Latest / James Allen Works Collection / Byways to Blessedness - James Allen
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: By Ways to Blessedness by James Allen Forward. Along the
- 0:06Speaker 1: highways of Burmah, there is placed, at regular distances, away
- 0:10Speaker 1: from the dust of the road, and under the cool
- 0:13Speaker 1: shade of a group of trees, a small wooden building
- 0:16Speaker 1: called a rest house, where the weary traveler may rest,
- 0:20Speaker 1: awhile and allay his thirst in hunger and fatigue by
- 0:24Speaker 1: partaking of the food and water which the kindly inhabitants
- 0:28Speaker 1: place there as a religious duty. Along the great highway
- 0:32Speaker 1: of life there are such resting places, away from the
- 0:36Speaker 1: heat of passion and the dust of disappointment, under the
- 0:40Speaker 1: cool and refreshing shade of lowly wisdom, are the humble,
- 0:44Speaker 1: unimposing rest houses of peace, and the little, almost unnoticed
- 0:50Speaker 1: by ways of blessedness, where alone the weary and footsore
- 0:54Speaker 1: can find strength and healing. Nor can these byways be
- 0:58Speaker 1: ignored without suffering. Along the great road of life, hurrying
- 1:03Speaker 1: and eager to reach some elusive goal, presses the multitude,
- 1:07Speaker 1: despising the apparently insignificant rest houses of true thought, not
- 1:12Speaker 1: heeding the narrow, little by ways of blessed action which
- 1:16Speaker 1: they regard as unimportant, and hour by hour men are
- 1:20Speaker 1: fainting and falling, and numbers that cannot be counted, perish
- 1:24Speaker 1: of heart hunger, heart thirst, and heart fatigue. But he
- 1:28Speaker 1: who will step aside from the passionate press, and will
- 1:32Speaker 1: notice and enter the byeways which are here presented, his
- 1:36Speaker 1: dusty feet shall press the incomparable flowers of blessedness. His
- 1:40Speaker 1: eyes be gladden with their beauty, his mind refreshed with
- 1:44Speaker 1: their sweet perfume. Rested and sustained, he will escape the
- 1:49Speaker 1: fever in the delirium of life, and strong and happy.
- 1:53Speaker 1: He will not fall fainting in the dust, nor perish
- 1:56Speaker 1: by the way, but will successfully accomplish his journey. James Allen,
- 2:04Speaker 1: end of forward right beginnings, all common things, each day's
- 2:10Speaker 1: events that with the hour begin and end. Our pleasures
- 2:14Speaker 1: and our discontents are rounds by which we may ascend.
- 2:19Speaker 1: We have not wings, we cannot soar, but we have
- 2:22Speaker 1: feet to scale and climb. Longfellow for common life, its
- 2:29Speaker 1: wants and ways, would I set forth in beauteous hues Browning.
- 2:36Speaker 1: Life is full of beginnings. They are presented every day
- 2:40Speaker 1: and every hour to every person. Most beginnings are small
- 2:44Speaker 1: and appear trivial and insignificant. But in reality they are
- 2:49Speaker 1: the most important things in life. See how in the
- 2:52Speaker 1: material world everything proceeds from small beginnings. The mightiest river
- 2:58Speaker 1: is at first a rivulet over which the grasshopper could leap.
- 3:02Speaker 1: The great flood commences with a few drops of rain.
- 3:06Speaker 1: The sturdy oak which has endured the storms of a
- 3:10Speaker 1: thousand winters, was once an acorn, And the smoldering match
- 3:15Speaker 1: carelessly dropped may be the means of devastating a whole
- 3:19Speaker 1: town by fire. Consider also how in the spiritual world
- 3:25Speaker 1: the greatest things proceed from smallest beginnings. A light fancy
- 3:30Speaker 1: may be the inception of a wonderful invention or an
- 3:34Speaker 1: immortal work of art. A spoken sentence may turn the
- 3:38Speaker 1: tide of history. A pure thought entertained may lead to
- 3:43Speaker 1: the exercise of a world wide regenerative power. And a
- 3:47Speaker 1: momentary animal impulse may lead to the darkest crime. Have
- 3:53Speaker 1: you yet discovered the vast importance of beginnings? Do you
- 3:57Speaker 1: really know what is involved in a beginning? Do you
- 4:00Speaker 1: know the number of beginnings you are continuously making and
- 4:04Speaker 1: realize their full import If not, come with me for
- 4:08Speaker 1: a short time and thoughtfully explore this much ignored by
- 4:12Speaker 1: way of blessedness, for blessed it is when wisely resorted to,
- 4:18Speaker 1: and much strength and comfort it holds. For the understanding mind,
- 4:22Speaker 1: a beginning is a cause, and as such it must
- 4:26Speaker 1: be followed by an effect or a train of effects,
- 4:30Speaker 1: and the effect will always be the same nature as
- 4:33Speaker 1: the cause. The nature of an initial impulse will always
- 4:37Speaker 1: determine the body of its results. A beginning also presupposes
- 4:42Speaker 1: an ending, a consummation, achievement, or goal. A gate leads
- 4:48Speaker 1: to a path, and the path leads to some particular destination.
- 4:52Speaker 1: So a beginning leads to results, and results lead to
- 4:56Speaker 1: a completion. There are right beginnings and wrong beginning, which
- 5:00Speaker 1: are followed by effects of like nature. You can, by
- 5:05Speaker 1: careful thought, avoid wrong beginnings and make right beginnings, and
- 5:09Speaker 1: so escape evil results and enjoy good results. There are
- 5:14Speaker 1: beginnings over which you have no control and authority. These
- 5:18Speaker 1: are without in the universe, in the world of nature
- 5:21Speaker 1: around you, and in other people who have the same
- 5:25Speaker 1: liberty as yourself. Do not concern yourself with these beginnings,
- 5:30Speaker 1: but direct your energies and attention to those beginnings over
- 5:34Speaker 1: which you have complete control and authority, and which bring
- 5:37Speaker 1: about the complicated web of results which compose your life.
- 5:42Speaker 1: These beginnings are to be found in the realm of
- 5:45Speaker 1: your thoughts and actions, in your mental attitude, under the
- 5:49Speaker 1: variety of circumstances through which you pass in your conduct
- 5:53Speaker 1: day by day, In short, in your life as you
- 5:57Speaker 1: make it, which is your world of good or ill?
- 6:01Speaker 1: In aiming at the life of blessedness. One of the
- 6:04Speaker 1: simplest beginnings to be considered and rightly made is that
- 6:08Speaker 1: which we all make every day, namely, the beginning of
- 6:12Speaker 1: each day's life. How do you begin each day? At
- 6:17Speaker 1: what hour do you rise? How do you commence your duties?
- 6:21Speaker 1: In what frame of mind do you enter upon the
- 6:24Speaker 1: sacred life of a new day? What answer can you
- 6:27Speaker 1: give your heart to these important questions. You will find
- 6:31Speaker 1: that much happiness or unhappiness follows upon the right or
- 6:35Speaker 1: wrong beginning of the day, and that when every day
- 6:39Speaker 1: is wisely begun, happy and harmonious sequences will mark its course,
- 6:44Speaker 1: and life in its totality will not fall short of
- 6:47Speaker 1: the idle blessedness. It is a right and strong beginning
- 6:52Speaker 1: to the day to rise at an early hour, even
- 6:55Speaker 1: if your worldly duty does not demand it. It is
- 6:58Speaker 1: wise to make of it a douce and begin the
- 7:01Speaker 1: day strongly by shaking off indolence. How are you to
- 7:05Speaker 1: develop strength of will and mind and body if you
- 7:08Speaker 1: begin every day by yielding to weakness. Self indulgence is
- 7:12Speaker 1: always followed by unhappiness. People who lie abed till a
- 7:16Speaker 1: late hour are never bright and cheerful and fresh, but
- 7:20Speaker 1: are the prey of irritabilities, depressions, debilities, nervous disorders, abnormal fancies,
- 7:28Speaker 1: and all unhappy moods. This is the heavy price which
- 7:32Speaker 1: they pay for their daily indolence. Yet so blinding is
- 7:37Speaker 1: the pandering to self that the drunkard who takes his
- 7:40Speaker 1: daily dram in the belief that it is bracing up
- 7:43Speaker 1: the nerves which it is all the time shattering. So
- 7:47Speaker 1: the lie of bed is convinced that long hours of
- 7:49Speaker 1: ease are necessary for him as a possible remedy for
- 7:53Speaker 1: those very moods and weaknesses and disorders of which his
- 7:56Speaker 1: indolence is the cause. Men and women are are totally
- 8:00Speaker 1: unaware of the great losses which they entail by this
- 8:03Speaker 1: common indolence. Loss of strength of both mind and body,
- 8:08Speaker 1: loss of prosperity, loss of knowledge, and loss of happiness.
- 8:13Speaker 1: Begin the day. Then, by rising early, if you have
- 8:17Speaker 1: no object in doing so, never mind, get up and
- 8:20Speaker 1: go out for a gentle walk among the beauties of nature,
- 8:23Speaker 1: and you will experience a buoyancy, a freshness, and a delight,
- 8:28Speaker 1: not to say, a peace of mind, which will amply
- 8:31Speaker 1: reward you for your effort. One good effort is followed
- 8:35Speaker 1: by another. And when a man begins the day by
- 8:38Speaker 1: rising early, even though with no other purpose in view,
- 8:42Speaker 1: he will find that the silent early hour is conducive
- 8:45Speaker 1: to clearness of mind and calmness of thought, and that
- 8:49Speaker 1: his early morning walk is enabling him to become a
- 8:52Speaker 1: consecutive thinker, and so to see life and its problems,
- 8:56Speaker 1: as well as himself and his affairs in a clearer life.
- 9:00Speaker 1: And so in time he will rise early with the
- 9:03Speaker 1: express purpose of preparing and harmonizing his mind to meet
- 9:07Speaker 1: any in every difficulty with wisdom and calm strength. There
- 9:12Speaker 1: is indeed a spiritual influence in the early morning hour,
- 9:17Speaker 1: a divine silence, an inexpressible repose. And he who purposeful
- 9:23Speaker 1: and strong throws off the mantle of ease and climbs
- 9:27Speaker 1: the hills to greet the morning sun, will thereby climb
- 9:30Speaker 1: no inconsiderable distance up the hills of blessedness and truth.
- 9:35Speaker 1: The right beginning of the day will be followed by
- 9:38Speaker 1: cheerfulness at the morning meal, permeating the household with a
- 9:42Speaker 1: sunny influence, and the tasks and duties of the day
- 9:45Speaker 1: will be undertaken in a strong and confident spirit, and
- 9:49Speaker 1: the whole day will be well lived. Then there is
- 9:52Speaker 1: a sense in which every day must be regarded as
- 9:55Speaker 1: the beginning of new life, in which one can think, act,
- 10:00Speaker 1: and live newly and in a wiser and better spirit.
- 10:04Speaker 1: Every day is a fresh beginning. Every morn is the
- 10:08Speaker 1: world made new. You, who are weary of sorrow and sinning,
- 10:13Speaker 1: here is a beautiful hope for you, a hope for me,
- 10:17Speaker 1: and a hope for you. Do not dwell upon the
- 10:21Speaker 1: sins and mistakes of yesterday so exclusively as to have
- 10:25Speaker 1: no energy in mind left for living rightly to day.
- 10:29Speaker 1: And do not think that the sins of yesterday can
- 10:32Speaker 1: prevent you from living purely to day. Begin to day
- 10:36Speaker 1: aright and aided by the accumulated experiences of all your
- 10:41Speaker 1: past days, live it better than any of your previous days.
- 10:46Speaker 1: But you cannot possibly live it better unless you begin
- 10:49Speaker 1: it better. The character of the whole day depends upon
- 10:53Speaker 1: the way it begins. Another beginning, which is of great importance,
- 10:58Speaker 1: is the beginning of any particular and responsible undertaking. How
- 11:02Speaker 1: does a man begin the building of a house? He
- 11:05Speaker 1: first secures a plan of the proposed edifice, and then
- 11:09Speaker 1: proceeds to build according to the plan, scrupulously following it
- 11:13Speaker 1: in every detail, beginning with the foundation. Should he neglect
- 11:18Speaker 1: the beginning, namely the obtaining of a mathematical plan, his
- 11:22Speaker 1: labor would be wasted, and his building, should it reach
- 11:26Speaker 1: completion without tumbling to pieces, would be insecure and worthless.
- 11:31Speaker 1: The same law holds good in any important work. The
- 11:35Speaker 1: right beginning and first essential is a definite mental plan
- 11:39Speaker 1: on which to build. Nature will have no slipshod work,
- 11:44Speaker 1: no slovenliness, and she annihilates confusion, or rather confusion is
- 11:50Speaker 1: in itself annihilation. Order, purpose eternally and universally prevail, And
- 11:57Speaker 1: he who in his operations ignores the mathematical elements at
- 12:02Speaker 1: once deprives himself of sustainability, completeness, and success. Life without
- 12:08Speaker 1: a plan, as useless as the moment it began, serves
- 12:13Speaker 1: merely as a soil for discontent to thrive in an
- 12:17Speaker 1: encumbrance ere half spent. Let a man start in business
- 12:22Speaker 1: without having in his mind a perfectly formed plan to
- 12:26Speaker 1: systematically pursue, and he will be incoherent in his efforts
- 12:31Speaker 1: and will fail in his business operations. The laws which
- 12:35Speaker 1: must be observed in the building of a house also
- 12:38Speaker 1: operate in the building up of a business. A definite
- 12:42Speaker 1: plan is followed by coherent effort, and coherent effort is
- 12:47Speaker 1: followed by well knit and orderly results to wit, completeness, perfection, success, happiness.
- 12:55Speaker 1: But not only mechanical and commercial enterprise. All under tis
- 13:00Speaker 1: takings of whatsoever nature come under this law. The author's book,
- 13:05Speaker 1: the artist's picture, the order's speech, the reformer's work, the
- 13:10Speaker 1: inventor's machine, the general's campaign are all carefully planned in
- 13:15Speaker 1: the mind before the attempt to actualize the miscommenced, and
- 13:19Speaker 1: in accordance with the unity, solidarity, and perfection of the
- 13:24Speaker 1: original mental plan, will be the actual and ultimate success
- 13:28Speaker 1: of the undertaking. Successful men, influential men, good men are
- 13:34Speaker 1: those who, amongst other things, have learned the value and
- 13:38Speaker 1: utilized the power which lies in those obscure beginnings which
- 13:42Speaker 1: the foolish man passes by as insignificant. But the most
- 13:47Speaker 1: important beginning of all, that upon which affliction or blessedness
- 13:51Speaker 1: inevitably depends, yet is most neglected and least understood, is
- 13:56Speaker 1: the inception of a thought in the hidden but casual
- 14:00Speaker 1: region of the mind. Your whole life is a series
- 14:04Speaker 1: of effects, having their cause in thought. In your own thought,
- 14:09Speaker 1: all conduct is made and melded by thought. All deeds,
- 14:14Speaker 1: good or bad, are thoughts made visible. A seed put
- 14:18Speaker 1: into the ground is the beginning of a plant or tree.
- 14:22Speaker 1: The seed germinates, the plant or tree comes forth into
- 14:26Speaker 1: the light and evolves. A thought put into the mind
- 14:30Speaker 1: is the beginning of a line of conduct. The thought
- 14:33Speaker 1: first sends down its roots into the mind, and then
- 14:36Speaker 1: pushes forth into the light in the forms of action
- 14:40Speaker 1: or conduct, which evolve into character and destiny. Hateful, angry, envious,
- 14:47Speaker 1: and impure thoughts are wrong beginnings which lead to painful results. Loving,
- 14:54Speaker 1: gentle kind, unselfish, and pure thoughts are right beginnings, wh
- 15:00Speaker 1: which lead to blissful results. This is so simple, so plain,
- 15:05Speaker 1: so absolutely true, and yet how neglected, how evaded, and
- 15:10Speaker 1: how little understood. The gardener who most carefully studies how
- 15:15Speaker 1: when and where to put his seeds, obtains the best
- 15:18Speaker 1: results and gains the greater horticulture knowledge. The best crops
- 15:24Speaker 1: gladden the soul of him who makes the best beginning.
- 15:27Speaker 1: The man who patiently studies how to put into his
- 15:31Speaker 1: mind the seeds of strong, wholesome, and charitable thoughts will
- 15:35Speaker 1: obtain the best results in life, and will gain greater
- 15:38Speaker 1: knowledge of truth. The greatest blessedness comes to him who
- 15:43Speaker 1: infuses into his mind the purest and noblest thoughts. None
- 15:49Speaker 1: but right acts can follow right thoughts. None but a
- 15:52Speaker 1: right life can follow right acts, And by living a
- 15:56Speaker 1: right life, all blessedness is achieved. He who considers the
- 16:01Speaker 1: nature in import of his thoughts, who strives daily to
- 16:05Speaker 1: eliminate bad thoughts and supplant them with good, comes at
- 16:09Speaker 1: last to see that thoughts are the beginnings of results
- 16:13Speaker 1: which affect every fiber of his being, which potently influence
- 16:18Speaker 1: every event and circumstance of his life. And when he
- 16:22Speaker 1: thus sees, he thinks only right thoughts, chooses to make
- 16:26Speaker 1: only those mental beginnings which lead to peace and blessedness.
- 16:32Speaker 1: Wrong thoughts are painful in their inception, painful in their growth,
- 16:36Speaker 1: and painful in their frutage. Right thoughts are blissful in
- 16:40Speaker 1: their inception, blissful in their growth, and blissful in their frutage.
- 16:46Speaker 1: Many are the right beginnings which a man must discover
- 16:49Speaker 1: and adopt on his way to wisdom. But that which
- 16:52Speaker 1: is first and last most important in all embracing, which
- 16:57Speaker 1: is the source and fountain of all abiding happiness, is
- 17:00Speaker 1: the right beginning of the mental operations. This implies the
- 17:04Speaker 1: steady development of self control, will, power, steadfastness, strength, purity, gentleness, insight,
- 17:15Speaker 1: and comprehension. It leads to the perfecting of life. For
- 17:19Speaker 1: he who thinks perfectly has abolished all unhappiness. Every moment
- 17:25Speaker 1: of his life is peaceful, His years are rounded with bliss.
- 17:29Speaker 1: He has attained to the complete and perfect blessedness. Small
- 17:34Speaker 1: tasks and duties wrapped in our nearest duty is the
- 17:39Speaker 1: key which shall unlock for us the heavenly gait, unveiled
- 17:45Speaker 1: the heavenly vision. He shall see as pain and bliss.
- 17:49Speaker 1: Who cometh not too early or too late, like the
- 17:53Speaker 1: star that shines afar, without haste and without rest, Let
- 17:59Speaker 1: each man wheel with steady sway round the task that
- 18:03Speaker 1: rules the day, and do his best Gotha. As pain
- 18:09Speaker 1: and bliss inevitably follow on wrong and right beginnings, so
- 18:13Speaker 1: unhappiness and blessedness are inseparably bound up with small tasks
- 18:18Speaker 1: and duties. Not that a duty has any power of
- 18:21Speaker 1: itself to bestow happiness or the reverse. This is contained
- 18:25Speaker 1: in the attitude of the mind which is assumed towards
- 18:28Speaker 1: the duty, and everything depends upon the way in which
- 18:31Speaker 1: it is approached and done. Not only great happiness, but
- 18:36Speaker 1: great power, arises from doing little things unselfishly, wisely, and perfectly.
- 18:42Speaker 1: For life in its totality is made up of little things.
- 18:45Speaker 1: Wisdom adheers in the common details of everyday existence, and
- 18:50Speaker 1: when the parts are made perfect, the whole will be
- 18:53Speaker 1: without blemish. Everything in the universe is made up of
- 18:57Speaker 1: little things, and the perfection of the great is based
- 19:00Speaker 1: upon the perfection of the small. If any detail of
- 19:04Speaker 1: the universe were imperfect, the whole would be imperfect. If
- 19:08Speaker 1: any particle were omitted, the aggregate would cease to be.
- 19:13Speaker 1: Without a grain of dust, there could be no world.
- 19:16Speaker 1: And the world is perfect because the grain of dust
- 19:19Speaker 1: is perfect. Neglect of the small is confusion of the grate.
- 19:24Speaker 1: The snowflake is as perfect as the star. The dewdrop
- 19:28Speaker 1: is as symmetrical as the planet. The microbe is not
- 19:32Speaker 1: less mathematically proportioned than the man. By laying stone upon stone,
- 19:38Speaker 1: plumbing and fitting each with perfect adjustment, the temple at
- 19:42Speaker 1: last stands forth in all its architectural beauty. The small
- 19:46Speaker 1: precedes the grate. The small is not merely the apologetic
- 19:51Speaker 1: attendant of the grate. It is its master and informing genius.
- 19:57Speaker 1: Vain men are ambitious to be great and look to
- 20:00Speaker 1: do some great thing, ignoring and despising the little tasks
- 20:04Speaker 1: which call for immediate attention, and in doing in which
- 20:08Speaker 1: there is no vain glory. Regarding such trivialities as beneath
- 20:12Speaker 1: the notice of great men, the fool lacks knowledge because
- 20:17Speaker 1: he lacks humility, and inflated with the thought of self importance,
- 20:21Speaker 1: he aims at impossible things. The great man has become
- 20:25Speaker 1: such by the scrupulous and unselfish attention which he has
- 20:30Speaker 1: given to small duties. He has become wise and powerful
- 20:34Speaker 1: by sacrificing ambition and pride in the doing of those
- 20:38Speaker 1: necessary things which evoke no applause and promise no reward.
- 20:44Speaker 1: He never sought greatness. He sought faithfulness, unselfishness, integrity, truth,
- 20:51Speaker 1: and in finding these in the common round of small
- 20:54Speaker 1: tasks and duties, he unconsciously ascended to the level of greatness.
- 20:59Speaker 1: The ape man knows the vast value that inheres in moments, words, greetings, meals, apparel, correspondence, rest, work,
- 21:09Speaker 1: detached efforts, fleeting obligations in the thousand and one little
- 21:14Speaker 1: things which press upon him for attention. Briefly in the
- 21:18Speaker 1: common details of life, he sees everything is divinely aproportioned,
- 21:24Speaker 1: needing only the application of dispassionate thought and action on
- 21:27Speaker 1: his part to render life blessed and perfect. He neglects nothing,
- 21:33Speaker 1: does not hurry, seeks to escape nothing but error and folly,
- 21:37Speaker 1: attends to every duty as it is presented to him,
- 21:40Speaker 1: and does not postpone in regret. By giving himself unreservedly
- 21:45Speaker 1: to his nearest duty forgetting alike pleasure and pain, he
- 21:49Speaker 1: attains to that combined childlike simplicity and unconscious power which
- 21:54Speaker 1: is greatness. The advice of Confucius to his disciples eat
- 21:59Speaker 1: at your your own table as you would at the
- 22:02Speaker 1: table of a king emphasizes the immeasurable importance of little
- 22:06Speaker 1: things as also does that aphorism of another great teacher, Buddha.
- 22:12Speaker 1: If anything is to be done, let a man do it,
- 22:16Speaker 1: Let him attack it vigorously. To neglect small tasks or
- 22:20Speaker 1: to execute them in a perfunctory or slovenly manner is
- 22:24Speaker 1: a mark of weakness and folly. The giving of one's
- 22:27Speaker 1: entire and unselfish attention to every duty in its proper
- 22:31Speaker 1: place evolves by a natural growth higher and even higher
- 22:36Speaker 1: combinations of duties. Because it evolves power and develops talent, genius, goodness, character.
- 22:45Speaker 1: A man ascends into greatness as naturally and unconsciously as
- 22:49Speaker 1: the plant evolves into a flower, and in the same manner,
- 22:53Speaker 1: by fitting with unabated energy and diligence every effort and
- 22:57Speaker 1: detail in its proper place, thus harmonizing his life and
- 23:02Speaker 1: character without friction or waste of power. Of the almost
- 23:06Speaker 1: innumerable recipes for the development of will, power and concentration
- 23:11Speaker 1: which are now scattered abroad, one looks almost in vain
- 23:15Speaker 1: for any wholesome hint applicable to vital experience. Breathings, postures, visualings,
- 23:22Speaker 1: occult methods are practices as delusive as they are artificial
- 23:27Speaker 1: and remote from all that is real and essential in life.
- 23:31Speaker 1: While the true path, the path of duty of earnest
- 23:35Speaker 1: and undivided application to one's daily task, along with alone
- 23:39Speaker 1: will power and concentration of thought, can be wholesomely and
- 23:44Speaker 1: normally developed, remains unknown, untrodden, unexplored, even by the elect.
- 23:52Speaker 1: All unnatural forcing and straining in order to gain power
- 23:55Speaker 1: should be abandoned. There is no way from childhood to
- 23:59Speaker 1: manhood but by growth, Nor is there any other way
- 24:02Speaker 1: from folly to wisdom, from ignorance to knowledge, from weakness
- 24:06Speaker 1: to strength. A man must learn how to grow, little
- 24:10Speaker 1: by little, and day after day, by adding thought to thought,
- 24:14Speaker 1: effort to effort, deed to deed. It is true the
- 24:18Speaker 1: Fakir gained some sort of power by his long persistence
- 24:22Speaker 1: in postures and mortifications. But it is a power which
- 24:26Speaker 1: is brought at a heavy price, and that price is
- 24:30Speaker 1: an equal loss of strength in another direction. He is
- 24:33Speaker 1: never a strong, useful character, but a mere fantastic specialist
- 24:38Speaker 1: in some psychological trick. He is not a developed man.
- 24:42Speaker 1: He is a maimed man. True will power consists in
- 24:46Speaker 1: overcoming the irritabilities, follies, rash impulses, and moral lapses which
- 24:53Speaker 1: accompany the daily life of the individual, and which are
- 24:56Speaker 1: apt to manifest themselves on every slight pri and in
- 25:01Speaker 1: developing calmness, self possession and dispassionate action, in the press
- 25:07Speaker 1: and heat of worldly duties, and in the midst of
- 25:10Speaker 1: the passionate and unbalanced throng. Anything short of this is
- 25:14Speaker 1: not true power, and this can only be developed along
- 25:18Speaker 1: the normal pathway of steady growth, in executing evermore and
- 25:23Speaker 1: more masterfully, unselfishly and perfectly the daily round of legitimate
- 25:29Speaker 1: tasks and pressing obligations. The master is not he whose
- 25:34Speaker 1: psychological accomplishments, rounded by mystery and wonder, leave him at
- 25:39Speaker 1: unguarded moments, the prey of irritability, of regret, of peevishness,
- 25:44Speaker 1: or other petty folly or vice. But he whose mastery
- 25:48Speaker 1: is manifested in fortitude, non resentment, steadfastness, calmness, and infinite patience.
- 25:57Speaker 1: The true master is master of himself. Anything other than
- 26:01Speaker 1: this is not mastery but delusion. The man who sets
- 26:06Speaker 1: his whole mind on the doing of each task as
- 26:08Speaker 1: it is presented, who puts into it energy and intelligence,
- 26:13Speaker 1: shutting all else out from his mind, and striving to
- 26:16Speaker 1: do that one thing. No matter how small, completely and
- 26:20Speaker 1: perfectly detaching himself from all reward in his task. That
- 26:26Speaker 1: man will every day be acquiring greater command over his mind,
- 26:30Speaker 1: and will, by ever ascending degrees, become at last a
- 26:34Speaker 1: man of power, a master. Put yourself unreservedly into your
- 26:39Speaker 1: present task, and so work, act live, that you shall
- 26:44Speaker 1: leave each task a finished piece of labor. This is
- 26:49Speaker 1: the very true way to the acquisition of will, power,
- 26:52Speaker 1: concentration of thought, and conservation of energy. Look not about
- 26:57Speaker 1: for magical formulas for strained in our artificial methods. Every
- 27:02Speaker 1: resource is already with you and within you. You have
- 27:06Speaker 1: but to learn how wisely to apply yourself in that
- 27:09Speaker 1: place which you now occupy. Until this is done, those
- 27:14Speaker 1: other and higher places which are waiting for you cannot
- 27:18Speaker 1: be taken, possession of cannot be reached. There is no
- 27:22Speaker 1: way to strengthen wisdom but by acting strongly and wisely
- 27:26Speaker 1: in the present moment, and each present moment reveals its task.
- 27:31Speaker 1: The great man, the wise man, does small things greatly,
- 27:36Speaker 1: regarding nothing as trivial that is necessary. The weak man,
- 27:41Speaker 1: the foolish man, does small things carelessly and meaningly, hankering
- 27:46Speaker 1: the while after some greater work, for which, in his
- 27:50Speaker 1: neglect and inability in small matters, he is ceaselessly advertising
- 27:54Speaker 1: his incapacity. The man who least governs himself is always
- 27:59Speaker 1: more in to govern others and assume important responsibilities. Whoso
- 28:05Speaker 1: neglects a thing which he suspects he ought to do
- 28:08Speaker 1: because it seems too small a thing is deceiving himself.
- 28:12Speaker 1: It is not too little, but too great for him
- 28:16Speaker 1: that he doth it not. And just as the strong
- 28:19Speaker 1: doing of small tasks leads to greater strength, so the
- 28:23Speaker 1: doing of those tasks weakly leads to greater weakness. What
- 28:28Speaker 1: a man is in his fractional duties that he is
- 28:31Speaker 1: in the aggregate of his character. Weakness is as great
- 28:35Speaker 1: a source of suffering as sin, And there can be
- 28:38Speaker 1: no true blessedness until some measure of strength of character
- 28:42Speaker 1: is evolved. The weak man becomes strong by attaching value
- 28:47Speaker 1: to little things and doing them accordingly. The strong man
- 28:51Speaker 1: becomes weak by falling into looseness and neglect concerning small things,
- 28:56Speaker 1: thereby forfeiting his simple wisdom and squandering his onmy energy.
- 29:01Speaker 1: Herein we see the beneficent operation of that law of
- 29:04Speaker 1: growth which is expressed in the little understood words to
- 29:09Speaker 1: him that hath shall be given, and from him that
- 29:12Speaker 1: hath not shall be taken away, even that which he
- 29:16Speaker 1: hath Man instantly gains or loses by every thought he thinks,
- 29:21Speaker 1: every word he says, every act he does, and every
- 29:26Speaker 1: work to which he puts heart and hand. His character,
- 29:29Speaker 1: from moment to moment is a graduating quantity to or
- 29:33Speaker 1: from which some measure of good is added or subtracted
- 29:37Speaker 1: during every moment, and the gain or loss is involved
- 29:41Speaker 1: even to absoluteness in each thought, word, and deed. As
- 29:46Speaker 1: these follow each other in rapid sequence, he who masters
- 29:51Speaker 1: the small becomes the rightful possessor of the great. He
- 29:55Speaker 1: who is mastered by the small can achieve no superlative victory.
- 30:00Speaker 1: Life is a kind of co operative trust, in which
- 30:03Speaker 1: the whole is the nature of and dependent upon the unit.
- 30:08Speaker 1: A successful business, a perfect machine, a glorious temple, or
- 30:13Speaker 1: a beautiful character is evolved from the perfect adjustment of
- 30:17Speaker 1: a multiplicity of parts. The foolish man thinks that little faults,
- 30:22Speaker 1: little indulgences, little sins are of no consequence. He persuades
- 30:27Speaker 1: himself that, so long as he does not commit flagrant immoralities,
- 30:32Speaker 1: he is virtuous and even holy. But he is thereby
- 30:36Speaker 1: deprived of virtue and holiness, and the world knows him accordingly.
- 30:41Speaker 1: It does not reverence, adore, and love him. It passes
- 30:45Speaker 1: him by. He is reckoned of no account. His influence
- 30:49Speaker 1: is destroyed. The efforts of such a man to make
- 30:52Speaker 1: the world virtuous. His exhortions to his fellow men to
- 30:56Speaker 1: abandon great vices are empty of substance and barren of fruitage.
- 31:02Speaker 1: The insignificance which he attaches to his small vices permeates
- 31:07Speaker 1: his whole character and is the measure of his manhood.
- 31:11Speaker 1: He is regarded as an insignificant man. The levity with
- 31:15Speaker 1: which he commits his errors and publishes his weaknesses comes
- 31:19Speaker 1: back to him in the form of neglect and loss
- 31:22Speaker 1: of influence and respect. He is not sought after, for
- 31:26Speaker 1: who will seek to be taught of folly? His work
- 31:29Speaker 1: does not prosper, For who will lean up a read
- 31:33Speaker 1: his words fall on deaf ears, for they are void
- 31:37Speaker 1: of practice, wisdom, and experience. And who will go after
- 31:41Speaker 1: an echo? The wise man, or he who is becoming wise,
- 31:46Speaker 1: sees the danger which lurks in those common personal faults
- 31:50Speaker 1: which men mostly commit thoughtlessly and with impunity. He also
- 31:54Speaker 1: sees the salvation which inheres in the abandonment of those faults,
- 32:00Speaker 1: as well as in the practice of virtuous thoughts and acts,
- 32:03Speaker 1: which the majority disregard is unimportant, and in those quiet
- 32:07Speaker 1: but momentous daily quests over self which are hidden from
- 32:11Speaker 1: others eyes. He who regards his molessed delinquencies as of
- 32:16Speaker 1: the gravest nature becomes a saint. He sees the far
- 32:21Speaker 1: reaching influence, good or bad, which extends from his every
- 32:25Speaker 1: thought and act, and how he himself is made or
- 32:29Speaker 1: unmade by the soundness or unsoundness of those innumerable details
- 32:34Speaker 1: of conduct which combine to form his character in life.
