Friday, May 8, 2009

Daily meditation, May 8th: James Allen

A man can learn nothing unless he regards himself as a learner.

May Eighth

HOW am I acting towards others?

"What am I doing for others ? " "How am I thinking of others ? " "Are my thoughts of, and acts towards others, prompted by unselfish love, as I would theirs should be to me; or are they the outcome of personal dislike, of petty revenge, or of narrow bigotry and condemnation ? " as a man, in the sacred silence of his soul, asks himself these searching questions, applying all his thoughts and acts to the spirit of the primary precept of the Christ, his understanding will become illuminated, so that he will unerringly see where he has hitherto failed; and he will see what he has got to do in rectifying his heart and conduct, and the way in which it is to be done.

Evil is not worth resisting. The practice of the good is supremely excellent.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Daily meditation, May 7th: James Allen

When Christ is disputed about, Christ is lost.

MAY SEVENTH

IT is no less selfish and sinful to cling to opinion than to cling to impure desire. Knowing this, the good man gives up himself unreservedly to the Spirit of Love, and dwells in Love towards all, contending with none, condemning none, hating none, but loving all, seeing behind their opinions, their creeds, and their sins, into their striving, suffering, and sorrowing hearts. " He that loveth his life shall lose it." Eternal life belongs to him who win obediently relinquish his petty, narrowing, sin-loving, strife-producing personal self, for only by so doing can he enter into the large, beautiful, free, and glorious life of abounding Love. Herein is the Path of Life; for the Straight Gate is the Gate of Goodness.

The narrow way is the Way of Renunciation, or self- sacrifice.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Daily meditation, May 6th: James Allen

To dwell in love always and towards all is to live the true life, is to have Life itself.

MAY SIXTH

JESUS so lived, and all men may so live, if they will humbly and faithfully carry out His precepts. So long as they refuse to do this, clinging to their desires, passions, and opinions, they cannot be ranked as His disciples; they are the disciples of self. " Verily, verily, I say unto you: whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin," is the searching declaration of Jesus.

Let men cease to delude themselves with the belief that they can retain their bad tempers, their lusts, their harsh words and judgments, their personal hatreds, their petty contentions and darling opinions, and yet have Christ.

All that divides man from man, and man from Goodness, is not of Christ, for Christ is Love.

Sin and Christ cannot dwell together, and he who accepts the Christ-life of pure Goodness ceases from sin.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Daily meditation, May 5th: James Allen

Apart from the earnest striving lo live out the teachings of Jesus there can be no true life.

MAY FIFTH

A GOOD man is the flower of humanity, and to daily grow purer, nobler, more Godlike, by overcoming some selfish tendency, is to be continually drawing nearer to the Divine Heart." He that would be My disciple, let him deny himself daily," is a statement which none can misunderstand or misapply, howsoever he may ignore it. Nowhere in the universe is there any substitute for Goodness; and until a man has this, he has nothing worthy or enduring. To the possession of Goodness there is only one way, and that is, to give up all and everything that is opposed to Goodness. Every selfish desire must be eradicated; every impure thought must be yielded up; every clinging to opinion must be sacrificed; and it is in the doing of this that constitutes the following of Christ.

That which is above all creeds, beliefs, and opinions is a loving and selfsacrificing heart.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Daily meditation, May 4th: James Allen

The regulation and purification of conduct.

MAY FOURTH

THE whole journey from the Kingdom of Strife to the Kingdom of Love resolves itself into a process which may be summed up in the following words: The regulation and purification of conduct. Such a process must, if assiduously pursued, necessarily lead to perfection. It will also be seen that as the man obtains the mastery over certain forces within himself, he arrives at a knowledge of all the laws which operate in the realm of all these forces, and by watching the ceaseless working of cause and effect within himself, until he understands it, he then understands it in its universal adjustments in the body of humanity.

The process is also one of simplification of the mind, a sifting away of all but the essential gold in character.

He lives no longer for himself, he lives for others: and so living, he enjoys the highest bliss, the deepest peace.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Daily meditation, May 3rd: James Allen

Glorious, radiant, free, detached from the tyranny of self !

MAY THIRD

THE journey to the Kingdom may be a long and tedious one, or it maybe short and rapid. It may occupy a minute, or it may take a thousand ages. Everything depends on the faith and belief of the searcher. The majority cannot "enter in because of their unbelief "; for how can men realise righteousness when they do not believe in it, nor in the possibility of its accomplishment? Neither is it necessary to leave the outer world, and one's duties therein. Nay, it can only be found through the unselfish performance of one’s duty. But all who believe, and aspire to achieve, will sooner or later arrive at victory, if, amid all their worldly duties, they faint not, nor lose sight of the Ideal Goodness, and continue, with unshaken resolve, to press on to Perfection."

The outward life harmonises itself with the inward music.