(You’ll find today’s text on the James Allen daily page.)
In aiming at the life of blessedness, one
of the simplest beginnings to be considered,
and rightly made, is that which we all
make every day-namely, the beginning
of each day’s life.
There is a sense in which every day
may be regarded as the beginning of a new
life, in which one can think, act, and live
newly, and in a wiser and better spirit.
The right beginning of the day will
be followed by a cheerfulness permeating
the household with a sunny influence,
and the tasks and duties of the day will
be undertaken in a strong and confident
spirit, and the whole day will be well lived.
There can be no progress, no achievement,
without sacrifice, and a man’s worldly
success will be in the measure that he
sacrifices his confused animal thoughts,
and fixes his mind on the development
of his plans, and the strengthening of his
resolution and self-reliance.
And the higher he lifts his thoughts,
the more manly, upright, and righteous
he becomes, the greater will be his success,
the more blessed and enduring will be his
achievements.
None but right acts can follow right
thoughts; none but a right life can follow
right acts; and by living a right life all
blessedness is achieved.
Mind is the Master-power that moulds
and makes.
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes.
The Tool of thought, and, shaping what
he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand
ills;-
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass.
Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful
jewels of wisdom. A man becomes calm in
the measure that he understands himself
as a thought-evolved being. . . .
And he as he develops a right
understanding, and sees more and more
clearly the internal relations of things by
the action of cause and effect, he ceases to
fret and fume, and worry and grieve, and
remains poised, steadfast, serene.
To follow, under all circumstances, the
highest promptings within you; to be
always true to the divine self; to rely upon
the inward Voice, the inward Light, and to
pursue your purpose with a fearless and
restful heart, believing that the future will
yield unto you the need of every thought
and effort; knowing that the laws of the
universe can never fail, and that your own
will come back to you with mathematical
exactitude-this is faith and the living of
faith.
Have a thorough understanding of your
work, and let it be your own; and as you
proceed, ever following the inward Guide,
the infallible Voice, you will pass on from
victory to victory, and will rise step by step
to higher resting-places, and your ever-
broadening outlook will gradually reveal
to you the essential beauty and purpose
of life. Self-purified, health will be yours;
self-governed, power will be yours, and all
that you do will prosper.
And I may stand where health, success,
and power
Await my coming, if, each fleeting hour,
I cling to love and patience; and abide
With stainlessness; and never step aside
From high integrity; so shall I see
At last the land of immortality.
When the tongue is well controlled and
wisely subdued; when selfish impulses and
unworthy thoughts no longer rush to the
tongue demanding utterance; when the
speech has become harmless, pure,
gracious, gentle, and purposeful, and no
word is uttered but in sincerity and
truth-then are the five steps in virtuous
speech accomplished, then is the second
great lesson in Truth learned and mastered.
Make pure thy heart, and thou wilt make
thy life
Rich, sweet and beautiful.
Having clothed himself with humility,
the first questions a man asks himself
are:-
“How am I acting towards others?”
“What am I doing to others?”
“How am I thinking of others?”
“Are my thoughts of, and acts towards
others prompted by unselfish love?”
As a man, in the silence of his soul,
asks himself these searching questions, he
will unerringly see where he has hitherto
failed.
To dwell in love always and towards all
is to live the true life, is to have Life itself.
Knowing this, the good man gives up
himself unreservedly to the Spirit of Love,
and dwells in Love towards all, contending
with none, condemning none, but loving
all.
The Christ Spirit of Love puts an
end, not only to all sin, but to all division
and contention.
When sin and self are abandoned, the heart
is restored to its imperishable Joy.
Joy comes and fills the self-emptied
heart; it abides with the peaceful; its reign
is with the pure.
Joy flees from the selfish, it deserts the
quarrelsome; it is hidden from the impure.
Joy cannot remain with the selfish; it is
wedded to Love.
In the pure heart there is no room left
where personal judgments and hatreds can
find lodgment, for it is filled to overflowing
with tenderness and love; it sees no evil,
and only as men succeed in seeing no evil
in others will they become free from sin,
and sorrow, and suffering.
