If all his efforts are concentrated on self-improvement, then the circle of his thinking will be a small and limited one. The petty will become over-important in his own eyes and the insignificant will become full of meaning. It is needful to balance the one attitude with another—surrender to and faith in the power of Grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23413 – 12.18.5.134

BN – X – D

Constant self-effort can thin down the egoism but not eliminate it. That final act is impossible because the ego will not willingly slay itself. What self-effort does is to prepare the way for the further force which can slay it and thus makes the operation timely and its success possible. What it further does is to improve intelligence and intuition and to ameliorate the character, which also prepares the individual and attracts those forces. They are nothing else than the pardoning, healing, and, especially, the transforming powers of Grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23414 – 12.18.5.135

BN – X – D

However much he exerts his intellect he cannot reach the final revelation, the clearest enlightenment, for this is a gift of grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23416 – 12.18.5.137

BN – X – D

It is not by special intervention that the Divine Grace appears in our life. For it was there all the time, and behind all our struggles, as a constant unbroken radiation from the Overself. But those struggles were like the hoisting of sails on a ship. Once up, we are able to catch the wind and propulsion begins automatically.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23418 – 12.18.5.139

BSG_5 – P – D

When your efforts have brought you to a certain point, then only do they get pushed aside or slowly drawn away by another power—your higher Self. What really happens is that the energy or power which you are using spontaneously ignites. It is that which enables you to do, to get done, to achieve. The all-important point is that the active power is not your own will, but is really a direct visitation of what we must call Grace. It is strongly felt, this experience of the higher power or higher Self.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23420 – 12.18.5.141

BN – X – DEK

A man can look to his own knowledge and his own actions to carry him a long distance on this path, but in the end he must look to grace for final results.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23421 – 12.18.5.142

BN – X – D

Man has no power of his own to command Grace but he does have the power to turn away from smug satisfaction with his own ego and throw himself at the feet of the Overself—the source of Grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23423 – 12.18.5.144

BN – X – D

When he becomes acutely aware both of the sacred duty of self-improvement and of the pitiful weakness which he brings to it, the need of getting the redeeming and transforming power of Grace follows logically. He is then psychologically ready to receive it. He cannot draw Grace to himself but can only invoke and await it.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23425 – 12.18.5.146

BN – X – DK

In the end, and after we have tried sufficiently long and hard, we find that the knot of self cannot be untied. It is then that we have to call on grace and let it work on us, doing nothing more than to give our consent and to accept its methods.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23426 – 12.18.5.147

BN – X – D

If he fails but persists despite the failures, one day he will find himself suddenly possessed of the power to win, the power to achieve what had hitherto seemed impossible for his limited ability. This gift—for it is nothing else—is Grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23428 – 12.18.5.149

BN – X – D

If grace had to depend solely on human merit, if it had to be fully worked for and earned, it would no longer be grace. It really depends on the mysterious will of the higher power. But this is not to say that it comes by the caprice of the higher power. If a man puts himself into a sufficiently receptive attitude, and if he applies the admonition ”Be still and know that I am God,” he is doing something to attract grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23429 – 12.18.5.150

BN – X – D

When he has passed successfully through the last trial, overcome the last temptation, and made the last sacrifice of his ego, the reward will be near at hand. The Overself's Grace will become plain, tangible, and wholly embracing.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23433 – 12.18.5.154

BN – X – D

The strength needed for sustained mystical contemplation must come at first from his own ego's persistence but will come in the end from the Overself's Grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23435 – 12.18.5.156

BN – X – D

Although personal effort and the will toward self-mastery do much to advance him on this quest, it is grace, and grace alone, which can advance him to the goal in the last stages or assist him out of an impasse in the earlier ones.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23436 – 12.18.5.157

BN – X – D

First, he must attempt to lift himself upwards, taking the needed time and making the needed effort. Then he will feel that some other force is lifting him gratuitously—this is the reaction, Grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23437 – 12.18.5.158

BN – X – DK

To come into the consciousness of the Overself is an event which can happen only by grace. Yet there is a relation between it and the effort which preceded it, even though it is not an exact, definite, and universally valid relation.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23438 – 12.18.5.159

