The Library
... The philosophic aim is to overcome the difference between sporadic intuitions and steady knowledge, between spasmodic ecstasies and controlled perception, and thus achieve a permanent state of enlightenment, abiding unshakeably and at all times in the Overself.
13.20.4.22,Listen Philosophical understanding can bloom within him only after he has cultivated his metaphysical intelligence as well as his mystical intuition.
13.20.4.59Listen Continued and constant pondering over the ideas presented herein is itself a part of the yoga of philosophical discernment. Such reflection will as naturally lead the student towards realization of his goal as will the companion and equally necessary activity of suppressing all ideas altogether in mental quiet. This is because these ideas are not mere speculations but are themselves the outcome of a translation from inner experience…
13.20.4.66,Listen This is the paradox: that both the capacity to think deeply and the capacity to withdraw from thinking are needed to attain this goal.
13.20.4.68Listen Such an attainment as philosophy proposes cannot be reached all at once. It must be approached through a series of preparatory steps. They will be slow in pace at first, but quicker later and sudden towards the end.
13.20.4.86Listen It is a long journey from the condition of seeker to that of sage. But this is true only so far as we ascribe reality to time. To those who know that our human existence is a movement through events, but that the human being in its essence transcends all events and dwells in timelessness, this journey may be considerably shortened or swiftly brought to its destination. For that, the thorough understanding of philosophy and its incessant application to oneself is required.
13.20.4.88Listen To the fearful, uninstructed seeker everything connected with a worldly life is a stop on his upward way. To the philosophically enlightened student, it is actually a step on his upward way. He redeems the earthly environment by thinking rightly about it, turns every earthly deed into a sacrament because he views it under a divine light, and sees a fellow pilgrim in the worst sinner.
13.20.4.93Listen It is not enough to know the internal self as the mystics know it. We must also know the real nature of the external world before we can realize Truth…
13.20.4.96,Listen To arrive at a simultaneous consciousness of both states--the personal ego and the impersonal Overself--is possible, and has been done intermittently by some people such as mystics and artists--or permanently by philosophers.
13.20.4.107Listen Philosophy takes its votaries on a holy pilgrimage from ordinary life in the physical senses through mystical life in the sense-freed spirit to a divinized life back in the same senses.
13.20.4.113Listen ... The Overself is present in all men--nay, all creatures--as their ultimate being. We not only know this but FEEL it. So we cannot remain indifferent to the lives of others. Therefore--and now is revealed a great secret--when we attain liberation from the endless-turning wheel of reincarnation, we voluntarily return again and again to earth solely to help others, mitigate suffering, and reduce ignorance…
13.20.4.129,Listen ... He must first develop the trinity of head, heart, and hand, or reason, intuition, and action, and then bring them all into proper balance. If in addition he is inspired by the ideal of service, he will attract to himself the unseen help of those who are also dedicated to such service.
13.20.4.131,Listen The first step is to discover that there is a Presence, a Power, a Life, a Mind, Being, unique, not made or begot, without shape, unseen and unheard, everywhere and always the same. The second step is to discover its relationship to the universe and to oneself.
13.20.4.133Two things have to be learned in this quest. The first is the art of mind-stilling, of emptying consciousness of every thought and form whatsoever. This is mysticism or Yoga... The second is to grasp the essential nature of the ego and of the universe and to obtain direct perception that both are nothing but a series of ideas which unfold themselves within our minds. This is the metaphysics of Truth. The combination of these two activities brings about the realization of his true Being as the ever beautiful and eternally beneficent Overself. This is philosophy.
13.20.4.134,In the ordinary state, man is conscious of himself as a personal thinking and physical entity. In the mystical trance-like state, he loses this consciousness and is aware of the Divine alone. In the philosophic state, he returns to the ordinary consciousness but without letting go of the diviner one.
13.20.4.135Listen Carrying in himself whatever he has found in study and meditation and prayer, he returns to the world to gain experience of life and to apply in practice what he has learned.
