Daily meditation, July 7th: James Allen

By self-enlightenment is Perfect Freedom found.

JULY SEVENTH

THERE is no bondage in the Heavenly Life. There is Perfect Freedom. This is its great glory. This Supreme Freedom is gained only by obedience. He who obeys the Highest co-operates with the Highest, and so masters every force within himself and every condition without. A man may choose the lower and neglect the Higher, but the Higher is never overcome by the lower: herein lies the revelation of Freedom. Let a man choose the Higher and abandon the lower; he shall then establish himself as an overcomer, and shall realise Perfect Freedom.

To give the reins to inclination is the only slavery; to conquer oneself is the only freedom. The slave to self loves his chains, and will not have one of them broken for fear he would be depriving himself of some cherished delight. He thus defeats and enslaves himself.

The Land of Perfect Freedom lies through the Gate of Knowledge.

Daily meditation, July 6th: James Allen

To know Love is to know that there is no harmful power in the whole universe.

JULY SIXTH

IF a man would know Love, and partake of its undying bliss, he must practise it in his heart; he must become Love. He who always acts from the Spirit of Love is never deserted, is never left in a dilemma or difficulty, for Love (impersonal Love) is both Knowledge and Power. He who has learned how to Love has learned how to master every difficulty, how to transmute every failure into success, how to clothe every event and condition in garments of blessedness and beauty.

The way to Love is by self-mastery, and, travelling that way, a man builds himself up in Knowledge as he proceeds. Arriving at Love, he enters into full possession of body and mind, by right of the divine Power which he has earned. " Perfect Love casteth out fear."

Perfect Love is perfect Harmlessness. And he who has destroyed in himself all thoughts of harm, and all desire to harm, receives the universal protection.

Daily meditation, July 5th: James Allen

The universe is preserved because Love is at the Heart of it.

JULY FIFTH

THE Children of Light who abide in the Kingdom of Heaven see the universe, and all that it contains, as the manifestation of one Law—the Law of Love. They see Love as the moulding, sustaining, protecting, and perfecting Power immanent in all things animate and inanimate. To them Love is not merely and only a rule of life, it is the Law of life, it is Life itself.

Knowing this, they order their whole life in accordance with Love, not regarding their own personality. By thus practising obedience to the Highest, to divine Love, they become conscious partakers of the power of Love, and so arrive at perfect Freedom as Masters of Destiny. Love is Perfect Harmony, pure bliss, and contains, therefore, no element of suffering. Let a man think no thought and do no act that is not in accordance with pure Love, and suffering shall no more trouble him.

Love is the only preserving power.

Daily meditation, July 4th: James Allen

How can he fear any who wrongs none?

JULY FOURTH

THE righteous man is invincible. No enemy can possibly overcome or confound him; and he needs no other protection than that of his own integrity and holiness. As it is impossible for evil to overcome Good, so the righteous man can never be brought low by the unrighteous. Slander, envy, hatred, malice can never reach him, nor cause him any suffering, and those who try to injure him only succeed ultimately in bringing ignominy upon themselves.

The righteous man having nothing to hide, committing no acts which require stealth, and harbouring no thoughts and desires which he would not like Others to know, is fearless and unashamed. His step is firm, his body upright, and his speech direct and without ambiguity. He looks everybody in the face. How can he be ashamed before any who deceives none ?

Ceasing from all wrong you can never be wronged; ceasing from all deceit you can never be deceived.

Daily meditation, July 3rd: James Allen

Nothing is hidden from him who overcomes himself.

JULY THIRD

INTO the cause of causes shalt thou penetrate, and lifting, one after another, every veil of illusion, shalt reach at last the inmost Heart of Being. Thus becoming one with Life, thou shalt know all life, and, seeing into causes, and knowing realities, thou shalt be no more anxious about thyself, and others, and the world, but shalt see that all things that are, are engines of the Great Law. Canopied with gentleness, thou shalt bless where others curse ; love where others hate ; forgive where others condemn ; yield where others strive ; give up where others grasp ; lose where others gain. And in their strength they shall be weak ; and in thy weakness thou shalt be strong ; yea, thou shalt mightily prevail. " Therefore, when Heaven would save a man, it enfolds him with gentleness."

He that hath not unbroken gentleness hath not Truth.

Daily meditation, July 2nd: James Allen

The might of meekness !

JULY SECOND

THE man who conquers another by force is strong; the man who conquers himself by Meekness is mighty. He who conquers another by force will himself likewise be conquered; he who conquers himself by Meekness will never be overthrown, for the human cannot overcome the divine. The meek man is triumphant in defeat. Socrates lives the more by being put to death; in the crucified Jesus the risen Christ is revealed; and Stephen, in receiving his stoning, defies the hurting power of stones. That which is real cannot be destroyed, but only that which is unreal. When a man finds that within him which is real, which is constant, abiding, changeless, and eternal, he enters into that Reality, and becomes meek. All the powers of darkness will come against him, but they will do him no hurt, and will at last depart from him.

Meekness is a divine quality, and as such is all powerful.

Daily meditation, July 1st: James Allen

Wisdom is the aim of every philosophy.

JULY FIRST

IN whatever condition a man finds himself, he can always find the True; and he can find it only by so utilising his present condition as to become strong and wise. The effeminate hankering after rewards, and the craven fear of punishment, let them be put away for ever, and let a man joyfully bend himself to the faithful performance of all his duties, forgetting himself and his worthless pleasures, and living strong and pure and self-contained; so shall he surely find the Unfailing Wisdom, the God-like Patience and Strength. " The situation that has not its Duty, its Ideal, was never yet occupied by man." All that is beautiful and blessed is in thyself, not in thy neighbour’s wealth. Thou art poor? Thou art poor indeed if thou art not stronger than thy poverty! Thou hast suffered calamities ? Tell me, wilt thou cure calamity by adding anxiety to it ? There is no evil but will vanish if thou wilt wisely meet it.

Canst thou mend a broken vase by weeping over it?

Daily meditation, June 30th: James Allen

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

JUNE THIRTIETH

SEERS of the Cosmos see the universe as a perfect whole, and not as an imperfect jumble of parts. The Great Teachers are men of abiding joy and heavenly peace.

The blind captive of unholy desire may cry: " Ah ! Love, could you and I with Him conspire To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire, Would we not shatter it to bits, and then Remould it nearer to the heart’s desire ?" This is the wish of the voluptuary, the wish to enjoy unlawful pleasures to any extent, and not reap any painful consequences. It is such men who regard the universe as a "sorry scheme of things." They want the universe to bend to their will and desire ; want lawlessness, not law ; but the wise man bends his will and subjects his desires to the Divine Order, and he sees the universe as the glorious perfection of an infinitude of parts.

To perceive it, is the beatific vision; to know it, is the beatific bliss.

Daily meditation, June 29th: James Allen

The law which punishes us is the law which preserves us.

JUNE TWENTY - NINTH

WHEN in their ignorance men would destroy themselves, its everlasting arms are thrown about them in loving, albeit sometimes painful, protection.

Every pain we suffer brings us nearer to the knowledge of the Divine Wisdom. Every blessedness we enjoy speaks to us of the perfection of the Great Law, and of the fullness of bliss that shall be man’s when he has come to his heritage of divine knowledge. We progress by learning, and we learn, up to a certain point, by suffering. When the heart is mellowed by love, the Law of love is perceived in all its wonderful kindness; when wisdom is acquired, peace is assured.

We cannot alter the law of things, which is of sublime perfection, but we can alter ourselves so as to comprehend more and more of that perfection, and make its grandeur ours.

To wish to bring down the perfect to the imperfect is the crown of folly, but to strive to bring the imperfect up to the perfect is the height of wisdom.

Daily meditation, June 28th: James Allen

The silent, calm people will manifest a more enduring form of success than those who are noisy and restless.

JUNE TWENTY - EIGHT

WHEN a man exchanges coppers for silver, and silver for gold, he does not thereby give up the use of money; he exchanges a heavy mass for one that is lighter and smaller but more valuable. So when a man exchanges hurry for deliberation, and deliberation for calmness, he does not give up effort, he merely exchanges a diffusive and more or less ineffective energy for a more highly concentrated, effective, and valuable form.

Yet even the crudest forms of effort are necessary at first, for without them to begin with the higher forms could not be acquired. The child must crawl before it can walk; it must babble before it can talk; it must talk before it can compose. Man begins in weakness and ends in strength, but from beginning to end he advances by the efforts he makes, by the exertion he puts forth.

