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The Mastery of Destiny - James Allen · James Allen Works Collection

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  Speaker 1: Deeds, character, and destiny. There is and always has been,
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  Speaker 1: a widespread belief in fate or destiny, that is, in
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  Speaker 1: an eternal and inscrutable power which apportions definite ends to
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  Speaker 1: both individuals and nations. This belief has arisen from long
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  Speaker 1: observation of the facts of life. Men are conscious that
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  Speaker 1: there are certain occurrences which they cannot control and are
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  Speaker 1: powerless to avert. Birth and death, for instance, are inevitable,
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  Speaker 1: and many of the incidents of life appear equally inevitable.
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  Speaker 1: Men strain every nerve for the attainment of certain ends,
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  Speaker 1: and gradually they become conscious of a power which seems
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  Speaker 1: to be not of themselves, which frustrates their puny efforts
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  Speaker 1: and laughs as it were, at their fruitless striving and struggle.
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  Speaker 1: As men advance in life, they learn to submit it
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  Speaker 1: more or less to this overruling power, which they do
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  Speaker 1: not understand, perceiving only its effects in themselves in the
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  Speaker 1: world around them, and they call it by various names
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  Speaker 1: such as God, Providence, fate, destiny, et cetera. Men of contemplation,
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  Speaker 1: such as poets and philosophers, step aside as it were,
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  Speaker 1: to watch the movements of this mysterious power, as it
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  Speaker 1: seems to elevate its favorites on the one hand and
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  Speaker 1: strike down its victims on the other, without reference to
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  Speaker 1: merit or demerit. The greatest poets, especially the dramatic poets,
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  Speaker 1: represent this power in their works as they have observed
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  Speaker 1: it in nature. The Greek and Roman dramatists usually depict
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  Speaker 1: their heroes as having foreknowledge of their fate and taking
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  Speaker 1: means to escape it, but by so doing they blindly
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  Speaker 1: involve themselves in a series of consequences which bring about
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  Speaker 1: the doom they are trying to avert. Shakespeare's characters, on
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  Speaker 1: the other hand, are represented as in nature with no foreknowledge,
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  Speaker 1: except in the form of presentiment, of their particular destiny. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: according to the poets, whether the man knows his fate
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  Speaker 1: or not, he cannot avert it, and every conscious or
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  Speaker 1: unconscious act of his is a step towards it. O
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  Speaker 1: Markaiam's moving finger is a vivid expression of this idea
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  Speaker 1: of fate. The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.
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  Speaker 1: Nor all thy piety, nor wit shall lure it back
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  Speaker 1: to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash
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  Speaker 1: out a word of it. Thus men in all nations
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  Speaker 1: and times have experienced in their lives the action of
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  Speaker 1: this invincible power or law, and in our nation today
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  Speaker 1: this experience has been crystallized in the terse proverb man proposes,
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  Speaker 1: God disposes. But contradictory as it may appear, there is
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  Speaker 1: an equally widespread belief in man's responsibility as a free agent.
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  Speaker 1: All moral teaching is an affirmation of man's freedom to
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  Speaker 1: choose his course and mold his destiny, and man's patient
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  Speaker 1: and untiring efforts in achieving his ends are declarations of
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  Speaker 1: consciousness of freedom and power. This dual experience of fate
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  Speaker 1: on the one hand and freedom on the other, has
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  Speaker 1: given rise to the interminable controversy between the believers in
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  Speaker 1: fatalism and the upholders of free will, a controversy which
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  Speaker 1: was recently revived under the term determinism versus free will.
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  Speaker 1: Between apparently conflicting extremes, there is always a middle way
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  Speaker 1: of balance, justice, or compensation, which, while it includes both extremes,
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  Speaker 1: cannot be said to be either one or the other,
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  Speaker 1: and brings both into harmony. And this middle way is
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  Speaker 1: the point of contact between two extremes. Truth cannot be
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  Speaker 1: a partisan but by its nature is the reconciler of extremes.
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  Speaker 1: And so in the matter which we are considering, there
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  Speaker 1: is a golden mean which brings fate and free will
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  Speaker 1: into close relationship. Wherein, indeed, it is seen that these
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  Speaker 1: two indisputable facts in human life. For such they are,
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  Speaker 1: are but two aspects of one's central law, one unifying
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  Speaker 1: and all embracing principle, namely, the law of causation in
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  Speaker 1: its moral aspect. Moral causation necessitates both fate and free will,
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  Speaker 1: both individual responsibilityity and individual predestination. For the law of
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  Speaker 1: causes must also be the law of effects, and cause
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  Speaker 1: and effect must always be equal. The train of causation,
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  Speaker 1: both in matter and mind, must be eternally balanced, therefore
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  Speaker 1: eternally just, eternally perfect. Thus every effect may be said
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  Speaker 1: to be a thing preordained, but the predetermining power is
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  Speaker 1: a cause, and not the fiat of an arbitrary will.
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  Speaker 1: Man finds himself involved in the train of causation. His
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  Speaker 1: life is made up of causes and effects. It is
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  Speaker 1: both a sowing and a reaping. Each act of his
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  Speaker 1: is a cause which must be balanced by its effects.
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  Speaker 1: He chooses the cause. This is free will, he cannot choose,
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  Speaker 1: alter or avert the effect. This is fate. Thus free
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  Speaker 1: will stands for the power to initiate causes, and destiny
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  Speaker 1: is involvement and effects. It is therefore true that man
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  Speaker 1: is predestined to certain ends. But he himself has, though
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  Speaker 1: he knows it, not issued the mandate, that good or
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  Speaker 1: evil thing from which there is no escape, he has,
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  Speaker 1: by his own deeds, brought about. It may here be
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  Speaker 1: urged that man is not responsible for his deeds, that
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  Speaker 1: these are the effects of his character, and that he
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  Speaker 1: is not responsible for the character, good or bad, which
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  Speaker 1: was given him at his birth. If character was given
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  Speaker 1: him at birth, this would be true, and there would
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  Speaker 1: then be no moral law and no need for moral teaching.
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  Speaker 1: But characters are not given ready made. They are evolved.
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  Speaker 1: They are indeed effects, the products of the moral law itself,
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  Speaker 1: that is, of deeds. Character result of an accumulation of
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  Speaker 1: deeds which have piled up, so to speak, by the
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  Speaker 1: individual during his life. Man is the doer of his
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  Speaker 1: own deeds. As such, he is the maker of his
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  Speaker 1: own character. And as the doer of his deeds and
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  Speaker 1: the maker of his character, he is the molder and
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  Speaker 1: shaper of his destiny. He has the power to modify
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  Speaker 1: and alter his deeds, and every time he acts, he
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  Speaker 1: modifies his character. And with the modification of his character,
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  Speaker 1: for good or evil, he is predetermining for himself new destinies,
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  Speaker 1: destinies disastrous or beneficent in accordance with the nature of
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  Speaker 1: his deeds. Character is destiny itself as a fixed combination
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  Speaker 1: of deeds. It bears within itself the results of those deeds.
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  Speaker 1: These results lie hidden as moral seeds in the dark
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  Speaker 1: reasons of the character, awaiting their season of germination, growth,
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  Speaker 1: and fruitage. Those things which befall a man are the
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  Speaker 1: reflections of himself. That destiny which pursued him, which he
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  Speaker 1: was powerless to escape by effort or avert by prayer,
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  Speaker 1: was the relentless ghoul of his own wrong deeds, demanding
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  Speaker 1: and enforcing restitution. Those blessings and curses which come to
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  Speaker 1: him unbidden are the reverberating echoes of the sounds which
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  Speaker 1: he himself sent forth. It is this knowledge of the
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  Speaker 1: perfect law working through and above all things, of the
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  Speaker 1: perfect justice, operating in and adjusting all human affairs, that
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  Speaker 1: enables the good man to love his enemies and to
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  Speaker 1: rise above all hatred, resentment, and complaining, for he knows
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  Speaker 1: that only his own can come to him, and that
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  Speaker 1: though he be surrounded by persecutors, his enemies are but
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  Speaker 1: the blind instruments of a faultless retribution. And so he
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  Speaker 1: blames them not but calmly receives his accounts and patiently
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  Speaker 1: pays his moral debts. But this is not all. He
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  Speaker 1: does not merely pay his debts. He takes care not
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  Speaker 1: to contract any further debts. He watches himself and makes
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  Speaker 1: his deeds faultless. While paying off evil accounts, he is
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  Speaker 1: laying up good accounts. By putting an end to his
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  Speaker 1: own sin. He is bringing evil and suffering to an end.
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  Speaker 1: And now let us consider how the law operates in
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  Speaker 1: particular instances in the outworking of destiny through deeds and character.
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  Speaker 1: First we will look at this present life, for the
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  Speaker 1: present is a synthesis of the entire past. The net
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  Speaker 1: result of all that a man has ever thought and
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  Speaker 1: done is contained within him. It is no noticeable that
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  Speaker 1: sometimes the good man fails and the unscrupulous man prospers,
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  Speaker 1: a fact which seems to put all moral maxims as
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  Speaker 1: to the good results of righteousness out of account. And
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  Speaker 1: because of this, many people deny the operation of any
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  Speaker 1: just law in human life, and even declare that it
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  Speaker 1: is chiefly the unjust that prosper. Nevertheless, the moral law
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  Speaker 1: exists and is not altered or subverted by shallow conclusions.
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  Speaker 1: It should be remembered that man is a changing, evolving being.
