Day by day
Something or someone is needed to draw us from the ego to the Overself behind it.
2.1.6.25Listen 1 Jan 2019Before a man will undertake the moral purifications with which the quest must begin, and the mental trainings which must complement them, he must have some incentive to do so. Where will he find it? The answer is different with different men, since it depends on his stage of evolution, character, and destiny. If some find it in the sadness produced by world-weariness, others find it in the joy produced by a Glimpse. Still others are prompted by the hunger for Truth or by the thirst for self-improvement, or even blindly by the tendencies brought over from previous births.
2.1.2.221Listen 2 Jan 2019… I know that there is a soul because I daily commune with it as a real, living presence.
8.12.3.36, ExcerptListen 3 Jan 2019… For now he knows by evidence, study, and reflection that the Overself is behind, and is the very source of, his ego, just as he knows by the experience of feeling during his brief Glimpses. Bringing this strong conviction into thought and act and attitude is the Heavenly Way [or As If] exercise, a principal one on the Short Path…
15.23.6.109, ExcerptListen 4 Jan 2019Why ought I to cultivate religious faith, feeling worship? Because it lifts up the feeling nature generally. Because it develops humility. Because it invites Grace. Because it is the duty of a human being in relation to its Source.
12.18.1.4Listen 5 Jan 2019Knowledge of the higher laws, consciousness of the higher self, bring special obligations. To apply them carries new responsibilities to live according to them.
2.1.2.500Listen 6 Jan 2019That which compels us to act in a certain way is in part the pressure of environment and in part the suggestion of our own past. Sometimes one is stronger, sometimes the other is stronger. But the root of the whole problem lies in our mind. Its proper cultivation frees us largely from both compulsions.
6.9.3.140Listen 7 Jan 2019At this stage his business is to wait patiently, looking as deeply inward as he can while waiting. Any attempt to grasp at the Overself would now defeat itself, for the ego's willed effort could only get the ego itself back. But the willingness to sit still with hands metaphorically outstretched like a beggar's, and for a sufficient stretch of time, may lead one day to a moment when the Overself takes him by surprise as it suddenly takes hold of his mind. The much sought and memorable Glimpse will then be his. He has applied for discipleship and this is his sign of acceptance.
15.23.7.244Listen 8 Jan 2019Freedom is not in itself a good or bad thing; the way it is used, whether wisely or recklessly, will determine its value.
6.9.4.68Listen 9 Jan 2019So long as the slaughter of animals is really unnecessary for human food, so long does it remain a moral crime, an ancient shame upon whole nations, against which prophets and saints, seers and teachers have inveighed and warned … If people find their own prayers for mercy to the Higher Power remain unanswered, let them remember how they themselves showed no mercy.
1.5.0.22, ExcerptListen 10 Jan 2019The sage makes the highest conceivable sacrifice in willing to return to earthly life for times without end solely for the benefit of all creatures.
16.25.4.8Listen 11 Jan 2019The Overself is always there; it has never left us, but it has to be ardently, lovingly, and subtly searched for.
15.23.1.159Listen 12 Jan 2019Even deliberate inaction does not escape the making of a karmic consequence. It contains a hidden decision not to act and is therefore a form of action!
6.9.3.181Listen 13 Jan 2019… Whoever will offer himself unto the Overself, and will be blessed by its benediction so that he becomes as one inspired, may then perceive this strange figure at his side working for the good of man.
6.9.3.583, ExcerptListen 14 Jan 2019… In the end we shall have to reserve our best worship not for a particular manifestation in time but for the Timeless itself, not for a historical personage but for the impersonal Infinite.
16.28.1.116, ExcerptListen 15 Jan 2019On the Long Path we search for truth, reality, the Overself. That is, we use the ego's forces and faculties. On the Short one we keep still and let truth, reality, the Overself's Grace search for us instead. The ego is then no longer in the picture.
15.23.5.78Listen 16 Jan 2019Mine is a religion which cannot be named, a God who cannot be discussed, a worship which cannot be seen or heard. All that I revere rests in secrecy and silence.
8.12.3.64Listen 17 Jan 2019Take it with you wherever you go--first, in remembrance as Idea, then, as you develop, in actuality as Presence.
15.23.6.218Listen 18 Jan 2019The really determined spiritual man has more powers of free will than others--powers to mold his life and to offset his karma and to create good karma to wipe out threatening or existing bad karma.
6.9.4.81Listen 19 Jan 2019The making of money, the earning of a livelihood, and the attainment of professional or business success have their proper place in life and should be accorded it but--in comparison with the fulfilment of spiritual aspiration--ought to be regarded as having quite a secondary place.
2.1.1.159Listen 20 Jan 2019Grace is always being offered, in a general way, but we do not see the offer; we are blind and so pass it by. How can we reverse this condition and acquire sight? By preparing proper conditions. First, mark off a period of each day--a short period to begin with--for retreat from the ordinary out-going way of living. Give up this period to in-going, to meditation. Come out of the world for a few minutes.
12.18.5.187Listen 21 Jan 2019In 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 22 Jan 2019The more he trains himself to recognize and reject the impulses that come from his lower nature, the more will clarity of comprehension become his.
5.6.4.28Listen 23 Jan 2019If you want to heal a man do not concentrate upon the nature of his disease, or you may strengthen it. Concentrate rather upon the nature of his Overself, that its mighty grace may be released to him. Do not even pray that he will be cured. Pray rather that the power of the Overself's grace may work within him, and do what it will.
7.10.2.46Listen 24 Jan 2019… The only attainable freedom lies deep within. It is invisible and mental. This is what the sage enjoys. He may be weighted with business responsibilities and surrounded by a family, but in his heart nothing holds him.
16.25.3.270, ExcerptListen 25 Jan 2019”Give up thyself” is the constant injunction of all the great prophets. Before we can understand why this was their refrain, we must first understand the nature of the self about which they were talking. There is in every man a false self--the ego--and the true one--the Overself.
6.8.4.368Listen 26 Jan 2019When life seems to lose its meaning, when action seems in vain and ambition futile, when depression besets one like a dark cloud, the ego begins to feel its helplessness, its dependence on forces outside itself.
12.18.3.91Listen 27 Jan 2019A phrase or two, coming from an inspired man, may set a subconscious process working in the mind of another and lead him in the end to acquire a new truth or a new view.
2.1.6.63Listen 28 Jan 2019Against this immense cosmic background, we may see the paltriness of human pride, the ridiculousness of human conceit.
16.26.4.12Listen 29 Jan 2019…Let him remember those glorious moments when the higher self touched his heart. In these moments all that was noble in him overflowed. Enemies were forgiven, grievances let go and the human scene viewed through the spectacle of tenderness and generosity…
5.6.5.316, ExcerptListen 30 Jan 2019Even without making special efforts to deal with undesirable traits, some will tend to fall away through being denied attention. This is one consequence of following the Short Path.
15.23.1.155Listen 31 Jan 2019
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