Lao-Tse.
8. The rivers and seas rule the valleys over which they flow: this is because they are lower than they.
Therefore if a saint would be above the people he must strive to be lower than they. If he would lead them, he must be behind them.
Therefore again, it a saint live above fte people, the people do not feel it. He is ahead of his people, but the people do not suffer because of it. And for this reason the world unceasingly praises him. The holy man quarrels with no one, and no one quarrels with him. Lao-Tse.
9. Water ts thin, light and yielding, but if it encounter something hard and stubborn, nothing can prevail against it. It tears down houses, it tosses great vessels like nutshells, it washes away embankments. Air is still thinner, softer and more yielding, and it is still more powerful when encountering that which is firm, hard and stubborn. It tears out big trees by the root, it also destroy?. Чвки!^,-»*.
it raises the water itself in mighty waves and drives it along in clouds. That which is gentle, soft and yielding overcomes that which is harsh, stem and unyielding.
Even so in the life of men. If you would conquer, be gentle, mild and yielding.
10. In order to be strong, be like water. If there are no obstacles it flows freely; if it encounters a dam, it stops; if the dam be broken, it flows again; in a square vessel it is square; in a round vessel it is round. Because it is so submissive it is at once gentlest and strongest
TRUTHFULNESS
TRUTHFULNESS
Superstitions are an obstacle to right living. Deliverance from superstitions is only in truthfulness—^not only before others but also before self.
I.
What Must Be Our Attitude to Established Convictions and Customs?
1. One of the most common methods of denying the existence of God is always and unconditionally to accept public opinion as correct and never to heed that voice of God which is constantly heard in our soul. Ruskin.
2. Though the whole world accepted a doctrine as true, though it be ever so ancient, man must examine it in the light of his reason and boldly reject it if it fails to be in accord with the demands of reason.
3. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John VIII, 32.
4. The man who acknowledges the divinity of his soul must examine in the light of his reason all the teachings which are accepted by people as undoubted truths.
5. He who would become a true man must give up pleasing the world; he who would lead the true life must refuse to be guided by that which is accepted as good and must assiduously search where and what is the true good. There is nothing holier and more profitable than the independent inquisitiveness of the soul. Emerson.
6. If a thing be true let us believe it: whether we be poor or rich, men or women or children. If a thing be untrue, let none of us believe it: ueitKe.t xvOci тукл v^'^^
neither multitudes nor individual men, women and children. The truth should be proclaimed from the housetops.
Some always whisper that it is dangerous to expose certain things to the majority of the people. They say: we know these things to be untrue, but they are necessary for the people. It is well for the people to believe in them and much harm may ensue if their faith in them is shaken.
No, crooked paths will always remain crooked, though they be designed for the deception of the vast majority of people. Falsehood can never do any one any good. And therefore we acknowledge only one law for all people: to follow the truth, as we know it, no matter where it may lead us. Clifford.
7. Both good and evil mingle in our readiness to believe in that which is presented to us as the truth: it is this readiness which permits the progressive movement of society, and it is this very readiness which makes this prc^res-sive movement so painfully slow; thanks to it each generation receives without effort the knowledge' which is its heritage acquired by the toil of those who have gone before, and each generation thanks to it appears a slave to the errors and the superstitions of its predecessors.
Henry George.
8. The longer a man lives the freer he becomes of superstitions.
9. All superstitions are merely corruptions of thought, and therefore deliverance from them is possible only through applying to them the demands of truth as revealed by reason.
10. To believe in that which is profitable and genuinely agreeable to us in itself is a natural characteristic of children and of mankind in its infantile stage as well. The
longer man and mankind live, the more enlightened and certain the human reason becomes, the more man and mankind are released from the erroneous idea that all that is true which is profitable to man. Therefore every individual and humanity at large, as they progress in life, must examine in the light of their reason and of the wisdom of their predecessors all the statements regarding truth which are offered them as articles of faith.
11. All truths expressed in words form a force the effect of which is infinite.
II.
Falsehoods, Its Causes and Effects
1. Think not that it is necessary only in things of importance to speak and to act the truth. It is necessary to speak and to act the truth even in most trifling matters. It IS not the degree pf evil, greater or less, which may be the result of your untruth that is essential. The essential thing is that you shall never defile yourself with falsehood.
2. If life is out of harmony with truth, it is none the less better to acknowledge the truth than to hide it: we can change our life for the sake of truth; but we cannot alter truth at all, it will remain as it is and will not cease to convict us.
3. We all love truth more than falsehood, but in matters affecting our life we frequently prefer falsehood to truth because falsehood furnishes an excuse for our evil life, while truth exposes it.
4. In the case of every truth which passes into the consciousness of people and is clearly recognized, the truth which replaces it is obvious. Nevertheless those who either profit by or are accustomed to the delusion seek Ъ) -^
means to sustain it. At such a time it is peculiarly important to proclaim the truth boldly.
5. If people tell you that it is not worth while in all things to strive for truth, because you will never attain perfect truth, do not trust such men and beware of them. They are the bitterest foes of truth and your own foes as well.
They speak thus only because their own life is not in accordance with the truth, and they know it, but they would have others live like themselves.
6. If you would know the truth, first of all rid yourself though for a season of alt the considerations of your own gain from this or that decision.
7. It delights you to discover the untruth of others and to expose it, but how much more ought it to delight you if you detect yourself in an untruth and expose yourself. Endeavor to afford yourself this delight as frequently as possible.
8. Be falsehood with its temptations never so enticii^, a time comes when it overwhelms a man with such agonies that he turns to truth not because of a thirst for truth, but merely to escape falsehood and the inevitable tissue of suffering resulting from it, and in truth alone he finds his salvation.
9. What is the cloud that has enveloped the world? Why is there no light in it? What de61es it? Wherein is its great peril?
Its peril is in the fact that men do not live by the divine reason which has been given them, but by that common and corrupted reason which has been amassed among them for the j'ustification of their passions. Men suffer and seek salvation. What then will save them. Only respecting their reason and following after truth.
From Oriental sources.