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the spirit, knows that be is beyond all peril. When he closes his lips and locks the portals of his senses at the end of life, he will feel no anxiety. Lao-Tse.
5. An immortal soul requires a task as immortal as itself. And just such a task is assigned to it: endless striving after perfection of self and of the world.
THERE IS ONE SOUL IN ALL
m
THERE IS ONE SOUL IN ALL
All living creatures are separated one from another in their bodies, but that which gives them life is one and the same in all of them.
I.
The Consciousness of the Divinity of the Soul
Unites All Men
1. The doctrine of Christ reveals to men that one and the same spiritual principle dwells in them all, and that they are all brothers, and it unites them thus for a life of happy communion. Lamenais.
2. It is not enough to say that the same kind of a soul lives in every man as in me: it is the same soul that dwells in every man and in me. All human beings are separated one from another by their individual bodies, but they are all joined through the same spiritual principle which gives life to everyone.
3. To be associated with people is a great blessing, but how to be united with all ? Supposing I unite with my relatives, how about the rest of the people? Supposing I unite with all friends, all Russians, all co-religionists. How about people whom I do not know, men of oth^r nationalities and religions ? There are so many men, and they differ so much. What I am to do ?
There is only one remedy, to forget about people, not to worry how to be one with them, but to strive to be one with that one spiritual being that dwells in me and in all men.
4. When I think of those millions upon millions of beings living the same life as I, many thousands of miles away, people whom I shall never know, and who know
nothing about me, I involuntarily ask myself: Is there really no tie between us that binds us, shall we die without knowing one another? This can not be.
Indeed, this can not be. Strange as it may seem, I feel, I know that there is a tie between myself and all the people in the world, living or dead.
What that tie is I can neither understand nor explain, but I know that it exists.
5. I remember that someone told me that there is in every man much that is very good and humane, and also much that is very evil and malicious, and according to his disposition, now this, now the other is manifested. This is perfectly correct.
The sight of suffering evokes not only in different people, but sometimes in the same individual the most contradictory sentiments: sometimes compassion, sometimes something akin to pleasure which may assume the proportions of even malicious joy.
I have noticed in my own self that I have sometimes regarded all creatures with genuine compassion, sometimes with the most thorough indifference, and occasionally with hatred and even with malice.
This clearly shows that there are within us two different and directly contradictory methods of consciousness. One, when we are conscious of being individual beings, when all other creatures seem to be utterly alien, when they all are something else and not I. Then we can feel nothing towards them but indifference, envy, hatred or malice. And the other method of consciousness—is the consciousness of oneness with them. With this method of consciousness all creatures seem to us the same thing as our own "I" and therefore their sight elicits our love. The first method of consciousness separates us as an insurmountable wall, the
other removes the partition and we are fused into one. The first method teaches us to acknowledge that all other creatures are something other than I, and the other teaches us that all creatures are the same "I" that I recognize within myself. Schopenhauer.
6. The more a man lives for the soul the better he realizes his oneness with all living creatures. Live for the body, and you are alone among strangers; live for the soul, and all the world is your kin.
7. A river does not resemble a pool, a pool does not resemble a barrel, a barrel does not resemble a cup of water. But the same water is found in the river, in the pool, in the barrel and in the cup. Likewise all men vary, but the spirit that lives within them is one and the same.
8. Man understands the meaning of life only when he sees himself in every man.
9. Enter into conversation with any man, look search-ingly into his eyes, and you will feel that you are akin to him, you will imagine you had known him somewhere in the past. Why is it so? Because that by which you live is the same in you and in him.
10. In every man dwells that spirit than which there is nothing higher in the world, and therefore no matter what a man may be: statesman or convict, prelate or pauper, they are all equal, for in every one of them dwells that which is above all other things in the world. To value and esteem a nobleman above a pauper is like valuing and esteeming one gold coin more than another because one is wrapped in white and another in black paper. Always remember that the same soul dwells in one man as in yourself, and therefore all men must be treated alike, carefully and respectfully.
11. The principal thing in the doctrine of Christ is that He acknowledged all men to be brothers. In every man he saw a brother and therefore he loved every one, no matter who or what he was. He looked upon the inside, not the outside. He did not look ирюп the body, but saw the immortal soul through the garments of the rich, and through the rags of the beggar. In the most depraved of men He saw something which could transform this fallen man into the greatest saint, as great and as holy as He was Himself. Channing.
12. Children are wiser than adults. The child does not make any distinction about the social status of people, but feels with his whole soul that in every man lives something which is one and the same in him and in all other people.
13. If a man does not see in every neighbor the same spirit which unites him with all the rest of the people in the world, he lives as in a dream. Only he is awake and lives truly who sees himself and God in his neighbor.
II.
One and the Same Spiritual Principle Lives Not Onljr in
All Men, But in All Living Creatures
1. We feel in our heart that the thing by which we live, what we call our true "I," is the same not only in every man, but also in the dog, in the horse, in the mouse, in the hen, in the sparrow, in the bee, and even in a plant
2. If we say that birds, horses, dogs and monkeys are entirely alien to us, we might equally reasonably assert that all savage, black and yellow people are alien to us. And if we consider them aliens, the Ыаск and the yellow people may equally reasonably consider us aliens. Who
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THE PATHWAY OF LIFE 67
then is our neighbor ? To this there is but one answer: do not ask who is your neighbor, but do unto every creature what you desire to have done unto you.
3. All that is living abhors pain, all that is living abhors death: recognize yourself not only in man, but in every living creature, do not slay, do not cause suffering and death.
All that is living desires the same things as you: recognize yourself in every living creature.
Buddhist Wisdom.
4. Man is higher than animals not because he can torture them, but because he is capable of having compassion with them, and man has compassion with animals because he feels that in them dwells the same thing that dwells in him also.
5. Compassion with living things is most essential to any man who would advance in virtue. He who is compassionate will not injure nor offend, and he will freely forgive. A good man can not be lacking in compassion. And if a man be unjust and mean, such a man will surely be lacking in compassion. Without compassion towards all that is living, virtue is impossible. Schopenhauer.