The root of success is in character.

Daily meditation, June 27th: James Allen

In order to achieve the higher forms of success, a man must give up anxiety, hurry, and fussiness.

JUNE TWENTY - SEVENTH

PRESSING forward persistently along a given way is sure to lead to a destination that is definitely associated with that way. Frequent going aside, or turning back, will render effort fruitless ; no destination will he reached ; success will remain afar off.

Effort, and the more effort, and then effort again, is the keynote of success.

As the simple old saying has it: " If at first you don’t succeed, Try again." All the precepts of successful business men are precepts of doing ; all the precepts of the wise teachers are precepts of doing. To cease to do is to cease to be of any use in the economy of life. Doing means effort, exertion.

Transmute the energy that wears and breaks down into that deeper and less obtrusive kind that preserves and builds up.

Daily meditation, June 26th: James Allen

A listless mind could not achieve any kind of success.

JUNE TWENT Y - SIXTH

SUCCESS is rooted in a subtle mental brooding along a given line. It subsists in an individual characteristic, or combination of characteristics, and not in a particular circumstance, or set of circumstances. The circumstances appear, it is true, and form part of the success, but these would be useless without the mind that can penetrate and utilise them.

At the root of every success there is some form of well-husbanded and welldirected energy. There has been some persistent brooding of the mind upon a project. Success is like a flower: it may appear more or less suddenly, but it is the finished product of a long series of efforts, of preparatory stages.

Men see the success, but the preparation for it, the innumerable mental processes that led up to it, are hidden from them.

Without exertion nothing can be accomplished.

Daily meditation, June 25th: James Allen

Stimulate the mind to watchfulness and reflection.

JUNE TWENTY - FIFTH

IT will be seen that the first step in the discipline of the mind is the overcoming of indolence. This is the easiest step, and until it is perfectly accomplished the other steps cannot be taken. The clinging to indolence constitutes a complete barrier to the Path of Truth. Indolence consists in giving the body more ease and sleep than it requires, in procrastinating, and in shirking and neglecting those things which should receive immediate attention. This condition of laziness must be overcome by rousing up the body at an early hour, giving it just the amount of sleep it requires for complete recuperation, and by doing, promptly and vigorously, every task and duty, no matter how small, as it comes along.

The heart must be purified of sensual and gustatory lust.

Daily meditation, 24th June: James Allen

Learn the lessons of Virtue, and thus build up in the strength of knowledge, destroying ignorance and the ills of life.

JUNE TWENTY - FOURTH

WHERE Love is, God is, and where Goodness lives There Christ abides; and he who daily strives against self and selfishness, shaping his mind For Truth and Purity, shall surely find The Master’s presence in his inmost heart. God shall be one with him (and not apart) Who overcomes himself, and makes his life Godlike and holy; banishing all strife far from him; letting hate and anger die, and greed and pride and fleshly lusts that lie to God and Goodness: great shall be his Peace, Happy and everlasting his release from pain and sorrow who doth conquer sin. To the pure heart comes God and dwells therein: He only who the Path of Good hath trod Hath found the Life that’s "hid with Christ in God."

" Make pure thy heart, and thou wilt make thy life rich, sweet, and beautiful, unmarred by strife."

Daily meditation, June 23rd: James Allen

Truth can only be arrived at by daily and hourly doing the lessons of Virtue.

JUNE TWENTY - THIRD

IN a properly governed household the child is first taught to be obedient, and to conduct itself properly under all circumstances. The child is not even told why it must do this, but is commanded to do it, and only after it has so far succeeded in doing what is right and proper is it told why it should do it.

No father would attempt to teach his child the principles of ethics before exacting from it the practice of filial duty and social virtue.

Virtue can only be known by doing, and the knowledge of Truth can only be arrived at by perfecting oneself in the practice of Virtue; and to be complete in the practice and acquisition of Virtue is to be complete in the knowledge of Truth.

Undaunted by failure, and made stronger by difficulties.

Daily meditation, June 22nd: James Allen

Spiritual Principles can only be acquired after long discipline in the pursuit and practice of Virtue.

June Twenty-Second

THE schoolmaster never attempts to teach his pupils the abstract principles of mathematics at the commencement; he knows that by such a method teaching would be vain, and learning impossible. He first places before them a very simple sum, and, having explained it, leaves them to do it. When, after repeated failures and ever-renewed effort, they have succeeded in doing it correctly, a more difficult task is set them, and then another and another; and not until the pupils have, through many years of diligent application, mastered all the lessons in arithmetic does he attempt to unfold to them the underlying mathematical principles.

Thus practice ever precedes knowledge even in the ordinary things of the world, and in spiritual things, in the living of the higher life, this law is rigid in its exactions.

Daily meditation, June 21st: James Allen

Realise the Light that never fades.

JUNE TWENTY - FIRST

IF, O reader ! You would realise the Joy that never ends, and the tranquillity that cannot be disturbed; if you would leave behind for ever your sins, your sorrow, your anxieties, and perplexities; if, I say, you would partake of this salvation, this supremely glorious Life, then conquer yourself. Bring every thought, every impulse, every desire into perfect obedience to the divine power resident within you. There is no other way to peace but this ; and if you refuse to walk it, your much praying and your strict adherence to ritual will be fruitless and unavailing, and neither gods nor angels can help you.

Only to him that overcometh is given the white stone of the regenerate life, on which is written the New and Ineffable Name.

The holy place within you is your real and eternal self : it is the divine within you.

Daily meditation, June 20th: James Allen

Hatred severs human lives, fosters persecution, and hurls nations into ruthless war.

June Twentieth

MEN cry peace ! Peace ! Where there is no peace, but, on the contrary, discord, disquietude, and strife. Apart from that wisdom which is inseparable from self-renunciation, there can be no real and abiding peace.

The peace which results from social comfort, passing gratification, or worldly victory is transitory in its nature, and is burnt up in the heat of fiery trial. Only the Peace of Heaven endures through all trial, and only the selfless heart can know the Peace of Heaven.

Holiness alone is undying peace. Self-control leads to it, and the ever increasing Light of Wisdom guides the pilgrim on his way. It is partaken of in a measure as soon as the path of virtue is entered upon, but it is only realised in its fullness when self disappears in the consummation of a stainless life.

This inward peace, this silence, this harmony, this love is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Daily meditation, June 19th: James Allen

In the external universe there is ceaseless turmoil, change, and unrest; at the heart of all things there is undisturbed repose ; in this deep silence dwelleth the Eternal.

JUNE NINETEENTH

AS there are depths in the ocean which the fiercest storm cannot reach, so there are silent, holy depths in the heart of man which the storms of sin and sorrow can never disturb. To reach this silence and to live consciously in it is peace.

Discord is rife in the outward world, but unbroken harmony holds sway at the heart of the universe. The human soul reaches blindly toward the harmony of the sinless state, and to reach this state and to live consciously in it is peace. Come away, for a while, from external things, from the pleasure of the senses, from the arguments of the intellect, from the noise and the excitements of the world, and withdraw yourself into the inmost chamber of your heart, and there, free from the sacrilegious intrusion of all selfish desires, you will find a holy calm, a blissful repose ; the faultless eye of Truth will open within you, and you will see things as they really are.

Become as little children.

Daily meditation, June 18th: James Allen

Where duties, howsoever humble, are done without self-interest, and with joyful sacrifice, there is true service and enduring work.

JUNE EIGHTEENTH

IT is given to the world to learn one great and divine lesson—-the lesson of absolute unselfishness. The saints, sages, and saviours of all time are they who have submitted themselves to this task, and have learned and lived it.

All the scriptures of the world are framed to teach this one lesson, all the great teachers reiterate it. It is too simple for the world which, scorning it, stumbles along in the complex ways of selfishness.

To search for this righteousness is to walk the Way of Truth and Peace, and he who enters this Way will soon perceive that Immortality which is independent of birth and death, and will realise that in the divine economy of the universe the humblest effort is not lost. The world will not have finished its long journey until every soul has entered into the blissful realisation of its own divinity.

A pure heart is the end of all religion and the beginning of divinity.

Daily meditation, June 17th: James Allen

This only is true service to forget oneself in love towards all.

JUNE SEVENTEENTH

WHOEVER fights ceaselessly against his own selfishness, and strives to supplant it with all-embracing love, is a saint, whether he live in a cottage or in the midst of riches and influence ; or whether he preaches or remains obscure.

