6. We find everything, but we cannot find ourselves. How strange. Man lives many years in the world and cannot observe when he feels best of all. If he only chanced to observe this, he would clearly comprehend wherein is true happiness. He would clearly comprehend that he feels happy only when there is love in his soul for others.
Evidently we little commune with our own self in solitude, if we have not found this out.
We have corrupted our minds and no longer strive to learn that which is needful for us.
If amid the vanities of life we stopped for a season to look within our own self, we should discover wherein is our true happiness.
Our body IS weak, unclean, mortal, but a treasure is concealed in it, the immortal spirit of God. If we but recognize this spirit within us, we shall' love our fellow man, and if we love our fellow man, we shall attain all that our heart desires: we shall be happy. Scovoroda,
7. Only when man realizes how unstable and miserable is the life of the body, will he realize all the blessedness that love can yield.
8. Material blessings and pleasures of all kinds are attained only at the cost of robbing others. Spiritual benefits and the blessing of love, on the other hand, are attained by increasing the bappines of others.
,4Я1ааш
THE PATHWAY OF LIFE 91
9. All our modern improvements, such as railways, telegraphs, and all kinds of machinery, may be useful for the uniting of people, and therefore for the hastening of the Kingdom of God. But the trouble is that men have become fascinated with these improvements and think that if they invent more and more machines they will hasten the Kingdom of God. This is as grievous an error as though a man were to keep plowing the same tract of land over and over again without sowing any seed. In order that all of these things be truly useful, men should perfect their soul, develop love. Without love, telephones, telegraphs, flying machines do not unite people, but on the contrary drive them further and further apart.
10. It is pitiful and absurd to see a man searching for something which is hanging from his own back. And it is equally pitiful and absurd for man to seek blessing without knowing that it consists of the very love which is implanted in his own heart.
Do not look upon the world and the deeds of men, but gaze into your own soul, and you will find therein that blessing which you seek where it is not, you will find love, and having found love, you will see that this blessing is so great that he who possesses it will not crave anything else.
Krishna.
11. When you are disheartened, when you are afraid of people, when your life has become a tangle, say to yourself : Let me cease to worry as to what will become of me, let me love all those with whom I come in contact, and let me be content, come what may. Just try to live like this, and you will see how all things will right themselves, and you will have nothing to fear or to desire.
still more. Do gocxi to your enemies that they may become your friends. Cleobulos,
13. Just as all the water will escape from a vessel if there be a hole in its bottom, so all the joys or love will leave the soul of man if it contain hatred, though he hate but one person only.
14. Some say: "What is the sense of doing good to others if they render evil for good?" But if you love him unto whom you do good, you have already received your reward in your love to him, and you will receive a still greater reward if you bear in love that evil which he renders to you.
15. If a good deed is performed with some end in view, it is no longer a good deed. True love is when you love without knowing why or for what purpose.
16. People frequently think that if they love their fellow men they have acquired merit before God. But the contrary is true. If you love your fellow men, you have not acquired merit before God, but God has granted you something you did not deserve, the supreme blessing of life— love.
17. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death." 1 John, III, 14.
18. Yes, the time will come, that very time will come soon of which Christ spake longing for it to come, the time will come when men will be proud not of having gained by force dominion over other men and the fruit of their labors, when they will rejoice not in arousing the fear and the envy of others, but will be proud of loving all men, and rejoice in cherishing that feeling of love which delivers them from all evil, in spite of all injuries that may be inflicted upon them by others.
THE PATHWAY OF LIFE 93
19. There is a parable concerning love:
There was once a man who never thought or cared for self, but always took thought and care for his fellow men.
And the life of this man was so wondrous that the angels marveled at its goodness and rejoiced in it.
And one of the angels said unto another: "This man is holy, and he is not even aware of it. There be few such men in the world. Let us ask him how we may serve him, what gift he desires that we may bestow upon him." "Let it be so/' replied the other angel. And one of the angels, unseen and inaudible, but very clearly and plainly, said unto the saint: "We have seen your life and its saintliness, and we would know what gift we may bestow upon you. Tell us what you desire—to relieve the needs of all whom you see and whom you pity.»^ We can do so. Or would you have us grant you such power as to deliver others from pain and suffering, so that he with whom- you have compassion shall not die before his time? This also is in our power. Or would you have all people in the world, men, women and children, love you ? We can do this too. Only tell us what your heart desires?"
And the saint replied: "None of these things do I crave. It is for God to deliver men from his visitations; from need and suffering, from pain and untimely death. And as for the love of people, I fear it, I fear that the love of the people might tempt me, might impede me in my one main concern to increase within myself love towards God and towards my fellow man."
And the angels said: "Yes, indeed, this man is holy with true holiness and truly loves God."
Love gives, but seeks nothing in return.
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SINS. ERRORS AND SUPERSTTTIONS
■аийа
SINS, ERRORS AND SUPERSTITIONS
Htunan life would be an unceasing source of blessings, if superstitions, errors and sins did not deprive men of the capacity of enjoying these blessings. Sin is an indulgence of bodily passions; errors are incorrect ideas of man's relation to the world; superstitions are false beliefs accepted as a religion.
I.
True Life is Not in the Body, But in the Spint
1. When the plowman fails to guide the plow properly and it slips out of the furrow without picking up that which it should pick up, the Russian peasant terms this ''sin." It is the same in life. Sin is when the man fails to guide his body in the right furrow and it slips and misses doing what it ought.
2. In their youth people who do not know the true aim of life, which is union through love, see their aim in the gratification of their carnal passions. It would not be so bad if this delusion remained a mental delusion; but the gratification of carnal passions defiles the soul, and the man who has defiled his soul through a life of indulgence loses the capacity of seeking his happiness in love. It is as though a man seeking pure water to drink were to defile the cup from which he intended to drink.
3. You wish to give your body as much pleasure as you can. But will your body live long? To care for the blessings of the body is like building a house upon ice. What joy, what security can there be in such a life? Will you not fear that sooner or later the ice will melt? That sooner or later you will have to leave your mortal body?