Unselfishness and Joy

Inside the gateway of unselfishness lies the Elysium of Abiding Joy.

KNOWING this – that selfishness leads to misery, and unselfishness to joy, not merely for one’s self alone – for if this were all how unworthy would be our endeavours ! but for the whole world, and because all with whom we live and come in contact will be the happier and the truer for unselfishness; because Humanity is one, and the joy of one is the joy of all – knowing this, let us scatter flowers and not thorns in the common ways of life – yea, even in the highway of our enemies let us scatter the blossoms of unselfish love – so shall the pressure of their footprints fill the air with the perfume of holiness and gladden the world with the aroma of joy.

Seek the highest Good, and you will taste the deepest sweetest joy.

James Allen

A pure heart and a righteous life are the great and all important things.

THE deeds and thoughts that lead to suffering are those that spring from self-interest and self-seeking; the thoughts and deeds that produce blessedness are those that spring from Truth. The process by which the mind is thus changed and transmuted is two-fold; it consists of meditation and practice. By silent meditation, the ground and reason of right conduct is sought, and by practice, right-doing is accomplished in daily life.

For Truth is not a matter of book learning, or subtle reasoning, or disputation, or controversial skill; it consists in right-doing.

Truth is not something that can be gleaned from a book; it can be learned and known by practice only.

Purification

Purification is effected by thoughtful care, earnest meditation, and holy aspiration.
TRUE strength and power and usefulness are born of self-purification, for the lower animal forces are not lost, but are transmuted into intellectual and spiritual energy. The pure life (pure in thought and deed) is a life of conservation of energy; the impure life (even should the impurity not extend beyond thought) is a life of dissipation of energy. The pure man is more capable, and therefore more fit to succeed in his plans and to accomplish his purposes than the impure. Where the impure man fails, the pure man will step in and be victorious, because he directs his energies with a calmer mind and a greater definiteness and strength of purpose.
With the growth in purity, all the elements which constitute a strong and virtuous manhood are developed.

Self-discipline and the process of Purification

The Rock of Ages, the Christ within, the divine and immortal in all men!

AS a man practices self-control he approximates more and more to the inward reality, and is less and less swayed by passion and grief, pleasure manifesting manly strength and fortitude. The restraining of the passions, however, is merely the initial stage in self-discipline, and is immediately followed by the process of Purification. By this a man so purifies himself as to take passion out of the heart and mind altogether; not merely restraining it when it rises within him, but preventing it from rising altogether. By merely restraining his passions a man can never arrive at peace, can never actualize his ideal; he must purify these passions.

It is in the purification of his lower nature that a man becomes strong and godlike.

Practice of self-discipline

BEFORE a man can accomplish anything of an enduring nature in the world he must first of all acquire some measure of success in the management of his own mind. This is as mathematical a truism as that two and two are four, for “out of the heart are the issues of life.” If a man cannot govern the forces within himself, he cannot long hold a firm hand upon the outer activities which form the visible life. On the other hand, as a man succeeds in governing himself he rises to higher and higher levels of power and usefulness and success in the world. Hitherto his life has been without purpose or meaning, but now he begins to consciously mould his own destiny; he is “clothed and in his right mind.”

With the practice of self-discipline a man begins to live.

Enfolding the Universe.

In the perfect chord of music the single note, though forgotten, is indispensably contained, and the drop of water becomes of supreme usefulness by losing itself in the ocean. SINK thyself compassionately in the heart of humanity, and thou shalt reproduce the harmonies of Heaven; lose thyself in unlimited love toward all, and thou shalt work enduring works end shalt become one with the eternal Ocean of Bliss. Man evolves outward to the periphery of complexity, and then involves backward to the Central Simplicity. When a man discovers that it is mathematically impossible for him to know the universe before knowing himself, he then starts upon the Way which leas to Original Simplicity. He begins to unfold from within, and as he unfolds himself, he enfolds the universe. Cease to speculate about God, and find the all-embracing Good within thee.

All temptation comes from within.

MEN fail to conquer, and the fight is indefinitely prolonged, because they labour, almost universally, under two delusions: first that all temptations come from without; and second, that they are tempted because of their goodness. Whilst a man is held in bondage by these delusions, he will make no progress; when he has shaken them off, he will pass on rapidly from victory to victory, and will taste of spiritual joy and rest.

The source and cause of all temptation is in the inward desire; that being purified and eliminated, outward objects and extraneous powers are utterly powerless to move the soul to sin or to temptation. The outward object is merely the occasion of the temptation, never the cause; this is in the desire of the one tempted.

A man is tempted because there are certain desires or states of mind which he has come to regard as unholy.

James Allen

Lack of thoroughness

The cause of the common lack of thoroughness lies in the thirst for pleasure.