- 32:38Speaker 1: And so he watches, guards, purifies, and protects himself, little
- 32:44Speaker 1: by little and step by step. As the ocean is
- 32:48Speaker 1: composed of drops, the earth of grains, and the stars
- 32:52Speaker 1: of points of light, so is life composed of thoughts
- 32:56Speaker 1: and acts. Without these, life would not be. Every man's
- 33:01Speaker 1: life therefore is what his apparently detached thoughts and acts
- 33:05Speaker 1: make it their combination, is himself. As the year consists
- 33:11Speaker 1: of a given number of sequential moments, so a man's
- 33:15Speaker 1: character in life consists of a given number of sequential
- 33:18Speaker 1: thoughts and deeds, and the finished whole will bear the
- 33:21Speaker 1: impress of the parts. All sorts of things in weather
- 33:26Speaker 1: must be taken in together to make up a year
- 33:30Speaker 1: and a sphere. Little kindnesses, generosities, and sacrifices make up
- 33:36Speaker 1: a kind and generous character. Little renunciations, endurances, and victories
- 33:42Speaker 1: over self make up a strong and noble character. The
- 33:46Speaker 1: truly honest man is honest in the minutest details of
- 33:50Speaker 1: his life. The noble man is noble in every little
- 33:54Speaker 1: thing he says and does. It is a fatal delusion
- 33:58Speaker 1: with men to think that life is detached from the
- 34:01Speaker 1: momentary thought in act, and not to understand that the
- 34:05Speaker 1: passing thought indeed is the foundation and substance of life.
- 34:10Speaker 1: When this is fully understood, all things are seen as sacred,
- 34:15Speaker 1: and every act becomes religious. Truth is wrapped up in
- 34:19Speaker 1: infidecimal details. Thoroughness is genius. Possessions vanish, and opinions change,
- 34:27Speaker 1: and passions hold a fluctuating seat. But by the storms
- 34:32Speaker 1: of circumstance, unshaken and subject neither to eclipse nor wane,
- 34:37Speaker 1: duty exists. You do not live your life in the mass.
- 34:43Speaker 1: You live it in the fragments, and from these the
- 34:46Speaker 1: mass emerges. You can will to live each fragment nobly
- 34:50Speaker 1: if you choose, and this being done, there can be
- 34:54Speaker 1: no particles of baseness in the finished whole. The saying,
- 34:58Speaker 1: take care of the pen and the pounds will take
- 35:01Speaker 1: care of themselves is seen to be more than worldly
- 35:05Speaker 1: wise when applied spiritually. For to take care of the
- 35:09Speaker 1: present passing act, knowing that by doing the total sum,
- 35:13Speaker 1: an amount of life and character will be safely preserved,
- 35:17Speaker 1: is to be divinely wise. Do not long to do
- 35:20Speaker 1: great and laudable things, these will do themselves. If you
- 35:24Speaker 1: do your present task nobly. Do not chafe at the
- 35:28Speaker 1: restrictions and limitations of your present duty, but be nobly
- 35:33Speaker 1: unselfish in the doing of it, putting aside discontent, listlessness,
- 35:39Speaker 1: and the foolish contemplation of great deeds which lie beyond you,
- 35:43Speaker 1: and lo already the greatness for which you sighe begins
- 35:47Speaker 1: to appear. There is no weakness like peevishness. Aspire to
- 35:52Speaker 1: the attainment of inward nobility, not outward glory, and begin
- 35:57Speaker 1: to attain it where you are now, the irksome and
- 36:01Speaker 1: sting which you feel to be in your task are
- 36:04Speaker 1: in your mind, Only alter your attitude of mind towards it,
- 36:08Speaker 1: and at once the crooked path is made straight. The
- 36:12Speaker 1: unhappiness has turned to joy. See that your every fleeting
- 36:16Speaker 1: moment is strong, pure and purposeful. Put earnestness and unselfishness
- 36:22Speaker 1: into every passing task and duty. Make your every thought
- 36:26Speaker 1: word indeed sweet and true. Thus, learning by practice and
- 36:31Speaker 1: experience the inestimable value of the small things of life,
- 36:36Speaker 1: you will gather, little by little, abundant and enduring blessedness,
- 36:43Speaker 1: transcending difficulties and perplexities. Man whom man would be, must
- 36:49Speaker 1: rule the empire of himself in it, must be supreme,
- 36:54Speaker 1: establishing his throne on vanquished will, quelling the anarchy of
- 37:00Speaker 1: hopes and fears, being himself alone. Shelley, have you missed
- 37:07Speaker 1: your aim while the mark is still shining? Did you
- 37:11Speaker 1: faint in the race? Will take breath for the next?
- 37:16Speaker 1: Ella Wheeler Wilcox. To suggest that any degree of blessedness
- 37:22Speaker 1: may be extracted from difficulties and perplexities will doubtless appear
- 37:27Speaker 1: absurd to many. But truth is ever paradoxical, and the
- 37:31Speaker 1: curses of the foolish are the blessings of the wise.
- 37:35Speaker 1: Difficulties arise in ignorance and weakness, and they call for
- 37:39Speaker 1: the attainment of knowledge and the acquisition of strength, as
- 37:43Speaker 1: understanding is acquired by right living. Difficulties become fewer, and
- 37:48Speaker 1: perplexities gradually fade away, like the perishable mists which they are.
- 37:53Speaker 1: Your difficulty is not contained primarily in the situation which
- 37:57Speaker 1: gave rise to it, but in the mental state with
- 38:00Speaker 1: which you regard that situation and which you bring to
- 38:03Speaker 1: bear upon it. That which is difficult to a child
- 38:07Speaker 1: presents no difficulty to the matured mind of the man,
- 38:10Speaker 1: And that which, to the mind of an unintelligent man
- 38:13Speaker 1: is surrounded with perplexity, would afford no ground for perplexity
- 38:18Speaker 1: to an intelligent man, to the untutored and undeveloped mind
- 38:22Speaker 1: of the child. How great and apparently insurmountable appear the
- 38:27Speaker 1: difficulties which are involved in the learning of some simple lesson,
- 38:32Speaker 1: How many anxious and laborious hours and days or even
- 38:36Speaker 1: months its solution costs, and frequently how many tears are
- 38:41Speaker 1: shed in hopeless contemplation of the unmastered and apparently insurmountable
- 38:47Speaker 1: wall of difficulty. Yet the difficulty is in the ignorance
- 38:51Speaker 1: of the child only, and its conquest in solution is
- 38:55Speaker 1: absolutely necessary for the development of intelligence and for the
- 39:00Speaker 1: the ultimate welfare, happiness, and usefulness of the child. Even so,
- 39:05Speaker 1: it is with difficulties of life with which older children
- 39:08Speaker 1: are confronted, and which it is imperative for their own
- 39:11Speaker 1: growth and development, that they should solve and surmount. And
- 39:15Speaker 1: each difficulty solved means so much more experience gained, so
- 39:20Speaker 1: much more insight and wisdom acquired. It means a valuable
- 39:24Speaker 1: lesson learned, with the added gladness and freedom of a
- 39:27Speaker 1: task successfully accomplished. What is the real nature of a difficulty?
- 39:33Speaker 1: Is it not a situation which is not fully grasped
- 39:36Speaker 1: and understood in all its bearings. As such, it calls
- 39:41Speaker 1: for the development and exercise of a deeper insight and
- 39:44Speaker 1: broader intelligence than has hitherto been exercised. It is an
- 39:49Speaker 1: urgent necessity, calling forth unused energy and demanding the expression
- 39:55Speaker 1: and employment of latent power in hidden resources. It is
- 39:59Speaker 1: there therefore a good angel, albeit disguised a friend a teacher,
- 40:05Speaker 1: and when calmly listened to and rightly understood, leads to
- 40:09Speaker 1: larger blessedness and higher wisdom. Without difficulties, there could be
- 40:14Speaker 1: no progress, no unfoldment, no evolution. Universal stagnation would prevail,
- 40:20Speaker 1: and humanity would perish of anui. Let a man rejoice
- 40:24Speaker 1: when he is confronted with obstacles, for it means that
- 40:28Speaker 1: he has reached the end of some particular line of
- 40:30Speaker 1: indifference or folly, and is now called upon to summon
- 40:34Speaker 1: up all his energy and intelligence in order to extricate
- 40:38Speaker 1: himself and to find a better way. That the powers
- 40:41Speaker 1: within him are crying out for greater freedom, for enlarged
- 40:45Speaker 1: exercise and scope. No situation can be difficult of itself.
- 40:50Speaker 1: It is the lack of insight into its centricities and
- 40:54Speaker 1: the want of wisdom in dealing with it, which give
- 40:57Speaker 1: rise to the difficulty. In measure. Therefore is the gain
- 41:01Speaker 1: of a difficulty transcended. Difficulties do not spring into existence
- 41:06Speaker 1: arbitrarily and accidentally. They have their causes, and they are
- 41:11Speaker 1: called forth by the law of evolution itself, by the
- 41:14Speaker 1: growing necessities of the man's being. Herein resides their blessedness.
- 41:20Speaker 1: There are ways of conduct which end inevitably in complications
- 41:24Speaker 1: and perplexities, and there are ways of conduct which lead
- 41:28Speaker 1: just as inevitably out of troublesome complexities. Howsoever tightly a
- 41:33Speaker 1: man may have bound himself round, he can always unbind
- 41:37Speaker 1: himself into whatsoever morasses of trouble and trackless waste of
- 41:42Speaker 1: perplexity he may have ignorantly wandered. He can always find
- 41:46Speaker 1: his way out again. He can always recover the lost
- 41:49Speaker 1: highway of uninvolved simplicity, which leads straight and clear to
- 41:54Speaker 1: the sunny city of wise and blessed action. But he
- 41:58Speaker 1: will never do this by sitting down and weeping in despair,
- 42:02Speaker 1: nor by complaining and worrying and aimlessly wishing he were
- 42:05Speaker 1: differently situated. His dilemma calls for alertness, logical thought, and
- 42:10Speaker 1: calm calculation. His position requires that he shall strongly command himself,
- 42:17Speaker 1: that he shall think and search, and rouse himself to
- 42:20Speaker 1: strenuous and unremitting exertion in order to regain himself. Worry
- 42:26Speaker 1: and anxiety only serve to heighten the gloom and exaggerate
- 42:30Speaker 1: the magnitude of the difficulty. If he will but quietly
- 42:34Speaker 1: take himself to task and retrace in thought the more
- 42:38Speaker 1: or less intricate way by which he has come to
- 42:41Speaker 1: his present position, he will soon perceive where he made mistakes,
- 42:46Speaker 1: will discover those places where he took a false turn,
- 42:49Speaker 1: and where a little more thoughtfulness, judgment, economy, or self
- 42:54Speaker 1: denial would have saved him. He will see how step
- 42:58Speaker 1: by step he has involved himself, and how a riper
- 43:02Speaker 1: judgment and clearer wisdom would have enabled him to take
- 43:05Speaker 1: an altogether different, in truer course. Having proceeded thus far
- 43:10Speaker 1: and extracted from his past conduct this priceless grain of
- 43:14Speaker 1: golden wisdom, his difficulty will have already assumed less impregnable proportions,
- 43:21Speaker 1: and he will then be able to bring to bear
- 43:23Speaker 1: upon it the searchlight of dispassionate thought, to thoroughly anatomize it,
- 43:29Speaker 1: to comprehend it in all its details, and to perceive
- 43:33Speaker 1: the relation with which those details bear to the motive
- 43:36Speaker 1: source of action and conduct within himself. This being done,
- 43:42Speaker 1: the difficulty will have ceased, for the straight way out
- 43:45Speaker 1: of it will plainly appear, and the man will have
- 43:48Speaker 1: thus learned for all time his lesson, will have gained
- 43:52Speaker 1: an idea of wisdom and a measure of blessedness of
- 43:56Speaker 1: which he can never again be deprived. Just as there
- 43:59Speaker 1: are ways of ignorance, selfishness, folly, and blindness, which end
- 44:04Speaker 1: in confusion and perplexity. So there are ways of knowledge,
- 44:08Speaker 1: self denial, wisdom, and insight which lead to pleasant and
- 44:13Speaker 1: peaceful consummations. He who knows this will meet difficulties in
- 44:18Speaker 1: a courageous spirit, and in overcoming them, will evolve truth
- 44:22Speaker 1: out of error, bliss out of pain, and peace out
- 44:26Speaker 1: of perturbation. No man can be confronted with a difficulty
- 44:30Speaker 1: which he has not the strength to meet and subdue.
- 44:34Speaker 1: Worry is not merely useless, it is a folly, for
- 44:37Speaker 1: it defeats that power and intelligence which is otherwise equal
- 44:41Speaker 1: to the task. Every difficulty can be overcome if rightly
- 44:45Speaker 1: dealt with. Anxiety is therefore unnecessary. The task, which cannot
- 44:51Speaker 1: be overcome ceases to be a difficulty and become an impossibility,
- 44:56Speaker 1: And anxiety is still unnecessary, for there is only one
- 45:00Speaker 1: way of dealing with an impossibility, namely to submit to it.
- 45:05Speaker 1: The inevitable is the best. Heartily know, where half gods go,
- 45:11Speaker 1: the gods arrive. And just as domestic, social, and economic
- 45:16Speaker 1: difficulties are born of ignorance and lead to riper knowledge,
- 45:21Speaker 1: So every religious doubt, every mental perplexity, every heart but
- 45:26Speaker 1: clouding shadow presages greater spiritual gain, is prophetic of a
- 45:32Speaker 1: brighter dawn of intelligence. For him on whom it falls,
- 45:36Speaker 1: it is a great day in the life of a man,
- 45:39Speaker 1: though at the time he knows it not, when bewildering
- 45:42Speaker 1: perplexities concerning the mystery of life take possession of his mind,
- 45:47Speaker 1: for it signifies that his era of dead indifference, of
- 45:51Speaker 1: animal sloth, of mere vegetative happiness has come to an end,
- 45:57Speaker 1: and that henceforth he is to live as an aspiring,
- 46:00Speaker 1: self evolving. Being no longer a mere human animal. He
- 46:05Speaker 1: will now begin to live as a man, exerting all
- 46:08Speaker 1: his mental energies to the solution of life's problems, to
- 46:11Speaker 1: the answering of those haunting perplexities which are the sentinels
- 46:15Speaker 1: of truth, and which stand at the gate and threshold
- 46:19Speaker 1: of the Temple of wisdom. He it is who, when
- 46:22Speaker 1: great trials come, nor seeks nor shuns them, but doth
- 46:27Speaker 1: calmly stay. Nor will he ever rest again in selfless
- 46:32Speaker 1: ease and listless ignorance, nor sleekly state himself upon the
- 46:37Speaker 1: swine's husks of fleshly pleasures, nor find a hiding place
- 46:42Speaker 1: from the ceaseless whisperings of his heart's dark and indefinable interrogatories.
- 46:49Speaker 1: The divine within him has awakened. A sleeping god is
- 46:52Speaker 1: shaking off the incoherent visions of the night, never again
- 46:56Speaker 1: to slumber, never again to rest, un till his eyes
- 47:00Speaker 1: rest upon the full broad day of truth. It is
- 47:04Speaker 1: impossible for such a man to hush for any length
- 47:07Speaker 1: of time the call to his higher purposes and achievements
- 47:12Speaker 1: which are aroused within him, for the awakened faculties of
- 47:15Speaker 1: his being will ceaselessly urge him on to the unraveling
- 47:19Speaker 1: of his perplexities. For him there is no peace and sin,
- 47:24Speaker 1: no more rest and error, no final refuge. But in
- 47:28Speaker 1: wisdom right will be the blessedness of such a man.
- 47:33Speaker 1: When conscious of the ignorance of which his doubts and
- 47:35Speaker 1: perplexities are born, and acknowledging and understanding that ignorance, not
- 47:41Speaker 1: striving to hide himself from it, he earnestly applies himself
- 47:45Speaker 1: to its removal, seeks unremittingly day after day for that
- 47:49Speaker 1: pathway of light which shall enable him to dispel all
- 47:53Speaker 1: dark shadows, dissolve all his doubts, and find the solution
- 47:58Speaker 1: to all his pressing problems, and as a child is
- 48:01Speaker 1: glad when it has mastered a lesson long toiled over.
- 48:05Speaker 1: Just so a man's heart becomes light and free when
- 48:09Speaker 1: he has satisfactorily met some worldly difficulty. Even so, but
- 48:15Speaker 1: to a far greater degree, is the heart of a
- 48:18Speaker 1: man rendered joyous and peaceful when some vital and eternal question,
- 48:23Speaker 1: which has been long brooded over and grappled with, is
- 48:26Speaker 1: at last completely answered, and its darkness is forever dispelled.
- 48:31Speaker 1: Do not regard your difficulties and perplexities as portentous of ill.
- 48:37Speaker 1: By doing so you will make them ill. But regard
- 48:40Speaker 1: them as prophetic of good, which indeed they are. Do
- 48:44Speaker 1: not persuade yourself that you can evade them. You cannot.
- 48:48Speaker 1: Do not try to run from them. This is impossible,
- 48:52Speaker 1: for wherever you go, they will still be there with you.
- 48:55Speaker 1: But meet them calmly and bravely. Confront them with all
- 49:00Speaker 1: all the dispassion and dignity which you can command. Weigh
- 49:04Speaker 1: up their proportions, analyze them, grasp their details, measure their strength,
- 49:11Speaker 1: understand them, attack them, and finally vanquish them. Thus will
- 49:17Speaker 1: you develop strength and intelligence. Thus will you enter into
- 49:22Speaker 1: one of those by ways of blessedness which are hidden
- 49:25Speaker 1: from the superficial gaze. Burden dropping. This to me is life.
- 49:31Speaker 1: That if life be a burden, I will join to
- 49:34Speaker 1: make it, but the burden of a song bailey. Have
- 49:39Speaker 1: you heard that it was good to gain the day?
- 49:42Speaker 1: I also say it is good to fall. Battles are
- 49:45Speaker 1: lost in the same spirit in which they are won,
- 49:49Speaker 1: Walt Whitman. We hear and read much about burden bearing,
- 49:54Speaker 1: but of the better way of burden dropping, very little
- 49:57Speaker 1: is heard or known. Yet, why should you go go
- 50:00Speaker 1: about with an oppressive weight at your heart when you
- 50:03Speaker 1: might relieve yourself of it and move amongst your fellows
- 50:06Speaker 1: heart free and cheerful. No man carries a burden upon
- 50:10Speaker 1: his back, except to necessarily transfer something from one place
- 50:14Speaker 1: to another. He does not saddle his shoulders with a
- 50:17Speaker 1: perpetual burden and then regard himself as a martyr for
- 50:21Speaker 1: his pains. And why should you impose upon your mind
- 50:25Speaker 1: a useless burden and then add to its weight the
- 50:28Speaker 1: miseries of self condolence and self pity. Why not abandon
- 50:32Speaker 1: both your load and your misery, and thus add to
- 50:35Speaker 1: the gladness of the world By first making yourself glad.
- 50:39Speaker 1: No reason can justify, and no logic can support the
- 50:43Speaker 1: ceaseless carrying of a grievous load. As in things material,
- 50:48Speaker 1: a load is only undertaken as a necessary means of transference,
- 50:52Speaker 1: and is never a source of sorrow. So in things spiritual,
- 50:57Speaker 1: a burden should only be taken up as a means
- 50:59Speaker 1: towards some good and necessary end, which, when attained, the
- 51:04Speaker 1: burden is put aside. And the carrying of such a burden,
- 51:08Speaker 1: far from being a source of grief, would be a
- 51:10Speaker 1: cause for rejoicing. We say, the bodily mortifications which some
- 51:15Speaker 1: religious ascetics inflict upon themselves are unnecessary in vain. And
- 51:21Speaker 1: are the mental mortifications which so many people inflict upon
- 51:25Speaker 1: themselves less unnecessary and vain. Where is the burden which
- 51:30Speaker 1: should cause unhappiness and sorrow? It does not exist. If
- 51:34Speaker 1: a thing is to be done, let it be done cheerfully,
- 51:37Speaker 1: and not with the inward groanings and lamentations. It is
- 51:41Speaker 1: of the highest wisdom to embrace necessity as a friend
- 51:45Speaker 1: and guide. It is of the greatest folly to scalp
- 51:48Speaker 1: upon necessity as an enemy, and to wish or try
- 51:52Speaker 1: to overcome or avoid her. We need our own at
- 51:55Speaker 1: every turn, and duties only become oppressive loads when we
- 51:59Speaker 1: refuse to recognize and embrace them. He who does any
- 52:04Speaker 1: necessary thing in a niggardly and complaining spirit, hunting the
- 52:08Speaker 1: while after unnecessary pleasures, lashes himself with the scorpions of
- 52:13Speaker 1: misery and disappointment, and imposes upon himself a doubly weighted
- 52:18Speaker 1: burden of weariness and unrest, under which he incessantly groans.
- 52:23Speaker 1: Wake thou, o self to better things, to yonder heights,
- 52:27Speaker 1: uplift thy wings, Take up the psalm of life anew,
- 52:31Speaker 1: sing the good sing of the true, Sing a full
- 52:35Speaker 1: victory over wrong. Make thou a richer, sweeter song. Out
- 52:40Speaker 1: of thy doubting care and pain. Weave thou a joyous
- 52:44Speaker 1: glad refrain, out of thy thorns a crown. Weave thou
- 52:48Speaker 1: of rare rejoicing. Sing thou, Now, I will give my cheerful,
- 52:54Speaker 1: unselfish and undivided attention to the doing of all those
- 52:58Speaker 1: things which enter into my compact with life. And though
- 53:02Speaker 1: I walk under colossal responsibilities, I shall be unconscious of
- 53:07Speaker 1: any troublesome weight or grievous burden. You may say a
- 53:10Speaker 1: certain thing, a duty, a companionship, or a social obligation
- 53:16Speaker 1: troubles you, is burdensome, and you resign yourself to oppression
- 53:20Speaker 1: with the thought I have entered into this and will
- 53:24Speaker 1: go through it. But it is heavy and grievous work.
- 53:28Speaker 1: But is the thing really burdensome? Or is it your
- 53:31Speaker 1: selfishness that is oppressing you? I tell you that the
- 53:35Speaker 1: very thing with which you regard as so imprisoning a restriction,
- 53:38Speaker 1: is the first gateway to your emancipation. That work, which
- 53:42Speaker 1: you regard as a perpetual curse contains for you the
- 53:46Speaker 1: actual blessedness which you vainly persuade yourself lies in another,
- 53:50Speaker 1: in unapproachable direction. All things are mirrors in which you
- 53:55Speaker 1: see yourself reflected. And the gloom which you perceive in
- 53:59Speaker 1: your work is but a reflection of that mental state
- 54:02Speaker 1: which you bring to it. Bring a right and unselfish
- 54:06Speaker 1: state of heart to the thing, and lo it is
- 54:09Speaker 1: at once transformed and becomes a means of strength and blessedness,
- 54:14Speaker 1: reflecting back that which you have brought to it. If
- 54:18Speaker 1: you bring a scowling face to your looking glass, will
- 54:21Speaker 1: you complain of the glass that it glowers upon you
- 54:24Speaker 1: with a deformed visage, or will you put your face
- 54:27Speaker 1: right and so get back from the reflector a more
- 54:30Speaker 1: pleasing countenance. It is right and necessary that a thing
- 54:34Speaker 1: should be done when the doing of it is good,
- 54:37Speaker 1: and can only become burdensome in wishing not to do it.
- 54:42Speaker 1: The selfish wish makes the thing appear evil. It is
- 54:46Speaker 1: neither right nor necessary that a thing should be done,
- 54:49Speaker 1: then the doing of it in order to gain some
- 54:52Speaker 1: coveted pleasure is folly, which can only lead to burden
- 54:56Speaker 1: some issues. The duty which you shirk is your most
- 55:00Speaker 1: reproving angel. The pleasure which you race after is your
- 55:04Speaker 1: most flattering enemy. Foolish man, when will you turn around
- 55:09Speaker 1: and be wise? It is the beneficence of the universe
- 55:13Speaker 1: that is everywhere and at all times, urging its creatures
- 55:17Speaker 1: to wisdom, as it demands coherence of its atoms. The
- 55:21Speaker 1: folly and selfishness entails. Suffering in ever increasing degrees of
- 55:26Speaker 1: intensity is preservative and good, for agony is the enemy
- 55:30Speaker 1: of apathy in the herald of wisdom, what is painful,
- 55:35Speaker 1: what is grievous? What is burdensome? Passion is painful, Folly
- 55:41Speaker 1: is grievous. Selfishness is burdensome. It is the dark idolatry
- 55:46Speaker 1: of self, which, when our thoughts and actions once are done,
- 55:51Speaker 1: demands that man should weep and bleed and groan. Eliminate passion, folly,
- 55:57Speaker 1: and selfishness from your mind and conduct, and you will
- 56:00Speaker 1: eliminate suffering from your life. Burden dropping consists in abandoning
- 56:05Speaker 1: the inward selfishness and putting pure love in its place.
- 56:10Speaker 1: Go to your task with love in your heart, and
- 56:12Speaker 1: you will go to it light hearted and cheerful. The mind,
- 56:16Speaker 1: through ignorance, creates its own burdens and inflicts its own punishments.
- 56:22Speaker 1: No one is doomed to carry any load. Sorrow is
- 56:25Speaker 1: not arbitrarily imposed. These things are self made. Reason is
- 56:30Speaker 1: the rightful monarch of the mind, and anarchy reigns in
- 56:34Speaker 1: his spiritual kingdom. When his throne is unsurped by passion.
- 56:39Speaker 1: When love of pleasure is the foe, heaviness and anguish
- 56:42Speaker 1: compose the rear. You are free to choose. Even if
- 56:47Speaker 1: you are bound by passion and feel helpless. You have
- 56:49Speaker 1: bound yourself and are not helpless. Where you have bound,
- 56:53Speaker 1: you can unbind. You have come to your present state
- 56:57Speaker 1: by degrees, and you can recover yourself by degrees, can
- 57:01Speaker 1: reinstate reason and dethrone passion. The time to avoid evil
- 57:06Speaker 1: is before pleasure is embraced, but once embraced, its train
- 57:11Speaker 1: of consequences should teach you wisdom. The time to decide
- 57:15Speaker 1: is before responsibilities are adopted, but once adopted, all selfish considerations,
- 57:22Speaker 1: with their attendant grumblings, whinings, and complainings, should be religiously
- 57:26Speaker 1: excluded from the heart. Responsibilities lose their weight when carried
- 57:31Speaker 1: lovingly and wisely. What heavy burden is a man weighted
- 57:36Speaker 1: with which is not made heavier and more unendurable by
- 57:40Speaker 1: weak thoughts of selfish desires. If your circumstances are trying,
- 57:45Speaker 1: it is because you need them and can evolve the
- 57:47Speaker 1: strength to meet them. They are trying because there is
- 57:50Speaker 1: some weak spot within you, and they will continue to
- 57:53Speaker 1: be trying until that spot is eradicated. Be glad that
- 57:57Speaker 1: you have the opportunity of becoming stronger and wiser. No
- 58:01Speaker 1: circumstances can be trying to wisdom. Nothing can weary love.
- 58:06Speaker 1: Stop brooding over your own trying circumstances, and contemplate the
- 58:10Speaker 1: lives of some of those about you. Here is a
- 58:14Speaker 1: woman with a large family who has to make ends
- 58:17Speaker 1: meet on a pound a week. She performs all her
- 58:20Speaker 1: domestic duties down to the washing, finds time to attend
- 58:24Speaker 1: on sick neighbors, and manages to keep entirely out of
- 58:28Speaker 1: the two common quagmires, debt and despondency. She is cheerful
- 58:33Speaker 1: from morning to night, and never complains of her trying circumstances.
- 58:38Speaker 1: She is perennially cheerful because she is unselfish. She is
- 58:42Speaker 1: happy in the thought that she is the means of
- 58:45Speaker 1: happiness to others. Were she to brood upon the holidays,
- 58:49Speaker 1: the pretty bobbles, the lazy hours of which she is deprived,
- 58:53Speaker 1: the plays she cannot see, the music she cannot hear,
- 58:57Speaker 1: the books she cannot read, the parties she cannot attend,
- 59:02Speaker 1: the good she might do, the friendship she is debarred
- 59:05Speaker 1: from forming, of the many pleasures which might only be
- 59:09Speaker 1: hers if the circumstances were more favorable. If she brooded. Thus,
- 59:14Speaker 1: what a miserable creature she would be, How unbearably laborious
- 59:18Speaker 1: her work would become, How every little domestic duty would
- 59:23Speaker 1: hang like a millstone about her neck, dragging her down
- 59:26Speaker 1: to the grave, which unless she altered her state of mind,
- 59:30Speaker 1: she would quickly reach killed by selfishness. But in not
- 59:35Speaker 1: living in the vain desires for herself, she is relieved
- 59:39Speaker 1: of all burdens and is happy. Cheerfulness and unselfishness are
- 59:44Speaker 1: sworn friends. Love knows no heavy toil. Here is another
- 59:49Speaker 1: woman with a private income which is much more sufficient,
- 59:54Speaker 1: combined with leisure and luxury. Yet she has called upon
- 59:57Speaker 1: to forfeit a portion of her time, pleasure, and money
- 1:00:01Speaker 1: to discharge some obligation which she wishes to be rid of,
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: and which should be to her work, a loving service,
- 1:00:08Speaker 1: or fostering in her heart some ungratified desire. She is
- 1:00:12Speaker 1: perpetually discontented and unhappy, and complains of trying circumstances. Discontent
- 1:00:19Speaker 1: and selfishness are inseparable companions. Self love knows no joyful
- 1:00:24Speaker 1: labor of the two sets of circumstances above depicted, and
- 1:00:30Speaker 1: life is crowded with such contrasted instances, which are the
- 1:00:34Speaker 1: trying conditions. Is it not true that neither of them
- 1:00:37Speaker 1: are trying, and that both are blessed or unblest It
- 1:00:41Speaker 1: accordance with the measure of love or selfishness, which is
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: infused into them. Is it not the root of the
- 1:00:48Speaker 1: whole matter in the mind of the individual, and not
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: the circumstance When a man who has recently taken up
- 1:00:54Speaker 1: the study of some branch of theology, religion, or occultism says,
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: if I had not burdened myself with a wife and family,
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: I could have done a great work. And had I
- 1:01:05Speaker 1: known years ago what I know now, I never would
- 1:01:08Speaker 1: have married. I know that that man has not yet
- 1:01:11Speaker 1: found the commonest and broadest way of wisdom, for there
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: is no greater folly than regret, and he is incapable
- 1:01:19Speaker 1: of the great work which he is so ambitious to perform.
- 1:01:23Speaker 1: If a man has such a deep love for his
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: fellow men that he is anxious to do a great
- 1:01:27Speaker 1: work for humanity, he will manifest that surpassing love always,
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: and in the place where he now is. His home
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: will be filled with it, and the beauty and sweetness
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: and peace of his unselfish love will follow wherever he goes,
- 1:01:42Speaker 1: making happy those about him and transmuting all things into good.
- 1:01:47Speaker 1: The love that goes abroad to air itself and is
- 1:01:50Speaker 1: undiscoverable at home is not love. It is vanity. Have
- 1:01:55Speaker 1: I not seen o pitiful sight, the cheerless home in
- 1:01:59Speaker 1: the neglected children of the misguided missioner and religionist. It
- 1:02:05Speaker 1: is on such self delusion as this, that self pity
- 1:02:08Speaker 1: and self martyrdom ever wait, and its self inflicted misery
- 1:02:12Speaker 1: is regarded by the deluded one as holy in religious
- 1:02:16Speaker 1: burden which he or she is called upon to bear.
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: Only a great man can do great work, and he
- 1:02:22Speaker 1: will be great wherever he is, and will do his
- 1:02:25Speaker 1: noble work under whatsoever circumstances he may find himself when
- 1:02:29Speaker 1: he has unfolded and revealed that work. Thou, who art
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: so anxious to work for humanity, to help thy fellow men,
- 1:02:38Speaker 1: begin that work at home, Help thyself, thy neighbor, thy wife,
- 1:02:43Speaker 1: thy child. Do not be deluded, and tell thou doest
- 1:02:48Speaker 1: with utmost faithfulness, the nearer and the lesser Thou canst
- 1:02:52Speaker 1: not do the farther and greater. If a man has
- 1:02:56Speaker 1: lived many years of his life in lust, in selfish pleasure,
- 1:03:00Speaker 1: it is the order of things that his accumulated errors
- 1:03:03Speaker 1: should weigh at last heavily upon him, as until they
- 1:03:07Speaker 1: are thus brought home to him, he will not abandon them,
- 1:03:11Speaker 1: he will not exert himself to find a better life.
