The Library
Those are much mistaken who think the philosophic life is one of dark negation and dull privation, of sour life-denial and emotional refrigeration. Rather is it the happy cultivation of Life’s finest feelings.
5.6.2.7Listen There is one relationship which takes precedence over all others. It is the relationship with the Overself.
5.6.2.15Listen Only after long experience and severe reflection will a man awaken to the truth that the beauty which attracts him and the ecstasy which he seeks can be found free of defects and transiency only in the Soul within.
5.6.2.21Listen Philosophy will create within him a disgust for evil, a disdain for what is ignoble, a taste for what is refined and beautiful, a yearning for what is true and real.
5.6.2.22Listen The higher human feelings such as kindness and sympathy, patience and tolerance have to be nurtured.
5.6.2.32Listen He who enters upon this quest will have to revise his scale of values. Experiences which he formerly thought bad, because they were unpleasant, may now be thought good, because they are educative or because they reveal hitherto obscured weaknesses.
5.6.2.35Listen It is well to remember not to let oneself become the victim of negative feelings or harsh thoughts. They do not mend matters but only make you suffer more, and also suffer needlessly.
5.6.2.57Listen It is one of the side effects of philosophy that it purifies human affection, takes the littleness out of it, and lifts it to a higher and wider plane. This may bring some pain or it may bring a shared pleasure, depending on those involved in the experience.
5.6.2.58Listen In most human relations, egoism in one person is replied by egoism in the other.
5.6.2.62Listen Muhammed knew the power of tears. He bade his followers to weep whenever they recited the Koran.
5.6.2.77Listen Few people know what love really means because with nearly all it is filtered through the screens of bodily and selfish considerations. In its pure native state it is the first attribute of the divine soul and consequently it is one of the most important qualities which the seeker has to cultivate.
5.6.2.83Listen The love for which man is searching exists; it is as perfect, as beautiful, as perpetual, and as healing as he can imagine it to be. But it does not exist where he wants to find it. Only the inner kingdom holds and gives it at the end of his search. No other human being can do so unless he or she has previously entered the kingdom, and then only through all the limitations and colourings of the earthly consciousness.
5.6.2.84Listen … He will not hurt others unnecessarily. He feels that one of the best pieces of advice he can give others is: ”Be kind.” In this way you abrase your own egoism and show forth something--just an echo--of this love which emanates from the indwelling spiritual self…
5.6.2.86,Listen The capacity to give and receive love is not to be destroyed, nor can it be. Nature has planted its roots too deeply for that destruction to be attempted with success or desired with wisdom. But the man or woman who aspires to the highest cannot let it stay ungrown and benefit from its finest fruits. He should nurture it, purify it, exalt it, and spiritualize it. He should direct it toward his best self, his Overself, aspiring and yearning. And when it comes back to him in the blessed form of Grace, he should be ready and fit to receive it.
5.6.2.94Listen When one's love for another is of the highest type and leads to an expansion of understanding, compassion, and tolerance of others, he has glimpsed the greater purpose of personal love: how the surrender of his heart may lead to its opening to, and becoming united with, Universal Love.
5.6.2.111Listen Being aware of the weaknesses or faults of another does not necessarily mean we love him less. It is an essential part of the message of love that we learn how to forgive surface characteristics by contemplating the essence of the beloved, to see what is, while also seeing deeper to what truly IS--the Divine evidenced in a particular form
5.6.2.112,Listen Real love is not something to be withdrawn abruptly when the person who is its object annoys or offends you.
5.6.2.114Listen There is a common notion that love, to be worth its name, must be highly emotional and dramatically intense. That, of course, is one kind but it is not the best kind which is calm, unchanging, and unexcited.
5.6.2.121Listen When a man discovers that the same Overself dwells in his enemy as in his own heart, how can he ever again bring himself to hate or injure another?
5.6.2.126Listen Love of the divine is our primary duty. Love of our neighbour is only a secondary one.
5.6.2.130Listen Compassion is the highest moral value, the noblest human feeling, the purest creature-love. It is the final social expression of man's divine soul…
5.6.2.131,Listen ... The philosophic attitude is that a man shall perform his full duty to the world, but this will be done in such a way that it brings injury to none. Truth, honesty, and honour will not be sacrificed for money. Time, energy, capacity, and money will be used wisely in the best interests of mankind, and above all the philosopher will pray constantly that the Overself will accept him as a dedicated instrument of service. And it surely will.
5.6.2.151,Listen Ambition wears thin with time or even wears out altogether. The hour may come when it means nothing and when a man feels nothing of it. Only the young are so eager to risk the perils of upward flight to fame. The reflective man is indifferent to worldly ambitions as the aged man is tired of them. Philosophy leads its votaries to a somewhat similar detachment, but, by supplying new incentives, does not lead to negative results.
5.6.2.198Listen Once he has found out his true relationship to the higher power, the problem of settling his relationship to other human beings becomes easy.
5.6.2.217Listen Sometimes a quick friendship means that he is reviving an old spiritual relationship out of the hidden past, out of the numerous incarnations which have been lost in time…
5.6.2.224,Listen The aspirant who seeks to live spiritually in the world should marry for something more than physical enjoyment and comfort, more even than intellectual and social companionship. He must find a woman whose inner being is polarized to the same ideals as his own, who will walk by his side through every vicissitude as a fellow-pilgrim and a wholehearted seeker.
5.6.2.234Listen We shall secure personal happiness only to the extent that we unfold ourselves to the light of the impersonal Overself.
5.6.2.254Listen … as long as he continues to cling to despondency and to misunderstand, he is shutting out the Overself and preventing its message from reaching him. Every day is a new day, with new possibilities of a fresh, determined, and more courageous approach to all daily difficulties …
5.6.2.261,Listen … let him forget the past, and start planning for a happier tomorrow! No one else can do this for him, but he can draw faith from the knowledge that his efforts will count towards his joyful resurrection.
5.6.2.261,Listen “Are you happy?” is a question people often ask him. But he has not sought happiness. He has sought to find out why he is here and to fulfil that purpose.
5.6.2.271Listen
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