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Title: The Way of Peace
Creator(s): Allen, James (1864-1912)
Print Basis: R.F. Fenno & Company
Rights: Public Domain
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Produced by Kevin Handy and PG Distributed Proofreaders
THE WAY OF PEACE
BY JAMES ALLEN
AUTHOR OF "AS A MAN THINKETH," "OUT FROM THE HEART"
CONTENTS
THE POWER OF MEDITATION
THE TWO MASTERS, SELF AND TRUTH
THE ACQUIREMENT OF SPIRITUAL POWER
THE REALIZATION OF SELFLESS LOVE
ENTERING INTO THE INFINITE
SAINTS, SAGES, AND SAVIORS; THE LAW OF SERVICE
THE REALIZATION OF PERFECT PEACE
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THE POWER OF MEDITATION
Spiritual meditation is the pathway to Divinity. It is the mystic
ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, from error to Truth, from
pain to peace. Every saint has climbed it; every sinner must sooner or
later come to it, and every weary pilgrim that turns his back upon self
and the world, and sets his face resolutely toward the Father’s Home,
must plant his feet upon its golden rounds. Without its aid you cannot
grow into the divine state, the divine likeness, the divine peace, and
the fadeless glories and unpolluting joys of Truth will remain hidden
from you.
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
into 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.
Tell me what that is upon which you most frequently and intensely
think, that to which, in your silent hours, your soul most naturally
turns, and I will tell you to what place of pain or peace you are
traveling, and whether you are growing into the likeness of the divine
or the bestial.
There is an unavoidable tendency to become literally the embodiment of
that quality upon which one most constantly thinks. Let, therefore, the
object of your meditation be above and not below, so that every time
you revert to it in thought you will be lifted up; let it be pure and
unmixed with any selfish element; so shall your heart become purified
and drawn nearer to Truth, and not defiled and dragged more hopelessly
into error.
Meditation, in the spiritual sense in which I am now using it, is the
secret of all growth in spiritual life and knowledge. Every prophet,
sage, and savior became such by the power of meditation. Buddha
meditated upon the Truth until he could say, "I am the Truth." Jesus
brooded upon the Divine immanence until at last he could declare, "I
and my Father are One."
Meditation centered upon divine realities is the very essence and soul
of prayer. It is the silent reaching of the soul toward the Eternal.
Mere petitionary prayer without meditation is a body without a soul,
and is powerless to lift the mind and heart above sin and affliction.
If you are daily praying for wisdom, for peace, for loftier purity and
a fuller realization of Truth, and that for which you pray is still far
from you, it means that you are praying for one thing while living out
in thought and act another. If you will cease from such waywardness,
taking your mind off those things the selfish clinging to which debars
you from the possession of the stainless realities for which you pray:
if you will no longer ask God to grant you that which you do not
deserve, or to bestow upon you that love and compassion which you
refuse to bestow upon others, but will commence to think and act in the
spirit of Truth, you will day by day be growing into those realities,
so that ultimately you will become one with them.
He who would secure any worldly advantage must be willing to work
vigorously for it, and he would be foolish indeed who, waiting with
folded hands, expected it to come to him for the mere asking. Do not
then vainly imagine that you can obtain the heavenly possessions
without making an effort. Only when you commence to work earnestly in
the Kingdom of Truth will you be allowed to partake of the Bread of
Life, and when you have, by patient and uncomplaining effort, earned
the spiritual wages for which you ask, they will not be withheld from
you.
If you really seek Truth, and not merely your own gratification; if you
love it above all worldly pleasures and gains; more, even, than
happiness itself, you will be willing to make the effort necessary for
its achievement.
If you would be freed from sin and sorrow; if you would taste of that
spotless purity for which you sigh and pray; if you would realize
wisdom and knowledge, and would enter into the possession of profound
and abiding peace, come now and enter the path of meditation, and let
the supreme object of your meditation be Truth.
At the outset, meditation must be distinguished from idle reverie.
There is nothing dreamy and unpractical about it. It is a process of
searching and uncompromising thought which allows nothing to remain but
the simple and naked truth. Thus meditating you will no longer strive
to build yourself up in your prejudices, but, forgetting self, you will
remember only that you are seeking the Truth. And so you will remove,
one by one, the errors which you have built around yourself in the
past, and will patiently wait for the revelation of Truth which will
come when your errors have been sufficiently removed. In the silent
humility of your heart you will realize that
"There is an inmost centre in us all
Where Truth abides in fulness; and around,
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in;
This perfect, clear perception, which is Truth,
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Blinds it, and makes all error; and to know,
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without."
Select some portion of the day in which to meditate, and keep that
period sacred to your purpose. The best time is the very early morning
when the spirit of repose is upon everything. All natural conditions
will then be in your favor; the passions, after the long bodily fast of
the night, will be subdued, the excitements and worries of the previous
day will have died away, and the mind, strong and yet restful, will be
receptive to spiritual instruction. Indeed, one of the first efforts
you will be called upon to make will be to shake off lethargy and
indulgence, and if you refuse you will be unable to advance, for the
demands of the spirit are imperative.
To be spiritually awakened is also to be mentally and physically
awakened. The sluggard and the self-indulgent can have no knowledge of
Truth. He who, possessed of health and strength, wastes the calm,
precious hours of the silent morning in drowsy indulgence is totally
unfit to climb the heavenly heights.
He whose awakening consciousness has become alive to its lofty
possibilities, who is beginning to shake off the darkness of ignorance
in which the world is enveloped, rises before the stars have ceased
their vigil, and, grappling with the darkness within his soul, strives,
by holy aspiration, to perceive the light of Truth while the unawakened
world dreams on.
"The heights by great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night."
No saint, no holy man, no teacher of Truth ever lived who did not rise
early in the morning. Jesus habitually rose early, and climbed the
solitary mountains to engage in holy communion. Buddha always rose an
hour before sunrise and engaged in meditation, and all his disciples
were enjoined to do the same.
If you have to commence your daily duties at a very early hour, and are
thus debarred from giving the early morning to systematic meditation,
try to give an hour at night, and should this, by the length and
laboriousness of your daily task be denied you, you need not despair,
for you may turn your thoughts upward in holy meditation in the
intervals of your work, or in those few idle minutes which you now
waste in aimlessness; and should your work be of that kind which
becomes by practice automatic, you may meditate while engaged upon it.
That eminent Christian saint and philosopher, Jacob Boehme, realized
his vast knowledge of divine things whilst working long hours as a
shoemaker. In every life there is time to think, and the busiest, the
most laborious is not shut out from aspiration and meditation.
Spiritual meditation and self-discipline are inseparable; you will,
therefore, commence to meditate upon yourself so as to try and
understand yourself, for, remember, the great object you will have in
view will be the complete removal of all your errors in order that you
may realize Truth. You will begin to question your motives, thoughts,
and acts, comparing them with your ideal, and endeavoring to look upon
them with a calm and impartial eye. In this manner you will be
continually gaining more of that mental and spiritual equilibrium
without which men are but helpless straws upon the ocean of life. If
you are given to hatred or anger you will meditate upon gentleness and
forgiveness, so as to become acutely alive to a sense of your harsh and
foolish conduct. You will then begin to dwell in thoughts of love, of
gentleness, of abounding forgiveness; and as you overcome the lower by
the higher, there will gradually, silently steal into your heart a
knowledge of the divine Law of Love with an understanding of its
bearing upon all the intricacies of life and conduct. And in applying
this knowledge to your every thought, word, and act, you will grow more
and more gentle, more and more loving, more and more divine. And thus
with every error, every selfish desire, every human weakness; by the
power of meditation is it overcome, and as each sin, each error is
thrust out, a fuller and clearer measure of the Light of Truth
illumines the pilgrim soul.
Thus meditating, you will be ceaselessly fortifying yourself against
your only real enemy, your selfish, perishable self, and will be
establishing yourself more and more firmly in the divine and
imperishable self that is inseparable from Truth. The direct outcome of
your meditations will be a calm, spiritual strength which will be your
stay and resting-place in the struggle of life. Great is the overcoming
power of holy thought, and the strength and knowledge gained in the
hour of silent meditation will enrich the soul with saving remembrance
in the hour of strife, of sorrow, or of temptation.
As, by the power of meditation, you grow in wisdom, you will
relinquish, more and more, your selfish desires which are fickle,
impermanent, and productive of sorrow and pain; and will take your
stand, with increasing steadfastness and trust, upon unchangeable
principles, and will realize heavenly rest.
The use of meditation is the acquirement of a knowledge of eternal
principles, and the power which results from meditation is the ability
to rest upon and trust those principles, and so become one with the
Eternal. The end of meditation is, therefore, direct knowledge of
Truth, God, and the realization of divine and profound peace.
Let your meditations take their rise from the ethical ground which you
now occupy. Remember that you are to grow into Truth by steady
perseverance. If you are an orthodox Christian, meditate ceaselessly
upon the spotless purity and divine excellence of the character of
Jesus, and apply his every precept to your inner life and outward
conduct, so as to approximate more and more toward his perfection. Do
not be as those religious ones, who, refusing to meditate upon the Law
of Truth, and to put into practice the precepts given to them by their
Master, are content to formally worship, to cling to their particular
creeds, and to continue in the ceaseless round of sin and suffering.
Strive to rise, by the power of meditation, above all selfish clinging
to partial gods or party creeds; above dead formalities and lifeless
ignorance. Thus walking the high way of wisdom, with mind fixed upon
the spotless Truth, you shall know no halting-place short of the
realization of Truth.
He who earnestly meditates first perceives a truth, as it were, afar
off, and then realizes it by daily practice. It is only the doer of the
Word of Truth that can know of the doctrine of Truth, for though by
pure thought the Truth is perceived, it is only actualized by practice.
Said the divine Gautama, the Buddha, "He who gives himself up to
vanity, and does not give himself up to meditation, forgetting the real
aim of life and grasping at pleasure, will in time envy him who has
exerted himself in meditation," and he instructed his disciples in the
following "Five Great Meditations":–
"The first meditation is the meditation of love, in which you so adjust
your heart that you long for the weal and welfare of all beings,
including the happiness of your enemies.