If men only understood
That the heart that sins must sorrow,
That the hateful mind tomorrow
Reaps its barren harvest, weeping,
Starving, resting not, nor sleeping;
Tenderness would fill their being,
They would see with Pity’s seeing
If they only understood.
To stand face to face with truth; to arrive,
after innumerable wanderings and pains, at
wisdom and bliss; not to be finally defeated
and cast out, but to ultimately triumph
over every inward foe-such is man’s divine
destiny, such his glorious goal; and this,
every saint, sage, and savior has declared.
A man only begins to be a man
when he ceases to whine and revile, and
commences to search for the hidden justice
which regulates his life. And as he adapts
his mind to that regulating factor, he
ceases to accuse others as the cause of his
condition, and builds himself up in strong
and noble thoughts; ceases to kick against
circumstances, but begins to use them as
aids to his more rapid progress, and as a
means of discovering the hidden power
and possibilities within himself.
The will to evil and the will to good
Are both within thee, which wilt
thou employ?
Thou knowest what is right and what is
wrong,
Which wilt though love and foster?
which destroy?
Thou art the chooser of thy thoughts and
deeds;
Thou art the maker of thine inward state;
The power is thine to be what thou wilt be;
Thou buildest Truth and Love, or lies and
hate.
The teaching of Jesus brings men back
to the simple truth that righteousness,
or right-doing, is entirely a matter of
individual conduct, and not a mystical
something apart from a man’s thoughts
and deeds.
Calmness and patience can become
habitual by first grasping, through effort,
a calm and patient thought, and then
continuously thinking it, and living in it,
until “use becomes second nature,” and
anger and impatience pass away for ever.
Man is made or unmade by himself; in the
armoury of thought he forges the weapons
by which he destroys himself; he also
fashions the tools with which he builds
for himself heavenly mansions of joy and
strength and peace. By the right choice
and true application of thought man
ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the
abuse and wrong application of thought
he descends below the level of the beast.
Between these two extremes are all the
grades of character, and man is their
maker and master.
As a being of Power, Intelligence, and
Love, and the lord of his own thoughts,
man holds the key to every situation.
Whatsoever you harbour in the inmost
chambers of your heart will, sooner or later,
by the inevitable law of reaction,
shape itself in your outward life.
Every soul attracts its own, and
nothing can possibly come to it that does
not belong to it. To realize this is to
recognize the universality of Divine Law.
If thou would’st right the world,
And banish all its evils and its woes.
Make its wild places bloom,
And its drear deserts blossom as the rose-
Then right thyself.
Whatever conditions are rendering your
life burdensome, you may pass out of and
beyond them by developing and utilizing
within you the transforming power of
self-purification and self-conquest.
Before the divine radiance of a pure
heart all darkness vanishes and all clouds
melt away, and he who has conquered
self has conquered the universe.
He who sets his foot firmly upon
the path of self-conquest, who walks,
aided by the staff of faith, the highway of
self-sacrifice, will assuredly achieve the
highest prosperity, and will reap abounding
and enduring joy and bliss.
It is the silent and conquering thought-
forces which bring all things into
manifestation. The universe grew
out of thought.
To adjust all your thoughts to a perfect
and unswerving faith in the omnipotence
and supremacy of Good, is to co-operate
with that Good, and to realize within
yourself the solution and destruction
of all evil.
To mentally deny evil is not sufficient;
it must, by daily practice, be risen above
and understood. To affirm the Good
mentally is inadequate; it must, by
unswerving endeavor, be entered into
and comprehended.
Every thought you think is a force sent out.
Whatever your position in life may
be, before you can hope to enter into any
measure of success, usefulness, and power,
you must learn how to focus your thought-
forces by cultivating calmness and repose.
There is no difficulty, however great,
but will yield before a calm and purposeful
concentration of thought, and no
legitimate object but may be speedily
actualized by the intelligent use and
direction of one’s soul forces.
Think good thoughts, and they will
quickly become actualized in your outward
life in the form of good conditions.
That which you would be and hope to be,
you may be now. Non-accomplishment
resides in your perpetual postponement,
and, having the power to postpone, you
also have the power to accomplish-to
perpetually accomplish: realize this truth,
and you shall be to-day, and every day,
the ideal being of whom you dreamed.
