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Share in the accounts and discoveries of the many individuals who, just like you, set out to find new, true answers that could stand up to the test of passing time with its ever-changing conditions. Welcome these inward and uplifting thoughts as if they were your own, for in one sense… they are.
Who would claim that they are living according to God who throughout whole days or even months and years do not sigh out to God and do not aspire to God? A clear sign of death is not breathing. If this breathing is prayer, not to pray is a sign of death. The spiritual life, by which we are children of God, is rooted in love… Who loves without wanting to see the person he loves? God asks nothing of the highest soul but attention.
The mason employed on the building of a house may be quite ignorant of its general design, or, at any rate, he may not keep it constantly in mind. So it is with man: in working through the days and hours of his life, he takes little thought of its character as a whole… It is only when we come to view our life as a connected whole that our character and capacities show themselves in their true light; that we see how, in particular instances, some happy inspiration, as it were, led us to choose the only true path out of a thousand which might have brought us to ruin.
But maybe I have overlooked something, or misunderstood certain ideas. It cannot be possible that this condition of despair is natural to man.
All belief that does not make us more happy, more free, more loving, more active, more calm, is, I fear, a mistaken and superstitious belief.
But what is the secret of finding this treasure? There isn’t one. This treasure is everywhere. It is offered to us all the time and wherever we are. All creatures, friends or foes, pour it out in abundance, and it flows through every fiber of our body and soul until it reaches the very core of our being. God’s activity runs through the universe. It wells up around and penetrates every created being. Where they are, there it is also. It goes ahead of them, it is with them, and it follows them. All they have to do is let its waves sweep them onward, fulfill the simple duties of their religion and state, cheerfully accept all the troubles they meet, and submit to God’s will in all they have to do. This is true spirituality, which is valid for all times and for everyone. We cannot become truly good in a better, more marvelous, and yet easier way than by the simple use of the means offered us by God: the ready acceptance of all that comes to us at each moment of our lives.
When, by analyzing his own mind, man comes face to face, as it were, with something which is never destroyed, something which is, by its own nature, eternally pure and perfect, he will no more be miserable, no more unhappy. All misery comes from fear, from unsatisfied desire… When he knows that he is perfect, he will have no more vain desires, and both these causes being absent, there will be no more misery — there will be perfect bliss, even while in this body.
Why not, then, take steps to be free?
Do you wish always to stray further? See, good lies as near; learn only to grasp happiness, for happiness is always here.
Whenever conscience speaks with a divided, uncertain, and disputed voice, it is not yet the voice of God. Descend still deeper into yourself, until you hear nothing but a clear and undivided voice, a voice which does away with doubt and brings with it persuasion, light and serenity. Happy, says the Apostle, are they who are at peace with themselves, and whose heart condemns them not in the the part they take.
It’s wiser being good than bad… It’s fitter being sane than mad.
Here there are neither Russians nor English, Jews nor Christians, but only those who pursue one aim: to be able to be.
Wisdom is so kind and wise that wherever you may look you can learn something about God. Why would not the omnipresent teach that way?
Be cheerful, also, and seek not external help, nor the peace which others give. A man must stand straight, and not be kept straight by others.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
We must not grow weary of doing little things for the love of God, who looks not on the great size of the work, but on the love in it.
Your gentleness shall force more than your force move us to gentleness.
Do not look at life’s long sorrow;
See how small each moment’s pain;
God will help thee for to-morrow,
So each day begin again.
For in our searchings are found all our desires, and we gain victory over our worlds.
He knows that intelligent contact with cosmic conscious minds assists self conscious individuals in the ascent to the higher plane. He therefore hopes, by bringing about, or at least facilitating this contact, to aid men and women in making the almost infinitely important step in question.
When a natural discourse paints a passion or an effect, one feels within oneself the truth of what one reads. This feeling was there before, although one did not know it. Therefore, one is inclined to love him who makes us feel it, for he has not shown us his own riches, but ours.
It is the recognition or non-recognition of these principles that a man finds or fails to find freedom.
Prayer as a means to effect a private end is theft and meanness. It supposes dualism in nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with God he will not beg. He will then see prayer in all action.
So Nature deals with us, and takes away our playthings one by one, and by the hand leads us to rest.
It is time to undervalue what he has valued, to dispossess himself of what he has acquired, and with Caesar to take in his hand the army, the empire and Cleopatra, and say, “All these will I relinquish, if you will show me the fountains of the Nile.”
There are two basic duties for man in this life: one is to serve nature and the other is to find God.
