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If we will bring more sincerity and more integrity into our lives, more truth and more wisdom into our minds, more goodwill and more self-discipline into our hearts, not only will we be more blessed but also all others with whom we are in touch.
5.6.1.1This grand section of the quest deals with the right conduct of life. It seeks both the moral re-education of the individual's character for his own benefit and the altruistic transformation of it for society's benefit.
5.6.1.6The aspirant must remember always that his immediate duty lies in self-preparation, self-discipline, and self-improvement. The building of fine character on the quest is quite as important as the efforts of aspiration and meditation, even more so, for the former will lead to the dissolving of egoism, and without this the latter are of little avail.
5.6.1.11The reformation and even transformation of character is as much a sector of philosophy as the practice of concentration and the study of mind. The virtue which develops from disciplining thoughts and controlling self removes obstacles and gives power to truth’s pursuit.
5.6.1.15To the extent that he purifies and ennobles himself, he qualifies himself for the reception of superior insight.
5.6.1.20His spiritual progress will be measured not so much by his meditational progress as by his moral awakening.
5.6.1.28He must look within himself for the impurities and falsities, the malice and envy, the prejudice and bitterness which belong to his lower nature. And he must work with all his willpower and thinking power to cast them out.
5.6.1.30It is when men come face-to-face with a real crisis, a real temptation, or a real hardship that they show their real character…
5.6.1.32,It must be remembered always that mere intellectual study is not so essential as the building of worthwhile character, which is far more important in preparing for the great battle with the ego.
5.6.1.33He will have to grow into this higher consciousness. No other way exists for him.
5.6.1.42Character can be changed. He who habitually contemplates such exalted themes finds in time that his whole outlook is altered and expanded, as if by magic. The new outlook will gradually strongly establish itself within him. Says the Christian Bible: “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” which may be matched with what was written in Sanskrit long before this was uttered: “As is one’s thought, so one becomes; this is the eternal secret.”—Maitri Upanishad.
5.6.1.48The key to right conduct is to refuse to identify himself with the lower nature. The hypnotic illusion that it is really himself must be broken: the way to break it is to deny every suggestion that comes from it, to use the will in resisting it, to use the imagination in projecting it as something alien and outside, to use the feelings in aspiration towards the true self, and the mind in learning to understand what it is.
5.6.1.50The pursuit of moral excellence is immeasurably better than the pursuit of mystical sensations. Its gains are more durable, more indispensable, and more valuable.
5.6.1.52… love must marry knowledge, pity must shed its warm rays upon the cold intellect. Enlightenment of others must be the price of one's own enlightenment …
5.6.1.60,If each attack of adverse force, each temptation that tries a weakness, is instantly met with the Short Path attitude, he will have an infinitely better chance of overcoming it. The secret is to remember the Overself, to turn the battle over to IT. Then, what he is unable to conquer by himself, will be easily conquered for him by the higher power.
5.6.1.68He should begin with the belief that his own character can be markedly improved and with the attitude that his own efforts can lessen the distance between its present condition and the ideal before him.
5.6.1.74The more the character is purified, the easier it is to practise meditation. The more the lower nature holds a man, the shorter will be the period of time in which he will be able to hold attention on the Overself.
5.6.1.88Freedom is a tremendous word whose meaning goes much beyond the average man's idea of it. He is not free who is in bondage to narrow prejudice, strong attachment, unruled desire, and spiritual ignorance.
5.6.1.94Where the Overself lives fully in a man, he will not need to consider whether an act is righteous or not. Righteous acts will flow spontaneously from him and no other kind will be possible …
5.6.1.108,We must put out of our minds every weakening impulse by instant reference to the strength of the Overself, every evil thought by a call to the infinite good of the Overself. In this way character is uplifted and made noble.
5.6.1.146There is a perfect relation between the impression we make upon others and the mastery we have achieved over ourselves. The strength of the impression depends on the degree of the mastery. Furthermore, our power over the world outside us will be proportionate to our power over the nature within us.
5.6.1.148There are three activities which he needs to keep under frequent examination and constant discipline--his thoughts, his speech, and his actions.
5.6.1.171He who puts his lower nature under control puts himself in possession of forces, gifts, possibilities, and satisfactions that most other men lack.
5.6.1.186The habit of always remembering that he is committed to the Quest and to the alteration of character which this involves, should help him to refuse assent in temptation and reject despondency in tribulation.