13.20.4.142... The quest is not a single-track but rather a triple-track affair. He must travel along it with his intelligence, his intuition, and his deeds…
13.20.4.143,Listen ... The world will need men and women as leaders who have their roots deep down in the life of the divine self but who have their intellects very much alert, their hands very much alive, and their hearts very much expanded.
13.20.4.143,Listen … I endeavoured to state what the old Asiatic sages had long ago stated, that it was possible to unfold a faculty of direct insight into the nature of the Overself, into the supreme reality of the universe, that this was the highest kind of intuition possible to man…
13.20.4.152,Listen All metaphysical study and all mystical exercises are but preparations for this flash of reality across the sky of consciousness which is here termed insight. The latter is therefore the most important experience which awaits a human being on this earth…
13.20.4.155,Listen The intellect is not able to get this kind of knowledge, not able to gain access to this higher dimension. But what is denied to it is granted to another of man’s faculties—insight. True, this is still only a latent one in nearly all men. But it is there and, with the Overself’s grace, can be unfolded.
13.20.4.165Listen It is out of the interplay of meditation, metaphysics, and altruistic action that insight is unfolded. No single element will alone suffice: the conjunction of all three is needed and then only can insight emerge …
13.20.4.175,Listen … Whereas metaphysics seeks to lift us up to the superphysical idea by thinking, whereas meditation seeks to lift us up by intuition, whereas ethics seeks to raise us to it by practical goodness, art seeks to do the same by feeling and appreciating beauty. Philosophy in its wonderful breadth and balance embraces and synthesizes all four and finally adds their coping stone, insight.
13.20.4.178,Listen Such a revolutionary acquisition as insight must necessarily prove to be in a man's life can only be developed by overcoming all the tremendous force of habitual wrong thinking, by neutralizing all the tremendous weight of habitual wrong feeling, and by counteracting all the tremendous strength of habitual wrong-doing. In short, the familiar personal I must have the ground cut from under its feet. This is done by the threefold discipline. The combined threefold technique consists of metaphysical reflection, mystical meditation, and constant remembrance in the midst of disinterested active service…
13.20.4.178,Listen It is all like a gigantic dream, with every human inserting his own private dream inside the public one. A double spell has to be broken before reality can be glimpsed--the spell which the world lays upon us and that which self lays upon us. The man who has completely awakened from this spell is the man who has gained complete insight. This faculty is nothing other than such full wakefulness. It is immensely difficult to attain, which is why so few of the dreamers ever wake up at all and why so many will not even listen to the revelations of the awakened ones. However, Nature teaches us here as elsewhere not to let patience break down. There is plenty of time in her bag. Life is an evolutionary process. Men will begin to stir in their sleep erratically but increasingly.
13.20.4.194Listen A mystic experience is simply something which comes and goes, whereas philosophic insight, once established in a man, cannot possibly leave him. He understands the Truth and cannot lose this understanding any more than an adult can lose his adulthood and become an infant.
13.20.4.198Listen Because he has worked for his prize, because he has undergone a patient and arduous training, and because he has taken every step on the way with full comprehension and clear sight, his inspiration is not here today and gone tomorrow but, when he acquires it, remains constant and is permanently kept.
13.20.4.199Listen To be able to contemplate the Overself as an ”other” is already an achievement of high order. But because it is, first, an intermittent one, second, an incomplete one, and third, an imperfect one, it is not yet the highest. In the latter there is final, permanent, and perfect immersion in the Overself.
13.20.4.211Listen His last task is to re-enter the busy world and dwell in it as focus for unworldly forces, to heal the suffering and guide the blinded.
13.20.4.212Listen The last marks of the ego’s grip will linger on him in various subtle forms. Perhaps the willingness to be saved himself while leaving behind so many others entangled in illusion is the final mark to be erased…
13.20.4.217,Listen ... No man is so low in the evolutionary scale that he cannot help some other men with a rightly placed word, cannot strike a flickering match in their darkness, cannot show the example of a better life.