BN – Z – DEK

We must exert our own will and strength to prepare the way for, and make us receptive to, the divine grace. Thus the one complements the other; both are necessary parts of the World-Idea.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23439 – 12.18.5.160

BN – X – D

Jesus has said that it is Grace which starts and keeps a man on the way to God, even though his heart and will have to make their effort also. Ramana Maharshi confirmed this statement.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23440 – 12.18.5.161

BN – X – D

How can the ego's self-effort bring about the grand illumination? It can only clear the way for it, cleanse the vehicle of it, and remove the weaknesses that shut it out. But the light of wisdom is a property of the innermost being—the Soul—and therefore this alone can bring it to a man. How can the ego give or attain something which belongs to the Overself? It cannot. Only the divine can give the divine. That is to say, only by grace can illumination be attained, no matter how ardently he labours for it.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23441 – 12.18.5.162

BN – X – DEK

No man is excluded from that first touch of Grace which puts him upon the Quest. All may receive it and, in the end, all do. But we see everywhere around us the abundant evidence that he will not be ready for it until he has had enough experience of the world, enough frustration and disappointment to make him pause and to make him humbler.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23442 – 12.18.5.163

BA12 – ZZ – DK

Some Questers become depressed and discouraged when they learn that grace is the final essential ingredient for success on the Quest. This seems to put the issue out of their hands and to make it a matter of luck. They are taking too negative an attitude. It is true that grace is not subject to their command, but the atmosphere which attracts it, the conditions in which it can most easily enter, are subject to him.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23444 – 12.18.5.165

BN – X – D

His part is to open a way, remove obstructions, gain concentration, so that the Overself's grace can reach him. The union of both activities produces the result.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The significance of self-effort

#23448 – 12.18.5.169

BN – X – D

The fact of Grace being an unpredictable descent from above does not mean that we are entirely helpless in the matter, that there is nothing we can do about it. We can at least prepare ourselves both to attract Grace and to respond aright when it does come. We can cleanse our hearts, train our minds, discipline our bodies, and foster altruistic service even now. And then every cry we send out to invoke grace will be supported and emphasized by these preparations.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23450 – 12.18.5.171

BN – X – D

When your strongest passion is to make real the presence of the Soul and you demonstrate this by the strivings and sacrifices of your whole life, you are "not far" from the visitation of Grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23451 – 12.18.5.172

BSG_5 – P – D

If he wants the grace he must do something to earn it, such as attend to the wastage of time on trivial or even harmful (because negative) gossip and activities; purify his character; study the revelations of sages; reflect on the course of his life; practise mind-stilling and emotional discipline.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23453 – 12.18.5.174

BN – X – D

When the Quest becomes the most important activity in a man's life, even more important than his worldly welfare, then is Grace likely to become a reality rather than a theory in his life too.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23454 – 12.18.5.175

BN – ZZ – DK1

The commonest way, the most usual way, of attracting grace was indicated by the Carthusian monk Guiges, more than eight hundred years ago: “It would be a rare exception to gain [the degree of] contemplation without prayer. . . . Prayer gains the grace of God.”

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23455 – 12.18.5.176

BN – X – D

By forgiving those who have harmed us, we put ourselves in the position of earning forgiveness for the harm we ourselves have done.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23460 – 12.18.5.181

B_14 – ZZ – DK

Those who are asking the Overself to give them its greatest blessing, its grace, should ask themselves what they have been willing to give the Overself—how much time, love, self-sacrifice, and self-discipline.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23462 – 12.18.5.183

BN – X – D

These repeated prayers and constant aspirations, these daily meditations and frequent studies, will in time generate a mental atmosphere of receptivity to the light which is being shed upon him by the Grace. The light may come from outside through a man or a book, or it may come from inside through an intuition or an experience.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23463 – 12.18.5.184

BN – X – D

The man who has the courage to be his own bitterest critic, who has the balance to be so without falling into paralysing depression as a result, who uses his self-analysis so constructively that every shortcoming is the object of constant remedial attention—he is the man who is preparing a way for the advent of Grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23465 – 12.18.5.186

