To
me we are here for divine self-realization through experience. We progress in
the degree that we manipulate wisely all things that enter into our lives, and
that make the sum total of each one's life experience. Let us be brave and
strong in the presence of each problem as it presents itself and make the best of
all. Let us help the things we can help, and let us be not bothered or crippled
by the things we cannot help. The great God of all is watching and manipulating
these things most wisely and we need not fear or even have concern regarding them.
To
live to our highest in all things that pertain to us, to lend a hand as best we
can to all others for this same end, to aid in righting the wrongs that cross
our path by means of pointing the wrongdoer to a better way, and thus aiding
him in becoming a power for good, to remain in nature always sweet and simple
and humble, and therefore strong, to open ourselves fully and to keep ourselves
as fit channels for the Divine Power to work through us, to open ourselves, and
to keep our faces always to the light, to love all things and to stand in awe
or fear of nothing save our own wrong-doing, to recognize the good lying at the
heart of all things, waiting for expression all in its own good way and
time—this will make our part in life's great and as yet not fully understood
play truly glorious, and we need then stand in fear of nothing, life nor death,
for death is life. Or rather, it is the quick transition to life in another
form; the putting off of the old coat and the putting on of a new; the falling
away of the material body and the taking of the soul to itself a new and finer
body, better adapted to its needs and surroundings in another world of
experience and growth and still greater divine self-realization; a going out
with all that it has gained of this nature in this world, but with no possessions
material; a passing not from light to darkness, but from light to light; a
taking up of life in another from just where we leave it off here; an experience
not to be shunned or dreaded or feared, but to be welcomed when it comes in its
own good way and time.
All
life is from within out. This is something that cannot be reiterated too often.
The springs of life are all from within. This being true, it would be well for us
to give more time to the inner life than we are accustomed to give to it, especially
in this Western world.
There
is nothing that will bring us such abundant returns as to take a little time in
the quiet each day of our lives. We need this to get the kinks out of our minds,
and hence out of our lives. We need this to form better the higher ideals of life.
We need this in order to see clearly in mind the things upon which we would concentrate
and focus the thought-forces. We need this in order to make continually anew
and to keep our conscious connection with the Infinite. We need this in order
that the rush and hurry of our everyday life does not keep us away from the
conscious realization of the fact that the spirit of Infinite life and power
that is back of all, working in and through all, the life of all, is the life
of our life, and the source of our power; and that outside of this we have no
life and we have no power.
To
realize this fact fully, and to live in it consciously at all times, is to find
the kingdom of God, which is essentially an inner kingdom, and can never be anything
else. The kingdom of heaven is to be found only within, and this is done once
for all, and in a manner in which it cannot otherwise be done, when we come
into the conscious, living realization of the fact that in our real selves we
are essentially one with the Divine life, and open ourselves continually so
that this Divine life can speak to and manifest through us. In this way we come
into the condition where we are continually walking with God.
In
this way the consciousness of God becomes a living reality in our lives; and in
the degree in which it becomes a reality does it bring us into the realization of
continually increasing wisdom, insight, and power. This consciousness of God in
the soul of man is the essence, indeed, the sum and substance, of all religion.
This identifies religion with every act and every moment of everyday life. That
which does not identify itself with every moment of every day and with every
act of life is religion in name only and not in reality. This consciousness of
God in the soul of man is the one thing uniformly taught by all the prophets,
by all the inspired ones, by all the seers and mystics in the world's history,
whatever the time, wherever the country, whatever the religion, whatever minor
differences we may find in their lives and teachings. In regard to this they
all agree; indeed, this is the essence of their teaching, as it has also been
the secret of their power and the secret of their lasting influence.
It
is the attitude of the child that is necessary before we can enter into the kingdom
of heaven. As it was said, "Except yet become as little children, yes cannot
enter into the kingdom of heaven." For we then realize that of ourselves we
can do nothing, but that it is only as we realize that it is the Divine life
and power working within us, and it is only as we open ourselves that it may
work through us, that we are or can do anything. It is thus that the simple
life, which is essentially the life of the greatest enjoyment and the greatest
attainment, is entered upon.
