The teaching of Christ that you can not make this life
secure but must be ready to die at any moment gives more happiness than the teaching of the world that life must be made secure, if for no other reason at least because the inevitableness of death and the insecurity of life remain the same whether you follow the teachings of the world or the teaching of Christ; in the latter case, however, our life is not wholly swallowed up by the idle labor for the attainment of a false security, but is liberated and may be devoted to the one purpose proper to it: the perfecting of our soul and the increase of love to others.
5. He who in his dying body does not see himself, has comprehended the truth of life. Buddhist wisdom.
6. Therefore I say unto you. Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ?
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father f eedeth them. Are ye not much better than they ?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
Therefore take no thought, saying. What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or. Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Matthew VI. 25-27, 31, 33, 34.
THE PATHWAY OF LIFE
The Renunciation of the Aninul "I" Reveals God in the Soul of Man
1. The more man renounces his bodily "I," the more God reveals himself in him. The body hides the God in man.
2. Would you attain the consciousness of the all-embracing "I," then you must first know yourself. In order to know yourself you must sacrifice your "I" to the universal 'I. Brahminic visdom.
3. He who renounces his personality is powerful, for his personality has been concealing God within him. As soon as he has thrown off his personality, it is God who acts in him and no longer his own personality.
4. If you despise the world, there is small merit therein. To him who lives in God, both his own self and the world will be always as nought. Angelus.
5. The renunciation of the bodily life is valuable, necessary and blessed only if it is a religious renunciation, that is if man renounces self, his body, in order to do the will of God who dwells in him. But when man renounces his bodily life not to do the will of God, but to do his own will or the will of men like himself, such renunciation is neither valuable nor useful nor blessed, but on the contrary harmful to himself and to others.
6. If you seek to please others so that they may be grateful to you, your endeavors will be in vain. But if you do good to people without thinking of them, but for God, you will not only do good to yourself, but people will also be grateful to you.
He who foists himself is remembered of God, he who is mindful of himself is forgotten of God.
7. Only when we die to self in our body are we resurrected in God.
8. If you expect nothing nor seek to receive anything from other people,- people will not terrify you, any more than one bee terrifies another or one horse terrifies another. But if your happiness is in the power of other people you will always fear people.
We must begin with this: renounce all that does not belong to us, renounce it to such degree that it has no mastery over us, renounce all that the body needs, renounce iove of wealth, of glory, of positions, of honors, renounce wife, children, brothers. We must say to ourselves that none of these things belong to us.
But how to attain this ? Subject your will to that of God: does he will that I have a fever? I will so likewise. Does He will that I do this instead of that? I will so likewise. Does He will that something happen to me which I do not expect? I will so likewise. Epicietus,
9. Our own will never satisfies, though all of its demands may be met But the moment we renounce it, we feel complete contentment. Living for our own will, we are always discontented; renouncing it we are bound to be contented. The only true virtue is hating ourselves, because every man deserves hatred for his passions. But hating self, man seeks a being worthy of love. Being, however, unable to love anything that is outside of us, we are bound to love that being which is within us, but is not our own self, and there can be only one such being—the universal Being. The Kingdom of God is within us; universal blessing is within u-siwt we are not it. Pascal.
IV.
Renunciation of Self Alone Makes It Poseible to Love Others
1. Only that does not perish which does not live for self. But he who does not hve for self, for what shall he live ? Only when living for All can you live without living for self. Only living for All man can be and is at peace.
Lao-Tse.
2. Even if you so desired, you cannot cut off your life from that of humanity. You live in it, by it, and for it. Living among people you can not escape self-renunciation, because we are created for reciprocity, even as the feet, the hands and the eyes, and reciprocity is impossible without self-renunciation. Marcus Aurelius.
3. You cannot compel yourself to love others. You can only cast aside that which hinders love. And the love of your animal "I" hinders love.
4. Love your neighbor as yourself does not mean that you should try to love your neighbor. You can not compel yourself to love. Love your neighbor means to cease loving yourself above all things. And the moment you cease loving yourself above all things you will involuntarily love your neighbor as yourself.
5. In order to love others in deed and not in word, you must also cease loving yourself in deed and not in word. But it usually happens like this: we say that we love others, but love them in word only, yet we love ourselves not in word but in deed. We may forget to clothe, to feed or to shelter others, but we never forget ourselves. And therefore in order that we may love others in deed we must leant to forget to clothe, to feed and to shelter ourselves as we forget to do these things for others.
6. We must train ourselves to say within our soul when meeting another person: I will think of this person only, and not of myself.
7. It sufficesp to remember self in the midst of a speech, and you lose the thread of your thought. Only when we completely forget ourselves do we cmne out of ourselves, and only then i» our association with others fruitful and we can serve them and exert a beneficial influence upon tbem.
8. The richer a man is in external things, the better off he is in worldly life, the more difficult, the more remote from him is the joy of self-renunciation. Rich people are almost entirely deprived of it. But in the case of the poor man every time he interrupts his work to assist another, every crumlrof bread he gives to a be^;ar is a joy of self-renunciation.
And if a rich man give two out of his three millions to his neighbor he cannot experience the joy of self-renunciation.
9. There was once a destructive drouth on earth: all the rivers, brooks and wells dried up, trees, bushes and pastures were dry, people and animals were dying of thirst