his heart he believed in mercy and acted accordingly. Strictly speaking,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: there are only two beliefs which vitally affect the life,
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: and they are belief in good and belief in evil.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: He who believes in all those things that are good
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: will love them and live in them. He who believes
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: in those things that are impure and selfish will love
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: them and cling to them. The tree is known by
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: its fruits. A man's beliefs about God, Jesus, and the
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: Bible are one thing, his life, as bound up in
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: his actions, is another. Therefore, a man's theological belief is
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: of no consequence but the thoughts which he harbors his
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: attitude of mind towards others in his actions. These and
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: these only determine and demonstrate whether the belief of a
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: man's heart is fitxed in the false or true thought
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: and action. As the fruit to the tree and the
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: water to the spring, so is action to thought. It
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: does not come into manifestation suddenly and without a cause.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: It is the result of a long and silent growth,
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: the end of a hidden process which has long been
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: gathering force. The fruit of the tree and the water
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: gushing from the rock are both the effect of a
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: combination of natural processes in air and earth, which have
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: long worked together in secret to produce the phenomenon. And
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: the beautiful acts of enlightenment and the dark deeds of
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: sin are both the ripened effects of trains of thought
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: which have been harbored in the mind. The sudden falling,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: when greatly tempted into some grievous sin by one who
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: was believed, and who probably believed himself to san firm
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: is seen neither to be a sudden nor a causeless thing.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: When the hidden processes of thought which led up to
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: it are revealed. The falling was merely the end, the outworking,
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: the finished result of what commenced in the mind. Probably
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: years before, the man had allowed a wrong thought to
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: enter his mind, and a second and a third time
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: he had welcomed it and allowed it to nestle in
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: his heart. Gradually he became accustomed to it, and cherished
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: and fondled and tended it, And so it grew, until
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: at last it attained such strength and force that it
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: attracted to itself the opportunity which enabled it to burst
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: forth and ripen into act. As falls the stately building
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: whose foundations have been gradually undermined by the action of water,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: so at last falls the strong man who allows corrupt
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: thoughts to creep into his mind and secretly undermine his character.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: When it is seen that all sin and temptation are
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: the natural outcome of the thoughts of the individual, the
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: way to overcome sin and temptation becomes plain, and its
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: achievement and near possibility, and sooner or later a certain reality.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: For if a man will admit, cherish, and brood upon
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: thoughts that are pure and good, those thoughts, just as
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: surely as the impure, will grow and gather force, and
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: will at last attract to themselves the opportunities which will
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: enable them to ripen into act. There is nothing hidden
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: that shall not be revealed, And every thought that is
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: harbored in the mind must, by virtue of the impelling
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: force which is inherent in the universe, at last blossom
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: into act, good or bad, acording to its nature. The
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: divine teacher and the sensualists are both the product of
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: their own thoughts, and have become what they are as
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: the result of the seeds of thought which they have implanted,
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: are allowed to fall into the garden of the heart,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: and have afterwards watered, tended, and cultivated. Let no man
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: think he can overcome sin and temptation by wrestling with opportunity.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: He can only overcome them by purifying his thoughts. And
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: if he will, day by day, in the silence of
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: his soul and in the presence of his duties, strenuously
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: overcome all erroneous inclination and put in its place thoughts
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: that are true, and that will endure the light. Opportunity
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: to do evil will give place to opportunity for accomplishing good.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: For a man can only attract that to him which
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: is in harmony with his nature, And no temptation can
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: gravitate to a man unless there is that in his
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: heart which is capable of responding to it. Guard well
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: your thoughts, reader, for what you really are in your
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: secret thoughts today, be it good or evil, you will
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: sooner or later become an actual deed. He who unwearyingly
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: guards the portals of his mind against the intrusion of
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: sinful thoughts, and occupies himself with loving thoughts, with pure,
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: strong and beautiful thoughts, will, when the season of their
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: ripening comes, bring forth the fruits of gentle and holy deeds,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: And no temptation that can come against him shall find
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: him unarmed or unprepared. Chapter ten. Your mental attitude as
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: a being of thought, your dominant mental attitude, will determine
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: your conditions in life. It will also be the gauge
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: of your knowledge and the measure of your attainment. The
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: so called limitations of your nature are the boundary lines
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: of your thoughts. They are self erected fences, and can
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: be drawn to a narrower circle, extended to a wider
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: or be allowed to remain. You are the thinker of
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: your thoughts, and as such you are the maker of
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: your self and condition. Thought is causal and creative, and
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: appears in your character and life in the form of results.
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: There are no accidents in your life. Both its harmonies
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: and antagonisms are the responsive echoes of your thoughts. A
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: man thinks, and his life appears. If your dominant mental
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: attitude is peaceable and lovable, bliss and blessedness will follow you.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: If it be resistant and hateful, trouble and distress will
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: cloud your pathway. Out of ill will will come grief
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: and disaster. Out of good will healing and reparation. You
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: imagine your circumstances as being separate from yourself, but they
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: are intimately related to your thought world. Nothing appears without
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: an adequate cause. Everything that happens is just, nothing is faded.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: Everything is formed as you think. You travel as you love,
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: you attract. You are to day where your thoughts have
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: brought you. You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: You cannot escape the result of your thoughts. But you
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: can endure and learn, can accept and be glad. You
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: will always come to the place where your love, your
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: most abiding and intense thought, can receive its measure of gratification.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: If your love be base, you will come to a
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: base place. If it be beautiful, you will come to
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: a beautiful place. You can alter your thoughts and so
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: alter your condition. Strive to perceive the vastness and grandeur
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: of your responsibility. You are powerful, not powerless. You are
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: as powerful to obey as you are to disobey, as
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: strong to be pure as to be impure, as ready
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: for wisdom as for ignorance. You can learn what you
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: will can remain as ignorant as you choose. If you
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: love knowledge, you will obtain it. If you love wisdom,
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: you will secure it. If you love purity, you will
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: realize it. All things await your acceptance, and you choose
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: by the thoughts which you will entertain. A man remains
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: ignorant because he loves ignorance and chooses ignorant thoughts. A
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: man becomes wise because because he loves wisdom and chooses
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: wise thoughts. No man is hindered by another. He is
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: only hindered by himself. No man suffers because of another,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: He suffers only because of himself. By the noble gateway
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: of pure thought, you can enter into the highest heaven.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: By the ignoble doorway of impure thought, you can descend
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: into the lowest hell. Your mental attitude towards others will
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: faithfully react upon yourself and will manifest itself in every
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: relation of your life. Every impure and selfish thought that
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: you send out comes back to you in your circumstances
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: in some form of suffering. Every pure and unselfish thought
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: returns to you in some form of blessedness. Your circumstances
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: are effects of which the cause is inward and invisible.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: As the father of your thoughts, you are the maker
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: of your state and condition. When you know yourself, you
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: will perceive that every event in your life is weighed
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: in the faultless balance of equity. When you understand the
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: law within your mind, you will cease to regard yourself
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: as the impotent and blind tool of circumstances, and will
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: become the strong and seeing master sowing and reaping. Go
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: into the fields and country lanes in the springtime, and
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: you will see farmers and gardeners busy sowing seeds in
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: the newly prepared soil. If you were to ask any
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: one of those gardeners or farmers what kind of produce
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: he expected from the seed he was sowing, he would
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: doubtless regard you as foolish, and would tell you that
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: he does not expect at all. That it is a
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: matter of common knowledge that his produce will be of
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: the kind which he is sowing, and that he is
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: sowing wheat or barley or turn ups, as the case
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: may be, in order to reproduce that particular kind. Every
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: fact in process in nature contains a moral lesson for
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: the wise man. There is no law in the world
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: of nature around us which is not to be found
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: operating within the same mathematical certainty in the mind of
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: man and in human life. All of the parables of
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: Jesus are illustrative of this truth, and are drawn from
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: the simple facts of nature. There is a process of
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: seed sowing in the mind and life, of a spiritual sowing,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: which leads to a harvest according to the kind of
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: seeds sown. Thoughts, words, and acts are seeds sown, and