BN – X – K

Grace is always being offered, in a general way, but we do not see the offer; we are blind and so pass it by. How can we reverse this condition and acquire sight? By preparing proper conditions. First, mark off a period of each day—a short period to begin with—for retreat from the ordinary out-going way of living. Give up this period to in-going, to meditation. Come out of the world for a few minutes.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23466 – 12.18.5.187

BN – X – D

The fact is that the higher power dispenses grace to all, but not all are able, willing, or ready to receive it, not all can recognize it and so many pass it by. This is why men must first work upon themselves as a preparation.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23470 – 12.18.5.191

BN – X – D

The ultimate secret of Grace has never been solved by those who do not know that previous reincarnations contribute to it. Some men receive it only after years of burning aspiration and toil but others, like Francis of Assisi, receive it while unprepared and unaspiring. The ordinary candidate cannot afford to take any chance in this matter, cannot risk wasting a lifetime waiting for the unlikely visitation of Grace. He had better offer his all, dedicate his life, and surrender his loves to one all-consuming passion for the Overself, if he wants the power of Grace to flow into him. If he is unable to give himself so totally, let him do the next best thing, which is to find someone who has himself been granted the divine Grace and who has become inwardly transformed by it. Let him become such a man's disciple, and he will then have a better chance of Grace descending on him than he would have had if he walked alone.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23473 – 12.18.5.194

BN – X – DEK

The aspiration which mounts upward from his heart is answered by the grace which descends downward into it.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23475 – 12.18.5.196

BN – X – D

If he tries to fulfil these conditions of sincere self-preparation, and if he tries to practise service, compassion, and kindliness, Grace will come and its meaning will be found. For Grace holds a significance that is very close to love, to unselfish love. What he has given to others will be returned to him by the law of recompense.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23478 – 12.18.5.199

BN – ZZ – DEK

The Grace comes into his mind when thoughts are still and quiet, and into his life when ego is stilled and relinquished.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23482 – 12.18.5.203

BN – X – D

If he cannot compel or command grace, he can at least ask, work, and prepare for it. For if he is not prepared properly by understanding he may not be willing to submit when it does come, if the form it takes is not to his liking.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23483 – 12.18.5.204

BN – X – D

Two things are required of a man before Grace will manifest itself in him. One is the capacity to receive it. The other is the co-operation with it. For the first, he must humble the ego; for the second, he must purify it.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23485 – 12.18.5.206

BN – Z – DK1

When a man feels the authentic urge to walk a certain way, but cannot see how it will be possible either because of outer circumstances or of inner emotions, let him trust and obey it. For if he does so, the Grace of the Overself will manipulate these circumstances or alter his feelings accordingly. But it will do this so as to lead to his further growth and real need, not for satisfaction of his personal desires or his supposed wants. Let him accept its leading, not the ego's blindness.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23486 – 12.18.5.207

BN – Z – DEK1

The real bar to the entry of grace is simply the preoccupation of his thoughts with himself. For then the Overself must leave him to his cares.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23487 – 12.18.5.208

BN – Z – DK1

If there is any law connected with grace, it is that as we give love to the Overself so do we get grace from it. But that love must be so intense, so great, that we willingly sacrifice time and thought to it in a measure which shows how much it means to us. In short, we must give more in order to receive more. And love is the best thing we can give.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23488 – 12.18.5.209

BN – ZZ – DEK1

In all spiritual situations where some help, light, or protection is sought, allow for the X-factor—grace. Try to invoke it by entering the silence, keeping the entire self bodily and inwardly still.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23490 – 12.18.5.211

BN – X – D

When Christ called his hearers to repentance, he did not mean that they should leave their present state of "sin" and return to a previous state supposedly virtuous. He meant that they should leave the old altogether and go forward into something entirely new.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23493 – 12.18.5.214

B_12 – Z – DK

Sorrow for a wrong course of life, the resolve to abandon it, and the readiness to make definite amendments are prerequisites to secure Grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23502 – 12.18.5.223

BN – X – D

As the [egoistic] desires depart, they leave the heart vacant for tenancy by the Overself.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23503 – 12.18.5.224

BN – X – D

We must make way for the Overself if we desire its presence. But we can do so only by pushing aside the objects, the conditions, and the beings who block the path into our consciousness, through our attachment to them. Removing them will not fulfil this purpose but severing the attachments will fulfil it.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23504 – 12.18.5.225