To the worldling, who is beginning to aspire towards higher things, the saint, such as a sweet St. Francis of Assisi, or a conquering St. Anthony, is a glorious and inspiring spectacle ; to the saint, an equally enrapturing sight is that of the sage, sitting serene and holy, the conqueror of sin and sorrow, no more tormented by regret and remorse, and whom even temptation can never reach ; and yet even the sage is drawn on by a still more glorious vision, that of the Saviour actively manifesting His knowledge in selfless works, and rendering His divinity more potent for good by sinking Himself in the throbbing, sorrowing heart of mankind.

Only the work that is impersonal can live.

Daily meditation, June 16th: James Allen

Man cannot immortalise the flesh.

JUNE SIXTEENTH

ALL nature in its myriad forms of life is changeable, impermanent, unenduring. Only the informing Principle of nature endures. Nature is many, and is marked by separation. The informing Principle is one, and is marked by unity. By overcoming the senses and the selfishness within, which is the overcoming of nature, man emerges from the chrysalis of the personal and illusory, and wings himself into the glorious light of the impersonal, the region of Truth, out of which all perishable forms come.

Let men, therefore, practise self-denial; let them conquer their animal inclinations; let them refuse to be enslaved by luxury and pleasure; let them practise virtue, and grow daily into higher and ever higher virtue, until at last they grow into the Divine.

Only by realising the God state of consciousness does man enter into immortality.

Daily meditation, June 15th: James Allen

When a man s soul is clouded with selfishness in any or every form, he loses the power of spiritual discrimination, and confuses the temporal with the eternal.

JUNE FIFTEENTH

MEN cling to and gratify the flesh as though it were going to last for ever, and though they try to forget the nearness and inevitably of its dissolution, the dread of death and of the loss of all that they cling to clouds their happiest hours, and the chilling shadow of their own selfishness follows them like a remorseless. And with the accumulation of temporal comforts and luxuries, the divinity within men is drugged, and they sink deeper and deeper into materiality, into the perishable life of the senses; and where there is sufficient intellect, theories concerning the immortality of the flesh come to be regarded as infallible truths.

The perishable in the universe can never become permanent ; the permanent can never pass away.

Daily meditation, June 14th: James Allen

Enter into perfect harmony with the Eternal Law, which is Wisdom, Love, and Peace.

JUNE FOURTEENTH

THIS divine state is, and must ever be, incomprehensible to the merely personal. Personality, separateness, selfishness, are one and the same, and are the antithesis of wisdom and divinity. By the unqualified surrender of the personality, separateness and selfishness cease, and man enters into the possession of his divine heritage of immortality and infinity.

Such surrender of the personality is regarded by the worldly and selfish mind as the most grievous of all calamities, the most irreparable loss, yet it is the one supreme and incomparable blessing, the only real and lasting gain.

The mind unenlightened upon the inner laws of being and upon the nature and destiny of its own life clings to transient appearances, things which have in them no enduring substantiality, and so clinging, perishes, for the time being, amid the shattered wreckage of its own illusions.

Love is universal, supreme, all-sufficing. This is the realisation of selfless love.

Daily meditation, June 13th: James Allen

The restful Reality of the Eternal Heart.

JUNE THIRTEENTH

THE spirit of man is inseparable from I, the Infinite, and can be satisfied with nothing short of the Infinite, and the burden of pain will continue to weigh upon man’s heart, and the shadows of sorrow to darken his pathway, until, ceasing from wanderings in the dream-world of matter, he comes back to his home in the reality of the Eternal.

As the smallest drop of water detached from the ocean contains all the qualities of the ocean, so man, detached in consciousness from the Infinite, contains within himself its likeness; and as the drop of water must, by the law of nature, ultimately find its way back to the ocean and lose itself in its silent depths, so must man, by the unfailing law of his nature, at last return to his source, and lose himself in the heart of the Infinite.

To become one with the Infinite is the goal of man.

Daily meditation, June 12th: James Allen

Reach out into a comprehension of the Infinite.

JUNE TWELFTH

WHILST vainly imagining that the I pleasures of earth are real and satisfying pain and sorrow continually remind man of their unreal and unsatisfying nature. Ever striving to believe that complete satisfaction is to be found in material things, he is conscious of an inward and persistent revolt against this belief, which revolt is at once a refutation of his essential mortality, and an inherent and imperishable proof that only in the immortal, the eternal, the infinite, can he find abiding satisfaction and unbroken peace.

Man is essentially and spiritually divine and eternal, and, immersed in mortality and troubled unrest, he is striving to enter into a consciousness of his real nature.

The common ground of faith—the root and spring of all religion—the heart of Love !

Daily meditation, June 11th: James Allen

The body is the image of the mind.

JUNE ELEVENTH

ONE who sutlers in body will not necessarily at once be cured when he begins to fashion his mind on moral and harmonious principles; indeed, for a time, while the body is bringing to a crisis, and throwing off the effects of former inharmonies, the morbid condition may appear to be intensified. As a man does not gain perfect peace immediately he enters upon the path of righteousness, but must, except in rare instances, pass through a painful period of adjustment, neither does he, with the same rare exception, at once acquire perfect health. Time is required for bodily as well as mental readjustment, and even if health is not reached, it will be approached. If the mind be made robust, the bodily condition will take a secondary and subordinate place, and will cease to have that primary importance which so many give to it.

Mental harmony, or moral wholeness, makes for bodily health.

Daily meditation, June 10th: James Allen

By thoughts man binds himself.

JUNE TENTH

IT is true that man is the instrument of mental forces—or to be more accurate, he is those forces—but they are not blind, and he can direct them into new channels. In a word, he can take himself in hand and reconstruct his habits; for though it is also true that he is born with a given character, that character is the product of numberless lives during which it has been slowly built up by choice and effort, and in this life it will be considerably modified by new experiences.

No matter how apparently helpless a man has become under the tyranny of a bad habit, or a bad characteristic—and they are essentially the same—he can, so long as sanity remains, break away from it and become free.

A changed attitude of mind changes the character, the habits, the life.

Daily meditation, June 9th: James Allen

He becomes the master of the lower by enlisting in the service of the higher.

JUNE NINTH

MAN repeats the same thoughts, the same actions, the same experiences over and over again, until they are incorporated with his being, until they are built into his character as part of himself. Evolution is mental accumulation.

Man today is the result of millions of repetitious thoughts and acts. He is not ready-made, he becomes, and is still becoming. His character is predetermined by his own choice. The thought, the act, which he chooses, that, by habit, he becomes.

Thus each man is an accumulation of thoughts and deeds. The characteristics which he manifests instinctively and without effort are lines of thought and action become, by long repetition, automatic; for it is the nature of habit to become, at last, unconscious, to repeat, as it were, itself without any apparent choice or effort on the part of its possessor ; and in due time it takes such complete possession of the individual as to appear to render his will powerless to counteract it.

Habit is repetition. Faculty is fixed habit.

Daily meditation, June 8th: James Allen

Nothing can prevent us from accomplishing the aims of our life.

JUNE EIGHTH

MAN’S power subsists in discrimination and choice. Man does not create one jot of the universal conditions or laws; they are the essential principles of things, and are neither made nor unmade. He discovers, not makes, them.

Ignorance of them is at the root of the world's pain. To defy them is folly and bondage. Who is the freer man, the thief who denes the laws of his country, or the honest citizen who obeys them? Who, again, is the freer man, the fool who thinks he can live as he likes, or the wise man who chooses to do only that which is right?

Man is, in the nature of things, a being of habit, and this he cannot alter; but he can alter his habits. He cannot alter the law of his nature, but he can adapt his nature to the law.

He is the good man whose habits of thought and action are good.

Daily meditation, June 7th: James Allen

The man is the all-important factor.

JUNE SEVENTH

A MAN imagines lie could do great things if he were not hampered by circumstances—by want of money, want of time, want of influence, and want of freedom from family ties. In reality the man is not hindered by these things at all. He, in his mind, ascribes to them a power which they do not possess, and he submits, not to them, but to his opinions about them, that is, to a weak element in his nature. The real "want" that hampers him is the want of the right attitude of mind. When he regards his circumstances as spurs to his resources, when he sees that his so-called drawbacks are the very steps up which he is to mount successfully to his achievement, then his necessity gives birth to invention, and the " hindrances " are transformed into aids.

He who complains of his circumstances has not yet become a man.

Daily meditation, June 6th: James Allen

The man is the all-important factor.