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: by the inviolable law of things, they produce after their kind.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: A man who thinks hateful thoughts brings hatred upon himself.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: The man who thinks loving thoughts is loved. The man
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: whose thoughts, words, and acts are sincere is surrounded by
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: sincere friends. The insincere man is surrounded by insincere friends.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: The man who sows wrong thoughts and deeds, and prays
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: that God will bless him is in the position of
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: a farmer, who, having sown terrors, ask God to bring
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: forth for him a harvest of wheat. That which ye sow,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: ye reap see yonder fields. The cessmum was sessmoon, the
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: corn was corn, The silence and the darkness knew. So
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: is a man's fate born. He cometh reaper of the
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: things he sowed. He who would be blessed, let him
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: scatter blessings. He who would be happy, let him consider
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: the happiness of others. Then there is another side to
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: this seed sowing. The farmer must scatter all his seed
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: upon the land and then leave it to the elements.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: Were he to covetuously hoard his seed, he would lose
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: both it and his produce, for his seed would perish.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: It perishes when he sows it. But in perishing it
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: brings forth a great abundance. So in life we get
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: by giving, we grow rich by scattering. The man who
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: says he is in possession of knowledge which he cannot
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: give out because the world is incapable of receiving it,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: either does not possess such knowledge, or if he does,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: will soon be deprived of it. If he is not
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: already so deprived, To hoard is to lose. To exclusively
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: retain is to be dispossessed. Even the man who would
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: increase his material wealth must be willing to part with
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: invest what little capital he has, and then wait for
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: the increase. So long as he retains his hold on
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: his precious money, he will not only remain poor, but
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: will be growing poorer every day. He will, after all
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: lose the thing he loves, and will lose it without increase.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: But if he wisely lets it go, if like the farmer,
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: he scatters his seeds of gold, then he can faithfully
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: wait for and reasonably expect the increase. Men are asking
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: God to give them peace and purity, and righteousness and blessedness,
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: but are not obtaining these things. And why not because
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: they are not practicing them, not sowing them, I once
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: heard a preacher pray very earnestly for forgiveness, and shortly afterwards,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: in the course of his sermon, he called upon his
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: congregation to show no mercy to the enemies of the church.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: Such self delusion is pitiful, and men have yet to
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: learn that the way to obtain peace and blessedness is
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: to scatter peaceful and blessed thoughts, words, and deeds. Men
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: believe that they can sow the seeds of strife, impurity,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: and unbrotherliness, and then gather in a rich harvest of peace, purity,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: and concord by merely asking for it. What more pathetic
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: sight than to see an irritable and quarrelsome man praying
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: for peace. Men reap that which they sow, And any
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: man can reap all blessedness now and at once, if
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: he will put aside selfishness and so broadcasts the seeds
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: of kindness, gentleness, and love. If a man is troubled, perplexed, sorrowful,
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: or unhappy, let him ask what mental seeds have I
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: been sowing? What seeds am I sowing? What have I
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: done for others? What is my attitude towards others? What
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: seeds of trouble and sorrow and unhappiness? Have I sown
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: that I should thus reap these bitter weeds. Let him
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: seek within and find, and having found, let him abandon
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: all the seeds of self, and so henceforth only the
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: seeds of truth. Let him learn of the farmer, the
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: simple truths of wisdom. Chapter twelve, The reign of law.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: The little party gods have had their day. The arbitrary gods,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: creatures of human caprice and ignorance, are falling into disrepute.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: Men have quarreled over and defended them, until they have
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: grown weary of the strife. And now everywhere they are
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: relinquishing and breaking up these helpless idols of their long worship.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: The God of revenge, hatred, and jealousy, who gloats over
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: the down of his enemies. The partial God who gratifies
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: all of our narrow and selfish desires, The God who
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: saves only the creatures of his particular special creed, The
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: God of exclusiveness and favoritivism. Such were the gods miscalled
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: by us, God of our soul's infancy, God's base, and
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: foolish as ourselves, the fabrications of our selfish self and
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: we relinquished our petty gods with bitter tears and misgivings,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: and broke our idols with bleeding hands. But in so
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: doing we did not lose sight of God. Nay, we
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: drew nearer to the great, silent heart of Love. Destroying
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: the idols of self. We begin to comprehend somewhat of
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: the power which cannot be destroyed, and entered into a
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: wider knowledge of the God of Love, of peace, of joy,
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: the God in whom revenge and partiality cannot exist, The
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: God of Light, from whose presence the darkness of fear
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: and doubt and selfishness cannot choose but flee. We have
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: reached one of those epochs in the world's progress which
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: witnesses the passing of the false gods, the gods of
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: human selfishness and human illusion. The new old revelation of
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: one universal, impersonal truth has again dawned upon the world,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: and its searching light has carried consternation to the perishable
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: gods who take shelter under the shadow of self. Men
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: have lost faith in a God who can be cajoled,
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: who rules arbitrarily and capriciously, subverting the whole order of
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: things to gratify the wishes of His worshipers, and are
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: turning with a new light in their eyes and a
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: new joy in their hearts, to the God of Law.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: And to him they turn not for personal happiness and
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: gradas notification, but for knowledge, for understanding, for wisdom, for
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: liberation from the bondage of self. And thus turning they
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: do not seek in vain, nor are they sent away
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: empty and discomfited. They find within themselves the reign of law.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: That every thought, every impulse, every act and word brings
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: about a result in exact accordance with its own nature.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: That thoughts of love bring about beautiful and blissful conditions,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: that hateful thoughts bring about distorted and painful conditions, That
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: thoughts and acts good and evil are weighed in the
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: faultless balance of the Supreme Law, and receive their equal
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: measure of blessedness on the one hand and misery on
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: the other. And thus finding they enter a new path,
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: the path of obedience to the Law. Entering that path,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: they no longer accuse, no longer doubt, no longer fret
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: and despond, for they know that God is right, the
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: universal laws are right, the cosmos is right, and that
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: they themselves are wrong, if wrong there is, and that
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: their salvation depends upon themselves, upon their own efforts, upon
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: their personal acceptance of that which is good and deliberate
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: rejection of that which is evil. No longer merely hearers,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: they become doers of the word, and they acquire knowledge,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: They receive understanding, They grow in wisdom, and they enter
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: into the glorious life of liberation from the bondage of self.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: The law of the Lord is perfect in enlightening the eyes.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: Imperfection lies in man's ignorance, in man's blind folly. Perfection,
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: which is knowledge of the perfect law, is ready for
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: all who earnestly seek it. It belongs to the order
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: of things. It is yours and mind now, if we
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: will only put self seeking on one side and adopt
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: the life of self obliteration. The knowledge of truth, with
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: its unspeakable joy, its calmness, and quiet strength, is not
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: for those who persist in clinging to their rights, defending
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: their interests, and fighting for their opinions, whose works are
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: imbued with the personal eye, and who build upon the
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: shifting sands of selfishness and egotism. It is for those
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: who renounce these causes of strife, these sources of pain
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: and sorrow, and they are indeed children of truth, disciples
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: of the Master, worshipers of the Most High. The children
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: of Truth are in the world today. They are thinking, acting, writing,
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: speaking yea, even prophets are among us, and their influences
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: pervading the whole earth. An undercurrent of holy joy is
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: gathering force in the world, so that men and women
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: are moved with new aspirations and hopes. And even those
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: who neither see nor hear feel within themselves strange yearnings
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: after a better and fuller life. The law reigns, and
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: it reigns in men's hearts and lives. And they have
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: come to understand the reign of law who have sought
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: out the tabernacle of the True God by the fair
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: pathway of unselfishness. God does not alter for men, for
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: this would mean that the perfect must become imperfect. Man
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: must alter for God, and this implies that the imperfect
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: must become perfect. The law cannot be broken for man,
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: otherwise confusion would ensue. Man must obey the law. This
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: is in accordance with harmony, order justice. There is no
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: more painful bondage than to be at the mercy of
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: one's inclinations. No greater liberty than utmost obedience to the
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: law of being. And the law is that the heart
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: shall be purified, the mind regenerated, and the whole being
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: brought in subjection to love, till self is dead, and
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: love is all in all. For the reign of law
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: is the reign of love, and love waits for all.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: Rejecting none, love may be claimed and entered into now,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: for it is the heritage of all ah, beautiful truth.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: To know now that man may accept his divine heritage
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: and enter the Kingdom of heaven all pitiful error, to
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: know that man rejects it because of love of self.
