Daily meditation, Apr. 8th: James Allen

When Perfect Good is realised and known, then calm vision is acquired.

APRIL EIGHTH

THE transcendent life is ruled, not by passions, but by principles. It is founded, not upon fleeting impulses, but upon abiding laws. In its clear atmosphere, the orderly sequence of al things is revealed, so that there is seen to be no more room for sorrow, anxiety, or regret. While men are involved in the passions of self, they load themselves with cares, and trouble over many things; and more than all else do they trouble over their own little, burdened, pain-stricken personality, being anxious for its fleeting pleasures, for its protection and preservation, and for its eternal safety and continuance. Now in the life that is wise and good all this is transcended.

Personal interests are replaced by universal purposes, and all cares, troubles, and anxieties concerning the pleasure and fate of the personality are dispelled like the feverish dreams of a night.

Universal Good is seen.

Daily meditation, Apr. 7th: James Allen

Rise above the allurements of sin, and enter the Divine Consciousness, the Transcendent Life.

APRIL SEVENTH

THERE comes a time in the process of transmutation when, with the decrease of evil and the accumulation of good, there dawns in the mind a new vision, a new consciousness, a new man. And when this is reached, the saint has become a sage; he has passed from the human life to the divine life. He is " born again " and there begins for him a new round of experiences; he wields a new power; a new universe opens out before his spiritual gaze.

This is the stage of Transcendence; this I call the Transcendent Life. When Transcendence is attained, then the limited personality is outgrown, and the divine life is known; evil is transcended, and Good is all-in all.

As passion is the keynote of the self-life, so serenity is the keynote of the transcendent life.

Daily meditation, Apr. 6th: James Allen

Seers of the Cosmos do not mourn over the scheme of things.

APRIL SIXTH

BUDDHA always referred to the moral law of the universe as the Good Law, and indeed it is not rightly perceived if it is thought of as anything but good, for in it there can be no grain of evil, no element of unkindness. It is no ironhearted monster crushing the weak and destroying the ignorant, but a soothing love and brooding compassion shielding the tenderest from harm, and protecting the strongest from a too destructive use of their strength. It destroys an evil, it preserves an good. It enfolds the tiniest seedling in its care, and it destroys the most colossal wrong with a breath. To perceive it, is the beatific vision; to know it, is the beatific bliss; and they who perceive and know it are at peace; they are glad for ever more.

The wise man bends his will and subjects his desire to the Divine Order.

Daily meditation, Apr. 5th: James Allen

Law cannot be partial. It is an unvarying mode of action, disobeying which, we are hurt; obeying, we are made happy.

APRIL FIFTH

IT is not less kind that we should suffer the penalty of our wrong-doing than that we should enjoy the blessedness of our right-doing. If we could escape the effects of our ignorance and sin, all security would be gone, and there would be no refuge, for we could then be equally deprived of the result of our wisdom and goodness. Such a scheme would be one of caprice and cruelty, whereas law is a method of justice and kindness.

Indeed, the supreme law is the principle of eternal kindness, faultless in working, and infinite in application. It is none other than that "Eternal Love, forever full, forever flowing free," Of which the Christian sings; and the " Boundless Compassion " of Buddhistic precept and poetry.

Every pain we suffer brings us nearer to the knowledge of the Divine Wisdom.

Daily meditation, Apr. 4th: James Allen

Only the choosing of wise thoughts, and, necessarily the doing of wise deeds, leads to wisdom.

APRIL FOURTH

THE multitudes, unenlightened concerning their spiritual nature, are the slaves of thought, but the sage is the master of thought. They follow blindly; he chooses intelligently. They obey the impulse of the moment, thinking of their immediate pleasure and happiness; he commands and subdues impulse, resting upon that which is permanently right. They, obeying blind impulse, violate the law of righteousness; he, conquering impulse, obeys the law of righteousness. The sage stands face to face with the facts of life. He knows the nature of thought. He understands and obeys the law of his being.

Thought determines character, conditions, knowledge.