JUNE SEVENTH

A MAN imagines lie could do great things if he were not hampered by circumstances—by want of money, want of time, want of influence, and want of freedom from family ties. In reality the man is not hindered by these things at all. He, in his mind, ascribes to them a power which they do not possess, and he submits, not to them, but to his opinions about them, that is, to a weak element in his nature. The real "want" that hampers him is the want of the right attitude of mind. When he regards his circumstances as spurs to his resources, when he sees that his so-called drawbacks are the very steps up which he is to mount successfully to his achievement, then his necessity gives birth to invention, and the " hindrances " are transformed into aids.

He who complains of his circumstances has not yet become a man.

Daily meditation, June 5th: James Allen

The world of things is the other half of the world of thoughts.

JUNE FIFTH

THE inner informs the outer. The greater embraces the lesser. Matter is the counterpart of mind. Events are streams of thoughts. Circumstances are combinations of thought, and the outer conditions and actions of others in which each man is involved, are intimately related to his own mental needs and development. Man is a part of his surroundings. He is not separate from his fellows, but is bound closely to them by the peculiar intimacy and interaction of deeds, and by those fundamental laws of thought which are the roots of human society.

One cannot alter external things to suit his passing whims and wishes, but he can set aside his whims and wishes; he can so alter his attitude of mind towards externals, that they will assume a different aspect. He cannot mould the actions of others towards him, but he can rightly fashion his actions towards them.

Things follow thoughts. Alter your thoughts, and things will receive a new adjustment.

Daily meditation, June 4th: James Allen

The small-minded man and the large-hearted man live in two different worlds though they be neighbours.

JUNE FOURTH

THE kingdom of heaven is not taken by violence, but he who conforms to its principles receives the password. The ruffian moves in a society of ruffians; the saint is one of an elect brotherhood whose communion is divine music. All men are mirrors reflecting according to their own surface. All men, looking at the world of men and things, are looking into a mirror which gives back their own reflection.

Each man moves in the limited or expansive circle of his own thoughts, and all outside that circle is non-existent to him. He only knows that which he has become. The narrower the boundary, the more convinced is the man that there is no further limit, no other circle. The lesser cannot contain the greater, and he has no means of apprehending the larger minds; such knowledge comes only by growth.

Men, like schoolboys, find themselves in standards or classes to which their ignorance or knowledge entitles them.

Daily meditation, June 3rd: James Allen

Men live in spheres low or high according to the nature of their thoughts.

JUNE THIRD

CONSIDER the man whose mind is suspicious, covetous, envious. How small and mean and drear everything appears to him. Having no grandeur in himself, he sees no grandeur anywhere, being ignoble himself, he is incapable of seeing nobility in any being; selfish as he himself is, he sees in the most exalted acts of unselfishness only motives that are mean and base.

Consider again the man whose mind is unsuspecting, generous, magnanimous. How wondrous and beautiful is his world. He sees men as true, and to him they are true. In his presence the meanest forget their nature, and for the moment become like himself, getting a glimpse, albeit confused, in that temporary upliftment of a higher order of things, of an immeasurably nobler and happier life.

Refrain from harbouring thoughts that are dark and hateful, and cherish thoughts that are bright and beautiful.

Daily meditation, June 2nd: James Allen

Man is the maker of happiness and misery.

JUNE SECOND

FIXED attitudes of mind determine courses of conduct, and from courses of conduct come those reactions caned happinesses and unhappinesses. This being so, it follows that, to alter the reactive condition, one must alter the active thought. To exchange misery for happiness it is necessary to reverse the fixed attitude of mind and habitual course of conduct which is the cause of misery, and the reverse effect will appear in the mind and life. A man has no power to be happy while thinking and acting selfishly; he cannot be unhappy while thinking and acting unselfishly. Wheresoever the cause is, there the effect will appear. Man cannot abrogate effects, but he can alter causes. He can purify his nature; he can remould his character. There is great power in self-conquest; there is great joy in transforming oneself.

Each man is circumscribed by his own thoughts.

Daily meditation, June 1st: James Allen

The incentive to self-sacrificing labour does not reside in any theory about the universe, but in the spirit of love and compassion.

JUNE FIRST

THE spirit of love does not decrease when a man realises that perfect justice obtains in the spiritual government of the world; on the other hand, it is increased and intensified, for he knows that men suiter because they do not understand, because they err in ignorance. "The comfortably conditioned" are frequently involved in greater suffering than the poor, and, like others, are garnering their own mixed harvest of happiness and suffering. This teaching of Absolute Justice is not more encouraging for the rich than for the poor, for while it tells the rich, who are selfish and oppressive, or who misuse their wealth, that they must reap the results of all their actions, it also tells the suffering and oppressed that, as they are now reaping what they Have formerly sown, they may, and surely will, by sowing the good seeds of purity, love, and peace, shortly also reap a harvest of good, and so rise above their present woes.

The painful consequences of all self-seeking must be met and passed through.

Daily meditation, May 31st: James Allen

Be self-reliant, but let thy self-reliance be saintly and not selfish.

MAY THIRTY - FIRST

FOLLY and wisdom, weakness and strength, are within a man, and not in any external thing, neither do they spring from any external cause. A man cannot be strong for another, he can only be strong for himself; he cannot overcome for another, he can only overcome for himself. You may learn of another, but you must accomplish for yourself. Put away all external props, and rely upon the Truth within you. A creed will not bear a man up in the hour of temptation; he must possess the inward Knowledge which slays temptation. A speculative philosophy will prove a shadowy tiling in the time of calamity; a man must have the inward Wisdom which puts an end to grief. The Unfailing Wisdom is found only by constant practice in pure thinking and well-doing; by harmonising one's mind and heart to those things which are beautiful, lovable, and true.

Goodness is the aim of all religions.

Daily meditation, May 30th: James Allen

Train your mind to grasp the Great Law of Causation which is unfailing justice.

MAY THIRTIETH

THEN you will see, not with fleshly eyes, but with the pure and single eye of Truth. You will then understand your nature perceiving how, as a mental being, you have evolved through countless ages of experience, how you have risen, through an unbroken line of lives, from low to high, and from high to higher still—how the ever-changing tendencies of the mind have been built up by thought and action—how your deeds have made you what you are.

Thus, understanding your own nature, you will understand the nature of all beings, and will dwell always in compassion. You will understand the Great Law, not only universally and in the abstract, but also in its particular application to individuals. Then self will be ended. It will be dispersed like a cloud, and Truth will be all in all.

Find no room for hatred, no room for self, no room for sorrow.

Daily meditation, May 29th: James Allen

Be right-minded, intelligent, and clear-seeing.

MAY TWENTY-NINTH

BRING reason to bear on all things. Test all things. Be eager to know and understand. Be logical in thought. Be consistent in word and action. Bring the searchlight of knowledge to bear on your condition of mind, in order to simplify it and remove its errors. Question yourself with searching scrutiny.

Let go of belief, hearsay, and speculation, and lay hold on knowledge. He who stands upon knowledge acquired by practice is filled with a sublime yet lowly confidence, and is able to speak the word of Truth with power. Master the task of discrimination. Learn to distinguish between good and evil ; to perceive the facts of life, and understand them in their relation of one to another. Awake the mind to see the orderly sequence of cause and effect in all things, both mental and material. Thus will be revealed the worthlessness of pleasure-seeking and sin, and the glory and gladness of a life of sublime virtue and spotless purity.

Truth is. There is no chaos.

Daily meditation, May 28th: James Allen

Let your charity increase and extend till self is swallowed up in kindness.

May Twenty-eighth

BEAR no ill-will. Subdue anger and overcome hatred. Think of all, and act towards all, with the same unalterable kindness and compassion. Do not, under the severest trial, give way to bitterness, or words of resentment; but meet anger with calmness, mockery with patience, and hatred with love. Do not be a partisan, but be a peacemaker. Do not increase division between man and man, or promote strife by taking sides with one party against another, but give equal justice, equal love, equal goodwill to all. Do not disparage other teachers, other religions, or other schools of thought. Do not set up barriers between rich and poor, employer and employed, governor and governed, master and servant, but be equal-minded towards all, perceiving their several duties. By constantly controlling the mind, subduing bitterness and resentment, and striving to acquire a steadfast kindness, the spirit of goodwill will at last be born.

Be strong, energetic, steadfast.

Daily meditation, May 27th: James Allen

Abstinence, sobriety, and self-control are good.