"The second meditation is the meditation of pity, in which you think of
all beings in distress, vividly representing in your imagination their
sorrows and anxieties so as to arouse a deep compassion for them in
your soul.
"The third meditation is the meditation of joy, in which you think of
the prosperity of others, and rejoice with their rejoicings.
"The fourth meditation is the meditation of impurity, in which you
consider the evil consequences of corruption, the effects of sin and
diseases. How trivial often the pleasure of the moment, and how fatal
its consequences.
"The fifth meditation is the meditation on serenity, in which you rise
above love and hate, tyranny and oppression, wealth and want, and
regard your own fate with impartial calmness and perfect tranquillity."
By engaging in these meditations the disciples of the Buddha arrived at
a knowledge of the Truth. But whether you engage in these particular
meditations or not matters little so long as your object is Truth, so
long as you hunger and thirst for that righteousness which is a holy
heart and a blameless life. In your meditations, therefore, 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 upon the wings of aspiration; be fearless,
and believe in the loftiest possibilities. Believe that a life of
absolute meekness is possible; believe that a life of stainless purity
is possible; believe that a life of perfect holiness is possible;
believe that the realization of the highest truth is possible. He who
so believes, climbs rapidly the heavenly hills, whilst the unbelievers
continue to grope darkly and painfully in the fog-bound valleys.
So believing, so aspiring, so meditating, divinely sweet and beautiful
will be your spiritual experiences, and glorious the revelations that
will enrapture your inward vision. As you realize the divine Love, the
divine Justice, the divine Purity, the Perfect Law of Good, or God,
great will be your bliss and deep your peace. Old things will pass
away, and all things will become new. The veil of the material
universe, so dense and impenetrable to the eye of error, so thin and
gauzy to the eye of Truth, will be lifted and the spiritual universe
will be revealed. Time will cease, and you will live only in Eternity.
Change and mortality will no more cause you anxiety and sorrow, for you
will become established in the unchangeable, and will dwell in the very
heart of immortality.
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STAR OF WISDOM
Star that of the birth of Vishnu,
Birth of Krishna, Buddha, Jesus,
Told the wise ones, Heavenward looking,
Waiting, watching for thy gleaming
In the darkness of the night-time,
In the starless gloom of midnight;
Shining Herald of the coming
Of the kingdom of the righteous;
Teller of the Mystic story
Of the lowly birth of Godhead
In the stable of the passions,
In the manger of the mind-soul;
Silent singer of the secret
Of compassion deep and holy
To the heart with sorrow burdened,
To the soul with waiting weary:–
Star of all-surpassing brightness,
Thou again dost deck the midnight;
Thou again dost cheer the wise ones
Watching in the creedal darkness,
Weary of the endless battle
With the grinding blades of error;
Tired of lifeless, useless idols,
Of the dead forms of religions;
Spent with watching for thy shining;
Thou hast ended their despairing;
Thou hast lighted up their pathway;
Thou hast brought again the old Truths
To the hearts of all thy Watchers;
To the souls of them that love thee
Thou dost speak of Joy and Gladness,
Of the peace that comes of Sorrow.
Blessed are they that can see thee,
Weary wanderers in the Night-time;
Blessed they who feel the throbbing,
In their bosoms feel the pulsing
Of a deep Love stirred within them
By the great power of thy shining.
Let us learn thy lesson truly;
Learn it faithfully and humbly;
Learn it meekly, wisely, gladly,
Ancient Star of holy Vishnu,
Light of Krishna, Buddha, Jesus.
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THE TWO MASTERS, SELF AND TRUTH
Upon the battlefield of the human soul two masters are ever contending
for the crown of supremacy, for the kingship and dominion of the heart;
the master of self, called also the "Prince of this world," and the
master of Truth, called also the Father God. The master self is that
rebellious one whose weapons are passion, pride, avarice, vanity,
self-will, implements of darkness; the master Truth is that meek and
lowly one whose weapons are gentleness, patience, purity, sacrifice,
humility, love, instruments of Light.
In every soul the battle is waged, and as a soldier cannot engage at
once in two opposing armies, so every heart is enlisted either in the
ranks of self or of Truth. There is no half-and-half course; "There is
self and there is Truth; where self is, Truth is not, where Truth is,
self is not." Thus spake Buddha, the teacher of Truth, and Jesus, the
manifested Christ, declared that "No man can serve two masters; for
either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to
the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."
Truth is so simple, so absolutely undeviating and uncompromising that
it admits of no complexity, no turning, no qualification. Self is
ingenious, crooked, and, governed by subtle and snaky desire, admits of
endless turnings and qualifications, and the deluded worshipers of self
vainly imagine that they can gratify every worldly desire, and at the
same time possess the Truth. But the lovers of Truth worship Truth with
the sacrifice of self, and ceaselessly guard themselves against
worldliness and self-seeking.
Do you seek to know and to realize Truth? Then you must be prepared to
sacrifice, to renounce to the uttermost, for Truth in all its glory can
only be perceived and known when the last vestige of self has
disappeared.
The eternal Christ declared that he who would be His disciple must
"deny himself daily." Are you willing to deny yourself, to give up your
lusts, your prejudices, your opinions? If so, you may enter the narrow
way of Truth, and find that peace from which the world is shut out. The
absolute denial, the utter extinction, of self is the perfect state of
Truth, and all religions and philosophies are but so many aids to this
supreme attainment.
Self is the denial of Truth. Truth is the denial of self. As you let
self die, you will be reborn in Truth. As you cling to self, Truth will
be hidden from you.
Whilst you cling to self, your path will be beset with difficulties,
and repeated pains, sorrows, and disappointments will be your lot.
There are no difficulties in Truth, and coming to Truth, you will be
freed from all sorrow and disappointment.
Truth in itself is not hidden and dark. It is always revealed and is
perfectly transparent. But the blind and wayward self cannot perceive
it. The light of day is not hidden except to the blind, and the Light
of Truth is not hidden except to those who are blinded by self.
Truth is the one Reality in the universe, the inward Harmony, the
perfect Justice, the eternal Love. Nothing can be added to it, nor
taken from it. It does not depend upon any man, but all men depend upon
it. You cannot perceive the beauty of Truth while you are looking out
through the eyes of self. If you are vain, you will color everything
with your own vanities. If lustful, your heart and mind will be so
clouded with the smoke and flames of passion, that everything will
appear distorted through them. If proud and opinionative, you will see
nothing in the whole universe except the magnitude and importance of
your own opinions.
There is one quality which pre-eminently distinguishes the man of Truth
from the man of self, and that is humility. To be not only free from
vanity, stubbornness and egotism, but to regard one’s own opinions as
of no value, this indeed is true humility.
He who is immersed in self regards his own opinions as Truth, and the
opinions of other men as error. But that humble Truth-lover who has
learned to distinguish between opinion and Truth, regards all men with
the eye of charity, and does not seek to defend his opinions against
theirs, but sacrifices those opinions that he may love the more, that
he may manifest the spirit of Truth, for Truth in its very nature is
ineffable and can only be lived. He who has most of charity has most of
Truth.
Men engage in heated controversies, and foolishly imagine they are
defending the Truth, when in reality they are merely defending their
own petty interests and perishable opinions. The follower of self takes
up arms against others. The follower of Truth takes up arms against
himself. Truth, being unchangeable and eternal, is independent of your
opinion and of mine. We may enter into it, or we may stay outside; but
both our defense and our attack are superfluous, and are hurled back
upon ourselves.
Men, enslaved by self, passionate, proud, and condemnatory, believe
their particular creed or religion to be the Truth, and all other
religions to be error; and they proselytize with passionate ardor.
There is but one religion, the religion of Truth. There is but one
error, the error of self. Truth is not a formal belief; it is an
unselfish, holy, and aspiring heart, and he who has Truth is at peace
with all, and cherishes all with thoughts of love.
You may easily know whether you are a child of Truth or a worshiper of
self, if you will silently examine your mind, heart, and conduct. Do
you harbor thoughts of suspicion, enmity, envy, lust, pride, or do you
strenuously fight against these? If the former, you are chained to
self, no matter what religion you may profess; if the latter, you are a
candidate for Truth, even though outwardly you may profess no religion.
Are you passionate, self-willed, ever seeking to gain your own ends,
self-indulgent, and self-centered; or are you gentle, mild, unselfish,
quit of every form of self-indulgence, and are ever ready to give up
your own? If the former, self is your master; if the latter, Truth is
the object of your affection. Do you strive for riches? Do you fight,
with passion, for your party? Do you lust for power and leadership? Are
you given to ostentation and self-praise? Or have you given up the love
of riches? Have you relinquished all strife? Are you content to take
the lowest place, and to be passed by unnoticed? And have you ceased to
talk about yourself and to regard yourself with self-complacent pride?
If the former, even though you may imagine you worship God, the god of
your heart is self. If the latter, even though you may withhold your
lips from worship, you are dwelling with the Most High.
The signs by which the Truth-lover is known are unmistakable. Hear the
Holy
Krishna declare them, in Sir Edwin Arnold’s beautiful rendering of the
"Bhagavad Gita":–
"Fearlessness, singleness of soul, the will
Always to strive for wisdom; opened hand
And governed appetites; and piety,
And love of lonely study; humbleness,
Uprightness, heed to injure nought which lives
Truthfulness, slowness unto wrath, a mind
That lightly letteth go what others prize;
And equanimity, and charity
Which spieth no man’s faults; and tenderness
Towards all that suffer; a contented heart,
Fluttered by no desires; a bearing mild,
Modest and grave, with manhood nobly mixed,
With patience, fortitude and purity;
An unrevengeful spirit, never given
To rate itself too high–such be the signs,
O Indian Prince! of him whose feet are set
On that fair path which leads to heavenly birth!"
When men, lost in the devious ways of error and self, have forgotten
the "heavenly birth," the state of holiness and Truth, they set up
artificial standards by which to judge one another, and make acceptance
of, and adherence to, their own particular theology, the test of Truth;
and so men are divided one against another, and there is ceaseless
enmity and strife, and unending sorrow and suffering.