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  Speaker 1: The good man was not always good. The bad man
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  Speaker 1: was not always bad. Even in this life. There was
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  Speaker 1: a time, in a large number of instances, when the
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  Speaker 1: man who is now just was unjust, when he who
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  Speaker 1: is now kind was cruel, when he who is now
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  Speaker 1: pure was impure. Conversely, there was a time in this life,
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  Speaker 1: in a number of instances, when he who is now
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  Speaker 1: unjust was just, When he who is now cruel was kind,
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  Speaker 1: when he who is now impure was pure. Thus, the
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  Speaker 1: good man, who is overtaken with calamity today is reaping
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  Speaker 1: the result of his former evil sewing. Later he will
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  Speaker 1: reap the happy result of his present good sowing. While
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  Speaker 1: the bad man is now reaping the result of his
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  Speaker 1: former good sewing. Later he will reap the result of
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  Speaker 1: his present sowing. Of bad. Characteristics are fixed habits of mind,
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  Speaker 1: the results of deeds. An act repeated a large number
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  Speaker 1: of times, becomes unconscious or automatic, that is, it seems
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  Speaker 1: to repeat itself without any effort on the part of
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  Speaker 1: the doer, so that it seems to him almost impossible
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  Speaker 1: not to do it. And then it has become a
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  Speaker 1: mental characteristic. Here is a poor man out of work.
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  Speaker 1: He is honest and is not a shirker. He wants
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  Speaker 1: work and cannot get it. He tries hard and continues
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  Speaker 1: to fail. Where is the justice in his lot? There
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  Speaker 1: was a time in this man's condition when he had
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  Speaker 1: plenty of work. He felt burdened with it. He shirked
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  Speaker 1: it and longed for ease. He thought, how delightful it
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  Speaker 1: would be to have nothing to do. He did not
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  Speaker 1: appreciate the blessedness of his lot. His desire for ease
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  Speaker 1: is now gratified. But the fruit for which he longed,
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  Speaker 1: and which he thought would taste so sweet, has turned
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  Speaker 1: to ashes in his mouth. The condition which he aimed for, namely,
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  Speaker 1: to have nothing to do, he has reached. And there
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  Speaker 1: he is compelled to remain till his lesson is thoroughly learned.
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  Speaker 1: And he is surely learning that habitual ease is degrading,
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  Speaker 1: that to have nothing to do is a condition of wretchedness,
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  Speaker 1: and that work is a noble and black thing. His
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  Speaker 1: former desires and deeds have brought him where he is,
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  Speaker 1: and now his present desire for work, his ceaseless searching
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  Speaker 1: and asking for it, will just as surely bring about
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  Speaker 1: its own beneficent result. No longer desiring idleness, his present
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  Speaker 1: condition will, as an effect, the cause of which is
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  Speaker 1: no longer propagated, soon pass away, and he will obtain employment.
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  Speaker 1: And if his whole mind is now set on work,
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  Speaker 1: and he desires it above all else, then when it comes,
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  Speaker 1: he will be overwhelmed with it. It will flow into
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  Speaker 1: him from all sides, and he will prosper in his industry. Then,
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  Speaker 1: if he does not understand the law of cause and
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  Speaker 1: effect in human life, he will wonder why work comes
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  Speaker 1: to him apparently unsought, while others who seek it strenuously
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  Speaker 1: fail to obtain it. Nothing comes unbidden. Where the shadow
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  Speaker 1: is there also is the substance. That which comes to
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  Speaker 1: the individual is the product of his own deeds. As
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  Speaker 1: cheerful industry leads to greater industry and increasing prosperity, and
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  Speaker 1: labor shirked or undertaken discontentedly leads to a lesser degree
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  Speaker 1: of labor and decreasing prosperity. So with all the very
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  Speaker 1: conditions of life as we see them, they are the
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  Speaker 1: destinies wrought by the thoughts and deeds of each particular individual.
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  Speaker 1: So also with the vast variety of characters, they are
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  Speaker 1: the ripening and ripened fruit of the sowing of deeds.
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  Speaker 1: As the individual reaps what he sows, so the nation,
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  Speaker 1: being a community of individuals, reaps also what it sows.
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  Speaker 1: Nations become great when their leaders are just men. They
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  Speaker 1: fall and fade when their just men pass away. Those
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  Speaker 1: who are in power set an example, good or bad
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  Speaker 1: for the entire nation. Great will be the peace and
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  Speaker 1: prosperity of a nation when there shall arise within it
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  Speaker 1: a line of statesmen, who, having first established themselves in
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  Speaker 1: a lofty integrity of character, shall direct the energies of
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  Speaker 1: the nation towards the culture of virtue and development of character,
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  Speaker 1: knowing that only through personal industry, integrity, and nobility can
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  Speaker 1: national prosperity proceed. Still, above all is the Great Law,
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  Speaker 1: calmly and with infallible justice, meeting out to morals their
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  Speaker 1: fleeting destinies, tears stained or smiling the fabric of their hands.
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  Speaker 1: Life is a great school for the development of character,
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  Speaker 1: and all, through strife and struggle, vice and virtue, success
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  Speaker 1: and failure, are slowly but surely learning the lessons of wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: the science of self control. We live in a scientific age.
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  Speaker 1: Men of science are numbered by thousands, and they are
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  Speaker 1: ceaselessly searching, analyzing, and experimenting with a view to discovery
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  Speaker 1: and the increase of knowledge. The shells of our libraries,
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  Speaker 1: both public and private, are heavy with their load of
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  Speaker 1: imposing volumes on scientific subjects, and the wonderful achievements of
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  Speaker 1: modern science are always before us, whether in our homes
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  Speaker 1: or in our streets, in country or town, on land
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  Speaker 1: or sea. Their show we have before us some marvelous device,
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  Speaker 1: some recent accomplishment of science, for adding to our comfort,
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  Speaker 1: increasing our speed, or saving the labor of our hands. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: with all our vast store of scientific knowledge and its
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  Speaker 1: startling and rapidly increasing results in the world discovery and invention,
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  Speaker 1: there is in this age one branch of science which
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  Speaker 1: has so far fallen into decay as to have become
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  Speaker 1: almost forgotten. A science, nevertheless, which is of greater importance
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  Speaker 1: than all the other sciences combined, and without which all
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  Speaker 1: science would but subserve the ends of selfishness and aid
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  Speaker 1: in man's destruction. I refer to the science of self control.
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  Speaker 1: Our modern scientists study the elements and forces which are
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  Speaker 1: outside themselves, with the object of controlling and utilizing them.
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  Speaker 1: The ancients studied the elements and forces which were within themselves,
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  Speaker 1: with a view to controlling and utilizing them. And the
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  Speaker 1: ancients produce such mighty masters of knowledge in this direction
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  Speaker 1: that to this day they are held in reverence as gods,
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  Speaker 1: and the vast religion organizations of the world are based
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  Speaker 1: upon their achievements. Wonderful as are the forces in nature,
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  Speaker 1: they are vastly inferior to that combination of intelligent forces
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  Speaker 1: which comprise the mind of man, and which dominate and
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  Speaker 1: direct the blind mechanical forces of nature. Therefore, it follows
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  Speaker 1: that to understand, control, and direct the inner forces of passion, desire, will,
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  Speaker 1: and intellect is to be in possession of the destinies
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  Speaker 1: of men and nations. As an ordinary science. There are
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  Speaker 1: in this divine science degrees of attainment. And a man
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  Speaker 1: is great in knowledge, great in himself, and great in
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  Speaker 1: his influence on the world in the measure that he
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  Speaker 1: is great in self control. He who understands and dominates
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  Speaker 1: the forces of external mansess nature is the natural scientist.
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  Speaker 1: But he who understands and dominates the internal forces of
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  Speaker 1: the mind is the divine scientists. And the laws which
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  Speaker 1: operate in gaining a knowledge of external appearances operate also
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  Speaker 1: in gathering a knowledge of internal varieties. A man cannot
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  Speaker 1: become an accomplished scientist in a few weeks or months,
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  Speaker 1: nay not even in a few years, but only after
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  Speaker 1: many years of painstaking investigation can he speak with authority
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  Speaker 1: and be ranked among the masters of science. Likewise, a
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  Speaker 1: man cannot acquire self control and become possessed of the
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  Speaker 1: wisdom and peacegiving knowledge which self control confers, but by
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  Speaker 1: many years of patient labor, a labor which is all
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  Speaker 1: the more arduous because it is silent and both unrecognized
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  Speaker 1: and unappreciiated by others. And he who would pursue this
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  Speaker 1: science successfully must learn to stand alone, and who toll unrewarded.
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  Speaker 1: As far as any outward emolument is concerned. The natural
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  Speaker 1: scientist pursues in acquiring his particular kind of knowledge. The
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  Speaker 1: following five orderly and sequential steps. One observation, that is,
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  Speaker 1: he closely and persistently observes the facts of nature. Two experiment.
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  Speaker 1: Having become acquainted by repeated observations with certain facts, he
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  Speaker 1: experiments with those facts with a view to the discovery
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  Speaker 1: of natural law. He puts his facts through rigid processes
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  Speaker 1: of analysis, and so finds out what is useless and
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  Speaker 1: what of value, and he rejects the former and retains
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  Speaker 1: the latter. Three Classification. Having accumulated and verified a mass
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  Speaker 1: of facts by numberless observations and experiments, he commences to
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  Speaker 1: classify those facts, to arrange them in orderly groups, with
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  Speaker 1: the object of discovering some underlying law, some hidden and
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  Speaker 1: unifying principle which governs, regulates, and binds together these facts.
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  Speaker 1: Four Deduction. Thus he passes on to the fourth step
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  Speaker 1: of deduction. From the facts and results which are before him,
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  Speaker 1: he discovers certain invariable modes of action, and thus reveals
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  Speaker 1: the hidden law of things. Five Knowledge. Having proven and
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  Speaker 1: established certain laws, it may be said of such a
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  Speaker 1: man that he knows he is a scientist, a man
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  Speaker 1: of knowledge. But the attainment of scientific knowledge is not
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  Speaker 1: the end. Great as it is, men do not attain
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  Speaker 1: knowledge for themselves alone, nor to keep it locked secretly
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  Speaker 1: in their hearts like a beautiful jewel in a dark chest.