5.6.1.278Each person who enters our life for a time, or becomes involved with it at some point, is an unwitting channel bringing good or evil, wisdom or foolishness, fortune or calamity to us. This happens because it was preordained to happen--under the law of recompense. But the extent to which he affects our outer affairs is partly determined by the extent to which we let him do so, by the acceptance or rejection of suggestions made by his conduct, speech, or presence. It is we who are finally responsible.
5.6.1.290There is a guiding conscience in a man which develops or weakens as he responds to the forces and influences playing on and in him from both bygone lives and the current incarnation. It is this preoccupation with choosing good and avoiding evil, with religious feelings and moral virtues, that lift man above the animal.
5.6.1.337It is not only a question of what course of action will be most effective, but of what will be most ethical. Neither of these two factors can be ignored with impunity; both must be brought into a balanced relation.
5.6.1.348The mark of true goodness is, first, that it never by thought, word, or deed injures any other living creature; second, that it has brought the lower nature under the bidding of the higher; and third, that it considers its own welfare not in isolation but always against the background of the common welfare.
5.6.1.361What is sin? It may be defined, first, as any act which harms others; second, as any act which harms oneself; third, as any thought or emotion which has these consequences.
5.6.1.371The selfish person thinks only of satisfying his own wants first of all, not caring if he harms others. The next higher type thinks also of his immediate circle of family and friends. But the highest type of all gives equal regard to himself, to his family, to whoever crosses his path, and to all others. He feels for everyone, never satisfying his desires by wrongfully taking away from, or harming, another.
5.6.1.386... If it be asked, How can anyone who is attuned to such impersonality be also benevolent? the answer is that because he is also attuned to the real Giver of all things, he need not struggle against anyone nor possess anything. Hence he can afford to be generous as the selfish cannot. And because the Overself's very nature is harmony and love, he seeks the welfare of others alongside of his own.
5.6.1.387,The best charity in the end is to show a man the higher life that is possible for him.
5.6.1.392The continued study of this philosophy will inevitably lead the student to accept its practical consequences and thus make the universal welfare of mankind his dominant ethical motive.
5.6.1.404However disheartening the slowness of his growth may be to his emotions, the remembrance that he is a sage in embryo should always be encouraging to his reason.
5.6.1.417His quest of the Overself must be an untiring one. It is to be his way of looking at the world, his attitude toward life.
5.6.1.434Each difficulty surmounted, each weakness resisted will fortify his will and increase his perseverance. It will evoke the better part of his nature and discipline the baser, and thus fit him more adequately to cope with the next ones.
5.6.1.436Tenacity of purpose is a characteristic of all who accomplish great things. Drawbacks cannot disgust him, labour cannot weary him, hardships cannot discourage him in whom the quality of persistence is always present. But to the man without persistence every defeat is a Waterloo.
5.6.1.440Everything that belongs to the ego and its desires or fears has to go. For some men it is hard to put aside pride, for others it is harder to put aside shame, but both feelings have to go.
5.6.1.455His attitude towards those situations in life which are difficult or trying will show how far he has really gone in the Quest. If he has not undergone the philosophic discipline, he will either analyse these situations in a wrong egoistic way or else avoid analysing them altogether.
5.6.1.463You are to be penitent not only because your wrong acts may bring you to suffering but also, and much more, because they may bring you farther away from the discovery of the Overself.
5.6.1.472He may be ashamed of what he did in the past but then he was that sort of man in the past. If he persists in identifying himself with the I, in time such feelings will come to him and cause this kind of suffering. But if he changes over to identifying himself with the timeless being behind the I there can be no such suffering.
5.6.1.475When he can bring himself to look upon his own actions from the outside just as he does those of other men, he will have satisfied the philosophic ideal.
5.6.1.488
24 1 2018
14 12 2019
11 4 2021
15 2 2024
15 4 2021
4 12 2019
27 8 2023
1 1 2018
30 5 2014
2 10 2024
15 8 2023
5 7 2011
3 9 2015
3 3 2021
9 4 2016
3 8 2023
12 8 2024
8 7 2012
4 5 2021
27 6 2019
30 5 2012
6 5 2011
9 12 2014
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19 7 2020
10 12 2019
25 10 2012
10 12 2023
12 11 2022
17 10 2015
24 12 2010
21 7 2015
12 5 2019
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24 10 2023
26 5 2018
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25 7 2019
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21 12 2023
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