MAY TWENTY - SEVENTH

DO your duty with the utmost faithfulness, putting away any thought of reward. Let no thought of pleasure or self entice you from your duty. Do not interfere with the duties of others.

Be upright in all things. Under the most severe trial, though your happiness and life should seem to be at stake, do not swerve from the right. The man of unconquerable integrity is invincible ; he cannot be confounded, and he escapes from the painful mazes of doubt and bewilderment. If one should abuse or accuse, or speak ill of you, remain silent and self-controlled, striving to understand that the wrong-doer cannot injure you unless you retaliate, and allow yourself to be carried away by the same wrong condition of mind. Strive, also, to meet the evil-doer with compassion, seeing how he is injuring himself.

The pure-minded cannot think, "I have been injured by another." They know no enemy but self.

Daily meditation, May 26th: James Allen

Avoid exaggerations. The Truth is sufficient.

MAY TWENTY - SIXTH

SPEAK only words which are truthful and sincere. Do not deceive either by word, look, or gesture. Avoid slander as you would a deadly snake, lest you be caught in its toils. He who speaks evil of another cannot find the way of peace. Put away all dissipations of idle gossip. Do not talk about the private affairs of others, or discuss the ways of Society, or criticise the eminent. Do not recriminate, or accuse others of offenses, but meet all offenses with blameless conduct. Do not condemn those who are not walking in the righteous path, but protect them with compassion, walking the path yourself. Quench the flame of anger with the pure water of Truth. Be modest in your words, and do not utter, or participate in, coarse, frivolous, or unseemly jests. Gravity and reverence are marks of purity and wisdom.

Do not dispute about Truth, but live it.

Daily meditation, May 25th: James Allen

Be resolute. Be of single purpose. Renew your resolution daily.

MAY TWENTY - FIFTH

IN the hour of temptation do not depart from the right path. Avoid excitement. When passions are aroused, restrain and subdue them. When the mind would wander, bring it back to rest on higher things. Do not think—" I can get Truth from the Teacher, or from the books." You can acquire Truth only by practice. The teacher and the books can do no more than give instructions ; and you must apply them. Those only who practice faithfully the rules and lessons given, and rely entirely upon their own efforts, will become enlightened. The Truth must be earned. Do not be led away by phenomenal appearances, or seek communications with spirits, or the dead ; but attain to virtue, wisdom, and knowledge of the Supreme Law by the practice of Truth. Trust the Teacher ; trust the Law ; trust the path of Righteousness.

Put away all wavering and doubt, and practise the lessons of wisdom with unlimited faith.

Daily meditation, May 24th: James Allen

Cease to tread every byway that tempts thy soul into the shadow-land.

MAY TWENTY - FOURTH

MAN has all power now; but not knowing this, he says, " I will be perfect next year, or, in so many years, or in so many lives." The dwellers in the Kingdom of God, who live only in the now, say, I am perfect now, and refraining from all sin now, and ceaselessly guarding all the portals of the mind, not looking to the past nor to the future, nor turning to the left or right, they remain eternally holy and blessed. " Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." Say to yourself, " I will live in my Ideal now; I will be my Ideal now; and all that tempts me away from my Ideal I will not listen to; I will listen only to the voice of my Ideal." Thus resolving, and thus doing, you shall not depart from the Highest, and shall eternally manifest the Truth.

Manifest thy native and divine strength now.

Daily meditation, May 23rd: James Allen

All things are possible now, and only now.

MAY TWENTY - THIRD

NOW is the reality in which time is contained. It is more and greater than time; it is an ever-present reality. It knows neither past nor future, and is eternally potent and substantial. Every minute, every day, every year is a dream as soon as it has passed, and exists only as an imperfect and unsubstantial picture in the memory, if it be not entirely obliterated.

Past and future are dreams; now is a reality. All things are now; all power, all possibility, all action is now. Not to act and accomplish now is not to act and accomplish at all. To live in thoughts of what you might have done, or in dreams of what you mean to do, this is folly; but to put away regret, to anchor anticipation, and to do and to work now, this is wisdom.

Man has all power now.

Daily meditation, May 22nd: James Allen

Find the Kingdom by daily effort and patient work.

MAY TWENTY - SECOND

THE Temple of Righteousness is built, and its four walls are the four Principles—Purity, Wisdom, Compassion, Love. Peace is its roof, its floor is Steadfastness, its entrance door is Selfless Duty, its atmosphere is Inspiration, and its music is the Joy of the perfect. It cannot be shaken, and, being eternal and indestructible, there is no more need to seek protection in taking thought for the things of the morrow. And the Kingdom of Heaven being established in the heart, the obtaining of the material necessities of life is no more considered, for, having found the Highest, all these things are added as effect to cause, the struggle for existence has ceased, and the spiritual, mental, and material needs are daily supplied from the Universal Abundance.

Pay the price . . . The unconditional abandonment of self.

Daily meditation, May 21st: James Allen

The Kingdom of Heaven is perfect trust, perfect knowledge, perfect peace.

MAY TWENTY - FIRST

THE children of the Kingdom are known by their life. They manliest the fruits of the Spirit — "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance, self-control" — under all circumstances and vicissitudes. They are entirely free from anger, fear, suspicion, jealousy, caprice, anxiety, and grief. Living in the Righteousness of God, they manifest qualities which are the very reverse of those which obtain in the world, and which are regarded by the world as foolish. They demand no rights; they do not defend themselves; do not retaliate; do good to those who attempt to injure them; manifest the same gentle spirit towards those who oppose and attack them, as towards those who agree with them; do not pass judgment on others; condemn no man and no system, and live at peace with all.

That Kingdom is in the heart of every man and woman.

Daily meditation, May 20th: James Allen

To the faithful, humble, and true will be revealed the sublime Vision of the Perfect One.

MAY TWENTIETH

GOOD news indeed is that message of Jesus which reveals to man His divine possibilities; which says in substance to sin-stricken humanity, "Take up thy bed and walk; which tells man that he need no longer remain the creature of darkness and ignorance and sin, if he will but believe in Goodness, and will watch and strive and conquer until he has actualised in his life the Goodness that is sinless. And in thus believing and overcoming, man has not only the Guide of that Perfect Rule which Jesus has embodied in His precepts, he has also the inward Guide, the Spirit of Truth in his own heart, " The Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world," which, as he follows it, will infallibly witness to the divine origin of those precepts.

Realise the perfect Goodness of the Eternal Christ.

Daily meditation, May 19th: James Allen

Heaven is not a speculative thing beyond the tomb but a real, ever-present Heaven in the heart.

MAY NINETEENTH

THE only salvation recognised and taught by Jesus is salvation from sin, and the effects of sin, here and now; and this must be effected by utterly abandoning sin, which, having done, the Kingdom of God is realised in the heart as a state of perfect knowledge, perfect blessedness, perfect peace.

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." A man must become a new creature, and how can he become new except by utterly abandoning the old? That man’s last state is worse than his first who imagines that, though still continuing to cling to his old temper, his old opinionativeness, his old vanity, his old selfishness, he is constituted a new creature in some mysterious and unexplainable way by the adoption of some particular theology or religious formula.

Heaven is where Love rules, and where peace is never absent.

Daily meditation, May 18th: James Allen

All so-called evil is seen to be rooted in ignorance.

MAY EIGHTEENTH

LET it not be supposed that the children of the Kingdom live in ease and indolence (these two sins are the first that have to be eradicated when the search for the Kingdom is entered upon); they live in a peaceful activity; in fact, they only truly live, for the life of self, with its train of worries, griefs, and fears, is not real life. They perform all their duties with the most scrupulous diligence, apart from thoughts of self, and employ all their means, as well as powers and faculties, which are greatly intensified, in building up the Kingdom of Righteousness in the hearts of others, and in the world around them. This is their work, first by example, then by precept. They sorrow no more, but live in perpetual gladness, for, though they see the suffering in the world, they also see the final Bliss and the Eternal Refuge.

Whosoever is ready may come now.

Daily meditation, May 17th: James Allen

As self is the root cause of all strife and suffering, so Love is the root cause of all peace and bliss.

MAY SEVENTEENTH

THOSE who are at rest in the Kingdom do not look for happiness in any outward possession. They see that all such possessions are mere transient effects that come when they are required, and, after their purpose is served, pass away. They never think of these tilings (money, clothing, food, etc.) except as mere accessories and effects of the true Life. They are, therefore, freed from all anxiety and trouble, and, resting in Love, they are the embodiment of Happiness. Standing upon the imperishable Principles of Purity, Compassion, Wisdom, and Love, they are immortal, and know they are immortal; they are one with God, the Supreme Good, and know they are one with God. Seeing the realities of things, they can find no room anywhere for condemnation.