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  Speaker 1: The end of such knowledge is use service the increase
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  Speaker 1: of the comfort and happiness of the world. Thus, when
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  Speaker 1: a man has become a scientist, he gives the world
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  Speaker 1: the benefit of his knowledge, and unselfishly bestows upon mankind
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  Speaker 1: the results of all his labors. Thus, beyond knowledge, there
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  Speaker 1: is a further step of use, that is, the right
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  Speaker 1: and unselfish use of the knowledge acquired, the application of
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  Speaker 1: knowledge to invention for the common weal. It will be
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  Speaker 1: noted that the five steps or processes enumerated follow in
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  Speaker 1: orderly succession, and that no man can become a scientist
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  Speaker 1: who omits any one of them without the first step
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  Speaker 1: of systematic observation. For instance, he could not even enter
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  Speaker 1: the realm of knowledge of nature's secrets. At first, the
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  Speaker 1: searcher for such knowledge has before him a universe of things.
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  Speaker 1: These things he does not understand. Many of them indeed
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  Speaker 1: seem to be irreconcilably opposed one to the other, and
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  Speaker 1: there is apparent confusion. But by patiently and laboriously pursuing
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  Speaker 1: these five processes, he discovers the order, nature, and essence
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  Speaker 1: of things, perceives the central law or laws which bind
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  Speaker 1: them together in harmonious relationship, and so puts an end
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  Speaker 1: to confusion and ignorance. As with the natural scientist, so
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  Speaker 1: with the divine scientist. He must pursue with the same
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  Speaker 1: self sacrificing diligence, five progressive of steps in the attainment
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  Speaker 1: of self knowledge self control. These five steps are the
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  Speaker 1: same as with the natural scientists, but the process is reversed.
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  Speaker 1: The mind, instead of being centered upon external things, is
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  Speaker 1: turned back upon itself, and the investigations are pursued in
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  Speaker 1: the realm of the mind, or of one's own mind,
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  Speaker 1: instead of in that of matter. At first, the searcher
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: for divine knowledge is confronted with that mass of desires, passions, emotions,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: ideas and intellections which he calls himself, which is the
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: basis of all his actions, and from which his life proceeds.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: This combination of invisible yet powerful forces appears confusedly. Some
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: of them stand apparently in direct conflict with each other,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: without any appearance or hope of recas conciliation. His mind,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: in its entirety, too, with his life, which proceeds from
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: that mind does not seem to have any equitable relation
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: to many other minds and lives about him, And altogether
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: there is a condition of pain and confusion from which
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: he would fain escape. Thus he begins by keenly realizing
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: his state of ignorance, For no one could acquire either
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: natural or divine knowledge if he were convinced that, without
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: study or labor, he already possessed it. With such perception
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: of one's ignorance, there comes the desire for knowledge, and
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the novice and self control enters upon the ascending pathway,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: in which are the following five steps one introspection. This
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: coincides with the observation of the natural scientist. The mental
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: eye is turned like a searchlight upon the inner things
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: of the mind, and its subtle and ever varying processes
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: are observed and carefully noted. This stepping, aside from selfish gratifications,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: from the excitements of worldly pleasures and ambitions, in order
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: to observe with the object of understanding one's nature, is
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: the beginning of self control. Hitherto the man has been
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: blindly and impotently borne along by the impulses of his nature.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: The mere creature of things and circumstances. But now he
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: puts a check upon his impulses, and instead of being controlled,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: begins to control. Two self analysis. Having observed the tendencies
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: of the mind, they are then closely examined and are
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: put through a rigid process of analysis. The evil tendencies,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: those that produce painful effects, are separated from the good tendencies,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: those that produce peaceful effects. And the various tendencies with
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: the particular actions they produce, and the definite results which
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: invariably spring from these actions, are gradually grasped by the
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: understanding which is at last enabled to follow them in
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: their swift and subtle interplay and profound ramifications. It is
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: a process of testing, improving, and for the searcher, a
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: period of being tested, improved, three adjustment. By this time,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: the practical student of things divine has clearly before him
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: every tendency and aspect of his nature, down to the
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: profoundest promptings of his mind and the most subtle motives
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: of his heart. There is not a spot or corner
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: left which he has not explored and illuminated with the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: light of self examination. He is familiar with every weak
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: and selfish point every strong and virtuous quality. It is
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: considered the height of wisdom to be able to see
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: ourselves as others see us. But the practitioner of self
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: control goes far beyond this. He not only sees himself
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: as others see him, he sees himself as he is,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: thus standing face to face with himself, not striving to
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: hide away from any secret fault, no longer defending himself
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: with pleasant flatteries, neither under rating nor overrating himself or
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: his powers, and no more cursed with self praise or
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: self pity. He sees the full magnitude of the task
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: which lies before him, sees dearly ahead the heights of
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: self control, and knows what work he has to do
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: to reach them. He is no longer in a state
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: of confusion, but has gained a glimpse of the laws
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: which are in the world of thought, and he now
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: begins to adjust his mind in accordance with those laws.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: This is a process of weeding, sifting, cleansing. As the
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: farmer weeds, cleans and prepares the ground for his crops,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: so the student removes the weeds of evil from his mind,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: cleanses and purifies it. Preparatory to sowing the seeds of
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: righteous actions, which shall produce the harvest of a well
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: ordered life four righteousness. Having adjusted his thoughts and deeds
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: to those minor laws which operate in mental activities, in
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: the production of pain and pleasure, unrest and peace, sorrow
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: and bliss, he now perceives that there is involved in
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: those laws one great central law, which, like the law
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: of gravitation in the natural world, is supreme in the
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: world of mind a li the law to which all
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: thoughts and deeds are subservient, and by which they are
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: regulated and kept in their proper sphere. There is the
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: law of justice or righteousness, which is universal and supreme.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: To this law, he now conforms. Instead of thinking and
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: acting blindly, as the nature is stimulated and appealed to
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: by outward things, he subordinates his thoughts and deeds to
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: this central principle. He no longer acts him self, but
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: does what is right, what is universally and eternally right.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: He is no longer the abject slave of his nature
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: and circumstances. He is the master of his nature and circumstances.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: He is no longer carried hither and thither on the
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: forces of his mind. He controls and guides those forces
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: to the accomplishment of his purposes, thus having his nature
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: in control and subjugation, not thinking thoughts nor doing deeds
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: which oppose the righteous law, and which therefore that lawns
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: with suffering in defeat, he rises above the dominion of
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: sin and sorrow, ignorance and doubt, and is strong, calm,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: and peaceful five pure knowledge. By thinking right and acting right,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: he proves by experience the existence of the divine law
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: on which the mind is framed, and which is the
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: guiding and unifying principle in all human affairs and events,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: whether individual or national. Thus, by perfecting himself and self control,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: he acquires divine knowledge. He reaches the point where it
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: may be said of him, as of the natural scientist,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: that he knows. He has mastered the science of self control,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: and has brought knowledge out of ignorance order out of confusion.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: He has acquired that knowledge of self, which includes knowledge
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: of all men, that knowledge of one's own life, which
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: embraces knowledge of all lives. As for all minds are
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the same in essence, differing only in degree, are framed
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: upon the same law, and the same thoughts and acts
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: by whatsoever individual they are wrought, will always produce the
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: same results. But this divine and peace bestowing knowledge, as
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: in the case of the natural scientist, is not gained
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: for one's own self alone. For if this were so,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: the aim of evolution would be frustrated. And it is
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: not in the nature of things to fall short of
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: ripening and accomplishment. And indeed, he who thought to gain
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: this knowledge solely for his own happiness would most surely fail.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: So beyond the fifth step of pure knowledge, there is
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: still a further one of wisdom, which is the right
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: application of the knowledge acquired, the pouring out upon the world,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: unselfishly and without stint the results of one's labors, thus
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: accelerating progress and uplifting humanity. It may be said of
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: men who have not gone back into their own nature
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: to control and purify it, that they cannot clearly distinguish
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: between good and evil, right and wrong. They reach after
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: those things which they think will give them pleasure, and
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: try to avoid those things which they believe will cause
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: them pain. The source of their actions is self, and
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: they only discover right painfully and in a fragmentary way,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: by periodically passing through severe sufferings and lashings of conscience.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: But he who practices self control, passing through the five processes,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: which are five stages of growth, gains that knowledge which
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: enables him to act from the moral law which sustains
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: the universe. He knows good and evil, right and wrong,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: and thus knowing them, lives in accordance with good and right.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: He no longer needs to consider what is pleasant or
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: what is unpleasant, but he does what is right. His
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: nature is in harmony with his conscience, and there is
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: no remorse. His mind is in unison with the great law,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: and there is no more suffering in sin. For him,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: evil is ended and good is all. In all cause
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: an effect in human conduct, it is an axiom with
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: the scientists that every effect is related to a cause.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Apply this to the realm of human conduct, and there
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: is revealed the principle of justice. Every scientist knows and
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: all men believe that perfect harmony prevails throughout every portion
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: of the physical universe, from the speck of dust to
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: the greatest sun. Everywhere there is exquisite adjustment. In the
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: siderial universe, with its millions of suns rolling majestically through space,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: and carrying with them their respective systems of revolving planets,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: its vast nebula, its sea of meteors, and its vast
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: army of comets, traveling through a limitable space with inconceivable velocity,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: perfect order prevails. And again, in the natural world, with
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: its multitudinous aspects of life and its infinite variety of forms,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: there are the clearly defined limits of specific laws, through
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: the operation of which all confusion is avoided and unity
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: and harmony eternally obtain. If this universal harmony could be
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: arbitrarily broken, even in one small particular, the universe would
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: cease to be. There could be no cosmos, but only
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: universal chaos. Nor can it be possible in such a
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: universe of law that there should exist any personal power
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: which is above, outside, and superior to such law in
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: the sense that it can defy it or set it aside.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: For whatsoever beings exist, whether they be men or gods,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: they exist by virtue of such law. And the highest,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: best and wisest among all beings would manifest his greater
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: wisdom by his complete obedience to that law which is
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: wiser than wisdom, and than which nothing more perfect could
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: be devised. All things, whether visible or invisible, are subservient
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: to and fall within the scope of this infinite and
