All things in the world belong to me. Creation and destruction happen according to my will. The present world is just a shell, and I am the yolk.
—PERSIAN WISDOM
The intellect questions, how and why? The dove does not ask, it says: I am love. It gives satisfaction without asking questions.
Fear nobody and nothing. That which is the most precious matter in you can be damaged by no one and by nothing.
May 15
Truth is not virtue, but the lack of vices.
The most common and the most widely used deceit is the wish to deceive not other people, but yourself. And this kind of life is the most harmful.
There are thousands of ways which lead to deception, and there is only one way which leads to the truth.
—JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU
People should follow only the indisputable truth.
—CONFUCIUS
Truthfulness is the only real currency which circulates everywhere.
—CHINESE PROVERB
Let us be truthful. This is the mystery of rhetoric and virtue, this is the biggest mystery, this is the highest achievement in art and the major law of life.
—HENRI AMIEL
One of the most common mistakes is to think that you can live without truth. The inner and outer consequences of even the smallest lies are usually more harmful than those small unpleasant things which result from telling the truth directly.
May 16
Humanity has never lived and cannot live without religion.
Religion is the necessity and prime condition of the life of an intellectual person.
The stronger the religious feeling is, the better one understands what is and what should be the guide of all one’s actions.
It is difficult enough to plug your ears in a big hall full of dancing people; now imagine that you are in an asylum. For one who destroys in himself his religious conscience, all of the religious activity of other people will produce a similar impression. But it is dangerous to think that you are more clever than the majority of religious mankind.
—HENRI AMIEL
People often say that religion loses its power amidst humanity. This is not true, and this cannot be true. This happens because the people who think so observe only a small group of people, and there are always certain people who do not have religious feelings.
If a person has problems, there can he only one root cause: lack of faith. The same is true within human societies as a whole.
May 17
The greatest joy, according to the works of Francis Assisi, is that you can endure everything, you can even suffer slander and physical pain, and at the end you are able to feel no animosity toward these sufferings, but you feel joy, because you have faith; such joy cannot be destroyed, either by evil people or by your own suffering.
The quality of a really virtuous person is to be unknown to people, or to be misunderstood by people, but not to be disappointed by this.
—CHINESE WISDOM
When they blame you and scold you and discuss you, then you should rejoice; when they praise you and admire you, then you should be sad.
Libel and a false reputation which you can destroy is the best school of goodness.
The blaming and criticism of other people is bad. But at the same time it is understandable, and it is valuable as the only test of your love for God and your neighbor.
May 18
One cannot say that the understanding of the divine essence of your soul gives you power, for this understanding raises you to that level which transcends any notions of force or weakness and therefore of power.
Heaven is closer to those people who purify their souls. Those who have only the knowledge received by our five senses do not know the essence of things. The real knowledge is the understanding that there is a higher spiritual force.
—INDIAN WISDOM
People may ask you, “Why do you know God?” You should respond, “Because he is in my heart.” Look at the essence of life, not with the eyes in your head, but with the eyes of your heart. Can you know yourself, if you do not know God? The real understanding of yourself is the understanding of God.
—PERSIAN WISDOM
Who can harm you, who can be more powerful than you, if you are united with God? And can do this.
May 19
The foundation of all faiths is the same.
It only seems that people are busy with trade, with making agreements, negotiations and wars, science and the arts. There is in fact only one thing which people do; this is to search for the understanding of the moral law by which they live. And this understanding is not only the most important but the only real concern for all humankind.
A wise man was asked, “Is there a single word which you can follow throughout all your life?” And the wise man answered, “There is such a word. This is shu.” And the meaning of this word is, “If we do not want certain things to be done to us, we should not do such things to others.”
—CHINESE WISDOM
You should behave in such a way that you can say to everybody, “Behave as I do.”
—After IMMANUEL KANT
The really true and unchanging law, that law which gives us true direction and which forbids us to do bad things, is the intellect of a higher, superior being.
—MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
When you clash with other people, remember the law of reciprocity. You should do to others those things which you want done to you. This should become your way of life.
May 20
For a person, for an animal, indeed for any living being, there is neither logic nor meaning in the word “freedom” because all our lives are limited by many constraints. And yet if a person understands himself as a spiritual being, he cannot even speak about not being free: the idea of not being free cannot be applied to the notions of intellect, conscience, and love.
Remember that your understanding of your inner self holds the meaning of your life, and it makes you free if you do not force it to serve your flesh. The human soul which is enlightened by understanding and freed from passions, and lit with the divine light, stands on a firm foundation.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
—JOHN 8:32
Evil does not exist in material nature by itself, but evil exists for every person who understands goodness, and who has the freedom of choice between good and bad.
—MARCUS AURELIUS
We understand very clearly that to be a person with high morals is to be a person with a liberated soul. Those who are disappointed or concerned or afraid, or who are involved in passions, cannot free their souls.
—CONFUCIUS
People who deny freedom remind me of blind people who deny colors. They do not know the nature of freedom.
May 21
In order to live in goodness, try doing it.
You should celebrate each new day with a good action, a good deed. This is the best way to start a new day.
Nobody has any idea about what goodness is, until they start doing it.
—HARRIET MARTINEAU
God’s love will go from heaven to those who give to the poor. A double blessing will go to those who, while doing this, meet the poor and tenderly say “good-bye” to them.
—The TALMUD
When you do a good deed, be grateful that you have had the chance to do it.