—JOHN RUSKIN
We can never fully understand the final purpose of human life. A construction worker who works at a construction site can have no idea of the final form or general design of the large structure he builds, but he can know that he is working on something good, something beautiful, clever, and necessary, both for him and for the world. This is faith.
Do not believe in words, yours or others’; believe in the deeds.
December 14
A person who becomes close to God understands that God lives within him. Angelus, a mystical poet of the seventeenth century, said, “I see God with the same eye with which He sees me.”
—HENRI AMIEL
The soul of a person is the lamp of God.
—The TALMUD
People do not know what God looks like but they live in Him and He in them.
—SUFI WISDOM, a mystical sect in ISLAM
Those who can raise their thoughts to heaven will always have clear days, because the sun always shines above the clouds.
If you are gnawed by desire or fear you must not believe in God, who is filled with love, and who exists in you. If you believe in Him, you know that you need not wish for anything because the wishes of God always come true; and you need never be afraid of anything, because God fears nothing.
The nature of a soul is so mysterious that no matter how hard we try to understand it, we will never be able to define it.
—HERACLITUS
Whatever may happen to you, you will never be unhappy if you understand your unification with God.
December 15
Only misconceptions need to be supported by elaborate arguments. Truth can always stand alone.
All goodness is as nothing compared to the goodness of truth; all sweets are as nothing compared to the sweetness of truth. The bliss of truth surpasses all other joys in the world.
—BUDDHIST WISDOM
A person cannot be completely truthful all the time, because different forces and aspirations fight within him, and sometimes he cannot express them, even to himself.
Misconceptions exist only for a finite period of time, but real truth remains as it always was, after all tricks, sophisms, and lies have withered away.
Learn what to do, think, and say the truth at all times. Only when you start to learn this can you understand how far we are from real truth.
Lies are always harmful to all living things.
No person is without sin; no person is completely truthful. It is not that one person is virtuous and truthful and another is sinful and deceitful; rather it’s that one person strives to move toward truth and virtue and the other does not.
December 16
Only the spread of love between people can improve the existing social structure.
Love gives meaning to human life. This we have known since antiquity. But what is love? Many wise people throughout the ages have tried to solve this question.
If you raise people to praise only wealth, power, and glory, then naturally they will praise only these things. If you raise people to love the feeling of love, they will start to live in love.
—MEE-TEE, a student of CONFUCIUS
Only one clear quality marks an action as either good or eviclass="underline" If it increases the amount of love in the world, it is good. If it separates people and creates animosity among them, it is bad.
The time is coming, a time of concord, harmony, forgiveness, and love. Depend on it. We must do everything in our power to bring this time closer, and to stop those things which delay its arrival.
December 17
Our understanding of ourselves as discrete beings separate from each other grows out of conditions of our life in time and space. The less we feel this separation, the more we feel our unification with all other living creatures, the lighter our load, and the more joyful our life will be.
For the body is not one member, but many…. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
—I CORINTHIANS 12:14,26
A small branch cut off from a big limb is separated from the whole tree. In the same way when a person is in an argument with another person, he is separated from all humanity.
—MARCUS AURELIUS
God created heaven and earth, but they lacked the ability to understand the happiness of their existence. Then God made creatures who could understand the happiness of their existence, and who could create a single body from all of its thinking parts. All people are members of this one body; in order to be happy, they should live in harmony with the will that governs its life. We should live in harmony with this great soul and love it more than we love ourselves.
—BLAISE PASCAL
We manifest in love our understanding of the unity of our being with others, and in so doing we make our life greater. The more we love, the wider, larger, and more joyful our life becomes.
December 18
Mankind moves ceaselessly toward perfection, not of every person’s accord, but through the efforts that some particular individuals make toward their personal perfection. The kingdom of God will be created by these individual efforts.
Do not be embarrassed by all your bad deeds, by all your misfortunes. Do not be embarrassed, but fight ceaselessly, bravely, and without hesitation, because the kingdom of God will come.
—F. ROBERT DE LAMENNAIS
We hear often that there is no use in working to improve our life, to fight evil, or to establish justice, because progress will occur by itself. Imagine that a boat floats along a river. Imagine that those who have sat by the oars and rowed tirelessly have stopped and gone ashore; and that the travelers who remain in the boat do not bother to take up the oars and push the boat further, but think that it will travel by itself, as before, into the future.
Life has no meaning without purpose. To lack purpose is to deny the existence of God and to admit that our life is an evil, stupid joke.
—GIUSEPPE MAZZINI
All our history proves that God may be understood, not by reasoning, but by submission to Him and obeyance to His laws. Only by doing this can we understand His will on earth.
—JOHN RUSKIN
Every person should make a small effort, even the smallest effort, to improve the general well-being of humanity.
Decembers 19
Real goodness is in your hands. It follows a good person as a shadow follows its object.
Everything which can make us better and happier was given to us by God. If our conscience is clear, then nothing can harm us.
—EPICTETUS
They who have decided to dedicate their lives to spiritual perfection will never be dissatisfied or unhappy, because all that they want is in their power.
—BLAISE PASCAL
Happiness, pure happiness, is a virtue in itself.
—BENEDICTUS SPINOZA
The greater the effort a person makes to achieve pleasure, the less possible it is for him to possess real goodness, or love.
They who say that doing good causes them unhappiness either don’t believe in God or aren’t doing something that is truly good.
December 20
The real purpose of Christianity is obvious to all, and it is stronger than the lies which try to pervert it.
We should separate the religion that was taught by Jesus from the religion whose subject is Jesus. Then we will understand the real meaning of the New Testament and follow it.