Say to yourself, “I will live in my Ideal
now; I will manifest my ideal now; I will
be my Ideal now; and all that tempts me
away from my Ideal I will not listen to;
I will listen only to the voice of my Ideal.”
Be as a flower; content to be, to grow
in sweetness day by day.
If thou would’st perfect thyself in
knowledge, perfect thyself in Love.
If thou would’st reach the Highest,
ceaselessly cultivate a loving and
compassionate heart.
To him who chooses Goodness,
sacrificing all, is given that which
is more than, and includes, all.
The Great Law never cheats any man of
his just due.
Human life, when rightly lived,
is simple with a beautiful simplicity.
He who comprehends the utter
simplicity of life, who obeys its laws,
and does not step aside into the dark
paths and complex mazes of selfish desire,
stands where no harm can reach him.
Then there is fullness of joy,
abounding plenty, and rich and
complete blessedness.
Every man reaps the results of his own
thoughts and deeds, and suffers for his
own wrong.
He who begins right, and continues
right, does not need to desire, and search
for felicitous results; they are already at
hand; they follow as consequences; they
are the certainties, the realities, of life.
Sweet is the rest and deep is the bliss
of him who has freed his heart from its
lusts and hatreds and dark desires.
You are the creator of your own shadows;
you desire, and then you grieve; renounce,
and then you shall rejoice.
Of all the beautiful truths pertaining
to the soul, . . . none is more gladdening
or fruitful of divine promise and confidence
than this-that man is the master of
thought, the moulder of character, and
the maker and shaper of character,
environment, and destiny.
As darkness is a passing shadow, and light
is a substance that remains, so sorrow is
fleeting, but joy abides for ever. No true
thing can pass away and become lost; no
false thing can remain and be preserved.
Sorrow is false, and it cannot live; joy is
true, and it cannot die. Joy may become
hidden for a time, but it can always be
recovered; sorrow may remain for a period,
but it can be transcended and dispersed.
Do not think your sorrow will remain;
it will pass away like a cloud. Do not
believe that the torments of sin are ever
your portion; they will vanish like a
hideous nightmare. Awake! Arise! Be holy
and joyful.
Tribulation lasts only so long as there
remains some chaff of self which needs to
be removed. The tribulum, or threshing
machine, ceases to work when all the
grain is separated from the chaff;
and when the last impurities are
blown away from the soul,
tribulation has completed its work,
and there is no more need for it;
then abiding joy is realized.
The sole and supreme use of suffering
is to purify, to burn out all that is useless
and impure. Suffering ceases for him
who is pure. There could be no object
in burning gold after the dross had
been removed.
In speaking of self-control, one is easily
misunderstood. It should not be associated
with a destructive repression, but with a
constructive expression.
A man is happy, wise and great in the
measure that he controls himself; he is
wretched, foolish, and mean in the
measure that he allows his animal nature
to dominate his thoughts and actions.
he who controls himself, controls his
life, his circumstances, his destiny; and
wherever he goes he carries his happiness
with him as an abiding possession.
Renunciation precedes regeneration.
The permanent happiness which men
seek in dissipation, excitement, and
abandonment to unworthy pleasures,
is found only in the life which reverses
all this-the life of self-control.
Law, not confusion, is the dominating
principle in the universe; justice, not
injustice is the soul and substance of life;
and righteousness, not corruption, is the
moulding and moving force in the spiritual
government of the world. This being so,
man has but the right himself to find that
the universe is right.
When I am pure,
I shall have solved the mystery of life;
I shall be sure,
When I am free from hatred, lust and
strife,
I am in Truth, and Truth abides in me;
I shall be safe, and sane, and wholly free,
When I am pure.
If men only understood
That their hatred and resentment
Slays their peace and sweet contentment,
Hurts themselves, helps not another,
Does not cheer one lonely brother,
They would seek the better doing
Of good deeds which leaves no rueing-
If they only understood.
If men only understood
How Love conquers; how prevailing
Is its might, grim hate assailing;
How compassion endeth sorrow,
Maketh wise, and doth not borrow
Pain of passion, they would ever
Live in Love, in hatred never-
If they only understood.