In
the Orient the people as a class take far more time in the quiet, in the silence,
than we take. Some of them carry this possibly to as great an extreme as we
carry the opposite, with the result that they do not actualize and objectify in
the outer life the things they dream in the inner life. We give so much time to
the activities of the outer life that we do not take sufficient time in the
quiet to form in the inner, spiritual, thought-life the ideals and the
conditions that we would have actualized and manifested in the outer life. The
result is that we take life in a kind of haphazard way, taking it as it comes,
thinking not very much about it until, perhaps, pushed by some bitter
experiences, instead of molding it, through the agency of the inner forces,
exactly as we would have it. We need to strike the happy balance between the
custom in this respect of the Eastern and Western worlds, and go to the extreme
of neither the one nor the other. This alone will give the ideal life; and it
is the ideal life only that is the thoroughly satisfactory life.
In
the Orient there are many who are day after day sitting in the quiet, meditating,
contemplating, and idealizing, with their eyes focused on their stomachs in
spiritual reverie, while through lack of outer activities, in their stomachs,
they are actually starving. In this Western world, men and women, in the rush
and activity of our accustomed life, are running hither and thither, with no center,
no foundation upon which to stand, nothing to which they can anchor their lives, because they do not take sufficient time to come into the realization of
what the center, of what the reality of their lives is.
If
the Oriental would do his contemplating, and then get up and do his work, he
would be in a better condition; he would be living a more normal and satisfactory
life. If we in the Occident would take more time from the rush and activity of
life for contemplation, for meditation, for idealization, for becoming acquainted
with our real selves, and then go about our work manifesting the powers of our
real selves, we would be far better off, because we would be living a more
natural, a more normal life. To find one's center, to become centered in the Infinite,
is the first great essential of every satisfactory life; and then to go out, thinking,
speaking, working, loving, living, from this center.
In
the highest character building, such as we have been considering, there are
those who feel they are handicapped by what we term heredity. In a sense they
are right, in another sense they are totally wrong. It is along the same lines as
the thought which many before us had inculcated in them through the couplet in
the New England Primer: "In Adam's fall, we sinned all." Now, in the
first place, it is rather hard to understand the justice of this if it is true.
In the second place, it is rather hard to understand why it is true. And in the
third place there is no truth in it at all. We are now dealing with the real
essential self, and, however old Adam is, God is eternal.
This
means you it means me it means every human soul. When we fully realize this
fact we see that heredity is a reed that is easily broken. The life of every
one is in his own hands and he can make it in character, in attainment, in power,
in divine self-realization, and hence in influence, exactly what he wills to make
it. All things that he most fondly dreams of are his, or may become so if he is
truly in earnest; and as he rises more and more to his ideal, and grows in the strength
and influence of his character, he becomes an example and an inspiration to all
with whom he comes in contact; so that through him the weak and faltering are encouraged
and strengthened; so that those of low ideals and of a low type of life
instinctively and inevitably have their ideals raised, and the ideals of no one
can be raised without its showing forth in his outer life. As he advances in
his grasp upon and understanding of the power and potency of the thought-forces,
he finds that many times through the process of mental suggestion he can be of
tremendous aid to one who is weak and struggling, by sending him now and then,
and by continually holding him in, the highest thought, in the thought of the
highest strength, wisdom and love. The power of "suggestion," mental
suggestion, is one that has tremendous possibilities for good if we will but
study into it carefully, understand it fully, and use it rightly.
The
one who takes sufficient time in the quiet mentally to form his ideals, sufficient
time to make and to keep continually his conscious connection with the Infinite,
with the Divine life and forces, is the one who is best adapted to the strenuous
life. He it is who can go out and deal, with sagacity and power, with whatever
issues may arise in the affairs of everyday life. He it is who is building not
for the years but for the centuries; not for time, but for the eternities. And
he can go out knowing not whither he goes, knowing that the Divine life within
him will never fail him, but will lead him on until he beholds the Father face
to face. He is building for the centuries because only that which is the
highest, the truest, the noblest, and best will abide the test of the
centuries. He is building for eternity because when the transition we call
death takes place, life, character, self-mastery, divine self-realization — the
only things that the soul when stripped of everything else takes with it — he
has in abundance, in life, or when the time of the transition to another form
of life comes, he is never afraid, never fearful, because he knows and realizes
that behind him, within him, beyond him, is the Infinite wisdom and love; and
in this he is eternally centered, and from it he can never be separated.
