Day by day
Nature displays her beauteous landscapes in vain if he who has wandered into her presence lacks the aesthetic reverent sensitivity to glance appreciatively at the grand vistas. Similarly, philosophy calls for a tuned-in, quieted, and reverent mentality if a man who wanders to its feet is to profit by it.
12.18.1.12Listen 1 Sep 2015... From the ordinary point of view, the nature of an event determines whether it is a good or an evil one; from the philosophic point of view, the way he thinks about the event will determine whether it is good or evil for him. He should always put the two points of view together and never separate them, always balance the short-range one by the long-range one…
13.19.2.8, ExcerptListen 2 Sep 2015The pursuit of moral excellence is immeasurably better than the pursuit of mystical sensations. Its gains are more durable, more indispensable, and more valuable.
5.6.1.52Listen 3 Sep 2015Will the masses ever come of cultural and spiritual age? Can the common man ever find enough nourishment in true philosophic ideas? Yes, this can happen if those at the top accept truth, for sooner or later their ideas filter downward, even if somewhat thinned by the process of popularization.
13.20.2.21Listen 4 Sep 2015His relationship to the Overself is one of direct awareness of its presence--not as a separate being but as his own essence.
16.25.2.301Listen 5 Sep 2015... He should become as a child at the feet of his divine Soul, humbly begging for its grace, guidance, and enlightenment. If his ego is strong, prayer will weaken it. Let him do this every day, not mechanically but sincerely and feelingly until the tears come to his eyes. The quest is an integral one and includes prayer alongside of all the other elements.
12.18.2.11, ExcerptListen 6 Sep 2015Unless the human ego were itself an emanation of the Overself it would be quite unable to identify itself with the sensation of severance from the body during the process we call dying.
6.8.1.136Listen 7 Sep 2015Full knowledge of the Truth can be sudden or slow: the first way is through knowledge, the second through devotion and meditation.
13.20.5.253Listen 8 Sep 2015When our eyes have been opened to the true meaning of man, when we know that this is not to be found in his transient personality but in his enduring essence, life will possess a quality it never had before.
13.20.1.265Listen 9 Sep 2015... Despite the tragedy and horror of our times, those who have eyes to see can still see the divine arms enfolding us. Despite the presence of monstrosities in the world, there is also the presence of the Overself--beautiful, radiant, benign, and indestructible.
2.1.5.421, ExcerptListen 10 Sep 2015When these words awaken profound echoes in a man's soul, he shows thereby that the intuitive element is sufficiently alive to enable him to profit by further teaching.
2.1.2.86Listen 11 Sep 2015... The philosophic aim is to overcome the difference between sporadic intuitions and steady knowledge, between spasmodic ecstasies and controlled perception, and thus achieve a permanent state of enlightenment, abiding unshakeably and at all times in the Overself.
13.20.4.22, ExcerptListen 12 Sep 2015How many have asked in puzzlement why the glimpses of reality cannot remain with them, how many have deplored its brevity! Plotinus long ago gave them his answer: ”Man can cease to become man, and become God; but man cannot be God and man at the same time.”
14.22.4.126Listen 13 Sep 2015His practice of constantly bringing the Overself to mind is a valuable part of the aspirant's equipment. Each remembrance has a twofold value: first, as a mystical exercise to cultivate concentration, and second, as a recurrent turning-away from worldly thoughts to spiritual ones.
15.23.6.179Listen 14 Sep 2015Whosoever enters into this realization becomes a human sun who sheds enlightenment, radiates strength, and emanates love to all beings.
16.25.3.146Listen 15 Sep 2015When he lies almost dying he may receive verification of the belief that a dying votary will see his god or guru or saviour come to take or guide his soul to the higher world.