The grace and beauty that were in Jesus
can be of no value to you-cannot be
understood by you-unless they are also
in you, and they can never be in you, until
you practise them, for, apart from doing,
the qualities which constitute Goodness
do not, as far as you are concerned, exist.
To adore Jesus for his good qualities is a
long step towards Truth, but to practise
those qualities is Truth itself; and he who
fully adores the perfection of another will
not rest content in his own imperfection,
but will fashion his soul after the likeness
of that other.
Therefore thou who adorest Jesus for
his divine qualities, practise those qualities
Thyself, and thou too shalt be divine.
Let a man realize that life in its totality
proceeds from the mind, and lo, the way
of blessedness is opened up to him! For
he will then discover that he possesses the
power to rule his mind and to fashion it
in accordance with his Ideal.
So will he elect to strongly and stead-
fastly walk those pathways of thought and
action which are altogether excellent; to
him life will become beautiful and sacred;
and, sooner or later, he will put to flight
all evil, confusion, and suffering; for it
is impossible for a man to fall short of
liberation, enlightenment, and peace,
who guards with unwearying diligence
the gateway of his heart.
By constantly overcoming self, a man gains
a knowledge of the subtle intricacies of
his mind; and it is this divine knowledge
which enables him to become established
in calmness.
Without self-knowledge there can be no
abiding peace of mind, and those who are
carried away by tempestuous passions,
cannot approach the holy place where
calmness reigns.
The weak man is like one who, having
mounted a fiery steed, allows it to run
away with him, and carry him withersoever
it wills; the strong man is like one who,
having mounted the steed, governs it
with a masterly hand and makes it go in
whatever direction and at whatever speed
he commands.
There is no strife, no selfishness, in the
Kingdom; there is perfect harmony,
equipoise, and rest.
Those who live in the Kingdom of
Love, have all their needs supplied by
the Law of Love.
As self is the root cause of all strife
And suffering, so Love is the root cause
of all peace and bliss.
Those who are at rest in the Kingdom,
do not look for happiness in any outward
possessions. They are freed from all anxiety
and trouble and, resting in Love, they are
the embodiment of happiness.
Let it not be supposed that the children of
The Kingdom live in ease and indolence
(these two sins are the first that have
to be eradicated when the search for the
Kingdom is entered upon); they live in a
peaceful activity; in fact, they only truly
live, for the life of self, with its train of
worries, griefs, and fears, is not real life.
The children of the Kingdom are
Known by their life, they manifest the fruits
of the Spirit-“Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
meekness, temperance, self-control”-
under all circumstances and vicissitudes.
The gospel of Jesus is a gospel of living and
doing. If it were not this it would not voice
the Eternal Truth. Its Temple is Purified
Conduct, the entrance-door to which is
Self-surrender. It invites men to shake off
sin, and promises, as a result, joy and
blessedness and perfect peace.
The Kingdom of Heaven is perfect
trust, perfect knowledge, perfect peace. . . .
No sin can enter therein, no self-born
Thought or deed can pass its golden gates;
no impure desire can defile its radiant
robes. . . . All may enter it who will, but
all must pay the price-the unconditional
abandonment of self.
I say this-and know it to be truth-that
circumstances can only affect you in so far
as you allow them to do so. You are swayed
by circumstances because you have not a
right understanding of the nature, use, and
power of thought. You believe (and upon
this little word belief hang all our joys and
sorrows) that outward things have the
power to make or mar your life; by so
doing you submit to those outward things,
confess that you are their slave, and they
your unconditional master. By so doing
you invest them with a power which they
do not of themselves possess, and you
succumb, in reality not to the circumstances,
but to the gloom or gladness, the
fear or hope, the strength of weakness,
which your thought-sphere has thrown
around them.
If you are one of those who are praying for,
and looking forward to a happier world
beyond the grave, here is a message of
gladness for you-you may enter into and
realize that happy world now; it fills the
whole universe, and it is within you,
waiting for you to find, acknowledge,
and possess.
