13. There is only I and Thou. If it were not for us two, there would be nothing in this world. Angelus.
14. I know God not when I believe what is said about Him, but when I am as conscious of Him as I am of my own soul.
15. I am to God—another He. He finds in me that which for all eternity remain similar to Him.
16. It is as though man heard always a voice behind him, but had no power to turn his head and to behold him who speaks. This voice speaks in all tongues and guides all men, but no man has ever discovered him who speaks. К only man obeyed this voice to the letter and accepted it so as to keep himself apart from it even in thou^t, he would feel that this voice and himself are one. And the more a man considers this voice as his own self, the better will be his life. This voice will open up to him a life of blessedness, because this voice is the voice of God in man.
Emerson.
17. God desires good to all, therefore if you desire good to all, in other words if you love, God lives within you.
18. Man, do not remain man. Become God, only then will you make of yourself what you oi^ht. Angelus.
19. Some say: Save your soul. Only that can be saved which can perish. The soul can not perish, for it is the only thit^ that exists. The soul must not be saved, but purified from what defiles it and illuminated from what be-n^hts it, so that God may pass more and more freely through it.
20. Some say: "Have you forgotten God?" This is a good question. To forget God is to forget Him who lives within you, and by whom you live.
21. As I need God, so God needs me. Angelus.
22. If you grow weak and it goes hard with you, remember that you have a sout and that you can live in it.
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THE PATHWAY OF LIFE 55
But we imagine instead that other men like unto ourselves can sustain us. Emerson.
23. You can escape from the most difficult situation the moment you realize that you live not with your body, but with your soul, and remember that there is that within you which is more powerful than anything in the world.
24. He who is united with God, can not be afraid of God. God can not do injury to Himself.
25. Man may ask himself at any time: "What am I ? What am I doing? What am I thinking? What am I feeling at this moment?" And he can immediately reply to himself: **I am doing, thinking, feeling this or that at the present time." But if man ask himself: "What is that within me that is conscious of what I am doing, thinking or feeling?", his only answer can be that it is the consciousness of self. This consciousness of self is what we call the soul.
26. The fish dwelling in a river heard once that people maintained that fish could live only in the water. And the fish were much surprised and began to inquire among themselves, asking, "What is water?" .
One of the wise fish replied: "They say that there is a very wise old fish in the sea, let us swim to him and ask him what is water." And the fish swam out to sea, to where the wise old fish was living, and asked him: "What is water?" And the wise old fish answered: "Water is that wherein and whereby we live. The reason you do not know water is that you live in it and by it." Even so it seems to people at times that they do not know what is God, and yet they live in Him. Sufi.
THE PATHWAY OF LIFE
The Life of Man is Not in the Body But in the Soul, Not
in the Body and in the Soul, But in the
Soul Alone
But he that sent me is true; and I spealc to the world those things which I have heard of Him.
They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.
Then said Jes.us unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these thii^. John, viH, 26-28.
To lift up the Son of man is to recognize in our self the spirit that dwells in us and to lift it up above the body.
2. The soul and the body, these two are what man calls his own, the subjects of his perpetual care. But you must know that the true self is not your body, but your soul. Remember this, raise your soul above all flesh, preserve it from the filth of life, do not allow the flesh to suppress it. Then you will lead a good life. Marcus Aurelius.
3. Some say that one must not love oneself. Without loving oneself, there would be no life. The main issue is what to love in oneself; the soul or the body?
4. There is no body so strong and healthy that it does not ail sometimes. There are no riches that can not be lost. There is no power that will not cease. All of these things are unstable. If a man puts the aim of his life upon being strong, rich, influential, even though he attain what he strives for, still will he have anxieties, fears and griefs, for he wilt see that all the things upon which he built his life
must leave him, and he will see himself gradually growing older and nearing dissolution.
What to do then, to avoid fears and anxieties ?
There is only one remedy: to build your life not upon things that are fleeting, but upon things that will not perish, upon the spirit that lives in man.
5. Do what your body asks of you: seek after glory, honors and wealth, and your life will be hell. Do what the spirit within you asks: seek after lowliness, mercy and love and you will not need any paradise. Paradise will be in your soul.
6. There are duties to one's neighbors, and there are duties that every man owes to himself, to the spirit that lives within him. This duty is not to defile it, not to destroy it, not to suppress this spirit, and to cultivate is unceasingly.
7. In wordly matters you are never sure whether to do what you are doing or to forbear, never certain of the outcome of what you undertake. It is different if you live for your soul. If you live for your soul, you will assuredly know what to do, namely that which the soul demands, and you will assuredly know that good will come out of what you are doing.
8. The moment you feel the rise of passions, whims, fear or malice, remember who you are; remember that you are not the body, but the soul, and that which has agitated you will at once subside.
9. All our troubles are due to the fact that we forget that which dwells within us, and that we sell our soul for the mess of pottage of carnal joys.
10. In order to see the true light such as it is, you must become a true light yourself. Angelus.
VIII.
The True Blessedness of Man is Spiritual Blessedness
1. Man lives by the spirit and not by his body. If a man knows this and lays out his life in the spirit and not in the body, though you put him in chains and confine him behind iron bars, still will he be free.
2. Every man knows two lives in his experience; that of the body and that of the spirit. The life of the body, no sooner than it reaches fullness, begins to grow feeble. And it grows more and more so until it reaches dissolution. The life of the spirit, on the other hand, from the day of birth until the moment of death constantly develops and gathers strength.
If a man live the life of the body, his entire life is like the life of a man sentenced to death. But if a man live for his scut, that whereon he bases his happiness gathers strength every day of his life, and death has no terrors for him.
In order to lead a good life it is not necessary to know -.vhere you come from or what will be in the world to come. Think only of that which your soul, and not your body, desires, and you will not need to know where you come from or what will be after death. You will not need to know these things, for you will have the experience of that perfect blessedness for which no questions of the past and of the future exist.
4. When the world came into existence, reason became its mother. He who realizes that the basis of his life is