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: Obedience to the law means the destruction of sin and
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: self and the realization of unclouded joy and undying peace.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: Clinging to one's selfish inclinations means the drawing about one's
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: soul clouds of pain and sorrow which darken the light
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: of truth, the shutting out of one's self from all
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: real blessedness. For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: also reap Verily. The law reigneth, and reigneth forever and
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: justice and love are its eternal ministers, the supreme justice.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: The material universe is maintained and preserved by the equilibrium
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: of its forces. The moral universe is sustained and protected
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: by the perfect balance of its equivalents. As in the
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: physical world, nature abhors a vacuum, so in the spiritual world,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: disharmony is annulled. Underlying the disturbances and destructions of nature,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: and behind the mutability of its forms, there abides the
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: eternal and pert mathematical symmetry. And at the heart of life,
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: behind all its pain, uncertainty, and unrest, thereby the eternal harmony,
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: the unbroken peace, and involuble justice. Is there then no
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: injustice in the universe. There is injustice, and there is not.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: It depends upon the kind of life and the state
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: of consciousness from which a man looks out upon the
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: world and judges. The man who lives in his passions
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: sees injustice everywhere. The man who has overcome his passions
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: sees the operations of justice in every department of human life.
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: Injustice is the confused, feverish dream of passion, real enough
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: to those who are dreaming it. Justice is the permanent
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: reality in life, gloriously visible to those who have wakened
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: out of the painful nightmare of self. The divine order
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: cannot be perceived until passion and self are transcended, the
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: faultless justice cannot be apprehended, and till all sense of
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: injury and wrong is consumed in the pure flames of
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: all embracing love, the man who thinks I have been slighted,
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: I have been injured, I have been insulted, I have
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: been treated unjustly, cannot know what justice is. Blinded by self,
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: he cannot perceive the pure principles of truth, and, brooding
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: upon his wrongs, he lives in continual misery. In the
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: region of passion, there is a ceaseless conflict of forces,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: causing suffering to all who are involved in them. There
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: is action and reaction, deed in consequence, cause and effect.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: And within and above all is the divine justice regulating
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: the play of forces when the utmost mathematical accuracy, balancing
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: cause and effect with the finest precision. But this justice
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: is not perceived, cannot be perceived by those who are
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: engaged in the conflict. Before this can be done, the
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: fierce warfare of passion must be left behind. The world
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: of passion is the abode of schisms, quarrelings, wars, lawsuits, accusations, condemnations, impurities, weaknesses, follies, hatreds, revenges,
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: and resentments. How can a man perceive justice or understand
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: truth who is even partly involved in the fierce play
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: of its blinding elements as well? Expect a man caught
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: in the flames of a burning building to sit down
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: and reason out the cause of the fire. In this
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: realm of passion, men see injustice in the actions of others, because,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: seeing only in immediate appearances, they regard every act as
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: standing by itself, undetached from cause and consequence, having no
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: knowledge of cause and effect. In the moral sphere, men
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: do not see the exacting and balancing process which is
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: momentarily proceeding, nor do they ever regard their own actions
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: as unjust, but only the actions of others. A boy
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: beats a defenseless animal, then a man beats the defenseless
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: boy for his cruelty. Then a stronger man attacks the
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: man for his cruelty to the boy. Each believes the
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: other to be unjust and cruel, and himself to be
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: just and humane and doubtless most of all, would the
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: boy justify his conduct toward the animal as altogether necessary.
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: Thus does ignorance keep alive hatred and strife. Thus do
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: men blindly inflict suffering upon themselves, living in passion and resentment,
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: and not finding them true way in life? Hatred is
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: met with hatred, passion with passion, strife with strife. The
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: man who kills is himself killed. The thief who lives
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: by depriving others is himself deprived. The beast that prais
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: on others is hunted and killed. The accuser is accused,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: The condemner is condemned. The denouncer is persecuted by this.
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: The slayer's knife doth stab himself. The unjust judge has
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: lost his own defender. The false tongue dooms its lie.
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: The creeping thief and spoiler rob to render. Such is
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: the law. Passion also has its active and passive sides,
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: fool and fraud, oppressor and slave, aggressor and retaliator. The
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: charlatan and the superstitious compliment each other and come together
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: by the operation of the law of justice. Men unconsciously
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: cooperate in the mutual production of affliction the blindly the blind,
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: and both fall together into the ditch. Pain, grief, sorrow,
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: and misery are the fruits of which passion is the flower.
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: Where the passion bound soul sees only injustice. The good man,
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: who has conquered passion sees cause and effect, sees the
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: supreme justice. It is impossible for such a man to
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: regard himself as treated unjustly, because he has ceased to
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: see injustice. He knows that no one can injure or
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: cheat him. Having ceased to injure or cheat himself, however
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: passionately or ignorantly men may act towards him, it cannot
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: possibly cause him any pain, for he knows that whatever
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: comes to him, it may be abuse, and persecution can
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: only come as the effect of what he himself has
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: formally sent out. He therefore regards all things as good,
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: rejoices in all things, loves his enemies, and blesses them
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: that curse him, regarding them as the blind but beneficent
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: instruments by which he is enabled to pay his moral
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: debts to the great law. The good man, having put
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: away all resentment, retaliation, self seeking, and egotism, has arrived
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: at a state of equilibrium and has thereby become identified
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: with the eternal and universal equilibrium. Having lifted himself above
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: the blind forces of passion, he understands those forces contemplates
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: them with a calm, penetrating insight, like the solitary dweller
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: upon a mountain who looks down upon the conflict of
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: the storms beneath his feet. For him, injustice has ceased,
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: and he sees ignorance and suffering on the one hand,
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: and enlightenment and bliss on the other. He sees that
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: not only do the fool and the slave need his sympathy,
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: but that the fraud and the oppressor are equally in
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: need of it, and so his compassion is extended towards all.
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: The supreme justice and the supreme love are one. Cause
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: and effect cannot be avoided, Consequences cannot be escaped. While
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: a man is given to hatred, resentment, anger, and condemnation,
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: he is subject to injustice, as the dreamer to his dream.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: It cannot do otherwise than see injustice. But he who
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: has overcome those fiery and binding elements knows that unerring
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: justice presides over all, and in reality, there is no
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: such thing as injustice in the whole of the Universe,
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen, The Use of Reason. We have heard it
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: said that reason is a blind guide, and that it
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: draws men away from truth rather than leads them to it.
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: If this were true, it would be better to remain
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: or to become unreasonable, and to persuade others to do so.
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: We have found, however, that the diligent cultivation of the
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: divine faculty of reason brings about calmness and mental poise,
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: and enables one to meet cheerfully the problems and difficulties
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: of life. It is true that there is a higher
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: light than reason, even that of the spirit of truth itself.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: But without the aid of reason, truth cannot be apprehended.
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: They who refuse to trim the lamp of reason will
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: never whilst they so refuse, perceive the light of truth.