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: eternal law of causation. As all things seen obey it,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: so all things unseen. The thoughts and deeds of men,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: whether secret or open, cannot escape it. Do right, it
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: reckons seth do wrong. The equal retribution must be made.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: Perfect justice upholds the universe. Perfect justice regulates human life
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: and conduct. All the varying conditions of life as they
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: obtain in the world today, or the result of this
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: law reacting on human conduct. Man can and does choose
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: what causes he shall set an operation, but he cannot
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: change the nature of effects. He can decide what thoughts
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: he shall think and what deeds he shall do, but
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: he has no power over the results of those thoughts
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: and deeds. These are regulated by the over ruling law.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Man has all power to act, but his power ends
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: with the act committed. The result of the act cannot
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: be altered, annulled, or escaped. It is irrevocable. Evil thoughts
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: and deeds produce conditions of suffering. Good thoughts and deeds
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: determine case conditions of blessedness. Thus man's power is limited
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: to and his blessedness or misery is determined by his
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: own conduct. To know this truth renders life simple, plain
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: and unmistakable. All the crooked paths are straightened out, the
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: heights of wisdom are revealed, and the open door to
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: salvation from evil and suffering is perceived and entered. Life
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: may be likened to a sum in arithmetic. It is
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: bewilderingly difficult and complex to the pupil who has not
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: yet grasps the key to its correct solution. But once
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: this is perceived and laid hold of, it becomes as
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: astonishingly simple as it was formally profoundly perplexing. Some idea
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: of this relative simplicity and complexity of life may be
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: grasped by fully recognizing and realizing the fact that while
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: there are scores and perhaps hundreds of ways in which
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: a sum may be done wrong, there is only one
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: way by which it can be done right, and that
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: when that right way is found, the pupil knows it
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: to be the right, his perplexity vanishes, and he knows
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: that he has mastered the problem. It is true that
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: the pupil, while doing his sum incorrectly, may infrequently does
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: think he has done it correctly, but he is not sure.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: His perplexity is still there, And if he is in
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: earnest and apt pupil, he will recognize his own error
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: when it is pointed out by the teacher. So in life,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: men may think they are living rightly while they are
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: continuing through ignorance, to live wrongly. But the presence of doubt, perplexity,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: and unhappiness are sure inclinations that the right way has
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: not yet been found. There are foolish and careless pupils
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: who would like to pass a sum as correct before
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: they have acquired a true knowledge of figures. But the
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: eye and skill of the teacher quickly detect and expose
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: the fallacy. So in life there can be no falsifying
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: of results. The eye of the Great Law reveals and
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: exposes twice. Five will make ten to all eternity, and
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: no amount of ignorance, stupidity, or delusion can bring the
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: result up to eleven. If one looks superficially at a
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: piece of cloth, he sees it as a piece of cloth.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: But if he goes further and inquires into its manufacture
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: and examines it closely and attentively, he sees that It
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: is composed of a combination of individual threads, and that
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: while all the threads are interdependent, each thread pursues its
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: own way throughout, never becoming confused with its sister thread.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: It is this entire absence of confusion between the particular
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: threads which constitutes the finished work a piece of cloth.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Any inharmonious commingling of the thread would result in a
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: bundle of waste or a useless rag. Life is like
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: a piece of cloth, and the threads of which it
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: is composed are individual lives. The threads, while being interdependent,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: are not confounded one with the other. Each follows its
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: own course. Each individual suffers and enjoys the consequences of
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: his own deeds, and not the deeds of another. The
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: course of each is simple and definite, the whole forming
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: a complicated yet harmonious combination of sequences. There are action
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: and reaction deed in consequence, cause and effect, and the
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: counterbalancing reaction consequence and effect is always in exact ratio
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: with the initiatory impulse. A durable and satisfactory piece of
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: cloth cannot be made from shoddy material, and the threads
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: of selfish thoughts and bad deeds will not produce a
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: useful and beautiful life, a life that will wear well
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: and bear close inspection. Each man makes or mars his
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: own life. It is not made or marred by his
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: neighbor or by anything external to himself. Each thought, he thinks,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: each deed he does, is another thread, shoddy or genuine,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: woven into the garment of his life. And as he
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: makes the garment, so he must wear it. He is
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: not responsible for his neighbour's deeds. He is not the
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: custodian of his neighbour's actions. He is responsible only for
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: his own deeds. He is the custodian of his own actions.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: The problem of evil subsists in a man's own evil deeds,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: and it is solved when those deeds are purified, says Rousseau.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Man seek no longer the origin of evil, how thyself
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: art Its origin. Affect can never be divorced from cause.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: It can never be of a different nature from cause.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Emerson says, justice is not postponed. A perfect equity adjusts
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: the balance in all parts of life. And there is
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: a profound sense in which cause and effect are simultaneous
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: and form one perfect whole. Thus, upon the instant that
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: a man thinks, say a cruel thought, or does a
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: cruel deed, that same instant, he has injured his own mind.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: He is not the same man he was the previous instant.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: He is a little viler and a little more unhappy.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: And a number of such successive thoughts and deeds would
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: produce a cruel and wretched man. The same thing applies
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: to the contrary. The thinking of a kind thought or
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: doing a kind deed, an immediate nobility and happiness attend it.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: The man is better than he was before, and a
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: number of such deeds would produce a great and blissful soul. Thus,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: individual human conduct determines by the faultless law of cause
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: and effect, individual merit or demerit, individual greatness or meanness,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: individual happiness or wretchedness. What a man thinks, that he does,
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: what he does, that he is. If he is perplexed, unhappy, restless,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: or wretched, let him look to himself, for there, and
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: nowhere else is the source of all his trouble. Training
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: of the will. Without strength of mind, nothing worthy of
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: accomplishment can be done. And the cultivation of that steadfastness
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: and stability of character which is commonly called will power
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: is one of the foremost duties of man, for its
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: possession is essentially necessary, but to his temporal and eternal
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: well being. Fixedness of purpose is at the root of
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: all successful efforts, whether in things worldly or spiritual, and
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: without it man cannot be otherwise than wretched and dependent
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: upon others for that support which should be found within himself.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: The mystery which has been thrown around the subject of
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: cultivation of the will for those who advertise to sell
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: a culted vice on the matter for so many dollars,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: should be avoided and dispelled. For nothing could be further
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: removed from secrecy and mystery than the practical methods by
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: which alone strength of will can be developed. The true
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: path of will cultivation is only to be found in
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: the common, everyday life of the individual. And so obvious
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: and simple is it that the majority, looking for something
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: complicated and mysterious, pass it by unnoticed. A little logical
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: thought will soon con vince a man that he cannot
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: be both weak and strong at the same time, that
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: he cannot develop a stronger will while remaining a slave
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: to weak indulgences, and that therefore the direct and only
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: way to that greater strength is to assail and conquer
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: his weaknesses. All the means for that cultivation of the
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: will are already at hand in the mind and life
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: of the individual. They reside in the weak side of
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: his character, by attacking and vanquishing, which the necessary strength
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: of will be developed. He who has succeeded in grasping
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: this simple preliminary truth will perceive that the whole science
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: of will cultivation is embodied in the following seven rules.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: One break off bad habits. Two form good habits. Three
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: give scrupulous attention to the duty of the present moment.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Do vigorously and at once whatever has to be done.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: Five live by rule six control the tongue. Seven control
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: the mind. Anyone who earnestly meditates upon and diligently practices
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: the above rules will not fail to develop that purity
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: of purpose and power of will which will enable him
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: to successfully cope with every difficulty and pass triumphantly through
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: every emergency. It will be seen that the first step
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: is the breaking away from bad habits. This is no
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: easy task. It demands the putting forth of great efforts
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: or succession of efforts, and it is by such efforts
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: that the will can alone be invigorated and fortified. If
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: one refuses to take the first step, he cannot increase
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: in will power. For by submitting to a bad habit
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: because of the immediate pleasure which it affords, one forfeits
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: the right to rule over himself, and is so far
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: a weak slave. He who thus avoids self discipline and
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: looks about for some occult secrets for gaining will power
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: at the expenditure of little or no effort on his part,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: is deluding himself and is weakening the will power which
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: he already possesses. The increased strength of will, which is
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: gained by success in overcoming bad habits, enables one to
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: initiate good habits. For while the conquering of a bad
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: habit requires merely strength of purpose, the forming of a
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: new one necessitates the intelligent direction of purpose. To do this,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: a man must be mentally active and energetic, and must
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: keep a constant watch upon himself. As a man succeeds
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: in perfecting himself in the second rule, it will not
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: be very difficult for him to observe the third, that
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: of giving scrupulous attention to the duty of the present moment.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: Thoroughness is a step in the development of the will,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: which cannot be passed over. Slipshod work is an indication
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: of weakness. Perfection should be aimed at, even in the
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: smallest task, by not dividing the mind, but giving the
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: whole attention to each separate task as it presents itself.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: Singleness of purpose and intense concentration of mind are gradually gained,
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: two mental powers, which give weight and worth of character,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: and bring repose and joy to their possessor. The fourth rule,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: that of doing vigorously and at once whatever has to
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: be done, is equally important. Idleness and a strong will
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: cannot go together, and procrastination is a total barrier to
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: the acquisition of purposeful action. Nothing should be put off
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: until another time, not even for a few minutes. That
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: which ought to be done now should be done now.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: This seems a little thing, but it is of far
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: reaching importance. It leads to strength, success, and peace. The
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: man who is to manifest a cultivated will must also
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: live by certain fixed rules. He must not blindly gratify
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: his passions and impulses, but must school them to obedience.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: He should live according to principle and not according to passion.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: He should decide what he will eat and drink and wear,
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: and what he will not eat and drink and wear.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: How many meals per day he will have, and at
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: what times he will have them, at what time he
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: will go to bed, and at what time he will
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: get up. He should make rules for the right government
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: of his conduct in every department of his life, and