Said one who understood the inner
laws of Being-“When men shall say,
lo here, or lo there, go not after them.
The Kingdom of God is within you.”
Heaven and hell are inward states.
Sink into self and all its gratifications,
and you sink into hell; rise above self
into that state of consciousness which is
the utter denial and forgetfulness of self,
and you enter heaven.
So long as you persist in selfishly
seeking for your own personal happiness,
so long will happiness elude you, and you
will be sowing the seeds of wretchedness.
in so far as you succeed in losing yourself
in the service of others, in that measure
will happiness come to you, and you will
reap a harvest of bliss.
Sympathy given can never be waste.
One aspect of sympathy is that of
Pity-pity for the distressed or pain-
stricken, with a desire to alleviate
or help them in their sufferings.
The world needs more of this
divine quality.
“For pity makes the world
Soft to the weak, and noble
for the strong.
Another form of sympathy is that
of rejoicing with others who are more
successful than ourselves, and though
their success were our own.
Sweet are companionships, pleasures, and
material comforts, but they change and
fade away. Sweeter still are Purity, Wisdom,
and the knowledge of Truth, and these
never change nor fade away.
He who attained to the possession of
spiritual things can never be deprived of
his source of happiness; he will never have
to part company with it, and wherever he
goes in the whole universe, he will carry
his possessions with him. His spiritual
end will be the fulness of joy.
Let your heart grow and expand with ever-
broadening love, until, freed from all
hatred, and passion, and condemnation,
it embraces the whole universe with
thoughtful tenderness.
As the flower opens its petals to receive
the morning light, so open your soul more
and more to the glorious light of Truth.
Soar upward on the wings of aspiration;
be fearless and believe in the loftiest
possibilities.
Mind clothes itself in garments of its own
making.
Mind is the arbiter of life; it is the
creator and shaper of conditions, and the
recipient of its own results. It contains
within itself both the power to create
illusion and to perceive reality.
Mind is the infallible weaver of destiny;
thought is the thread, good and evil deeds
are the warp and woof, and the web,
woven upon the loom of life, is character.
Make pure thy heart, and thou wilt make
thy life
Rich, sweet, and beautiful, unmarred by
strife.
Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals;
cherish the music that stirs in your heart,
the beauty that forms in your mind, the
Loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts,
for out of them will grow all delightful
conditions, all heavenly environment;
of these, if you will remain true to them,
your world will at last be built.
Guard well thy mind, and, noble, strong,
and free,
Nothing shall harm, disturb or conquer
thee;
For all thy foes are in thy heart and mind,
There also thy salvation thou shalt find.
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream
so shall you become. Your vision is the
promise of what you shall one day be;
your Ideal is the prophecy of what you
shall at last unveil.
The greatest achievement was at first
and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps
in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg;
and in the highest vision of the soul
a waking angel stirs.
Your circumstances may be uncongenial,
but they shall not long remain so when
you perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it.
He who has conquered doubt and fear has
conquered failure. His every thought is
allied with power, and all difficulties are
bravely met and wisely overcome. His
purposes are seasonably planted, and they
bloom and bring forth fruit which does
not fall prematurely to the ground.
Thought allied fearlessly to purpose
becomes creative force: he who knows this
is ready to become something higher and
stronger than a mere bundle of wavering
thoughts and fluctuating sensations; he
who does this has become the conscious
and intelligent wielder of his mental powers.
Man’s true place in the Cosmos is that of
a king, not a slave, a commander under
the Law of Good, and not a helpless tool
in the region of evil.
I write for men, not for babes; for
those who are eager to learn, and earnest
to achieve; for those who will put away
(for the world’s good) a petty personal
indulgence, a selfish desire, a mean
thought, and live on as though it were
not, sans craving and regret.
Man is a master. If he were not, he
could not act contrary to law.
Evil and weakness are self destructive.
The universe is girt with goodness
and strength, and it protects the good
and the strong.
The angry man is the weak man.
Not by learning will a man triumph over
evil; not by much study will he overcome
sin and sorrow. Only by conquering
himself will he conquer evil; only by
practising righteousness will he put an
end to sorrow.