- 1:03:14Speaker 1: But whilst he regards his self made self impose burdens
- 1:03:18Speaker 1: as holy crosses imposed upon him by the Supreme, or
- 1:03:22Speaker 1: as marks of spiritual virtue, or as loads with fate
- 1:03:26Speaker 1: circumstances or other people have heaped undeservedly and unjustly upon him,
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: he is but lengthening out his folly, increasing the weight
- 1:03:36Speaker 1: of his burdens, and multiplying his pains and sorrows. Only
- 1:03:41Speaker 1: when such a man wakes up to the truth that
- 1:03:43Speaker 1: his burdens are of his own making, that they are
- 1:03:46Speaker 1: the accumulated effects of his own acts, will he cease
- 1:03:50Speaker 1: from unmanly self pity and find the better way of
- 1:03:53Speaker 1: burden dropping. Only when he opens his eyes to see
- 1:03:58Speaker 1: that every thought in act is another brick, another stone,
- 1:04:02Speaker 1: built into the temple of his life, will he develop
- 1:04:05Speaker 1: the insight which will enable him to recognize his own
- 1:04:09Speaker 1: unstable handiwork, the unflinching manling as to acknowledge it, and
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: the courage to build more nobly and enduringly. Painful burdens
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: are necessary, but only so long as we lack love
- 1:04:22Speaker 1: and wisdom. The temple of blessedness lies beyond the outer
- 1:04:26Speaker 1: courts of suffering and humiliation, and to reach it the
- 1:04:29Speaker 1: pilgrim must pass through the outer courts. For a time,
- 1:04:33Speaker 1: he will linger in the outer, but only so long as,
- 1:04:37Speaker 1: through his own imperfect understanding he mistakes it for the inner.
- 1:04:42Speaker 1: While he pities himself and confound suffering with holiness, he
- 1:04:46Speaker 1: will remain in suffering. But when casting off the last
- 1:04:50Speaker 1: unholy rag of self pity, he perceives that suffering is
- 1:04:54Speaker 1: a means and not an end, that it is a state,
- 1:04:57Speaker 1: self originated and self propagated. Then converted and right minded,
- 1:05:02Speaker 1: he will rapidly pass through the outer courts and reach
- 1:05:05Speaker 1: the inner abode of peace. Suffering does not originate in
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: the perfect, but in the imperfect. It does not mark
- 1:05:13Speaker 1: the complete, but the incomplete. It can therefore be transcended,
- 1:05:17Speaker 1: Its self borne cause can be found, investigated, comprehended, and
- 1:05:22Speaker 1: forever removed. It is true, therefore, that we must pass
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: through agony to rest, through loneliness to peace. But let
- 1:05:31Speaker 1: the sufferer not forget it is a passing through, that
- 1:05:34Speaker 1: the agony is a gateway and not a habitation, that
- 1:05:38Speaker 1: the loneliness is a pathway and not a destination, And
- 1:05:43Speaker 1: that a little farther on he will come to the
- 1:05:45Speaker 1: painless and blissful repose. Little by little is a burden
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: accumulated imperceptibly, and by degrees is its weight increased. A
- 1:05:56Speaker 1: thoughtless impulse, a gross self indulgence, a blind passion yielded
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: to and gratified again and again, an impure thought fostered,
- 1:06:06Speaker 1: a cruel word uttered, a foolish thing done time after time,
- 1:06:10Speaker 1: and at last the gathered weight of many follies becomes oppressive.
- 1:06:15Speaker 1: At first, and for a time the weight is not felt,
- 1:06:18Speaker 1: but it is being added to day after day. And
- 1:06:21Speaker 1: the time comes when the accumulated burden is felt in
- 1:06:24Speaker 1: all its galling weight, when the bitter fruits of selfishness
- 1:06:27Speaker 1: are gathered, and the heart is troubled with the weariness
- 1:06:31Speaker 1: of life. When this period arrives, let the sufferer look
- 1:06:35Speaker 1: to himself. Let him search for the blessed way of
- 1:06:38Speaker 1: burden dropping, finding which he will find wisdom to live better,
- 1:06:43Speaker 1: purity to live, sweeter, love to live nobler, will find
- 1:06:48Speaker 1: in the reversal of that conduct by which his burdens
- 1:06:51Speaker 1: were accumulated. Light hearted nights and days, cheerful action, and
- 1:06:56Speaker 1: unclouded joy come out of the world, come above it,
- 1:07:02Speaker 1: up over its crosses and graves. Though the green earth
- 1:07:06Speaker 1: is fair and I love it, we must love it
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: as masters, not slaves. Come up where the dust never rises,
- 1:07:14Speaker 1: but only the perfume of flowers, and your life shall
- 1:07:18Speaker 1: be glad with surprises of beautiful hours, hidden sacrifices. What
- 1:07:25Speaker 1: need hath Man of Eden, past or paradise to come?
- 1:07:30Speaker 1: When Heaven is round us and within ourselves? Lowliness is
- 1:07:34Speaker 1: the base of every virtue. Who goes the lowest builds doubt,
- 1:07:40Speaker 1: not the safest bailey. Truth is within ourselves. It takes
- 1:07:47Speaker 1: no rise from outward things, whatever you may believe browning.
- 1:07:54Speaker 1: It is one of the paradoxes of truth that we
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: gain by giving up, by greedily grasping. Every gain in
- 1:08:03Speaker 1: virtue necessitates some loss and vice. Every ascension of holiness
- 1:08:08Speaker 1: means some selfish pleasure yielded up, And every forward step
- 1:08:12Speaker 1: on the path of truth demands the forfeit of some
- 1:08:15Speaker 1: self assertive error. He who would be clothed in new
- 1:08:19Speaker 1: garments must first cast away the old, and he who
- 1:08:23Speaker 1: would find the true must sacrifice the faults. The gardener
- 1:08:28Speaker 1: digs in the woods in order that they may feed
- 1:08:31Speaker 1: with their decay. The plants which are good for food,
- 1:08:35Speaker 1: and the tree of wisdom can only flourish on the
- 1:08:38Speaker 1: compost of uprooted follies. Growth gain necessitate sacrifice loss. The
- 1:08:46Speaker 1: true life, the blessed life, the life that is not
- 1:08:50Speaker 1: tormented with passions and pains, is reached only through sacrifice,
- 1:08:55Speaker 1: not necessarily the sacrifice of outward things, but the sacrifice
- 1:09:00Speaker 1: of the inward errors and defilements. For it is these,
- 1:09:04Speaker 1: and these only which bring misery into life. It is
- 1:09:08Speaker 1: not the good and true that needs to be sacrificed,
- 1:09:11Speaker 1: but the evil and false. Therefore, all sacrifice is ultimately gain,
- 1:09:17Speaker 1: and there is no essential loss. Yet at first the
- 1:09:21Speaker 1: loss seems great, and the sacrifice is painful. But this
- 1:09:25Speaker 1: is because of the self delusion and spiritual blindness, which
- 1:09:29Speaker 1: always accompanies selfishness, and pain must always accompany the cutting
- 1:09:33Speaker 1: away of some selfish portion of one's nature. When the
- 1:09:37Speaker 1: drunkard resolves to sacrifice his lust for strong drink, he
- 1:09:41Speaker 1: passes through a period of great suffering, and he feels
- 1:09:45Speaker 1: that he is forfeiting a great pleasure. But when his
- 1:09:48Speaker 1: victory is complete, when the lust is dead and his
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: mind is calm and sober, then he knows that he
- 1:09:55Speaker 1: has gained incalculably by the giving up of his selfish
- 1:09:59Speaker 1: animal pleasure. What he has lost was evil and false
- 1:10:03Speaker 1: and not worth keeping. Nay, its keeping entailed continual misery.
- 1:10:09Speaker 1: But what he has gained in character, in self control,
- 1:10:13Speaker 1: in soberness, had greater peace of mind, is good and true,
- 1:10:18Speaker 1: and it was necessary that he should acquire it. So
- 1:10:22Speaker 1: it is with all true sacrifice. It is at first,
- 1:10:26Speaker 1: and it is until completed painful. And this is why
- 1:10:30Speaker 1: men shrink from it. They cannot see any purpose in
- 1:10:33Speaker 1: abstaining from an overcoming selfish gratification. It seems to them
- 1:10:38Speaker 1: like losing so much that is sweet, seems to them
- 1:10:41Speaker 1: like courting misery and giving up all happiness and pleasure.
- 1:10:46Speaker 1: And this must be so, for if a man could
- 1:10:49Speaker 1: know that by giving up his particular forms of selfishness,
- 1:10:52Speaker 1: his gain in happiness would be immeasurably greater. Unselfishness, which
- 1:10:58Speaker 1: is now so difficult to attaining, would then be rendered
- 1:11:01Speaker 1: indefinitely more difficult of achievement. For his desire for the
- 1:11:05Speaker 1: greater gain his selfishness would thereby be greatly intensified. No
- 1:11:12Speaker 1: man can become unselfish and thereby arrive at the highest
- 1:11:16Speaker 1: bliss until he is willing to lose, looking for neither
- 1:11:20Speaker 1: gain nor reward. It is this state of mind which
- 1:11:23Speaker 1: constitutes unselfishness. A man must be willing to humbly sacrifice
- 1:11:28Speaker 1: his selfish habits and practices because they are untrue and unworthy,
- 1:11:34Speaker 1: and for the happiness of those about him, without expecting
- 1:11:37Speaker 1: any reward or looking for any good to accrue to himself.
- 1:11:42Speaker 1: He must be prepared to lose for himself, to forfeit
- 1:11:45Speaker 1: pleasure and happiness, even life itself, if by so doing
- 1:11:50Speaker 1: he can make the world more beautiful and happy. But
- 1:11:53Speaker 1: does he lose? Does the miser lose when he gives
- 1:11:57Speaker 1: up his lust for gold? Does the thief lose when
- 1:12:01Speaker 1: he abandons stealing? Does libertine lose when he sacrifices his
- 1:12:06Speaker 1: unworthy pleasures? No man loses by the sacrifice of self
- 1:12:11Speaker 1: or some portion of self. Nevertheless, he thinks he will
- 1:12:15Speaker 1: lose by so doing, And because he thinks so, he suffers.
- 1:12:20Speaker 1: And this is where the sacrifice comes in. This is
- 1:12:23Speaker 1: where he gains by losing. All true sacrifice is within.
- 1:12:28Speaker 1: It is spiritual and hidden, and is prompted by deep humility.
- 1:12:32Speaker 1: Of heart. Nothing but the sacrifice of self can avail,
- 1:12:36Speaker 1: and to this must all men come, sooner or later
- 1:12:39Speaker 1: during their spiritual evolution. But in what does this self
- 1:12:44Speaker 1: abnegation consist? How is it practice? Where is it sought
- 1:12:49Speaker 1: and found? It consists in overcoming the daily proneness to
- 1:12:54Speaker 1: selfish thoughts and acts. It is practiced in our common
- 1:12:58Speaker 1: intercourse with others, when it is found in the hour
- 1:13:01Speaker 1: of tumult and temptation. There are hidden sacrifices of the heart,
- 1:13:07Speaker 1: which are infinitely blessed, both to Him that makes them
- 1:13:11Speaker 1: and those for whom they are made, Albeit their making
- 1:13:14Speaker 1: cost much effort and some pain. Men are anxious to
- 1:13:18Speaker 1: do some great thing, to perform some great sacrifice which
- 1:13:22Speaker 1: lies beyond the necessities of their experience, while all the time,
- 1:13:26Speaker 1: perhaps they are neglecting the one thing needful, are blind
- 1:13:31Speaker 1: to that sacrifice which, by its very nearness is rendered imperative.
- 1:13:36Speaker 1: What lurks your besetting sin? Where lies your weakness? Where
- 1:13:41Speaker 1: does temptation assail you most strongly? There shall you make
- 1:13:45Speaker 1: your first sacrifice, and shall find thereby the way unto
- 1:13:50Speaker 1: your peace. Perhaps it is anger or unkindness. Are you
- 1:13:55Speaker 1: prepared to sacrifice the angry impulse and word the unkind thought. Indeed,
- 1:14:00Speaker 1: are you prepared to silently endure abuse, attack, accusation, and unkindness,
- 1:14:07Speaker 1: refusing to pay back these in their own coin? Are
- 1:14:11Speaker 1: you prepared to give in return for these dark follies
- 1:14:14Speaker 1: kindness and loving protection? If so, then you are ready
- 1:14:19Speaker 1: to make those hidden sacrifices which lead to beautiful bliss.
- 1:14:24Speaker 1: If you are given to anger or unkindness, offer it up.
- 1:14:28Speaker 1: These hard, cruel and wrong conditions of mind never brought
- 1:14:31Speaker 1: you any good. They can never bring you anything but unrest, misery,
- 1:14:36Speaker 1: and spiritual blindness. Nor can they ever bring to others
- 1:14:40Speaker 1: anything but unhappiness. Perhaps you will say, but he was
- 1:14:45Speaker 1: unkind to me first, he treated me unjustly. Perhaps so,
- 1:14:50Speaker 1: But what a poor excuse is this? What an unmanly
- 1:14:53Speaker 1: and ineffectual refuge? For If his unkindness towards you is
- 1:14:58Speaker 1: so wrong and hurtful, yours to him must be equally so.
- 1:15:02Speaker 1: Because another is unkind to you is no justification for
- 1:15:06Speaker 1: your own unkindness, but is rather a call for the
- 1:15:09Speaker 1: exercise of great kindness on your part. Can the pouring
- 1:15:13Speaker 1: in of more water prevent a flood? Neither can unkindness lessen.
- 1:15:18Speaker 1: Unkindness can fire quench fire. Neither can anger overcome anger.
- 1:15:24Speaker 1: Offer up all unkindness all anger. It takes two to
- 1:15:28Speaker 1: make a quarrel. Don't be the other one. If one
- 1:15:32Speaker 1: is angry or unkind to you. Try to find out
- 1:15:35Speaker 1: where you have acted wrongly, and whether you have acted
- 1:15:38Speaker 1: wrongly or not. Do not throw back the angry word
- 1:15:41Speaker 1: or unkind act. Remain silent, self contained, and kindly disposed,
- 1:15:48Speaker 1: and learn, by continual effort and right doing, to have
- 1:15:51Speaker 1: compassion upon the wrongdoer. Perhaps you are habitually impatient and irritable,
- 1:15:58Speaker 1: Know then the hidden sacrifice which it is needful that
- 1:16:01Speaker 1: you should make. Give up your impatience, overcome it there
- 1:16:06Speaker 1: where it is wont to assert itself, Resolve that you
- 1:16:10Speaker 1: will yield no longer to its tyrannical sway, but will
- 1:16:13Speaker 1: conquer it and cast it out. It is not worth
- 1:16:16Speaker 1: keeping a single hour, nor would it dominate you for
- 1:16:20Speaker 1: another moment if you were not laboring under the delusion
- 1:16:23Speaker 1: that the follies and perversities of others render impatience on
- 1:16:27Speaker 1: your part necessary. Whatever others may do or say, even
- 1:16:32Speaker 1: though they may mock and taunt you, impatience is not
- 1:16:35Speaker 1: only unnecessary, it can never do any other than aggravate
- 1:16:39Speaker 1: the evil which it seeks to remove. Calm, strong, and
- 1:16:43Speaker 1: deliberate action can accomplish much, but impatience and its accompanying
- 1:16:48Speaker 1: irritability are always indications of weakness and inefficiency. And what
- 1:16:54Speaker 1: do they bestow upon you? Do they bestow rest, peace, happiness,
- 1:16:59Speaker 1: or bring these to those about you? Do they not
- 1:17:03Speaker 1: rather make you and those about you wretched? But though
- 1:17:07Speaker 1: your impatience may hurt others, it certainly hurts and wounds
- 1:17:11Speaker 1: and impoverishes yourself most of all. Nor can the impatient
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: man know aught of true blessedness, for he is a
- 1:17:19Speaker 1: continual source of trouble and unrest to himself. The calm,
- 1:17:24Speaker 1: beauty and perpetual sweetness of patience are unknown to him,
- 1:17:28Speaker 1: and peace cannot draw near to soothe and comfort him.
- 1:17:32Speaker 1: There is no blessedness anywhere until impatience is sacrificed, and
- 1:17:37Speaker 1: its sacrifice means the development of endurance, the practice of forbearance,
- 1:17:43Speaker 1: and the creation of a new and gentler habit of mind.
- 1:17:46Speaker 1: When impatience and irritability are entirely put away, are finally
- 1:17:51Speaker 1: offered up on the altar of unselfishness. Then is realized
- 1:17:55Speaker 1: and enjoyed the blessedness of a strong, quiet and peaceful mind.
- 1:18:01Speaker 1: Each hour we think of others more than self, that
- 1:18:05Speaker 1: hour we live again, and every lowly sacrifice we make
- 1:18:10Speaker 1: for others good shall make life more than self, and
- 1:18:14Speaker 1: open the windows of thy soul to light from higher spheres.
- 1:18:19Speaker 1: So hail thy lot, with lot, with joy. Then there
- 1:18:23Speaker 1: are little selfish indulgences, some of which appear harmless and
- 1:18:28Speaker 1: are commonly fostered. But no selfish indulgence can be harmless,
- 1:18:32Speaker 1: and men and women do not know what they lose
- 1:18:35Speaker 1: by repeatedly and habitually succumbing to effeminine and selfish gratifications.
- 1:18:41Speaker 1: If the god in man is to rise strong and triumphant,
- 1:18:45Speaker 1: the beast in man must perish. The pandering to the
- 1:18:48Speaker 1: animal nature, even when it appears innocent and seems sweet,
- 1:18:53Speaker 1: leads away from truth and blessedness. Each time you give
- 1:18:57Speaker 1: way to the animal within, you feed and ratify him,
- 1:19:01Speaker 1: he waxes stronger and more rebellious, and takes firmer possession
- 1:19:05Speaker 1: of your mind, which should be in keeping of truth.
- 1:19:10Speaker 1: Not until a man has sacrificed some apparently trivial indulgence,
- 1:19:14Speaker 1: does he discover what strength, what joy, what poise of
- 1:19:18Speaker 1: character and holy influence he has all along been losing
- 1:19:22Speaker 1: by that gratification. Not until a man sacrifices his hankering
- 1:19:27Speaker 1: for pleasure does he enter into the fullness of abiding joy.
- 1:19:33Speaker 1: By his personal indulgences, a man demeans himself forfeit self
- 1:19:37Speaker 1: respect to the extent and frequency of his indulgence, and
- 1:19:40Speaker 1: deprives himself of the exemplary influence and the power to
- 1:19:44Speaker 1: accomplish lasting good in his work in the world. He also,
- 1:19:49Speaker 1: by allowing himself to be led by blind desire, increases
- 1:19:53Speaker 1: his mental blindness and fails of the ultimate clearness of vision,
- 1:19:58Speaker 1: that clarified percipia, which pierces to the heart of things
- 1:20:02Speaker 1: and comprehends the real and the true animal indulgence is
- 1:20:07Speaker 1: alien to the perception of truth. By the sacrifice of
- 1:20:10Speaker 1: his indulgences, man rises above confusion and doubt and arrives
- 1:20:15Speaker 1: at the possession of insight and surety. Sacrifice you're cherished
- 1:20:20Speaker 1: and coveted indulgence. Fix your mind on something higher, nobler,
- 1:20:25Speaker 1: and more enduring than ephemeral pleasure. Live superior to the
- 1:20:29Speaker 1: craving for sense excitement, and you will live neither vainly
- 1:20:34Speaker 1: nor uncertainly, very far reaching in its effect upon others
- 1:20:38Speaker 1: the rich with the revelations of truth. For him who
- 1:20:41Speaker 1: makes it is the sacrifice of self assertion, the giving
- 1:20:46Speaker 1: up of all interference with the lives, views, or religions
- 1:20:50Speaker 1: of other people, substituting for it and understanding love and sympathy.
- 1:20:56Speaker 1: Self assertion or opinionativeness is as the form of egotism
- 1:21:01Speaker 1: or selfishness, most generally found in connection with intellectualism and
- 1:21:06Speaker 1: dialectical skill. It is blindly presumptive and uncharitable, and more
- 1:21:12Speaker 1: often than not is regarded as a virtue. But once
- 1:21:16Speaker 1: the mind has open to perceive the way of gentleness
- 1:21:19Speaker 1: and self sacrificing love, then the ignorance, deformity, and painful
- 1:21:25Speaker 1: nature of self assertion become apparent. The victim of self
- 1:21:30Speaker 1: assertion setting up his own opinions as a standard of
- 1:21:33Speaker 1: right and the measure of judgment, regards all those as
- 1:21:37Speaker 1: wrong whose lives and opinions run counter to his own,
- 1:21:41Speaker 1: and being eager to put others right, is thereby prevented
- 1:21:44Speaker 1: from putting himself right. His attitude of mind brings about
- 1:21:49Speaker 1: him opposition and contradiction from people who are anxious to
- 1:21:53Speaker 1: put him right, and this wounds his vanity and makes
- 1:21:57Speaker 1: him miserable, so that he lives in an almost constant
- 1:22:00Speaker 1: fever of unhappy, resentful, and uncharitable thoughts. There can be
- 1:22:05Speaker 1: no peace for such a man, no true knowledge, and
- 1:22:09Speaker 1: no advancement until he sacrifices his desire to bend others
- 1:22:13Speaker 1: to his own way of thinking and acting. Nor can
- 1:22:17Speaker 1: he understand the hearts of others and enter lovingly into
- 1:22:20Speaker 1: their strivings and aspirations. His mind is cramped and embittered,
- 1:22:25Speaker 1: and he is shut out from all sweet sympathy and
- 1:22:28Speaker 1: spiritual communion. He who sacrifices the spirit of self assertion, who,
- 1:22:34Speaker 1: in his daily contact with others, put aside his prejudices
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: and opinions, and strives both to learn from others and
- 1:22:42Speaker 1: to understand them as they are, Who allows to others
- 1:22:45Speaker 1: perfect liberty, such as he exercises himself to choose their
- 1:22:50Speaker 1: own opinions, their own way of life. Such a man
- 1:22:54Speaker 1: will acquire a deeper insight, a broader charity, and a
- 1:22:58Speaker 1: richer bliss than he has his hitherto experienced and will
- 1:23:02Speaker 1: strike a by way of blessedness from which he is
- 1:23:05Speaker 1: formerly shut out. Then there is a sacrifice of greed
- 1:23:09Speaker 1: in all greedy thoughts. The willingness that others should possess
- 1:23:13Speaker 1: rather than we, the not coveting of things for ourselves,
- 1:23:17Speaker 1: but rejoicing that they are possessed and enjoyed by others,
- 1:23:21Speaker 1: that they bring happiness to others. The ceasing to claim
- 1:23:24Speaker 1: one's own, and the giving up to others, unselfishly and
- 1:23:29Speaker 1: without malice, that which they exact. This attitude of mind
- 1:23:34Speaker 1: is a source of deep peace and great spiritual strength.
- 1:23:37Speaker 1: It is the sacrifice of self interest. Material possessions are temporary,
- 1:23:43Speaker 1: and in this sense we cannot truly call them our own.
- 1:23:47Speaker 1: They are merely in our keeping for a short time.
- 1:23:50Speaker 1: But spiritual possessions are eternal and must ever remain with us.
- 1:23:55Speaker 1: Unselfishness is a spiritual possession which is only secured by
- 1:24:00Speaker 1: ceasing to covet material possessions and enjoyments, by ceasing to
- 1:24:04Speaker 1: regard things as for our own special and exclusive pleasure,
- 1:24:08Speaker 1: and by our readiness to yield them up for the
- 1:24:11Speaker 1: good of others. The unselfish man, even though he finds
- 1:24:15Speaker 1: himself involved in riches, stands aloof in his mind from
- 1:24:20Speaker 1: the idea of exclusive possession, and so escapes the bitterness
- 1:24:25Speaker 1: and fear and anxiety which ever accompany the cavetuous spirit.
- 1:24:30Speaker 1: He does not regard any of his outward accretions as
- 1:24:33Speaker 1: being too valuable to lose, but he regards the true
- 1:24:37Speaker 1: virtue of unselfishness as being too valuable in the world,
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: too suffering humanity to lose or cast away. And who
- 1:24:46Speaker 1: is the blessed man? He who is ever hankering after
- 1:24:50Speaker 1: more possessions, thinking only of the personal pleasure he can
- 1:24:53Speaker 1: get out of them, Or he who is ready to
- 1:24:56Speaker 1: give up what he has for the good and happiness
- 1:24:58Speaker 1: of others. By greed, happiness is destroyed. By not greed,
- 1:25:04Speaker 1: happiness is restored. Another hidden sacrifice, one of great spiritual
- 1:25:10Speaker 1: beauty and of powerful efficacy in the healing of human sorrows,
- 1:25:14Speaker 1: is the sacrifice of hatred, the giving up of all
- 1:25:18Speaker 1: bitter thoughts against others, of all malice, dislike, and resentment.
- 1:25:23Speaker 1: Bitter thoughts and blessedness cannot dwell together. Hatred is a
- 1:25:27Speaker 1: fierce fire that scorches up in the heart of him
- 1:25:30Speaker 1: who harbors it all the sweet flowers of peace and happiness,
- 1:25:34Speaker 1: and makes a hell of every place where it comes.
- 1:25:38Speaker 1: Hatred has many names and many forms, but only one essence,
- 1:25:43Speaker 1: namely burning thoughts of resentment against others. It is sometimes
- 1:25:48Speaker 1: by its blind votaries called by the name of religion,
- 1:25:52Speaker 1: causing them to attack, slander, and persecute each other because
- 1:25:56Speaker 1: they will not accept each other's views of life and death,
- 1:26:00Speaker 1: thus filling the earth with miseries and tears. All resentment,
- 1:26:05Speaker 1: dislike ill thinking, and ill speaking of others as hatred.
- 1:26:09Speaker 1: And where there is hatred, there is always unhappiness. No
- 1:26:12Speaker 1: one has conquered hatred while thoughts of resentment toward others
- 1:26:16Speaker 1: spring up in his mind. This sacrifice is not complete
- 1:26:21Speaker 1: until a man can think kindly of those who try
- 1:26:23Speaker 1: to do him wrong. Yet it must be made before
- 1:26:27Speaker 1: true blessedness can be realized and known. Beyond the hard, cruel,
- 1:26:32Speaker 1: steely gates of hatred waits the divine Angel of Love,
- 1:26:36Speaker 1: ready to reveal herself to him, who will subdue and
- 1:26:39Speaker 1: sacrifice his hateful thoughts and conduct him to his peace.
- 1:26:45Speaker 1: Whatever others may say of you, whatever they may do
- 1:26:48Speaker 1: to you, never take offense, Do not return hatred with hatred.
- 1:26:53Speaker 1: If another hates you, perhaps you have consciously or unconsciously
- 1:26:58Speaker 1: failed somewhere in your conduct. Or there may be some
- 1:27:01Speaker 1: misunderstanding which the exercise of a little gentleness and reason
- 1:27:05Speaker 1: may remove. But under all circumstances, Father, forgive them is
- 1:27:11Speaker 1: infinitely better, sweeter, and nobler than I will have nothing
- 1:27:16Speaker 1: more to do with them. Hatred is so small and poor,
- 1:27:20Speaker 1: so blind and wretched. Love is so great and rich,
- 1:27:24Speaker 1: so far seeing and blissful. The highest culture is to
- 1:27:28Speaker 1: speak no ill. The best reformer is the man whose
- 1:27:32Speaker 1: eyes are quick to see all beauty and all worth,
- 1:27:36Speaker 1: and by his own discreet, well ordered life alone reproves
- 1:27:40Speaker 1: the erring sacrifice all hatred. Slay it upon the holy
- 1:27:45Speaker 1: altar of devotion, devotion to others. Think no more of
- 1:27:50Speaker 1: injury to your own petty self, but see to it
- 1:27:54Speaker 1: that henceforth you injure and wound no other. Open the
- 1:27:57Speaker 1: floodgates of your heart for the inpour of that sweet, great,
- 1:28:01Speaker 1: beautiful love which embraces all with strong yet tender thoughts
- 1:28:05Speaker 1: of protection and peace, leaving not one, not even he
- 1:28:09Speaker 1: who hates or despises or slanders you out in the
- 1:28:13Speaker 1: cold then there is the hidden sacrifice of impure desires
- 1:28:18Speaker 1: of weak self, pity and degrading self, praise of vanity
- 1:28:22Speaker 1: and pride. For these are unblessed attitudes of mind deformities
- 1:28:27Speaker 1: of heart. He who makes them one by one, gradually
- 1:28:31Speaker 1: subduing and overcoming them, will, according to the measure of
- 1:28:35Speaker 1: his success, rise above weakness and suffering and sorrow, and
- 1:28:39Speaker 1: will comprehend and enjoy the perfect and imperishable blessedness. Now
- 1:28:44Speaker 1: all these hidden sacrifices which are here mentioned are pure,
- 1:28:49Speaker 1: humble heart offerings. They are made within, are offered up
- 1:28:53Speaker 1: on the sacred, lowly unseen altar of one's own heart.
- 1:28:58Speaker 1: Not one of them can be made, and till the
- 1:29:00Speaker 1: fault is first silently acknowledged and confessed, no man can
- 1:29:05Speaker 1: sacrifice an error until he first of all confesses to himself,
- 1:29:11Speaker 1: I am in error. When yielding it up, he will
- 1:29:14Speaker 1: perceive and receive the truth which his error formally obscured.
- 1:29:19Speaker 1: The Kingdom of Heaven cometh not by observation and the
- 1:29:23Speaker 1: silent sacrifice of self for the good of others. The
- 1:29:27Speaker 1: daily giving up of one's egotistic tendencies is not seen
- 1:29:31Speaker 1: and rewarded of men and brings no loud blazon of
- 1:29:34Speaker 1: popularity in praise. It is hidden away from the eyes
- 1:29:38Speaker 1: of the world, even from the gaze of those who
- 1:29:41Speaker 1: are nearest to you, for no eyes of flesh can
- 1:29:44Speaker 1: perceive its spiritual beauty. But think not that because it
- 1:29:49Speaker 1: is unperceived, it is therefore feudle. Its blissful radiance is
- 1:29:53Speaker 1: enjoyed by you, and its power for good over others
- 1:29:57Speaker 1: is great and far reaching. For though they cannot see it,
- 1:30:00Speaker 1: nor perhaps understand it, yet they are unconsciously influenced by it.
- 1:30:06Speaker 1: They will not know what silent battles you are fighting,
- 1:30:09Speaker 1: what eternal victories over self you are achieving. But they
- 1:30:13Speaker 1: will feel your altered attitude, your new mind, wrought of
- 1:30:17Speaker 1: the fabric of love and loving thoughts, and will share
- 1:30:20Speaker 1: somewhat in its happiness and bliss. They will know nothing
- 1:30:24Speaker 1: of the frequent fierceness of the fight you are waging,
- 1:30:28Speaker 1: of the wounds you receive in the healing balm you apply,
- 1:30:31Speaker 1: of the anguish and the after piece. But they will
- 1:30:34Speaker 1: know that you have grown sweeter and gentler, stronger and
- 1:30:38Speaker 1: more silently self reliant, more patient and pure, and that
- 1:30:43Speaker 1: they are rested and helped by your presence. What rewards
- 1:30:47Speaker 1: can compare with this? Beside the fragrant offices of love,
- 1:30:51Speaker 1: the praises of men are gross and fulsome, and in
- 1:30:55Speaker 1: the pure flame of a selfless heart, the flatteries of
- 1:30:58Speaker 1: the world are turned to ashes. Love is its own reward,
- 1:31:03Speaker 1: its own joy, its own satisfaction. It is the final
- 1:31:07Speaker 1: refuge and resting place of passion tortured souls. The sacrifice
- 1:31:12Speaker 1: of self and the acquisition of the supreme knowledge and
- 1:31:16Speaker 1: bliss which it confers, is not accomplished by one great
- 1:31:19Speaker 1: and glorious act, but by a series of lesser and
- 1:31:23Speaker 1: successive sacrifices in the ordinary life of the world, by
- 1:31:27Speaker 1: a succession of steps in the daily conquest of truth
- 1:31:31Speaker 1: over selfishness. He who each day accomplishes some victory over himself,
- 1:31:37Speaker 1: who subdues and puts behind him some unkind thought, some
- 1:31:41Speaker 1: impure desire, some tendency to sin, is every day growing stronger, purer,
- 1:31:48Speaker 1: and wiser, and every dawn finds him nearer to that
- 1:31:51Speaker 1: final glory of truth, which each self sacrificing act reveals.
- 1:31:56Speaker 1: In part. Look not outside thee nor beyond thee, for
- 1:32:01Speaker 1: the light and blessedness of truth. But look within, thou
- 1:32:05Speaker 1: wilt find it within the narrow sphere of thy duty,
- 1:32:09Speaker 1: even in the humble and hidden sacrifices of thine own heart. Sympathy,
- 1:32:17Speaker 1: when thy gaze turns it on thine own soul, be
- 1:32:20Speaker 1: most severe. But when it falls upon a fellow man,
- 1:32:24Speaker 1: let kindliness control it and refrain from that belittling censure
- 1:32:28Speaker 1: that brings forth from common lips like weeds from marshy soil,
- 1:32:34Speaker 1: Ellow Wheeler, Wilcox, I do not ask the wounded person
- 1:32:39Speaker 1: how he feels. I myself become the wounded person, Walt Whitman.
- 1:32:47Speaker 1: We can only sympathize with others in so far as
- 1:32:50Speaker 1: we have conquered ourselves. We cannot think and feel for
- 1:32:54Speaker 1: others while we are engaged in condoling with and pitying ourselves.
- 1:32:59Speaker 1: Cannot deal tenderly and lovingly with others while we are
- 1:33:02Speaker 1: anxious for our own pre eminence, or for the exclusive
- 1:33:06Speaker 1: preservation of ourselves, our opinions, or our own generally, what
- 1:33:11Speaker 1: is sympathy but thoughtfulness for others in the forgetfulness of self.
