October 12
Any departure from accepted traditions and customs requires a large and serious effort, but true understanding of new things always requires such an effort.
—LUCY MALORY
A society says to a man: “Think as we think, believe in what we believe, eat and drink what we eat and drink, and dress in the way we dress.”
You should behave as you think is good, but not following the advice of the crowd.
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON
It is bad to irritate people by stepping back from their customs and traditions, but it is even worse to deny the requirements of your conscience and intellect by following the customs of the crowd.
October 13
A state system, no matter what kind of state system it is, functions at a far remove from the requirements of Christianity.
In those countries where wise people are in power, their subjects do not notice the existence of their rulers.
—LAO-TZU
State violence cannot be destroyed by decree, only by truth and love. Maybe state violence was necessary for previous generations; maybe it is even necessary now, but people should conceive of a kind of future government in which violence will not be necessary.
You should live in such a way that violence is not necessary for you.
October 14
People are taught to speak, but their major concern should be how to keep silent.
If your tongue speaks good, there is nothing better in the world; if your tongue speaks evil, there is nothing worse.
—The TALMUD
I have spent all my life amongst wise people, and I found nothing better than silence in this world. If a word costs one coin, then silence costs two. Silence suits clever people, and it suits wise people even more.
—The TALMUD
Let your tongue become accustomed to the words “I do not know.”
—EASTERN WISDOM
Keep silent. Give rest to your tongue more often than to your hands. You will never regret that you have kept silently but you will often regret that you spoke too much.
October 15
Your chief task in life is the care of your soul You should care for your soul and work to improve it, and you can improve it only with love.
The meaning of life lies in two major areas: your personal perfection and service to other people. You can serve while you are moving toward perfection, and you can move toward perfection by serving people.
When I talk of moving toward perfection, I mean moving from a material to a spiritual plane, a plane of goodness, without time or death.
Only one step lies between a five-year-old child and a man of my age. Between a newborn baby and a five-year-old child lies a huge distance. Between a fetus and a newborn baby lies an abyss; and between nonexistence and a fetus lies not only an abyss, but a gulf that surpasses comprehension.
From childhood to death, humans, no matter their lot in life, should strive to grow to get closer and closer to the spiritual life. Strive to learn what God wants, and your life will become filled with freedom and joy.
October 16
God is in all of us, and it is possible for all of us to find and understand him there.
To know yourself is to discover the good that lies within.
God is close to us he is with us: the divine spirit is inside of us. If he were not, the power to be good would be beyond our reach. A person cannot be good without God.
—LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA
If you are going through a hard time, work harder to understand God; as soon as you understand Him, all difficult things will become easy, and you will feel love and joy.
If a person does not feel a divine force within himself, this does not mean that a divine force does not exist in him, but that he has not yet learned how to recognize it.
October 17
If there are people and there is God, then there are relationships between God and people. These relationships are changing with time, and mankind’s religious conceptions are constantly evolving, constantly improving, becoming more clear and easily understood with the passage of time.
Religious conscience of mankind is not rigid, it is changing all the time, becoming purer and clearer.
God is spirit and part of this spirit lives inside me and gives sense to my life.
There is much good to be learned from the Koran, from the Buddhists, from Confucius, from the Old Testament, from the Indian Upanishads, and from the New Testament. But the closer a religious thinker or philosopher is to us in time, the more he can help us draw from these teachings in the light of our present-day lives.
October 18
The past no longer exists; the future has not yet come; there is only the present. And only in the present can the divine nature of the free human soul be manifested.
Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
—JOHN 12:35
Everyone knows that our habits are improved and strengthened through their exercise. In order to be a good walker, you need to walk a lot; in order to be a strong runner, you need to run frequently; in order to be a perceptive reader, you ought to read as much as you can. The same is true of your souclass="underline" if you become angry, you must know that you not only perform evil, but you also create an evil habit, and you increase your potential for further evil.
—EPICTETUS
If you want to do a good deed, do it now. The time will pass, and you will not have the chance again.
October 19
The meaning of life is revealed to those who are ready to accept the things which will be revealed. And it is he who has already decided that he will accept the truth as it is, and not the truth itself, which will change the way of life he has been accustomed to.
Who am I? What should I do? What should I believe in and what should I hope for?
All of philosophy is in these questions, said the philosopher Lichtenberg. But among all these questions, the most important one is that which is in the middle. If a person knows what he should do, he will understand everything which he should know.
Woe to the people who look without understanding, who do not know their foundations.
—After the TALMUD
Every bird always knows where to make her nest. And if she knows how and where to make her nest, this means that she knows her purpose in life. And why does man, who is the wisest among all creatures, not know that which any bird knows, that is, his purpose in life?
—CHINESE WISDOM
The real meaning of life is not possible to embrace, if you are looking for the universal meaning of life. And at the same time it is so simple that it can be explained to fools and to infants when what to know is what you should do as an individual.
October 20
The life of man is filled with intellect only when the fulfillment of your duty is understood. We all know for sure that death waits for us. We do not know when, just as we do not know where we came from.