The 30 latest...
The 30 latest published notes
… Nearly a half of the average life is spent in recapitulating the previous incarnational development so that the work of a new incarnation does not really begin until then.
6.9.2.141, ExcerptListen 19 Apr 2025To pursue the realization of his dream—an abiding peace which would necessarily lead to the falling-away of haunting fears and negative emotions—he must gain control of thoughts.
4.4.1.48Listen 18 Apr 2025… We must reorganize our daily lives so that time can be found for the leisurely cultivation of the soul through study, reflection, and meditation. Such periodical intervals of withdrawnness from the endless preoccupation with external affairs are a spiritual necessity …
1.3.0.15, ExcerptListen 17 Apr 2025Open the door and let the Light in. It is as simple—and as hard—as that.
4.4.1.137Listen 16 Apr 2025Ernest Wood’s Yoga Dictionary defines “Overself” as follows: “A term designed by Dr. P. Brunton to indicate that the holy fount of our being and root of our consciousness is still ourselves, is indeed our true self. The Sanskrit equivalent is adhyatma as in Bhagavad Gita, Chapter VII and VIII.” To Dr. Wood’s learned definition I would like to add Kutastha, what stands above or beyond illusion, and also the Gita’s picture of the higher element in man controlling the lesser self. Further I would not leave out Buddha’s transcendent atmosphere of goodwill to all beings.
14.22.3.177Listen 15 Apr 2025In the admiration of Nature’s beauty and the appreciation of art, music, poetry, and literature, the seeker can find sources of inner help and themes for meditation.
9.14.3.35Listen 14 Apr 2025The aspirant for illumination must first lift himself out of the quagmire of desire, passion, selfishness, and materialism in which he is sunk. To achieve this purpose, he must undergo a purificatory discipline. It is true that some individuals blessed by grace or karma spontaneously receive illumination without having to undergo such a discipline. But these individuals are few. Most of us have to toil hard to extricate ourselves from the depths of the lower nature before we can see the sky shining overhead.
1.2.0.3Listen 13 Apr 2025If it begins quietly and unassumingly, it ends deeply—with the sensation of having entered briefly and memorably a higher world of being.
14.22.6.133Listen 12 Apr 2025The higher individuality is preserved, but the lower personality, with its miserable limitations, is not.
16.25.2.212Listen 11 Apr 2025When he is settled down in this final stage, his mind takes on a diamond-like quality—hard and unchangeable in its identification with its deepest layer, bright and positive in its radiation.
15.23.7.49Listen 10 Apr 2025It is the work of a lifetime to venture on such a great improvement of character as will place the lower self under our control, instead of our being controlled by it. We are likely to get disheartened at times by the seeming slowness of progress. This is partly because we are too apt to think in terms of this single incarnation only, whereas those who understand life’s actual range think of it in terms of dozens and scores …
5.6.1.415, ExcerptListen 9 Apr 2025The more successfully he can keep himself free from worldly ties, the more extensively he will be able to serve mankind.
15.24.3.83Listen 8 Apr 2025The cool detachment which he feels in the presence of temptations is a very satisfying feeling, a worthwhile reward for the struggles to attain it.
15.24.3.87Listen 7 Apr 2025Philosophy offers itself to men of the world, although monks may take to it if they wish. It ends in inspired action, not in dull reverie.
13.20.2.145Listen 6 Apr 2025He does not eat meat, not so much because he thinks it poisons the body, but more because he feels pity for slaughtered animals …
4.5.3.114, ExcerptListen 5 Apr 2025Nature is an expression of the Universal Mind. The plants are given to us for medicine or food. It is an insult to Nature to despise these remedies.
7.10.2.6Listen 4 Apr 2025Who is the seeker on this Quest? It is the ego. And who undergoes all the experiences and develops all the ideas upon it? It is also the ego. Let us not therefore be too hasty in denigrating the ego; it has its place and serves in its place.
6.8.4.432Listen 3 Apr 2025It is a consciousness where the “here” is universal and the “now” is everlasting.
14.22.3.222Listen 2 Apr 2025Because we have lost our way, these truths are once again as fresh and significant and important as if they had never before been known to humanity.
2.1.1.131Listen 1 Apr 2025The automatic, constant, and undisciplined thought-movement comes at last to an end. It is the central part of the ego which has surrendered.
6.8.4.481Listen 31 Mar 2025Dr. Johnson understood the philosophical attitude rightly when he said that we have both to enjoy life and to endure life.
13.20.3.148Listen 30 Mar 2025In ancient Mexico, the Highest Godhead was “the Idea that could not be reproduced” and no personification or representation of it of any kind was allowed. But this was doctrine only for the upper classes and the intellectually cultivated. The masses were given a God who was visible and comprehensible.
16.28.2.11Listen 29 Mar 2025Beneath the little “I” stretches the universal Consciousness.
6.8.1.124Listen 28 Mar 2025He may be sure of one thing, that his fidelity to ideas and ideals, to teacher and teachings, will be tested. This is inescapable if his will is to be surrendered to the higher will, if his character is to be purified and his attitude cleansed of its egoism.
3.2.3.151Listen 27 Mar 2025We sit in the ego with all its limitations as in a prison and we do not know that we are prisoners, for we identify ourselves with it and blind ourselves by those very limitations …
6.8.4.42, ExcerptListen 26 Mar 2025Too much preoccupation with his own spiritual advancement, too much of self in his thoughts and too little of the Overself—this only binds him tighter to the ego.
3.2.1.172Listen 25 Mar 2025It is correct that we may trust absolutely to the higher power. But mystics should first be sure that they have found it and are not merely trusting some subconscious aspect of their ego …
12.18.4.45, ExcerptListen 24 Mar 2025“How quiet it is!” exclaimed Lao Tzu, in describing the Overself. “Yet it can transform all things.”
14.22.3.106Listen 23 Mar 2025They are welcome who are willing to equip themselves with proper and profounder knowledge, who wish to fit themselves by study of fundamental principles, by regular meditation, personal self-discipline, and public service for a higher life for themselves and a valuable one for society.
2.1.2.88Listen 22 Mar 2025Omar Khayyam’s agnostic position is perfectly in accord with philosophy’s position. Both his school of Sufism and our teaching declare the impossibility of man knowing God. We can discover only that God exists and that the Soul exists but not go farther.
16.25.1.79Listen 21 Mar 2025The encounter with the Overself may be hushed and gentle or thrilling and dramatic. But it will certainly be absorbing.
14.22.6.237Listen 20 Mar 2025
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