—LUKE 11:34-35
A man who lives an intellectual life is like a man who carries a lantern in front of him to light his way. Such a person will never come to a dark place, because the light of his intellect moves before him. There is no fear of death in this kind of life, because the lantern which moves before you lights your way to your last minute, and you follow it to the end as calmly and quietly as you have all of your life.
Some people live and act according to their own thoughts, and some according to the thoughts of others; this is a crucial distinction between people.
August 7
Vanity has no limits.
A person filled with vanity is so involved with himself that there is no room inside him for anyone or anything else.
—PAN
As rules go, “You should behave just as other people behave” is among the most dangerous; it almost always results in your behaving badly.
—JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
You could choose no worse way to guide your life than to follow the opinions of other people.
When we praise other people it is because we think that they look like us; often to respect a person means to put him on the same level as oneself.
—JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
Real virtue never looks back on its shadow, fame.
—JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
It’s not wise to be interested in fame and the appreciation of others, because no two people’s opinions about what is good are the same.
August 8
The opinion of a revered writer or thinker can have a deep influence on society; it can also be a big obstacle to understanding real truth.
Divine truth may be revealed in the speech of children, or in the ravings and nightmares of madmen; or in the ordinary conversations of simple people. And weak and false thoughts may be found in books which have come to be considered great, or even sacred.
Many statements which are accepted as truth because they have been passed down to us by tradition look like truth only because we have never tested them, never thought about them in a more precise way.
For the majority of mankind, religion is a habit, or, more precisely, tradition is their religion. Though it seems strange, I think that the first step to moral perfection is your liberation from the religion in which you were raised. Not a single person has come to perfection except by following this way.
—HENRY DAVID THOREAU
A thought which is expressed in the Old Testament, or in the New Testament, or in the Koran or in the Indian divine book the Upanishads, does not become a truth because it is expressed in a book which is considered to be holy. If we think that every word in every holy book is true, then we have created an idol.
Any important thought, no matter where it comes from, should be discussed; and every thought, no matter who said it, should be given attention.
August 9
The majority of evils people commit are the result, not of an evil will, but of the dissemination of evil thoughts which people accept and follow uncritically.
Material results are the manifestations of unseen forces: an artillery shell that comes to us was shot from an unseen cannon at an unknown time. In the same way, all important events originate in a thought.
—HENRI AMIEL
Our actions are neither as good nor as vicious as our desires.
—LUC DE VAUVENARGUES
Think only good thoughts, and with time they will become good deeds.
Thoughts which create evil actions are much worse than the acts themselves. You can stop doing a bad thing, and repent, and not repeat it. But bad thoughts are repeated again and again, and cause other bad actions; bad thoughts follow one after another.
Think good thoughts, and your thoughts will be turned into good actions. Everything begins in thought. Guiding your thoughts is one of the keys to self-perfection. If you suffer misfortunes in your life, look for their cause, not in your actions, but in the thoughts which inspired them, and try to improve those thoughts. If you are inspired by an event in your life, look for its origins in your previous thoughts which caused the event.
August 10
You make your decisions in the present, and the present exists out of time; it is a tiny moment where two periods—the past and the future—meet. In the present you are always free to make your choice.
A wise man was asked what was the most important time, person, and thing in life. He answered, “The most important time is the present time, because at this time a person has power over himself. The most important person is the one with whom you deal at present, because there is no guarantee that you will ever be able to deal with any other person in this world. The most important thing is to love this person, because everyone is sent into this world with the sole purpose of loving other people.”
Only when we use every minute of our life will we know that we are eternal.
—HARRIET MARTINEAU
A most dangerous temptation is the temptation to prepare to live, instead of living. The future does not belong to you. Therefore, remember to live the best way you know
now
. The only perfection necessary is perfection in love, which can be reached only in the present. It’s why we came into this world.
The present is the moment in which the divine nature of life is revealed. Let us respect our present time; God exists in this time.
August 11
A person dies as he lives his spiritual life, alone.
What you do, you possess. You must believe that eternal goodness exists that is within you, and that it grows and develops as long as you live.
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON
You alone plan to commit a sin, you alone plan to do evil; and you alone can escape sin and purify your thoughts. Only your inner self can damn you, and only your inner self can save you.
—DHAMMAPADA, a book of BUDDHIST WISDOM
A person may ask God or other people for help, but only his good life can help him, and this he must do on his own.
Every person has a depth to his inner life, an essence that cannot be explained. Sometimes you want to explain this essence to people, but you will see that it isn’t possible to explain it to another person so that he understands.
Hence the need for your own channel of communication with God. Establish this channel and do not seek anything else.
August 12
The burden, the cross, which every man has to carry exists on two planes: a longer vertical plane, which is the will of God; and a much shorter, horizontal plane, which is a man’s own will. If you orient your will so that it parallels the direction of God’s will, then you will have no cross to carry, no burden.
Real happiness can be built only by harmonizing your life with the will of God.
—LUCY MALORY
He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.
—LUKE 11:23
If you want to fulfill the will of God, all will be good; if you want to fulfill your own will, and it does not coincide with the will of God, all will be evil.
The only way to know God and to believe in eternity is to unite your own will with the will of God.
August 13