13.20.4.218,Listen From all these studies, meditations, and actions the student will little by little emerge an inwardly changed man. He comes to the habitual contemplation of his co-partnership with the universe as a whole, to the recognition that personal isolation is illusory, and thus takes the firm steps on the ultimate path towards becoming a true philosopher. The realization of the hidden unity of his own life with the life of the whole world manifests finally in infinite compassion for all living things. Thus he learns to subdue the personal will to the cosmic one, narrow selfish affection to the wide-spreading desire for the common welfare. Compassion comes to full blossom in his heart like a lotus flower in the sunshine...
13.20.4.224,Listen … Never again will it be possible for him wilfully to injure another; but on the contrary the welfare of the All will become his concern. In Jesus' words he is “born again.” He will find his highest happiness, after seeking reality and truth, in seeking the welfare of all other beings alongside of his own. The practical consequence of this is that he will be inevitably led to incessant effort for their service and enlightenment…
13.20.4.224,Listen When he first attains to this clear vision, he sees not only that which brings him great joy but also that which brings him great sorrow. He sees men bewildered by life, pained by life, blinded by life. He sees them wandering into wrong paths because there is no one to lead them into right ones. He sees them praying for light but surrounded by darkness. In that hour he makes a decision which will fundamentally affect the whole of his life. Henceforth he will intercede for these others, devote himself to their spiritual service.
13.20.4.226Listen After the desire for the fullest overshadowing by the Overself, which must always be primal, his second desire is to spread out the peace, understanding, and compassion which now burn like a flame within him, to propagate an inward state rather than an intellectual dogma, to bless and enlighten those who seek their divine parent.
13.20.4.227Listen … There is every reason why a man who accepts the gospel of inspired action should become a beneficent force in the world. Whatever role falls to him in the game of life, he will play it in a vital and significant way. More than ever before in its history, the world's need is for such active philosophers…
13.20.4.229,Listen That which sustains each individual mind is a universal one. Therefore, that which is best for him in social and ethical action must also fulfil the requirement of being what is best for all. Otherwise it is incomplete.
13.20.4.235Listen Those who engage in unselfish service are temporarily loosened somewhat from the ego. This of course is true only to the extent that the service is done with pure, and not with ulterior or mixed or quite selfish, motives.
13.20.4.238Listen If those of higher ideals and unselfish character withdraw from society, leaving the world to be run by more materialistic and selfish persons, then society will certainly degenerate and thus bring karmic suffering upon itself. Wisdom, however, dictates the reverse policy.
13.20.4.243Listen His ultimate aim is to enjoy the blessed presence of the Overself in his heart. But it is not, as with inferior mystics, to enjoy it alone. He ardently desires to share it with others.
13.20.4.251Listen If anyone can make a spiritual, aesthetic, reasonable, and ethical contribution to mankind, he serves God too, even if he belongs to no religion. For he is harmonizing himself with the World-Idea.
13.20.4.258Listen Whoever wishes to attract people to philosophy must start by supporting its preachings with the attractiveness of his own personal example in day-to-day living. He must continue by practising love to all and depending on the power of truth. He must end by praying for others in secret and offering himself to the Divine as a pure instrument of service.
13.20.4.260Listen When the Higher Power leads a man to a position produced by his constant aspiration to serve coupled with his personal qualifications for it, the strength and wisdom he may need to fulfil it will also be granted.
13.20.4.261Listen To understand the mysterious language of the Silence, and to bring this understanding back into the world of forms through work that shall express the creative vitality of the Spirit, is one way in which you may serve mankind.
13.20.4.262Listen His personal destiny or spiritual dedication will decide his future course—whether deliberately to remain obscure and avoid the notice which excites opposition, or publicly to accept a mission and bring inspiration to a particular kind of activity.
13.20.4.271Listen ... His task is one of the oldest in human history--to convince men and women that it is worthwhile asking themselves: What are the ultimate values of human life?