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: should religiously adhere to them. To live loosely and indiscriminately,
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: eating and drinking and senially indulging at the beck and
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: call of appetite and inclination is to be a mere animal,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: and not a man with will and reason. The beast
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: in man must be scorged in, disciplined, and brought into subjugation.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: And this can only be done by training the mind
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: in life on certain fixed rules of right conduct. The
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: saint attains to holiness by not violating his vows, and
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: the man who lives according to good and fixed rules
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: is strong to accomplish his purpose. The sixth rule, that
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: of controlling the tongue, must be practiced until one has
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: perfect command of his speech, so that he utters nothing
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: in peevishness, anger, irritability, or with evil intent. The man
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: of strong will does not allow his tongue to run
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: thoughtlessly and without check. All these six rules, if faithfully practiced,
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: will lead up to the seventh, which is the most
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: important of them all, namely rightly controlling the mind. Self
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: control is the most essential thing in life, yet least understood.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: But he who patiently practices the rules herein laid down,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: bringing them into requisition in all his ways and undertakings,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: will learn, by his own experience and efforts, how to
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: control and train his mind, and to earn thereby the
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: supreme crown of manhood, the crown of a perfectly poised will. Thoroughness.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: Thoroughness consists in doing little things as though they were
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: the greatest things in the world. That the little things
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: of life are of primary importance is a truth not
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: generally understood, and the thought that little things can be neglected,
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: thrown aside, or slurred over is at the root of
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: that lack of thoroughness which is so common, and which
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: results in imperfect work and unhappy lives. When one understands
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: that the great things of the world and a life
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: consists of a combination of small things, and that without
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: this aggregation of small things, the great things would be nonexistent,
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: then he begins to pay careful attention to those things
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: which he formerly regarded as insignificant. He thus acquires the
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: quality of thoroughness and becomes a man of usefulness and influence.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: For the possession or non possession of this one quality
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: may mean all the difference between a life of peace
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: and power and one of misery and weakness. Every employer
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: of labor knows how comparatively rare this quality is, how
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: difficult it is to find men and women who will
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: put thought and energy into their work and do it
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: completely and satisfactorily. Bad workmanship abounds, skill and excellence are
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: acquired by few. Thoughtlessness, carelessness, and laziness are such common
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: vices that it should cease to appear so strange that,
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: in spite of social reform, the ranks of the unemployed
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: should continue to swell. For those who scamp their work
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: to day will another day, in the hour of deep necessity,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: look and ask for work in vain. The law of
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: survival of the fittest is not based on cruelty. It
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: is based on justice. It is one aspect of that
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: divine equity which everywhere prevails. Vice is beaten with many stripes.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: If it were not so, how could virtue be developed.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: The thoughtless and lazy cannot take precedence of, or stand
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: equally with, the thoughtful and industrious. A friend of mine
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: tells me that his father gave all his children the
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: following piece of advice. Whatever your future work may be,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: put your whole mind upon it, and do it thoroughly.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: You need then have no fear as to your welfare,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: for there are so many who are careless and negligent
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: that the service of the thorough man are always in demand.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: I know those who have for years tried, in almost
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: vain to secure competent workmanship in spheres which do not
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: require exceptional skill, but which call chiefly for forethought, energy,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: and conscientious care. They have discharged, one after another for negligence, laziness, incompetence,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: and persistent breaches of duty, not to mention other vices
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: which have no bearing on this subject. Yet the vast
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: army of the unemployed continues to cry out against the laws,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: against society, and against heaven. The cause of this common
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: lack of thoroughness is not far to seek. It lies
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: in that thirst for pleasure, which not only creates a
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: distaste for steady labor, but renders one incapable of doing
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: the best work and of properly fulfilling one's duty. A
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: short time ago a case came under my observation, one
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: of many such, of a poor woman who was given,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: at her earnest appeal, a responsible and lucrative position. She
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: had been at her post only a few days when
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: she began to talk of the pleasure trips she was
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: going to have now she had come to that place.
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: She was discharged at the end of a month for
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: negligence and incompetence. As two objects cannot occupy the same
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: space at the same time, so the mind that is
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: occupied with pleasure cannot also be concentrated upon the perfect
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: performance of duty. Pleasure has its own place and time,
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: but its consideration should not be allowed to enter the
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: mind during those hours which should be devoted to duty.
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: Those who, while engaged in their worldly task, are continually
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: dwelling upon anticipated pleasures, cannot do otherwise than bungle through
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: their work or even neglect it when their pleasures seems
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: to be at stake. Thoroughness is completeness, perfection. It means
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: doing a thing so well that there is nothing left
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: to be desired. It means doing one's work, if not
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: better than anyone else can do it, at least not
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: worse than the best that others do. It means the
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: exercise of much thought, the putting forth of great energy,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: the persistent application of the mind to its task, and
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: the cultivation of patience, perseverance, and a high sense of duty.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: An ancient teacher said, if anything has to be done,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: let a man do it, Let him attack it vigorously.
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: And another teacher said, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: do it with thy might. He who lacks thoroughness in
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: his worldly duties will also lack the same quality and
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: spiritual things. He will not improve his character, He will
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: be and half hearted in his religion, and will not
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: accomplish any good and useful end. The man who keeps
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: one eye on worldly pleasure and the other on religion,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: and who thinks he can have the advantage of both conditions,
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: will not be thorough either in his pleasure seeking or
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: his religion, but will make a sorry business of both.
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: It is better to be a whole souled worldling than
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: a half hearted religionist. Better to give the entire mind
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: to a lower thing than half of it to a
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: higher It is preferable to be thorough, even if it
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: be in a bad or selfish direction, rather than inefficient
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: and squeamish in good directions. For thoroughness leads more rapidly
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: to the development of character and the acquisition of wisdom.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: It accelerates progress and unfoldment. And while it leads the
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: bad to something better, it spurs the good to higher
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: and ever higher heights of usefulness and power. Mind building
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: and life building. Everything both in nature and the works
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: of man, is produced by a process of building. The
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: rock is built up of atoms. The planet, the animal,
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: and men are built up of cells. A house is
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: built of bricks, and a book is built of letters.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: A world is composed of a large number of forms,
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: and a city of a large number of houses. The arts, sciences,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: and institutions of a nation are built up by the
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: efforts of individuals. The history of a nation is the
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: building of its deeds. The process of building necessitates the
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: alternate process of breaking down. Old forms that have served
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: their purpose are broken up, and the material of which
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: they are composed enters into new combinations. There is reciprocal
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: integration and disintegration in all compounded bodies, old cells, are
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: ceaselessly being broken up, and new cells are formed to
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: take their place. The works of man also require to
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: be continually renewed until they have become old and useless,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: when they are torn down in order that some better
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: purpose may be served. These two processes of breaking down
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: and building up in nature are called death in life.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: In the artificial works of man, they are called destruction
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: and restoration. This dual process, which obtains universally in things visible,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: also obtains universally in things invisible. As a body is
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: built of cells and a house of bricks, so a
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: man's mind is built of thoughts. The various characters of
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: men are none other than compounds of thoughts of varying combinations.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: Herein we see the deep truth of the saying. As
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Individual
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: characteristics are fixed processes of thought. That is, they are
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: fixed in the sense that they have become such an
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: integral part of the character that they can only be
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: altered or removed by a protracted effort of the will
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: and by much self discipline. Character is built in the
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: same way as a tree or a house is built, namely,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: by the ceaseless addition of new material, and that material
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: is thought by the aid of millions of bricks. A
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: city is built by the aid of millions of thoughts,
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: a mind, a character is built. Every man is a
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: mind builder, whether he recognizes it or not. Every man
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: must perforce think, and every thought is another brick laid
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: down in the edifice of mind. Such bricklaying is done
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: loosely and carelessly by the vast number of people, the
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: result being unstable and tottering characters that are ready to
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: go down under the first little gust of trouble or temptation.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: Some also put into the building of their minds large
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: numbers of impure thoughts. These are so many rotten bricks
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: that crumble away as fast as they are put in,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: leaving always an unfinished and unsightly building, and one which
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: can afford no comfort and no shelter for its possessor.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: Dehabilitating thoughts about one's health, enervating thoughts concerning unlawful pleasures,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: weakening thoughts of failure, and sickly thoughts of self pity
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: and self praise are useless bricks with which no substantial
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: mind temple can be raised. Pure thoughts wisely chosen and
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: well placed, are so many durable bricks which will never
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: crumble away, and from which a finished, in beautiful building,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: and one which affords comfort and shelter for its possessor,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: can be rapidly erected. Bracing thoughts of strength, of confidence,
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: of duty, inspiring thoughts of a large, free, unfettered, and
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: unselfish life are useful bricks with which a substantial mind
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: temple can be raised. And the building of such a
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: temple necessitates that old and useless habits of thought be
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: broken down and destroyed. Build thee more stately mansions O
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: my soul as the swift season's roll. Each man is
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: the builder of himself. If he is the occupant of
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: a jerry built hovel of a mind that lets in
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: the reigns of many troubles, and through which blow the
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: keen winds of oft reoccurring disappointments, let him get to
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: work to build a more noble mansion, which will afford
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: him better protection against those mental elements. Trying to weakly
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: shift the responsibility for his jerry building on to the devil,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: or his forefathers, or anything or anybody but himself, will
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: neither add to his comfort nor help him to build
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: a better habitation. When he wakes up to a sense
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: of his responsibility and the approximate estimate of his power,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: then he will commence to build like a true workman,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: and will produce a symmetrical and finished character that will
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: endure and be cherished by posterity, and which, while affording
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: a never failing protection for himself, will continue to give