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: For the light of reason is a reflection of that light.
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: Reason is a purely abstract quality and comes midway between
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: the animal and divine consciousness in man, and leads, if
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: rightly employed, from the darkness of one to the light
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: of the other. It is true that reason may be
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: enlisted in the service of the lower, self seeking nature,
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: but this is only a result of its partial and
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: imperfect exercise. A fuller development of reason leads away from
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: the selfish nature and ultimately allies the soul with the highest,
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: the divine. That spiritual Percival, who, searching for the holy
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: grail of the perfect life, is again and again left
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: alone and wearying in a land of sand and thorns,
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: is not so stranded because he has followed reason, but
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: because he is still clinging to and is reluctant to
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: leave some remnants of his lower nature. He who will
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: use the light of reason as a torch to search
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: for truth will not be left at last in comfortless darkness.
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord.
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: Though your sins may be as scarlet, they shall be
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: as white as snow. Many men and women pass through
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: untold sufferings and at last die in their sins because
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: they refuse to reason, because they cling to those dark
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: delusions which even a faint glimmer of light of reason
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: would dispel. And all must use their reason freely, fully
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: and faithfully. Who would exchange the scarlet robe of sin
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: and suffering for the white garment of blamelessness and peace.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: It is because we have proved and know these truths
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: that we exhort men to tread the middle road, whose
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: course bright beyond reason traces and soft, quiet, smooth, for
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: reason leads away from passion and selflessness into the quiet
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: ways of sweet persuasion and gentle forgiveness. And he will
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: never be led astray, nor will he follow blind Guides
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: who faithfully adheres to the apostolic injunction prove all things
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: and hold fast that which is good. They, therefore, who
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: despise the light of reason, despise the light of truth.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: Large numbers of people are possessed of the strange delusion
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: that reason is somehow intimately connected with the denial of
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: the existence of God. This is probably due to the
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: fact that those who try to prove that there is
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: no God usually profess to take their stand upon reason,
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: while those who try to prove the reverse generally profess
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: to take their stand on faith. Such argumentative combatants, however,
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: are frequently governed more by prejudice than either faith or reason,
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: their object being not to find truth but to defend
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: and confirm a preconceived opinion. Reason is concerned not with
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: ephemeral opinions, but with the established truth of things, and
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: he who is possessed of The faculty of reason, in
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: its purity and excellence, can never be enslaved by prejudice,
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: and will put from him all preconceived opinions as worthless.
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: He will never attempt to prove nor disprove, but after
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: balancing extremes and bringing together all apparent contradictions, he will
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: carefully and dispassionately weigh and consider them, and so arrive
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: at truth. Reason is in reality associated with all that
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: is pure and gentle, moderate, and just. It is said
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: of a violent man that he is unreasonable, of a
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: kind and considerate man that he is reasonable, and of
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: an insane man that he has lost his reason. Thus
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: it is seen that the word is used even to
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: a great extent unconsciously, though none the less truly in
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: a very comprehensive sense. And though reason is not actually
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: love and thoughtfulness and gentleness insanity, it leads to and
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: is intimately connected with these divine qualities, and cannot accept,
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: for purposes of analysis, be dissociated with them. Reason represents
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: all that is high and noble in man. It distinguishes
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: him from the brute, which blindly follows its animal inclinations,
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: and just in the degree that man disobeys the voice
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: of reason and follows his inclinations, does he become brutish,
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: as Milton says, reason in man obscured or not obeyed
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: immediately inordinate desires and upstart passions catch the government from
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: reason and to servitude reduce man till then free. The
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: following definition of reason from Nuttle's dictionary will give you
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: some idea of the comprehensiveness of the word. The cause, ground, principle,
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: or motive of anything said or done, efficient cause, final cause,
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: the faculty of intelligence in man, especially the faculty by
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: which we arrive at necessary truth. It will thus be
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: seen that reason is a term, the breath of which
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: is almost sufficient to embrace even truth itself. And Archbishop
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: Trench tells us in his celebrated work on the Study
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: of Words, that the terms reason and word are indeed
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: so essentially one and the same, that the Greek language
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: has one word for them both. So that the Word
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: of God is the reason of God, and one of
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: the renderings of lutzas Tao is reason. So that in
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: the Chinese translation of our New Testament, Saint John's Gospel
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: runs in the beginning, was the Tao to the undeveloped
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: and uncharitable mind. All words have narrow applications. But as
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: a man enlarges his sympathies and broadens his intelligence, words
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: become filled with rich meanings and assume comprehensive proportions. Let
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: us therefore cease from foolish quarrelings of words, and, like
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: reasonable beings, search for principles and practice those things which
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: make for unity and peace. Self discipline. A man does
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: not live until he begins to discipline himself. He merely
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: exists like an animal. He gratifies his desires and pursues
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: his inclinations just where they may lead him. He is
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: happy as a beast is happy because he is not
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: conscious of what he is depriving himself. He suffers as
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: the beast suffers, because he does not know the way
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: out of suffering. He does not intelligently reflect upon life,
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: and lives in a series of sensations, longings, and confused
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: memories which are unrelated to any central idea or principle.
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: A man whose inner life is so ungoverned and chaotic
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: must necessarily manifest this confusion in the visible conditions of
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: his life outer life in the world, and though for
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: a time running with the stream of his desires, he
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: may draw to himself a more or less large share
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: of the outer necessities and comforts of life. He never
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: achieves any real success, nor accomplishes any real good, and
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: sooner or later, worldly failure and disaster are inevitable as
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: the direct result of the inward failure to properly adjust
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: and regulate those mental forces which make the outer life.
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: Before a man accomplishes anything of an enduring nature in
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: the world, he must first of all acquire some measure
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: of success in the management of his own mind. This
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: is as mathematical a truism as that two and two
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: are four, For out of the heart are the issues
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: of life. If a man cannot govern the forces within himself,
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: he cannot hold a firm hand upon the outer activities
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: which form his visible life. On the other hand, and
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: as a man succeeds in governing himself, he rises to
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: higher and higher levels of power and usefulness and success
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: in the world. The only difference between the life of
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: the beast and that of the undisciplined man is that
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: the man has a wider variety of desires and experiences
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: a greater intensity of suffering. It may be said of
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: such a man that he is dead, being truly dead
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: to self control, chastity, fortitude, and all of the nobler
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: qualities which constitute life. In the consciousness of such a man,
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: the crucified Christ lies entombed, awaiting that resurrection which shall
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: revify the mortal sufferer and wake him up to a
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: knowledge of the realities of his existence. With the practice
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: of self discipline, a man begins to live. For he
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: then commences to rise above the inward confusion, and to
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: adjust his conduct to a steadfast center within himself. He
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: ceases to follow where inclination leads him, reigns in the
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: steed of his desires, and lives in accordance with the
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: dictates of reason and wisdom. Hitherto his life has been
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: without purpose or meaning. But now he begins to consciously
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: mold his own destiny. He is clothed in his right mind.
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: In the process of self discipline, there are three stages,
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: namely one control, two purification, three relinquishment. A man begins
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: to discipline himself by controlling those passions which have hitherto
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: controlled him. He resists temptation and guards himself against all
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: those tendencies to self gratifications, which are so easy and natural,
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: and which have formerly dominated him. He brings his appetite
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: into subjection and begins to eat as a reasonable and
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: responsible being, practicing moderation and thoughtfulness in the selection of
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: his food, with the object of making his body a
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: pure instrument through which he may live and act as
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: becomes a man, and no longer degrading that body by
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: pandering to gustatory pleasure. He puts a check upon his tongue,
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: his temper, and in fact his every animal desire and tendency.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: And this he does by referring all acts to a
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: fixed center within himself. It is a process of living
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: from within outward instead of as formally, from without inward.
