September 3
God cannot be understood by the human intellect, only felt by the human heart. We only know that he exists, and regardless of whether we want it or not, we know this for sure.
The intellect is like a light that comes through a translucent glass: I see it, and though I do not know where it comes from, I know that it exists. We can say the same about God.
Believe in God, serve Him, but don’t try to understand His essence. You will get nothing from your painful efforts except disappointment and fatigue. Do not even strive to find out whether he exists or not, just serve him as if he does, as if he is present everywhere. Nothing else is necessary.
—PHILEMON
No one except God comprehends the secret of the great beginning; no one can step outside himself.
—OMAR KHAYYAM
We can understand the existence of God with our intellect only when we understand our complete dependence on him, as if we have the same feeling an infant understands when his mother holds him. A baby does not know who feeds him, who warms him, who takes care of him, but he understands that there
is
someone who does this, and even he loves the force in whose power he rests.
Do not be alarmed if the notion of God is not clearly expressed to you. The more clearly it is expressed, the further it is from the truth, from its foundation.
September 4
Real goodness is not something that can be acquired in an instant, but only through constant effort, because real goodness lies in constantly striving for perfection.
The following words were carved on the bathroom of the king Jinx-Hang: “Renew yourself completely every day, and starting afresh, from the beginning.”
—CHINESE WISDOM
The journey of the wise to virtue is as a journey to a remote land, or the ascent of a high mountain. People who travel to a faraway place start with a single step, and those who climb a high mountain start from the bottom.
—CONFUCIUS
And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
—LUKE 9:62
Strive for goodness without any expectations for rapid or noticeable success. You will not see the results of your efforts, because the further you progress, the higher the ideal of perfection toward which you strive rises. The effort of striving for goodness, the process itself, justifies our lives.
September 5
You should teach others with a good example, but if you teach with evil, then you do not teach, but destroy.
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
—MATTHEW 18:21-22
Sinful people had once accepted their right to punish others—and most of our misfortunes started from this.
If you think someone is guilty of wronging you, forgive him. If you have never forgiven the guilty before, you will experience a new joy: the joy of forgiving.
Punishment is always cruel, always painful.
The American Indians had no laws, no punishments, and no government. They obeyed the moral understanding of good and evil that is part of every human nature.
—THOMAS JEFFERSON
The strongest proof that in the name of “science” we pursue unworthy and sometimes even harmful things is the existence of a science of punishment, which in itself is one of the most ignorant and offensive types of action known to man, a vestige of the lowest level of human development, lower than that of a child or a madman.
September 6
People jump back and forth in pursuit of pleasures only because they see the emptiness of their lives more clearly than they do the emptiness of whichever new entertainment attracts them.
—BLAISE PASCAL
The things we do to make our life more comfortable remind me of an ostrich who hides his head in order not to see his enemies. We behave even worse than an ostrich. In order to achieve some dubious questionable future, we definitely destroy our life in the clearly defined present time.
People today foolishly try to believe that all the world’s senselessness and cruelty—the richness of the few, the great poverty of the many, the violence and warfare—happens outside their own lives and does not interfere with them and their way of life.
A misconception remains a misconception, even when it is shared by the majority of the people.
September 7
If life is good, then death which is the necessary part of life, is good as well.
Real life exists only in the present. The future has no meaning.
The purpose of real life is to fulfill the law of God, which exists eternally: it always existed, it exists now, and it always will exist.
Do not bother about what will happen someday, somewhere, in the far away distance, in a future time; think and be very attentive to what happens now, here, in this place.
—JOHN RUSKIN
As soon as you go into the future or the past, you go away from God, and you feel lonely, deserted, and enslaved.
The future does not really exist. It is created by us in the present.
There is a condition in which a person feels himself the architect of his life. It occurs when he concentrates all his efforts and all his intellect on the present moment.
September 8
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.
—MATTHEW 11:25-26
The world would be a terrible place without newborn children, who bring with them innocence, and the hope of man’s further perfection.
—JOHN RUSKIN
Childhood is blessed by heaven because it brings a piece of paradise into the cruelties of life. All these thousands of everyday births are fresh additions of innocence and purity, which fight against the end of mankind, and against our spoiled nature, and against our complete immersion into sin.
—HENRI AMIEL
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
—PSALMS 8:1-2
What time could be better than childhood, and what virtues could be better than innocent joyfulness, and the need for love? They are the purest manifestations of life. You should respect every person, but you should respect a child above all, and not destroy the innocent purity of his soul.
September 9
The knowledge we now accept as science interferes with more than it supports the goodness of human life.
Astronomy, mechanics, physics, chemistry, and all other sciences together and differently, all study the particular sides of life, but they do not come to any conclusion about the spiritual life of mankind.
Science fulfills its purpose, not when it explains the reasons for the dark spots on the sun, but when it understands and explains the laws of our own life, and the consequences of violating these laws.