BN – X – D

The internal work of Grace is only possible if the aspirant assents to the direction it is taking and supports the transformation it is effecting. If it is severing him from an attachment which he is unwilling to abandon and if he withholds his consent, the Grace itself may be forced to withdraw. The same may happen if he clings to a desire from which it seeks to free him.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23508 – 12.18.5.229

BN – X – D

If no one in this world can achieve perfection but only approach it, the personal realization of this fact at the proper time and after many efforts will lead to a deep humility and surrender. This may open the door of one's being to Grace, and thence to the beatific experience of the Overself, the Ever-Perfect.

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23509 – 12.18.5.230

BN – X – D

The highest object of worship, devotion, reverence—what the Hindus name Bhakti—is that which is given to the World-Mind—what Hindus call Ishvara. But remember always that you are present within It and It is ever present within you. So the source of grace is in you too. Silence the ego, be still, and glimpse the fact that grace is the response to devotion that goes deep enough to approach the stillness, is sincere enough to put ego aside. Help is no farther off than your own heart. Hope on!

The Reverential Life > Grace > Preparing for grace

#23513 – 12.18.5.234

BN – Z – DEK

The Divine Grace brings a human being not what he asks but what he needs. The two are sometimes the same but sometimes not. It is only with the wise that they always coincide; with others they may stand in sharp conflict.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23514 – 12.18.5.235

BSG_5 – P – D

There is an incalculable factor in this game of self with Overself, an unpredictable element in this quest—the Grace!

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23519 – 12.18.5.240

BN – Z – DK

If outer events bring him to a position where he can bear them no longer and force him to cry out to the higher power in helplessness for relief, or if inner feelings bring humiliation and recognition of his dependence on that power, this crushing of the ego may open the door to grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23521 – 12.18.5.242

BN – X – D

The Overself’s grace meets us just at the point where our need is greatest, but not necessarily the one we acknowledge as such. We must learn to let it do what it wants to do, not necessarily what we want it to do.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23522 – 12.18.5.243

BN – X – D

The course of each individual quest, its ecstasies and sufferings, is not easily predictable. The factors of karma and Grace are always present and their operation in different life situations may always be different and cannot be foreseen.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23532 – 12.18.5.253

BA11 – ZZ – DEK

The Overself can work in him—without his knowledge or help—to unfold, balance, or integrate him.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23538 – 12.18.5.259

BN – Z – DK

Many who ask for Grace would be shocked to hear that the troubles which may have followed their request were actually the very form in which the higher power granted the Grace to them.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23541 – 12.18.5.262

BN – Z – D

The Grace works from his centre outward, transforming him from within, and therefore its earliest operation is unknown to his everyday mind.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23544 – 12.18.5.265

BN – X – D

Sometimes we are pushed to perform deeds which turn out to be our finest ones, or our most fortunate ones, although at the time we did not know this. Who is the pusher? In those cases it is either karma or grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23546 – 12.18.5.267

BA11 – ZZ – DK

The psychological laws governing the inner development of spiritual seekers often seem to operate in most mysterious ways. The very power whose presence he may think has been denied him—Grace—is taking care of him even when he is not conscious of this fact. The more the anguish, at such a time, the more the Higher Self is squeezing the ego. The more he seems to be alone and forsaken, the closer the Higher Self may be drawing him to Itself.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23548 – 12.18.5.269

B_05 – ZZ – DK

The Overself's grace will be secretly active within and without him long before it shows itself openly to him.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23550 – 12.18.5.271

BN – X – D

Grace has no favourites. Its working is characterized by its own mysterious laws. Do not expect it in return for faith alone, nor for just effort alone. Try both.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23554 – 12.18.5.275

BN – X – D

He may know that the work of Grace has begun when he feels an active drawing from within which wakes him from sleep and which recurs in the day, urging him to practise his devotions, his recollections, his prayers, or his meditations. It leads him from his surface consciousness to his inner being, a movement which slowly goes back in ever-deepening exploration and discovery of himself.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23557 – 12.18.5.278