- 1:33:17Speaker 1: To sympathize with others, we must first understand them, And
- 1:33:21Speaker 1: to understand them, we must put away all our personal
- 1:33:24Speaker 1: preconceptions concerning them, and must see them as they are.
- 1:33:29Speaker 1: We must enter into their inner state and become one
- 1:33:32Speaker 1: with them, looking through their mental eyes and comprehending the
- 1:33:36Speaker 1: range of their experience. You cannot, of course, do this
- 1:33:41Speaker 1: with a being whose wisdom and experience are greater than
- 1:33:44Speaker 1: your own, nor can you do it with any if
- 1:33:47Speaker 1: you regard yourself as being on a higher plane than others.
- 1:33:51Speaker 1: For egotism and sympathy cannot dwell together, But you can
- 1:33:55Speaker 1: practice it with all those who are involved in sins
- 1:33:58Speaker 1: and sufferings from which you have successfully extricated yourself. And
- 1:34:03Speaker 1: though your sympathy cannot embrace and overshadow the man whose
- 1:34:07Speaker 1: greatness is beyond you, you can place yourself in such
- 1:34:10Speaker 1: an attitude towards him as to receive the protection of
- 1:34:14Speaker 1: his larger sympathy, and so make for yourself an easier
- 1:34:18Speaker 1: way out of the sins and sufferings by which you
- 1:34:20Speaker 1: are still in chained. Prejudice and ill will are complete
- 1:34:25Speaker 1: barriers to the giving of sympathy, while pride and vanity
- 1:34:28Speaker 1: are total barriers to its reception. You cannot sympathize with
- 1:34:33Speaker 1: a person for whom you have conceived a hatred. You
- 1:34:36Speaker 1: cannot enjoy the sympathy of one whom you envy. You
- 1:34:40Speaker 1: cannot understand the person whom you dislike, or he for whom,
- 1:34:45Speaker 1: through animal impulse, you have framed an ill formed affection.
- 1:34:50Speaker 1: You do not cannot see him as he really is,
- 1:34:53Speaker 1: but only see your own imperfect notions of him, see
- 1:34:57Speaker 1: only a distorted image of him through the exactay medium
- 1:35:01Speaker 1: of your ill grounded opinions. To see others as they are,
- 1:35:06Speaker 1: you must not allow impulsive likes and dislikes, powerful prejudices,
- 1:35:11Speaker 1: or egotistic considerations to come between you and them. You
- 1:35:15Speaker 1: must not resent their actions or condemn their beliefs and opinions.
- 1:35:20Speaker 1: You must leave yourself entirely out, and must, for the
- 1:35:24Speaker 1: time being, assume their position. Only in this way can
- 1:35:29Speaker 1: you become in rapport with them and so fathom their life,
- 1:35:32Speaker 1: their experience, and understand it. And when a man is understood,
- 1:35:38Speaker 1: it becomes impossible to condemn him. Men misjudge, condemn, and
- 1:35:43Speaker 1: avoid each other because they do not understand each other,
- 1:35:46Speaker 1: and they do not understand each other because they have
- 1:35:49Speaker 1: not overcome and purified themselves. Life is growth, development, evolution,
- 1:35:56Speaker 1: and there is no essential distinction between the sinner and
- 1:35:59Speaker 1: the saint. There is only a difference in degree. The
- 1:36:03Speaker 1: saint was once a sinner. The sinner will one day
- 1:36:06Speaker 1: be a saint. The sinner is the child. The saint
- 1:36:09Speaker 1: is the grown man. He who separates himself from sinners,
- 1:36:14Speaker 1: regarding them as wicked men to be avoided. Is like
- 1:36:17Speaker 1: a man avoiding contact with little children because they are unwise, disobedient,
- 1:36:23Speaker 1: and play with toys. All life is one, but it
- 1:36:26Speaker 1: has a variety of manifestations. The grown flower is not
- 1:36:31Speaker 1: something distinct from the tree, it is a part of it.
- 1:36:35Speaker 1: It is only another form of leaf. Steam is not
- 1:36:38Speaker 1: something apart from water, but it is another form of water,
- 1:36:42Speaker 1: and in like manner, good is transmuted evil. The saint
- 1:36:47Speaker 1: is the sinner, developed and transformed. The sinner is one
- 1:36:51Speaker 1: whose understanding is undeveloped, and he ignorantly chooses wrong modes
- 1:36:56Speaker 1: of action. The saint is one whose understanding is right,
- 1:37:00Speaker 1: and he chooses right modes of action. The sinner condemns
- 1:37:05Speaker 1: the sinner, condemnation being a wrong mode of action. The
- 1:37:09Speaker 1: saint never condemns the sinner, remembering that he himself formally
- 1:37:14Speaker 1: occupied the same place, but thinks of him with deep sympathy,
- 1:37:18Speaker 1: regarding him in the light of a younger brother or
- 1:37:20Speaker 1: a friend. For sympathy is a right and enlightened mode
- 1:37:24Speaker 1: of action. The perfected saint, who gives sympathy to all
- 1:37:29Speaker 1: needs it of none, for he has transcended sin and
- 1:37:32Speaker 1: suffering and lives in the enjoyment of lasting bliss. But
- 1:37:36Speaker 1: all who suffer needs sympathy, and all whose sin must suffer.
- 1:37:41Speaker 1: When a man comes to understand that every sin, whether
- 1:37:45Speaker 1: of thought or deed, receives his just quote of suffering,
- 1:37:49Speaker 1: he ceases to condemn and begins to sympathize, seeing the
- 1:37:53Speaker 1: sufferings which sin entails. And he comes to such understanding
- 1:37:57Speaker 1: by purifying himself as a man, purges himself of passions.
- 1:38:02Speaker 1: As he transmutes his selfish desires and puts underfoot his
- 1:38:06Speaker 1: egotistic tendencies. He sounds the depths of all human experiences,
- 1:38:12Speaker 1: all sins and sufferings and sorrows, all motives and thoughts
- 1:38:16Speaker 1: and deeds, and comprehends the moral law in its perfection.
- 1:38:21Speaker 1: Complete self conquest is perfect knowledge, perfect sympathy. And he
- 1:38:26Speaker 1: who views men with a stainless vision of a pure
- 1:38:28Speaker 1: heart views them with a pitying heart, sees them as
- 1:38:32Speaker 1: a part of himself, not as something defiled and separate
- 1:38:36Speaker 1: and distinct, but as his very self, sinning as he
- 1:38:40Speaker 1: has sinned, suffering as he has suffered, sorrowing as he
- 1:38:44Speaker 1: has sorrowed, and yet withal glad in the knowledge that
- 1:38:48Speaker 1: they will come as he has come, to perfect peace
- 1:38:51Speaker 1: at last. The truly good and wise man cannot be
- 1:38:55Speaker 1: a passionate partisan, but extends his sympathy to all, beeing
- 1:39:00Speaker 1: no evil in others, to be condemned and resisted, but
- 1:39:03Speaker 1: seeing the sin which is pleasant to the sinner, and
- 1:39:07Speaker 1: the after sorrow and pain which the sinner does not see,
- 1:39:11Speaker 1: and when it overtakes him, does not understand. A man's
- 1:39:15Speaker 1: sympathy extends just so far as his wisdom reaches, and
- 1:39:19Speaker 1: no further, And a man only grows wiser as he
- 1:39:22Speaker 1: grows tenderer and more compassionate. To narrow one's sympathy is
- 1:39:27Speaker 1: to narrow one's heart, and so to darken and embitter
- 1:39:30Speaker 1: one's life. To extend and broaden one's sympathy is to
- 1:39:35Speaker 1: enlighten and gladden one's life, and to make plainer to
- 1:39:38Speaker 1: others the way of light and gladness. To sympathize with
- 1:39:42Speaker 1: another is to receive his being into our own, to
- 1:39:46Speaker 1: become one with him. For unselfish love unites, and he
- 1:39:50Speaker 1: whose sympathy reaches out to and embraces all human kind
- 1:39:55Speaker 1: and all living creatures, has realized his identity and oneness
- 1:39:59Speaker 1: with all, and comprehends the universal love and law and wisdom.
- 1:40:05Speaker 1: Man is shut out from heaven and peace and truth
- 1:40:08Speaker 1: only in so far as he shuts out others from
- 1:40:10Speaker 1: his sympathy. Where his sympathy ends, his darkness and torment
- 1:40:15Speaker 1: and turmoil begins. For to shut others out from our
- 1:40:19Speaker 1: love is to shut ourselves out from the blessedness of love,
- 1:40:23Speaker 1: and to become cramped in the dark prison of self.
- 1:40:27Speaker 1: Whoever walks affurlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral
- 1:40:31Speaker 1: dressed in a shroud. Only when one's sympathy is unlimited
- 1:40:37Speaker 1: is the eternal light of truth revealed. Only in the
- 1:40:40Speaker 1: love that knows no restriction. Is the boundless bliss Enjoyed
- 1:40:46Speaker 1: sympathy is bliss in it is revealed the highest, purest blessedness.
- 1:40:51Speaker 1: It is divine, For in its reciprocal light, all thought
- 1:40:55Speaker 1: of self is lost, and there remains only the pure
- 1:40:59Speaker 1: joy of oneness with others, the ineffitable communion of spiritual identity.
- 1:41:05Speaker 1: Where a man ceases to sympathize, he ceases to live,
- 1:41:09Speaker 1: ceases to see and realize and know. One cannot truly
- 1:41:14Speaker 1: sympathize with others until all selfish considerations concerning them are
- 1:41:18Speaker 1: put away. And he who does this and strives to
- 1:41:22Speaker 1: see others as they are, strives to realize their particular sins,
- 1:41:27Speaker 1: temptations and sorrows, their beliefs, opinions, and prejudices, comes at
- 1:41:32Speaker 1: last to see exactly where they stand in their spiritual evolution,
- 1:41:37Speaker 1: comprehends the arc of their experience, and knows that they cannot,
- 1:41:41Speaker 1: for the present act otherwise than they do. He sees
- 1:41:45Speaker 1: that their thoughts and acts are prompted by the extent
- 1:41:48Speaker 1: of their knowledge or their lack of knowledge, and that
- 1:41:51Speaker 1: if they act blindly and foolishly, it is because their
- 1:41:55Speaker 1: knowledge and experience are immature, and they can only come
- 1:41:58Speaker 1: to act more wisely by gradual growth into more enlightened
- 1:42:02Speaker 1: states of mind. He also sees that though this growth
- 1:42:07Speaker 1: can be encouraged, helped, and stimulated by the influence of
- 1:42:11Speaker 1: a riper example, by seasonable words and well timed instruction.
- 1:42:16Speaker 1: It cannot be unnaturally forced. The flowers of love and
- 1:42:19Speaker 1: wisdom must have time to grow, and the barren branches
- 1:42:23Speaker 1: of hatred and folly cannot be cut away all at once.
- 1:42:28Speaker 1: Such a man finds the doorway into the inner world
- 1:42:30Speaker 1: of those with whom he comes in contact, and he
- 1:42:33Speaker 1: opens it and enters in and dwells with them in
- 1:42:36Speaker 1: the hidden and sacred sanctuary of their being. And he
- 1:42:40Speaker 1: finds nothing to hate, nothing to revile, nothing to condemn
- 1:42:44Speaker 1: in that sacred place, but something to love and tend
- 1:42:48Speaker 1: and in his own heart room only for greater pity,
- 1:42:52Speaker 1: greater patience, greater love. He sees that he is one
- 1:42:57Speaker 1: with them, but that they are another aspect of him,
- 1:43:01Speaker 1: that their natures are not different from his own, except
- 1:43:04Speaker 1: in modification and degree, but they are identical with it.
- 1:43:08Speaker 1: If they are acting out certain sinful tendencies, he has
- 1:43:12Speaker 1: but to look within to find the same tendencies in himself,
- 1:43:16Speaker 1: albeit perhaps restrained or purified. If they are manifesting certain
- 1:43:21Speaker 1: holy and divine qualities, he finds the same pure spirit
- 1:43:25Speaker 1: within himself, though perhaps in a lesser degree of power
- 1:43:29Speaker 1: and development. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
- 1:43:34Speaker 1: The sin of one is the sin of all. The
- 1:43:37Speaker 1: virtue of one is the virtue of all. No man
- 1:43:40Speaker 1: can be separate from another. There is no difference of nature,
- 1:43:44Speaker 1: but only difference of condition. If a man thinks he
- 1:43:48Speaker 1: is separated from another by virtue of his superior holiness,
- 1:43:52Speaker 1: he is not so separated, and his darkness and delusion
- 1:43:56Speaker 1: are very great. Humanity is one, and in the holy
- 1:44:00Speaker 1: sanctuary of sympathy, saint and sinner meet and unite. It
- 1:44:05Speaker 1: is said of Jesus that he took upon himself the
- 1:44:08Speaker 1: sins of the whole world. That is, he identified himself
- 1:44:12Speaker 1: with those sins, and did not regard himself as essentially
- 1:44:15Speaker 1: separate from sinners, but as being of a like nature
- 1:44:18Speaker 1: with them. And his realization of his oneness with all
- 1:44:22Speaker 1: men was manifested in his life as profound sympathy for
- 1:44:26Speaker 1: those who, for their deep sins were avoided and cast
- 1:44:31Speaker 1: off by others. And who is it that is in
- 1:44:34Speaker 1: the greatest need of sympathy, Not the saint, not the
- 1:44:38Speaker 1: enlightened seer, not the perfect man. It is the sinner,
- 1:44:42Speaker 1: the unenlightened man, the imperfect one, and the greater the sin.
- 1:44:46Speaker 1: The greater is the need. I came not to call
- 1:44:49Speaker 1: the righteousness, but sinners to repentance is the statement of
- 1:44:53Speaker 1: one who has comprehended all human needs. The righteous man
- 1:44:57Speaker 1: does not need your sympathy, but the unrighteous, he who
- 1:45:02Speaker 1: by his wrongdoing is laying up for himself long periods
- 1:45:06Speaker 1: of suffering and woe, is in need of it. The
- 1:45:09Speaker 1: flagrantly unrighteous man is condemned, despised, and avoided by those
- 1:45:14Speaker 1: who are living in a similar condition to himself, though
- 1:45:17Speaker 1: for the time being they may not be subject to
- 1:45:20Speaker 1: his particular form of sin. For that withholding of sympathy
- 1:45:24Speaker 1: and that mutual condemnation, which are so rife, is the
- 1:45:28Speaker 1: commonest manifestation of that lack of understanding in which all
- 1:45:32Speaker 1: sin takes its rise. While a man is involved in sin,
- 1:45:37Speaker 1: he will condemn others who are likewise involved, And the
- 1:45:40Speaker 1: deeper and greater his sin, the more severe will be
- 1:45:43Speaker 1: his condemnation of others. It is only when a man
- 1:45:47Speaker 1: begins to sorrow for his sin, and so to rise
- 1:45:50Speaker 1: above it and into the clearer light of purity and understanding,
- 1:45:55Speaker 1: that he ceases from condemning others and learns to sympathize
- 1:45:58Speaker 1: with them. But this ceaseless condemnation of each other by
- 1:46:03Speaker 1: those who are involved in the fierce play of the
- 1:46:05Speaker 1: passions must needs be, for it is one of the
- 1:46:09Speaker 1: modes of operation of the great law which universally and
- 1:46:12Speaker 1: eternally obtains. And the unrighteous one who falls under the
- 1:46:17Speaker 1: condemnation of his fellows will the more rapidly reach a
- 1:46:20Speaker 1: higher and nobler condition of heart and life, if he
- 1:46:24Speaker 1: humbly accepts the censure of others as the effect of
- 1:46:27Speaker 1: his own sin, and resolves henceforward to refrain from all
- 1:46:31Speaker 1: condemnation of others. The truly good and wise man condemns none.
- 1:46:37Speaker 1: Having put away all blind passion and selfishness, he lives
- 1:46:40Speaker 1: in the calm regions of love and peace, and understands
- 1:46:44Speaker 1: all modes of sin with their consequent sufferings and sorrows.
- 1:46:49Speaker 1: Enlightened and awakened, freed from all selfish bias. In seeing
- 1:46:53Speaker 1: men as they are, his heart responds and holy sympathy withal.
- 1:46:58Speaker 1: Should any condemn abuse or slander him, he throws them
- 1:47:03Speaker 1: around the kindly protection of his sympathy, seeing the ignorance
- 1:47:07Speaker 1: which prompts them to so act, and knowing that they
- 1:47:10Speaker 1: alone will suffer for their wrong acts. Learn by self
- 1:47:15Speaker 1: conquest and the acquisition of wisdom, to love him whom
- 1:47:19Speaker 1: you now condemn. To sympathize with those who condemn you,
- 1:47:23Speaker 1: Turn your eyes away from their condemnation, and search your
- 1:47:27Speaker 1: own heart to find, perchance some hard, unkind or wrong thoughts, which,
- 1:47:33Speaker 1: when discovered and understood, you will condemn yourself. Much that
- 1:47:38Speaker 1: is commonly called sympathy is personal affection. To love them
- 1:47:43Speaker 1: who love us is human bias and inclination, But to
- 1:47:47Speaker 1: love them who do not love us is divine sympathy.
- 1:47:51Speaker 1: Sympathy is needed because of the prevalence of suffering, For
- 1:47:55Speaker 1: there is no being or creature who has not suffered
- 1:47:58Speaker 1: through suffering. Sympathy is evolved. Not in a year or
- 1:48:02Speaker 1: a life or an age. Is the human heart purified
- 1:48:06Speaker 1: and softened by suffering, But after many lives of intermittent pain,
- 1:48:11Speaker 1: after many ages of ever recurring sorrow, man reaps the
- 1:48:15Speaker 1: golden harvest of his experiences and garners in the rich
- 1:48:20Speaker 1: ripe sheafs of love and wisdom, And when he understands
- 1:48:24Speaker 1: an understanding, he sympathizes. All suffering is the result of
- 1:48:30Speaker 1: ignorantly violated law, and after many repetitions of the same
- 1:48:35Speaker 1: wrong act, the same kind of suffering resulting from that act,
- 1:48:39Speaker 1: knowledge of the law is acquired, and the higher state
- 1:48:43Speaker 1: of obedience and wisdom is reached. Then there blossoms the
- 1:48:47Speaker 1: pure and perfect flower of sympathy. One aspect of sympathy
- 1:48:52Speaker 1: is that of pity, pity for the distressed or pain stricken,
- 1:48:56Speaker 1: with a desire to alleviate or help them bear their sufferings.
- 1:49:00Speaker 1: The world needs more of this divine quality, for pity
- 1:49:04Speaker 1: makes the world soft to the weak and noble for
- 1:49:07Speaker 1: the strong. But it can only be developed by eradicating
- 1:49:11Speaker 1: all hardness and unkindness, all accusation and resentment. He who,
- 1:49:17Speaker 1: when he sees another suffering for his sin, hardens his
- 1:49:20Speaker 1: heart and thinks or says it serves him right. Such
- 1:49:25Speaker 1: a one cannot exercise pity nor apply its healing balm.
- 1:49:29Speaker 1: Every time a man acts cruelly towards another, be it
- 1:49:33Speaker 1: only a dumb creature, or refuses to bestow needed sympathy,
- 1:49:37Speaker 1: he dwarfs himself, deprives himself of ineffitable blessedness, and prepares
- 1:49:43Speaker 1: himself for suffering. Another form of sympathy is that of
- 1:49:47Speaker 1: rejoicing with those who are more successful than ourselves, as
- 1:49:51Speaker 1: though their success were our own. Blessed indeed is he
- 1:49:54Speaker 1: who is free from all envy and malice, and can
- 1:49:57Speaker 1: rejoice and be glad when he hears of the good
- 1:50:00Speaker 1: fortune of those who regard him as an enemy. The
- 1:50:04Speaker 1: protecting of creatures weaker and more indefensible than oneself is
- 1:50:08Speaker 1: another form in which this divine sympathy is manifested. The
- 1:50:13Speaker 1: helpless frailty of the dumb creation calls for the exercise
- 1:50:17Speaker 1: of the deepest sympathy. The glory of superior strength resides
- 1:50:21Speaker 1: in its power to shield, not to destroy, not by
- 1:50:25Speaker 1: the callous destruction of weaker things, as life truly lived,
- 1:50:29Speaker 1: but by their preservation. All life is linked and kin,
- 1:50:35Speaker 1: and the lowest creature is not separated from the highest
- 1:50:38Speaker 1: by greater weakness, but by lesser intelligence. When we pity
- 1:50:42Speaker 1: and protect, we reveal and enlarge the divine life and
- 1:50:46Speaker 1: joy within ourselves. When we thoughtlessly or callously inflict, suffering,
- 1:50:51Speaker 1: or destroy, then our divine life becomes obscured, and its
- 1:50:55Speaker 1: joy fades and dies. Bodies may feed bodies and pasts,
- 1:51:00Speaker 1: but man's divine nature is only nurtured, sustained and developed
- 1:51:05Speaker 1: by kindness, love, sympathy, and all pure and unselfish acts.
- 1:51:11Speaker 1: By bestowing sympathy on others, we increase our own. Sympathy
- 1:51:16Speaker 1: given can never be wasted. Even the meanest creature will
- 1:51:19Speaker 1: respond to its heavenly touch, for it is the universal
- 1:51:23Speaker 1: language which all creatures understand. I have recently heard a
- 1:51:27Speaker 1: true story of a Dartmoor convict, whose terms of incarceration
- 1:51:31Speaker 1: in various convict stations extended to over forty years. As
- 1:51:37Speaker 1: a criminal, he was considered one of the most callous
- 1:51:40Speaker 1: and hopelessly abandoned, and the warders found him almost intractable.
- 1:51:45Speaker 1: But one day he caught a mouse, a weak, terrified,
- 1:51:48Speaker 1: hunted thing like himself, and its helpless frailty in the
- 1:51:52Speaker 1: similarity of its condition with his own, appealed to him
- 1:51:56Speaker 1: and started into flame the divine spark of sympathy which
- 1:52:00Speaker 1: smoldered in his crime hardened heart, and which no human
- 1:52:04Speaker 1: touch had ever wakened into life. He kept the mouse
- 1:52:07Speaker 1: in an old boot in his cell, fed, tended it,
- 1:52:11Speaker 1: and loved it, And in his love for the weak
- 1:52:13Speaker 1: and helpless, he forgot and lost his hatred for the strong,
- 1:52:18Speaker 1: his heart and hand were no longer against his fellows.
- 1:52:21Speaker 1: He became tractable and obedient to the uttermost the warders
- 1:52:25Speaker 1: could not understand his change. It seemed to them little
- 1:52:29Speaker 1: short of miraculous that this most hardened of all criminals
- 1:52:32Speaker 1: should be suddenly transformed into the likeness of a gentle,
- 1:52:36Speaker 1: obedient child. Even the expression of his features altered remarkably.
- 1:52:42Speaker 1: A pleasing smile began to play around the mouth, which
- 1:52:45Speaker 1: had formerly been moved to nothing better than a cruel grin,
- 1:52:49Speaker 1: and the implacable hardness of his eyes disappeared and gave
- 1:52:53Speaker 1: place to a soft, deep, mellow light. The criminal was
- 1:52:57Speaker 1: a criminal no longer. He was saved, inverted, clothed, and
- 1:53:01Speaker 1: in his right mind, restored to humaneness and to humanity,
- 1:53:06Speaker 1: and set firmly on the pathway to divinity by pitying
- 1:53:09Speaker 1: and caring for a defenseless creature. All this was made
- 1:53:13Speaker 1: known to the warder shortly afterwards, when on his discharge
- 1:53:17Speaker 1: he took the mouse away with him. Thus, sympathy bestowed
- 1:53:22Speaker 1: increases its store in our own hearts, and enriches and
- 1:53:25Speaker 1: fruitifies our own life. Sympathy given is blessedness received. Sympathy
- 1:53:32Speaker 1: withheld is blessedness forfeited in the measure that a man
- 1:53:36Speaker 1: increases and enlarges his sympathy so much nearer does he
- 1:53:40Speaker 1: approach the ideal life, the perfect blessedness. And when his
- 1:53:45Speaker 1: heart has become so mellowed that no hard, bitter or
- 1:53:48Speaker 1: cruel thought can enter and attract from its permanent sweetness,
- 1:53:53Speaker 1: then indeed is he richly and divinely blessed forgiveness. If
- 1:53:59Speaker 1: men only understood all the emptiness and acting of the
- 1:54:04Speaker 1: sleeping and the waking of the souls they judge so blindly,
- 1:54:09Speaker 1: of the hearts they pierce so unkindly, they with gentler
- 1:54:13Speaker 1: words and feeling, would apply the balm of healing. If
- 1:54:17Speaker 1: they only understood kindness nobler ever than revenge Shakespeare. The
- 1:54:26Speaker 1: remembering of injuries is spiritual darkness. The fostering of resentment
- 1:54:31Speaker 1: is spiritual suicide. To resort to the spirit and practice
- 1:54:35Speaker 1: of forgiveness is the beginning of enlightenment. It is also
- 1:54:39Speaker 1: the beginning of peace and happiness. There is no rest
- 1:54:43Speaker 1: for him who broods over slights and injuries and wrongs,
- 1:54:47Speaker 1: no quiet repose of mind for him who feels that
- 1:54:50Speaker 1: he has been unjustly treated, and who schemes how best
- 1:54:53Speaker 1: to act for the discomfiture of his enemy. How can
- 1:54:57Speaker 1: happiness dwell in a heart that is so stir by
- 1:55:00Speaker 1: ill will do birds resort to a burning bush wherein
- 1:55:04Speaker 1: to build and sing. Neither can happiness inhabit in that
- 1:55:09Speaker 1: breast that is aflame with burning thoughts of resentment. Nor
- 1:55:13Speaker 1: can wisdom come and dwell where such folly resides. Revenge
- 1:55:17Speaker 1: seems sweet only to the mind that is unacquainted with
- 1:55:20Speaker 1: the spirit of forgiveness. But when the sweetness of forgiveness
- 1:55:24Speaker 1: is tasted, then the extreme bitterness of revenge is known.
- 1:55:29Speaker 1: Revenge seems to lead to happiness to those who are
- 1:55:32Speaker 1: involved in the darkness of passion. But when the violence
- 1:55:36Speaker 1: of passion is abandoned and the mildness of forgiveness is
- 1:55:39Speaker 1: restored to then it is seen that revenge leads to suffering.
- 1:55:45Speaker 1: Revenge is a virus which eats into the very vitals
- 1:55:48Speaker 1: of the mind and poisons the entire spiritual being. Resentment
- 1:55:53Speaker 1: is a mental fever which burns up the wholesome energies
- 1:55:57Speaker 1: of the mind, and taking offense is a form of
- 1:56:00Speaker 1: moral sickness which SAPs the healthy flow of kindliness and
- 1:56:04Speaker 1: good will, and from which men and women should seek
- 1:56:07Speaker 1: to be delivered. The unforgiving and resentful spirit is a
- 1:56:12Speaker 1: source of great suffering and sorrow, and he who harbors
- 1:56:16Speaker 1: and encourages it, who does not overcome and abandon it,
- 1:56:20Speaker 1: forfeits much blessedness, and does not obtain any measure of
- 1:56:24Speaker 1: true enlightenment. To be hard hearted is to suffer, to
- 1:56:29Speaker 1: be deprived of light and comfort. To be tender hearted
- 1:56:33Speaker 1: is to be serenely glad, is to receive light and
- 1:56:36Speaker 1: be well comforted. It will seem strange to many to
- 1:56:40Speaker 1: be told that the hard hearted and unforgiving suffer most.
- 1:56:44Speaker 1: Yet it is profoundly true. For not only do they,
- 1:56:48Speaker 1: by the law of attraction, draw to themselves the revengeful
- 1:56:52Speaker 1: passions in other people, but their hardness of heart itself
- 1:56:56Speaker 1: is a continual source of suffering. Every time a man
- 1:57:00Speaker 1: hardens his heart against a fellow being, he inflicts upon
- 1:57:04Speaker 1: himself five kinds of suffering, namely, the suffering of loss
- 1:57:09Speaker 1: of love, the suffering of lost communion and fellowship, the
- 1:57:14Speaker 1: suffering of a troubled and confused mind, the suffering of
- 1:57:18Speaker 1: wounded passion or pride, and the suffering of punishment inflicted
- 1:57:22Speaker 1: by others. Every act of unforgiveness entails upon the doer
- 1:57:27Speaker 1: of that act these five sufferings, whereas every act of
- 1:57:31Speaker 1: forgiveness brings to the doer five kinds of blessedness. The
- 1:57:36Speaker 1: blessedness of love, the blessedness of increased communion and fellowship,
- 1:57:41Speaker 1: the blessedness of a calm and peaceful mind, the blessedness
- 1:57:45Speaker 1: of passion stilled and pride overcome, And the blessedness and
- 1:57:49Speaker 1: kindness and good will bestowed by others. Numbers of people
- 1:57:54Speaker 1: are today suffering the fiery torments of an unforgiving spirit,
- 1:57:59Speaker 1: And only when they may effort to overcome that spirit
- 1:58:02Speaker 1: can they know what a cruel and exacting taskmaster they
- 1:58:05Speaker 1: are serving. Only those who have abandoned the service of
- 1:58:09Speaker 1: such a master for that of a nobler master of
- 1:58:12Speaker 1: forgiveness can realize and know how grievous a service is
- 1:58:16Speaker 1: the one, how sweet the other. Let a man contemplate
- 1:58:21Speaker 1: the strife of the world, how individuals and communities, neighbors
- 1:58:25Speaker 1: and nations leaving continual retaliations towards each other. Let him
- 1:58:30Speaker 1: realize the heartaches, the bitter tears, the grievous partings and misunderstandings,
- 1:58:37Speaker 1: even the bloodshed and woe which spring from that strife,
- 1:58:41Speaker 1: And thus realizing he will never again yield to ignoble
- 1:58:45Speaker 1: thoughts of resentment, never again take offense at the actions
- 1:58:49Speaker 1: of others, never again live an unforgiveness towards any being,
- 1:58:54Speaker 1: Have good will to all that lives, letting unkindness die
- 1:58:58Speaker 1: and greed in wrath, so that your lives be made
- 1:59:02Speaker 1: like soft airs passing by. When a man abandons retaliation
- 1:59:07Speaker 1: for forgiveness, he passes from darkness to light. So dark
- 1:59:12Speaker 1: and ignorant is unforgiveness that no being who is at
- 1:59:15Speaker 1: all wise or enlightened could descend to it. But its
- 1:59:19Speaker 1: darkness is not understood and known until left behind, and
- 1:59:23Speaker 1: the better and nobler course of conduct is sought and practiced.
- 1:59:28Speaker 1: Man is blinded and deluded only by his own dark
- 1:59:31Speaker 1: and sinful tendencies. And the giving up of all unforgiveness
- 1:59:35Speaker 1: means the giving up of pride. In certain forms of passion,
- 1:59:39Speaker 1: the abandonment of the deeply rooted idea of the importance
- 1:59:42Speaker 1: of one's self and of the necessity for protecting and
- 1:59:46Speaker 1: defending that self. And when that is done the higher life,
- 1:59:50Speaker 1: greater wisdom and pure enlightenment, which pride and passion completely obscured,
- 1:59:56Speaker 1: are revealed in all their light and beauty. When there
- 2:00:00Speaker 1: are petty offenses, little spites, and passing slights, which, while
- 2:00:04Speaker 1: of a less serious nature than the deep seated hatreds
- 2:00:07Speaker 1: and revenges, dwarf the character and cramp the soul. They
- 2:00:12Speaker 1: are due to the sin of self and self importance,
- 2:00:15Speaker 1: and thrive on vanity. Whosoever is blinded and deluded by
- 2:00:19Speaker 1: vanity will continually see something in the actions in the
- 2:00:23Speaker 1: attitudes of others towards him, at which to take offense.
- 2:00:27Speaker 1: And the more there is a vanity, the more greatly
- 2:00:29Speaker 1: will the imaginary slight or wrong be exaggerated. Moreover, to
- 2:00:35Speaker 1: live in the frequent indulgence of petty resentments increases the
- 2:00:39Speaker 1: spirit of hatred and leads gradually downward to greater darkness, suffering,
- 2:00:44Speaker 1: and self delusion. Don't take offense or allow your feelings
- 2:00:49Speaker 1: to be hurt, which means get rid of pride and vanity.
- 2:00:53Speaker 1: Don't give occasion for offense or hurt the feelings of others,
- 2:00:57Speaker 1: which means be gently conci conate, forgiving and charitable towards all.
- 2:01:04Speaker 1: The giving up, the total uprooting of vanity and pride
- 2:01:08Speaker 1: is a great task, but it is a blessed task,
- 2:01:11Speaker 1: and it can be accomplished by constant practice in non resentment,
- 2:01:15Speaker 1: and by meditating upon one's thoughts and actions so as
- 2:01:19Speaker 1: to understand and purify them. And the spirit of forgiveness
- 2:01:23Speaker 1: is perfected in one in the measure that pride and
- 2:01:26Speaker 1: vanity are overcome and abandoned. The not taking offense and
- 2:01:31Speaker 1: the not giving offense go together. When a man ceases
- 2:01:35Speaker 1: to resent the actions of others, he is already acting
- 2:01:38Speaker 1: kindly towards them, considering them before himself or his own defense.