6.9.1.125Listen 16 Sep 2015The psychological laws governing the inner development of spiritual seekers often seem to operate in most mysterious ways. The very power whose presence he may think has been denied him--Grace--is taking care of him even when he is not conscious of this fact. The more the anguish, at such a time, the more the Higher Self is squeezing the ego. The more he seems to be alone and forsaken, the closer the Higher Self may be drawing him to Itself.
12.18.5.269Listen 17 Sep 2015Men go on pilgrimage to this or that holy place, city, man, or monastery. But in the end, after all these outer journeys, they will have to make the inner journey to the divine deputy dwelling in their own hearts.
12.17.3.79Listen 18 Sep 2015Quite logically it is taught that some sort of a balance is struck between the two kinds of a person's karma, so that the bad may be mitigated or even outdone, but equally the good may be reduced or even offset.
6.9.3.19Listen 19 Sep 2015The Short Path offers a swifter unfoldment of the intuitional consciousness. It is not so bound to the limitation of time as the Long Path is. It seeks to identify the man now with his higher self.
15.23.5.67Listen 20 Sep 2015Intuitive feelings are so easily and hence so often drowned in the outer activity of the body, the passions, the emotions, or the intellect, that only a deliberate cultivation can safeguard and strengthen them.
14.22.1.62Listen 21 Sep 2015It is not possible for a student to know the changes which are going on in his subconscious mind and which will eventually break through into his consciousness at some time. If he feels he is failing in some way through his attachment to material things, the very recognition of this is itself a sign that he has half-progressed out of this condition and is not satisfied to remain inside these attachments. Of course, the struggle to free himself from them is at its worst when he does not have the feeling of the Divine Presence. But when that feeling comes the struggle itself will automatically begin to die down.
3.2.9.44Listen 22 Sep 2015Calmness and balance are the most admired virtues in the philosophic code. The first is developed to the extent of becoming superb self-composure, the second until it integrates utter opposites.
13.20.1.108Listen 23 Sep 2015He has had the glimpse. The after-period is important. For as he returns to his ordinary self and to the ordinary persons around him, the opportunity is offered to make an adjustment, a fresh start by the light of what the experience revealed.
14.22.7.3Listen 24 Sep 2015The personal contact with a master does not necessarily require a face-to-face meeting. It can also be effected through a letter written by him--nay, to some degree, even through a book written by him. For his mind incarnates itself in these productions. Thus, those who are prevented by circumstances from meeting him physically, may meet him mentally and gain the same results.
2.1.6.86Listen 25 Sep 2015In the making of our future, a mixed result comes from the mixed and contradictory character of the thoughts feelings and desires we habitually hold. Therefore our very fears may contribute their quota in bringing about what we do not desire. Here lies one advantage of positive affirmations and clear-cut decisions in our attitude toward the future.
6.9.3.165Listen 26 Sep 2015Consciousness really does exist whereas the things which it makes known are present only when they are perceived, felt, heard, or otherwise sensed by one or more of the five reporting agents. This consciousness is in itself always the same, unvarying, the one thing in us in which thoughts and bodies make their appearance and from which they also vanish.
13.21.1.78Listen 27 Sep 2015The actions of a man who has attained this degree are inspired directly by his Overself, and consequently are not dictated by personal wishes, purposes, passions, or desires. They are not initiated by his ego's will but by a will higher than his own…
16.25.2.88, ExcerptListen 28 Sep 2015If men knew that the law of compensation was no less operative than the law of their country, they would unquestionably become more careful.
6.9.3.84Listen 29 Sep 2015Truth existed before the churches began to spire their way upwards into the sky, and it will continue to exist after the last academy of philosophy has been battered down. Nothing can still the primal need of it in man. Priesthoods can be exterminated until not one vestige is left in the land; mystic hermitages can be broken until they are but dust; philosophical books can be burnt out of existence by culture-hating tyrants, yet this subterranean sense in man which demands the understanding of its own existence will one day rise again with an urgent claim and create a new expression of itself.
13.20.5.262Listen 30 Sep 2015
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