All men are essentially divine, though unaware of their divine nature.

Daily meditation, May 16th: James Allen

Before a man can know Love as the abiding Reality within him, he must utterly abandon all those human tendencies which frustrate us perfect manifestation.

MAY SIXTEENTH

A MAN can only consciously ally himself to the Vine of Love by deserting all stife, and hatred, and condemnation, and impurity, and pride, and selfseeking, and by thinking and doing loving deeds. By so doing he awakens within him the divine nature which he has heretofore been crucifying and denying. Every time a man gives way to anger, impatience, greed, pride, vanity, or any form of personal selfishness, he denies the Christ, he shuts himself out from Love. And thus only is Christ denied, and not by refusing to adopt a formulated creed. Christ is only known to him who by constant striving has converted himself from a sinful to a pure being, who by noble, moral effort has succeeded in relinquishing that perishable self, which is the source of all suffering and sorrow and unrest, and has become rational, gentle, peaceful, loving, and pure.

Such glorious realisation is the crown of evolution, the supreme aim of existence.

Daily meditation, May 15th: James Allen

Love is not complete until it is lived by man.

MAY FIFTEENTH

EVERY precept of Jesus demands the unconditional sacrifice of some selfish, personal element, before it can be carried out. Man cannot know the Real whilst he clings to the unreal; he cannot do the work of Truth whilst he clings to error. Whilst a man cherishes lust, hatred, pride, vanity, sellindulgence, covetousness, he can do nothing, for the works of all these sinful elements are unreal and perishable. Only when he takes refuge in the Spirit of Love within, and becomes patient, gentle, pure, pitiful, and forgiving, does He the works of Righteousness, and bears the fruits of Life. The vine is not a vine without its branches, and even then it is not complete until those branches bear fruit.

Daily practising love towards all in heart and mmd and deed, harbouring no injurious or impure thoughts, he discovers the imperishable Principles of his being.

Man’s only refuge from sin is sinless Love.

Daily meditation, May 14th: James Allen

The Christ is the Spirit of Love.

MAY FOURTEENTH

WHEN Jesus said, " Without Me ye can I do nothing," He spoke not of His perishable form, but of the Universal Spirit of Love, of which His conduct was a perfect manifestation; and this utterance of His is the statement of a simple truth; for the works of men are vain and worthless when they are done for personal ends, and he himself remains a perishable being, immersed in darkness and fearing death, so long as he lives in his personal gratifications. The animal in man can never respond to and know the divine; only the divine can respond to the divine. The spirit of hatred in man can never vibrate in unison with the Spirit of Love; Love only can apprehend Love, and become linked with it. Man is divine; man is of the substance of Love; this he may realise if he will relinquish the impure, personal elements which he has hitherto been blindly following, and will fly to the impersonal Realities of the Christ Spirit.

In this Principle of Love, all knowledge, Intelligence, and Wisdom are contained.

Daily meditation, May 13th: James Allen

They are the doers of the Father’s will who shape their conduct to the Divine precepts.

MAY THIRTEENTH

TO us and to all there is no sufficiency, no blessedness, no peace to be derived from the goodness of another, not even the goodness of God; not until the goodness is done by us, not until it is, by constant effort, incorporated into our being, can we know and possess its blessedness and peace. Therefore, thou who adorest Jesus for His divine qualities, practise those qualities thyself, and thou too shalt be divine.

The teaching of Jesus brings men back to the simple truth that righteousness, or right-doing, is entirely a matter of individual conduct, and not a mystical something apart from a man’s thoughts and actions, and that each must be righteous for himself; each must be a doer of the word, and it is a man’s own doing that brings him peace and gladness of heart, not the doing of another.

It is only the doer of forgiveness who tastes the sweets of forgiveness.

Daily meditation, May 12th: James Allen

The Gospel of Jesus is a Gospel of living and doing.

MAY TWELFTH

THAT Jesus was meek, and lowly, and loving, and compassionate, and pure is very beautiful, but it is not sufficient; it is necessary that you also should be meek, and lowly, and loving, and compassionate, and pure. That Jesus subordinated His own will to the will of the Father, it is inspiring to know, but it is not sufficient; it is necessary that you, too, should likewise subordinate your will to that of the overruling Good. The grace and beauty and goodness that were in Jesus can be of no value to you, cannot be understood by you, unless they are also in you, and they can never be in you until you practice them, for, apart from doing, the qualities which constitute Goodness do not, as far as you are concerned, exist.

Pure Goodness is religion, and outside it there is no religion.

Daily meditation, May 11th: James Allen

He who would find how good at heart men are, let hint throw away all his ideas and suspicions about the " evil " in others, and find and practise the good within himself.

MAY ELEVENTH

MAN has within him the divine power by which he can rise to the highest heights of spiritual achievement; by which he can shake off sin and shame and sorrow, and do the will of the Father, the Supreme Good; by which he can conquer all the powers of darkness within, and stand radiant and free; by which he can subdue the world, and scale the lofty pinnacles of God. This can man, by choice, by resolve, and by his divine strength, accomplish; but he can only accomplish it in and by obedience; he must choose meekness and lowliness of heart; he must abandon strife for peace; passion for purity; hatred for love; self-seeking for self-sacrifice, and must overcome evil with good.

This is the holy way of Truth; this is the safe and abiding salvation; this is the yoke and burden of the Christ.

Daily meditation, May 10th: James Allen

Humanity is essentially divine.

MAY TENTH

SO long has man dwelt in the habitations of sin that he has at last come to regard himself as native to it, and as being cut off from the Divine Source, which he believes to be outside and away from him. Man is primarily a spiritual being, and as such, is of the nature and substance of the Eternal Spirit, the Unchangeable Reality, which men call God. Goodness, not sin, is His rightful condition; perfection, not imperfection, is his heritage, and this a man may enter into and realise now if he will grant the condition, which is the denial or abandonment of self, that is, of his feverish desires, his proud will, his egotism and self-seeking—all that which St. Paul calls the " natural man."

Jesus, in His divine goodness, knew the human heart, and He knew that it was good.

Daily meditation, May 9th: James Allen

Personal antipathies, however natural they may be to the animal man, can have no place in the divine life.

MAY NINTH

WHILST a man is engaged in resisting evil, he is not only not practising the good, he is actually involved in the like passion and prejudice which he condemns in another; and as a direct result of his attitude of mind, he himself is resisted by others as evil. Resist a man, a party, a religion, a government, as evil, and you yourself will be resisted as evil. He who considers it as a great evil that he should be persecuted and condemned, let him cease to persecute and condemn. Let him turn away from all that he has hitherto regarded as evil, and begin to look for the good. So deep and farreaching is this precept that the practice of it will fake a man far up the heights of spiritual knowledge and attainment.

He who will keep the precepts of Jesus will conquer himself, and will become divinely illuminated.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Daily meditation, May 2nd: James Allen

Not in any of the three worlds can the soul find lasting satisfaction, apart from the realisation of righteousness.

MAY SECOND

EVERY soul, consciously or unconsciously, hungers for righteousness, and every soul seeks to gratify that hunger in its own particular way, and in accordance with its own particular state of knowledge. The hunger is one, and the righteousness is one, but the pathways by which righteousness is sought are many. They who seek consciously are blessed, and shall shortly find that final and permanent satisfaction of soul which righteousness alone can give, for they have come into a knowledge of the true path. They who seek unconsciously, although for a time they may bathe in a sea of pleasure, are not blessed, for they are carving out for themselves pathways of suffering, over which they must walk with torn and wounded feet, and the soul will cry out for its lost heritage— the eternal heritage of the righteous.

Blessed are they who earnestly and intelligently seek.

Daily meditation, May 1st: James Allen

Comfort ye! The heights of Blessed Vision ye shall reach.

MAY FIRST

EOLAUS: I know that sorrow follows passion; know that grief and emptiness, and heartaches wait upon all earthly joys; so am I sad; Yet Truth must be, and being, can be found; And though I am in sorrow, this I know—I shall be glad when I have found the Truth. Prophet: There is no gladness like the joy of Truth. The pure in heart swim in a sea of bliss That evermore nor sorrow knows, nor pain ; For who can see the Cosmos and be sad ? To know is to be happy; they Who have attained Perfection; these are they Who live, and know, and realise the Truth.