- 2:01:44Speaker 1: Such a man will be gentle in what he says
- 2:01:46Speaker 1: and does, will arouse love and kindness in others, and
- 2:01:49Speaker 1: not stir them to ill will and strife. He will
- 2:01:53Speaker 1: also be free from all fear concerning the actions of
- 2:01:55Speaker 1: others towards him, for he who hurts none fears none
- 2:02:01Speaker 1: but the unforgiving man. He who is eager to pay
- 2:02:04Speaker 1: back some real or imaginary slight or injury, will not
- 2:02:08Speaker 1: be considerate towards others, for he considers himself first and
- 2:02:12Speaker 1: is continually making enemies. He also loves in the fear
- 2:02:16Speaker 1: of others, thinking that they are trying to do towards
- 2:02:20Speaker 1: him as he is doing towards them. He who contrives
- 2:02:24Speaker 1: the hurt of others fears others. There is a beautiful
- 2:02:28Speaker 1: story of Prince de Hayu, which was told by an
- 2:02:31Speaker 1: ancient Indian teacher to his disciples in order to impress
- 2:02:35Speaker 1: them with the truth of the sublime precept that hatred
- 2:02:39Speaker 1: ceases not by hatred. At any time, hatred ceases by
- 2:02:43Speaker 1: non hatred. The story is as follows. Brahmadada, a powerful
- 2:02:49Speaker 1: king of Benarez, made war upon Durkheti, the king of Cossila,
- 2:02:55Speaker 1: in order to annex his kingdom, which was much smaller
- 2:02:58Speaker 1: than his own. Burghetti, seeing that it was impossible for
- 2:03:02Speaker 1: him to resist the greater power of Brahmadada, fled and
- 2:03:06Speaker 1: left his kingdom in his enemy's hands. For some time,
- 2:03:10Speaker 1: he wandered from place to place in disguise, and at
- 2:03:14Speaker 1: last settled down with his queen in an artisan's cottage,
- 2:03:17Speaker 1: and the queen gave birth to a son, whom they
- 2:03:20Speaker 1: called Drhayu. Now King Brahmadada was anxious to discover the
- 2:03:25Speaker 1: hiding place of Dirghetti in order to put to death
- 2:03:28Speaker 1: the conquered king, for he thought, seeing that I have
- 2:03:32Speaker 1: deprived him of his kingdom, he may some day treacherously
- 2:03:35Speaker 1: kill me if I do not kill him. But many
- 2:03:38Speaker 1: years passed by, and Dirkhetty devoted himself to the education
- 2:03:42Speaker 1: of his son, and by diligent application, became learned and
- 2:03:47Speaker 1: skillful and wise. And after a time Dirghetti's secret became known,
- 2:03:53Speaker 1: and he, fearing that Brahmadada would discover him and slay
- 2:03:57Speaker 1: all three, and thinking more of the life of his
- 2:03:59Speaker 1: life and his own, sent away the prince. Soon after
- 2:04:03Speaker 1: the exile, the king fell into the hands of Brahmadada
- 2:04:07Speaker 1: and was, along with his queen executed. Now Brahmadada thought,
- 2:04:13Speaker 1: I have got rid of Dirkhetti and his queen, But
- 2:04:16Speaker 1: their son, Prince Dirkhayu, lives, and he will be sure
- 2:04:20Speaker 1: to contrive some means of affecting my assassination. Yet he
- 2:04:24Speaker 1: is unknown to any and I have no means of
- 2:04:27Speaker 1: discovering him. So the king lived in great fear and
- 2:04:30Speaker 1: continual distress of mind. Soon after the execution of his parents,
- 2:04:36Speaker 1: Dr Khayu, under an assumed name, sought employment in the
- 2:04:40Speaker 1: king's stables, and was engaged by the master of elephants.
- 2:04:45Speaker 1: Dr Khayu quickly endeared himself to all, and his superior
- 2:04:48Speaker 1: abilities came at last under the notice of the King,
- 2:04:51Speaker 1: who had the young man brought before him, and was
- 2:04:54Speaker 1: so charmed with him that he employed him in his
- 2:04:57Speaker 1: own castle. And he proved to be so able in
- 2:05:00Speaker 1: diligent that the king shortly placed him in a position
- 2:05:03Speaker 1: of great trust under himself. One day, the king went
- 2:05:06Speaker 1: on a long hunting expedition and became separated from his retinue.
- 2:05:11Speaker 1: Dr Khayu alone remaining with him, and the king, being
- 2:05:15Speaker 1: fatigued with his exertions, lay down and slept with his
- 2:05:18Speaker 1: head on Durkhayu's lap. Then Dr Kayu thought, this king
- 2:05:23Speaker 1: has greatly wronged me. He robbed my father of his
- 2:05:26Speaker 1: kingdom and slew my parents, and he is now entirely
- 2:05:29Speaker 1: in my power. And he drew his sword, thinking to
- 2:05:33Speaker 1: slay Bermadada, but remembering how his father had taught him
- 2:05:37Speaker 1: never to seek revenge, but to forgive to the uttermost,
- 2:05:41Speaker 1: he sheathed his sword. At last, the king awoke out
- 2:05:44Speaker 1: of a disturbed sleep, and the youth inquired of him
- 2:05:47Speaker 1: why he looked so frightened my sleep, said the king
- 2:05:51Speaker 1: is always restless, for I frequently dreamed that I am
- 2:05:54Speaker 1: in the power of young dr Hayu, and that he
- 2:05:57Speaker 1: is alone to slay me. While here I again dreamed
- 2:06:01Speaker 1: that with greater vividness than ever before, and it has
- 2:06:05Speaker 1: filled me with dread and terror. Then the youth, drawing
- 2:06:09Speaker 1: his sword, said, I am Prince dir Khayu, and you
- 2:06:13Speaker 1: are in my power. The time of vengeance has arrived.
- 2:06:17Speaker 1: Then the king fell upon his knees and begged Urkhayu
- 2:06:20Speaker 1: to spare his life. And Dirkhayu said, it is you,
- 2:06:23Speaker 1: o King, who must spare my life. For many years,
- 2:06:27Speaker 1: you have wished to find me in order that you
- 2:06:30Speaker 1: might kill me. And now that you have found me,
- 2:06:33Speaker 1: let me beg of you to grant me my life.
- 2:06:35Speaker 1: And there and then Dibrahma Dada and Dirkhayu grant each
- 2:06:40Speaker 1: other life, took hands and solemnly vowed never to harm
- 2:06:44Speaker 1: each other. And so overcome was the king by the
- 2:06:47Speaker 1: noble and forgiving spirit of Dirghayu, that he gave him
- 2:06:51Speaker 1: his daughter in marriage and restored him to his father's kingdom.
- 2:06:56Speaker 1: Thus hatred ceases by not hatred by forgiveness, which is
- 2:07:01Speaker 1: very beautiful and is sweeter and more effective than revenge.
- 2:07:05Speaker 1: It is the beginning of love, of that divine love
- 2:07:09Speaker 1: that does not seek its own, And he who practices it,
- 2:07:13Speaker 1: he who perfects in it, comes at last to realize
- 2:07:16Speaker 1: that blessed state, wherein the torments of pride and vanity,
- 2:07:19Speaker 1: and hatred and retaliation are forever dispelled, and good will
- 2:07:24Speaker 1: and peace are unchanging and unlimited. In that state of calm,
- 2:07:29Speaker 1: silent bliss, even forgiveness passes away and is no longer needed.
- 2:07:35Speaker 1: For he who has reached it sees no evil to resent,
- 2:07:38Speaker 1: but only ignorance and illusion on which to have compassion,
- 2:07:42Speaker 1: And forgiveness is only needed so long as there is
- 2:07:45Speaker 1: any tendency to resent, retaliate, and take offense. Equal love
- 2:07:51Speaker 1: towards all is the perfect law, the perfect state to
- 2:07:55Speaker 1: which all lesser states find their completion. Forgiveness is one
- 2:07:59Speaker 1: of the doorways in the faultless temple of love divine,
- 2:08:04Speaker 1: seeing no evil, the solid, solid universe is pervious to love.
- 2:08:10Speaker 1: With bandaged eyes. He never errs around below above his
- 2:08:15Speaker 1: blinding light. His flingeth white on God's and Satan's brood
- 2:08:21Speaker 1: and reconciles by mystic wiles the evil and the good. Emerson.
- 2:08:28Speaker 1: If thou thinkest evil, be thou sure thine acte will
- 2:08:32Speaker 1: bear the shadow of the stain. And if thy thought
- 2:08:36Speaker 1: be perfect, then thy deed will be as of the perfect,
- 2:08:40Speaker 1: true and pure. After Confucius, after much practice and forgiveness,
- 2:08:48Speaker 1: and having cultivated the spirit of forgiveness up to a
- 2:08:51Speaker 1: certain point, knowledge of the actual nature of good and evil,
- 2:08:55Speaker 1: dawns upon the mind, and a man begins to understand
- 2:08:58Speaker 1: how thoughts and motives are formed in the human heart,
- 2:09:02Speaker 1: how they develop, and how they take birth in the
- 2:09:04Speaker 1: form of actions. This marks the opening of a new
- 2:09:08Speaker 1: vision in the mind, the commencement of a nobler, higher,
- 2:09:12Speaker 1: diviner life. For the man now begins to perceive that
- 2:09:16Speaker 1: there is no necessity to resist or resent the actions
- 2:09:19Speaker 1: of others towards him, whatever those actions may be, and
- 2:09:23Speaker 1: that all along his resentment has been caused by his
- 2:09:26Speaker 1: own ignorance, and that his own bitterness of spirit is wrong.
- 2:09:31Speaker 1: Having arrived thus far, he will take himself with some
- 2:09:34Speaker 1: questionings as these, Why this continual retaliation and forgiveness, Why
- 2:09:41Speaker 1: this tormenting anger against another? And then this repentance and
- 2:09:44Speaker 1: forgiveness is not forgiveness the taking back of one's anger,
- 2:09:49Speaker 1: the giving up of one's resentment. And if anger and
- 2:09:52Speaker 1: resentment are good and necessary, why repent of them and
- 2:09:55Speaker 1: give them up? If it is so beautiful, so sweet,
- 2:10:00Speaker 1: so peaceful, to get rid of all feelings of bitterness
- 2:10:03Speaker 1: and to utterly and wholly forgive, would it not still
- 2:10:07Speaker 1: be more beautiful and sweet and peaceful, Never to grow
- 2:10:10Speaker 1: bitter at all, never to no anger, never to resent
- 2:10:14Speaker 1: as evil the action of another, but always to live
- 2:10:18Speaker 1: in the experience of that calm, pure, blissful love which
- 2:10:22Speaker 1: is known when an act of forgiveness is done and
- 2:10:25Speaker 1: all unruly passion towards another is put away. If another
- 2:10:29Speaker 1: has done me wrong, is not my hatred towards him wrong?
- 2:10:33Speaker 1: And can one wrong right another? Moreover, has he, by
- 2:10:38Speaker 1: his wrong really injured me? Or has he injured himself?
- 2:10:43Speaker 1: Am I not injured by my own wrong rather than
- 2:10:45Speaker 1: by his? Why? Then do I grow angry? Why do
- 2:10:50Speaker 1: I resent, retaliate and engage in bitter thoughts? Is it
- 2:10:55Speaker 1: not because my pride is piqued, or my vanity wounded,
- 2:10:58Speaker 1: or my selfishness ordered? Is it not because my blind
- 2:11:02Speaker 1: animal passions are aroused and allowed to subdue my better nature.
- 2:11:07Speaker 1: Seeing that I am hurt by another person's attitude towards
- 2:11:10Speaker 1: me because of my own pride or vanity or ungoverned
- 2:11:14Speaker 1: and unpurified passions, would it not be better to look
- 2:11:18Speaker 1: to the wrong in myself rather than the wrong in another,
- 2:11:21Speaker 1: to get rid of pride and vanity and passion, and
- 2:11:24Speaker 1: so avoid being hurt at all by such self questionings
- 2:11:29Speaker 1: and their elucidation in the light of mild thoughts in
- 2:11:32Speaker 1: dispassionate conduct, a man gradually overcoming passion and rising out
- 2:11:38Speaker 1: of the ignorance which gave rise to passion, will at
- 2:11:41Speaker 1: last reach that blessed state in which he will cease
- 2:11:44Speaker 1: to see evil in others, and will dwell in universal
- 2:11:47Speaker 1: good will and love in peace. Not that he will
- 2:11:51Speaker 1: cease to see ignorance and folly, not that he will
- 2:11:54Speaker 1: cease to see suffering and sorrow and misery, Not that
- 2:11:58Speaker 1: he will cease to distinguish between acts that are pure
- 2:12:01Speaker 1: and impure, right and wrong. For having put away passion
- 2:12:05Speaker 1: and prejudice, he will see these things in full clear
- 2:12:08Speaker 1: light of knowledge, and exactly as they are. But he
- 2:12:12Speaker 1: will cease to see anything, any evil power in another
- 2:12:16Speaker 1: which can do him injury, which he must violently oppose
- 2:12:20Speaker 1: and strive to crush, and against which he must guard himself.
- 2:12:25Speaker 1: Having arrived at right understanding of evil by purging it
- 2:12:28Speaker 1: away from his own heart, he sees that it is
- 2:12:31Speaker 1: a thing that does not call for hatred and fear
- 2:12:33Speaker 1: and resentment, but for consideration, compassion, and love. Shakespeare, through
- 2:12:40Speaker 1: one of his characters, says, there is no darkness but ignorance.
- 2:12:45Speaker 1: All evil is ignorance, is dense darkness of mind, and
- 2:12:49Speaker 1: the removal of sin from one's mind is coming out
- 2:12:53Speaker 1: of darkness into spiritual light. Evil is the negation of good,
- 2:12:58Speaker 1: just as darkness is the negation or absence of light.
- 2:13:01Speaker 1: And what is there in a negation to arouse anger
- 2:13:04Speaker 1: or resentment when night settles down upon the world. Who
- 2:13:08Speaker 1: is so foolish as to rail at the darkness? The
- 2:13:12Speaker 1: enlightened man likewise does not accuse or condemn the spiritual
- 2:13:16Speaker 1: darkness in men's hearts, which is manifested in the form
- 2:13:20Speaker 1: of sin, though by gentle reproof he may sometimes point
- 2:13:24Speaker 1: out where the light lies now. The ignorance to which
- 2:13:28Speaker 1: I refer as evil, or as the source of evil
- 2:13:31Speaker 1: is twofold. There is wrong doing which is committed without
- 2:13:35Speaker 1: any knowledge of good and evil, and where there is
- 2:13:38Speaker 1: no choice, this is unconscious wrongdoing. Then there is wrong
- 2:13:43Speaker 1: doing which is done in the knowledge that it ought
- 2:13:45Speaker 1: not to be done. This is conscious wrongdoing. But both
- 2:13:49Speaker 1: unconscious and conscious wrongdoing arise in ignorance, that is, ignorance
- 2:13:56Speaker 1: of the real nature and painful consequences of the wrong doing.
- 2:14:01Speaker 1: Why does a man continue to do certain things which
- 2:14:03Speaker 1: he feels he ought not to do if he knows
- 2:14:06Speaker 1: that what he is doing is wrong? Where lies the ignorance?
- 2:14:11Speaker 1: He continues to do those things because his knowledge of
- 2:14:13Speaker 1: them is incomplete. He only knows he ought not to
- 2:14:17Speaker 1: do them by certain precepts, without any qualms of conscience within.
- 2:14:22Speaker 1: But he does not fully and completely understand what he
- 2:14:25Speaker 1: is doing. He knows that certain acts bring him immediate pleasure,
- 2:14:29Speaker 1: and so, in spite of the troubled conscience which follows
- 2:14:33Speaker 1: that pleasure, he continues to commit them. He is convinced
- 2:14:36Speaker 1: that the pleasure is good and desirable, and therefore to
- 2:14:40Speaker 1: be enjoyed. He does not know that pleasure and pain
- 2:14:43Speaker 1: are one, but thinks he can have the one without
- 2:14:46Speaker 1: the other He has no knowledge of the law which
- 2:14:49Speaker 1: governs human actions. He never thinks of associating his sufferings
- 2:14:54Speaker 1: with his own wrongdoing, but believes they are caused by
- 2:14:57Speaker 1: the wrongdoing of others, or are the mista serious dispensations
- 2:15:01Speaker 1: of providence, and therefore not to be inquired into or understood.
- 2:15:07Speaker 1: He is seeking happiness and does those things which he
- 2:15:11Speaker 1: believes will bring him most enjoyment. But he acts in
- 2:15:14Speaker 1: entire ignorance of the hidden and inevitable consequences which attached
- 2:15:19Speaker 1: to his actions. Set a man to me once, who
- 2:15:23Speaker 1: was the victim of a bad habit. I know the
- 2:15:25Speaker 1: habit is a bad one, and that it does me
- 2:15:28Speaker 1: more harm than good. And I said, if you know
- 2:15:32Speaker 1: what you are doing is bad and harmful, why do
- 2:15:34Speaker 1: you continue to do it? And he replied, because it
- 2:15:38Speaker 1: is pleasant and I like it. This man, of course,
- 2:15:42Speaker 1: did not really know that his habit was bad. He
- 2:15:45Speaker 1: had been told that it was, and he thought he
- 2:15:47Speaker 1: knew or believed it was, But in reality he thought
- 2:15:50Speaker 1: it was good and that it was conducive to his
- 2:15:53Speaker 1: happiness and well being, and therefore he continued to practice it.
- 2:15:58Speaker 1: When a man knows by experience that a thing is bad,
- 2:16:02Speaker 1: and that every time he does it he injures his body, mind,
- 2:16:05Speaker 1: or both. When his knowledge of that thing is so
- 2:16:08Speaker 1: complete that he is acquainted with its whole train of
- 2:16:11Speaker 1: baneful effects, then he cannot only not do it any longer,
- 2:16:16Speaker 1: he cannot even desire to do it, and even the
- 2:16:18Speaker 1: pleasure that was formerly in that thing becomes painful. No
- 2:16:23Speaker 1: man would put a venomous snake in his pocket because
- 2:16:26Speaker 1: it is prettily colored. He knows that a deadly sting
- 2:16:29Speaker 1: lurks in those beautiful markings. Nor when a man knows
- 2:16:33Speaker 1: the unavoidable pain and hurt which lie hidden in wrong
- 2:16:36Speaker 1: thoughts and actions, does he continue to think and commit them.
- 2:16:41Speaker 1: Even the immediate pleasure which formerly he greedily sought is
- 2:16:45Speaker 1: gone from them, their surface attractiveness has vanished. He is
- 2:16:50Speaker 1: no longer ignorant concerning their true nature. He sees them
- 2:16:54Speaker 1: as they are. I knew a young man who was
- 2:16:57Speaker 1: in business, and although a member of a church and
- 2:17:00Speaker 1: occupying the position a voluntary religious instructor, he told me
- 2:17:04Speaker 1: that it was absolutely necessary to practice lying and deception
- 2:17:08Speaker 1: in business, otherwise sure and certain ruin would follow. He
- 2:17:13Speaker 1: said he knew lying was wrong, but while he remained
- 2:17:15Speaker 1: in business, he must continue to do it. Upon questioning him,
- 2:17:20Speaker 1: I found, of course that he never tried truth and
- 2:17:23Speaker 1: honesty in his business, had not even thought of trying
- 2:17:26Speaker 1: the better way. So firmly convinced was he that it
- 2:17:30Speaker 1: was not possible for him to know whether it would
- 2:17:32Speaker 1: be productive or ruin. Now did this young man know
- 2:17:36Speaker 1: that lying was wrong? There was a perceptual sense only
- 2:17:40Speaker 1: in which he knew, But there was a deeper and
- 2:17:43Speaker 1: more real sense in which he did not know. He
- 2:17:46Speaker 1: had been taught to regard lying as wrong, and his
- 2:17:49Speaker 1: conscience bore out that teaching. But he believed that it
- 2:17:53Speaker 1: brought him profit, prosperity, and happiness, and that honesty would
- 2:17:57Speaker 1: bring him loss, poverty, and misery. In a word, he
- 2:18:01Speaker 1: regarded lying deep in his heart as the right thing
- 2:18:04Speaker 1: to do, and honesty as the wrong practice. He had
- 2:18:09Speaker 1: no knowledge whatever of the real nature of the act
- 2:18:11Speaker 1: of lying, how it is on the instant of its
- 2:18:15Speaker 1: committal loss of character, loss of self respect, loss of power,
- 2:18:20Speaker 1: usefulness and influence, and loss of blessedness, And how it
- 2:18:25Speaker 1: unerringly leads to the loss of reputation and loss of
- 2:18:29Speaker 1: material profit and prosperity. Only when such a man begins
- 2:18:33Speaker 1: to consider happiness of others, prefers to embrace the loss
- 2:18:37Speaker 1: which he fears, rather than clutch at the gain which
- 2:18:40Speaker 1: he desires, will he obtain that real knowledge which lofty
- 2:18:44Speaker 1: moral conduct alone can reveal. And then, experiencing the greater blessedness,
- 2:18:51Speaker 1: he will see how all along he has been deceiving
- 2:18:54Speaker 1: and defrauding himself rather than others, has been living in
- 2:18:58Speaker 1: darkest ignorance and self delusion. These two common instances of
- 2:19:03Speaker 1: wrongdoing will serve to illustrate and make plainer to those
- 2:19:07Speaker 1: of my readers, who, while searching for truth, are as
- 2:19:11Speaker 1: yet doubtful, uncertain, and confused. The deep truth that all
- 2:19:16Speaker 1: sin or evil is a condition of ignorance, and therefore
- 2:19:20Speaker 1: to be dealt with in a loving and not a
- 2:19:22Speaker 1: hateful spirit. And as with bad habits and lying, so
- 2:19:27Speaker 1: with all sin, with lust, hatred, malice, envy, pride, vanity,
- 2:19:33Speaker 1: self indulgence, and selfishness in all its forms. It is
- 2:19:38Speaker 1: a state of spiritual darkness, the absence of the light
- 2:19:41Speaker 1: of truth in the heart, the negation of knowledge. Thus,
- 2:19:46Speaker 1: when by overcoming the wrong condition in one's heart, the
- 2:19:50Speaker 1: nature of evil is fully realized, and near belief gives
- 2:19:53Speaker 1: place to living knowledge. Evil can no longer be hatefully
- 2:19:57Speaker 1: condoned and violently resisted, and the wrongdoer is thought of
- 2:20:02Speaker 1: with tender compassion. And this brings us to another aspect
- 2:20:06Speaker 1: of evil, namely that of individual freedom, the right of
- 2:20:11Speaker 1: every person to choose his own actions. Along with the
- 2:20:15Speaker 1: seeing of evil and others, is the desire to convert
- 2:20:18Speaker 1: or coerce others into one's own ways of thinking and acting.
- 2:20:23Speaker 1: Probably the commonest delusion in which men are involved is
- 2:20:27Speaker 1: that of thinking that what they themselves believe in, think,
- 2:20:30Speaker 1: and do is good, and all that is otherwise is evil,
- 2:20:34Speaker 1: and therefore to be powerfully condemned and resisted. It is
- 2:20:38Speaker 1: out of this delusion that all persecution springs. There are
- 2:20:43Speaker 1: Christians who regard all atheists as men wholly evil, as
- 2:20:47Speaker 1: given up to the service of an evil power, and
- 2:20:50Speaker 1: there are atheists who firmly believe that all Christians are
- 2:20:54Speaker 1: doing the greatest harm to the whole human race by
- 2:20:57Speaker 1: their superstitious and false doctrines. The truth is that neither
- 2:21:02Speaker 1: the Christian nor the atheist is evil, nor in the
- 2:21:05Speaker 1: service of evil, but each is choosing his own way
- 2:21:09Speaker 1: and is pursuing that course which he is convinced is right.
- 2:21:13Speaker 1: Let a man quietly contemplate the fact that numbers of
- 2:21:17Speaker 1: followers of various religions the world over are as they
- 2:21:21Speaker 1: ever were, engaged in condemning each other as evil and
- 2:21:25Speaker 1: wrong and regarding themselves as good and right, and it
- 2:21:29Speaker 1: will help him to realize how all evil is merely ignorance,
- 2:21:32Speaker 1: spiritual darkness, and earnest meditation on that fact will be
- 2:21:37Speaker 1: found to be one of the greatest aids in developing
- 2:21:39Speaker 1: greater kindness, charity, insight, and breath of mind. The truly
- 2:21:46Speaker 1: wise and good man sees good in all, evil in none.
- 2:21:50Speaker 1: He has abandoned the folly of wanting others to think
- 2:21:53Speaker 1: and act as he thinks and acts, for he sees
- 2:21:56Speaker 1: men are variously constituted, are at different points in their
- 2:22:00Speaker 1: spiritual evolution, and must, of necessity think and act differently.
- 2:22:06Speaker 1: Having put away hatred, condemnation, egotism, and prejudice, he has
- 2:22:11Speaker 1: become enlightened, and he sees that purity, love, compassion, gentleness, patience, humility,
- 2:22:19Speaker 1: and unselfishness are manifestations of light and knowledge, while in purity,
- 2:22:25Speaker 1: hatred cruelty, passion, darkness, and ignorance, and that whether men
- 2:22:31Speaker 1: are living in light or darkness, they are one in
- 2:22:35Speaker 1: all doing that which they think is necessary, are acting
- 2:22:38Speaker 1: in accordance with their own measure of light or darkness.
- 2:22:42Speaker 1: The wise man understands, and understanding he ceases from all
- 2:22:47Speaker 1: bitterness and accusation. Every man acts in accordance with his nature,
- 2:22:52Speaker 1: with his own sense of right and wrong, and is
- 2:22:55Speaker 1: surely gathering in the results of his own experience. There
- 2:22:59Speaker 1: is once a supreme right which every being possesses to
- 2:23:03Speaker 1: think and act as he chooses. If he chooses to
- 2:23:06Speaker 1: think and act selfishly, thinking of his own immediate happiness only,
- 2:23:11Speaker 1: and not that of others, then he will rapidly bring
- 2:23:14Speaker 1: upon himself, by the action of the moral law of
- 2:23:18Speaker 1: cause and effect, such afflictions as will cause him to
- 2:23:22Speaker 1: pause and consider, and so find a better way. There
- 2:23:26Speaker 1: is no teacher to compare with experience, no chastisement so
- 2:23:31Speaker 1: corrective and purifying as that which men ignorantly inflict upon themselves.
- 2:23:36Speaker 1: The selfish man is the ignorant man. He chooses his
- 2:23:40Speaker 1: own way, but it is a way which leads to suffering,
- 2:23:44Speaker 1: and through suffering to knowledge. And bliss. The good man
- 2:23:48Speaker 1: is the wise man. He likewise chooses his own way,
- 2:23:52Speaker 1: but he chooses it in the full light of knowledge,
- 2:23:55Speaker 1: having passed through the stages of ignorance and suffering and
- 2:23:59Speaker 1: arrived at notae and bliss. A man begins to understand
- 2:24:03Speaker 1: what seeing no evil is when putting away all personal
- 2:24:07Speaker 1: desires in his judgments of others, so considers them from
- 2:24:11Speaker 1: his own standpoint, and judges their actions not from his
- 2:24:14Speaker 1: own standard, but from theirs. It is because men set
- 2:24:18Speaker 1: up arbitrary standards of right and wrong, and are anxious
- 2:24:22Speaker 1: that all should conform to their particular standard, that they
- 2:24:25Speaker 1: see evil in each other. A man is only rightly
- 2:24:29Speaker 1: judged when he is not judged from my standard or yours,
- 2:24:33Speaker 1: but from his own. And to deal with him thus
- 2:24:36Speaker 1: is not judgment, but it is love. It is only
- 2:24:39Speaker 1: when we look through the eyes of the impersonal love
- 2:24:42Speaker 1: that we become enlightened and see others as they really are.
- 2:24:46Speaker 1: And a man is approaching that love when he can
- 2:24:49Speaker 1: say in his heart, who am I that I should
- 2:24:51Speaker 1: judge another? Am I so pure and sinless that I
- 2:24:55Speaker 1: arraign men and pass the judgment of evil upon them? Rather,
- 2:25:00Speaker 1: let me humble myself and correct my own errors, before
- 2:25:04Speaker 1: assuming the position of supreme judge of those other men.
- 2:25:08Speaker 1: It was said by one of old to those who
- 2:25:11Speaker 1: were about to stone as evil a woman taken in
- 2:25:15Speaker 1: the act of committing one of the darkest sins, he
- 2:25:18Speaker 1: that is without sin, let him cast the first stone.
- 2:25:22Speaker 1: And though he who said it was without sin, yet
- 2:25:26Speaker 1: he took up no stone, nor passed any bitter judgment,
- 2:25:30Speaker 1: but said, with infinite gentleness and compassion, neither do I
- 2:25:35Speaker 1: condemn thee go and sin no more. In the pure heart,
- 2:25:40Speaker 1: there is no room left where personal judgments and hatreds
- 2:25:44Speaker 1: can find lodgment, for it is filled to overflowing with
- 2:25:47Speaker 1: tenderness and love. It sees no evil. And only as
- 2:25:51Speaker 1: men succeed in seeing no evil in others will they
- 2:25:55Speaker 1: become free from sin and sorrow and suffering. No man
- 2:25:59Speaker 1: sees evil in himself or his own acts, except the
- 2:26:03Speaker 1: man who is becoming enlightened, and then he abandons those
- 2:26:07Speaker 1: acts which he has come to see are wrong. Every
- 2:26:11Speaker 1: man justifies himself in what he does, and however evil
- 2:26:16Speaker 1: others may regard his conduct, he himself thinks it to
- 2:26:19Speaker 1: be good and necessary. If he did not he would
- 2:26:22Speaker 1: not and could not do it. The angry man always
- 2:26:26Speaker 1: justifies his anger, the covechuous man his greed, the impure
- 2:26:31Speaker 1: man his unchastity. The liar considers that his lying is
- 2:26:35Speaker 1: altogether necessary. The slanderer believes that in vilifying the characters
- 2:26:41Speaker 1: of those whom he dislikes and warning other people against
- 2:26:44Speaker 1: their evil natures, he is doing well. The thief is
- 2:26:49Speaker 1: convinced that stealing is the shortest and best way to plenty, prosperity,
- 2:26:53Speaker 1: and happiness. And even the murderer thinks there is a
- 2:26:57Speaker 1: ground of justification for his deed. Every man's deeds are
- 2:27:01Speaker 1: in accordance with the measure of his own light or darkness,
- 2:27:05Speaker 1: and no man can live higher than he is or
- 2:27:08Speaker 1: act beyond the limits of his knowledge. Nevertheless, he can
- 2:27:12Speaker 1: improve himself and thereby gradually increase his light and extend
- 2:27:16Speaker 1: the range of his knowledge. The angry man indulges in
- 2:27:20Speaker 1: abuse because his knowledge does not extend to forbearance and patience.
- 2:27:25Speaker 1: Not having practiced gentleness, he does not understand it and
- 2:27:29Speaker 1: cannot choose it, nor can he know by its comparison
- 2:27:33Speaker 1: with the light of gentleness the darkness of anger. It
- 2:27:37Speaker 1: is the same with the lyre, the slanderer, and the thief.
- 2:27:41Speaker 1: He lives in this dark condition of mind and action
- 2:27:44Speaker 1: because he is limited to it by his own immature
- 2:27:47Speaker 1: knowledge and experience, because never having lived in the higher conditions,
- 2:27:52Speaker 1: he has no knowledge of them, and it is to
- 2:27:54Speaker 1: him as if they were non existent. The light shineth
- 2:27:59Speaker 1: in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not, Nor
- 2:28:03Speaker 1: can he understand even the conditions in which he is living,
- 2:28:07Speaker 1: because being dark, they are necessarily devoid of all knowledge.
- 2:28:12Speaker 1: When a man is driven by repeated sufferings to at
- 2:28:16Speaker 1: last reflect upon his conduct and comes to see that
- 2:28:19Speaker 1: his anger are lying, or whatever ignorant condition he may
- 2:28:23Speaker 1: have been living in is productive only of trouble and sorrow,
- 2:28:27Speaker 1: he then abandons it and commences to search for and
- 2:28:30Speaker 1: practice the opposite and enlightened condition. And when he is
- 2:28:35Speaker 1: firmly established in the better way, so that his knowledge
- 2:28:38Speaker 1: of both conditions is complete, then he realizes in what
- 2:28:42Speaker 1: great darkness he has formerly lived. This knowledge of good
- 2:28:46Speaker 1: and evil by experience constitutes enlightenment. When a man begins
- 2:28:51Speaker 1: to look, as it were, through the eyes of others,
- 2:28:55Speaker 1: and to measure them by their own standard and not
- 2:28:57Speaker 1: by his then he sees from seeing of evil in others,
- 2:29:02Speaker 1: For he knows that every man's perception and standard of
- 2:29:05Speaker 1: good and evil is different. That there is no vice
- 2:29:08Speaker 1: so low but some men regarded as good, no virtue
- 2:29:12Speaker 1: so high, but some men regarded as evil. And what
- 2:29:15Speaker 1: a man regards as good, that to him is good,
- 2:29:18Speaker 1: what he regards as evil, that to him is evil.