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: He conceives an ideal and enshrining that ideal in the
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: sacred recesses of his heart. He regulates his conduct in
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: accordance with its exaction and demands. There is a philosophical
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: hypothesis that at the heart of every atom and every
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: aggregation of atoms in the universe, there is a motionless
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: center which is the sustaining source of all the universal activities.
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: Be this as it may, there is certainly in the
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: heart of every man and woman a selfless center, without
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: which the outer man could not be, and the ignoring
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: of which leads to suffering and confusion. The selfless center,
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: which takes the form in the mind of an ideal
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: of unselfishness and spotless purity, the attainment of which is desirable,
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: is man's eternal refuge from the storms of passion and
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: all the conflicting elements of his lower nature. It is
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: the rock of ages, the christ within, the divine and
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: immortal in all men. As a man practices self control,
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: he approximates more and more to this inward reality, and
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: is less and less swayed by passion and grief, pleasure
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: and pain, and lives a steadfast and virtuous life, manifesting
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: manly strength and fortitude. The restraining of the passions, however,
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: is merely the initial stage and self discipline, and is
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: immediately followed by the process of purification. By this, a
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: man so purifies himself as to take passion out of
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: the heart and mind altogether, not merely restraining it when
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: it rises within him, but preventing it from rising altogether.
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: By merely restraining his passions, a man can never arrive
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: at peace, can never actualize his ideal he must purify
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: those passions. It is in the purification of his lower
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: nature that a man becomes strong and godlike, standing firmly
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: upon the ideal center within and rendering all temptations powerless
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: and ineffectual. This purification is affected by thoughtful care, earnest meditation,
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: and holy aspiration, and as success is achieved, confusion of
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: mind and life pass away, and calmness of mind and
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: spiritualized conduct insure true strength and power and usefulness are
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: born of self purification. For the lower animal forces are
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: not lost, but are transmuted into intellectual and spiritual energy.
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: The pure life, pure in thought, indeed, is a life
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: of conservation of energy. The impure life, even though the
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: impurity should not extend beyond thought, is a life of
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: dissipation of energy. The pure man is more capable and
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: therefore more fit to succeed in his plans and to
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: accomplish his purposes than the impure. Where the impure man fails,
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: the pure man will step in and be victorious, because
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: he directs his energies with a calmer mind and a
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: greater definiteness and strength of purpose, with a growth both impurity,
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: all the elements which constitute a strong and virtuous manhood
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: are developed in an increasing degree of power, and as
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: man brings his lower nature into subjection and makes his
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: passions do his bidding, just so much will he mold
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: the outer circumstances of his life and influence others for good.
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: The third stage of self discipline, that of relinquishment, is
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: a process of letting the lower desires and all impure
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: and unworthy thoughts drop out of the mind, and also
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: refusing to give them any admittance, leaving them to perish.
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: As a man grows purer, he perceives that all evil
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: is powerless unless it receives his encouragement, and so he
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: ignores it and lets it pass out of his life.
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: It is by pursuing this aspect of self discipline that
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: a man enters into and realizes the divine life and
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: manifests those qualities which are distinctly divine, such as wisdom, patience,
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: non resistance, compassion, and love. It is here also where
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: a man becomes consciously immortal, rising above all the fluctuations
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: and uncertainties of life, and living in an intelligent and
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: unchangeable peace. By self discipline, a man attains to every
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: degree of virtue and holiness, and finally becomes a purified
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: son of God, realizing his oneness with the central heart
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: of all things. Without self discipline, a man drifts lower
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: and lower, approximating more and more nearly to the beast,
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: until at last he grovels a lost creature in the
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: mirror of his own befolment. By self discipline, a man
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: rises higher and higher, approximating more and more nearly to
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: the divine, until at last he stands erect in his
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: divine dignity, a save soul, glorified by the radiance of
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: his purity. Let a man discipline himself, and he will live.
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: Let a man cease to discipline himself, and he will perish.
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: As a tree grows in beauty, health, and fruitfulness by
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: being carefully pruned and tended, so a man grows in
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: grace and beauty of life by cutting away all the
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: branches of evil from his mind, and as he tends
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: and develops the good by constant and unfailing effort. As
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: a man by practice acquires proficiency in his craft, so
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: the earnest man acquires proficiency in goodness and wisdom. Men
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: shrink from self discipline because in its early stages it
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: is painful and repellent, and the yielding to desire is
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: at first sweet and inviting. But the end of desire
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: is darkness and unrest, whereas the fruits of discipline are
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: immortality and peace. Chapter sixteen. Resolution. Resolution is the directing
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: and impelling force in individual progress. Without it, no substantial
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: work can be accomplished. Not until a man brings resolution
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: to bear upon his life does he consciously and rapidly develop.
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: For a life without resolution is a life without aims,
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: and a life without aims is a drifting and unstable thing.
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: Resolution may of course be linked to downward tendencies, but
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: it is more usually the companion of noble aims and
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: lofty ideals. And I am dealing with it in this
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: its highest use in application. When a man makes a resolution,
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: it means that he is dissatisfied with his condition and
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: is commencing to take himself in hand, with a view
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: in producing a better piece of workmanship out of the
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: mental materials of which his character and life are composed.
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: And in so far as he is true to his resolution,
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: he will succeed in accomplishing his purpose. The vows of
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: the saintly once are holy resolutions directed towards some victory
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: over self. And the beautiful achievements of holy men and
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: the glorious conquests of the divine teachers were rendered possible
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: and actual by the pursuit of unswerving resolution to arrive
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: at the fixed determination to walk a higher path than hithertofore.
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: Although it reveals the great difficulties which have to be surmounted,
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: it yet makes possible the treading of that path and
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: illuminates its dark places with the golden halo of success.
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: The true resolution is the crisis of long thought, protract
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: its struggle or fervent but unsatisfied aspiration. It is no
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: light thing, no whimsical impulse or vague desire, but a
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: solemn and irreficable determination not to rest nor cease from
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: effort until the high purpose which is held in view
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: is fully accomplished. Half hearted and premature resolution is no
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: resolution at all, and it is shattered by the first difficulty.
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: A man should be slow to form a resolution. He
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: should searchingly examine his position and take into consideration every
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: circumstance and difficulty connected with his decision, and should be
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: fully prepared to meet them. He should be sure that
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: he completely understands the nature of his resolution, that his
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: mind is finally made up, and that he is without
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: fear and doubt in the matter. With the mind thus prepared,
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: the resolution that is formed will not be departed from,
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: and by the aid of it a man will in
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: due time accomplish his strong purpose. Hasty resolutions are futile.
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: The mind must be fortified to endure immediately the resolution
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: to walk a higher path is made temptation and trial begin.
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: Men have found that no sooner have they decided to
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: lead a truer and nobler life than they have been
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: overwhelmed with such a torrent of new temptations and difficulties
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: as to make their position almost unendurable. And many men,
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: because of this relinquish their resolution. But these temptations and
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: trials are a necessary part of the work of regeneration
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: upon which the man has decided, and must be hailed
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: as friends and met with courage if the resolution is
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: to do its work. For what is the real nature
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: of a resolution? Is it not the sudden checking of
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: a particular stream of conduct and the endeavor to open
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: up an entirely new channel. Think of an engineer who
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: decides to turn the course of a powerfully running stream
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: or river in another direction. He must first cut out
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: his new channel, and must take every precaution to avoid
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: failure in the carrying out of his undertaking. But when
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: he comes to the all important task of directing the
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: stream into its new channel, then the flowing force, which
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: for ages has steadily pursued its accustomed course, becomes refractory,
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: and all the patients and care and skill of the
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: engineer will be required for the successful completion of the work.
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: It is even so with the man who determines to
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: turn his course of conduct in another and higher direction.
