Military service makes people corrupt, because the military, in time of peace, abides in complete idleness; they lack any useful labor, they are freed of the obligations of such work. Instead, they create notions of honor of regiment, or of banner, or the complete subjugation of one person by another.
When civilians get into these circumstances, they become ashamed of such a way of life. The military, on the contrary, are proud of it and boast of this way of life, especially during periods of war. They say: “We are ready to risk our lives at war, and therefore such a careless joyful life is necessary for us, and we have the right to lead it.”
The same divine beginning lives in all people, and no single person or gathering of people has the right to destroy this connection between the divine beginning and a human body, that is, to take a human life.
January 23
Among all sins, there is one which completely opposes the major blessing of human life, which is your love for your brother: there is no worse sin than to destroy this major joy of life, by feeling rage and hatred for your brother.
Seneca, a wise man from Rome, said that when you want to escape from your rage, when you feel that it grows, the best thing to do is to stop. Do not do anything: do not walk, do not move, do not speak. If your body or your tongue moves at this moment, then your rage will grow.
Rage is very harmful for all people, but it is most harmful for the man who experiences it.
An evil person damages not only others but himself.
—After SOCRATES
Your enemy will pay you back with rage, will make you suffer, but the biggest damage to you will be caused by the rage and hatred existing in your heart. Neither your father, nor your mother, nor all your family can make you more good than your heart can when it forgives and forgets its abuse.
—DHAMMAPADA, a book of BUDDHIST WISDOM
Your rage cannot be justified by anything. The reason for your rage is always inside you.
January 24
Nobody knows where the human race is going. The highest wisdom, then, is to know where
you
should go: toward perfection.
A wise man seeks wisdom; a madman thinks that he has found it.
—PERSIAN PROVERB
It is not the place we occupy which is important, but the direction in which we move.
—OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
Your actions should be determined not by the desire of the people around you, but by the needs of all mankind.
January 25
There is a basic knowledge which is necessary for every human being; until a person has acquired this basic knowledge, all other kinds of knowledge will be harmful for him.
Socrates told his students that in good systems of education, there is a certain limit you should not go beyond. In geometry, he said, it is enough to know how to measure the land when you want to sell it or buy it, or how to share an inheritance, or to divide work among workers. He did not like too many sophisticated sciences; though he knew all of them. He said that sophisticated knowledge requires an extra effort that takes the student’s time from the most basic and the most important human pursuit: moral perfection.
—XENOPHON
Divert your gaze from the world of lies. Do not trust your feelings. Only in yourself, only in your impersonal self, can you find the eternal.
—DHAMMAPADA, a book of BUDDHIST WISDOM
It is better to know several basic rules of life than to study many unnecessary sciences. The major rules of life will stop you from evil and show you the good path in life; but the knowledge of many unnecessary sciences may lead you into the temptation of pride, and stop you from understanding the basic rules of life.
January 26
A rich man cannot be merciful. If he becomes really merciful, he will quickly lose his riches.
Stop robbing others before you give money to beggars. With the same hand that we rob one person, we reward another, giving to the poor the money which we have taken from the even poorer. Better no charity than this kind of charity.
—SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
The best example of the cruelty of the rich man’s life is his effort to become virtuous.
But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word; neither in tongue; but in deed and truth.
—I JOHN 3:17-18
In order to love not with word and tongue, but in deed and truth, everyone should help those who ask for help, so Christ said.
But if you start giving to all those who ask, even if you are very rich, very soon you will not be rich anymore.
January 27
Love for other people gives a real feeling of good, and it unites you with other people and with God.
A wise man loves not because he wants to profit from it but because he finds bliss in love itself.
Do not regret the past. What is the use of regrets? The lie says that you should regret. The truth says you should be filled with love. Push all sad memories away from you. Do not speak of the past. Live in the light of love, and all things will be given to you.
—PERSIAN WISDOM
They asked a Chinese man, “What is science?” He said, “Science is knowing people.” Then they asked, “And what is virtue?” He answered, “Virtue is loving people.”
Just as a mother puts her life at risk to guard and save her only child, so every person should guard and save in himself love for every living being.
The fearlessness, calm, inner peace, and joy which are given to us by love are so big that all other things in the world cannot be compared with them, especially for the person who understands the real blessing of love.
January 28
For a person to know the law that makes him free, he must be elevated from a material to a spiritual life.
I have many things to say and to judge on you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.
—JOHN 8:26-28
“I and God are the same,” said the teacher. If you think that my spiritual being is God, you are mistaken. But my real self is close to God, and to other people. In order to understand this part of myself, you should elevate the man inside of you. When you elevate the man inside of you, then you will see that there is no difference between him and any other person on earth.
It only seems as if we differ from each other. A flower on a blossoming tree can think that it is a separate being, but all flowers are parts of the same blossoming of one apple tree, and they all come from one seed.
We live a short period of time in this world, but we live it according to the laws of eternal life.
—After HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Submission to the law created by men makes one a slave; obedience to the law created by God makes one free.
January 29
Wisdom is knowing the purpose of life, and knowing how to achieve it.
You can achieve wisdom in three ways. The first way is the way of meditation. This is the most noble way. The second way is the way of imitation. This is the easiest and least satisfying way. Thirdly, there is the way of experience. This is the most difficult way.