BN – Z – DK1

The weeping, begging, and worshipping through which the seeker passes is a result of Grace which occurred when, deciding to give up the ego, he felt a great peace. It is an emotional upheaval of an agonizing kind but it soon passes. He will then feel much calmer, more aspiring, and less worldly in character. This permanent change is a reorientation of the love forces; the Sufis call it "the overturning of the cup of the heart." In view of its being both auspicious and beneficial, he should not worry about it, but be patient and have hope.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23559 – 12.18.5.280

B_05 – Z – K

All he can do is to accept the inner gift when it is offered, which is not so easy or simple a feat as it sounds. Too many people brush it off because its beginnings are so delicate, so faint, as not to point at all plainly to their glorious consequences.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23561 – 12.18.5.282

BN – X – D

It is one sign of coming Grace when he begins to despise himself for his weaknesses, when he begins to criticize his lower nature to the point of hating it.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23566 – 12.18.5.287

BN – X – D

When the Grace at last overcomes the inner resistance of the ego, the latter breaks down and the eyes often break into tears.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23567 – 12.18.5.288

BN – Z – DK

When Grace takes the form of spiritual enlightenment, it may catch him unawares, enter his consciousness unexpectedly, and release him abruptly from the protracted tensions of the quest.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23572 – 12.18.5.293

BN – X – D

When his aspiration rises to an overpowering intensity, it is a sign that Grace is not so far off.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23575 – 12.18.5.296

BN – X – D

The wonderful effect of profound sleep is not only the recovery of the physical body's energy but much more the man's return to himself, his spiritual self, the pure universal consciousness. Note that all this happens without any effort on his part, without any use of the personal will. It is all done 'to' him. Grace acts in the same way.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23578 – 12.18.5.299

BN – X – D

He may be one of the fortunate ones who can call down upon themselves the workings of Grace. When he feels the urge to weep for no apparent reason he should not resist, as it is a sign of the working of Grace upon him. The more he yields to this urge the more quickly will he progress. This is an important manifestation although its inner significance will not be understood by the materialistic world.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23581 – 12.18.5.302

BN – ZZZ – DEK

As the light of Grace begins to fall upon him, he becomes aware of the tendencies and propensities, the motives and desires which obstruct or oppose the awakening into awareness of the Overself.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23586 – 12.18.5.307

BN – X – D

Grace works magically on the man who opens himself humbly and sensitively to receive it. His personal feelings undergo a transformation into their higher impersonal octaves. His very weaknesses provoke occasions for gaining effortlessly their opposite virtues. His selfish desires are turned by Grace's alchemy into spiritual aspirations.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23590 – 12.18.5.311

BN – X – D

His innate tendencies may still be there for a time—they constitute his karma—but the grace keeps them in check.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23596 – 12.18.5.317

BN – X – DK

With the descent of Grace, all the anguish and ugly memories of the seeker's past and the frustrations of the present are sponged out by the Overself's unseen and healing hand. We feel lifted by a power stronger than our own above the stormy passions and unpleasant greeds, the petty egotisms and ugly hatreds which agitate the mass of humanity. We know that a new element has entered into our field of consciousness, and we will unmistakably feel from that moment a blessed quickening of our inner life.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23598EM – 12.18.5.319

BSG_5 – P – DX

Grace is a powerful stimulus. It descends from a higher source, urges us to perfect our nature, equips us to complete it. Thus we are lifted up to its own higher level.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23601 – 12.18.5.322

BN – Z – DK

The truth is that the Overself's power has worked upon him in advance of his own endeavours. The urge to seek a close and conscious relationship with it, the decision to enter upon the quest—these very thoughts stemmed from its hidden and active influence.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23603 – 12.18.5.324

BN – X – D

The ineffable peace and exquisite harmony which take hold of his heart are the first results of grace.