- 2:29:22Speaker 1: Nor will the purified man, who has ceased to see
- 2:29:25Speaker 1: evil in others have any desire to win men to
- 2:29:28Speaker 1: his own ways or opinions, but will rather help them
- 2:29:31Speaker 1: in their own particular groove, knowing that an enlarged experience only,
- 2:29:37Speaker 1: and not merely change of opinion, can lead to higher
- 2:29:40Speaker 1: knowledge and greater blessedness. It will be found that men
- 2:29:44Speaker 1: see evil in those who differ from them, good in
- 2:29:47Speaker 1: those who agree with them. The man who greatly loves
- 2:29:50Speaker 1: himself and is enamored of his opinions, will love all
- 2:29:54Speaker 1: those who agree with him, and will dislike all those
- 2:29:57Speaker 1: who disagree with him. If ye ye love them that
- 2:30:01Speaker 1: ye love ye, what reward have ye love your enemies?
- 2:30:06Speaker 1: Do good to them that hate you. Egotism and vanity
- 2:30:10Speaker 1: make men blind men of opposing religious views, hate and
- 2:30:14Speaker 1: persecute each other. Men of opposing political views fight and
- 2:30:18Speaker 1: condemn each other. The partisan measures all men by his
- 2:30:22Speaker 1: own standard, and sets up his judgments accordingly. So convinced
- 2:30:28Speaker 1: is he that he is right and others wrong, that
- 2:30:30Speaker 1: he at last persuades himself that to inflict cruelty on
- 2:30:34Speaker 1: others is both good and necessary, in order to coerce
- 2:30:38Speaker 1: them into his way of thinking and acting, and so
- 2:30:40Speaker 1: bring them to the right, his right, against their own
- 2:30:44Speaker 1: reason and will. Men hate, condemn, resist, and inflict suffering
- 2:30:50Speaker 1: upon each other, not because they are intrinsically evil, not
- 2:30:54Speaker 1: because they are deliberately wicked and are doing, in the
- 2:30:57Speaker 1: full light of truth what they know to be wrong,
- 2:31:00Speaker 1: but because they regard such conduct as necessary. In right,
- 2:31:04Speaker 1: all men are intrinsically good, but some are wiser than others,
- 2:31:09Speaker 1: are older in experience than others. I recently heard in
- 2:31:13Speaker 1: substance the following conversation between two men whom I will
- 2:31:17Speaker 1: call D and E. The third person referred to as X,
- 2:31:21Speaker 1: is a prominent politician. E. Every man reaps the result
- 2:31:27Speaker 1: of his own thoughts and deeds, and suffers for his
- 2:31:30Speaker 1: own wrong D. If that is so, and if no
- 2:31:34Speaker 1: man can escape from the penalty of his evil deeds.
- 2:31:37Speaker 1: What an inferno some of our men in power must
- 2:31:40Speaker 1: be preparing for themselves. E. Whether a man is in
- 2:31:45Speaker 1: power or not, so long as he lives in ignorance
- 2:31:48Speaker 1: and sin, he will reap sorrow and suffering. D Look,
- 2:31:54Speaker 1: for instance, at X, a man totally evil, given up
- 2:31:58Speaker 1: entirely to selfishness as an ambition. Surely great torments are
- 2:32:02Speaker 1: reserved for such an unprincipled man. E. But how do
- 2:32:07Speaker 1: you know he is so evil? D by his works,
- 2:32:12Speaker 1: his fruits. When I see a man doing evil, I
- 2:32:15Speaker 1: know that he is evil, and I cannot even think
- 2:32:18Speaker 1: of X. But I burn with righteous indignation. I am
- 2:32:22Speaker 1: sometimes inclined to doubt that there is an overruling power
- 2:32:25Speaker 1: for good. When I see such a man in a
- 2:32:27Speaker 1: position where he can do so much harm to others, E,
- 2:32:32Speaker 1: What evil is he committing? D? His whole policy is evil.
- 2:32:38Speaker 1: He will ruin the country if he remains in power. E.
- 2:32:43Speaker 1: But while there are large numbers of people who think
- 2:32:45Speaker 1: of X as you do, there are also large numbers
- 2:32:49Speaker 1: equally intelligent who look on him as good and able,
- 2:32:52Speaker 1: who admire him for his excellent qualities. And regard his
- 2:32:56Speaker 1: policy as beneficent and making for national progress. He owes
- 2:33:00Speaker 1: his position to these people, Are they all so evil? D?
- 2:33:06Speaker 1: They are deceived and misled? And this only makes Xes
- 2:33:10Speaker 1: evil all the greater, and that he can so successfully
- 2:33:14Speaker 1: employ his talents in deceiving others in order to gain
- 2:33:17Speaker 1: his own selfish ends. I hate this man. E. May
- 2:33:23Speaker 1: it not be possible that you are deceived? D? In
- 2:33:28Speaker 1: what way? E? Hatred is self deception, love is self enlightenment.
- 2:33:35Speaker 1: No man can see either himself or others clearly until
- 2:33:39Speaker 1: he ceases from hatred and practices love. D. That sounds
- 2:33:45Speaker 1: very beautiful, but it is impractical. When I see a
- 2:33:48Speaker 1: man doing evil to others and deceiving and misleading them,
- 2:33:51Speaker 1: I must hate him. It is right, and I should
- 2:33:54Speaker 1: do so. X is without a spark of conscience. E.
- 2:34:00Speaker 1: X may or may not be all you believe to be.
- 2:34:03Speaker 1: But even if he is, according to your own words,
- 2:34:07Speaker 1: should he be pitied and not condemned? D? How so
- 2:34:13Speaker 1: E you say he is without a conscience? D entirely so? E?
- 2:34:22Speaker 1: Then he is a mental cripple. Do you hate the
- 2:34:25Speaker 1: blind because they cannot see? That dumb because they cannot speak?
- 2:34:29Speaker 1: Or the deaf because they cannot hear. When a captain
- 2:34:32Speaker 1: has lost his rudder or broken his compass, do you
- 2:34:34Speaker 1: condemn him because he did not keep his ship off
- 2:34:37Speaker 1: the rocks? Do you hold him responsible for the loss
- 2:34:40Speaker 1: of life? If a man is totally devoid of conscience,
- 2:34:44Speaker 1: he is without the means of moral guidance, and all
- 2:34:46Speaker 1: his selfishness must perforce appear to him good and right
- 2:34:51Speaker 1: and proper. X may appear evil to you, But is
- 2:34:55Speaker 1: he evil to himself? Does he regard his own conduct
- 2:34:58Speaker 1: as evil? D? Whether he regards himself as evil or not,
- 2:35:04Speaker 1: he is evil? E. If I were to regard you
- 2:35:08Speaker 1: as evil because of your hatred for X, should I
- 2:35:11Speaker 1: be right? D? No? E? Why not D? Because in
- 2:35:20Speaker 1: such a case hatred is necessary, justifiable and righteous. There
- 2:35:24Speaker 1: is such a thing as righteous anger, righteous hatred. E.
- 2:35:30Speaker 1: Is there such a thing as righteous selfishness, righteous ambition?
- 2:35:34Speaker 1: Righteous evil? I should be quite wrong in regarding you
- 2:35:37Speaker 1: as evil, because you are doing what you are convinced
- 2:35:40Speaker 1: is right, because you regard your hatred for X as
- 2:35:44Speaker 1: part of your duty as a man and citizen. Nevertheless,
- 2:35:48Speaker 1: there is a better way than that of hatred, and
- 2:35:50Speaker 1: it is the knowledge of this better way that prevents
- 2:35:53Speaker 1: me from hating X as you do, because however wrong
- 2:35:56Speaker 1: his conduct might appear to me, it is not wrong
- 2:35:59Speaker 1: to him nor to his supporters. Moreover, all men reap
- 2:36:04Speaker 1: as they sow. D. What then, is that better way? E?
- 2:36:11Speaker 1: It is the way of love, the ceasing to regard
- 2:36:14Speaker 1: others as evil. It is a blessed and peaceful state
- 2:36:17Speaker 1: of heart. D. Do you mean that there is a
- 2:36:21Speaker 1: state which a man can reach wherein he will grow
- 2:36:24Speaker 1: angry when he sees people doing evil? E? No, I
- 2:36:29Speaker 1: do not mean that, for while a man regards others
- 2:36:32Speaker 1: as evil, he will continue to grow angry with them.
- 2:36:35Speaker 1: But I mean that a man can reach a state
- 2:36:37Speaker 1: of calm, insight and spotless love, wherein he sees no
- 2:36:41Speaker 1: evil to grow angry with, wherein he understands the various
- 2:36:45Speaker 1: natures of men, how they are prompted to act, and
- 2:36:48Speaker 1: how they reap as the harvest of their own thoughts
- 2:36:51Speaker 1: and deeds, the terrors of sufferings and the corn of bliss.
- 2:36:56Speaker 1: To reach that state is to regard all men with
- 2:36:59Speaker 1: compassion and love. D. The state that you picture is
- 2:37:04Speaker 1: a very high one. It is, no doubt, a very
- 2:37:07Speaker 1: holy and beautiful one. But it is a state that
- 2:37:10Speaker 1: I should be sorry to reach, and I should pray
- 2:37:13Speaker 1: to be preserved from a state of mind where I
- 2:37:16Speaker 1: could not hate a man like X with an intense hatred. Thus,
- 2:37:20Speaker 1: by this conversation it will be seen that D regarded
- 2:37:23Speaker 1: his hatred as good. Even so, all men regard that
- 2:37:27Speaker 1: which they do as necessary to be done. The things
- 2:37:31Speaker 1: which men habitually practice are those things that they believe in.
- 2:37:35Speaker 1: When faith in a thing holy ceases, it ceases to
- 2:37:38Speaker 1: be practiced. D's individual liberty is equal to that of
- 2:37:43Speaker 1: other men, and he has a right to hate another
- 2:37:45Speaker 1: if he so wishes. Nor will he abandon his hatred
- 2:37:49Speaker 1: until he discovers, by the sorrow and unrest which it entails,
- 2:37:54Speaker 1: how wrong and foolish and blind it is, and how
- 2:37:57Speaker 1: by its practice he is injuring himself. A great teacher
- 2:38:02Speaker 1: was once asked by one of his disciples to explain
- 2:38:05Speaker 1: the distinction between good and evil, And holding his hand
- 2:38:09Speaker 1: with his fingers pointing downward, he said, where is my
- 2:38:12Speaker 1: hand pointing? And the disciple replied, it is pointing downward.
- 2:38:18Speaker 1: Then turning his hand upward, the teacher asked, where is
- 2:38:22Speaker 1: my hand pointing? And the disciple answered, it is pointing upward,
- 2:38:28Speaker 1: that said the teacher, is the distinction between evil and good.
- 2:38:33Speaker 1: By this simple illustration, he indicated that evil is merely
- 2:38:38Speaker 1: wrongly directed energy, and good rightly directed energy. And the
- 2:38:43Speaker 1: so called evil man becomes good by reversing his conduct.
- 2:38:48Speaker 1: To understand the true nature of evil, by living in
- 2:38:51Speaker 1: the good, is to cease to see other men as evil.
- 2:38:55Speaker 1: Blessed is he who, turning from the evil in others,
- 2:38:58Speaker 1: exerts himself in the pure vocation of his own heart.
- 2:39:02Speaker 1: He shall one day become of two pure eyes to
- 2:39:04Speaker 1: behold evil. Knowing the nature of evil, what does it
- 2:39:09Speaker 1: behoove a man to do? It behooves him to live
- 2:39:13Speaker 1: only in that which is good. Therefore, if a man
- 2:39:16Speaker 1: condemned me, I will not condemn him in return. If
- 2:39:19Speaker 1: he revile me, I will give him kindness. If he
- 2:39:22Speaker 1: slander me, I will speak of his good qualities. If
- 2:39:26Speaker 1: he hate me, then he greatly needs and shall receive
- 2:39:29Speaker 1: my love. With the impatient, I will be patient. With
- 2:39:34Speaker 1: the greedy, I will be generous. And with the violent
- 2:39:37Speaker 1: and quarrelsome, I will be mild and peaceable, Seeing no evil,
- 2:39:43Speaker 1: whom should I hate? Or who should I regard as
- 2:39:45Speaker 1: my enemy, were mankind, murderous or jealous upon you, my brother,
- 2:39:50Speaker 1: my sister, I am so sorry for you. They are
- 2:39:54Speaker 1: not murderous or jealous upon me. All has been gentle
- 2:39:58Speaker 1: with me. I keep no accout with lamentation. What have
- 2:40:02Speaker 1: I to do with lamentation? He who sees man as
- 2:40:06Speaker 1: evil imagines that behind those acts which are called wicked,
- 2:40:10Speaker 1: there is a corporate and substantial evil prompting those particular sins.
- 2:40:15Speaker 1: But he is stainless vision sees the deeds themselves is evil,
- 2:40:19Speaker 1: and knows that there is no evil power, no evil
- 2:40:22Speaker 1: soul or man behind those deeds. The substance of the
- 2:40:26Speaker 1: universe is good. There is no substance of evil. Good
- 2:40:30Speaker 1: alone is permanent. There is no fixed or permanent evil.
- 2:40:35Speaker 1: As brothers and sisters, born of the same parents and
- 2:40:38Speaker 1: being of one household, love each other through all vicissitudes,
- 2:40:43Speaker 1: see no evil in each other, but overlook all errors
- 2:40:47Speaker 1: and cling together in the strong bonds of affection. Even so,
- 2:40:51Speaker 1: the good man sees humanity as one spiritual family, born
- 2:40:55Speaker 1: of the same father and mother, being of the same essence,
- 2:40:59Speaker 1: and making fears the same goal. And he regards all
- 2:41:02Speaker 1: men and women as his brothers and sisters, makes no
- 2:41:05Speaker 1: divisions and distinctions, seese none is evil, but is it
- 2:41:10Speaker 1: peace withal? Happy is he who attains to this blessed state,
- 2:41:15Speaker 1: abiding joy, who carry music in their heart through dusky
- 2:41:21Speaker 1: lane and wrangling mart plying their daily toil with busier
- 2:41:25Speaker 1: feet because their secret souls a holier repeat. Serene will
- 2:41:31Speaker 1: be our days, and bright and happy will our nature be?
- 2:41:35Speaker 1: When love is an unerring light and joy its own security, wordsworth,
- 2:41:42Speaker 1: abiding joy. Is there such a thing? Where is it
- 2:41:47Speaker 1: who possesses it? Yes, there is such a thing. It
- 2:41:51Speaker 1: is where there is no sin. It is possessed by
- 2:41:54Speaker 1: the pure hearted. As darkness is a passing shadow, and
- 2:41:59Speaker 1: light is subs that remains. So sorrow is fleeting, but
- 2:42:03Speaker 1: joy abides forever. No true thing can pass away and
- 2:42:07Speaker 1: become lost. No false thing can remain and be preserved.
- 2:42:12Speaker 1: Sorrow is false, it cannot live. Joy is true, and
- 2:42:17Speaker 1: it cannot die. Joy may become hidden for a time,
- 2:42:21Speaker 1: but it can always be recovered. Sorrow may remain for
- 2:42:25Speaker 1: a period, but it can be transcended and dispersed. Do
- 2:42:29Speaker 1: not think your sorrow will remain. It will pass away
- 2:42:32Speaker 1: like a cloud do not believe that the torments of
- 2:42:36Speaker 1: sin are ever your portion. They will vanish like a
- 2:42:39Speaker 1: hideous nightmare. Awake, Arise, be holy and joyful. You are
- 2:42:46Speaker 1: the creator of your own shadows. You desire, and then
- 2:42:49Speaker 1: you grieve, renounce, and then you all rejoice. You are
- 2:42:54Speaker 1: not the impotent slave of sorrow. The never ending gladness
- 2:42:57Speaker 1: awaits your homecoming, not the helpless prisoner of the darkness
- 2:43:02Speaker 1: and dreams of sin. Even now, the beautiful light of
- 2:43:05Speaker 1: holiness shines upon your sleeping lids, ready to greet your
- 2:43:09Speaker 1: awakening vision. In the heavy, troubled sleep of sin and self,
- 2:43:13Speaker 1: the abiding joy is lost and forgotten. Its undying music
- 2:43:17Speaker 1: is no more heard, and the fragrance of its fadeless
- 2:43:21Speaker 1: flowers no longer cheers the heart of the wayfarer. But
- 2:43:25Speaker 1: when sin and self are abandoned, when the clinging to
- 2:43:28Speaker 1: things for personal pleasure is put away, then the shadows
- 2:43:32Speaker 1: of grief disappear, and the heart is restored to its
- 2:43:35Speaker 1: imperishable joy. Joy comes and fills the self emptied heart.
- 2:43:40Speaker 1: It abides with the peaceful, Its rain is with the pure.
- 2:43:45Speaker 1: Joy flees from the selfish, It deserts the quarrelsome. It
- 2:43:49Speaker 1: is hidden from the impure. Joy is as an angel,
- 2:43:53Speaker 1: so beautiful and delicate in chaste, that she can only
- 2:43:56Speaker 1: dwell with holiness. She cannot remain with selfishness. She is
- 2:44:01Speaker 1: wedded to love. Every man is truly happy in so
- 2:44:05Speaker 1: far as he is unselfish, he is miserable in so
- 2:44:08Speaker 1: far as he is selfish. All truly good men, and
- 2:44:12Speaker 1: by good men I mean those who have fought victoriously
- 2:44:15Speaker 1: the battle against self, are men of joy. How great
- 2:44:20Speaker 1: is the jubulation of the saint. No true teacher promises
- 2:44:24Speaker 1: sorrow as the ultimate of life. He promises joy. He
- 2:44:28Speaker 1: points to sorrow, but only as a process which sin
- 2:44:31Speaker 1: has rendered necessary. Where self ends, grief passes away. Joy
- 2:44:37Speaker 1: is the companion of righteousness in the divine life. Tender
- 2:44:41Speaker 1: compassion fills the place where weeping sorrow sat. During the
- 2:44:45Speaker 1: process of becoming unselfish, there are periods of deep sorrow.
- 2:44:50Speaker 1: Purification is necessarily severe. All becoming is painful. Abiding joy
- 2:44:56Speaker 1: is its completion, realized only in the perfection of And
- 2:45:01Speaker 1: this is a state where all is loveliness and power
- 2:45:05Speaker 1: and love, with all sublimeness qualities of mind, where all
- 2:45:09Speaker 1: enjoyed dominion over themselves, acts, feelings, thoughts, conditions, qualities. Consider
- 2:45:17Speaker 1: how a flower evolves and becomes. At first, there is
- 2:45:21Speaker 1: a little germ groping its way in the dark soil
- 2:45:24Speaker 1: towards the upper light. Then the plant appears, and leaf
- 2:45:27Speaker 1: is added unto leaf, and finally the perfected flower appears
- 2:45:32Speaker 1: in the sweet perfume and chaste beauty of which all
- 2:45:35Speaker 1: effort ceases. So with human life. At first the blind
- 2:45:40Speaker 1: groping for the light in the dark soil of selfishness
- 2:45:43Speaker 1: and ignorance, Then the coming into the light, and the
- 2:45:46Speaker 1: gradual overcoming of selfishness with its accompanying pain and sorrow,
- 2:45:51Speaker 1: and finally the perfect flower of a pure, unselfish life,
- 2:45:56Speaker 1: giving forth without effort the perfume of holiness and the
- 2:46:00Speaker 1: beauty of joy. The good, the pure are superatively happy.
- 2:46:06Speaker 1: However man may argumentatively deny or qualify this, humanity instinctively
- 2:46:11Speaker 1: knows it to be true. Do not men everywhere picture
- 2:46:14Speaker 1: their angels as the most joyful of beings? There are
- 2:46:18Speaker 1: joyful angels and bodies of flesh, we meet them and
- 2:46:21Speaker 1: pass on. And how many of those who come in
- 2:46:24Speaker 1: contact with them are sufficiently pure to see the vision
- 2:46:27Speaker 1: within the form, to see the incorruptible angel in its
- 2:46:31Speaker 1: common instrument of clay. They needs must grow. Who cannot
- 2:46:35Speaker 1: see the blade before the ear must be The outward
- 2:46:39Speaker 1: symbols disappear from him whose inward sight is clear. Yes,
- 2:46:45Speaker 1: the pure are joyful. We look almost in vain for
- 2:46:48Speaker 1: any expressions of sorrow. In the words of Jesus, the
- 2:46:52Speaker 1: man of sorrows is only completed in the man of joy.
- 2:46:57Speaker 1: I Buddha, who wept with all my brothers, tears whose
- 2:47:01Speaker 1: heart was broken by a whole world's woe. Laugh and
- 2:47:05Speaker 1: am glad, for there is liberty in sin, and in
- 2:47:09Speaker 1: the struggle against sin. There is unrest in affliction. But
- 2:47:13Speaker 1: in the perfection of truth, in the path of righteousness,
- 2:47:16Speaker 1: there is abiding joy. Enter the path. There spring the
- 2:47:21Speaker 1: healing streams, quenching all thirst. There bloom the immortal flowers,
- 2:47:26Speaker 1: carpeting all the way with joy, their throng, swiftest and
- 2:47:30Speaker 1: sweetest hours. Tribulation lasts only so long as there remains
- 2:47:35Speaker 1: some chaff of self which needs to be removed. The
- 2:47:39Speaker 1: tribulation or threshing machine ceases to work when all the
- 2:47:43Speaker 1: grain is separated from the chaff, and when the last
- 2:47:46Speaker 1: impurities are blown away from the soul. Tribulation has completed
- 2:47:50Speaker 1: its work, and there is no more need for it.
- 2:47:53Speaker 1: Then abiding joy is realized. All the saints and prophets
- 2:47:58Speaker 1: and saviors of the race have proclaimed with rejoicing the
- 2:48:01Speaker 1: Gospel or the good news. All men know what good
- 2:48:05Speaker 1: news is. An impending calamity avoided, a disease, cured, friends
- 2:48:11Speaker 1: arrived or returned in safety, difficulties overcome, success in some
- 2:48:17Speaker 1: enterprise assured. But what is the good news of the
- 2:48:20Speaker 1: saintly ones? This that there is peace for the troubled,
- 2:48:25Speaker 1: healing for the afflicted, gladness for the grief stricken, victory
- 2:48:30Speaker 1: for the sinful, a homecoming for the wanderer, and joy
- 2:48:34Speaker 1: for the sorrowing and broken hearted. Not that these beautiful
- 2:48:38Speaker 1: realities shall be in some future world, but they are
- 2:48:41Speaker 1: here and now that they are known and realized and enjoyed.
- 2:48:45Speaker 1: And therefore proclaim that all may accept them who break
- 2:48:49Speaker 1: the galling bonds of self and rise into the glorious
- 2:48:52Speaker 1: liberty of unselfish love. Seek the highest good, and you
- 2:48:56Speaker 1: will find it as you practice it and realize it.
- 2:49:00Speaker 1: You will taste the deepest, sweetest joy as you succeed
- 2:49:04Speaker 1: in forgetting your own selfish desires, and your thoughtfulness for others,
- 2:49:08Speaker 1: in your care for others, in your service for others.
- 2:49:12Speaker 1: Just so far and no further will you find and
- 2:49:14Speaker 1: realize the abiding joy in life. Inside the gateway of
- 2:49:18Speaker 1: unselfishness lies the asylum of abiding joy. And whosoever will
- 2:49:23Speaker 1: may enter in, whosoever doubts, let him come and see,
- 2:49:28Speaker 1: and knowing this, that selfishness leads to misery, unselfishness to joy.
- 2:49:34Speaker 1: Not merely for one's self alone, For if this were all,
- 2:49:38Speaker 1: how unworthy could be our endeavors, but for the whole world.
- 2:49:43Speaker 1: And because all with whom we live in come in contact,
- 2:49:45Speaker 1: will be the happier and truer for our unselfishness, because
- 2:49:49Speaker 1: humanity is one, and the joy of one is the
- 2:49:53Speaker 1: joy of all. Knowing this, let us scatter flowers and
- 2:49:57Speaker 1: not thorns in the common ways of life. Y, yes,
- 2:50:00Speaker 1: even in the highway of our enemies, let us scatter
- 2:50:03Speaker 1: the blossoms of unselfish love. So shall the pressure in
- 2:50:07Speaker 1: their footprints fill the air with the perfume of holiness,
- 2:50:10Speaker 1: and gladden the world with the aroma of joy. Silentness
- 2:50:16Speaker 1: be still. The crown of life is silentness. Give thou
- 2:50:20Speaker 1: a quiet hour to each long day. Too much of
- 2:50:23Speaker 1: time we spend in profitless and foolish talk. Too little
- 2:50:28Speaker 1: do we say, if thou wouldst gather words that shall
- 2:50:31Speaker 1: avail learning a wisdom worthy to express, Leave for a
- 2:50:36Speaker 1: while thy chat and empty tale. Study the golden speech
- 2:50:40Speaker 1: of silentness, a l salmon. Be still, my soul, rest
- 2:50:48Speaker 1: awhile from the feverish activities in which you lose yourself.
- 2:50:53Speaker 1: Be not afraid to be left alone with yourself for
- 2:50:56Speaker 1: one short hour, Ernest Crossley. In the words of a
- 2:51:01Speaker 1: wise man, there is great power, but his silence is
- 2:51:05Speaker 1: more powerful. Still. The greatest men teach us most effectively
- 2:51:09Speaker 1: when they are purposely silent. The silent attitude of the
- 2:51:13Speaker 1: great Man, noted perhaps by one or two of his disciples, only,
- 2:51:18Speaker 1: is recorded and preserved through the ages, while the obtrusive
- 2:51:22Speaker 1: words of the merely clever talker, heard perhaps by thousands
- 2:51:26Speaker 1: and at once popularized, are neglected and forgotten in at
- 2:51:31Speaker 1: most a few generations. The silence of Jesus, when asked
- 2:51:36Speaker 1: by Pilate, what is truth, is the impressive, the awful
- 2:51:41Speaker 1: silence of profound wisdom. It is pregnant with humility, and
- 2:51:45Speaker 1: reproof and perpetually rebukes that shallowness, that illustrating the truth
- 2:51:51Speaker 1: that fools step in where angels fear to tread, would,
- 2:51:55Speaker 1: in terms of triteness, parcel out the universe or think
- 2:51:59Speaker 1: to utter the beating all and the end all of
- 2:52:01Speaker 1: the mystery of things in some textual formula or theological platitude.
- 2:52:07Speaker 1: When plied with questions about Brahma God by the argumentative Brahmans,
- 2:52:12Speaker 1: Buddha remained silent. He taught them better than they knew.
- 2:52:16Speaker 1: And if by his silence he failed to satisfy the foolish,
- 2:52:20Speaker 1: he thereby profoundly instructed the wise. Why all this ceaseless
- 2:52:25Speaker 1: talk about God, with its accompaniment of intolerance, Let men
- 2:52:29Speaker 1: practice some measure of kindliness and good will, and thereby
- 2:52:33Speaker 1: acquaint themselves with the simple rudiments of wisdom. Why all
- 2:52:37Speaker 1: this speculative argument about the nature of God, Let us
- 2:52:42Speaker 1: first understand somewhat of ourselves. There is no greater mark
- 2:52:46Speaker 1: of folly and moral immaturity than a reverence in presumption,
- 2:52:51Speaker 1: no greater manifestations of wisdom and moral maturity than reverence
- 2:52:56Speaker 1: and humility. Lautza, in his own life exemplified his teaching
- 2:53:02Speaker 1: that the wise man teaches without words. Disciples were attracted
- 2:53:06Speaker 1: to him by the power which ever accompanies a wise reserve,
- 2:53:11Speaker 1: living in comparatively obscurity and silence, not courting the ear
- 2:53:15Speaker 1: of men, and never going out to teach, men sought
- 2:53:19Speaker 1: him out and learned of his wisdom. The silent acts
- 2:53:23Speaker 1: of the great ones are beacons to the wise, illuminating
- 2:53:26Speaker 1: their pathway with no uncertain radiance. For he who would
- 2:53:30Speaker 1: attain to virtue and wisdom must learn not only when
- 2:53:34Speaker 1: to speak and what to say, but also when to
- 2:53:37Speaker 1: remain silent and what not to say. The right control
- 2:53:41Speaker 1: of the tongue is the beginning of wisdom. The right
- 2:53:44Speaker 1: control of the mind is a consummation of wisdom. By
- 2:53:48Speaker 1: curbing his tongue, a man gains possession of his mind,
- 2:53:52Speaker 1: And to have complete possession of one's mind is to
- 2:53:55Speaker 1: be the master of silence. The fool babbles, gods, argues,
- 2:54:01Speaker 1: and bandy's words. He glories in the fact that he
- 2:54:04Speaker 1: has had the last word and has silenced his opponent.
- 2:54:08Speaker 1: He exults in his own folly, is ever on the defensive,
- 2:54:12Speaker 1: and wastes his energies and unprofitable channels. He is like
- 2:54:16Speaker 1: a gardener who continues to dig and plant in unproductive soil.
- 2:54:21Speaker 1: The wise man avoids idle words, gossip, vain argument, and
- 2:54:26Speaker 1: self defense. He is content to appear defeated, rejoices when
- 2:54:30Speaker 1: he is defeated, knowing that having found and removed another
- 2:54:34Speaker 1: error in himself, he has thereby become wiser. Blest is
- 2:54:39Speaker 1: he who does not strive for the last word backward.
- 2:54:43Speaker 1: I see in my own days where I sweated through
- 2:54:45Speaker 1: fog with linguists and contenders. I have no mockings or arguments.
- 2:54:51Speaker 1: I witness and wait. Silence under provocation is the mark
- 2:54:56Speaker 1: of a cultured and sympathetic soul. The thoughtless and unkind
- 2:55:00Speaker 1: are stirred by every slight provocation, and will lose their
- 2:55:03Speaker 1: mental balance by even the appearance of a personal encroachment.
- 2:55:08Speaker 1: The self possession of Jesus is not a miracle. It
- 2:55:11Speaker 1: is the flower of culture, the diadem of wisdom. When
- 2:55:15Speaker 1: we read of Jesus that he answered never a word,
- 2:55:19Speaker 1: and of Buddha that he remains silent, we get a
- 2:55:23Speaker 1: glimpse of the vast power of silence, of the silent
- 2:55:26Speaker 1: majesty of true greatness. The silent man is the powerful man.
- 2:55:32Speaker 1: Every mechanic knows that before a force can be utilized
- 2:55:36Speaker 1: and definitely directed, it must be conserved and stored. And
- 2:55:40Speaker 1: the wise man is a spiritual mechanic who conserves the
- 2:55:44Speaker 1: energies of his mind, holds them in masterful abeyance, ready
- 2:55:48Speaker 1: at any moment to direct them with effective purpose to
- 2:55:52Speaker 1: the accomplishment of some necessary work. The true strength is
- 2:55:57Speaker 1: in silentness. It is well said that the dog that
- 2:56:01Speaker 1: barks does not bite. The grim and rarely broken silence
- 2:56:05Speaker 1: of the bulldog is the necessary adjunct to that powerfully
- 2:56:08Speaker 1: concentrated and effectual action for which the animal is known
- 2:56:13Speaker 1: and feared. This, of course, is a lower form of silentness,
- 2:56:17Speaker 1: but the principle is the same. The boaster fails, his
- 2:56:21Speaker 1: mind is diverted from the main purpose, and his energies
- 2:56:25Speaker 1: are frittered away upon self glorification. His forces are divided
- 2:56:30Speaker 1: between his task and the reward to himself, the greater
- 2:56:34Speaker 1: portion going to feed the lust of the reward. He
- 2:56:37Speaker 1: is like an unskillful general who loses the battle through
- 2:56:40Speaker 1: dividing his forces instead of concentrating them upon a point.
- 2:56:45Speaker 1: Or he is like a careless engineer who leaves open
- 2:56:48Speaker 1: the waste valve of his engine and allows the steam
- 2:56:51Speaker 1: to run down. The modest, silent, earnest man succeeds, freed
- 2:56:57Speaker 1: from vanity and avoiding the dissipation of self glorification. All
- 2:57:02Speaker 1: his powers are concentrated upon the successful performance of his task.
- 2:57:07Speaker 1: Even while the other man is talking about his powers,
- 2:57:10Speaker 1: he is already about his work, and so much nearer
- 2:57:13Speaker 1: than the other to its completion. It is a law
- 2:57:16Speaker 1: everywhere and always that energy distributed is subject unto energy conserved.
- 2:57:23Speaker 1: The noisy and boasting Charles will ever be thrown by
- 2:57:26Speaker 1: the quiet in modest Orlando. It is a law universally
- 2:57:31Speaker 1: applicable that quietness is strength. The business man who succeeds
- 2:57:35Speaker 1: never talks about his plans, methods, and affairs, And should
- 2:57:39Speaker 1: he turn giddy by success, begin to do this, he
- 2:57:43Speaker 1: will then commence to fail. The man of great moral
- 2:57:46Speaker 1: influence never talks about himself and his spiritual victories, for
- 2:57:51Speaker 1: should he do so, in that moment, his moral power
- 2:57:54Speaker 1: and influence would be gone, and like Samson, he would
- 2:57:58Speaker 1: be shorn of his strength. Success worldly or spiritual is
- 2:58:03Speaker 1: the willing servant of strong, steady, silent, unflinching purpose. The
- 2:58:09Speaker 1: most powerful, disintegrating forces. Make no noise. The greatly overcoming
- 2:58:14Speaker 1: mind works silently. If you would be strong, useful, and
- 2:58:19Speaker 1: self reliant, learn the value and power of silentness. Do
- 2:58:24Speaker 1: not talk about yourself. The world instinctively knows that the
- 2:58:27Speaker 1: vain talker is weak and empty, and so it leaves
- 2:58:31Speaker 1: him to his own vanity. Do not talk about what
- 2:58:34Speaker 1: you are going to do, but do it, and let
- 2:58:36Speaker 1: your finished work speak for itself. Do not waste your
- 2:58:40Speaker 1: forces in criticizing and disparaging the work of others, but
- 2:58:44Speaker 1: set about to do your own work thoroughly and well.