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: shelter to many a struggling one when he has passed away.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: The whole visible universe is framed on a few mathematical principles.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: All the wonderful works of man in the material world
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: have been brought about by the rigid observance of a
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: few underlying principles, and all that there is to the
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: making of a successful, happy, and beautiful life is the
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: knowledge and application of a few simple root principles. If
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: a man is to erect a building that is to
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: resists the fiercest storms, he must build it on a
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: simple mathematical principle or law, such as the square or
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: the circle. If he ignores this, his edifice will topple
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: down even before it is finished. Likewise, if a man
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: is to build up a successful, strong, and exemplary life,
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: a life that will stoutly resist the fiercest storms of
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: adversity and temptation. It must be framed on a few simple,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: undeviating moral principles. Four of these principles are justice, rectitude, sincerity,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: and kindness. These four ethical truths are to the making
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: of a life what the four lines of a square
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: are to the building of a house. If a man
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: ignores them and thinks to obtain success and happiness and
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: peace by injustice, trickery, and selfishness, he is in the
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: position of a builder who imagines he can build a
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: strong and durable habitation while ignoring the relative arrangement of
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: mathematical lines, and he will, in the end obtain only
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: disappointment and failure. He may for a time make money,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: which will delude him into believing that injustice and dishonesty
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: pay well. But in reality his life is so weak
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: and unstable that it is ready at any moment to fall,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: And when a critical period comes, as come it must,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: his affairs, his reputation, and his riches crumble to ruins,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: and he is buried in his own desolation. It is
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: totally impossible for a man to achieve a truly successful
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: and happy life who ignores the four moral principles enumerated
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: while ast. The man who scrupulously observes them in all
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: his dealings can no more fail of success and blessedness
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: than the earth can fail of the light and the
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: warmth of the Sun, so long as it keeps to
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: its lawful orbit. For he is working in harmony with
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: the fundamental laws of the universe. He is building his
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: life on a basis which cannot be altered or overthrown.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: And therefore all that he does will be so strong
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: and durable, and all the parts of his life will
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: be so coherent, harmonious, and firmly knit, that it cannot
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: possibly be brought to ruin. In all the universe forms
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: which are built up by the great, invisible and unerring power,
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: will be found that the observance of mathematical law is
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: carried out with unfailing exactitude, down to the most minute detail.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: The microscope reveals the fact that the infinitely small is
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: as perfect as the infinitely great. A snowflake is as
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: perfect as a star. Likewise, in the erection of a
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: building by man, the strictest attention must be paid to
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: every detail. A foundation must first be laid and although
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: it is to be buried and hidden, it must receive
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: the greatest care and be made strong longer than any
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: other part of the building. Then stone upon stone, brick
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: upon brick is carefully laid with the aid of the
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: plumb line, until at last the building stands complete in
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: its durability, strength and beauty. Even so it is with
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: the life of a man, he who would have a
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: life secure and blessed, a life freed from the miseries
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: and failures to which so many fall victims, must carry
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: the practice of the moral principles into every detail of
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: his life, into every momentary duty and trivial transaction. In
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: every little thing, he need be thorough and honest, neglecting nothing.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: To neglect or misapply, any little detail, be he commercial man, agriculturist,
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: professional man, or artisan, is the same as neglecting a
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: stone or a brick in a building, and it will
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: be a source of weakness and trouble. The majority of
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: those who fail and come to grief do so through
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: neglecting the apparently insignificant details. It is a common error
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: to suppose that little things can be passed by, and
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: that the greater things are more important and should receive
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: all attention. But a cursory glance at the universe, as
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: well as a little serious reflection on life, will teach
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: the lesson that nothing great can exist which is not
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: made up of small details, and in the composition of
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: which every detail is perfect. He who adopts the four
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: ethical principles as the law and base of his life,
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: who raises the edifice of character upon them, who in
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: his thoughts and words and actions, does not wander from them,
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: whose every duty, in every passing transaction is performed in
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: strict accordance with their exactions. Such a man laying down
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: the hidden foundation of integrity of heart securely and strongly,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: cannot fail to raise up a structure which shall bring
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: him honor. And he is building a temple in which
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: he can repose in peace and blessedness, even the strong
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: and beautiful temple of his life. Cultivation of concentration. Concentration,
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: or the bringing of the mind to a center and
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: keeping it there, is vitally necessary to the accomplishment of
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: any task. It is the father of thoroughness and the
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: mother of excellence. As a faculty, it is not an
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: end in itself, but is an aid to all faculties,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: all work. Not a purpose in itself, it is yet
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: a power which serves all purposes. Like steam and mechanics,
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: it is a dynamic force in the machinery of the
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: mind and the functions of life. The faculty is a
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: common possession, though in its perfection it is rare, just
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: as will and reason are common possessions, though a perfectly
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: poised will and a comprehensive reason are rare possess. The
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: mystery which some modern mystical writers have thrown around it
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: is entirely superlifous. Every successful man, in whatever direction his
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: success may lie practices concentration, though he may know nothing
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: about it as a subject of study. Every time one
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: becomes absorbed in a book or task, or is wrapped
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: in devotion or assiduous in duty, concentration in a greater
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: or lesser degree is brought into play. Many books purporting
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: to give instructions on concentration make its practice in acquisition
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: and end in itself. Then this there is no sure
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: nor swifter way to its destruction. The fixing of the
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: eye upon the tip of the nose upon a doorknob,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: a picture, a mystical symbol, or the portrait of a saint,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: or the centering of the mind upon the navel, the
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: pineal gland, or some imagineary point in space. I have
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: seen all these methods seriously advised in works on this
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: subject with the object of acquiring concentration is like trying
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: to nourish the body by merely moving the jaws in
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: the act of eating without taking food. Such methods prevent
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: the end at which they aim. They lead towards dispersion
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: and not concentration, towards weakness and imbecility, rather than towards
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: power and intelligence. I have met those who have squandered
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: by these practices what measure of concentration they at first possessed,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: and have become the prey of a weak and wandering mind.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: Concentration is an aid to the doing of something. It
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: is not the doing of something in itself. A latter
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: has no divine knowledge, or the sweeping of a floor
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: without resorting to methods which have no practical bearing in life.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: For what is concentration but the bringing of a well
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: controlled mind to the doing of that which has to
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: be done. He who does his work in an aimless
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: or hurried or thoughtless manner and resorts to his artificial
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: concentration methods, to his doorknob, his picture or nasal extremity,
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: in order to gain that which he imagines to be
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: some kind of mystical power, but which is a very
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: ordinary and practical quality. Though he may drift towards insanity,
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: and I knew one man who became insane by these practices,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: he will not increase in steadiness of mind. The great
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: enemy of concentration, and therefore of all skill and power,
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: is a wavering, wandering, undisciplined value in and of itself,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: but only in so far as it enables us to
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: reach something which we could not otherwise reach. In like manner,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: concentration is that which enables the mind to accomplish with
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: ease that which it would be otherwise impossible to accomplish.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: But of itself it is a dead thing, and not
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: a living accomplishment. Concentration is so interwoven with the uses
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: of life that it cannot be separated from duty, And
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: he who tries to acquire it apart from his task
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: his duty, will not only fail, but will diminish and
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: not increase his mental control and executive capacity, and so
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: render himself less and less fit to succeed in his undertakings.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: A scattered and undisciplined army would be useless. To make
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: it effective in action and swift in victory, it must
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: be solidly concentrated and masterfully directed. Scattered and diffuse thoughts
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: are weak and worthless. Thoughts marshaled, commanded, and directed upon
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: at a given point are invincible. Confusion, doubt, and difficulty
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: give way before their masterly approach. Concentrated thought enters largely
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: into all successes and informs all victories. There is no
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: more secret about its acquirement than about any other acquisition,
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: for it is governed by the underlying principle of all development,
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: namely practice. To be able to do a thing, you
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: must begin to do it and keep on doing it
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: until the thing is mastered. This principle prevails universally in
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: all arts, sciences, trades, in all learning, conduct, religion. To
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: be able to paint, one must paint. To know how
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: to use a tool skillfully, he must use the tool.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: To become learned, he must learn. To become wise, he
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: must do wise things, and to successfully concentrate his mind,
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: he must concentrate it. But the doing is not all.
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: It must be done with energy, and intelligence. The beginning
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: of concentration, then, is to go to your daily task
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: and put your mind on it, bringing all your intelligence
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: and mental energy to a focus upon that which has
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: to be done. And every time the thoughts are found
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: wandering aimlessly away, they should be brought promptly back to
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: the thing in hand. Thus the center upon which you
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: are to bring your mind to a point is not
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: your pineal gland or a point in space, but the
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: work which you are doing every day. And your object
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: in thus concentrating is to be able to do your
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: work with smooth rapidity and consummate skill. For until you
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: can thus do your work, you have not gained any
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: degree of control over the mind. You have not acquired
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: the power of concentration. This powerful focusing of one's thought
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: and energy and will upon the doing of things, is
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: difficult at first, as everything worth acquiring is difficult. But
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: daily efforts strenuously made and patiently followed up, will soon
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: lead to such a measure of self control as will
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: enable one to bring a strong and penetrating mind to
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: bear upon any work undertaken, a mind that will quickly
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: comprehend all the details of the work and dispose of
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: them with accuracy and dispatch. He will, thus, as his
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: concentrative capacity increases, enlarge his usefulness in the scheme of things,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: and increase his value to the world, thus inviting nobler
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: opportunities and opening the door to higher duties. He will
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: also experience the joy of a wider and fuller life.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: In the process of concentration, there are the four following
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: stages one attention, two contemplation, three abstraction, four activity in repose.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: At first, the thoughts are arrested and the mind is
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: fixed upon the object of concentration, which is the task
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: in hand. This is attention. The mind is then roused
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: into vigorous thought concerning the way of proceeding with the task.