Reader, do you seek to realize the birth into Truth? There is only one
way: Let self die. All those lusts, appetites, desires, opinions,
limited conceptions and prejudices to which you have hitherto so
tenaciously clung, let them fall from you. Let them no longer hold you
in bondage, and Truth will be yours. Cease to look upon your own
religion as superior to all others, and strive humbly to learn the
supreme lesson of charity. No longer cling to the idea, so productive
of strife and sorrow, that the Savior whom you worship is the only
Savior, and that the Savior whom your brother worships with equal
sincerity and ardor, is an impostor; but seek diligently the path of
holiness, and then you will realize that every holy man is a savior of
mankind.
The giving up of self is not merely the renunciation of outward things.
It consists of the renunciation of the inward sin, the inward error.
Not by giving up vain clothing; not by relinquishing riches; not by
abstaining from certain foods; not by speaking smooth words; not by
merely doing these things is the Truth found; but by giving up the
spirit of vanity; by relinquishing the desire for riches; by abstaining
from the lust of self-indulgence; by giving up all hatred, strife,
condemnation, and self-seeking, and becoming gentle and pure at heart;
by doing these things is the Truth found. To do the former, and not to
do the latter, is pharisaism and hypocrisy, whereas the latter includes
the former. You may renounce the outward world, and isolate yourself in
a cave or in the depths of a forest, but you will take all your
selfishness with you, and unless you renounce that, great indeed will
be your wretchedness and deep your delusion. You may remain just where
you are, performing all your duties, and yet renounce the world, the
inward enemy. To be in the world and yet not of the world is the
highest perfection, the most blessed peace, is to achieve the greatest
victory. The renunciation of self is the way of Truth, therefore,
"Enter the Path; there is no grief like hate,
No pain like passion, no deceit like sense;
Enter the Path; far hath he gone whose foot
Treads down one fond offense."
As you succeed in overcoming self you will begin to see things in their
right relations. He who is swayed by any passion, prejudice, like or
dislike, adjusts everything to that particular bias, and sees only his
own delusions. He who is absolutely free from all passion, prejudice,
preference, and partiality, sees himself as he is; sees others as they
are; sees all things in their proper proportions and right relations.
Having nothing to attack, nothing to defend, nothing to conceal, and no
interests to guard, he is at peace. He has realized the profound
simplicity of Truth, for this unbiased, tranquil, blessed state of mind
and heart is the state of Truth. He who attains to it dwells with the
angels, and sits at the footstool of the Supreme. Knowing the Great
Law; knowing the origin of sorrow; knowing the secret of suffering;
knowing the way of emancipation in Truth, how can such a one engage in
strife or condemnation; for though he knows that the blind,
self-seeking world, surrounded with the clouds of its own illusions,
and enveloped in the darkness of error and self, cannot perceive the
steadfast Light of Truth, and is utterly incapable of comprehending the
profound simplicity of the heart that has died, or is dying, to self,
yet he also knows that when the suffering ages have piled up mountains
of sorrow, the crushed and burdened soul of the world will fly to its
final refuge, and that when the ages are completed, every prodigal will
come back to the fold of Truth. And so he dwells in goodwill toward
all, and regards all with that tender compassion which a father bestows
upon his wayward children.
Men cannot understand Truth because they cling to self, because they
believe in and love self, because they believe self to be the only
reality, whereas it is the one delusion.
When you cease to believe in and love self you will desert it, and will
fly to Truth, and will find the eternal Reality.
When men are intoxicated with the wines of luxury, and pleasure, and
vanity, the thirst of life grows and deepens within them, and they
delude themselves with dreams of fleshly immortality, but when they
come to reap the harvest of their own sowing, and pain and sorrow
supervene, then, crushed and humiliated, relinquishing self and all the
intoxications of self, they come, with aching hearts to the one
immortality, the immortality that destroys all delusions, the spiritual
immortality in Truth.
Men pass from evil to good, from self to Truth, through the dark gate
of sorrow, for sorrow and self are inseparable. Only in the peace and
bliss of Truth is all sorrow vanquished. If you suffer disappointment
because your cherished plans have been thwarted, or because someone has
not come up to your anticipations, it is because you are clinging to
self. If you suffer remorse for your conduct, it is because you have
given way to self. If you are overwhelmed with chagrin and regret
because of the attitude of someone else toward you, it is because you
have been cherishing self. If you are wounded on account of what has
been done to you or said of you, it is because you are walking in the
painful way of self. All suffering is of self. All suffering ends in
Truth. When you have entered into and realized Truth, you will no
longer suffer disappointment, remorse, and regret, and sorrow will flee
from you.
"Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul;
Truth is the only angel that can bid the gates unroll;
And when he comes to call thee, arise and follow fast;
His way may lie through darkness, but it leads to light at last."
The woe of the world is of its own making. Sorrow purifies and deepens
the soul, and the extremity of sorrow is the prelude to Truth.
Have you suffered much? Have you sorrowed deeply? Have you pondered
seriously upon the problem of life? If so, you are prepared to wage war
against self, and to become a disciple of Truth.
The intellectual who do not see the necessity for giving up self, frame
endless theories about the universe, and call them Truth; but do thou
pursue that direct line of conduct which is the practice of
righteousness, and thou wilt realize the Truth which has no place in
theory, and which never changes. Cultivate your heart. Water it
continually with unselfish love and deep-felt pity, and strive to shut
out from it all thoughts and feelings which are not in accordance with
Love. Return good for evil, love for hatred, gentleness for
ill-treatment, and remain silent when attacked. So shall you transmute
all your selfish desires into the pure gold of Love, and self will
disappear in Truth. So will you walk blamelessly among men, yoked with
the easy yoke of lowliness, and clothed with the divine garment of
humility.
O come, weary brother! thy struggling and striving
End thou in the heart of the Master of ruth;
Across self’s drear desert why wilt thou be driving,
Athirst for the quickening waters of Truth
When here, by the path of thy searching and sinning,
Flows Life’s gladsome stream, lies Love’s oasis green?
Come, turn thou and rest; know the end and beginning,
The sought and the searcher, the seer and seen.
Thy Master sits not in the unapproached mountains,
Nor dwells in the mirage which floats on the air,
Nor shalt thou discover His magical fountains
In pathways of sand that encircle despair.
In selfhood’s dark desert cease wearily seeking
The odorous tracks of the feet of thy King;
And if thou wouldst hear the sweet sound of His speaking,
Be deaf to all voices that emptily sing.
Flee the vanishing places; renounce all thou hast;
Leave all that thou lovest, and, naked and bare,
Thyself at the shrine of the Innermost cast;
The Highest, the Holiest, the Changeless is there.
Within, in the heart of the Silence He dwelleth;
Leave sorrow and sin, leave thy wanderings sore;
Come bathe in His Joy, whilst He, whispering, telleth
Thy soul what it seeketh, and wander no more.
Then cease, weary brother, thy struggling and striving;
Find peace in the heart of the Master of ruth.
Across self’s dark desert cease wearily driving;
Come; drink at the beautiful waters of Truth.
__________________________________________________________________
THE ACQUIREMENT OF SPIRITUAL POWER
The world is filled with men and women seeking pleasure, excitement,
novelty; seeking ever to be moved to laughter or tears; not seeking
strength, stability, and power; but courting weakness, and eagerly
engaged in dispersing what power they have.
Men and women of real power and influence are few, because few are
prepared to make the sacrifice necessary to the acquirement of power,
and fewer still are ready to patiently build up character.
To be swayed by your fluctuating thoughts and impulses is to be weak
and powerless; to rightly control and direct those forces is to be
strong and powerful. Men of strong animal passions have much of the
ferocity of the beast, but this is not power. The elements of power are
there; but it is only when this ferocity is tamed and subdued by the
higher intelligence that real power begins; and men can only grow in
power by awakening themselves to higher and ever higher states of
intelligence and consciousness.
The difference between a man of weakness and one of power lies not in
the strength of the personal will (for the stubborn man is usually weak
and foolish), but in that focus of consciousness which represents their
states of knowledge.
The pleasure-seekers, the lovers of excitement, the hunters after
novelty, and the victims of impulse and hysterical emotion lack that
knowledge of principles which gives balance, stability, and influence.
A man commences to develop power when, checking his impulses and
selfish inclinations, he falls back upon the higher and calmer
consciousness within him, and begins to steady himself upon a
principle. The realization of unchanging principles in consciousness is
at once the source and secret of the highest power.
When, after much searching, and suffering, and sacrificing, the light
of an eternal principle dawns upon the soul, a divine calm ensues and
joy unspeakable gladdens the heart.
He who has realized such a principle ceases to wander, and remains
poised and self-possessed. He ceases to be "passion’s slave," and
becomes a master-builder in the Temple of Destiny.
The man that is governed by self, and not by a principle, changes his
front when his selfish comforts are threatened. Deeply intent upon
defending and guarding his own interests, he regards all means as
lawful that will subserve that end. He is continually scheming as to
how he may protect himself against his enemies, being too self-centered
to perceive that he is his own enemy. Such a man’s work crumbles away,
for it is divorced from Truth and power. All effort that is grounded
upon self, perishes; only that work endures that is built upon an
indestructible principle.
The man that stands upon a principle is the same calm, dauntless,
self-possessed man under all circumstances. When the hour of trial
comes, and he has to decide between his personal comforts and Truth, he
gives up his comforts and remains firm. Even the prospect of torture
and death cannot alter or deter him. The man of self regards the loss
of his wealth, his comforts, or his life as the greatest calamities
which can befall him. The man of principle looks upon these incidents
as comparatively insignificant, and not to be weighed with loss of
character, loss of Truth. To desert Truth is, to him, the only
happening which can really be called a calamity.
It is the hour of crisis which decides who are the minions of darkness,
and who the children of Light. It is the epoch of threatening disaster,
ruin, and persecution which divides the sheep from the goats, and
reveals to the reverential gaze of succeeding ages the men and women of
power.