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: Having prepared his mind, which is the cutting of a
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: new channel, he then proceeds to the work of redirecting
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: his mental forces, which have hitherto flowed on uninterruptedly, into
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: the new course. Immediately this is attempted, the arrested energy
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: begins to assert itself in the form of powerful temptations
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: and trials hitherto unknown and unencountered. And this is exactly
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: as it should be. It is the law, and the
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: same law that is in the water is in the mind.
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: No man can improve upon the established law of things,
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: but he can learn to understand the law instead of
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: complaining and wishing things were different. The man who understands
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: all that is involved in the regeneration of his mind
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: will glory in tribulations, knowing that only by passing through
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: them can he gain strength, obtain purity of heart, and
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: arrive at peace. And as the engineer, at last, perhaps
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: after many mistakes and failures, succeeds in getting the stream
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: to flow on peacefully in the broader and better channel,
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: and the turbulence of the water is spent, and all
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: dams can be removed. So the man of resolution at
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: last succeeds in directing his thoughts and acts into the
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: better and nobler way to which he aspires, and temptations
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: and trials give place to steadfast strength and settled peace.
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: He whose life is not in harmony with his conscience,
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: and who is anxious to remedy his mind in conduct
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: in a particular direction, let him first mature his purpose
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: by earnest thought and self examination, and having arrived at
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: a final conclusion, let him frame his resolution, and having
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: done so, let him not swerve from it. Let him
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: remain true to his decision under all circumstances, and he
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: cannot fail to achieve his good purpose, for the great
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: law ever shields and protects him who, no matter how
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: deep his sins or how great his many failures and mistakes,
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: has deep in his heart resolved upon the finding of
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: a better way, and every obstacle must at last give
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: way before matured and unshaken resolution, the glorious conquest. Truth
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: can only be apprehended by the conquest self. Blessedness can
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: only be arrived at by overcoming the lower nature. The
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: way of truth is barred by a man's self. The
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: only enemies that can actually hinder him are his own
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: passions and delusions. And tell a man realizes this and
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: commences to cleanse his heart, he has not found the
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: path which leads to knowledge and peace, and till passion
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: is transcended, truth remains unknown. This is the divine law.
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: A man cannot keep his passions and have truth as well.
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: Error is not slain until selfishness is dead. The overcoming
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: of self is no mystical theory, but a very real
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: and practical thing. It is a process which must be
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: pursued daily and hourly with unswerving faith and undaunted resolution
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: if any measure of success is to be achieved. The
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: process is one of orderly growth, having its sequential stages,
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: like the growth of a tree, and as fruit can
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: only be produced by carefully and patiently training the tree,
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: even so, the pure and satisfying fruits of holiness can
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 1: only be obtained by faithfully and patiently training the mind
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: in the growth of right thought and conduct. There are
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: five steps in the overcoming of passion, which includes all
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: bad habits and particular forms of wrongdoing, which I will
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: call one repression, two endurance, three elimination, four understanding, five victory.
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: When men fail to overcome their sins, it is because
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: they begin to try at the wrong end. They want
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: to have the stage of victory without passing through the
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: previous four stages. They are in the position of a
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: gardener who wants to produce good fruit without training and
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: attending to his trees. Repression consists in checking and controlling
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: the wrong act such as an outburst of temper, a
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: hasty or unkind word, a selfish indulgence, etc. And not
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: allowing it to take actual form. This is equivalent to
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: the gardener nipping off the useless buds and branches from
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: his tree. It is a necessary process, but a painful one.
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: The tree bleeds while undergoing the process, and the gardener
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: knows that it must not be taxed too severely. The
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: heart also bleeds when it refuses to return passion for passion,
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: when it ceases to defend and justify itself. It is
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: the process of mortifying the members of which Saint Paul speaks,
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: But this repression is only the beginning of self conquest,
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: when it is made an end in itself, and there
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: is no object of finally purifying the heart. That is
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: a stage of hypocrisy, a hiding of one's true nature
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: and striving to appear better in the eyes of others
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: than one really is. In that case it is an evil,
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: but when adopted as the first stage toward complete purification,
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: it is good. Its practice leads to the second stage
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: of endurance or forbearance, in which one silently endures the
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: pain which arises in the mind when it is brought
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: in contact with certain actions and attitudes of other minds
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: toward one. As success is attained in this stage, the
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: striver comes to see that all his pain actually arises
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: in his own weaknesses, and not in the wrong attitudes
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: of others toward him, these latter being merely the means
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: by which his sins are brought to the surface and
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: revealed to him. He thus gradually exonerates all others from
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: blame in his falls and lapses of conduct, and accuses
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: only himself, and so learns to love those who thus
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: unconsciously reveal to him his sins and shortcomings. Having passed
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: through these two stages of self crucifixion, the disciple enters
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: the third, that of elimination, in which the wrong thought
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: which lay behind the wrong act, is cast from the
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: mind immediately it appears. At this stage, conscious strength and
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: holy joy begin to take the place of pain, and
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: the mind, having become more comparatively calm, the striver is
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: enabled to gain a deeper insight into the complexities of
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: his mind, and thus to understand the inception, growth, and
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: outworking of sin. This is the stage of understanding perfection,
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: and understanding leads to the final conquest of self, a
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: conquest so complete that sin can no more rise in
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: the mind, even as a thought or impression. For when
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: the knowledge of sin is complete, when it is known
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: in its totality, from its inception as a seed in
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: the mind to its ripened outgrowth as act, in consequence,
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 1: then it can no more be allowed a place in life,
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: but it is abandoned forever than the mind is at peace.
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: The wrong acts of others no longer arouse wrong and
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: pain in the mind of the disciple. He is glad
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: and calm and wise. He is filled with love, and
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: blessedness abides with him, and this is victory. Chapter eighteen.
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: Contentment in activity, the confounding of a positive spiritual virtue
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: or principle with a negative animal vice, is common amongst writers,
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: even of what is called the Advanced Thoughts school, and
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 1: much valuable energy is frequently expended in criticizing and condemning,
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: where a little calm and reasoning would have revealed a
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 1: greater light and led to the exercise of a broader charity.
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: The other day I came across a vicious attack upon
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: the teaching of love, wherein the writer condemned such teaching
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: as weakly, foolish and hypocritical. Needless to say that which
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: he was condemning as love was merely weak sentimentality and hypocrisy.
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 1: Another writer, in condemning meekness, does not know that what
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: he calls meekness is only cowardice. While another who attacks
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: chastity as a snare is really infusing painful and hypocritical
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: restraint with the virtue of chastity. And just lately I
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: received a long letter from a correspondent who took great
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: pains to show me that contentment is a vice and
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: is the source of innumerable evils. That which my correspondent
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 1: called contentment is of course animal indifference. The spirit of
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: indifference is incompatible with progress, whereas the spirit of contentment
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: may and does attend the highest form of activity, the
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: truest advancement and development. Indolence is the twin sister of indifference,
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 1: but cheerful and ready action is the friend of contentment.
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: Contentment is a virtue which becomes lofty and spiritual in
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: its later developments, as the mind is trained to perceive
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: and the heart to receive the guidance in all things
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: of a merciful law. To be contented does not mean
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: to forego effort. It means to free effort from anxiety.
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 1: It does not mean to be satisfied with sin and
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 1: ignorance and folly, but to rest happily in duty done,
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: work accomplished. A man may be said to be content
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: to lead a groveling life, to remain in sin and
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: in debt. But such a man's true state is one
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: of indifference to his duty, his obligations, and the just
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: claims of his fellow men. He cannot truly be said
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: to possess the virtue of contentment. He does not experience
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: the pure and abiding joy which is the accompaniment of
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: active contentment. So far as his true nature is concerned,
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 1: he is a sleeping soul, and sooner or later will
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: be awakened by intense suffering, having passed through which he
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: will find that true contentment is the outcome of honest
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: effort and true living. There are three things with which
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: a man should be content, One with whatever happens, Two
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: with his friendships and possessions, Three with his pure thoughts.