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: This is contemplation. Protracted contemplation leads to a condition of
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: mind in which the doors of the senses are all
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: closed against the entrance of outside distractions, the thoughts being
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: wrapped in and solely and intensely centered upon the work
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: in hand. This is abstraction. The mind, thus, centered in
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: profound cogitation, reaches a state in which the maximum of
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: work is accomplished with the minimum of friction. This is
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: activity in repose. Attention is the first stage. In all
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: successful work, those who lack it fail in everything. Such
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: are the lazy, the thoughtless, the indifferent, and incompetent. When
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: attention is followed by an awakening of the mind to
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: serious thoughts, then the second stage is reached. To ensure
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: success in all ordinary worldly undertakings, it is not necessary
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: to go beyond these two stages. They are reached in
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: a greater or lesser degree by all that large army
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: of skilled and competent workers which carries out the work
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: of the world in its manifold departments, and only a
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: comparatively small number reach the third stage of abstraction. For
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: when abstraction is reached, we have entered the sphere of genius.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: In the first two stages, the work and the mind
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: are separate, and the work is done more or less
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: laboriously and with a degree of friction. But in the
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: third stage, a marriage of the work with the mind
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: takes place. There is a fusion, a union, and the
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: two become one. Then there is a superior efficiency, with
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: less labor and friction. In the perfection of the first
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: two stages, the mind is objectively engaged and is easily
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: drawn from its center by external sights and sounds. But
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: when the mind has attained perfection in abstraction, the subjective
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: method of working is accomplished, as distinguished from the objective.
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: The thinker is then oblivious to the outside world, but
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: is vividly alive in his mental operations. If spoken to,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: he will not hear, and if plied with more vigorous appeals,
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: he will bring back his mind to outside things, as
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: one coming out of a dream. Indeed, this abstraction is
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: a kind of waking dream. But its similarity to a
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: dream ends with the subjective state. It does not obtain
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: in the mental operations of that state, in which instead
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: of the confusion of dreaming, there is perfect order, penetrating insight,
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: and a wide range of comprehension. Whoever attains to perfection
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: in abstraction manifest genius in the particular work upon which
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: his mind is centered. Inventors, artists, poets, scientists, philosophers, and
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: all men of genius are men of abstraction. They accomplish
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: subjectively and with ease, that which the objective workers, men
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: who have not yet attained beyond the second stage in concentration,
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: cannot accomplish. With the most strenuous labor. When the fourth stage,
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: that of activity and repose, is attained, then concentration in
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: its perfection is acquired. I am unable to find a
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: single word which will fully express this dual condition of
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: intense activity combined with steadiness or rest, and have therefore
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: employed the term activity and repose. The term appears contradictory,
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: but the simple illustration of a spinning top will serve
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: to explain the paradox. When a top spins at the
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: maximum velocity, the friction is reduced to the minimum, and
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: the top assumes that condition of perfect repose, which is
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: a sight so beautiful to the eye and so captivating
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: to the mind of the schoolboy who then says his
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: top is asleep. The top is apparently motionless, but it
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: is at rest, not of inertia, but of intense and
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: perfectly balanced activity. So the mind that has acquired perfect
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: concentration is when engaged in that intense activity of thought,
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: which results in productive work of the highest kind, in
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: a state of quiet, poise and calm repose. Externally, there
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: is no apparent activity, no disturbance, and the face of
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: a man who has acquired this power will assume a
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: more or less radiant calmness, and the face will be
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: more sublimely calm when the mind is most intensely engaged
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: in active thought. Each stage of concentration has its particular power. Thus,
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: the first stage, when perfected, leads to usefulness, the second
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: leads to skill ability talent, the third leads to originality
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: and genius, while the fourth leads to mastery and power,
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: and makes leaders and teachers of men in the development
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: of concentration. Also, as in all objects of growth, the
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: following stages embody the preceding ones in their entirety. Thus,
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: contemplation attention is contained in abstraction, Both attention and contemplation
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: are embodied, and he who has reached the last stage
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: brings into play in the act of contemplation all the
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: four stages. He who has perfected himself in concentration, is
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: able at any moment to bring his thoughts to a
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: point upon any matter, and to search into it with
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: the strong light of an active comprehension. He can both
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: take make a thing up and lay it down with
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: equal deliberation. He has learned how to use his thinking
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: faculties to fixed purposes and guide them towards definite ends.
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: He is an intelligent doer of things and not a
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: weak wander amid chaotic thought. Decision, energy, alertness, as well
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: as deliberation, judgment, and gravity accompany the habit of concentration,
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: and that vigorous mental training which its cultivation involves, leads
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: through an ever increasing usefulness and success in worldly occupations
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: towards that higher form of concentration called meditation, in which
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: the mind becomes divinely illumined and acquires the heavenly knowledge
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: practice of meditation. When aspiration is united to concentration, the
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: result is meditation. When a man intensely desires to reach
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: and realize a higher, purer and more radiant life than
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: the merely worldly and pleasure loving life, he engages in aspiration,
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: and when he earnestly concentrates his thoughts upon the finding
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: of that life, he practices meditation. Without intense aspiration, there
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: can be no meditation. Lethargy and indifference are fatal to
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: its practice. The more intense the nature of a man,
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: the more readily will he find meditation, and the more
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: successfully will he practice it. A fiery nature will most
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: rapidly scale the heights of truth in meditation. When its
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: aspirations have become sufficiently awakened. Concentration is necessary to worldly success.
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: Meditation is necessary to spiritual success. Worldly skill and knowledge
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: are acquired by concentration. Spiritual skill and knowledge are acquired
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: by meditation. By concentration, a man can scale the highest
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: heights of genius, but he cannot scale the heavenly heights
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: of truth. To accomplish this, he must meditate. By concentration,
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: a man may acquire the wonderful comprehension and vast power
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: of a Caesar. By meditation, he may reach the divine
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: wisdom and perfect peace of a Buddha. The perfection of
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: concentration is power. The perfection of meditation is wisdom. By concentration,
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: men acquire skill in the doing of things of life,
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: in science, art, trade, etc. But by meditation they acquire
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: skill in life itself, in right living, enlightenment, wisdom, etc. Saints, sages, saviors,
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: wise men, and divine teachers are the finished products of
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: holy meditation. Ages and concentration are brought into play and meditation,
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: the difference between the two powers being one of direction
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: and not of nature. Meditation is therefore spiritual concentration, the
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: bringing of the mind to a focus in its search
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: for the divine knowledge, the divine life, the intense dwelling
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: in thought on truth. Thus a man aspires to know
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: and realize, above all things else the truth. He then
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: gives attention to conduct, to life, to self purification. Giving
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: attention to these things, he passes into serious contemplation of
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: the facts, problems, and mystery of life. Thus contemplating, he
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: comes to love truth so fully and intensely as to
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: become wholly absorbed in it. The mind is drawn away
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: from its wanderings in a multitude of desires, and solving
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: one by one the problems of life, realizes that profound
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: union with truth, which is the state of abstraction, and
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: thus absorbed in truth, there is that balance and poise
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: of character, that divine action and repose, which is the abiding,
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: calm and peace of an emancipated and enlightened mind. Meditation
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: is more difficult to practice than concentration because it involves
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: a much more severe self discipline than that which obtains
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: in concentration. A man can practice concentration without purifying his
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: heart and life, whereas the process of purification is inseparable
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: from meditation. The object of meditation is divine enlightenment the
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: attainment of truth, and is therefore interwoven with practical purity
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: and righteousness. Thus, while at first the time spent in
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: actual meditation is short, perhaps only half an hour in
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: the early morning, the knowledge gained in that half hour
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: of vivid aspiration and concentrated thought is embodied in practice
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: during the whole day. In meditation, therefore, the entire life
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: of a man is involved, and as he advances in
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: its practice, he becomes more and more fitted to perform
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: the duties of life in the circumstances in which he
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: may be placed, For he becomes stronger, holier, calmer, and wiser.
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: The principle of meditation is twofold, namely, one purification of
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: the heart by repetitive thoughts on pure things. Two attainment
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: of divine knowledge by embodying such purity. In practical life,
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: man is a thought being, and his life and character
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: are determined by the thoughts in which he habitually dwells.
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: By practice association. Habit thoughts tend to repeat themselves with
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: greater and greater ease and frequency, and so fix the
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: character in a given direction by producing that automatic action,
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: which is called habit By daily dwelling upon pure thoughts.
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: The man of meditation forms the habit of pure and
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: enlightened thinking, which leads to pure and enlightened actions and
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: well performed duties. By the ceaseless repetition of pure thoughts,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: he at last becomes one with those thoughts, and is
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: a purified being, manifesting his attainment in pure actions in
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: a serene and wise life. The majority of men live
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: in a series of conflicting desires, passions, emotions, and speculations,
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: and there are restlessness, uncertainty, and sorrow. But when a
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: man begins to train his mind in meditation, he gradually
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: gains control over this inward cosse conflict by bringing his
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: thoughts to a focus upon a central principle. In this way,
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: the old habits of impure and erroneous thought in action
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: are broken up, and the new habits of pure and
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: enlightened thought in action are formed. The man becomes more
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: and more reconciled to truth, and there is increasing harmony
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: and insight, a growing perfection and peace, A powerful and
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: lofty aspiration towards truth is always accompanied with a keen
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: sense of the sorrow and brevity and mystery of life,
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: and until this condition of mind is reached, Meditation is
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: impossible merely musing or whiling away the time in idle dreaming.
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: Habits to which the word meditation is frequently applied are
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: very far removed from meditation in the lofty spiritual sense
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: which we attach to that condition. It is easy to
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: mistake reverie for meditation. This is a fatal error which
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: must be avoided by one striving to meditate. The two
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: must not be confounded. Reverie is a loose dreaming into
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: which a man falls. Meditation is a strong, purposeful thinking
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: into which a man rises. Reverie is easy and pleasurable.
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: Meditation is at first difficult and irksome. Reverie thrives in
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: indolence and luxury. Meditation arises from strenuousness and discipline. Reverie
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: is first alluring, then sensuous, and then sensual. Meditation is
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: first forbidding, then profitable, and then peaceful. Reverie is dangerous.
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: It undermines self control. Meditation is protective. It establishes self control.