Not for the clever, nor the learned, nor
the self-confident is the Life Triumphant,
but for the pure, the virtuous and wise.
The former achieve their particular success
in life, but the latter alone achieve the
great success so invincible and complete
that even in apparent defeat it shines with
added victory.
The true silence is not merely a silent
tongue; it is a silent mind. To merely hold
one’s tongue, and yet to carry about a
disturbed and rankling mind, is no remedy
for weakness, and no source of power.
Silentness, to be powerful, must
envelop the whole mind, must permeate
every chamber of the heart; it must be
the silence of peace.
To this broad, deep, abiding silentness
a man attains only in the measure that
he conquers himself.
By curbing his tongue, a man gains
possession of his mind.
The fool babbles, gossips, argues,
and bandies words. He glories in the fact
that he has had the last word, and has
silenced his opponent. He exults in his
own folly, is ever on the defensive, and
wastes his energies in unprofitable channels.
He is like a gardener who continues to dig
and plant in unproductive soil.
The wise man avoids idle words, gossips,
vain argument, and self-defence. He is
content to appear defeated; rejoices when
he is defeated; knowing that, having found
and removed another error in himself, he
has thereby become wiser.
Blessed is he who does not strive for
the last word.
Desire is the craving for possession; aspiration
is the hunger of the heart for peace.
The craving for things leads ever
farther and farther from peace, and not
only ends in deprivation, but is in itself
A state of perpetual want. Until it comes
to an end, rest and satisfaction are
impossible.
The hunger for things can never be
satisfied, but the hunger for peace can,
and the satisfaction of peace is found-
is fully possessed, when all selfish desire is
abandoned. Then there is fullness of joy,
abounding plenty, and rich and complete
blessedness.
A man will reach the Kingdom by purifying
himself, and he can only do this by
pursuing a process of self-examination
and self-analysis.
The selfishness must be discovered and
understood before it can be removed. It is
powerless to remove itself, neither will it pass
away of itself. Darkness ceases only when
light is introduced; so ignorance can only be
dispersed by knowledge, selfishness by love.
A man must first of all be willing to
lose himself (his self-seeking) before he
can find himself (his Divine Self). He
must realize that selfishness is not worth
clinging to, that it is a master altogether
unworthy of his service, and that divine
goodness alone is worthy to be enthroned
in his heart, as the supreme master of
his life.
Be still, my soul, and know that peace
is thine.
Be steadfast, heart, and know that
strength divine
Belongs to thee; cease from thy turmoil,
mind,
And thou the Everlasting Rest shalt find.
If a man would have peace, let him
exercise the spirit of peace; if he would
find Love, let him dwell in the spirit of
Love; if he would escape suffering, let him
cease to inflict it; if he would do noble
things for humanity, let him cease to do
ignoble things for himself. If he will but
quarry the mine of his own soul, he shall
find there all the materials for building
whatsoever he will, and he shall find there
also the Central Rock on which to build
in safety.
Men go after much company, and seek out
new excitements, but they are not
acquainted with peace; in divers paths of
pleasure they search for happiness, but
they do not come to rest; through divers
ways of laughter and feverish delirium they
wander after gladness and life, but their
tears are many and grievous, and they
do not escape death.
Drifting upon the ocean of life in
search of selfish indulgences, men are
caught in its storms, and only after many
tempests and much privation do they fly
to the Rock of Refuge which rests in the
deep silence of their own being.
Meditation centered upon divine realities
is the very essence and soul of prayer.
It is the silent reaching upward of the
soul toward the Eternal.
Meditation is the intense dwelling,
in thought, upon an idea or theme with
the object of thoroughly comprehending
it; and whatsoever you constantly meditate
upon, you will not only come to understand,
but will grow more and more into its
likeness, for it will become incorporated
with your very being, will become, in fact,
your very self.
If, therefore, you constantly dwell upon
that which is selfish and debasing, you will
ultimately become selfish and debased;
if you ceaselessly think upon that which
is pure and unselfish, you will surely
become pure and unselfish.
There is no difficulty, however great, but
will yield before a calm and powerful
concentration of thought, and no
legitimate object but may be speedily
actualized by the intelligent use and
direction of one’s soul forces.