The Reverential Life > Grace > The mysterious Presence

#23605 – 12.18.5.326

BN – X – D

The universe comes, exists, goes, comes again, and repeats this cycle. Man does the same until he breaks the illusion of common experience and penetrates into the reality behind it all and behind himself.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The Cosmos of Change

#23610 – 13.19.1.1

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

Once we understand the true nature of Mind, and the universal law of Karma under which it operates, we can understand why the cosmos, as a series of dependent evolving mental images, has no end and no beginning and must be as eternal as Mind itself.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The Cosmos of Change

#23613 – 13.19.1.4

BN – ZZ – K

This is a paradox of existence: that the Real is beyond the illusory and yet the illusory is derived from the Real.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The Cosmos of Change

#23621 – 13.19.1.12

BN – X – DK

The world is not illusion: it is relative, or an appearance, a changing phase of reality. Nor is it purposeless. It exists to evolve the individual entities to their goals.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23629 – 13.19.1.20

BN – X – DEK

There is no thing, be it as vast as a sun or as small as a cell, which is not subject to the law of opposite polarities and which therefore does not manifest itself in two entirely contrary ways. Yet man, because his senses are so limited, sees it in only a single way. It is this incompleteness which creates his illusion that the thing really exists in time, is measured in space, and is shaped in form.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23633 – 13.19.1.24

BN – Z – K

The world does exist, we are surrounded by it, and usually we apply the term to something that does not exist. It will be more correct to translate the term Maya not by 'unreal' but by 'not what we think it to be.' We must not deny the existence of the world—that would be lunacy—but we must try to get a correct understanding of its hidden nature.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23635 – 13.19.1.26

UR_3.2 – Z – K

The world-illusion not only obscures the Reality behind it but deceives us into thinking of the Many as being Real, instead of being One.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23647 – 13.19.1.38

BN – X – K

When the old worn-out phrases about Brahman and 'maya' are parroted from Shankara it is better to answer simply, "So what!" For still things remain the same as before, all the denunciation of the world has been merely 'maya' and does not change its very real presence and actuality to us. The same applies to the other persons and individuals. Is it not better to say that the ego, with its body, emotion, and intellect, is part of the person's experience than to deny it altogether?

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23648 – 13.19.1.39

BN – X – K

To say that the world is maya is to say that it is changing, dependent, relative, mysterious, and illusory.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23651 – 13.19.1.42

UR_3.2 – Z – K

What the Hindus call maya is what the Westerners often call 'illusion'; it is also what Gandhi called 'appearance' Fichte called 'idea' and Schopenhauer 'representation'.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23659 – 13.19.1.50

UR_3.2 – Z – K

It is more careful to admit that our experience of the world is both real and illusory than to dogmatize that it is only illusory.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23662 – 13.19.1.53

BN – Z – K

It is truer to say that the world is an appearance than that it is an illusion, an experience rather than an unreality.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23664 – 13.19.1.55

UR_3.2 – Z – K

Philosophy does not advocate belief in the orthodox Christian theory that the universe was created from nothing, nor its related notion of a sudden first creation, which is an equally untenable assumption. There is no moment when the universe has not existed, either latently or actively, and consequently there will be no moment when it will not continue to exist, either latently or actively. This is so because the world does not arise by a sudden act of creation but by a gradual process of manifestation. Since there is no particular moment in the universe's long history when it could be said to have been first created, it has never had a beginning and consequently will never have an end. It has never been started so it can never be finished. It is eternal and self-sustaining because it is the body of God, who is eternal and self-sustaining.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23665 – 13.19.1.56

BN – ZEL1/2 – DEK

Creation begins and ends nowhere and nowhen. The conception of the universe which presumes to assign a date to creation is a nebulous one and will vary with the mere caprice of the "dater." He will hatch out a creation theory to suit himself, depending therefore on human temperament and taste. Philosophy repudiates the mentalistic theory as generally interpreted, for external Nature is not regarded as unreal. It is a fact that our experience of the world's appearance is ephemeral but our experience of the world's existence is essentially real. It follows therefore that those who would turn the world into an illusion to which no value should be attached are compelled to recognize its presence and evolve their theory to account for it. The truth is that the cosmos is truly a self-revelation of the World-Mind. It is spun out of God's very self. Thus instead of an absentee God, we have an everywhere-present one who is the very essence of the world.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23665 – 13.19.1.56

BN – ZEL2/2 – DEK

There is no moment when the universe has not existed, either latently or actively, and consequently there will be no moment when it will not continue to exist, either latently or actively. This is so because the world does not arise by a sudden act of creation but by a gradual process of manifestation. Since there is no particular moment in the universe's long history when it could be said to have been first created, it has never had a beginning and consequently will never have an end…