He findeth Truth who findeth self-control.

Daily meditation, Apr. 30th: James Allen

Deliverance shall him entrance who strives with sifts and sorrows, tears and pains, till he attains.

APRIL THIRTIETH

BE not the slave of lusts and cravings and indulgences, of disappointments, miseries, and fears, doubts, and lamentations, but control thyself with calmness: master that in thee which masters others, and which heretofore has mastered thee: let not thy passions rule, but rule thy passions; subjugate thyself till passion is transmuted into peace, and wisdom crown thee; so shalt thou attain and, by attaining, know.

Look thou within. Lo! In the midst of change abides the Changeless; at the heart of strife The Perfect Peace reposes. At the root of all the restless striving of the world IS passion. Whoso follows passion findeth pain, but whoso conquers passion findeth peace.

I am ignorant, yet strive to know; nor will I cease to strive till I attain.

Daily meditation, Apr. 29th: James Allen

Knowledge is for him who seeks; Wisdom crowneth him who strives; Peace in sinless silence speaks: All things perish, Truth survives.

APRIL TWENTY -NINTH

INCREASE thy strength and self-reliance; make the spectres of thy mind obey thy will; See thou command thyself, nor let no mood. No subtle passion nor no swift desire Hurl thee to baseness; but, shouldst thou be hurled. Rise, and regain thy manhood, taking gain Of lowliness and wisdom from thy fall. Strive ever for the mastery of thy mind, and glean some good from every circumstance That shall confront thee; make thy store of strength richer for ills encountered and overcome. Submit to naught but nobleness; rejoice like a strong athlete straining for the prize, when thy full strength is tried.

Follow where Virtue leads High and still higher; Listen where Pureness pleads, Quench not her fire. Lo ! He shall see Reality, Who cometh upward, cleansed from all desire.

Daily meditation, Apr. 28th: James Allen

Be watchful, that no thought of self creep in again and stain thee.

April Twenty-eighth

THINK of thyself as abolished. In all thy doing think of the good of others and of the world, and not of pleasure or reward to thyself. Thou art no longer separate and divided from men, thou art one with all. No longer strive against others for thyself, but sympathise with all. Regard no man as thine enemy, for thou art the friend of all men. Be at peace with all. Pour out compassion on all living things, and let boundless charity adorn thy words and deeds. Such is the glad way of Truth; such is the doing which is according to the Eternal. Ruled with joy is the right-doer; he acts from principles which do not change and pass away. He is one with the Eternal, and has passed beyond unrest. The peace of the righteous man is perfect; it is not disturbed by change and impermanence. Freed from passion, he is equal-minded, calm, and does not sorrow; he sees things as they are, and is no more confused.

Open thine eyes to the Eternal Light.

Daily meditation, Apr. 27th: James Allen

Instruct me in the doing which is according to the Eternal, so that I may be watchful, and fail not.

APRIL TWENTY - SEVENTH

THE unrighteous man is swayed by his feelings; likes and dislikes are his masters; prejudices and partialities blind him; desiring and suffering, craving and sorrowing, self-control he knows not, and great is his unrest. The righteous man is master of his moods; likes and dislikes he has abandoned as childish things; prejudice and partiality he has put away. Desiring nothing, he does not suffer; not craving enjoyment, sorrow does not overtake him; perfect in self-control, great peace abides with him.

Do not condemn, resent, or retaliate; do not argue, or become a partisan.

Maintain thy calmness with all sides; be just, and speak the truth. Act in gentleness, compassion, and charity. Be infinitely patient. Hold fast to love, and let it shape thy doing. Have goodwill to all without distinction. Think equally of all, and be disturbed by none.

Be thoughtful and wise, strong and kindhearted.

Daily meditation, Apr. 26th: James Allen

Be strenuous in effort, patient in endurance, strong in resolution.

APRIL TWENTY - SIXTH

BY these four things is the heart defiled— the craving for pleasure, the clinging to temporal things, the love of self, the lust for personal continuance; from these four defilements spring all sins and sorrows. Wash thou thy heart; put away sensual cravings; detach thy mind from the wish for possessions; abandon self-defence and sell-importance. Thus putting away all cravings, thou wilt attain to satisfaction; detaching thy mind from the love of perishable things, thou wilt acquire wisdom; abandoning the thought of self, thou wilt come to peace. He who is pure is free from desire; he does not crave for sensual excitements; he sets no value on perishable things; he is the same in riches and poverty, in success or failure, in victory or defeat, in life or death. His happiness remains, his rest is sure.

Hold fast to love, and let it shape thy doing.

Daily meditation, Apr. 25th: James Allen

Blessed is he who obeys the Truth, he shall not remain comfortless.

APRIL TWENTY - FIFTH

DISCIPLE: What are the greater and the lesser powers? Master: Hear me again, O Disciple! Walking faithfully the path of discipline and purification, not abandoning it, but submitting to its Austerities, thou wilt acquire the three lesser powers of discipleship; thou wilt also receive the three greater powers. And the greater and the lesser powers will render thee invincible. Self-control, Self-reliance, and Watchfulness—these are the three lesser powers. Steadfastness, Patience, Gentleness—these are the three greater powers. When thy mmd is wellcontrolled, and in thy keeping; when thou reliest upon no external aid, but upon Truth alone; and when thou art ceaselessly watchful over thy thoughts and actions—then thou wilt approach the Supreme Light.

Thy darkness will pass away for ever, and joy and light will wait upon thy footsteps.

Daily meditation, Apr. 24th: James Allen

Great is the conquest which thou hast entered upon, even the mighty conquest of thyself ; be faithful and thou shalt overcome.

APRIL TWENTY - FOURTH.

DISCIPLE: Lead me, O Master! For my darkness is very great! Will the darkness lift, O Master? Will trial end in victory, and will there be an end to my many sorrows ?

Master: When thy heart is pure the darkness will disappear. When thy mind is freed from passion, thou wilt reach the end of trial, and when the thought of self-preservation is yielded up, there will be no more cause for sorrow.

Thou art now upon the way of discipline and purification; all my disciples must walk that way. Before thou canst enter the white light of knowledge, before thou canst behold the full glory of Truth, all thy impurities must be purged away, thy delusions all dispelled, and thy mind fortified with endurance. Relax not thy faith in Truth; forget not that Truth is eternally supreme; remember that I, the Lord of Truth, am watching over thee.

Be faithful, and endure, and I will teach thee all things.

Daily meditation, Apr. 23rd: James Allen

Be glad and not sorrowful, all ye who love Truth! For your sorrows shall pass away, like the mists of the morning.

APRIL TWENTY - THIRD

DISCIPLE : Teacher of teachers, instruct Thou me.

Master: Ask, and I will answer.
Disciple: I have read much, but am ignorant still; I have studied the doctrines of the schools, but have not become wise thereby; I know the scriptures by heart, but peace is hidden from me. Point out to me, O Master ! The way of knowledge. Reveal to me the highway of divine wisdom; lead Thou Thy child into the path of peace.

Master: The way of knowledge, O Disciple ! Is by searching the heart; the highway of wisdom is by the practice of righteousness; and by a sinless life is found the way of peace.

Behold where Love Eternal rests concealed! (The deathless Love that seemed so far away!) E’en in the lowly heart; it stands revealed To him who lives the sinless life to-day.

Daily meditation, Apr. 22nd: James Allen

A pure heart and a blameless life avail. They are filled with joy and peace.

APRIL TWENTY - SECOND

OUR good deeds remain with us, they save and protect us. Evil deeds are error. Our evil deeds follow us, they overthrow us in the hour of temptation.

The evil doer is not protected from sorrow; but the good doer is shielded from all harm. The fool says unto his evil deed, "Remain thou hidden, be thou unexposed"—but his evil is already published, and his sorrow is sure. If we are in evil, what shall protect us? What keep us from misery and confusion? Nor man nor woman, nor wealth nor power, nor heaven nor earth, shall keep us from confusion. From the results of evil there is no escape; no refuge and no protection. If we are in Good, what shall overtake us? What bring us to misery and confusion ? Nor man nor woman, nor poverty nor sickness, nor heaven nor earth, shall bring us to confusion.

There is a straight way and a quiet rest.

Daily meditation, Apr. 21st: James Allen

He who dings to his delusions, loving self and sin cannot find the Truth.