EVERY employer of labour knows how difficult it is to find men and women who will put thought and energy into their work, and do it completely and satisfactorily. Bad workmanship abounds. Skill and excellence are acquired by few. Thoughtlessness, carelessness, and laziness are such common vices that it should cease to appear strange that, in spite of "social reform", the ranks of the unemployed should continue to swell, for those who scamp their work today will, another day, in the hour of deep necessity, look and ask for work in vain.

The law of "the survival of the fittest" is not based on cruelty, it is based on justice; it is one aspect of that divine equity which everywhere prevails. Vice is "beaten with many stripes"; if it were not so, how could virtue be developed? The thoughtless and lazy cannot take precedence of, or stand equally with, the thoughtful and industrious.

The mind that is occupied with pleasure cannot also be concentrated upon the perfect performance of duty.

James Allen

Doing little things

Thoroughness consists in doing little things as though they were the greatest things in the world.

THAT the little things of life are of primary importance is a truth not generally understood and the thought that little things can be neglected, thrown aside, or slurred over is at the root of that lack of thoroughness which is so common, and which results in imperfect work and unhappy lives.
When one understands that the great things of the world and of life consists of a combination of small things, and that without this aggregation of small things, the great things would be non-existent, then he begins to pay careful attention to those things which he formerly regarded as insignificant.

He who acquires the quality of thoroughness becomes a man of usefulness and influence.
James Allen

Will-power

Without strength of mind, nothing worthy of accomplishment can be done.

THE cultivation of that steadfastness and stability of character which is commonly called "will-power" is one of the foremost duties of man, for its possession is essentially necessary both to his temporal and external well-being. Fixedness of purpose is at the root of all successful efforts, whether in things worldly spiritual, and without it man cannot be otherwise than wretched, and dependent upon others for that support which should be found within himself.

The true path of will-cultivation is only to be found in the common everyday life of the individual, and so obvious and simple is it that the majority, looking for something complicated and mysterious, pass it by unnoticed.

The direct and only way to greater strength is to assail and conquer weaknesses.

James Allen

Problem of evil

Man is responsible only for his own deeds; he is the custodian of his own actions.

THE "problem of evil" subsists in a man's own evil deeds, and it is solved when those deeds are purified. Says Rousseau:
"Man, seek no longer the origin of evil; thou thyself art its origin."
Effect can never be divorced from cause; it can never be of a different nature from cause. Emerson says:
"Justice postponed; a perfect equity adjusts the balance in all parts of life."
And there is a profound sense in which cause and effect are simultaneous, and form one perfect whole. Thus, upon the instant that a man thinks, say, a cruel deed, that same instant he has injured his own mind; he is not the same man he was the previous instant; he is a little viler and a little more unhappy; and a number of successive thoughts and deeds would produce a cruel and wretched man.

An immediate nobility and happiness attend the thinking of a kind thought, or doing a kind deed.

Circumstances can only affect you in so far as you allow them to do so.

Daily Thoughts- August - 31

What joy awaits discovery in the silence behind the portals of your mind no human tongue can tell. But you must convince yourself; you must meditate and create that environment.

Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda.

What your thoughts are, that is your real self.

THE world around, both animate and inanimate, wears the aspect with which your thoughts clothe it. "All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is founded on our thoughts; it is made up of our thoughts." Thus said Buddha, and it therefore follows that if a man is happy, it is because he dwells in happy thoughts; if miserable,because he dwells in despondent and debilitating thoughts. Whether one be fearful or fearless, foolish or wise, troubled or serene, within that soul lies the cause of its own state or states, and never without. And now I seem to hear a chorus of voices exclaim, "But do you really mean to say that outward circumstances do not affect our mind?" I do not say that, but I say this, and know it to be an infallible truth, that circumstances can only affect you in so far as you allow them to do so.
You are swayed by circumstances because you have not a right understanding of the nature, use, and power of thought.

James Allen

Acheiving prosperity or peace

Daily Thoughts - August - 30

The more sweetening you put in water, the sweeter it becomes. Likewise, the longer you meditate intensely, the greater will be your spiritual advancement.

Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda.

There is no sure foothold in prosperity or peace except by orderly advancement in knowledge.

PERHAPS the chains of poverty hang heavily upon you, and you are friendless and alone, and you long with an intense longing that your load may be lightened; but the load continues, and you seem to be enveloped in an ever-increasing darkness. Perhaps you complain, you bewail your lot, you blame you birth, your parents, your employer, or the unjust Powers who have bestowed upon you so undeservedly poverty and hardship, and upon another affluence and ease. Cease your complaining and fretting; none of these things which you blame are the cause of your poverty; the cause is within yourself, and where the cause is, there is the remedy.

There is no room for a complainer in a universe of law, and worry is soul-suicide.

James Allen