Whatever your task may be,
concentrate your whole mind upon it;
throw into it all the energy of which you
are capable. The faultless completion of
small tasks, leads inevitably to larger tasks.
See to it that you rise by steady
climbing, and you will never fall.
He who knows that Love is at the heart of
all things, and has realized the all-sufficing
power of that Love, has no room in his
heart for condemnation.
If you love people and speak of them
with praise, until they in some way
thwart you, or do something of which
you disapprove, and then you dislike them
and speak of them with dispraise, you are
not governed by the Love which is of God.
If, in your heart, you are continually
arraigning and condemning others,
selfless love is hidden from you.
Train your mind in strong, impartial,
and gentle thought; train your heart in
purity and compassion; train your tongue
to silence, and to true and stainless speech;
so shall you enter the way of holiness and
peace, and shall ultimately realize the
immortal Love.
If you would realize true prosperity,
do not settle down, as many have done,
into the belief that if you do right
everything will go wrong. Do not allow
the word “Competition” to shake your
faith in the supremacy of righteousness.
I care not what men say about the “laws
of competition,” for do not I know the
Unchangeable Law which shall one day
put them all to rout, and which puts them
to rout even now in the heart and life of
the righteous man? And knowing this
law I can contemplate all dishonesty
with undisturbed repose, for I know
where certain destruction awaits it.
Under all circumstances do that which
you believe to be right, and trust the Law;
trust the Divine Power which is immanent
in the universe, and it will never desert
you, and you will always be protected.
Forget yourself entirely in the sorrows of
others, and in ministering to others, and
divine happiness will emancipate you from
all sorrow and suffering. “Taking the first
step with a good thought, the second with
a good word, and the third with a good
deed, I entered Paradise.” And you also
enter Paradise by pursuing the same course.
Lose yourself in the welfare of others;
forget yourself in all that you do-this
is the secret of abounding happiness.
Ever be on the watch to guard against
selfishness and learn faithfully the divine
lessons of inward sacrifice; so shall you
climb the highest heights of happiness,
and shall remain in the never-clouded
sunshine of universal joy, clothed in the
shining garment of immortality.
When the farmer has tilled and dressed
his land and put in the seed, he knows
that he has done all that he can possibly
do, and that now he must trust to the
elements, and wait patiently for the
course of time to bring about the harvest,
and that no amount of expectancy
on his part will affect the result.
Even so, he who has realized Truth,
goes forth as a sower of the seeds of
goodness, purity, love, and peace, without
expectancy and never looking for results,
knowing that there is the Great Over-
ruling Law which brings about its own
harvest in due time, and which is alike the
source of preservation and destruction.
The virtuous put a check upon themselves,
and set a watch upon their passions and
emotions; in this way they gain possession
of the mind, and gradually acquire calmness;
and as they acquire influence, power,
greatness, abiding joy, and fullness and
completeness of life.
He only finds peace who conquers
himself, who strives, day by day, after
greater self-possession, greater self-control,
greater calmness of mind.
Where the calm mind is there is
strength and rest, there is love and
wisdom; there is one who has fought
successfully innumerable battles against
self, who, after long toil in secret against
his own failings, has triumphed at last.
Sympathy bestowed increases its store in
our own heart and enriches and fructifies
our own life. Sympathy given is blessedness
received; sympathy withheld is blessedness
forfeited.
In the measure that a man increases
and enlarges his sympathy so much
nearer does he approach the ideal life,
the perfect blessedness; and when his
heart has become so mellowed that no
hard, bitter, or cruel thought can enter,
and detract from its permanent sweetness,
then indeed is he richly and divinely
blessed.
Sweet is the rest and deep the bliss of him
who has freed his heart from its lusts and
hatreds and dark desires; and he who,
without any shadow of bitterness resting
upon him, and looking out upon the world
with boundless compassion and love, can
breathe, in his inmost heart, the blessing:
Peace unto all living things,
making no exceptions or distinctions-
such a man has reached that happy ending
which can never be taken away, for this is
the perfection of life, the fulness of peace,
the consummation of perfect blessedness.
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