- 2:58:47Speaker 1: The worst work, with earnestness and sweetness behind it, is
- 2:58:51Speaker 1: altogether better than barking at others. While you are disparaging
- 2:58:55Speaker 1: the work of others, you are neglecting your own. If
- 2:58:59Speaker 1: others are due badly help and instruct them by doing
- 2:59:02Speaker 1: better yourself. Neither abuse others nor account their abuse of
- 2:59:06Speaker 1: any weight. When attacked, remains silent. In this way you
- 2:59:11Speaker 1: will conquer yourself, and will, without the use of words,
- 2:59:15Speaker 1: teach others. But the true silence is not merely a
- 2:59:20Speaker 1: silent tongue. It is a silent mind. To merely hold
- 2:59:24Speaker 1: one's tongue and yet to carry about a disturbed and
- 2:59:27Speaker 1: rankling mind. Is no remedy for weakness, and no source
- 2:59:31Speaker 1: of power. Silentness. To be powerful must envelop the whole mind,
- 2:59:37Speaker 1: must permeate every chamber of the heart. It must be
- 2:59:40Speaker 1: the silence of peace. To this broad, deep, abiding silentness
- 2:59:46Speaker 1: a man attains only in the measure that he conquers himself.
- 2:59:50Speaker 1: While passions, temptations, and sorrows disturb the holier, profounder depths
- 2:59:55Speaker 1: of silence are yet to be sounded. Too smart under
- 2:59:59Speaker 1: the words actions of others means that you are yet weak, uncontrolled,
- 3:00:04Speaker 1: and unpurified. So richer heart of the disturbing influences of
- 3:00:09Speaker 1: vanity and pride and selfishness, that no petty spite can
- 3:00:12Speaker 1: reach you, No slander or abuse disturb your serene repose.
- 3:00:18Speaker 1: As the storm wages ineffectually against a well built house,
- 3:00:22Speaker 1: while its occupant sits composed and happy by his fireside within,
- 3:00:27Speaker 1: so no evil can disturb or harm him who is
- 3:00:30Speaker 1: well fortified with wisdom, self governed, and silent, he remains
- 3:00:35Speaker 1: at peace within. To this great silence, the self conquered
- 3:00:39Speaker 1: man attains envy and calumny, and hate and pain and
- 3:00:44Speaker 1: that unrests which men miscall delight, can touch him not
- 3:00:48Speaker 1: nor torture him. Again, there is no commoner air amongst
- 3:00:53Speaker 1: men than that of supposing that nothing can be accomplished
- 3:00:56Speaker 1: without much talking and much noise. The busy, shallow talker
- 3:01:01Speaker 1: regards the quiet thinker or silent doer as a man wasted.
- 3:01:06Speaker 1: He thinks silentness means doing nothing, and that hurrying, bustling,
- 3:01:10Speaker 1: and ceaseless talking means doing much. He also confounds popularity
- 3:01:15Speaker 1: with power. But the thinker and doer is the real
- 3:01:19Speaker 1: effectual worker. His work is at the root and core
- 3:01:22Speaker 1: and substance of things, and as nature silently, yet with
- 3:01:26Speaker 1: hidden and wondrous alchemy, transmutes the rude elements of earth
- 3:01:31Speaker 1: and air into tender leaves, beautiful flowers, delectable fruits, yes,
- 3:01:37Speaker 1: into a myriad form of beauty. Even so does the silent,
- 3:01:41Speaker 1: purposeful worker transform the ways of men and the face
- 3:01:45Speaker 1: of the world by the might and magic of his
- 3:01:47Speaker 1: silently directed energy. He wastes no time and force in
- 3:01:51Speaker 1: tinkering with the ever changing and artificial surface of things,
- 3:01:56Speaker 1: but goes to the living, vital center and works therefrom
- 3:01:59Speaker 1: in theirs and in due season. Perhaps when his perishable
- 3:02:03Speaker 1: form is withdrawn from the world, the fruits of his
- 3:02:07Speaker 1: obscure but imperishable labors come forth to gladden the world.
- 3:02:12Speaker 1: But the words of the talker perish. The world reaps
- 3:02:15Speaker 1: no harvest from the sowing of sound. He who conserves
- 3:02:19Speaker 1: his mental forces also conserves his physical forces. The strongly, quiet,
- 3:02:25Speaker 1: calm man lives to a greater age and in possession
- 3:02:28Speaker 1: of better health than the hurrying, noisy man. Quiet subdued
- 3:02:33Speaker 1: mental harmony is conducive to physical harmony and health. The
- 3:02:38Speaker 1: followers of George Fox are today the healthiest, longest lived,
- 3:02:42Speaker 1: and most successful portion of the British community. And they
- 3:02:46Speaker 1: live quiet, unostentatious, purposeful lives, avoiding all worldly excitements and
- 3:02:52Speaker 1: unnecessary words. They are silent people, all their meetings being
- 3:02:57Speaker 1: conducted on the principle that silence is power. Silentness is
- 3:03:03Speaker 1: powerful because it is the outcome of self conquest. And
- 3:03:07Speaker 1: the more successfully a man governs himself, the more silent
- 3:03:11Speaker 1: he becomes. As he succeeds in living to a purpose
- 3:03:15Speaker 1: and not to the pleasure of self, he withdraws himself
- 3:03:18Speaker 1: from the outer discords of the world and reaches to
- 3:03:22Speaker 1: the inward music of peace. And when he speaks there
- 3:03:26Speaker 1: is purpose and power behind his words, And when he
- 3:03:29Speaker 1: maintains silence, there is an equal or even greater power therein.
- 3:03:35Speaker 1: He does not utter that which is followed by pain
- 3:03:37Speaker 1: and tears, does not do that which is productive of
- 3:03:41Speaker 1: sorrow and remorse, but saying and doing those things only
- 3:03:46Speaker 1: which are ripe with thoughtfulness. His conscience is quiet, in
- 3:03:50Speaker 1: all his days are blessed solitude. Why idly seek from
- 3:03:57Speaker 1: outward things? The answer inward silence rings? Why climb the
- 3:04:02Speaker 1: far off hills and pain a nearer view of heaven
- 3:04:05Speaker 1: to gain In lowliest depths of Bosky Dells, the hermit
- 3:04:10Speaker 1: contemplation dwells whence piercing heaven with screened sight, he sees
- 3:04:16Speaker 1: at noon the stars whose light shall glorify the coming night.
- 3:04:21Speaker 1: Wittier in the still hour, when passion is at rest,
- 3:04:26Speaker 1: gather up stores of wisdom in thy breast wordsworth Man's
- 3:04:32Speaker 1: essential being is inward, invisible, spiritual, and as such it
- 3:04:37Speaker 1: derives its life strength from within, not from without. Outward
- 3:04:43Speaker 1: things are channels through which its energies are expended, But
- 3:04:47Speaker 1: for renewal it must fall back on the inward silence.
- 3:04:51Speaker 1: In so far as man strives to drown this silence
- 3:04:54Speaker 1: in the noisy pleasures of the senses, and endeavors to
- 3:04:58Speaker 1: live in the conflicts of outward things, just so much
- 3:05:01Speaker 1: does he reap the experiences of pain and sorrow, which,
- 3:05:05Speaker 1: becoming at last intolerable, drive him back to the feet
- 3:05:09Speaker 1: of inward comforter, to the shrine of the peaceful solitude within.
- 3:05:15Speaker 1: As the body cannot thrive on empty husks, neither can
- 3:05:18Speaker 1: the spirit be sustained on empty pleasures. If not regularly fed,
- 3:05:23Speaker 1: the body loses its vitality, and, pained with hunger and thirst,
- 3:05:27Speaker 1: cries out for food and drink. It is the same
- 3:05:31Speaker 1: with the spirit. It must be regularly nourished in solitude
- 3:05:35Speaker 1: on pure and holy thoughts, or it will lose its
- 3:05:38Speaker 1: freshness and strength, and will at last cry out in
- 3:05:42Speaker 1: its painful and utter starvation. The yearning of an anguish
- 3:05:46Speaker 1: stricken soul for lighting consolation is the cry of a
- 3:05:50Speaker 1: spirit that is perishing of hunger and thirst. All pain
- 3:05:54Speaker 1: and sorrow is spiritual starvation, and aspiration is the cry
- 3:05:58Speaker 1: for food. It is a prodigal son who, perishing of hunger,
- 3:06:03Speaker 1: turns his face longingly towards his father's home. The pure
- 3:06:08Speaker 1: life of the spirit cannot be found, but is lost
- 3:06:11Speaker 1: in the life of the senses. The lower desires are
- 3:06:15Speaker 1: ever clamorous for more, and they afford no rest. The
- 3:06:19Speaker 1: outward world of pleasure, personal contact, and noisy activities is
- 3:06:24Speaker 1: a sphere of wear and tear, which necessitates the counterbalancing
- 3:06:28Speaker 1: effect of solitude. Just as the body requires rest for
- 3:06:32Speaker 1: the recuperation of its forces, so the spirit requires solitude
- 3:06:37Speaker 1: for the renewal of its energies. Solitude is as indispensable
- 3:06:42Speaker 1: to man's spiritual welfare as sleep is to his bodily
- 3:06:45Speaker 1: well being, and pure thought or meditation, which is evoked
- 3:06:49Speaker 1: in solitude is to the spirit what activity is to
- 3:06:53Speaker 1: the body. As the body breaks down when deprived of
- 3:06:56Speaker 1: the needful rest and sleep, so do the spirits of
- 3:07:00Speaker 1: men break down, being deprived of the necessary silence and solitude. Man,
- 3:07:06Speaker 1: as a spiritual being cannot be maintained in strength, uprightness,
- 3:07:11Speaker 1: and peace, except if he periodically withdraws himself from the
- 3:07:15Speaker 1: outer world of perishable things and reaches inward towards the
- 3:07:19Speaker 1: abiding and imperishable realities. The consolations of the creeds are
- 3:07:25Speaker 1: derived from the solitude which those creeds enforce. The regular
- 3:07:30Speaker 1: observance of the ceremonies of formal religion, attended as they are,
- 3:07:35Speaker 1: with concentrated silence and freedom from worldly distractions, compels men
- 3:07:40Speaker 1: to do unconsciously that which they have not yet learned
- 3:07:43Speaker 1: to do consciously, namely, to concentrate the mind periodically on
- 3:07:48Speaker 1: the inward silence, and meditate, though very briefly, on high
- 3:07:53Speaker 1: and holy things. The man who has not learned to
- 3:07:57Speaker 1: control and purify his mind in season of chosen solitude,
- 3:08:01Speaker 1: yet whose awakening aspirations grow for something higher and nobler
- 3:08:06Speaker 1: than he possesses, feels the necessity for the aid of
- 3:08:10Speaker 1: ceremonial religion. But he who has taken himself in hand
- 3:08:14Speaker 1: with a view to self conquest, who withdraws into solitude
- 3:08:18Speaker 1: in order to grapple with his lower nature and masterfully
- 3:08:22Speaker 1: bend his mind in holy directions, requires no further aid
- 3:08:26Speaker 1: from book or priest or church. The Church does not
- 3:08:30Speaker 1: exist for the pleasure of the saint, but for the
- 3:08:32Speaker 1: evaluation of the sinner. In solitude, a man gathers strength
- 3:08:38Speaker 1: to meet the difficulties and temptations of life, knowledge to
- 3:08:42Speaker 1: understand and conquer them, and wisdom to transcend them. As
- 3:08:46Speaker 1: a building is preserved and sustained by virtue of the foundation,
- 3:08:49Speaker 1: which is hidden and unobserved, so a man is maintained
- 3:08:53Speaker 1: perpetually in strength and peace by virtue of his lonely
- 3:08:57Speaker 1: hour of intense thought, which no eyes beholds. It is
- 3:09:02Speaker 1: in solitude only that a man can be truly revealed
- 3:09:05Speaker 1: to himself, that he can come to understand his real nature,
- 3:09:10Speaker 1: with all its powers and possibilities. The voice of the
- 3:09:14Speaker 1: spirit is not heard in the hubbub of the world,
- 3:09:17Speaker 1: and amid the clamors of conflicting desires, there can be
- 3:09:21Speaker 1: no spiritual growth without solitude. There are those who shrink
- 3:09:25Speaker 1: from too close a scrutiny of themselves, who dread too
- 3:09:29Speaker 1: complete a self revelation, and who fear that solitude would
- 3:09:33Speaker 1: leave them alone with their thoughts and call up before
- 3:09:36Speaker 1: their mental vision the wrath of their desires. And so
- 3:09:40Speaker 1: they go where the din of pleasure is loudest, and
- 3:09:43Speaker 1: where the reproving voice of truth is drowned. But he
- 3:09:46Speaker 1: who loves truth, who desires and seeks wisdom, will be
- 3:09:51Speaker 1: much alone. He will seek the fullest, clearest revelation of himself,
- 3:09:56Speaker 1: will avoid the haunts of frivilty and noise, and will
- 3:09:59Speaker 1: go where the sweet, tender voice of the spirit of
- 3:10:02Speaker 1: truth can speak within him and be heard. Men go
- 3:10:06Speaker 1: after much company and seek out new excitements, but they
- 3:10:10Speaker 1: are not acquainted with peace. In diverse paths of pleasure,
- 3:10:13Speaker 1: they search for happiness, but they do not come to rest.
- 3:10:18Speaker 1: Through diverse ways of laughter and feverish delirium, they wander
- 3:10:22Speaker 1: after gladness in life, but their tears are many and grievous,
- 3:10:26Speaker 1: and they do not escape death. Drifting upon the ocean
- 3:10:30Speaker 1: of life in search of selfish indulgences, men are caught
- 3:10:34Speaker 1: in its storms, and only after many tempests and much
- 3:10:38Speaker 1: privation do they fly to the rock of refuge, which
- 3:10:42Speaker 1: rests in the deep silence of their own being. While
- 3:10:45Speaker 1: a man is absorbed in outward activities, he is giving
- 3:10:49Speaker 1: out his energies and is becoming spiritually weaker, And in
- 3:10:53Speaker 1: order to retain his moral vigor, he must resort to
- 3:10:57Speaker 1: solitary meditation. Soul. Is this that he who neglects it
- 3:11:03Speaker 1: loses or does not attain the right knowledge of life,
- 3:11:06Speaker 1: Nor does he comprehend and overcome those most deeply rooted
- 3:11:10Speaker 1: and subtlest of sins, which appear like virtues, deceiving the elect,
- 3:11:15Speaker 1: and to which all but the truly wise succumb. True
- 3:11:19Speaker 1: dignity abides with him alone, who, in the silent hour
- 3:11:23Speaker 1: of inward thought, can still suspect and still revere himself
- 3:11:28Speaker 1: in lowliness of heart. He who lives without ceasing in
- 3:11:33Speaker 1: outward excitement, lives most in disappointments and griefs, where the
- 3:11:38Speaker 1: sounds of pleasure are greatest. Heart emptiness is the keenest
- 3:11:42Speaker 1: and deepest. He also, whose whole life, even if not
- 3:11:47Speaker 1: one of lust for pleasure, is centered in outward works,
- 3:11:51Speaker 1: who deals only with the changing panorama of visible things,
- 3:11:55Speaker 1: never falling back in solitude upon the inner and invisible
- 3:11:59Speaker 1: world permanent being. Such a man does not attain knowledge
- 3:12:03Speaker 1: and wisdom, but remains empty. He cannot aid the world,
- 3:12:08Speaker 1: cannot feed it aspirations, for he has no food to
- 3:12:11Speaker 1: offer it, his spiritual store being empty. But he who
- 3:12:16Speaker 1: courts solitude in order to search for the truth of things,
- 3:12:19Speaker 1: who subdues his senses and makes quiet his desires, such
- 3:12:24Speaker 1: a man is daily attaining knowledge and wisdom. He becomes
- 3:12:28Speaker 1: filled with the spirit of truth. He can aid the world,
- 3:12:32Speaker 1: for his spiritual store is full and is kept well replenished.
- 3:12:37Speaker 1: While a man is absorbed in the contemplation of inward realities,
- 3:12:41Speaker 1: he is receiving knowledge and power. He opens himself like
- 3:12:45Speaker 1: a flower to the universal light of truth and receives
- 3:12:49Speaker 1: and drinks in its life imparting rays. He also goes
- 3:12:53Speaker 1: to the eternal foundation of knowledge and quenches his thirst
- 3:12:57Speaker 1: in its inspiring waters. Such a man gains, in one
- 3:13:01Speaker 1: hour of concentrated thought, more essential knowledge than a whole
- 3:13:06Speaker 1: year's reading could impart. Being is infinite, and knowledge is illimitable,
- 3:13:11Speaker 1: and its source inexhaustible. And he who draws upon the
- 3:13:15Speaker 1: innermost depths of his being drinks from the spring of
- 3:13:18Speaker 1: divine wisdom, which can never run dry, and quafts the
- 3:13:22Speaker 1: waters of immortality. It is this habitual association with the
- 3:13:27Speaker 1: deep realities of being, this continual drinking in of the
- 3:13:31Speaker 1: water of life and its perennial source, that constitutes genius.
- 3:13:36Speaker 1: The resources of genius are inexhaustible because they are drawn
- 3:13:40Speaker 1: from the original and universal source, and for the same
- 3:13:43Speaker 1: reason the works of genius are ever new and fresh.
- 3:13:47Speaker 1: The more a genius gives out the fuller he becomes
- 3:13:51Speaker 1: with the accomplishment of every work. His mind extends and expands,
- 3:13:55Speaker 1: reaches out more vastly, and sees wider and ever wider
- 3:13:59Speaker 1: range of power. The genius is inspired. He has bridged
- 3:14:04Speaker 1: the gulf between the finite and the infinite. He needs
- 3:14:08Speaker 1: no secondary aids, but draws from that universal spring which
- 3:14:12Speaker 1: is the source of every noble work. The difference between
- 3:14:16Speaker 1: a genius and an ordinary man is this. The one
- 3:14:20Speaker 1: lives in inward realities, the other in outward appearances. The
- 3:14:25Speaker 1: one goes after pleasure, the other after wisdom. The one
- 3:14:29Speaker 1: relies on books, the other relies upon his own being.
- 3:14:34Speaker 1: Book learning is good when its true place is understood,
- 3:14:38Speaker 1: but is not the source of wisdom. The source of
- 3:14:41Speaker 1: wisdom is in life itself, and is comprehended by effort, practice,
- 3:14:45Speaker 1: and experience. Books give information, but they cannot bestow knowledge.
- 3:14:51Speaker 1: They can simulate, but cannot accomplish. You must put forth
- 3:14:55Speaker 1: effort and achieve for yourself. The man who relies entirely
- 3:14:59Speaker 1: of upon books and does not go to the silent
- 3:15:02Speaker 1: resources within himself is superficial and becomes rapidly exhausted. He
- 3:15:09Speaker 1: is uninspired, though he may be extremely clever, for he
- 3:15:13Speaker 1: soon reaches the end of his stock of information, and
- 3:15:16Speaker 1: so becomes void and repetitious. His work lacks the sweet
- 3:15:21Speaker 1: spontaneity of life and ever renewed freshness of inspiration. Such
- 3:15:26Speaker 1: a man has cut himself off from the infinite supply
- 3:15:29Speaker 1: and deals not with life itself, but with dead or
- 3:15:33Speaker 1: decaying appearances. Information is limited, knowledge is boundless. The inspiration
- 3:15:40Speaker 1: of genius and greatness is fostered, evolved, and finally completed
- 3:15:45Speaker 1: in solitude. The most ordinary man, who conceives a noble purpose, and,
- 3:15:50Speaker 1: summoning all his energies and will, broods upon and ripens
- 3:15:55Speaker 1: his purpose in solitude, will accomplish his object and become
- 3:15:58Speaker 1: a genius. The man who renounces the pleasure of the world,
- 3:16:03Speaker 1: who avoids popularity and fame, and who works in obscurity
- 3:16:07Speaker 1: and thinks in solitude for the accomplishment of a lofty
- 3:16:10Speaker 1: ideal for the human race, becomes a seer and a prophet.
- 3:16:15Speaker 1: He who silently sweetens his heart, who attunes his mind
- 3:16:19Speaker 1: to that which is pure and beautiful and good, who,
- 3:16:22Speaker 1: in long hours of lonely contemplation, strives to reach the
- 3:16:26Speaker 1: central in eternal heart of things, brings himself in touch
- 3:16:30Speaker 1: with the inaudible harmonies of being, opens himself for the
- 3:16:34Speaker 1: reception of the cosmic song, and becomes at last a
- 3:16:39Speaker 1: singer and a poet. And so with all genius it
- 3:16:43Speaker 1: is the child of Solitude, a very simple hearted child,
- 3:16:47Speaker 1: wide eyed and listening and beautiful, yet withal to the
- 3:16:50Speaker 1: noise enamored world in incomprehensible mystery of which it is
- 3:16:55Speaker 1: only now and then a glimpse from beyond the well
- 3:16:58Speaker 1: guarded portals of sel in man's self arise august anticipations, symbols,
- 3:17:05Speaker 1: types of a dim splendor ever on before. In that
- 3:17:09Speaker 1: eternal circle, life pursues Saint Paul, the cruel persecutor and
- 3:17:14Speaker 1: blind bigot, after spending three years alone in the desert,
- 3:17:18Speaker 1: comes forth a loving apostle, an inspired seer, Gaetamas Sidahartha,
- 3:17:25Speaker 1: the man of the world, after six years in the
- 3:17:27Speaker 1: forest of lonely struggle with his passions and intense meditation
- 3:17:32Speaker 1: upon the deep mysteries of his nature, becomes Buddha, the
- 3:17:36Speaker 1: Enlightened One, the embodiment of calm, serene wisdom, to whom
- 3:17:40Speaker 1: a heart thirsty world turns to refreshing waters of immortality.
- 3:17:45Speaker 1: Lao Tazu, an ordinary citizen filling a worldly office in
- 3:17:50Speaker 1: his search for knowledge, courts solitude and discovers the Tao,
- 3:17:55Speaker 1: the supreme reason, by virtue of which he becomes a
- 3:17:58Speaker 1: world teacher. Jesus the unlettered carpenter, after many years of
- 3:18:04Speaker 1: solitary communion upon the mountains, with the unfailing love and wisdom,
- 3:18:09Speaker 1: comes forth a blessed savior of mankind. Even after they
- 3:18:13Speaker 1: had attained and had scaled the lofty heights of divine knowledge,
- 3:18:18Speaker 1: these great souls were much alone and retired frequently for
- 3:18:21Speaker 1: brief seasons of solitude. The greatest man will fall from
- 3:18:26Speaker 1: his moral height and lose his influence if he neglects
- 3:18:29Speaker 1: that renewal of power which can only be obtained in solitude.
- 3:18:34Speaker 1: These masters attained their power by consciously harmonizing their thoughts
- 3:18:38Speaker 1: and lives with the creative energies within themselves, and by
- 3:18:42Speaker 1: transcending individuality and sinking their petty personal will into the
- 3:18:47Speaker 1: universal will. They became masters of creative thought and stand
- 3:18:52Speaker 1: as the loftiest instruments for the outer working of cosmic evolution.
- 3:18:57Speaker 1: And this is not miraculous, It is a matter of law.
- 3:19:01Speaker 1: It is not mysterious, except in so far as law
- 3:19:03Speaker 1: is mysterious. Every man becomes a creative master in so
- 3:19:08Speaker 1: far as he subordinate himself to the universally good and true.
- 3:19:13Speaker 1: Every poet, painter, saint, and sage is the mouthpiece of
- 3:19:17Speaker 1: the eternal. The perfection of the message varies with the
- 3:19:21Speaker 1: measure of individual selflessness. In so far as self intervenes,
- 3:19:26Speaker 1: the distinctness of the work and message becomes blurred. Perfect
- 3:19:30Speaker 1: selflessness is the acme of genius. The consummation of power.
- 3:19:36Speaker 1: Such self abdignation can only be begun, pursued, and completed
- 3:19:40Speaker 1: in solitude. A man cannot gather together and concentrate his
- 3:19:45Speaker 1: spiritual forces when he is engaged in spending those forces
- 3:19:49Speaker 1: in worldly activities. And although after power is attained the
- 3:19:53Speaker 1: balance of forces can be maintained under all circumstances, even
- 3:19:58Speaker 1: in the midst of antagonists throng, such power is only
- 3:20:02Speaker 1: secured after many years of frequent and habitual solitude. Man's
- 3:20:07Speaker 1: true home is in the great silence. This is the
- 3:20:11Speaker 1: source of all that is real and abiding within him.
- 3:20:14Speaker 1: His present nature, however, is dual, and outer activities are necessary.
- 3:20:20Speaker 1: Neither entire solitude nor entire action is the true life
- 3:20:23Speaker 1: in the world. But that is the true life, which
- 3:20:26Speaker 1: gathers in solitude, strength and wisdom to rightly perform the
- 3:20:32Speaker 1: activities of life. And as a man returns to his
- 3:20:35Speaker 1: home in the evening, weary from labour, for that sweet
- 3:20:39Speaker 1: rest and refreshment which will prepare him for another day's toil,
- 3:20:44Speaker 1: so must he would not break down in the labour
- 3:20:46Speaker 1: of life, come away from the noise and toil of
- 3:20:49Speaker 1: the world's great workshop, and rest for brief periods in
- 3:20:53Speaker 1: his abiding home in the silence. He who does this,
- 3:20:58Speaker 1: spending some portion of each day in the sacred and
- 3:21:00Speaker 1: purposeful solitude, will become strong and useful and blessed. Solitude
- 3:21:07Speaker 1: is for the strong, for those who are ready to
- 3:21:09Speaker 1: become strong. When a man is becoming great, he becomes solitary.
- 3:21:14Speaker 1: He goes in solitude to seek, and not which he seeks,
- 3:21:18Speaker 1: he finds. For there is a way to all knowledge,
- 3:21:21Speaker 1: all wisdom, all truth, all power, and the way is
- 3:21:26Speaker 1: forever open. But it lies through soundless solitudes and the
- 3:21:30Speaker 1: unexplored silences of man's being standing alone by all means
- 3:21:38Speaker 1: used to be alone. Salute thyself, see what thy soul
- 3:21:42Speaker 1: doth wear George Herbert, he that has light within his
- 3:21:47Speaker 1: own clear breast may sit in the center and enjoy
- 3:21:51Speaker 1: bright day Milton. In the life of blessedness, self reliance
- 3:21:58Speaker 1: is of the utmost importance. If there is no peace,
- 3:22:02Speaker 1: there must be strength. If there is to be security,
- 3:22:06Speaker 1: there must be stability. If there is to be lasting joy,
- 3:22:10Speaker 1: there must be no leaning upon things which at any
- 3:22:13Speaker 1: moment may be snatched away forever. A man does not
- 3:22:16Speaker 1: commence to truly live until he finds an immovable center
- 3:22:20Speaker 1: within himself on which to stand, by which to regulate
- 3:22:24Speaker 1: his life, and from which to draw his peace. If
- 3:22:28Speaker 1: he trusts to that which fluctuates, he will also fluctuate.
- 3:22:32Speaker 1: If he leans upon that which may be withdrawn, he
- 3:22:35Speaker 1: will fall and be bruised. If he looks for satisfaction
- 3:22:39Speaker 1: imperishable accumulations, he will starve for happiness in the midst
- 3:22:44Speaker 1: of plenty. Let a man learn to stand alone, looking
- 3:22:48Speaker 1: to no one for support, expecting no favors, craving no
- 3:22:53Speaker 1: personal advantages, not begging nor complaining, not craving nor regretting,
- 3:22:58Speaker 1: but relying upon the truth within himself, deriving his satisfaction
- 3:23:03Speaker 1: and comfort from the integrity of his own heart. If
- 3:23:07Speaker 1: a man can find no peace within himself, where shall
- 3:23:10Speaker 1: he find it? If he dreads to be alone with himself,
- 3:23:13Speaker 1: what steadfastness shall he find in company? If he can
- 3:23:17Speaker 1: find no joy in communion with his own thoughts, how
- 3:23:20Speaker 1: shall he escape misery in his contact with others. The
- 3:23:24Speaker 1: man who has yet found nothing within himself upon which
- 3:23:27Speaker 1: to stand, will nowhere find a place of constant rest.
- 3:23:32Speaker 1: Men everywhere are deluded by the superstition that their happiness
- 3:23:36Speaker 1: rests with other people and with outward things, and as
- 3:23:39Speaker 1: a result they live in continual disappointments, regrets, and lamentations.
- 3:23:44Speaker 1: The man who does not look for happiness to any
- 3:23:47Speaker 1: others or to external things, but finds within himself its
- 3:23:51Speaker 1: inexhaustible source, will be self contained and serene under all circumstances,
- 3:23:56Speaker 1: and will never become the helpless victim of misery and greed.
- 3:24:00Speaker 1: The man who looks to others for support, who measures
- 3:24:04Speaker 1: his happiness by the conduct of others and not by
- 3:24:06Speaker 1: his own, who depends upon their co operation for his
- 3:24:09Speaker 1: peace of mind. Such a man has no spiritual foothold.
- 3:24:14Speaker 1: His mind is tossed hither and thither with the continual
- 3:24:17Speaker 1: changes going on around him, and he lives in that
- 3:24:21Speaker 1: ceaseless ebb and flow of the spirits, which is wretchedness
- 3:24:25Speaker 1: and unrest. He is a spiritual cripple, and has yet
- 3:24:29Speaker 1: to learn how to maintain his mental center of gravity,
- 3:24:32Speaker 1: and so go without the aid of crutches. As a
- 3:24:36Speaker 1: child learns to walk in order to go about from
- 3:24:38Speaker 1: place to place of itself strong and unaided, so should
- 3:24:42Speaker 1: a man learn to stand alone, to judge and think
- 3:24:45Speaker 1: and act for himself, and to choose in the strength
- 3:24:49Speaker 1: of his own mind the oath way which he should
- 3:24:52Speaker 1: walk without his change and decay, and insecurity. Within is
- 3:24:57Speaker 1: all surety and blessedness. The and soul is sufficient of itself.
- 3:25:02Speaker 1: Where the need is there, the abundant supply. Your eternal
- 3:25:06Speaker 1: dwelling place is within. Go there and take possession of
- 3:25:10Speaker 1: your mansion. There you are a king. Everywhere you are
- 3:25:14Speaker 1: a vassal. Be contended that others shall manage or mismanage
- 3:25:18Speaker 1: their own little kingdom, And see to it that you
- 3:25:20Speaker 1: reign strongly over your own. Your entire well being in
- 3:25:25Speaker 1: the well being of the whole world lies there. You
- 3:25:28Speaker 1: have a conscience, follow it. You have a mind clarify it.
- 3:25:33Speaker 1: You have judgment, use and improve it. You have a will,
- 3:25:37Speaker 1: employ and strengthen it. You have knowledge, increase it. There
- 3:25:42Speaker 1: is a light within your soul. Watch it, tend it,
- 3:25:46Speaker 1: encourage it, shield it from the winds of passion, and
- 3:25:50Speaker 1: help it to burn with a steadier and even steadier radiance.
- 3:25:54Speaker 1: Leave the world and come back to yourself. Think as
- 3:25:57Speaker 1: a man, Act as a man, Live as a man.
- 3:26:01Speaker 1: Be rich in yourself, Be complete in yourself. Find the
- 3:26:06Speaker 1: abiding center within you, and obey it. The earth is
- 3:26:09Speaker 1: maintaining its orbit by its obedience to its center the sun.
- 3:26:14Speaker 1: Obey the center of light that is within you. Let
- 3:26:17Speaker 1: others call it darkness if they will. You are responsible
- 3:26:20Speaker 1: for yourself. Are accountable to yourself. Therefore, rely upon yourself.
- 3:26:26Speaker 1: If you fear yourself, who will place confidence in you?
- 3:26:30Speaker 1: If you are untrue to yourself, where shall you find
- 3:26:33Speaker 1: the sweet satisfaction of truth. The great man stands alone
- 3:26:37Speaker 1: in the simple dignity of independent manhood. He pursues his
- 3:26:41Speaker 1: own path fearlessly and does not apologize or beg leave.
- 3:26:46Speaker 1: Criticism and applause are no more to him than dust
- 3:26:49Speaker 1: upon his coat, of which he shakes himself free. He
- 3:26:52Speaker 1: is not guided by the changing opinions of men, but
- 3:26:56Speaker 1: guides himself by the light of his own mind. Other
- 3:26:59Speaker 1: Men ardor away their manhood for messes of flattery or fashion.
- 3:27:04Speaker 1: Until you can stand alone looking for guidance, neither to
- 3:27:08Speaker 1: spirits nor mortals, gods nor men, but guiding yourself by
- 3:27:12Speaker 1: the light of truth within you. You are not unfettered
- 3:27:16Speaker 1: and free, not altogether blessed. But do not mistake pride
- 3:27:20Speaker 1: for self reliance. To attempt to stand upon the crumbling
- 3:27:24Speaker 1: foundation of pride is to be already fallen. No man
- 3:27:28Speaker 1: depends upon others more than the proud man. He drinks
- 3:27:32Speaker 1: in their approbation and resents their censure. He mistakes flattery
- 3:27:36Speaker 1: for sound judgment, and is most easily heard or pleased
- 3:27:40Speaker 1: by the opinions of others. His happiness is entirely in
- 3:27:44Speaker 1: the hands of others. But the self reliant man stands
- 3:27:48Speaker 1: not upon personal pride, but on an abiding law, principle,
- 3:27:53Speaker 1: ideal reality within himself. Upon this he poises himself, refusing
- 3:27:59Speaker 1: to be swept from his strong foothold, either by the
- 3:28:02Speaker 1: waves of passion within or the storms of opinion without.