It is easy for a man, so long as he is left in the enjoyment of his
possessions, to persuade himself that he believes in and adheres to the
principles of Peace, Brotherhood, and Universal Love; but if, when his
enjoyments are threatened, or he imagines they are threatened, he
begins to clamor loudly for war, he shows that he believes in and
stands upon, not Peace, Brotherhood, and Love, but strife, selfishness,
and hatred.
He who does not desert his principles when threatened with the loss of
every earthly thing, even to the loss of reputation and life, is the
man of power; is the man whose every word and work endures; is the man
whom the afterworld honors, reveres, and worships. Rather than desert
that principle of Divine Love on which he rested, and in which all his
trust was placed, Jesus endured the utmost extremity of agony and
deprivation; and today the world prostrates itself at his pierced feet
in rapt adoration.
There is no way to the acquirement of spiritual power except by that
inward illumination and enlightenment which is the realization of
spiritual principles; and those principles can only be realized by
constant practice and application.
Take the principle of divine Love, and quietly and diligently meditate
upon it with the object of arriving at a thorough understanding of it.
Bring its searching light to bear upon all your habits, your actions,
your speech and intercourse with others, your every secret thought and
desire. As you persevere in this course, the divine Love will become
more and more perfectly revealed to you, and your own shortcomings will
stand out in more and more vivid contrast, spurring you on to renewed
endeavor; and having once caught a glimpse of the incomparable majesty
of that imperishable principle, you will never again rest in your
weakness, your selfishness, your imperfection, but will pursue that
Love until you have relinquished every discordant element, and have
brought yourself into perfect harmony with it. And that state of inward
harmony is spiritual power. Take also other spiritual principles, such
as Purity and Compassion, and apply them in the same way, and, so
exacting is Truth, you will be able to make no stay, no resting-place
until the inmost garment of your soul is bereft of every stain, and
your heart has become incapable of any hard, condemnatory, and pitiless
impulse.
Only in so far as you understand, realize, and rely upon, these
principles, will you acquire spiritual power, and that power will be
manifested in and through you in the form of increasing dispassion,
patience and equanimity.
Dispassion argues superior self-control; sublime patience is the very
hall-mark of divine knowledge, and to retain an unbroken calm amid all
the duties and distractions of life, marks off the man of power. "It is
easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in
solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the
midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of
solitude."
Some mystics hold that perfection in dispassion is the source of that
power by which miracles (so-called) are performed, and truly he who has
gained such perfect control of all his interior forces that no shock,
however great, can for one moment unbalance him, must be capable of
guiding and directing those forces with a master-hand.
To grow in self-control, in patience, in equanimity, is to grow in
strength and power; and you can only thus grow by focusing your
consciousness upon a principle. As a child, after making many and
vigorous attempts to walk unaided, at last succeeds, after numerous
falls, in accomplishing this, so you must enter the way of power by
first attempting to stand alone. Break away from the tyranny of custom,
tradition, conventionality, and the opinions of others, until you
succeed in walking lonely and erect among men. Rely upon your own
judgment; be true to your own conscience; follow the Light that is
within you; all outward lights are so many will-o’-the-wisps. There
will be those who will tell you that you are foolish; that your
judgment is faulty; that your conscience is all awry, and that the
Light within you is darkness; but heed them not. If what they say is
true the sooner you, as a searcher for wisdom, find it out the better,
and you can only make the discovery by bringing your powers to the
test. Therefore, pursue your course bravely. Your conscience is at
least your own, and to follow it is to be a man; to follow the
conscience of another is to be a slave. You will have many falls, will
suffer many wounds, will endure many buffetings for a time, but press
on in faith, believing that sure and certain victory lies ahead. Search
for a rock, a principle, and having found it cling to it; get it under
your feet and stand erect upon it, until at last, immovably fixed upon
it, you succeed in defying the fury of the waves and storms of
selfishness.
For selfishness in any and every form is dissipation, weakness, death;
unselfishness in its spiritual aspect is conservation, power, life. As
you grow in spiritual life, and become established upon principles, you
will become as beautiful and as unchangeable as those principles, will
taste of the sweetness of their immortal essence, and will realize the
eternal and indestructible nature of the God within.
No harmful shaft can reach the righteous man,
Standing erect amid the storms of hate,
Defying hurt and injury and ban,
Surrounded by the trembling slaves of Fate.
Majestic in the strength of silent power,
Serene he stands, nor changes not nor turns;
Patient and firm in suffering’s darkest hour,
Time bends to him, and death and doom he spurns.
Wrath’s lurid lightnings round about him play,
And hell’s deep thunders roll about his head;
Yet heeds he not, for him they cannot slay
Who stands whence earth and time and space are fled.
Sheltered by deathless love, what fear hath he?
Armored in changeless Truth, what can he know
Of loss and gain? Knowing eternity,
He moves not whilst the shadows come and go.
Call him immortal, call him Truth and Light
And splendor of prophetic majesty
Who bideth thus amid the powers of night,
Clothed with the glory of divinity.
__________________________________________________________________
THE REALIZATION OF SELFLESS LOVE
It is said that Michael Angelo saw in every rough block of stone a
thing of beauty awaiting the master-hand to bring it into reality. Even
so, within each there reposes the Divine Image awaiting the master-hand
of Faith and the chisel of Patience to bring it into manifestation. And
that Divine Image is revealed and realized as stainless, selfless Love.
Hidden deep in every human heart, though frequently covered up with a
mass of hard and almost impenetrable accretions, is the spirit of
Divine Love, whose holy and spotless essence is undying and eternal. It
is the Truth in man; it is that which belongs to the Supreme: that
which is real and immortal. All else changes and passes away; this
alone is permanent and imperishable; and to realize this Love by
ceaseless diligence in the practice of the highest righteousness, to
live in it and to become fully conscious in it, is to enter into
immortality here and now, is to become one with Truth, one with God,
one with the central Heart of all things, and to know our own divine
and eternal nature.
To reach this Love, to understand and experience it, one must work with
great persistency and diligence upon his heart and mind, must ever
renew his patience and keep strong his faith, for there will be much to
remove, much to accomplish before the Divine Image is revealed in all
its glorious beauty.
He who strives to reach and to accomplish the divine will be tried to
the very uttermost; and this is absolutely necessary, for how else
could one acquire that sublime patience without which there is no real
wisdom, no divinity? Ever and anon, as he proceeds, all his work will
seem to be futile, and his efforts appear to be thrown away. Now and
then a hasty touch will mar his image, and perhaps when he imagines his
work is almost completed he will find what he imagined to be the
beautiful form of Divine Love utterly destroyed, and he must begin
again with his past bitter experience to guide and help him. But he who
has resolutely set himself to realize the Highest recognizes no such
thing as defeat. All failures are apparent, not real. Every slip, every
fall, every return to selfishness is a lesson learned, an experience
gained, from which a golden grain of wisdom is extracted, helping the
striver toward the accomplishment of his lofty object. To recognize
"That of our vices we can frame
A ladder if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame,"
is to enter the way that leads unmistakably toward the Divine, and the
failings of one who thus recognizes are so many dead selves, upon which
he rises, as upon stepping-stones, to higher things.
Once come to regard your failings, your sorrows and sufferings as so
many voices telling you plainly where you are weak and faulty, where
you fall below the true and the divine, you will then begin to
ceaselessly watch yourself, and every slip, every pang of pain will
show you where you are to set to work, and what you have to remove out
of your heart in order to bring it nearer to the likeness of the
Divine, nearer to the Perfect Love. And as you proceed, day by day
detaching yourself more and more from the inward selfishness the Love
that is selfless will gradually become revealed to you. And when you
are growing patient and calm, when your petulances, tempers, and
irritabilities are passing away from you, and the more powerful lusts
and prejudices cease to dominate and enslave you, then you will know
that the divine is awakening within you, that you are drawing near to
the eternal Heart, that you are not far from that selfless Love, the
possession of which is peace and immortality.
Divine Love is distinguished from human loves in this supremely
important particular, it is free from partiality. Human loves cling to
a particular object to the exclusion of all else, and when that object
is removed, great and deep is the resultant suffering to the one who
loves. Divine Love embraces the whole universe, and, without clinging
to any part, yet contains within itself the whole, and he who comes to
it by gradually purifying and broadening his human loves until all the
selfish and impure elements are burnt out of them, ceases from
suffering. It is because human loves are narrow and confined and
mingled with selfishness that they cause suffering. No suffering can
result from that Love which is so absolutely pure that it seeks nothing
for itself. Nevertheless, human loves are absolutely necessary as steps
toward the Divine, and no soul is prepared to partake of Divine Love
until it has become capable of the deepest and most intense human love.
It is only by passing through human loves and human sufferings that
Divine Love is reached and realized.
All human loves are perishable like the forms to which they cling; but
there is a Love that is imperishable, and that does not cling to
appearances.
All human loves are counterbalanced by human hates; but there is a Love
that admits of no opposite or reaction; divine and free from all taint
of self, that sheds its fragrance on all alike.
Human loves are reflections of the Divine Love, and draw the soul
nearer to the reality, the Love that knows neither sorrow nor change.
It is well that the mother, clinging with passionate tenderness to the
little helpless form of flesh that lies on her bosom, should be
overwhelmed with the dark waters of sorrow when she sees it laid in the
cold earth. It is well that her tears should flow and her heart ache,
for only thus can she be reminded of the evanescent nature of the joys
and objects of sense, and be drawn nearer to the eternal and
imperishable Reality.
It is well that lover, brother, sister, husband, wife should suffer
deep anguish, and be enveloped in gloom when the visible object of
their affections is torn from them, so that they may learn to turn
their affections toward the invisible Source of all, where alone
abiding satisfaction is to be found.
It is well that the proud, the ambitious, the self-seeking, should
suffer defeat, humiliation, and misfortune; that they should pass
through the scorching fires of affliction; for only thus can the
wayward soul be brought to reflect upon the enigma of life; only thus
can the heart be softened and purified, and prepared to receive the
Truth.
When the sting of anguish penetrates the heart of human love; when
gloom and loneliness and desertion cloud the soul of friendship and
trust, then it is that the heart turns toward the sheltering love of
the Eternal, and finds rest in its silent peace. And whosoever comes to
this Love is not turned away comfortless, is not pierced with anguish
nor surrounded with gloom; and is never deserted in the dark hour of
trial.
