2. The most precious thing for man is to be free, to live according to his own will and not according to that of another. In order to be so free, man must live for his soul. In order to live for his soul man must subdue the passions of his body.
3. The life of man is a gradual passing from the k>wer animal nature to an ever increasing consciousness of spiritual life.
4. We make an effort to awake and we wake up indeed when a dream becomes so horrible that we have no more strength to bear it. Even so with life when it becomes unbearable. At such times we must make mental efforts to awaken to a new, a superior spiritual life.
5. We must make efforts to overcome sins, errors and superstition; otherwise, as soon as we cease to battle against them, our body will attain mastery over us.
6. We imagine that real work must have something to do with things visible: building houses, ^lowvw^ ^ч5А%^
feeding the cattle, and that work on our soul, being something invisible, is of no importance, is something that we can do or let alone; whereas every other kind of work is trifling, save the work on your own soul, the work of daily growth in spirit and in love. This is the only true work, and all other work is useful only as long as this chief work of hfe is performed.
7. He who realizes that his life is bad and longs to lead a better life must not think that he cannot begin to live better until he has changed the circumstances of his life. Life can be and must be corrected not through external changes, but through a change within, a change in the soul. This can be done anywhere and at any time. And this is enough of a task for any man. Only when such a change enters your soul that you are unable to continue your former life,4)nly then alter your mode of life, but not when you think that you could reform yourself more easily by changing your mode of life.
8. There is only one important life task for all people. This consists in improving your soul. This is the one ■ task to which all men are called. Everything else is trifling in comparison. The truth of this is evidenced by the fact that it is the one task in which you can engage without hindrance, and that it is the one task which always yields joy to man.
9. Take a silk worm for a pattern. He toils until he has strength to fly. You are clinging to earth. Toil over your soul and you wilt receive wii^. Angelus.
ni.
The Striving .After Perfection Requires Mental Effort
1. "Be ye perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is
perfect," says the Gospel. This does not signify that Christ
Mi
THE PATHWAY OF LIFE 13
commands man to be as perfect as God, but that every man must make efforts of mind to strive after perfection, and in this striving is the life of man.
2. Every creature grows up gradually and not all at once. A science can not be mastered all at once. Neither can sin be overcome all at once. There is only one way to grow better: by wise judgment and constant patient effort.
Channing.
3. Lessing said that it is not the truth which gives joy, but the effort which a man must make in order to attain it. The same may be said of virtue: the joy of virtue is in the efforts made to attain it.
4. The following admonition is engraved on the bathtub of Emperor Ching-Chang: "Daily renew thyself completely; do so again and again from the beginning."
Chinese wisdom,
5. If a man is not engaged in research, or if he is engaged in research and fails therein, let him not despair or cease; if a man does not question enlightened persons rq^arding doubtful matters, or questioning them fails to attain enlightenment himself, let him not despair; if a man docs not meditate, or meditating fails to comprehend clearly the essence of good, let him not despair; if a man does not distinguish good from evil, or in distinguishing lacks a clear conception, let him not despair; if a man does not perform good deeds, or in performing them does not devote his whole strength to them, let him not despair; whatever others have acccnnplished with one bound, he may be able to accomplish after ten trials; whatever others have accomplished after a hundred trials, he may be able to accomplish after a thousand.
He who truly shall follow this rule of constant effort,
W THE PATHWAY OF LIFE
no matter how ignorant he be, will attain enli^tenment; no matter how weak he be, he will attain strength; no matter how depraved he be, he will surely acquire virtue.
Chinese wisdom.
6. If a man performs good deeds merely because he has acquired the habit of doing good, his is not yet the truly good life. Good life ccmunences when man makes efforts in order to be good,
7. You say that it is not worth while to make efforts, for, strive as you may, you can never attain perfection. But your business is not in attaining perfection, it is in the constant striving after it.
8. Let not man think lightly of evil in his heart: "I am so far from evil that it can not touch me." Little drops fill a vessel with water. Little by little the madman who does evil deeds is filled with evil.
Let not man think lightly of goodness, saying in his heart: "I have no strength to receive goodness." As the vessel is filled drop by drop, even so the heart of the man who performs good deeds is filled with goodness as he strives towards blessedness. Buddhist wisdom.
9. To make life continuous joy instead of sorrow be always good to all, men and animals alike. In order to be always good, you must train yourself to be good. In order to train yourself to be good, you must not commit a single unkind action without reproving yourself.
If you do this, you will soon acquire the habit of being kind to all, men and animals alike. And if you become accustomed to kindness, joy will ever reign in your heart.
10. The virtue of man is not measured by prodigious feats, but by his daily effort, Pascal.
IV.
In Striving After Perfection Man Must Rely on His
Own Strength Alone
1. What a mistake to ask God or even people to rescue us out of an undesirable condition. Man requires no one's help, nor need he be rescued out of any condition, he has need of one thing only: to make an effort of his own mind in order to free himself from sins, errors and superstitions. Only to the extent that a man delivers himself from sins, errors and superstitions, can his condition change or improve.
2. Nothing so weakens the strength of a man as the hope of finding salvation and happiness in anything outside of his own efforts.
3. We must rid ourselves of the idea that Heaven can correct our errors. If you prepare food carelessly you do not expect that Providence will intervene to make it tasty; even so if after a series of senseless actions you have misdirected the course of life, you must not think that divine intervention will set everything right. Ruskin.
4. There is within you the knowledge of what constitutes supreme perfection. There are likewise within your own self obstacles to its attainment. Your condition is what you must work over in order to approach perfection. Carlyle,
5. You sin yourself, you encompass evil yourself, you flee from sin yourself, you purify your thoughts yourself, you are evil or you are pure in your own self—^another can not save you. Jampada.
6. To say that I cannot refrain from an evil deed is to say that I am not a man but an animal. Men often think
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SO, but no matter how strongly they may affirm this, they know within their own hearts that as long as they have life they can cease from evil and commence to do good.
7. There is no moral law if I cannot obey it. Some say we are bom selfish, covetous, lustful and we cannot be otherwise. Yes we can. First we must feel in our hearts what we are and what we should be, and then we must make an effort to strive towards that which we ought to be.