The Library
To learn is to receive knowledge; but he who seeks to learn this Truth which is both behind and beyond all other truths must come with his mind, his heart, his body, and his will. With his mind because his thought must be pushed to its deepest measure. With his heart because his love is demanded more than he now knows. With his body because it is to be the temple of the holy spirit. And with his will because he may not stop this enterprise until he is through.
13.20.3.5Listen Philosophical intelligence combines the intellectual faculty with the intuitive.
13.20.3.8Listen The study of philosophy educates the mind in deep thinking. It must be approached in the spirit of scientific detachment.
13.20.3.10Listen Unless men possess the right intuitional calibre, they cannot grasp this teaching, for it stands at an altitude beyond the reach of the gross and the materialistic.
13.20.3.14Listen … The strength to set aside the patterns of thought imposed on his mind by long habit is required…
13.20.3.15,Listen Swedenborg: “Without the utmost devotion to the Supreme Being, the Origin of all things, no one can be a complete and truly erudite philosopher. Veneration for the Infinite Being can never be separated from philosophy.”
13.20.3.28Listen In the study of modern science, in all laboratory analysis or examination of natural phenomena, great stress is laid upon the necessity for strict impersonality and freedom from every trace of wishful thinking, personal emotion, and prejudice. This is of equal necessity to the student of philosophy.
13.20.3.30Listen One should seek for knowledge of the Higher Laws governing life, for true purity of character, and for humility if he wishes to reach the Highest Truth.
13.20.3.64Listen Truth already exists within man. He has to bring it from the centre to the circumference of his consciousness. If it is hidden from his view, that is only because he has not looked deep enough or has not cleared away the obstructions to his view. Those obstructions are entirely within his lower self, and may be removed by practice of the philosophic discipline.
13.20.3.76Listen He has first to find out what it is that keeps him from the higher self. And, this known, he will see the need and value of the philosophic discipline as a means of eliminating these obstacles.
13.20.3.77Listen The ability to discriminate between appearance and reality, between the false I and the true I, is developed by subjecting the reports of the senses to the criticism of the intellect, by checking emotion with reason, by standing aside from all of these faculties with the intuition, and by diving deeper and deeper into one's essence in meditation.
13.20.3.81Listen … if a man cultivates the habit of barring entrance to negative thoughts and of instantly throwing weakening ones out of his mind, his character will strengthen itself more quickly …
13.20.3.82,Listen … the truth-seeker will begin to turn inward in quest of unity with his own soul and outward in quest of unity with mankind. Life is the guide that is bringing him home to himself and to kindlier relation to his fellows …
13.20.3.82,Listen The goal is to obtain a higher consciousness which flashes across the mind with blinding light. All his effort, all his training is really for this.
13.20.3.87Listen Man's imperfect nature must be rendered utterly passive, its distorting interference utterly eliminated, before the divine truth can manifest itself in all its authoritative purity.
13.20.3.92Listen He who knows and feels the divine power in his inmost being will be set free in the most literal sense of the word from anxieties and cares. He who has not yet arrived at this stage but is on the way to it can approach the same desirable result by the intensity of his faith in that being. But such a one must really have the faith and not merely say so. The proof that he possesses it would lie in the measure with which he refuses to accept negative thoughts, fearful thoughts, despondent thoughts …
13.20.3.97,Listen The inexperienced and the unbalanced may measure spiritual progress in terms of emotional ecstasy or meditational vision, but the mature and wise will measure it in terms of character--its nobility, its rounded development, and its purity.
13.20.3.100Listen The philosopher develops the principal sides of his human nature, that is, his intelligence by reasoning, his knowledge by study, his piety by devotions, his mystical intuitiveness by meditation, and his wisdom by association with those more evolved than himself.
13.20.3.107Listen Thought, feeling, and will are the three sides of a human being which must find their respective functions in this quest. Thought must be directed to the discrimination of truth from error, reality from appearance. Feeling must be elevated in loving devotion towards the Overself. Will must be turned towards wise action and altruistic service. And all three must move in effective unison and mutual balance.
13.20.3.111Listen The disinclination to start practising meditation and the inability to sustain it for long when started are due in part to the mind's strong habit of being preoccupied with worldly matters or being attached to personal desires. This is why the study of wholly abstract metaphysical and impersonal topics is part of the Philosophic Path.
13.20.3.121Listen The mental tendencies which he has brought over from previous births, the effects of physical heredity and environment, the influence of society, and the suggestions of education--all of these have to be disciplined and purified, if he is to acquire truth without unconsciously deforming it.
13.20.3.128Listen It is vital to see clearly the difference between teachings that spring from and serve only the ego, and those that spring from and lead to the Overself.
13.20.3.153Listen If you ask what reality is, in philosophy's view, the answer must be consciousness. If you further ask what man's work in this life is, the answer must be to become conscious of consciousness as such. But because, ordinarily, consciousness never discloses itself to him but only its varying states, he can accomplish this work only by adopting extraordinary means. He will have to steel his feelings and still his mind. In short, he will have to deny himself.