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: Contented with whatever happens, he will escape grief. With his
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: friends and possessions, he will avoid anxiety and wretchedness. And
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 1: with his pure thoughts he will never go back to
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: suffer and grovel in impurities. There are three things with
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 1: which a man should not be content. One with his opinions,
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: two with his character, three with his spiritual condition. Not
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: content with his opinions, he will continually increase in intelligence.
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: Not content with his character, he will ceaselessly grow in
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 1: strength and virtue, and not content with his spiritual condition,
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: he will every day enter into a larger wisdom and
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: fuller blessedness. In a word, a man should be contented
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 1: but not indifferent to his development as a responsible and
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: spiritual being. The truly contented man works energetically and faithfully,
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: and accepts all results with an untroubled spirit, trusting it
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 1: first that all is well, but afterwards with the growth
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: of enlightenment, knowing that results exactly correspond with efforts. Whatsoever
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: material possessions come to him, come not by greed and
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 1: anxiety and strife, but by right, thought, wise action, and
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: pure exertion. The temple of brotherhood. Universal brotherhood is the
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: supreme ideal of humanity, and towards that ideal, the world
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: is slowly but surely moving to day as never before.
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 1: Numbers of earnest men and women are striving to make
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 1: this ideal tangible, and real fraternities are springing up on
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: every hand, and press and pulpit the world over are
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: preaching the brotherhood of man. The unselfish elements in all
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: such efforts cannot fail to have their effect upon the race,
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: and are with certainty urging it towards the goal of
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: its noblest aspirations. But the ideal state has not yet
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: manifested through any outward organization, and societies formed for the
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 1: purpose of propagating brotherhood are continually being shattered to pieces
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: by internal dissension. The brotherhood for which humanity size is
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: withheld from actuality by humanity itself. Nay more, it is
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: frustrated even by men who work zealously for it is
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 1: a desirable possibility. And this because the purely spiritual nature
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: of brotherhood is not perceived, and the principles involved, as
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: well as the individual course of conduct necessary to perfect unity,
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: are not comprehended. Brotherhood as a human organization cannot exist
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: so long as any degree of self seeking reigns in
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: the hearts of men and women who ban themselves together
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: for any purpose. As such self seeking must eventually rend
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 1: the seamless coat of loving unity. But although organized brotherhood
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: has so far largely failed, any man may realize brotherhood
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: in its perfection and know it in all its beauty
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: and completion, if he will make himself of a wise,
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: pure and loving spirit, removing from his mind, every element
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 1: of strife, and learning to practice those divine qualities without
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: which brothers is but a mere theory, opinion, or elusive dream.
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: For brotherhood is at first spiritual, and its outer manifestation
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 1: in the world must follow as a natural sequence, as
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: a spiritual reality. It must be discovered by each man
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: for himself, and in the only place where spiritual realities
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: can be found, within himself, and it rests with each
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 1: whether he shall choose or refuse it. There are four
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: chief tendencies in the human mind which are destructive of
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 1: brotherhood and which bar the way to its comprehension, namely, pride, self, love, hatred, condemnation.
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 1: Where these are there can be no brotherhood, And whatsoever heart,
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: these hold sway, discord rules, and brotherhood is not realized.
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: For these tendencies are in their very names nature dark
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: and selfish, and always make for disruption and destruction. From
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: these four things precedes that serpent brood of false actions
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: and conditions, which poison the heart of man and fill
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: the world with suffering and sorrow. Out of the spirit
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: of pride precede envy, resentment, and Opinionativeness. Pride envies the position, influence,
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: or goodness of others. It thinks I am more deserving
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 1: than this man or this woman. It also continually finds
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 1: occasion for resenting the actions of others and says, I
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: have been snubbed, I have been insulted. And thinking altogether
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: of his own excellence, it sees no excellence in others.
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 1: From the spirit of self love precede egotism, lust for power,
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 1: and disparagement and contempt. Self love worships the personality in
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 1: which it moves. It is lost in the adoration and
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: glorification of that eye, that self, which has no real existence,
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 1: but is a dark dream and a delusion. It desires
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 1: pre eminence over others and thinks I am great, I
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: am more important than others. It also disparages others and
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: bestows upon them contempt, seeing no beauty in them, being
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 1: lost in the contemplation of its own beauty. From the
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: spirit of hatred precedes lander, cruelty, reveling, and anger. It
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: strives to overcome evil by adding evil to it. It says,
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 1: this man has spoken of me, ill I will speak
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 1: still more ill of him, and thus teach him a lesson.
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 1: It mistakes cruelty for kindness and causes its possessor to
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: revile a reproving friend. It feeds the flame of anger
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 1: with bitter and rebellious thoughts from the spirit of condemnation
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: precede accusation, false pity, and false judgment. It feeds itself
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 1: on the contemplation of evil and cannot see the good.
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 1: It has eyes for evil only, and finds it in
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 1: almost every thing and every person. It sets up an
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 1: arbitrary standard of right and wrong by which to judge others,
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 1: and it thinks, this man does not do as I
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: would have him do, He is therefore evil, and I
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: will denounce him. So blind is the spirit of condemnation, that,
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 1: whilst rendering its possessor incapable of judging himself, it causes
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 1: him to set up as the judge of all the earth.
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: From the four tendencies enumerated, no element of brotherliness can proceed.
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: They are deadly mental poisons, and he who allows them
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: to rankle in his mine cannot apprehend the peaceful principles
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: on which brotherhood rests. Then there are chiefly four divine
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 1: qualities which are productive of brotherhood, which are, as it were,
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: the foundation stones on which it rests. Namely, humility, self surrender, love, compassion.
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: Wheresoever these are, their brotherhood is active in whatsoever heart
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: these qualities are dominant. Their brotherhood is an established reality,
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: for they are in their very nature unselfish, and are
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: filled with the revealing light of truth. There is no
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: darkness in them, and where they are, so powerful is
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: their light that the dark tendencies cannot remain, but are
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: dissolved and dissipated. Out of these four qualities precede all
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: those angelic actions in conditions which make for unity and
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: bring gladness to the heart of man and to the world.
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: From the spirit of humility, precede meekness and peacefulness. From
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 1: self surrender, compatience, wisdom and true judgment. From love spring kindness,
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: joy and harmony. And from compassion precede gentleness and forgiveness.
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: He who has brought himself into harmony with these four
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: qualities is divinely enlightened. He sees whence the actions of
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 1: men proceed and whither they tend, and therefore can no
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: longer live in the exercise of the dark tendencies. He
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: has realized brotherhood in its completion, as freedom from malice,
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 1: from envy, from bitterness, from contention, from condemnation. All men
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: are his brothers, those who live in the dark tendencies,
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: as well as those who live in the enlightened qualities.
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: For He knows that when they have perceived the glory
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: and beauty of the light of truth, the dark tendencies
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 1: will be dispelled from their minds. He has but one
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: attitude of mind towards all, that of good will. Of
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: the four dark tendencies are born ill will and strife.
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: Of the four divine qualities are born good will and peace.
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: Living in the four tendencies, a man is a strife producer.
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: Living in the four qualities, a man is a peacemaker
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 1: involved in the darkness of the selfish tendencies. Men believe
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: that they can fight for peace, kill to make alive,
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: slay injury by injuring, restore love by hatred, unity by contention,
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 1: kindness by cruelty, and established brotherhood by erecting their own opinions,
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: which they themself self's will, in the course of time
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: abandoned as worthless as objects of universal adoration. The wished
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 1: for temple of brotherhood will be erected in the world
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 1: when its four foundation stones of humility self surrender, love,
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 1: and compassion are firmly laid in the hearts of men.