13.20.4.275,Listen …”God regardeth the duty of proclaiming His message as the most meritorious of all deeds,” wrote the Persian prophet Baha'u'llah. Once fully engaged in this endeavour, he will feel more and more that he is part of a movement which is on the coming wave…
13.20.4.275,Listen Whoever by speech or by silence, by art or by example, helps to improve mankind or increase knowledge of the higher truth, renders the best service. No other charity or philanthropy equals this upliftment of creatures struggling--unwittingly or deliberately--to a purified, disciplined, and refined consciousness.
13.20.4.277The noblest calling in life and the most useful vocation is philosophical teaching.
13.20.4.278Listen The philosopher's work with others shines best in a literary function. There he gives light and healing, calm and hope to the many on their way who could never hope, owing to the lapse of time after his death or the distance in space before it, to encounter him in a consultative function.
13.20.4.279Listen ”An intense student may be endowed with the slenderest of good qualities, but if he can readily understand the truth--however theoretically--and expound it to others, this act of exposition will help him to become himself imbued with these ideas and his own mind will soak in their truth. This in the end will lead him to actualize the Divinity within himself.” Excerpt from Tripura, an archaic Sanskrit text, translated into modern language.
13.20.4.292,Listen … Those who stood closest to Jesus were asked to preach the gospel. Clearly therefore he conceived the spreading of truth to be their primary task … In this critical passage of humanity from a used-out standpoint to a newer one which confronts it today, such a service is more than important …
13.20.4.292,Listen Appreciation of these truths is the beginning of the philosophic life. Application of them is the end.
13.20.4.299Listen The discovery that our existence as well as the world's existence is like that of a dream need not alarm us, need not cause us to become impractical, inefficient, uninterested in life and half-hearted in action. For as we should prefer a pleasant dream during sleep to a horrible nightmare, so should we try to live this waking world dream of ours as pleasantly, as profitably, and as successfully as possible…
13.20.4.303,Listen When what he receives from within at the intuitive level is transplanted without at the active level, it becomes complete.
13.20.4.305Listen There is a gratifying secret entwined with this injunction to serve mankind. Whoever gives himself in such service will inevitably receive a boomerang-like return one day when others will display a readiness to serve him. For karma is a divine law which brings back to him whatever he has given forth…
13.20.4.307,Listen A true power will inform the hands of those who will act at the behest of the god within, whose daily admonishment to him is: “Go out and live for the welfare of man the Light you find in the deep recesses of your own heart.”
13.20.4.308Listen
12 Sep 2015
29 Sep 2018
5 Sep 2017
23 Apr 2012
17 Aug 2024
6 Dec 2013
26 May 2015
30 Jan 2015
22 Jun 2014
27 Sep 2016
27 Oct 2012
7 Oct 2012
11 Jan 2011
12 May 2011
22 Jan 2019
13 Jan 2011
14 May 2013
20 May 2013
8 Jul 2017
4 Apr 2013
9 Nov 2024
5 May 2024
8 Mar 2017
3 Jan 2018
23 Jul 2015
22 Jul 2015
21 Feb 2016
10 Jul 2016
21 Dec 2015
11 May 2022
24 Dec 2015
14 Jan 2016
10 Oct 2019
29 Apr 2014
19 May 2014
27 Oct 2018
20 Aug 2017
12 Aug 2021
20 Nov 2022
24 Oct 2018
18 Nov 2016
28 Jun 2019
23 May 2015
10 Jan 2017
9 May 2021
24 Mar 2016
21 Mar 2017
14 May 2011
9 Feb 2016
16 Dec 2018
1 Oct 2014
26 Nov 2022
18 May 2022
10 Apr 2014
19 Aug 2021
23 Sep 2017
20 Oct 2012
The notebooks are copyright © 1984-1989 The Paul Brunton Philosophic Foundation
This site is run by Paul Brunton-stiftelsen · info@paulbruntondailynote.se