Only one thing never loses its joyful purport: the consciousness of your striving towards perfection.
This incessant self-perfecting yields true, unceasing
and ever increasing joy. Every step forward along this path carries with it its own reward, and this reward is received immediately. Nor can anything snatch it away.
8. He who has set his life on spiritual perfecting of self, can not be discontented, for that which he desires, is always in his power. Pascal.
9. To be blessed, to have eternal life, to abide in Grod, to be saved—it all amounts to the same thing: it is the solution of the problem of life. And this blessing grows, man feels an ever stronger and deeper mastery of heavenly joy. And this blessing knows no limits, for it is liberty, omnipotence and the fulness of the realization of all desires.
Amiel.
V.
Wherein is True Blessedness?
1. There are few genuine blessings. Only that is a genuine blessing and good which is a blessing and good for all.
Therefore it is needful to desire only that which is in accord with the common good.
He who directs his activity towards such an aim will acquire blessing for himself. Marcus Aurelius.
2. In the circumstances of people there is a combination of good and evil, but in their aims there is no such mixture: the aim can be evil—in the fulfilment of the will of one's animal nature, or good—in the fulfilment of the will of God. Let man yield to the first aim, and he can not but be unhappy; let him yield to the second, and there can be no unhappiness for him—all things are blessed.
3. No one can do genuine good to another. Genuine
good a man can do only to himself. And genuine good is only in this: living for the soul and not for the body.
4. To do good—this is one occupation of which it may be said that it will assuredly benefit us.
5. A man asks aid of people or of God. But no one can help him, unless it be himself, for nothing but his good life can help him. And only he alone can do it.
6. They say that he who is doing good needs no recompense. True enough when you think of a recompense outside of yourself, of a future and not of an immediate reward. But without obtaining a recompense, without the good yielding joy to man, man simply could not accomplish any good. It is only essential to understand what constitutes a true recompense. True recompense is neither in external things nor in the future, but in the inner things and in the present; in the betterment of the soul. This is both the recompense and the incentive of doing good.
7. One man of holy life prayed thus to God: "O Lord, be merciful to the wicked, for to the good Thou hast shown mercy already. They are blest in that they are good."
VI. In Love is Blessedness
1. In order to be truly happy only one thing is needfuclass="underline" love—to love all, the good and the bad. Love unceasingly, and unceasingly you will be happy.
2. We do not know, we can not know what we are living for. And therefore it would be impossible for us to know what to do and what not to do, if it were not for our longing for blessedness. This longing unerrii^ly points out to us what to do, if we only view our life not as an animal life but as a soul dwelling in a body. And
this very blessedness for which our soul longs is given us in love.
3. No one has ever wearied of doing good unto himself. But the supreme good is to do that which the soul desires, and the soul desires only one thing: to love and to be loved. Make the object of your life to increase this love, and you will find that your happiness will be always in your power.
4. If there is a God of goodness and if He created the world, He must have created it so as to insure the welfare of all, consequently including also the welfare of us—^human beings.
And if there be no God, let us of our own accord live so as to insure our well-being. And in order that it be well with us, we must love one another, there must be love. And God being love, this brings us back again to God.
5. My life is not my own, and therefore my own happiness can not be its aim; only that can be its aim which He desires who sent me into life. And He desires that all manifest love towards all others, which is the very thing wherein consists happiness, both my happiness and the happiness of all.
6. Man from the day of his birth to the moment of his death craves his own good, and that which he craves is granted him if he but seek it there where it is: in the love for God and for others.
7. Some say: "Why love disagreeable people?" Because there is joy therein. Try it and see whether it be true or not.
8. Nothing but death before us, nothing but duty in the present. How seemingly depressing and dreadful! Yet if you but seek the object of your life only in this: to strive for ever greater immediate communion in love with
others and with God, that which had seemed dreadful becomes supreme and inviolable blessedness.
The More a Man Lives for His Body, the More Surely He Misses True Blessedness
1. Some people seek happiness in power, others in thirst for knowledge—in science, still others in pleasures. These three ambitions have given birth to three distinct schools of thought, and all philosophers have always followed one of these three trends. But those who came closest to trae philosophy realized that universal happiness—^the goal of universal striving—must not be contained in any particular things which may be possessed by some few only, and which after being divided rather grieve their possessors because of the portion which has been denied them, than yield them joy in the portion which they possess. They realized that true blessedness must be such that all may possess it at one and the same time, without lack and without envy, and such as none may lose against their will. And such ha^^iness exists: it is love. Pascal.
2. Why art thou scurrying hither and thither, О wretched man ? Thou seekest happiness and hurriest somewhere, while happiness is in thy own self. Why seek for it at the door of others? If happiness be not within thee, thou wilt find it nowhere else. Ha[^iness is within thee, in that thou canst love all, love all not because of anything, not for the sake of anything, but in order to live the life of all people, instead of living merely thine own. To seek happiness in the world and not to avail thyself of the happiness that dwells in thy soul is the same as to seek water
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THE PATHWAY OF LIFE 213
ia some distant muddy puddle, while by thy side a healing spring of pure water spurts from the mountain side.
Angelus.
3. If you long for true happiness, do not seek it in distant lands, in riches or in honors, do not importune others, do not cringe before them or contend with them in order to attain happiness. By such means you might attain properties, or rank and all sorts of unnecessary things, but true happiness which is needful to all can not be bought, can not be attained by importuning, but is given freely. Know that all that which you can not take freely is not yours, is superfluous to you. That which you need you can always take freely—by your own good life.
Yes, indeed, happiness does not depend either upon heaven or upon earth, but solely upon yourselves.
There is but one blessedness in the world, and that alone we need. What is this blessedness? A life of love. And to attain this blessedness is easy. Scovoroda.
4. Thanks be to God because He has made so easy the things that are needful to men, and so difficult the things that are needless. That which men need most of all is happiness, and to be happy is the easiest thing of all. Thanks be to God.
The kingdom of God is within us. Happiness dwells in our heart, if it is filled with love. How would it be if that happiness which all men need were the gift of some particular place, a period of time, of some position, of health or of physical strength? How would it be if happiness were to be found alone in America or in Jerusalem ? In the times of Solomon ? Or in a royal palace ? In wealth, in honors, in a desert? In science, in health or in beauty?