The glory of Divine Love can only be revealed in the heart that is
chastened by sorrow, and the image of the heavenly state can only be
perceived and realized when the lifeless, formless accretions of
ignorance and self are hewn away.
Only that Love that seeks no personal gratification or reward, that
does not make distinctions, and that leaves behind no heartaches, can
be called divine.
Men, clinging to self and to the comfortless shadows of evil, are in
the habit of thinking of divine Love as something belonging to a God
who is out of reach; as something outside themselves, and that must for
ever remain outside. Truly, the Love of God is ever beyond the reach of
self, but when the heart and mind are emptied of self then the selfless
Love, the supreme Love, the Love that is of God or Good becomes an
inward and abiding reality.
And this inward realization of holy Love is none other than the Love of
Christ that is so much talked about and so little comprehended. The
Love that not only saves the soul from sin, but lifts it also above the
power of temptation.
But how may one attain to this sublime realization? The answer which
Truth has always given, and will ever give to this question is,–"Empty
thyself, and I will fill thee." Divine Love cannot be known until self
is dead, for self is the denial of Love, and how can that which is
known be also denied? Not until the stone of self is rolled away from
the sepulcher of the soul does the immortal Christ, the pure Spirit of
Love, hitherto crucified, dead and buried, cast off the bands of
ignorance, and come forth in all the majesty of His resurrection.
You believe that the Christ of Nazareth was put to death and rose
again. I do not say you err in that belief; but if you refuse to
believe that the gentle spirit of Love is crucified daily upon the dark
cross of your selfish desires, then, I say, you err in this unbelief,
and have not yet perceived, even afar off, the Love of Christ.
You say that you have tasted of salvation in the Love of Christ. Are
you saved from your temper, your irritability, your vanity, your
personal dislikes, your judgment and condemnation of others? If not,
from what are you saved, and wherein have you realized the transforming
Love of Christ?
He who has realized the Love that is divine has become a new man, and
has ceased to be swayed and dominated by the old elements of self. He
is known for his patience, his purity, his self-control, his deep
charity of heart, and his unalterable sweetness.
Divine or selfless Love is not a mere sentiment or emotion; it is a
state of knowledge which destroys the dominion of evil and the belief
in evil, and lifts the soul into the joyful realization of the supreme
Good. To the divinely wise, knowledge and Love are one and inseparable.
It is toward the complete realization of this divine Love that the
whole world is moving; it was for this purpose that the universe came
into existence, and every grasping at happiness, every reaching out of
the soul toward objects, ideas and ideals, is an effort to realize it.
But the world does not realize this Love at present because it is
grasping at the fleeting shadow and ignoring, in its blindness, the
substance. And so suffering and sorrow continue, and must continue
until the world, taught by its self-inflicted pains, discovers the Love
that is selfless, the wisdom that is calm and full of peace.
And this Love, this Wisdom, this Peace, this tranquil state of mind and
heart may be attained to, may be realized by all who are willing and
ready to yield up self, and who are prepared to humbly enter into a
comprehension of all that the giving up of self involves. There is no
arbitrary power in the universe, and the strongest chains of fate by
which men are bound are self-forged. Men are chained to that which
causes suffering because they desire to be so, because they love their
chains, because they think their little dark prison of self is sweet
and beautiful, and they are afraid that if they desert that prison they
will lose all that is real and worth having.
"Ye suffer from yourselves, none else compels,
None other holds ye that ye live and die."
And the indwelling power which forged the chains and built around
itself the dark and narrow prison, can break away when it desires and
wills to do so, and the soul does will to do so when it has discovered
the worthlessness of its prison, when long suffering has prepared it
for the reception of the boundless Light and Love.
As the shadow follows the form, and as smoke comes after fire, so
effect follows cause, and suffering and bliss follow the thoughts and
deeds of men. There is no effect in the world around us but has its
hidden or revealed cause, and that cause is in accordance with absolute
justice. Men reap a harvest of suffering because in the near or distant
past they have sown the seeds of evil; they reap a harvest of bliss
also as a result of their own sowing of the seeds of good. Let a man
meditate upon this, let him strive to understand it, and he will then
begin to sow only seeds of good, and will burn up the tares and weeds
which he has formerly grown in the garden of his heart.
The world does not understand the Love that is selfless because it is
engrossed in the pursuit of its own pleasures, and cramped within the
narrow limits of perishable interests mistaking, in its ignorance,
those pleasures and interests for real and abiding things. Caught in
the flames of fleshly lusts, and burning with anguish, it sees not the
pure and peaceful beauty of Truth. Feeding upon the swinish husks of
error and self-delusion, it is shut out from the mansion of all-seeing
Love.
Not having this Love, not understanding it, men institute innumerable
reforms which involve no inward sacrifice, and each imagines that his
reform is going to right the world for ever, while he himself continues
to propagate evil by engaging it in his own heart. That only can be
called reform which tends to reform the human heart, for all evil has
its rise there, and not until the world, ceasing from selfishness and
party strife, has learned the lesson of divine Love, will it realize
the Golden Age of universal blessedness.
Let the rich cease to despise the poor, and the poor to condemn the
rich; let the greedy learn how to give, and the lustful how to grow
pure; let the partisan cease from strife, and the uncharitable begin to
forgive; let the envious endeavor to rejoice with others, and the
slanderers grow ashamed of their conduct. Let men and women take this
course, and, lo! the Golden Age is at hand. He, therefore, who purifies
his own heart is the world’s greatest benefactor.
Yet, though the world is, and will be for many ages to come, shut out
from that Age of Gold, which is the realization of selfless Love, you,
if you are willing, may enter it now, by rising above your selfish
self; if you will pass from prejudice, hatred, and condemnation, to
gentle and forgiving love.
Where hatred, dislike, and condemnation are, selfless Love does not
abide.
It resides only in the heart that has ceased from all condemnation.
You say, "How can I love the drunkard, the hypocrite, the sneak, the
murderer? I am compelled to dislike and condemn such men." It is true
you cannot love such men emotionally, but when you say that you must
perforce dislike and condemn them you show that you are not acquainted
with the Great over-ruling Love; for it is possible to attain to such a
state of interior enlightenment as will enable you to perceive the
train of causes by which these men have become as they are, to enter
into their intense sufferings, and to know the certainty of their
ultimate purification. Possessed of such knowledge it will be utterly
impossible for you any longer to dislike or condemn them, and you will
always think of them with perfect calmness and deep compassion.
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.
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.
Men, not knowing this Love, constitute themselves judge and executioner
of their fellows, forgetting that there is the Eternal Judge and
Executioner, and in so far as men deviate from them in their own views,
their particular reforms and methods, they brand them as fanatical,
unbalanced, lacking judgment, sincerity, and honesty; in so far as
others approximate to their own standard do they look upon them as
being everything that is admirable. Such are the men who are centered
in self. But he whose heart is centered in the supreme Love does not so
brand and classify men; does not seek to convert men to his own views,
not to convince them of the superiority of his methods. Knowing the Law
of Love, he lives it, and maintains the same calm attitude of mind and
sweetness of heart toward all. The debased and the virtuous, the
foolish and the wise, the learned and the unlearned, the selfish and
the unselfish receive alike the benediction of his tranquil thought.
You can only attain to this supreme knowledge, this divine Love by
unremitting endeavor in self-discipline, and by gaining victory after
victory over yourself. Only the pure in heart see God, and when your
heart is sufficiently purified you will enter into the New Birth, and
the Love that does not die, nor change, nor end in pain and sorrow will
be awakened within you, and you will be at peace.
He who strives for the attainment of divine Love is ever seeking to
overcome the spirit of condemnation, for where there is pure spiritual
knowledge, condemnation cannot exist, and only in the heart that has
become incapable of condemnation is Love perfected and fully realized.
The Christian condemns the Atheist; the Atheist satirizes the
Christian; the Catholic and Protestant are ceaselessly engaged in wordy
warfare, and the spirit of strife and hatred rules where peace and love
should be.
"He that hateth his brother is a murderer," a crucifier of the divine
Spirit of Love; and until you can regard men of all religions and of no
religion with the same impartial spirit, with all freedom from dislike,
and with perfect equanimity, you have yet to strive for that Love which
bestows upon its possessor freedom and salvation.
The realization of divine knowledge, selfless Love, utterly destroys
the spirit of condemnation, disperses all evil, and lifts the
consciousness to that height of pure vision where Love, Goodness,
Justice are seen to be universal, supreme, all-conquering,
indestructible.
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. So living,
without seeking to convert, you will convince; without arguing, you
will teach; not cherishing ambition, the wise will find you out; and
without striving to gain men’s opinions, you will subdue their hearts.
For Love is all-conquering, all-powerful; and the thoughts, and deeds,
and words of Love can never perish.
To know that Love is universal, supreme, all-sufficing; to be freed
from the trammels of evil; to be quit of the inward unrest; to know
that all men are striving to realize the Truth each in his own way; to
be satisfied, sorrowless, serene; this is peace; this is gladness; this
is immortality; this is Divinity; this is the realization of selfless
Love.
I stood upon the shore, and saw the rocks
Resist the onslaught of the mighty sea,
And when I thought how all the countless shocks
They had withstood through an eternity,
I said, "To wear away this solid main
The ceaseless efforts of the waves are vain."
But when I thought how they the rocks had rent,
And saw the sand and shingles at my feet
(Poor passive remnants of resistance spent)
Tumbled and tossed where they the waters meet,
Then saw I ancient landmarks ‘neath the waves,
And knew the waters held the stones their slaves.
I saw the mighty work the waters wrought
By patient softness and unceasing flow;
How they the proudest promontory brought
Unto their feet, and massy hills laid low;
How the soft drops the adamantine wall
Conquered at last, and brought it to its fall.
And then I knew that hard, resisting sin
Should yield at last to Love’s soft ceaseless roll
Coming and going, ever flowing in
Upon the proud rocks of the human soul;
That all resistance should be spent and past,
And every heart yield unto it at last.