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23665E – 13.19.1.56

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

Although we live in a world that is basically unreal—if we define reality as that which never changes, which ever was, is, and will be—we have to live in this world as if it were real, substantially real. We are compelled to do so, because we find ourselves here and we have to be active here. What it amounts to is that the maya of the Indians has to be treated as if it were Brahman, but we can only do so safely if we know the Truth.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23667 – 13.19.1.58

A231220 – Z – K

The status of the world is contradictory. It is a thing because it exists but a no-thing because it is only an appearance. It is like the hazy twilight, which is neither day nor night, yet in one sense day but in another night. It is like a dream, which is real enough while we are within it but unreal when we are not.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23671 – 13.19.1.62

BN – Z – K

From one standpoint Relativism reveals all knowledge to be but a bundle of illusions.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23680 – 13.19.1.71

BN – X – K

Such is this relativity of all things to their knower that because the world we experience is our mental world, we never see the world as it really is in itself or as a being who was observing it from outside would observe it. The consequence is that we never see the world without unconsciously seeing the world mixed up with the self. The "I" plus something other than the "I" constitute our field of consciousness. We never know the world-in-itself but only the world-in-a-state-of-interaction-with-the-self. We never know the self-in-itself but only the self-in-a-condition-of-interaction-with-the world. Such are the actual and compulsory conditions of the so-called experience of the world and our so-called experience of the self.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23681 – 13.19.1.72

BN – Z – K1

Can the observer who sees, the knower who knows be himself made an object to be perceived? No! says the intellectual; Yes! says the mystic philosopher.

The Reign of Relativity > The Cosmos of Change > The world appearance

#23683 – 13.19.1.74

BN – Z – K1

All experience may be regarded from either the practical or the philosophical standpoint, but best of all from the double standpoint.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23695 – 13.19.2.1

BN – Z – K

One of the helpful notions which philosophy contributes to those who not only seek Truth through the intellect alone, but also seek to know how they are to live with that Truth in the active world itself, is the idea of the twofold view. There is the immediate view and there is the ultimate viewpoint. The first offers us a convenient way of looking at our activities in the world and of dealing with them whilst yet holding firmly to the Truth. The first tells us to act as if the world is real in the absolute sense. The second viewpoint, the ultimate, tells us that there can be only one true way of looking at everything, because there is only one Reality. Since it deals with the Absolute, where time and space disappear and there is no subject to view, no object to be viewed, there is no thought or complex of thoughts which can hold it; it transcends intellect. Therefore it could be said that philosophy uses duality for its practical viewpoint, but it stays in nonduality for its basic one, thus reconciling both.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23701 – 13.19.2.7

BN – ZZ – K1

What is the practical value of the teaching about time? The full answer to this question would embrace many fields, but here is one of the most important. Philosophy teaches its student to apply the double point of view to the outward happenings of his life as it does to the inward contents of his sense-experience. From the ordinary point of view, the nature of an event determines whether it is a good or an evil one; from the philosophic point of view, the way he thinks about the event will determine whether it is good or evil for him. He should always put the two points of view together and never separate them, always balance the short-range one by the long-range one.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23702E – 13.19.2.8

B_17 – ZEL1/6 – DEK1

The higher point of view enables him to escape some of the suffering which the lower one would impose upon him. An event which to the worldly man seems staggeringly important and evil from the point of view of the moment, becomes smaller and smaller as the years recede and, consequently, less and less hurtful. Twenty years later it will have lost some of its power to shake him; fifty years later it will have lost still more—indeed, it may have lost so much as to cause him no further pain; one incarnation later it will not trouble him at all. When the student adopts the long-range point of view he achieves the same result in advance and by anticipation of time.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23702E – 13.19.2.8

B_17 – ZEL2/6 – DEK1

It is said that time heals all sorrows; if we seek the reason why, we shall find it is because it insensibly gives a more philosophic point of view to the sorrowful. The taste of water in a jar will be strongly sweetened by a cupful of sugar; the taste of water in a bucket will be moderately sweetened by it; the taste of water in a bathtub will be only slightly sweetened by it; and water in a lake will be apparently quite unmodified by it at all. In exactly the same way, the stream of happenings which makes up time for human consciousness gradually dilutes the suffering which each individual event may bring us.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23702E – 13.19.2.8