- 3:28:06Speaker 1: But should he at any time lose his balance, he
- 3:28:09Speaker 1: quickly regains himself and is fully restored. His happiness is
- 3:28:14Speaker 1: entirely in his own hands. Find your center of balance
- 3:28:18Speaker 1: and succeed in standing alone. And whatever your work in
- 3:28:21Speaker 1: life may be, you will succeed. You will accomplish what
- 3:28:25Speaker 1: you set your mind upon. For the truly self reliant
- 3:28:28Speaker 1: man is the invincible man. But though you do not
- 3:28:31Speaker 1: rely upon others, learn of them. Never cease to increase
- 3:28:35Speaker 1: in knowledge, and be ever ready to receive that which
- 3:28:39Speaker 1: is good and useful. You cannot have too much humility.
- 3:28:43Speaker 1: The most self reliant men are the most humble. No aristocrat,
- 3:28:47Speaker 1: no prince born to the purple, can begin to compare
- 3:28:51Speaker 1: with the self respect of the saint. Why is he
- 3:28:54Speaker 1: lowly but that he knows that he can well afford it,
- 3:28:58Speaker 1: resting on the largness of God in him. Learn of
- 3:29:02Speaker 1: all men, and especially of the masters of truth, But
- 3:29:05Speaker 1: do not lose your hold upon the truth that the
- 3:29:08Speaker 1: ultimate guidance is in yourself. A master can say, here
- 3:29:12Speaker 1: is the path, but he can neither compel you to
- 3:29:16Speaker 1: walk it, nor can walk it for you. You must
- 3:29:19Speaker 1: put forth your own efforts, must achieve by your own strength,
- 3:29:23Speaker 1: must make his truth your truth. By your own unaided exertions.
- 3:29:28Speaker 1: You must implicitly trust yourself. This thing is God. To
- 3:29:33Speaker 1: be man with thy might, to grow great in the
- 3:29:36Speaker 1: strength of thy spirit, and live out thy life as
- 3:29:40Speaker 1: the light. You are to be the master of yourself,
- 3:29:44Speaker 1: lord over yourself, not fawning and imitating, but doing your
- 3:29:49Speaker 1: work as a living, vital portion of the universe, giving
- 3:29:53Speaker 1: love but not expecting it, giving sympathy but not craving
- 3:29:56Speaker 1: for it, giving aid but not depending upon it. If
- 3:30:00Speaker 1: men should censure your work, heed them not. If suffice
- 3:30:04Speaker 1: that your work be true, rest you in this sufficiency.
- 3:30:09Speaker 1: Do not ask will my work please? But rather is
- 3:30:13Speaker 1: it real? If your work be true, the criticism of
- 3:30:17Speaker 1: men cannot touch it. If it be false, their disapproval
- 3:30:21Speaker 1: will not slay it quicker than it will die of itself.
- 3:30:25Speaker 1: The words and acts of truth cannot pass away until
- 3:30:28Speaker 1: their work is fully accomplished. The words and acts of
- 3:30:32Speaker 1: error cannot remain, for they have no work to do.
- 3:30:35Speaker 1: Criticism and resentment are alike superfluous. Free yourself from the
- 3:30:40Speaker 1: self imposed tyranny of slavish dependence and stand alone, not
- 3:30:45Speaker 1: as an isolated unit, but as a sympathetic portion of
- 3:30:48Speaker 1: the whole, find the joy that results from well earned freedom,
- 3:30:52Speaker 1: the peace that flows from wise self possession, the blessedness
- 3:30:56Speaker 1: that inheres in its native strength. Honor to him who
- 3:31:00Speaker 1: self complete. If lone carves to the grave one pathway,
- 3:31:05Speaker 1: all his own, and heeding not that men may think
- 3:31:08Speaker 1: or say asks, but his soul. If doubtful of the
- 3:31:12Speaker 1: way understanding the simple laws of life, watch narrowly the
- 3:31:17Speaker 1: demonstration of a truth its birth, and you trace back
- 3:31:21Speaker 1: the effelence to its spring and source within us, browning.
- 3:31:28Speaker 1: More is the treasure of law than gems, sweeter than
- 3:31:31Speaker 1: comb its sweetness, its delights, delightful past. Compare the light
- 3:31:38Speaker 1: of Asia. Walking those byways which I have so far
- 3:31:42Speaker 1: pointed out, resting in their beauty, and drinking in their blessedness.
- 3:31:47Speaker 1: The pilgrim along life's broad highway will in due time
- 3:31:51Speaker 1: come to one wherein his last burden will fall from him,
- 3:31:55Speaker 1: where all his weariness will pass away, where he will
- 3:31:58Speaker 1: drink of light hearted liberty and rest in perpetual peace.
- 3:32:03Speaker 1: And this most blessed of spiritual byways, the richest source
- 3:32:07Speaker 1: of strength and comfort, I call the right understanding of
- 3:32:10Speaker 1: the simple laws of life. He who comes to it
- 3:32:14Speaker 1: leaves behind all lack and longing, all doubt and perplexity,
- 3:32:19Speaker 1: all sorrow and uncertainty. He lives in the fullness of satisfaction,
- 3:32:24Speaker 1: in light and knowledge, in gladness and surety. He who
- 3:32:28Speaker 1: comprehends the utter simplicity of life, who obeys its laws,
- 3:32:32Speaker 1: and does not step aside into the dark paths in
- 3:32:35Speaker 1: complex mazes of selfish desire, stands where no harm can
- 3:32:39Speaker 1: reach him, where no enemy can lay him low, and
- 3:32:43Speaker 1: he doubts desires and sorrows. No more doubt ends where
- 3:32:48Speaker 1: reality begins, painful desire ceases, where the fullness of joy
- 3:32:53Speaker 1: is perpetual and complete, And when the unfailing and eternal
- 3:32:57Speaker 1: good is realized, what room is there for so sorrow.
- 3:33:01Speaker 1: Human life, when rightly lived, is simple, with a beautiful simplicity.
- 3:33:05Speaker 1: But it is not rightly lived while it is bound
- 3:33:08Speaker 1: to a complexity of lust, desires, and wants. These are
- 3:33:11Speaker 1: not the real life, but the burning, fever and painful
- 3:33:15Speaker 1: disease which originate in an unenlightened condition of mind. The
- 3:33:19Speaker 1: curtailing of one's desires is the beginning of wisdom. Their
- 3:33:24Speaker 1: entire mastery is its consummation. This is so because life
- 3:33:28Speaker 1: is bounded by law, and being inseparable from law, life
- 3:33:32Speaker 1: has no need that is not already supplied. Now, lust
- 3:33:36Speaker 1: or desire is not need but a rebellious superfluity, and
- 3:33:41Speaker 1: as such it leads to deprivation and misery. The prodigal son,
- 3:33:46Speaker 1: while in his father's house, not only had all he required,
- 3:33:50Speaker 1: but was surrounded by superabundance. Desire was not necessary because
- 3:33:55Speaker 1: all things were at hand. But when desire entered his heart,
- 3:33:59Speaker 1: he went into to a far country and began to
- 3:34:02Speaker 1: be in want. And it was only when he became
- 3:34:05Speaker 1: reduced to the utmost extremity of starvation that he turned
- 3:34:09Speaker 1: with longing towards his father's home. This parable is symbolical
- 3:34:13Speaker 1: of the evolution of the individual and the race man
- 3:34:17Speaker 1: has come into such a complexity of cravings that he
- 3:34:20Speaker 1: lives in continual discomfort, dissatisfaction, want, and pain, and his
- 3:34:25Speaker 1: only cure lies in a return to the father's home,
- 3:34:28Speaker 1: that is, to actual living, or being as distinguished from desiring.
- 3:34:34Speaker 1: But a man does not do this until he is
- 3:34:36Speaker 1: reduced to the last extremity of spiritual starvation. He has
- 3:34:40Speaker 1: then reaped the experience of pain and sorrow as the
- 3:34:44Speaker 1: result of desire and looks back with longing towards the
- 3:34:47Speaker 1: true life of peace and plenty. And so he turns
- 3:34:50Speaker 1: round and begins his toilsome journey back towards home, towards
- 3:34:55Speaker 1: that rich life of simple being, wherein is emancipation from
- 3:34:59Speaker 1: the thrall and fever and hunger of desire. And this
- 3:35:03Speaker 1: longing for the true life, for truth reality should not
- 3:35:08Speaker 1: be confunded with desire. It is an aspiration. Desire is
- 3:35:13Speaker 1: the craving for possession. Aspiration is the hunger of the
- 3:35:16Speaker 1: heart for peace. The craving for things leads ever farther
- 3:35:20Speaker 1: and farther from peace, and not only ends in deprivation,
- 3:35:25Speaker 1: but is in itself a state of perpetual want until
- 3:35:29Speaker 1: it comes to an end. Rest satisfaction is an impossibility.
- 3:35:35Speaker 1: The hunger for things can never be satisfied, but the
- 3:35:38Speaker 1: hunger for peace can, and the satisfaction of peace is
- 3:35:42Speaker 1: found and fully possessed. When all selfish desire is abandoned,
- 3:35:48Speaker 1: then there is a fullness of joy, abounding plenty and
- 3:35:51Speaker 1: rich and complete blessedness. In this supremely blessed state, life
- 3:35:57Speaker 1: is comprehended in its perfect symmetry and simplicity city and
- 3:36:00Speaker 1: the acme of power and usefulness is attained. Then even
- 3:36:05Speaker 1: the hunger for peace ceases, for peace becomes the normal condition,
- 3:36:09Speaker 1: is fully possessed, constant, and never varying. Men immersed in
- 3:36:14Speaker 1: desire ignorantly imagine that the conquest of desire leads to inactivity,
- 3:36:20Speaker 1: loss of power, and lifelessness. Instead, it leads to highly
- 3:36:25Speaker 1: concentrated activity, to the full employment of power, and to
- 3:36:29Speaker 1: a life so rich, so glorious, and so abundantly blessed
- 3:36:34Speaker 1: as to be incomprehensible to those who hunger for pleasures
- 3:36:37Speaker 1: and possessions of this life. Only can it be said,
- 3:36:42Speaker 1: here are no sounds of discord, no profane or senseless
- 3:36:46Speaker 1: gossip of unworthy things, only the songs of chisels and
- 3:36:50Speaker 1: of pens, of busy brushes, and ecstatic strains of souls
- 3:36:55Speaker 1: surcharged with music most divine. Here is no idle sorrow,
- 3:37:00Speaker 1: no poor grief for any day or object left behind,
- 3:37:05Speaker 1: for time is counted precious. And herein is such complete
- 3:37:09Speaker 1: abandonment of self that tears turn into rainbows and enhance
- 3:37:14Speaker 1: the beauty of the land where all is fair. When
- 3:37:17Speaker 1: a man is rescued from selfish desire. His mind is unencumbered,
- 3:37:21Speaker 1: and he is free to work for humanity, no longer
- 3:37:24Speaker 1: racing after those gratifications which will leave him hungry. Still,
- 3:37:29Speaker 1: all his powers are at his immediate command. Seeking no rewards,
- 3:37:33Speaker 1: he can concentrate all his energies upon the faultless completion
- 3:37:38Speaker 1: of his duties, and so accomplish all things and fulfill
- 3:37:42Speaker 1: all righteousness. The fully enlightened and fully blessed man is
- 3:37:47Speaker 1: not prompted to action be desire, but works from knowledge.
- 3:37:51Speaker 1: The man of desire needs the promise of reward to
- 3:37:54Speaker 1: urge him to action. He is a child working for
- 3:37:57Speaker 1: the possession of a toy. But the man of knowledge,
- 3:38:01Speaker 1: living in the fullness of life and power, can at
- 3:38:04Speaker 1: any moment bring his energies into requisition for the accomplishment
- 3:38:08Speaker 1: of that which is necessary. He is spiritually a full
- 3:38:12Speaker 1: grown man. For him all rewards have ceased to him,
- 3:38:16Speaker 1: All occurrences are good. He lives always in complete satisfaction.
- 3:38:21Speaker 1: Such a man has attained to life and his delight,
- 3:38:25Speaker 1: and it is a sweet, perpetual and never failing delight.
- 3:38:29Speaker 1: Is in obedience to the simple demands of exact and
- 3:38:32Speaker 1: never failing law. But this life of supreme blessedness is
- 3:38:36Speaker 1: an end, and the pilgrim who is striving towards it,
- 3:38:40Speaker 1: the prodigal returning to it, must travel hither and employ
- 3:38:44Speaker 1: means to get there. He must pass through the country
- 3:38:47Speaker 1: of his animal desires, disentangling himself from their intricacies, simplifying them,
- 3:38:54Speaker 1: overcoming them. This is the way, and he has no enemies,
- 3:38:59Speaker 1: but what spring within himself. At first, the way seems hard,
- 3:39:03Speaker 1: because blinded by desire, he does not perceive the simple
- 3:39:07Speaker 1: structure of life, and its laws are hidden from him.
- 3:39:11Speaker 1: But as he becomes more simple in his mind, the
- 3:39:14Speaker 1: direct laws of life become unfolded to his spiritual perception,
- 3:39:18Speaker 1: and at once the point is reached where these laws
- 3:39:21Speaker 1: begin to be understood and obeyed. Then the way becomes
- 3:39:25Speaker 1: plain and easy. There is no more uncertainty in darkness,
- 3:39:29Speaker 1: but all is seen in the clear light of knowledge.
- 3:39:32Speaker 1: It will help to accelerate the progress of the searcher
- 3:39:35Speaker 1: for the true and blessed life if we now turn
- 3:39:38Speaker 1: to a consideration of some of these simple laws, which
- 3:39:41Speaker 1: are rigidly mathematical in their operations. The elementary laws never
- 3:39:46Speaker 1: apologize all life is one, though it has a diversity
- 3:39:51Speaker 1: of manifestations. All law is one, but it is applicable
- 3:39:57Speaker 1: and operative in a variety of ways. There is not
- 3:40:00Speaker 1: one law for matter and another for mind, not one
- 3:40:03Speaker 1: for the material and visible and another for the spiritual
- 3:40:07Speaker 1: and invisible. There is the same law throughout. There is
- 3:40:11Speaker 1: not one kind of logic for the world and another
- 3:40:14Speaker 1: for the spirit, but the same logic is applicable to both.
- 3:40:19Speaker 1: Men faithfully and with unerring worldly wisdom observe certain laws
- 3:40:24Speaker 1: or rules of action in material things, knowing that to
- 3:40:27Speaker 1: ignore disobey them would be great folly on their part,
- 3:40:31Speaker 1: ending in disaster for themselves and confusion for society in
- 3:40:34Speaker 1: the state. But they err in supposing and believing that
- 3:40:38Speaker 1: the same rules do not apply to spiritual things, and
- 3:40:41Speaker 1: thereby suffer for their ignorance and disobedience. It is a
- 3:40:45Speaker 1: law on worldly things that a man shall support himself,
- 3:40:49Speaker 1: that he shall earn a living, and that he that
- 3:40:52Speaker 1: will not work, neither shall he eat. Men observe this law,
- 3:40:57Speaker 1: recognizing its justice and goodness, and so earn the necessary
- 3:41:01Speaker 1: material sustenance. But in spiritual things, men, broadly speaking, deny
- 3:41:07Speaker 1: and ignore the operation of this law. They think that
- 3:41:11Speaker 1: while it is absolutely just that a man should earn
- 3:41:15Speaker 1: his material bread, and that the man who shirks this
- 3:41:18Speaker 1: law should wander in rags and want. It is right
- 3:41:21Speaker 1: that they should beg for their spiritual bread. Think it
- 3:41:24Speaker 1: to be just that they should receive all spiritual blessings
- 3:41:27Speaker 1: without either deserving or attempting to earn them. The result
- 3:41:32Speaker 1: is that most men wander in spiritual beggary and want,
- 3:41:35Speaker 1: that is, in suffering and sorrow, deprived of spiritual sustenance
- 3:41:40Speaker 1: of joy and knowledge and peace. If you are in
- 3:41:45Speaker 1: need of any worldly thing food, clothing, furniture, or other necessity,
- 3:41:51Speaker 1: you do not beg of the storekeeper to give it
- 3:41:53Speaker 1: to you. You ask the price of it, pay for
- 3:41:56Speaker 1: it with your money, and then it becomes your own.
- 3:41:59Speaker 1: You recognize the perfect justice in giving an equivalent for
- 3:42:02Speaker 1: what you receive, and would not wish it to be otherwise.
- 3:42:06Speaker 1: The same just law prevails in spiritual things. If you
- 3:42:10Speaker 1: are in need of any spiritual thing, joy, assurance, peace,
- 3:42:14Speaker 1: or what else soever, you can only come into full
- 3:42:18Speaker 1: possession of it by giving an equivalent. You must pay
- 3:42:21Speaker 1: the price for it, as you must give a portion
- 3:42:24Speaker 1: of your material substance for a worldly thing. So you
- 3:42:27Speaker 1: must give a portion of your immaterial substance for a
- 3:42:31Speaker 1: spiritual thing. You must yield up some passion or lust,
- 3:42:35Speaker 1: or vanity or indulgence before that spiritual possession can be yours.
- 3:42:40Speaker 1: The miser who clings to his money and will not
- 3:42:43Speaker 1: give up any of it because of the pleasure which
- 3:42:46Speaker 1: its possession affords him cannot have any of the material
- 3:42:49Speaker 1: comforts of life. He lives in continual want and discomfort
- 3:42:54Speaker 1: in spite of all his wealth. The man who will
- 3:42:57Speaker 1: not give up his passions, who clings to anger, unkindness, sensuality, pride, vanity,
- 3:43:04Speaker 1: self indulgence for the momentary pleasure which their gratification affords him,
- 3:43:09Speaker 1: is a spiritual miser. He cannot have any spiritual comforts
- 3:43:14Speaker 1: and suffers continual spiritual want and uneasiness in spite of
- 3:43:19Speaker 1: the wealth of worldly pleasures which he fondly hugs and
- 3:43:22Speaker 1: refuses to give up. The man who is wise and
- 3:43:25Speaker 1: worldly things neither begs nor steals, but labors and purchases,
- 3:43:30Speaker 1: and the world honors him for his uprightness. The man
- 3:43:34Speaker 1: who is wise and spiritual things neither begs nor steals,
- 3:43:38Speaker 1: but labors in his own inner world and purchases his
- 3:43:41Speaker 1: spiritual possessions him the whole universe honors for his righteousness.
- 3:43:47Speaker 1: It is another law in worldly things that a man
- 3:43:50Speaker 1: who engages himself to another in any form of employment
- 3:43:54Speaker 1: shall be content with the wages upon which he agreed.
- 3:43:57Speaker 1: If at the end of his week's work, and on
- 3:43:59Speaker 1: receiving his wages, he were to ask his employer for
- 3:44:02Speaker 1: a larger sum, pleading that though he could not justly
- 3:44:06Speaker 1: claim it and did not really deserve it, yet he
- 3:44:09Speaker 1: expected it, he would not only not receive the larger sum,
- 3:44:13Speaker 1: but would doubtless be discharged from his post. Yet, in
- 3:44:17Speaker 1: spiritual things, men do not think it to be either
- 3:44:20Speaker 1: foolish or selfish to ask for those blessings spiritual wages
- 3:44:25Speaker 1: upon which they never agreed, for which they never labored,
- 3:44:28Speaker 1: and which they do not deserve. Every man gets from
- 3:44:32Speaker 1: the law of the universe that upon which he agrees
- 3:44:35Speaker 1: and for which he works, no more, no less, And
- 3:44:39Speaker 1: he is continually entering into agreements with the supreme Law,
- 3:44:43Speaker 1: the Master of the universe. For every thought and act
- 3:44:47Speaker 1: which he gives, he receives its just equivalent. For all
- 3:44:51Speaker 1: work done in the form of deeds, he receives the
- 3:44:54Speaker 1: wages due to him. Knowing this, the enlightened man is
- 3:44:58Speaker 1: always content, always satisfied, and in perfect peace, knowing that
- 3:45:03Speaker 1: whatever he receives, be it that men call misfortune or
- 3:45:07Speaker 1: good fortune, he has earned. The great Law never cheats
- 3:45:12Speaker 1: any man of his just due. But it says to
- 3:45:14Speaker 1: the railer and the complainer, friend, didst thou not agree
- 3:45:19Speaker 1: with me for a penny a day? Again? If a
- 3:45:22Speaker 1: man would grow rich in worldly goods, he must economize
- 3:45:26Speaker 1: and husband his financial resources until he has accumulated sufficient
- 3:45:30Speaker 1: capital to invest in some branch of industry. Then he
- 3:45:34Speaker 1: must judiciously invest his little store of capital, neither holding
- 3:45:38Speaker 1: it too tightly nor letting it go carelessly. He thus
- 3:45:42Speaker 1: increases both in worldly wisdom and worldly riches. The idle
- 3:45:47Speaker 1: spendthrift cannot grow rich. He is wasteful and riotous. He
- 3:45:52Speaker 1: who would grow rich in spiritual things must also economized
- 3:45:56Speaker 1: and husband his mental resources. He must cur or his
- 3:46:00Speaker 1: tongue in his impulses, not wasting his energy in idle gossip,
- 3:46:05Speaker 1: vain argument, or excesses of temper. In this way he
- 3:46:09Speaker 1: will accumulate a little store of wisdom, which is his
- 3:46:12Speaker 1: spiritual capital, and this he must send out into the
- 3:46:15Speaker 1: world for the good of others, and the more he
- 3:46:18Speaker 1: uses it, the richer he will become. Thus does a
- 3:46:22Speaker 1: man increase in both heavenly wisdom and heavenly riches. The
- 3:46:26Speaker 1: man who follows his blind impulses and desires, and does
- 3:46:30Speaker 1: not control and govern his mind is a spiritual spendthrift.
- 3:46:35Speaker 1: He can never become rich in divine things. It is
- 3:46:38Speaker 1: a physical law that if we would reach the summit
- 3:46:41Speaker 1: of a mountain, we must climb thither. The path must
- 3:46:44Speaker 1: be sought and then carefully followed, and the climber must
- 3:46:48Speaker 1: not give up and go back because of the labor
- 3:46:50Speaker 1: involved in the difficulties to be overcome, nor on account
- 3:46:54Speaker 1: of aching climes. Otherwise his object cannot be accomplished. And
- 3:46:59Speaker 1: this law is also spiritual. He who would reach the
- 3:47:02Speaker 1: high altitudes of moral or intellectual grandeur must climb thither
- 3:47:07Speaker 1: by his own efforts. He must seek out the pathway
- 3:47:11Speaker 1: and then assiduously follow it, not giving up and turning back,
- 3:47:15Speaker 1: but surmounting all difficulties and enduring for a time trials, temptations,
- 3:47:21Speaker 1: and heartaches, and at last he will stand upon the
- 3:47:23Speaker 1: glorious summit of moral perfection, the world of passion, temptation,
- 3:47:28Speaker 1: and sorrow beneath his feet, and the boundless heavens of
- 3:47:31Speaker 1: dignity stretching vast and silent above his head. If a
- 3:47:35Speaker 1: man would reach a distant city, or any place of destination,
- 3:47:40Speaker 1: he must travel. There is no law by which he
- 3:47:43Speaker 1: can be instantly transported there. He can only get there
- 3:47:47Speaker 1: by putting forth the necessary exertion. If he walks, he
- 3:47:51Speaker 1: will put forth great exertion, but it will cost him
- 3:47:54Speaker 1: nothing in money. If he drives or takes train, there
- 3:47:58Speaker 1: will be less actual labor, but he must pay in
- 3:48:01Speaker 1: money for which he has labored. To reach any place
- 3:48:04Speaker 1: requires labor. This cannot be avoided. It is law equally
- 3:48:10Speaker 1: so spiritually. He who would reach any spiritual destination, such
- 3:48:15Speaker 1: as purity, compassion, wisdom, or peace, must travel, and must
- 3:48:20Speaker 1: labor to get there. There is no law by which
- 3:48:23Speaker 1: he can suddenly be transported to any of these beautiful
- 3:48:26Speaker 1: spiritual cities. He must find the most direct route, and
- 3:48:30Speaker 1: then put forth the necessary labor, and at last he
- 3:48:33Speaker 1: will come to the end of his journey. These are
- 3:48:36Speaker 1: but a few of the many laws or manifestations of
- 3:48:39Speaker 1: the one great Law, which are to be understood applied
- 3:48:43Speaker 1: and obeyed before the full manhood and maturity of spiritual
- 3:48:47Speaker 1: life and blessedness can be attained. There is no worldly
- 3:48:51Speaker 1: or physical law which is not operative with equal exactness
- 3:48:55Speaker 1: in the spiritual realm, that is, the inner and invisible
- 3:48:59Speaker 1: world of manas man's beings. Just as physical things are
- 3:49:03Speaker 1: the shadows and types of spiritual realities, so worldly wisdom
- 3:49:07Speaker 1: is the reflected image of divine wisdom. All those simple
- 3:49:11Speaker 1: operations of human life in worldly things which men never
- 3:49:15Speaker 1: question but follow and obey implicitly because of their obvious
- 3:49:19Speaker 1: plainness and exactness obtain in spiritual things with the same
- 3:49:23Speaker 1: unerring accuracy. And when this is understood, and these laws
- 3:49:28Speaker 1: are as implicitly obeyed in spiritual as in worldly matters,
- 3:49:33Speaker 1: then has a man reached the firm standing ground of
- 3:49:36Speaker 1: exact knowledge. His sorrows are at an end, and he
- 3:49:40Speaker 1: can doubt no more. Life is involved uncompromising justice. Its
- 3:49:46Speaker 1: operations are simple, invincible logic. Law reigns forever, and the
- 3:49:51Speaker 1: heart of law is love. Favoritism and caprice are the
- 3:49:56Speaker 1: reverse of both law and love. The universe has no favorites.
- 3:50:01Speaker 1: It is supremely just and gives to every man his
- 3:50:04Speaker 1: rightful earnings. All is good because all his according to law,
- 3:50:09Speaker 1: and because all his according to law, man can find
- 3:50:13Speaker 1: the right way in life, and, having found it, can
- 3:50:16Speaker 1: rejoice and be glad. The Father of Jesus is the
- 3:50:20Speaker 1: unfailing good, which is embodied in the law of things.
- 3:50:24Speaker 1: No evil can happen to a good man, either in
- 3:50:26Speaker 1: life or death. Jesus recognized the good in his own
- 3:50:30Speaker 1: faith and exonerated all his persecutors from blame. No man,
- 3:50:35Speaker 1: he declared, taketh my life from me, but I lay
- 3:50:39Speaker 1: it down of myself. That is, he himself had brought
- 3:50:43Speaker 1: about his own end. He who has, by simplifying his
- 3:50:47Speaker 1: life and purifying his mind, arrived at an understanding of
- 3:50:52Speaker 1: the beautiful simplicity of being, perceives the unvarying operation of
- 3:50:56Speaker 1: law in all things, and knows the result of all
- 3:50:59Speaker 1: his life, thoughts and deeds upon himself in the world,
- 3:51:02Speaker 1: knows what effects are bound up with the mental causes
- 3:51:05Speaker 1: which he sets in motion. He then thinks and does
- 3:51:09Speaker 1: only those thoughts and deeds that are blessed in their inception,
- 3:51:13Speaker 1: blest in their growth, and blest in their completion, humbly
- 3:51:17Speaker 1: accepting the lawful results of all the deeds done. When
- 3:51:21Speaker 1: in a state of ignorance, he neither complains, nor fears,
- 3:51:24Speaker 1: nor questions, but is at rest in obedience, is perfectly
- 3:51:29Speaker 1: blest in his knowledge of the good law. The tissue
- 3:51:32Speaker 1: of our life to be we weave with colors all
- 3:51:35Speaker 1: our own. And in the field of destiny we reap
- 3:51:39Speaker 1: as we have sown. And if we reap as we
- 3:51:43Speaker 1: have sown, and take the dole we deal. The law
- 3:51:46Speaker 1: of pain is love alone. The wounding is to heal.
- 3:51:52Speaker 1: Happy endings. Such is the law which moves to righteousness,
- 3:51:57Speaker 1: which none at last can turn aside or sinday. The
- 3:52:01Speaker 1: heart of it is love, and the end of it
- 3:52:04Speaker 1: is peace and consummation. Sweet obey the light of Asia.
- 3:52:11Speaker 1: So haply, when thy task shall end, the wrong shall
- 3:52:14Speaker 1: lose itself and right, and all thy weak day sabbath
- 3:52:18Speaker 1: splend with the long sabbath of the light. Wittier life
- 3:52:26Speaker 1: has many happy endings because it has much that is
- 3:52:30Speaker 1: noble and pure and beautiful. Although there is much sin
- 3:52:33Speaker 1: and ignorance in the world, many tears, and much pain
- 3:52:37Speaker 1: and sorrow, there is also much purity and knowledge, many smiles,
- 3:52:41Speaker 1: and much healing and gladness. No pure thought, no unselfish
- 3:52:46Speaker 1: deed can fall short of its felicitous result, And every
- 3:52:51Speaker 1: such result is a happy consummation. A pleasant home is
- 3:52:55Speaker 1: a happy ending. A successful life is a happy ending.
- 3:53:00Speaker 1: The task well and faithfully done is a happy ending.
- 3:53:03Speaker 1: To be surrounded by kind friends is a happy ending.
- 3:53:07Speaker 1: A quarrel put away, grudges wiped out, unkind words confessed
- 3:53:12Speaker 1: and forgiven, friend restored to friend, These are all happy endings.
- 3:53:17Speaker 1: To find that which one has long and tediously sought,
- 3:53:21Speaker 1: to be restored from tears, to gladness, to awaken in
- 3:53:24Speaker 1: the bright sunlight, out of the painful nightmare of sin,
- 3:53:28Speaker 1: to strike after much searching, the heavenly way in life.
- 3:53:33Speaker 1: These are indeed blessed consummations. He who looks for finds
- 3:53:39Speaker 1: and enters the byways which I have indicated, will come
- 3:53:43Speaker 1: to this one without seeking it, for his whole life
- 3:53:47Speaker 1: will be filled with happy endings. He who begins right
- 3:53:51Speaker 1: and continues right does not need to desire and search
- 3:53:54Speaker 1: for felicitous results. They are already at hand. They follow
- 3:53:59Speaker 1: as a consequence. They are the certainties, the realities of life.
- 3:54:04Speaker 1: There are happy endings which belong solely to the material world,
- 3:54:08Speaker 1: These are transient, and they pass away. There are happy
- 3:54:13Speaker 1: endings which belong to the spiritual world. These are eternal,
- 3:54:17Speaker 1: and they do not pass away. Sweet are companionships, pleasures,
- 3:54:21Speaker 1: and material comforts, but they change and fade away. Sweeter
- 3:54:27Speaker 1: still are purity, wisdom, and the knowledge of truth, and
- 3:54:30Speaker 1: these never change nor fade away. Wherever a man in
- 3:54:34Speaker 1: this world can take his worldly possessions with him, but
- 3:54:38Speaker 1: he soon must part company with them. And if he
- 3:54:41Speaker 1: stands upon these alone, deriving all his happiness from them,
- 3:54:45Speaker 1: he will come to a spiritual ending of great emptiness
- 3:54:48Speaker 1: and want. But he who has attained to the possession
- 3:54:51Speaker 1: of spiritual things can never be deprived of his source
- 3:54:55Speaker 1: of happiness. He will never have to part company with it.
- 3:54:59Speaker 1: And wherever he goes in the whole universe, he will
- 3:55:02Speaker 1: carry his possessions with him. His spiritual end will be
- 3:55:05Speaker 1: the fullness of joy. Happy in the eternal happiness. Is
- 3:55:10Speaker 1: he who has come to that life form which the
- 3:55:13Speaker 1: thought of self is abolished. Already even now and in
- 3:55:17Speaker 1: this life, has entered into the Kingdom of Heaven, Nirvana, Paradise,
- 3:55:22Speaker 1: the New Jerusalem, the Olympus of Jupiter, the Valhalla of
- 3:55:27Speaker 1: the gods. He knows the final unity of life, the
- 3:55:31Speaker 1: great reality of which these fleeting and changing names are
- 3:55:34Speaker 1: but feeble utterances. He is at rest on the bosom
- 3:55:38Speaker 1: of the infinite. Sweet is the rest and deep the
- 3:55:41Speaker 1: bliss of him who has freed his heart from its
- 3:55:44Speaker 1: lusts and hatreds and dark desires. And he who, without
- 3:55:49Speaker 1: any shadow of bitterness or selfishness, resting upon him and
- 3:55:53Speaker 1: looking out upon the world with boundless compassion and love,
- 3:55:57Speaker 1: can breathe in his inmost heart the bl blessing peace,
- 3:56:02Speaker 1: unto all living things, making no exceptions or distinctions. Such
- 3:56:07Speaker 1: a man has reached that happy ending which can never
- 3:56:10Speaker 1: be taken away. For this is the perfection of life,
- 3:56:14Speaker 1: the fullness of peace, and the consummation of perfect blessedness.