__________________________________________________________________
ENTERING INTO THE INFINITE
From the beginning of time, man, in spite of his bodily appetites and
desires, in the midst of all his clinging to earthly and impermanent
things, has ever been intuitively conscious of the limited, transient,
and illusionary nature of his material existence, and in his sane and
silent moments has tried to reach out into a comprehension of the
Infinite, and has turned with tearful aspiration toward the restful
Reality of the Eternal Heart.
While vainly imagining that the pleasures of earth are real and
satisfying, pain and sorrow continually remind him of their unreal and
unsatisfying nature. Ever striving to believe that complete
satisfaction is to be found in material things, he is conscious of an
inward and persistent revolt against this belief, which revolt is at
once a refutation of his essential mortality, and an inherent and
imperishable proof that only in the immortal, the eternal, the infinite
can he find abiding satisfaction and unbroken peace.
And here is the common ground of faith; here the root and spring of all
religion; here the soul of Brotherhood and the heart of Love,–that man
is essentially and spiritually divine and eternal, and that, immersed
in mortality and troubled with unrest, he is ever striving to enter
into a consciousness of his real nature.
The spirit of man is inseparable from the Infinite, and can be
satisfied with nothing short of the Infinite, and the burden of pain
will continue to weigh upon man’s heart, and the shadows of sorrow to
darken his pathway until, ceasing from his wanderings in the
dream-world of matter, he comes back to his home in the reality of the
Eternal.
As the smallest drop of water detached from the ocean contains all the
qualities of the ocean, so man, detached in consciousness from the
Infinite, contains within him its likeness; and as the drop of water
must, by the law of its nature, ultimately find its way back to the
ocean and lose itself in its silent depths, so must man, by the
unfailing law of his nature, at last return to his source, and lose
himself in the great ocean of the Infinite.
To re-become one with the Infinite is the goal of man. To enter into
perfect harmony with the Eternal Law is Wisdom, Love and Peace. But
this divine state is, and must ever be, incomprehensible to the merely
personal. Personality, separateness, selfishness are one and the same,
and are the antithesis of wisdom and divinity. By the unqualified
surrender of the personality, separateness and selfishness cease, and
man enters into the possession of his divine heritage of immortality
and infinity.
Such surrender of the personality is regarded by the worldly and
selfish mind as the most grievous of all calamities, the most
irreparable loss, yet it is the one supreme and incomparable blessing,
the only real and lasting gain. The mind unenlightened upon the inner
laws of being, and upon the nature and destiny of its own life, clings
to transient appearances, things which have in them no enduring
substantiality, and so clinging, perishes, for the time being, amid the
shattered wreckage of its own illusions.
Men cling to and gratify the flesh as though it were going to last for
ever, and though they try to forget the nearness and inevitability of
its dissolution, the dread of death and of the loss of all that they
cling to clouds their happiest hours, and the chilling shadow of their
own selfishness follows them like a remorseless specter.
And with the accumulation of temporal comforts and luxuries, the
divinity within men is drugged, and they sink deeper and deeper into
materiality, into the perishable life of the senses, and where there is
sufficient intellect, theories concerning the immortality of the flesh
come to be regarded as infallible truths. When a man’s soul is clouded
with selfishness in any or every form, he loses the power of spiritual
discrimination, and confuses the temporal with the eternal, the
perishable with the permanent, mortality with immortality, and error
with Truth. It is thus that the world has come to be filled with
theories and speculations having no foundation in human experience.
Every body of flesh contains within itself, from the hour of birth, the
elements of its own destruction, and by the unalterable law of its own
nature must it pass away.
The perishable in the universe can never become permanent; the
permanent can never pass away; the mortal can never become immortal;
the immortal can never die; the temporal cannot become eternal nor the
eternal become temporal; appearance can never become reality, nor
reality fade into appearance; error can never become Truth, nor can
Truth become error. Man cannot immortalize the flesh, but, by
overcoming the flesh, by relinquishing all its inclinations, he can
enter the region of immortality. "God alone hath immortality," and only
by realizing the God state of consciousness does man enter into
immortality.
All nature in its myriad forms of life is changeable, impermanent,
unenduring. Only the informing Principle of nature endures. Nature is
many, and is marked by separation. The informing Principle is One, and
is marked by unity. By overcoming the senses and the selfishness
within, which is the overcoming of nature, man emerges from the
chrysalis of the personal and illusory, and wings himself into the
glorious light of the impersonal, the region of universal Truth, out of
which all perishable forms come.
Let men, therefore, practice self-denial; let them conquer their animal
inclinations; let them refuse to be enslaved by luxury and pleasure;
let them practice virtue, and grow daily into high and ever higher
virtue, until at last they grow into the Divine, and enter into both
the practice and the comprehension of humility, meekness, forgiveness,
compassion, and love, which practice and comprehension constitute
Divinity.
"Good-will gives insight," and only he who has so conquered his
personality that he has but one attitude of mind, that of good-will,
toward all creatures, is possessed of divine insight, and is capable of
distinguishing the true from the false. The supremely good man is,
therefore, the wise man, the divine man, the enlightened seer, the
knower of the Eternal. Where you find unbroken gentleness, enduring
patience, sublime lowliness, graciousness of speech, self-control,
self-forgetfulness, and deep and abounding sympathy, look there for the
highest wisdom, seek the company of such a one, for he has realized the
Divine, he lives with the Eternal, he has become one with the Infinite.
Believe not him that is impatient, given to anger, boastful, who clings
to pleasure and refuses to renounce his selfish gratifications, and who
practices not good-will and far-reaching compassion, for such a one
hath not wisdom, vain is all his knowledge, and his works and words
will perish, for they are grounded on that which passes away.
Let a man abandon self, let him overcome the world, let him deny the
personal; by this pathway only can he enter into the heart of the
Infinite.
The world, the body, the personality are mirages upon the desert of
time; transitory dreams in the dark night of spiritual slumber, and
those who have crossed the desert, those who are spiritually awakened,
have alone comprehended the Universal Reality where all appearances are
dispersed and dreaming and delusion are destroyed.
There is one Great Law which exacts unconditional obedience, one
unifying principle which is the basis of all diversity, one eternal
Truth wherein all the problems of earth pass away like shadows. To
realize this Law, this Unity, this Truth, is to enter into the
Infinite, is to become one with the Eternal.
To center one’s life in the Great Law of Love is to enter into rest,
harmony, peace. To refrain from all participation in evil and discord;
to cease from all resistance to evil, and from the omission of that
which is good, and to fall back upon unswerving obedience to the holy
calm within, is to enter into the inmost heart of things, is to attain
to a living, conscious experience of that eternal and infinite
principle which must ever remain a hidden mystery to the merely
perceptive intellect. Until this principle is realized, the soul is not
established in peace, and he who so realizes is truly wise; not wise
with the wisdom of the learned, but with the simplicity of a blameless
heart and of a divine manhood.
To enter into a realization of the Infinite and Eternal is to rise
superior to time, and the world, and the body, which comprise the
kingdom of darkness; and is to become established in immortality,
Heaven, and the Spirit, which make up the Empire of Light.
Entering into the Infinite is not a mere theory or sentiment. It is a
vital experience which is the result of assiduous practice in inward
purification. When the body is no longer believed to be, even remotely,
the real man; when all appetites and desires are thoroughly subdued and
purified; when the emotions are rested and calm, and when the
oscillation of the intellect ceases and perfect poise is secured, then,
and not till then, does consciousness become one with the Infinite; not
until then is childlike wisdom and profound peace secured.
Men grow weary and gray over the dark problems of life, and finally
pass away and leave them unsolved because they cannot see their way out
of the darkness of the personality, being too much engrossed in its
limitations. Seeking to save his personal life, man forfeits the
greater impersonal Life in Truth; clinging to the perishable, he is
shut out from a knowledge of the Eternal.
By the surrender of self all difficulties are overcome, and there is no
error in the universe but the fire of inward sacrifice will burn it up
like chaff; no problem, however great, but will disappear like a shadow
under the searching light of self-abnegation. Problems exist only in
our own self-created illusions, and they vanish away when self is
yielded up. Self and error are synonymous. Error is involved in the
darkness of unfathomable complexity, but eternal simplicity is the
glory of Truth.
Love of self shuts men out from Truth, and seeking their own personal
happiness they lose the deeper, purer, and more abiding bliss. Says
Carlyle–"There is in man a higher than love of happiness. He can do
without happiness, and instead thereof find blessedness.
… Love not pleasure, love God. This is the Everlasting Yea, wherein
all contradiction is solved; wherein whoso walks and works, it is well
with him."
He who has yielded up that self, that personality that men most love,
and to which they cling with such fierce tenacity, has left behind him
all perplexity, and has entered into a simplicity so profoundly simple
as to be looked upon by the world, involved as it is in a network of
error, as foolishness. Yet such a one has realized the highest wisdom,
and is at rest in the Infinite. He "accomplishes without striving," and
all problems melt before him, for he has entered the region of reality,
and deals, not with changing effects, but with the unchanging
principles of things. He is enlightened with a wisdom which is as
superior to ratiocination, as reason is to animality. Having yielded up
his lusts, his errors, his opinions and prejudices, he has entered into
possession of the knowledge of God, having slain the selfish desire for
heaven, and along with it the ignorant fear of hell; having
relinquished even the love of life itself, he has gained supreme bliss
and Life Eternal, the Life which bridges life and death, and knows its
own immortality. Having yielded up all without reservation, he has
gained all, and rests in peace on the bosom of the Infinite.
Only he who has become so free from self as to be equally content to be
annihilated as to live, or to live as to be annihilated, is fit to
enter into the Infinite. Only he who, ceasing to trust his perishable
self, has learned to trust in boundless measure the Great Law, the
Supreme Good, is prepared to partake of undying bliss.
For such a one there is no more regret, nor disappointment, nor
remorse, for where all selfishness has ceased these sufferings cannot
be; and whatever happens to him he knows that it is for his own good,
and he is content, being no longer the servant of self, but the servant
of the Supreme. He is no longer affected by the changes of earth, and
when he hears of wars and rumors of wars his peace is not disturbed,
and where men grow angry and cynical and quarrelsome, he bestows
compassion and love. Though appearances may contradict it, he knows
that the world is progressing, and that
"Through its laughing and its weeping,
Through its living and its keeping,
Through its follies and its labors, weaving in and out of sight,
To the end from the beginning,
Through all virtue and all sinning,
Reeled from God’s great spool of Progress, runs the golden
thread of light."