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: There are certain signs by which one can know whether
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: he is engaging in reverie or meditation. The indications of
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: reverie are one a desire to avoid exertion, two a
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: desire to experience the pleasures of dreaming. Three an increasing
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: distaste for one's worldly duties, four a desire to shirk
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: one's worldly responsibilities. Five fear of consequences. Six a wish
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: to get money with as little effort as possible. Seven
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: lack of self control. The indications of meditation are one
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: increase of both physical and mental energy, two a strenuous
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: striving after wisdom. Three a decrease of irksomeness in the
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: performance of duty. Four a fixed determination to faithfully fulfill
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: all worldly rescis responsibilities. Five freedom from fear, six indifference
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: to riches, seven possession of self control. There are certain times,
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: places and conditions in and under which it is impossible
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: to meditate, Others wherein it is difficult to meditate, and
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: others wherein meditation is rendered more accessible, And these which
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: should be known and carefully observed, are as follows. Times
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: places and conditions in which meditation is impossible. One at
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: or immediately after meals, two in places of pleasure, three
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: in crowded places, four while walking rapidly, five while lying
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: in bed in the morning, six while smoking, seven while
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: lying on a couch or bed for physical or mental relaxation. Times.
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: Places and conditions in which meditation is difficult. One at night,
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: two in a luxuriously furnished room, three while sitting on
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: a soft, yielding seat, four while wearing gay clothing, five
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: when in company, six when the body is weary, seven
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: if the body is given too much food. Times. Places
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: in conditions in which it is best to meditate. One
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: very early in the morning, two immediately before meals, three
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: in solitude, four in night, in the open air or
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: in a plainly furnished room, five while sitting on a
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: hard seat. Six when the body is strong and vigorous,
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: seven when the body is modestly and plainly clothed. It
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: will be seen by the foregoing Instructions that ease Luxury
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: and indulgence, which induce reverie, render meditation difficult, and when
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: strongly pronounced, make it impossible, while strenuousness, discipline, and self denial,
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: which dispel reverie, make meditation comparatively easy. The body, too,
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: should be neither overfed nor starved, neither in rags nor
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: flauntingly clothed. It should not be tired, but should be
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: at its highest point of energy and strength, as the
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: holding of the mind to a concentrated train of subtle
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: and lofty thought requires a high degree of both fisshysical
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: and mental energy. Aspiration can often best be aroused and
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: the mind renewed in meditation by the mental repetition of
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: a lofty precept, a beautiful sentence or verse of poetry. Indeed,
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: the mind that is ready for meditation will instinctively adopt
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: this principle. Mere mechanical repetition is worthless, and even a hindrance.
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: The words repeated must be so applicable to one's own
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: condition that they are dwelt upon lovingly and with concentrated devotion.
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: In this way, aspiration and concentration harmoniously combined to produce
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: without undue strain, the state of meditation. All the conditions
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: above stated are of the utmost importance in the early
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: stages of meditation, and should be carefully noted and duly
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: observed by all who are striving to acquire the practice.
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: And those who faithfully follow the instructions, and who strive
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: and persevere will not fail to gather in in due
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: season the harvest of purity, wisdom, bliss, and peace, and
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: will surely eat of the sweet fruits of holy meditation.
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: The power of purpose. Dispersion is weakness, concentration is power.
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: Destruction is a scattering, preservation a uniting process. Things are
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: useful and thoughts are powerful in the measure that their
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: parts are strongly and intelligently concentrated. Purpose is highly concentrated thought.
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: All the mental energies are directed to the attainment of
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: an object, and obstacles which intervene between the thinker and
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: the object are one after another, broken down and overcome.
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: Purpose is the keystone in the temple of achievement. It
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: binds and holds together in complete whole that which we
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: otherwise lies scattered and useless. Empty whims, ephemeral fancies, vague desires,
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: and half hearted resolutions have no place and purpose. In
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: the sustained determination to accomplish. There is an invincible power
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: which swallows up all inferior considerations and marches direct to victory.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: All successful men are men of purpose. They hold fast
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: to an idea, a project, a plan, and will not
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: let it go. They cherish it, brood upon it, tend
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: and develop it, and when assailed by difficulties, they refuse
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: to be beguiled. Into surrender. Indeed, the intensity of the
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: purpose increases with the growing magnitude of the obstacles encountered.
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: The men who have molded the destinies of humanity have
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: been mighty men of purpose. Like the Roman laying his road.
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: They have followed along a well defined path, and have
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: refuse to swerve aside, even when torture and death confronted them.
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: The great leaders of the race are the mental roadmakers,
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: and mankind follows in the intellectual and spiritual paths which
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: they have carved out and beaten. Great is the power
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: of purpose. To know how great, Let a man study
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: it in the lives of those whose influence has shaped
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: the ends of nations and directed the destinies of the world.
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: In an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon, we see
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: the power of purpose when it is directed in worldly
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: and personal channels. In a Confucius, a Buddha, or a Christ,
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: we perceive its vaster power when its course is along
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: heavenly and impersonal paths. Purpose goes with intelligence. There are
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: lesser and greater purposes according with degrees of intelligence. A
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: great mind will always be great of purpose. A weak
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: intelligence will be without purpose, A drifting mine argues a
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: measure of undevelopment. What can resist an unshakable purpose, what
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: can stand against it or turn it aside? Inert matter
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: yields to a living force and circumstance thatcumbs to the
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: power of purpose. Truly, the man of unlawful purpose will,
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: in achieving his ends, destroy himself. But the man of
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: good and lawful purpose cannot fail. It only needs that
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: he daily renew the fire and energy of his fixed
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: resolve to consummate his object. The weak man who grieves
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: because he is misunderstood will not greatly achieve. The vain
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: man who steps aside from his resolve in order to
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: please others and gain their approbation will not highly achieve.
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: The double minded man who thinks to compromise his purpose
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: will fail. The man of fixed purpose, who, whether misunderstandings
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: and foul accusations or latteries and fair promises rain upon him,
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: does not yield a fraction of his resolve, is the
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: man of excellence and achievement. Of success. Greatness, power, hinderances
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: stimulate the man of purpose. Difficulties nerve him to renewed exertion. Mistakes, losses,
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: pains do not subdue him, and failures are steps in
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: the latter of success. For he is ever conscious of
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: the certainty of final achievement. All things at last yield
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: to the silent, irresistible, all conquering energy of purpose. Out
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: of the night that covers me black as the pit
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: from pole to pole. I thank whatever Gods may be
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: for my unconquerable soul in the fell clutch of circumstance.
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: I have not whined nor cried aloud under the bluddering
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: of chance. My head is bloody, but unbowed. It matters
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: not how straight the gait, how charged with punishment the scroll.
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: I am the master of my fate. I am the
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: captain of my soul. The joy of accomplishment. Joy is
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: always the accompaniment of a task successfully accomplished, an undertaking completed,
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: or a piece of work done always brings rest and satisfaction.
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: When a man has done his duty, he is light
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: hearted and happy, says Emerson. And no matter how insignificant
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: the task may appear, the doing of it faithfully and
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: with whole souled energy always results in cheerfulness and peace
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: of mind. Of all miserable men, the shirker is the
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: most miserable thinking to find ease and happiness in avoiding
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: difficult duties and necessary tasks which require the expenditure of
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: labor and exertion. His mind is always uneasy and disturbed.
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: He becomes burdened with an inward sense of shame and
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: forfeits manliness and self respect. He who will not work
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: according to his faculty, let him perish according to his necessity,
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: says Carlyle. And it is a moral law that the
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: man who avoids duty and does not work to the
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: full extent of his capacity, does actually perish, first in
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: his character and last in his body and circumstances. Life
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: and action are synonymous and immediately. When a man tries
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: to escape exertion, either physical or mental, he has commenced
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: to decay. On the other hand, the energetic increase in
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: life by the full exercise of their powers, by overcoming difficulties,
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: and by bringing to completion tasks which coiled for the
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: strenuous use of mind or muscle. How happy is a
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: child when a school lesson, long labored over is mastered
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: at last. The athlete who has trained his body through
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: long months or years of discipline and strain is richly
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: blessed in his increased health and strength, and is met
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: with the rejoicings of his friends when he carries home
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: the prize from the field of contest after many years
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: of ungrudging toil. The heart of the scholar is gladdened
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: with the advantages and powers which learning bestows. The business
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: man grappling incessantly with difficulties and drawbacks, is amply repaid
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: in the happy assurance of well earned success, and the horticulturist,
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: vigorously contending with the stubborn soil, sits down at last
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: to eat of the fruits of his labor. Every successful accomplishment,
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: even in worldly things, is repaid with its own measure
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: of joy, and in spiritual things, the joy which supervenes
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: upon the perfection of purpose is sure, deep and abiding.
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: Great is the heartfelt joy, albeit ineffable, when, after innumerable
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: and apparently unsuccessful attempts, some ingrained fault of character is
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: at last cast out to trouble its erstwhile victim and
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: the world no more. The striver after virtue, he who
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: is engaged in the holy task of building up a
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: noble character, tastes at every step of conquest over self
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: a joy which does not again leave him, but which
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: becomes an integral part of his spiritual nature. All life
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: is a struggle, both without and within. There are conditions
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: against which men must contend. His very existence is a
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: series of efforts and accomplishments, and his right to remain
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: among men as a useful unit of humanity depends upon
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: the measure of his capacity for wrestling successfully with the
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: elements of nature without or with the enemies of virtue
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: and truth within. It is demanded of man that he
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: shall continue to strive after better things, after greater perfection,
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: after higher and still higher achievements. And in accordance with
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: the measure of his obedience to this demand, does the
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: Angel of Joy weigh upon his footsteps and minister unto him.
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: For he who is anxious to learn, eager to know,
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: and who puts forth effort to accomplish, finds the joy
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: which eternally sings at the heart of the universe. First
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: in little things, then in greater, and then in greater still.
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: Man must strive until at last he is prepared to
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: make the supreme effort and strive for the accomplishment of truth,
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: succeeding in which he will realize the eternal joy. The
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: price of life is effort. The acme of effort is accomplished.
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: The reward of accomplishment is joy. Blessed is the man
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: who strives against his own selfishness. He will taste in
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: its fullness the joy of accomplishment,