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 1: For brotherhood consists first of all in the abandonment of
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 1: self by the individual, and its after effects is unity
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: between man and man. Theories and schemes for propagating brotherhood
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 1: are many, but brotherhood itself is one and unchangeable, and
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: consists in the complete cessation from ego and strife, and
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: in practicing good will and peace. For brotherhood is a
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: practice and not a theory. Self surrender and good will
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: are its guardian angels, and peace is its habitation. Where
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 1: two are des determined to maintain an opposing opinion, the
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: clinging to self and ill will are there, and brotherhood
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: is absent. Where two are prepared to sympathize with each other,
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 1: to see no evil in each other, to serve and
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: not to attack each other, the love of truth and
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: good will are there, and brotherhood is present all strifes, divisions,
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 1: and wars. And here in the proud, unyielding self all peace,
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: unity and concord. And here in the principles which the
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 1: yielding up of self reveals. Brotherhood is only practiced and
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 1: known by him whose heart is at peace with all
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: the world, Chapter twenty, Pleasant Pastures of peace. He who
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 1: aspires to the bettering of himself and humanity should ceaselessly
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: strive to arrive at the exercise of that blessed attitude
• 2:10:59
  Speaker 1: of mind by which he is enabled to put himself
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 1: mentally and sympathetically in the place of others. And so,
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: instead of harshly and falsely judging them and thereby making
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 1: himself unhappy without adding to the happiness of those others,
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: he will enter into their experience, will understand their particular
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: frame of mind, and will feel for them and sympathize
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 1: with them. One of the great obstacles to the attainment
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: of such an attitude of mind is prejudice, and until
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: this is removed, it is impossible to act toward others
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: as we would wish others to act toward us. Prejudice
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: is destructive of kindness, sympathy, love, and true judgment, and
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: the strength of a man's prejudice will be the measure
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: of his harshness and unkindness toward others. For prejudice and
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 1: cruelty are inseparable. There is no rationality in prejudice, and
• 2:12:01
  Speaker 1: immediately it is aroused in a man, he ceases to
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: act as a reasonable being and gives way to rashness, anger,
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: and injurious excitement. He does not consider his words nor
• 2:12:14
  Speaker 1: regard the feelings and liberties of those against whom his
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: prejudices are directed. He has, for the time being forfeited
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: his manhood and has descended to the level of an
• 2:12:27
  Speaker 1: irrational creature. While a man is determined to cling to
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 1: his preconceived opinions, mistaking them for truth, and refuses to
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: consider dispassionately the position of others, he cannot escape hatred
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 1: nor arrive at blessedness. The man who strives after gentleness,
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: who aspires to act unselfishly toward others, will put away
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 1: all his passionate prejudice and petty opinions, and will gradually
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: acquire the power of thinking and feeling for us, of
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: understanding their particular state of ignorance or knowledge, and thereby
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: entering fully into their hearts and lives, sympathizing with them
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: and seeing them as they really are. Such a man
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: will not oppose himself to the prejudices of others by
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: introducing his own, but will seek to allay prejudice by
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: introducing sympathy and love, striving to bring out all that
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 1: is good in men, encouraging the good by appealing to it,
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 1: and discouraging the evil by ignoring it. He will realize
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 1: the good in the unselfish efforts of others, though their
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 1: outward methods may be very different from his own, and
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: will so rid his heart of hatred, and will fit
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 1: it with love and blessedness. When a man is prone
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 1: to harshly judge and condemn others, he should inquire how
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 1: far he feels short himself. He should also reconsider those
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: periods of sefer when he himself was misjudged and misunderstood,
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 1: and gathering wisdom in love from his own bitter experience,
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 1: should studiously and self sacrificingly refrain from piercing with anguish
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: hearts that are as yet too weak to ignore, too
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 1: immature and uninstructed to understand. Sympathy is not required towards
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: those who are purer and more enlightened than one's self,
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 1: as the purer one lives above the necessity for it.
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: In such a case, reverence should be exercised, with a
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 1: striving to lift one's self up to the purer level
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 1: and so enter into possession of the larger life. Nor
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: can a man fully understand one who is wiser than himself,
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: And before condemning he should earnestly ask himself whether he is,
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 1: after all better than the man whom he has singled
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 1: out as the object of his bitterness. If he is,
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: let him bestow sympathy. If he is not, let him
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 1: exercise reverence. For thousands of years, the sages have taught
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 1: both by precept and example that evil is only overcome
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 1: by good. Yet still that lesson, for the majority, remains unlearned.
• 2:15:22
  Speaker 1: It is a lesson profound in its simplicity and difficult
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: to learn because men are blinded by the illusions of self.
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: Men are still engaged in resenting, condemning, and fighting the
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 1: evil in their own fellow men, thereby increasing the delusion
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: in their own hearts and adding to the world some
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: of misery and suffering. When they find out that their
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 1: own resentment must be eradicated and put love in its place,
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 1: evil will perish for lack of sustenance, with burning brain
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 1: and heart of hate. I sought my wronger early life,
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 1: and all the wretched night and day my dream and
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 1: thought was slay and slay my better self rose uppermost.
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 1: The beast within my bosom lost itself in love peace
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: from afar shone o'er me radiant like a star. I
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: slew my wronger with the deed, a deed of love.
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 1: I made him bleed with kindness, and I filled for
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 1: years his soul with tenderness and tears. Dislike, resentment, and
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 1: condemnation are all forms of hatred, and evil cannot cease
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: until these are taken out of the heart. But the
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 1: obliterating of injuries from the mind is merely one of
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 1: the beginnings. In wisdom. There is a still higher and
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: better way, and that way is so to purify the
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 1: heart and enlighten the mind, that far from having to
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: forget injury, there will be none to remember. For it
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: is only pride and self that can be injured and
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 1: wounded by the actions and attitudes of others. And he
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: who takes pride and self out of his heart can
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 1: never think the thought I have been injured by another,
• 2:17:17
  Speaker 1: or I have been wronged by another. From a purified
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 1: heart precedes the right comprehension of things, and from the
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 1: right comprehension of things perceivees the life that is peaceful,
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 1: freed from bitterness, and suffering, calm and wise. He who
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 1: thinks this man has injured me has not perceived the
• 2:17:41
  Speaker 1: truth in life. Fall short of that enlightenment which disperses
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 1: the erroneous idea of evil as a thing to be
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 1: hatefully resented. He who is troubled and disturbed about the
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 1: sins of others is far from truth. He who is
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: troubled and disturbed about his own lithe sins, is very
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 1: near to the gate of wisdom. He in whose heart
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 1: the flames of resentment burn cannot know peace nor understand truth.
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: He who will banish resentment from his heart will know
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 1: and understand. He who has taken evil out of his
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 1: heart cannot resent or resist it in others, for he
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: is enlightened as to its origin and nature, and knows
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 1: it as a manifestation of the mistakes of ignorance. With
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 1: the increase of enlightenment, sin becomes impossible. He who sins
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 1: does not understand. He who understands does not sin. The
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: pure man maintains his tenderness of his heart toward those
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 1: who ignorantly imagine they can do him harm. The wrong
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 1: attitude of others toward him does not trouble him. His
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 1: heart is at rest in compassion and love. Blessed is
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: he who has no wrongs to remember, no injuries to forget,
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 1: in whose pure heart no hateful thought about another can
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 1: take root and flourish. Let those who aim at the
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 1: right life, who believe that they love truth, cease to
• 2:19:16
  Speaker 1: passionately oppose themselves to others, and let them strive to
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 1: calmly and wisely understand them. And in thus acting toward others,
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 1: they will be conquering themselves. And while sympathizing with others,
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 1: their own souls will be fed with the harmony dues
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: of kindness, and their hearts will be strengthened and refreshed
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 1: in the pleasant pastures of peace.