When a fierce storm is raging none are angered about it, because they
know it will quickly pass away, and when the storms of contention are
devastating the world, the wise man, looking with the eye of Truth and
pity, knows that it will pass away, and that out of the wreckage of
broken hearts which it leaves behind the immortal Temple of Wisdom will
be built.
Sublimely patient; infinitely compassionate; deep, silent, and pure,
his very presence is a benediction; and when he speaks men ponder his
words in their hearts, and by them rise to higher levels of attainment.
Such is he who has entered into the Infinite, who by the power of
utmost sacrifice has solved the sacred mystery of life.
Questioning Life and Destiny and Truth,
I sought the dark and labyrinthine Sphinx,
Who spake to me this strange and wondrous thing:–
"Concealment only lies in blinded eyes,
And God alone can see the Form of God."
I sought to solve this hidden mystery
Vainly by paths of blindness and of pain,
But when I found the Way of Love and Peace,
Concealment ceased, and I was blind no more:
Then saw I God e’en with the eyes of God.
__________________________________________________________________
SAINTS, SAGES, AND SAVIORS: THE LAW OF SERVICE
The spirit of Love which is manifested as a perfect and rounded life,
is the crown of being and the supreme end of knowledge upon this earth.
The measure of a man’s truth is the measure of his love, and Truth is
far removed from him whose life is not governed by Love. The intolerant
and condemnatory, even though they profess the highest religion, have
the smallest measure of Truth; while those who exercise patience, and
who listen calmly and dispassionately to all sides, and both arrive
themselves at, and incline others to, thoughtful and unbiased
conclusions upon all problems and issues, have Truth in fullest
measure. The final test of wisdom is this,–how does a man live? What
spirit does he manifest? How does he act under trial and temptation?
Many men boast of being in possession of Truth who are continually
swayed by grief, disappointment, and passion, and who sink under the
first little trial that comes along. Truth is nothing if not
unchangeable, and in so far as a man takes his stand upon Truth does he
become steadfast in virtue, does he rise superior to his passions and
emotions and changeable personality.
Men formulate perishable dogmas, and call them Truth. Truth cannot be
formulated; it is ineffable, and ever beyond the reach of intellect. It
can only be experienced by practice; it can only be manifested as a
stainless heart and a perfect life.
Who, then, in the midst of the ceaseless pandemonium of schools and
creeds and parties, has the Truth? He who lives it. He who practices
it. He who, having risen above that pandemonium by overcoming himself,
no longer engages in it, but sits apart, quiet, subdued, calm, and
self-possessed, freed from all strife, all bias, all condemnation, and
bestows upon all the glad and unselfish love of the divinity within
him.
He who is patient, calm, gentle, and forgiving under all circumstances,
manifests the Truth. Truth will never be proved by wordy arguments and
learned treatises, for if men do not perceive the Truth in infinite
patience, undying forgiveness, and all-embracing compassion, no words
can ever prove it to them.
It is an easy matter for the passionate to be calm and patient when
they are alone, or are in the midst of calmness. It is equally easy for
the uncharitable to be gentle and kind when they are dealt kindly with,
but he who retains his patience and calmness under all trial, who
remains sublimely meek and gentle under the most trying circumstances,
he, and he alone, is possessed of the spotless Truth. And this is so
because such lofty virtues belong to the Divine, and can only be
manifested by one who has attained to the highest wisdom, who has
relinquished his passionate and self-seeking nature, who has realized
the supreme and unchangeable Law, and has brought himself into harmony
with it.
Let men, therefore, cease from vain and passionate arguments about
Truth, and let them think and say and do those things which make for
harmony, peace, love, and good-will. Let them practice heart-virtue,
and search humbly and diligently for the Truth which frees the soul
from all error and sin, from all that blights the human heart, and that
darkens, as with unending night, the pathway of the wandering souls of
earth.
There is one great all-embracing Law which is the foundation and cause
of the universe, the Law of Love. It has been called by many names in
various countries and at various times, but behind all its names the
same unalterable Law may be discovered by the eye of Truth. Names,
religions, personalities pass away, but the Law of Love remains. To
become possessed of a knowledge of this Law, to enter into conscious
harmony with it, is to become immortal, invincible, indestructible.
It is because of the effort of the soul to realize this Law that men
come again and again to live, to suffer, and to die; and when realized,
suffering ceases, personality is dispersed, and the fleshly life and
death are destroyed, for consciousness becomes one with the Eternal.
The Law is absolutely impersonal, and its highest manifested expression
is that of Service. When the purified heart has realized Truth it is
then called upon to make the last, the greatest and holiest sacrifice,
the sacrifice of the well-earned enjoyment of Truth. It is by virtue of
this sacrifice that the divinely-emancipated soul comes to dwell among
men, clothed with a body of flesh, content to dwell among the lowliest
and least, and to be esteemed the servant of all mankind. That sublime
humility which is manifested by the world’s saviors is the seal of
Godhead, and he who has annihilated the personality, and has become a
living, visible manifestation of the impersonal, eternal, boundless
Spirit of Love, is alone singled out as worthy to receive the unstinted
worship of posterity. He only who succeeds in humbling himself with
that divine humility which is not only the extinction of self, but is
also the pouring out upon all the spirit of unselfish love, is exalted
above measure, and given spiritual dominion in the hearts of mankind.
All the great spiritual teachers have denied themselves personal
luxuries, comforts, and rewards, have abjured temporal power, and have
lived and taught the limitless and impersonal Truth. Compare their
lives and teachings, and you will find the same simplicity, the same
self-sacrifice, the same humility, love, and peace both lived and
preached by them. They taught the same eternal Principles, the
realization of which destroys all evil. Those who have been hailed and
worshiped as the saviors of mankind are manifestations of the Great
impersonal Law, and being such, were free from passion and prejudice,
and having no opinions, and no special letter of doctrine to preach and
defend, they never sought to convert and to proselytize. Living in the
highest Goodness, the supreme Perfection, their sole object was to
uplift mankind by manifesting that Goodness in thought, word, and deed.
They stand between man the personal and God the impersonal, and serve
as exemplary types for the salvation of self-enslaved mankind.
Men who are immersed in self, and who cannot comprehend the Goodness
that is absolutely impersonal, deny divinity to all saviors except
their own, and thus introduce personal hatred and doctrinal
controversy, and, while defending their own particular views with
passion, look upon each other as being heathens or infidels, and so
render null and void, as far as their lives are concerned, the
unselfish beauty and holy grandeur of the lives and teachings of their
own Masters. Truth cannot be limited; it can never be the special
prerogative of any man, school, or nation, and when personality steps
in, Truth is lost.
The glory alike of the saint, the sage, and the savior is this,–that
he has realized the most profound lowliness, the most sublime
unselfishness; having given up all, even his own personality, all his
works are holy and enduring, for they are freed from every taint of
self. He gives, yet never thinks of receiving; he works without
regretting the past or anticipating the future, and never looks for
reward.
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.
Men, not understanding the divine simplicity of a profoundly unselfish
heart, look upon their particular savior as the manifestation of a
special miracle, as being something entirely apart and distinct from
the nature of things, and as being, in his ethical excellence,
eternally unapproachable by the whole of mankind. This attitude of
unbelief (for such it is) in the divine perfectibility of man,
paralyzes effort, and binds the souls of men as with strong ropes to
sin and suffering. Jesus "grew in wisdom" and was "perfected by
suffering." What Jesus was, he became such; what Buddha was, he became
such; and every holy man became such by unremitting perseverance in
self-sacrifice. Once recognize this, once realize that by watchful
effort and hopeful perseverance you can rise above your lower nature,
and great and glorious will be the vistas of attainment that will open
out before you. Buddha vowed that he would not relax his efforts until
he arrived at the state of perfection, and he accomplished his purpose.
What the saints, sages, and saviors have accomplished, you likewise may
accomplish if you will only tread the way which they trod and pointed
out, the way of self-sacrifice, of self-denying service.
Truth is very simple. It says, "Give up self," "Come unto Me" (away
from all that defiles) "and I will give you rest." All the mountains of
commentary that have been piled upon it cannot hide it from the heart
that is earnestly seeking for Righteousness. It does not require
learning; it can be known in spite of learning. Disguised under many
forms by erring self-seeking man, the beautiful simplicity and clear
transparency of Truth remains unaltered and undimmed, and the unselfish
heart enters into and partakes of its shining radiance. Not by weaving
complex theories, not by building up speculative philosophies is Truth
realized; but by weaving the web of inward purity, by building up the
Temple of a stainless life is Truth realized.
He who enters upon this holy way begins by restraining his passions.
This is virtue, and is the beginning of saintship, and saintship is the
beginning of holiness. The entirely worldly man gratifies all his
desires, and practices no more restraint than the law of the land in
which he lives demands; the virtuous man restrains his passions; the
saint attacks the enemy of Truth in its stronghold within his own
heart, and restrains all selfish and impure thoughts; while the holy
man is he who is free from passion and all impure thought, and to whom
goodness and purity have become as natural as scent and color are to
the flower. The holy man is divinely wise; he alone knows Truth in its
fullness, and has entered into abiding rest and peace. For him evil has
ceased; it has disappeared in the universal light of the All-Good.
Holiness is the badge of wisdom. Said Krishna to the Prince Arjuna–
"Humbleness, truthfulness, and harmlessness,
Patience and honor, reverence for the wise,
Purity, constancy, control of self,
Contempt of sense-delights, self-sacrifice,
Perception of the certitude of ill
In birth, death, age, disease, suffering and sin;
An ever tranquil heart in fortunes good
And fortunes evil, …
… Endeavors resolute
To reach perception of the utmost soul,
And grace to understand what gain it were
So to attain–this is true wisdom, Prince!
And what is otherwise is ignorance!"
