Day by day
We suffer under the delusion that we must struggle, centimetre by centimetre, all the long way to the kingdom of heaven. We stare, astonished and sceptical, when a Sage—Indian, Chinese, Japanese—tells us that we are already in it.
15.23.1.30Listen 1 Aug 2023It is true that illumination of itself exalts character and ennobles feeling, purifies thought and spiritualizes action. But if there has been insufficient effort along these lines, then the illumination will only be temporary.
14.22.8.5Listen 2 Aug 2023He 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.
5.6.1.74Listen 3 Aug 2023He discovers that Consciousness, the very nature of mind under all its aspects, the very essence of be-ing under the personal selfhood, is where man and God finally meet. He knows that God indisputably exists, not because some religious dogma avers it but because his own experience proves it.
16.25.1.39Listen 4 Aug 2023The significant flash of insight may come at any moment, the sacred presence of the Overself may be felt when it is not being sought, and the noble peace of reality may even visit one who has never practised any technique at all …
14.22.5.98, ExcerptListen 5 Aug 2023When a man is ever bitter, resentful, unkind, and critical; never gentle, constructive, praising, and compassionate; then poison trickles through his inner being and must in the end reappear in his bodily being.
7.10.3.46Listen 6 Aug 2023… Our need of salvation, of overcoming the inherently sinful and ignorant nature of ego, isolated from true consciousness as it is, is greater than we ever comprehend …
3.2.9.67, ExcerptListen 7 Aug 2023It is true that property, money, and possessions give most men a sense of security. But it depends on them and they bring anxieties, cares, even fears, along with their comfort and support. They still need to find or to add a personal security which is independent of these externals, which is personal. This can come only from within …
2.1.1.150, ExcerptListen 8 Aug 2023Pythagoras pointed out that the way a nation treated its animals, so far as they are at its mercy, is an indirect judgement of its character.
4.5.3.40Listen 9 Aug 2023We pass through the dream and deep sleep states after death just as we do before it.
6.9.1.63Listen 10 Aug 2023Says the Mukti Upanishad: “There is only one means to control one’s mind, that is to destroy thoughts as soon as they arise. That is the great dawn.”
15.23.7.160Listen 11 Aug 2023… No aspirant who is sincere and sensitive will be left entirely without help. It may appear during temptation when the lower nature may find itself unexpectedly curbed by a powerful idea working strongly against it. He may find in a book just that for which he has been waiting and which at this particular time will definitely help him on his way …
3.2.9.67, ExcerptListen 12 Aug 2023Charity, service, helpfulness, character-building—all such activities are good, but they take and leave the ego as a given fact. They are willing to curb, discipline, correct, reform, polish, or purify the ego, but its permanent and real existence is accepted not only as true but as a part of things as they are in nature.
6.8.4.385Listen 13 Aug 2023Whatever happens in the world around him, he will so train his thoughts and feelings as to keep his knowledge of the World-Idea, and his vision of its harmony, ever with him.
12.18.4.101Listen 14 Aug 2023Character 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.
5.6.1.48Listen 15 Aug 2023Each man is the expression of this infinite life-power.
14.22.3.366Listen 16 Aug 2023Whenever he observes too much one-sidedness in his being or living, he must attend to its balance and make needed adjustments.
3.2.5.156Listen 17 Aug 2023The glimpse may come in the depth of meditation where expectancy places it. But it may also come at unexpected moments.
14.22.6.44Listen 18 Aug 2023There 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 19 Aug 2023The essence of man is his Overself, which is an emanation from Mind.
14.22.3.315Listen 20 Aug 2023… Without the divine grace, the Sufis say, man cannot attain spiritual union with Him, but they add that this grace is not withheld from those who fervently yearn for it.
12.18.4.94, ExcerptListen 21 Aug 2023Energy and drive in action, calm and patience in meditation—this is the combination he ought to achieve.
3.2.5.165Listen 22 Aug 2023Meditation rises to its proper level when the meditator thinks only of the relation or the aspiration between himself and the Overself, and it rises to its supreme level when he drops even such ideas and thinks of nothing save the Overself.
4.4.1.138Listen 23 Aug 2023Some who had never before heard of these teachings found them so reasonable, so inspiring, and so helpful that they instantly accepted them as true.
8.12.5.62Listen 24 Aug 2023Those who are satisfied with centering themselves within the ego will not be drawn to such teachings, which educate the pupils to cultivate constantly a withdrawal from the ego.
2.1.2.105Listen 25 Aug 2023He is soon distracted by the routines, the duties, the cares, and the activities of life, however petty they are, so that the great eternal truths recede from his vision. This is why such periods of temporary withdrawal are absolutely necessary every day.
3.3.1.143Listen 26 Aug 2023He 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.
5.6.1.30Listen 27 Aug 2023… The will has its part in this process, but it is not the only part. Sooner or later he will discover that he can go forward no farther in its sole dependence, and that he must seek help from something beyond himself. He must indeed call for Grace to act upon him …
3.2.9.67, ExcerptListen 28 Aug 2023The Long Path is paradoxically both a complement to the Short one and a preparation for it. It must first be practised alone. Only after some advance has been made can the time come for them to be practised conjointly.
15.23.5.176Listen 29 Aug 2023The need for precise knowledge to replace vague faith is as important today in religion as in any other sphere.
12.17.7.13Listen 30 Aug 2023He refuses to be forced by his contemporaries into their feverish activity but insists on retaining the dignity of an unharried pace. The body may be fugitive but his own existence is eternal—whether viewed as emerging in other appearances on earth or as pure timeless spirit.
3.3.3.33Listen 31 Aug 2023
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