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Despite the many differences that seem to exist between peoples the world over — regardless of culture, tradition, environment, or heredity — there is but one seeker, one search, and one sacred object of our desire. The celestial source of this sacred being doesn’t just live within us… we are, in fact, one with it.
Just as by the telescope and the microscope we can increase the scope of our vision, and make higher or lower vibrations cognizable to us, similarly, every man can bring himself to the state of vibration belonging to the next plane, thus enabling himself to see what is going on there.
Egotism erects its center in itself; love places it out of itself in the axis of the universal whole. Love aims at unity, egotism at solitude. Love is the citizen ruler of a flourishing republic, egotism is a despot in a devastated land.
The principles of this authentic religion are entirely natural to man, so that the instant they are communicated to him they are received as ideas long familiar and self-evident… These principles are quite simple, understandable, and few in number.
Great peace have they which love Thy law; and nothing shall offend them.
That which you do not understand when you read, you will understand in the day of your visitation, for many secrets of religion are not perceived til they be felt, and are not felt but in the day of calamity.
Only love overcomes the fragmentation of human nature.
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding… She is more precious than rubies, and all things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
It is wonderful, Lord! It is wonderful, Lord! It is as if, Lord, one might set upright that which had been upturned, or might reveal what was hidden, or might point out the path to one who had gone astray, or might bring an oil lamp into the darkness so that those with eyes might see material shapes.
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Enthusiasm gives life to what is invisible.
The being who has attained harmony, and every being may attain it, has found his place in the order of the universe and represents the divine thought as clearly as a flower or a solar system. Harmony seeks nothing outside itself. It is what it ought to be; it is the expression of right, order, law and truth; it is greater than time, and represents eternity.
God must act and pour himself into you the moment He finds you ready. Don’t imagine that God can be compared to an earthly carpenter, who acts or doesn’t act, as he wishes… who can will to do something or leave it undone, according to his pleasure. It is not that way with God: where and when God finds you ready, He must act and overflow into you, just as when the air is clear and pure, the sun must overflow into it and cannot refrain from doing that.
I know that for the right practice of it (the presence of the Lord) the heart must be empty of all other things, because God will possess the heart alone, and as He cannot possess it alone without emptying it of all besides, so neither can he act there, and do in it what he pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him.
Horses and oxen have four feet. That is natural. Place a halter on the head of a horse, or a rope through the nose of an ox. This is unnatural.
The bamboo shadows
Sweep the steps
But raise no dust.
Nothing affects the heart like that which is purely from itself, and of its own nature.
Come hither, eat your bread with joy, that is the mystical bread.
The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of men.
The Indian believes profoundly in silence — the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. The man who preserves his self-hood is ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence. What are the fruits of silence? They are self control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character.
A humble man is not afraid of failure. In fact he is not afraid of anything, even of himself, since perfect humility implies perfect confidence in the power of God, before Whom no other power has any meaning and for Whom there is no such thing as an obstacle.
“Know thyself” is one of the most useful and comprehensive precepts in the whole moral system, and it is well known in how great a veneration this maxim was held by the ancients.
God is intelligence occupied with knowing itself.
The idea of God is the idea of our own spiritual natures enlarged to infinity.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