APRIL TWENTY - FIRST

TRUTH brings joy out of sorrow, and peace out of perturbation; it points the selfish to the Way of Good, and sinners to the Path of Holiness. Its spirit is the doing of Righteousness. To the earnest and faithful it brings consolation; upon the obedient it bestows the crown of peace. I take refuge in Truth: Yea, in the Spirit of Good, in the knowledge of Good, and in the doing of Good I abide. And I am reassured and comforted. It is to me as though malice were not, and hatred had vanished away. Lust is confined to the nethermost darkness, it hath no way in Truth's transcendent Light. Pride is broken up and dissolved, and vanity is melted away as a mist. I have set my face towards the Perfect Good, and my feet in the Blameless Way; and because of this I am consoled.

I am strengthened and comforted, having found refuge in Truth.

Daily meditation, Apr. 20th: James Allen

The Knowledge of Truth is an abiding consolation.

APRIL TWENTIETH

WHEN all else fails, Truth does not fail. When the heart is desolate and the world affords no shelter, Truth provides a peaceful refuge and a quiet rest.

The cares of life are many, and its path is beset with difficulties; but Truth is greater than care, and is superior to all difficulties. Truth lightens our burdens; it lights up our pathway with the radiance of joy. Loved ones pass away, friends fail, and possessions disappear. Where then is the voice of comfort? Where is the whisper of consolation? Truth is the comforter of the comfortless, and the consoler of them that are deserted. Truth does not pass away, nor fail, nor disappear. Truth bestows the consolation of abiding peace. Be alert, and listen, that ye may hear the call of Truth, even the voice of the Great Awakener.

Truth removes the sting from affliction, and disperses the clouds of trouble.

Daily meditation, Apr. 19th: James Allen

Abandon error for Truth, and illusion for Reality.

APRIL NINETEENTH

TO sin is to dream, and, to love sin is to love darkness. They who love darkness are involved in the darkness; they have not yet seen the light. He who has seen the light does not choose to walk in darkness. To see the Truth is to love it, and, in comparison, error has no beauty. The dreamer is now in pleasure, now in pain; this hour in confidence, the next in fear. He is without stability, and has no abiding refuge. When the monsters of remorse and retribution pursue him, whither can he fly? There is no place of safety unless he awake. Let the dreamer struggle with his dream; let him strive to realise the illusory nature of all self-seeking desire, and lo ! He will open his spiritual eyes upon the world of Light and Truth. He will be happy, sane, and peaceful, seeing things as they are.

Truth is the Light of the universe, the day of the mind.

Daily meditation, Apr. 18th: James Allen

Rejoice! For the morning has dawned: The Truth has awakened us.

APRIL EIGHTEENTH

WE have opened our eyes, and the dark night of terror is no more. Long have we slept in matter and sensation; long did we struggle in the painful nightmare of evil; but now we are awake in Spirit and Truth: We have found the Good, and the struggle with evil is ended.

We slept, yet knew not that we slept. We suffered, yet knew not that we suffered. We were troubled in our dreaming, yet none could awake us, for all were dreaming like ourselves. Yet there came a pause in our dreaming; our sleep was stayed. Truth spoke to us, and we heard; and lo ! We opened our eyes, and saw. We slumbered, and saw not; we slept, and knew not; but now we are awake and see. Yea, we know we are awake because we have seen Holiness, and we love sin no more.

How beautiful is Truth ! How glorious is the realm of reality ! How ineffable is the bliss of Holiness !

Daily meditation, Apr. 17th: James Allen

Where there is pure spiritual knowledge, Love is perfected and fully realised.

APRIL SEVENTEENTH

TRAIN your mind in strong, impartial, and gentle thought; train your heart in purity and compassion; train your tongue to silence and to true and stainless speech; so shall you enter the way of holiness and peace, and shall ultimately realise the immortal Love. So living, without seeking to convert, you will convince; without arguing, you will teach; not cherishing ambition, the wise will find you out; and without striving to gain men’s opinions, you will subdue their hearts. For Love is all-conquering, all-powerful; and the thoughts, and deeds, and words of Love can never perish.

This is the realisation of selfless Love.

Daily meditation, Apr. 16th: James Allen

Only the pure in heart see God.

APRIL SIXTEENTH

HE whose heart is centred in the supreme Love does not brand and classify men; does not seek to convert men to his own views, nor to convince them of the superiority of his methods. Knowing the Law of Love, he lives it, and maintains the same calm attitude of mind and sweetness of heart towards all. The debased and the virtuous, the foolish and the wise, the learned and the unlearned, the selfish and the unselfish, receive alike the benediction of his tranquil thought.

You can only attain to this supreme knowledge, this divine Love, by unremitting endeavour in self-discipline, and by gaining victory after victory over yourself.

Enter into the New Birth, and the Love that does not die will be awakened within you, and you will be at peace.

Daily meditation, Apr. 15th: James Allen

He who purifies his own heart is the world’s greatest benefactor.

APRIL FIFTEENTH

THE world is, and will be for many years to come, shut out from that Golden Age which is the realisation of selfless Love. You, if you are willing, may enter it now, by rising above your selfish self; if you will pass from prejudice, hatred, and condemnation to gentle and forgiving love.

Where hatred, dislike, and condemnation are, selfless Love does not abide. It resides only in the heart that has ceased from all condemnation. He who knows that Love is at the heart of all things, and has realised the all-sufficing power of that Love, has no room in his heart for condemnation.

Let men and women take this course, and lo! The Golden Age is at hand.

Daily meditation, Apr. 14th: James Allen

The world does not understand the Love that is selfless because it is engrossed in the pursuit of its own pleasures.

April fourteenth

AS the shadow follows the form, and as smoke comes after fire, so effect follows cause, and suffering and bliss follow the thoughts and deeds of men.

There is no effect in the world around us but has its hidden or revealed cause, and that cause is in accordance with absolute justice. Men reap a harvest of suffering because in the near or distant past they have sown the seeds of evil; they reap a harvest of bliss also as a result of their own sowing of the seeds of good. Let a man meditate upon this, let him strive to understand it, and he will then begin to sow only seeds of good, and will Burn up the tares and weeds which he has formerly grown in the garden of his heart.

It is toward the complete realisation of this divine Love that the whole world is moving.

Daily meditation, Apr. 13th: James Allen

He who has realised the Love that is divine has become a new man.

APRIL THIRTEENTH

AND this Love, this Wisdom, this Peace, this tranquil state of mind and heart, may be attained to, may be realised, by all who are willing and ready to and who are prepared to humbly enter into a comprehension of all that the giving up of self involves. There is no arbitrary power in the universe, and the strongest chains of fate by which men are bound are self-forged.

Men are chained to that which causes suffering because they desire to be so, because they love their chains, because they think their little dark prison of self is sweet and beautiful, and they are afraid that if they desert that prison they will lose all that is real and worth having.

" Ye suffer from yourselves, none else compels, None other holds ye that ye live and die."

To the divinely wise, knowledge and Love are one and inseparable.

Daily meditation, Apr. 12th: James Allen

Force and strife work upon the passions and fears, but love and peace reach and reform the heart.

April Twelfth

HE who is overcome by force is not thereby overcome in his heart: he may be a greater enemy than before; but he who is overcome by the spirit of peace is thereby changed at heart. He that was an enemy has become a friend.

The pure-hearted and wise have peace in their hearts; it enters into their actions; they apply it in their lives. It is more powerful than strife; it conquers where force would fail. Its wings shield the righteous. Under its protection, the harmless are not harmed. It affords a secure shelter from the heat of selfish struggle. It is a refuge for the defeated, a tent for the lost, and a temple for the pure.

When, divine good is practised, life is bliss. Bliss is the normal condition of the good man.

Daily meditation, Apr. 11th: James Allen

He is bravo who conquers another: but he who conquers himself is supremely noble.

APRIL ELEVENTH

BY the way of self-conquest is the Perfect Peace achieved. Man cannot understand it, cannot approach it, until he sees the supreme necessity of turning away from the fierce fighting of things without, and entering upon the noble warfare against evils within. He is already on the Saintly Way who has realised that the enemy of the world is within, and not without; that his own ungoverned thoughts are the source of confusion and strife; that his own unchastened desires are the violaters of his peace, and of the peace of the world.

If a man has conquered lust and anger, hatred and pride, selfishness and greed, he has conquered the world.

He who is victorious over another may in turn be defeated ; but he who overcomes himself will never be subdued.

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.