13.20.3.155Listen The quadrangle of religious devotion, metaphysical study, mystical meditation, and inspired action makes the tool for philosophic work.
13.20.3.174Listen … Prayer and meditation lead to the cultivation of intuition and aspiration--and these, at the same time, must be accompanied by the strengthening of will, plus study and reflection. All efforts should be made side by side, so to speak, to lead to a balanced psyche--the philosophic ideal.
13.20.3.180,Listen A time comes when the seeker is so thoroughly penetrated with philosophic ideals that the higher life will become the everyday life.
13.20.3.192Listen The initiation into wisdom--if it is to be lasting--is not suddenly given by any master; it is slowly grown by the experiences and reflection of life. Thought is gradually converted into habit, and habit is gradually merged into high character…
13.20.3.193,Listen One must not be premature in demanding final union with the Overself. That comes only after years of all-round development. One must first prepare himself inwardly to receive it; only then may he expect the ultimate union. This preparation affects the whole personality—intellect, emotion, will, and intuition.
13.20.3.254Listen A balanced development will not stimulate the intellect and starve the feelings, nor do the opposite. It will give the intuition the highest place, making it the ruler of reason, the check on emotion.
13.20.3.264Listen All that is needful to a man's happiness must come from both these sources--the spiritual and the physical--from the ability to rest in the still centre, in the developed intellectual and aesthetic natures, in the good health and vigour of the body.
13.20.3.272Listen The basis of the universe is its equilibrium. Only so can the planets revolve in harmony and without collision. The man who would likewise put himself in tune with Nature, God, must establish equilibrium as the basis of his own nature.
13.20.3.279Listen The philosopher seeks to attain a proper equilibrium which will enable him to move within the world of turmoil, conflict, egocentric men, and materialistic aims and yet keep in continuous contact with the consciousness of his Overself.
13.20.3.299Listen It is natural that the endeavour to follow this ideal of Balance will spill over into his judgements and opinions. He will want to see all sides of a matter, and especially all the weaknesses in his own views, all the sound points in opponent's views.
13.20.3.313Listen When there is no collision between intellect and emotion, or between intuition and egoism, or between imagination and will, it may be said that one's inner harmony has been fully attained.
13.20.3.331Listen … Again and again seekers after truth have been counselled to practise the art of bringing together and balancing the different elements of their nature, the different factors of the quest, the different demands of everyday living. Philosophy is able to give us peace because it incorporates this art.
13.20.3.334,Listen A well-balanced man cannot be thrown down. He may be pushed about by circumstances but he will always keep, or return to, his centre.
13.20.3.336Listen When thought and feeling grow purer together, when knowledge and aspiration wax stronger side by side, when idea and action progress mutually, he will come to know this truth about the virtues and values of balance by his own self-experience.
13.20.3.344Listen With knowledge, wisdom, and understanding developing in him along with devotion, aspiration, and reverence, and with the two trends culminating in appropriate action, his quest will be properly balanced, sane, and productive.
13.20.3.371Listen Those who talk or write truth, but do not live it because they cannot, have glimpsed its meaning but not realized its power. They have not the dynamic balance which follows when the will is raised to the level of the intellect and the feelings. It is this balance which spontaneously ignites mystic forces within us, and produces the state called born again. This is the second birth, which takes place in our consciousness as our first took place in our flesh.
13.20.3.385Listen By bringing into a fusion the masculine and feminine temperaments within himself, he also fuses knowledge and feeling, wisdom and reverence.
13.20.3.414Listen When these two--the positive and negative currents--come together, the electric lamp lights up of its own accord. When these two--intellect and feeling--are properly coordinated, and the character is both properly developed and purified, the Overself in a person begins to shine of its own accord.
13.20.3.416Listen Reason must walk side by side with emotion, science with mysticism, compassion with self-interest, action with thought. This balanced life and no other is the truly philosophic one.
13.20.3.426Listen Such is the all-round development of the human psyche offered by philosophy. It balances mystical intuiting by logical thinking, religious belief by critical reflection, idealistic devotion by practical service.
13.20.3.430Listen The Balance required preceding enlightenment is not only between intellect and emotion, thought and will, but also and mainly between the lower and the higher wills, between ego's desires and Overself's self-contentment.
13.20.3.431Listen When the two wills, higher and lower, are brought into balance and perpetually held there, he has secured the necessary conditions for enlightenment.
13.20.3.432Listen When the wisdom of experience is married to the drive of youth, tempering it but not paralysing it; when dreams are fulfilled in actions and ideals are reflected in emotions; when intuition reigns over intellect and guides will, man has achieved a worthy balance.
13.20.3.444Listen To obtain a balanced result it is necessary to make a balanced approach and not to rely on a single kind of effort only. The moral character must become involved in the quest of upliftment; the intellectual faculty must work at the study, as well as reflect upon the lessons of, life itself; the intuition must be unfolded by persistent daily practice of meditation; and the everyday practical life must try to express the ideals learned.
13.20.3.456Listen
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