2. The efforts which deliver man from sins, errors, and superstitions have their inception in thoughts. One of the principal aids of man in this stru^le is his ability to commune with the reasoning activity of the sages and
saints who have gone before. Such communion vrith the thoughts of the saints and sages of old is ргаует, that is, repetition of those words wherein these men expressed their relation to their soul, to other people, to the worid and to its beginning.
3. It has been accepted since of old that prayer is necessary to man.
With men of olden days, and still with the majority of men to-day, prayer is an a[^al under certain conditions, in certain locations, accompanied by certain acts and words, addressed to God or to other divinities, and intended to appease them.
Christian doctrine knows no such prayers. It teaches that prayer is needful not as an instrument of deliverance from worldly ills, nor as a means of securing worldly blessings, but as a means of strengthening man in good thoughts.
4. True prayer is important and needful for the soul because in such prayer, being alone with God, our thought reaches the highest irinnacle attainable to it.
5. Christ said: When thou prayest, pray in secret (Matthew VI, 5-6). Only then will God hear you, God who is within you, and in order that He may hear you, you must only dispel all that conceals Him from you.
6. Despondence is that state of the soul in which a man fails to see any purpose either in his own life or in the life of the whole world. There is only one way to be rid of this condition: to summon from within yourself the best thoughts that you are conscious of, either your own thoughts or the thoughts of others, and this process may illuminate to you the meaning of your own life. The summoning of these thoughts may be effected by the repetition of those supreme truths that you know and that you can express to yourself—aud this is prayer.
7. Pray unceasingly. The most needful and the nwst difficult of prayers is to remember amid the activities of life your duties before God and His law. Have you been frightened, angered, confused, tempted—make an effort, remember who you are and what you ought to do. Herein is prayer. This is difHculi at first, but the habit may be developed.
8. From time to time it is well to modify your prayer, that is the expression of your relation to God. Man changes constantly, grows constantly, and therefore his relation to God must change and become more manifest. And even so must his prayer be modified.
VII. Good Ufe is Impossible Without Effort of Thought
1. Appreciate good thoughts, your own and those of others, as soon as you recognize them. Nothing will aid you as much as good thoughts in the accomplishment of the true task of your life.
2. Be master of your thot^hts if you would attain у^шг purpose. Fix the glance of your soul upon that one pure light which is free from passions.
Brahminic wisdom.
3. Meditation is the path to immorality; frivolity is the path to death. Those who are watchful in meditation never die, but the frivolous and unbelievers are even as the dead.
Arouse thyself, then protected by thyself and penetrat-ing into thyself, thou wilt be immutable.
Buddhist wisdom.
4. The true strength of man is not in impulse, but in the uninterrupted steady striving after good which he de
termines in his thoughts, expresses in his words and realizes in his actions.
5. If looking back over your life you observe that your life has grown better and freer from sins, errors and superstitions, know that you owe this success only to the labor of your thoughts.
6. Thought activity is precious not only because it corrects our life, but also because it is helpful in the life of other people as well. This is what makes the effort of thought so valuable.
7. This is what the Chinese philosopher Confucius says about the signiBcance of thought:
True learning teaches men the highest good—to be reformed and to abide in that state. In order to attain supreme good it is necessary that wellheing reign throughout the nation. In order to have wellheing throughout the nation it is necessary to have wellbeing in the family. In order to have wellbeing in the family it is necessary to have wellbeing within oneself. In order to attain wellbeing within oneself the heart must be corrected. In order to have your heart corrected you must have clear and truthful thoughts.
VIII.
Man la Distinguished from an Animal Only by Having the Capacity of Thinking
1. Man is distinguished from an animal only by his capacity of thinking. Some people increase this capacity in themselves, others pay no heed to it. These latter people act as though they would surrender that which distinguishes them from the beast. Eastern wisdom.
2. A cow, a horse, or any other animal, no matter how hungry it may he, will never leave the court if the gates
open inwards. It will starve to death if the gate be stout and there be none to open it, for it will never think of walking away from the gate pulling it along. Man alone understands that he must suffer awhile, laboi", and do those things which he may not desire at the moment, in order to brii^ about a desired result. Man may restrain himself from eating, sleeping or drinking, because he knows what is good and what he ought to do or what is evil and what he ought not to do. Man learns these things through his capacity of thinking.
This capacity is the most valuable possession of man and he should guard it and cultivate it with all his strength.
3. Compared with the world surrounding him, man is but a feeble reed, but a reed endowed with the capacity of thinking.
The merest trifle suffices to kill a man. And yet man is higher than any other creature, higher than anything earthly, because even when dying he is conscious of the fact that he is dying.
Man may be conscious of his insignificance before nature, but nature itself is not conscious of anything.
Our whole advantage is in the capacity of thinking. Our thought elevates us above the rest of the world. Let us prize and sustain our power of thought and it will illumine our whole life, showing us wherein is good and wherein is evil. Pascal,
4. A man may leam to read and write, but this knowledge will not enlighten him whether he should write a letter to a friend or a complaint against someone who has injured him or leave it alone. A man may leam to use musical instruments, but music will not tell him when he should sing or play and when he should leave singing and
playing alone. Eve so in all things. Only reason suggests to us what to do, when to do it, or what not to do and when.
Having endowed us with reason, God put at our disposal that which is most needful. Giving us reason it is as though He said: In order that you may avoid evil and lay hold on the blessings of life, I have implanted within you a divine particle of Myself. I have given you reason. If you apply it to all that happens to you, nothing in the world will be an obstacle or impediment to you on the road which I have designed for you, and you will never complain of your fate or against people, you will never judge them or cringe before them. Do not reproach me for not having given you more. Is it not enough for you to be able to live your life reasonably, peacefully and happily?
^ Epictetus.
5. A wise proverb says that God visits us without ringing the bell. This means that there is no partition between us and the infinite, that there is no wall between man —^the effect, and God, the cause. The walls have been removed, we are open to all the profound effects of divine characteristics. Only the labor of thought keeps open the hole through which we commune with God. Emerson,
6. Man is created that he may think; therein is his entire merit and worth. The duty of man is only in thinking right. The proper order of thinking is to commence with self, with the Creator and one's purpose in life. But what do the people of the world think about instead? Not at all of these things, but merely of having a good time—of becoming rich, of glory, of gaining a throne, without thinking what it means to be a king and what it means to be a man.