Day by day
… It is at least well to know towards what goal mankind is so slowly and so unconsciously moving.
2.1.5.134, ExcerptListen 1 Jul 2017After he has entered on the Short Path, fit themes for his meditation will be those which turn him away from the personal ego. He can meditate on the glorious attributes of God, or on the essential perfection of the cosmos, or on the utter serenity of his Overself, for instance.
4.4.4.65Listen 2 Jul 2017The ordinary man thinks he is the ego because he identifies with his thoughts and his body. The awakened man knows that he is the Consciousness behind both.
13.21.5.145Listen 3 Jul 2017… All are ultimately one big family. This is what reflection on experience teaches. When one reflects on Truth, he shall eventually learn that, as the Overself, all are one entity--like the arms and legs of a single body. The upshot of this is that he has to consider the welfare of others equally with his own…
6.9.3.395, ExcerptListen 4 Jul 2017… The idea that he has a higher self, the conviction that he has a soul, breaks in upon his little existence with great revelatory force, and he feels he is emerging into glorious light after a dreary journey through a long dark tunnel…
14.22.8.107, ExcerptListen 5 Jul 2017… To attract the Grace from the Overself the seeker needs to turn away from his self-centeredness to what is its utter opposite--preoccupation with the Overself. He is to think of the Divine alone, of the infinitude and eternity of the Higher Power, and to forget all about his personal growth for a while.
15.23.4.70, ExcerptListen 6 Jul 2017Each human being has a specific work to do--to express the uniqueness that is himself. It can be delegated to no one else. In doing it, if he uses the opportunity aright, he may be led to the great Uniqueness which is super-personal, beyond his ego and behind all egos.
2.1.5.19Listen 7 Jul 2017… 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, ExcerptListen 8 Jul 2017In what way and by what means can a man discover the truth? By an aspiration active enough and intelligent enough to penetrate both mysticism and philosophy while saturating itself in reverence.
3.2.5.67Listen 9 Jul 2017The basic idea of the Long Path votary is that the goal must be reached in stages by constant striving through many lives to purify his character and perfect his wisdom. The basic idea of the Short Path is that it can be reached suddenly by constant meditation alone.
15.23.5.94Listen 10 Jul 2017It is a matter of transferring attention for this brief period from the ego and fixing it lovingly on the Overself. For while thought dwells in and on the ego alone, it is kept prisoner, held by the little self's limitations, confined in the narrow circle of personal affairs, interests, problems. The way out is this transfer of attention. But the change needs a motive power, a push. This comes from love and faith combined--love, aspiration, longing for Overself, and faith in its living ever-presence within.
4.4.2.287Listen 11 Jul 2017Of all the many forms of work which a man can find to do, of all the several ways in which his active functions can express themselves, there is none higher than this, that he guide men out of illusion into reality. It is not wrong therefore to give his office great reverence and himself great devotion.
2.1.6.659Listen 12 Jul 2017Meditation that is not accompanied by a deep and warm feeling of reverence will take much longer to reach its goal, if it reaches it at all.
4.4.2.282Listen 13 Jul 2017It is not correct to believe that the stricken body of a sage suffers no pain. It is there and it is felt, but it is enclosed by a larger peace-filled consciousness. The one is a witness of the other. So pain is countered but not removed.
15.24.2.150Listen 14 Jul 2017In those first moments when awakening from the nightly sleep we may enter a heavenly thought-free state. Or, if we cannot reach so high, we may receive thoughts which give guidance, tell us what to do, warn us against wrong decisions, or foretell the future.
15.23.6.78Listen 15 Jul 2017We are called to prayer because we can achieve no success, whether in human life or in the spiritual quest, without seeking and gaining divine help.
12.18.2.17Listen 16 Jul 2017The light streaming from a table lamp proves the existence of electricity. The light streaming into the mind in these exalted moments proves the existence of the Soul.
14.22.4.155Listen 17 Jul 2017There is one human activity which is continuous, rhythmic, natural, easy, and pleasant. It is breathing. We may take advantage of its existence by combining it with a simple exercise to bring about a kind of meditation which will possess all these four mentioned attributes. The exercise is merely to repeat one word silently on the inhalation and another word on the exhalation. The two words must be such that they join together to make a suitable spiritual phrase or name. Here is one useful example: “God Is.”
4.4.6.105Listen 18 Jul 2017Purification of the heart and calming of the mind are necessary prerequisites for penetrating into the Overself. They belong to the Long Path.
15.23.4.4Listen 19 Jul 2017What intellect cannot do because of its feebleness the aspirational feeling can do by its force.
12.18.1.57Listen 20 Jul 2017The egoism which falsifies our true sense of being and the materialism which distorts our true sense of reality are maladies which can hardly be cured by our own efforts. Only by calling, in trust and love, on a higher power, whether it be embodied in another man or in ourself, can their mesmeric spell ultimately be broken. Yet it is our own efforts which first must initiate the cure.
2.1.5.78Listen 21 Jul 2017When Jesus said, ”Knock and it shall be opened to you,” he meant knock at the door within yourself…
12.17.3.96, ExcerptListen 22 Jul 2017Thinking must be reduced more and more until it goes. But by no deliberate act of will can he bring on contemplation. All he can do is to be passive and wait in patience and keep the correct attitude--aspiring, loving, watching, but devoid of any kind of tension.
15.23.7.245Listen 23 Jul 2017… Our wrong-doing produces sorrows, not only for others but principally for ourselves. Our good action produces a rebound of good fortune. We may not escape from the operation of this subtle law of moral responsibility…
6.9.3.29, ExcerptListen 24 Jul 2017The glimpse is as much subject to grace as the Enlightenment which endures forever. It happens outside the man's own will, although inside his consciousness.
14.22.5.83Listen 25 Jul 2017The continual practice of the mantram leads in time to the awakening of his spiritual forces. They rise up spontaneously from their deeply hidden source within him and begin to saturate his mind and overwhelm his ego.
4.4.6.33Listen 26 Jul 2017With the feeling of the ego's displacement, all feelings of devotional worship or mystical communion also come to an end. For they presuppose duality, a relation which vanishes where there is only the consciousness of a single entity--the Overself.
15.23.7.128Listen 27 Jul 2017All living forms everywhere embody this principle of being--the One Infinite Life-Power. It is not itself personal yet it is open to man's personal access and will respond to his invocation--provided he succeeds in establishing contact with it and provided his approach is right--but its response must come in its own way and time.
12.18.1.1Listen 28 Jul 2017This is the experience whose mystery as well as peace passeth understanding. It is incommunicable by or to the intellect. For with it we attain unity but lose personality yet preserve identity.
15.23.8.180Listen 29 Jul 2017A meatless diet has practical advantages to offer nearly everyone. But to idealists who are concerned with higher purposes it has even more to offer. On the moral issue alone it tends to lessen callousness to the sufferings of others, men or animals, and to increase what Schweitzer called ”reverence for life.”
4.5.3.8Listen 30 Jul 2017Ultimately he will have to rise into that pure atmosphere whence he can survey his personal life as a thing apart. And, still more difficult as it is, he will have to live in such a way as to use personality to express the wisdom and goodness felt on that height…
3.2.5.59, ExcerptListen 31 Jul 2017
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