Whoever fights ceaselessly against his own selfishness, and strives to
supplant it with all-embracing love, is a saint, whether he live in a
cottage or in the midst of riches and influence; or whether he preaches
or remains obscure.
To the worldling, who is beginning to aspire towards higher things, the
saint, such as a sweet St. Francis of Assisi, or a conquering St.
Anthony, is a glorious and inspiring spectacle; to the saint, an
equally enrapturing sight is that of the sage, sitting serene and holy,
the conqueror of sin and sorrow, no more tormented by regret and
remorse, and whom even temptation can never reach; and yet even the
sage is drawn on by a still more glorious vision, that of the savior
actively manifesting his knowledge in selfless works, and rendering his
divinity more potent for good by sinking himself in the throbbing,
sorrowing, aspiring heart of mankind.
And this only is true service–to forget oneself in love towards all,
to lose oneself in working for the whole. O thou vain and foolish man,
who thinkest that thy many works can save thee; who, chained to all
error, talkest loudly of thyself, thy work, and thy many sacrifices,
and magnifiest thine own importance; know this, that though thy fame
fill the whole earth, all thy work shall come to dust, and thou thyself
be reckoned lower than the least in the Kingdom of Truth!
Only the work that is impersonal can live; the works of self are both
powerless and perishable. Where duties, howsoever humble, are done
without self-interest, and with joyful sacrifice, there is true service
and enduring work. Where deeds, however brilliant and apparently
successful, are done from love of self, there is ignorance of the Law
of Service, and the work perishes.
It is given to the world to learn one great and divine lesson, the
lesson of absolute unselfishness. The saints, sages, and saviors of all
time are they who have submitted themselves to this task, and have
learned and lived it. All the Scriptures of the world are framed to
teach this one lesson; all the great teachers reiterate it. It is too
simple for the world which, scorning it, stumbles along in the complex
ways of selfishness.
A pure heart is the end of all religion and the beginning of divinity.
To search for this Righteousness is to walk the Way of Truth and Peace,
and he who enters this Way will soon perceive that Immortality which is
independent of birth and death, and will realize that in the Divine
economy of the universe the humblest effort is not lost.
The divinity of a Krishna, a Gautama, or a Jesus is the crowning glory
of self-abnegation, the end of the soul’s pilgrimage in matter and
mortality, and the world will not have finished its long journey until
every soul has become as these, and has entered into the blissful
realization of its own divinity.
Great glory crowns the heights of hope by arduous struggle won;
Bright honor rounds the hoary head that mighty works hath done;
Fair riches come to him who strives in ways of golden gain.
And fame enshrines his name who works with genius-glowing brain;
But greater glory waits for him who, in the bloodless strife
‘Gainst self and wrong, adopts, in love, the sacrificial life;
And brighter honor rounds the brow of him who, ‘mid the scorns
Of blind idolaters of self, accepts the crown of thorns;
And fairer purer riches come to him who greatly strives
To walk in ways of love and truth to sweeten human lives;
And he who serveth well mankind exchanges fleeting fame
For Light eternal, Joy and Peace, and robes of heavenly flame.
__________________________________________________________________
THE REALIZATION OF PERFECT PEACE
In the external universe there is ceaseless turmoil, change, and
unrest; at the heart of all things there is undisturbed repose; in this
deep silence dwelleth the Eternal.
Man partakes of this duality, and both the surface change and
disquietude, and the deep-seated eternal abode of Peace, are contained
within him.
As there are silent depths in the ocean which the fiercest storm cannot
reach, so there are silent, holy depths in the heart of man which the
storms of sin and sorrow can never disturb. To reach this silence and
to live consciously in it is peace.
Discord is rife in the outward world, but unbroken harmony holds sway
at the heart of the universe. The human soul, torn by discordant
passion and grief, reaches blindly toward the harmony of the sinless
state, and to reach this state and to live consciously in it is peace.
Hatred severs human lives, fosters persecution, and hurls nations into
ruthless war, yet men, though they do not understand why, retain some
measure of faith in the overshadowing of a Perfect Love; and to reach
this Love and to live consciously in it is peace.
And this inward peace, this silence, this harmony, this Love, is the
Kingdom of Heaven, which is so difficult to reach because few are
willing to give up themselves and to become as little children.
"Heaven’s gate is very narrow and minute,
It cannot be perceived by foolish men
Blinded by vain illusions of the world;
E’en the clear-sighted who discern the way,
And seek to enter, find the portal barred,
And hard to be unlocked. Its massive bolts
Are pride and passion, avarice and lust."
Men cry peace! peace! where there is no peace, but on the contrary,
discord, disquietude and strife. Apart from that Wisdom which is
inseparable from self-renunciation, there can be no real and abiding
peace.
The peace which results from social comfort, passing gratification, or
worldly victory is transitory in its nature, and is burnt up in the
heat of fiery trial. Only the Peace of Heaven endures through all
trial, and only the selfless heart can know the Peace of Heaven.
Holiness alone is undying peace. Self-control leads to it, and the
ever-increasing Light of Wisdom guides the pilgrim on his way. It is
partaken of in a measure as soon as the path of virtue is entered upon,
but it is only realized in its fullness when self disappears in the
consummation of a stainless life.
"This is peace,
To conquer love of self and lust of life,
To tear deep-rooted passion from the heart
To still the inward strife."
If, O reader! you would realize the Light that never fades, the Joy
that never ends, and the tranquillity that cannot be disturbed; if you
would leave behind for ever your sins, your sorrows, your anxieties and
perplexities; if, I say, you would partake of this salvation, this
supremely glorious Life, then conquer yourself. Bring every thought,
every impulse, every desire into perfect obedience to the divine power
resident within you. There is no other way to peace but this, and if
you refuse to walk it, your much praying and your strict adherence to
ritual will be fruitless and unavailing, and neither gods nor angels
can help you. Only to him that overcometh is given the white stone of
the regenerate life, on which is written the New and Ineffable Name.
Come away, for awhile, from external things, from the pleasures of the
senses, from the arguments of the intellect, from the noise and the
excitements of the world, and withdraw yourself into the inmost chamber
of your heart, and there, free from the sacrilegious intrusion of all
selfish desires, you will find a deep silence, a holy calm, a blissful
repose, and if you will rest awhile in that holy place, and will
meditate there, the faultless eye of Truth will open within you, and
you will see things as they really are. This holy place within you is
your real and eternal self; it is the divine within you; and only when
you identify yourself with it can you be said to be "clothed and in
your right mind." It is the abode of peace, the temple of wisdom, the
dwelling-place of immortality. Apart from this inward resting-place,
this Mount of Vision, there can be no true peace, no knowledge of the
Divine, and if you can remain there for one minute, one hour, or one
day, it is possible for you to remain there always. All your sins and
sorrows, your fears and anxieties are your own, and you can cling to
them or you can give them up. Of your own accord you cling to your
unrest; of your own accord you can come to abiding peace. No one else
can give up sin for you; you must give it up yourself. The greatest
teacher can do no more than walk the way of Truth for himself, and
point it out to you; you yourself must walk it for yourself. You can
obtain freedom and peace alone by your own efforts, by yielding up that
which binds the soul, and which is destructive of peace.
The angels of divine peace and joy are always at hand, and if you do
not see them, and hear them, and dwell with them, it is because you
shut yourself out from them, and prefer the company of the spirits of
evil within you. You are what you will to be, what you wish to be, what
you prefer to be. You can commence to purify yourself, and by so doing
can arrive at peace, or you can refuse to purify yourself, and so
remain with suffering.
Step aside, then; come out of the fret and the fever of life; away from
the scorching heat of self, and enter the inward resting-place where
the cooling airs of peace will calm, renew, and restore you.
Come out of the storms of sin and anguish. Why be troubled and
tempest-tossed when the haven of Peace of God is yours!
Give up all self-seeking; give up self, and lo! the Peace of God is
yours!
Subdue the animal within you; conquer every selfish uprising, every
discordant voice; transmute the base metals of your selfish nature into
the unalloyed gold of Love, and you shall realize the Life of Perfect
Peace. Thus subduing, thus conquering, thus transmuting, you will, O
reader! while living in the flesh, cross the dark waters of mortality,
and will reach that Shore upon which the storms of sorrow never beat,
and where sin and suffering and dark uncertainty cannot come. Standing
upon that Shore, holy, compassionate, awakened, and self-possessed and
glad with unending gladness, you will realize that
"Never the Spirit was born, the Spirit will cease to be never;
Never was time it was not, end and beginning are dreams;
Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the Spirit for ever;
Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems."
You will then know the meaning of Sin, of Sorrow, of Suffering, and
that the end thereof is Wisdom; will know the cause and the issue of
existence.
And with this realization you will enter into rest, for this is the
bliss of immortality, this the unchangeable gladness, this the
untrammeled knowledge, undefiled Wisdom, and undying Love; this, and
this only, is the realization of Perfect Peace.
O thou who wouldst teach men of Truth!
Hast thou passed through the desert of doubt?
Art thou purged by the fires of sorrow? hath ruth
The fiends of opinion cast out
Of thy human heart? Is thy soul so fair
That no false thought can ever harbor there?
O thou who wouldst teach men of Love!
Hast thou passed through the place of despair?
Hast thou wept through the dark night of grief?
does it move
(Now freed from its sorrow and care)
Thy human heart to pitying gentleness,
Looking on wrong, and hate, and ceaseless stress?
O thou who wouldst teach men of Peace!
Hast thou crossed the wide ocean of strife?
Hast thou found on the Shores of the Silence,
Release from all the wild unrest of life?
From thy human heart hath all striving gone,
Leaving but Truth, and Love, and Peace alone?
On this day…
- Fencesitters – 2025
- Influence on the Present – 2025
- 1 Chronicles 2 – 2024
- 1 Chronicles 1 – 2024
- Technology and Faith: 12 Precautions – 2012
- Doctrine accompanied by a holy life – 2012
- True Profession of Faith – 2012
- The Underestimated Pastoral Power of a Proper Doctrine of Conversion – 2012
- What Is the Gospel? – 2012
- 4 Life Purposes Worth Living – 2010
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