B_17 – ZEL3/6 – DEK1

The student is not content, however, to wait for such a slow process in order to reduce his suffering. By bringing the philosophic attitude to bear upon each event, as and when it occurs, he immediately reduces his suffering and fortifies his peace. Every calamity which is seen from this standpoint becomes a means whereby he may ascend, if he will, to a higher level of understanding, a purer form of being. What he thinks about it and what he learns from it will be its real legacy to him. In his first fresh anguish the unawakened man may deny this; in the mental captivity which gives reality to the Present and drops it from the Past, he may see no meaning and no use in the calamity; but either by time or by philosophy he will one day be placed at the point of view where the significance of suffering will be revealed to him and where the necessity of suffering will be understood by him.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23702E – 13.19.2.8

B_17 – ZEL4/6 – DEK1

This, indeed, is one of the great paradoxes of the human development: that suffering leads him step by step from the false self to the acceptance of the true self, and that the true self leads him step by step back to the acceptance of suffering. > >If the worldly man agitatedly sees the event against the background of a moment, if the philosophic student calmly sees it against the background of an entire lifetime, the sage, while fully aware of both these points of view, offsets them altogether by adding a third one which does not depend on any dimension of time at all. From this third point of view, he sees both the event itself and the ego to whom it happens as illusory. He feels the sense of time and the sense of personality as unreal. Deep within his mind he holds unshakeably to the timeless character of true being, to the eternal life of the kingdom of heaven. In this mysterious state time cannot heal, for there are no wounds present whereof to be healed.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23702E – 13.19.2.8

B_17 – ZEL5/6 – DEK1

So soon as we can take the reality out of time, so soon can we take the sting out of suffering. For the false self lives like a slave, bound to every passing sensation, whereas the true self lives in the timeless peace of the kingdom of heaven. As soon as we put ourselves into harmony with the true self, we put ourselves into harmony with the whole universe; we put ourselves beyond the reach of calamity. It may still happen, but it does not happen to nor is it felt by our real self. There is a sense of absolute security, a feeling that no harm can come to us. The philosophic student discovers the mission of time; it heals sorrows and, under karma or through evolution, cures evils. The sage solves the mystery of timelessness, which redeems man.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23702E – 13.19.2.8

B_17 – ZEL6/6 – DEK1

Philosophy would not be worthwhile if it did not take the view that for the practical purposes of life, it must turn around and adopt a non-metaphysical approach. Thus a twofold attitude is the only complete and therefore correct one which it may approve. We have the right and bear the duty to ask ourselves in what way is a teaching related to everyday living; in what way is it connected with the world we know? If both relation and connection are absent, it is fair to say that the teaching is inadequate and lacks the necessary balance of interests.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23703 – 13.19.2.9

BN – Z – K1

Once the double viewpoint is understood and set up as the necessary starting point, the timed measure and the timeless order fall into his scheme of things. Practical experience carries him through the ordinary existence, and divine experience—the eternal Now—is not displaced by it. Success in living the philosophic life and maturing the mentality it requires makes this possible.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23706 – 13.19.2.12

BN – X – K1

Unless one looks at life from this double point of view, one can get only an inadequate unbalanced and incomplete perspective. It is needful for the everyday practical routine of living to regard it only at the point of personal contact. Here one sees its momentary, transitory, and finite form. But it is also needful for the satisfaction of the higher interests of mind and heart to regard the living universe as a whole. Here one sees an eternal and infinite movement, cored and surrounded by mystery.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23708 – 13.19.2.14

BN – ZZ – K

Hegel in Germany and the Jains in India taught the relativity of truth. They showed that by taking up different positions different aspects of truth would be revealed. The Jains put forward seven positions as covering the range, Hegel put forward three. Any relative truth is limited, one-sided, incomplete, and may even contradict the others. While philosophy endorses the truth of relativity present in both positions, it cannot endorse their exclusive character. It paradoxically adopts a positionless position free from their rigidity and limitations. It comes into no conflict with any sect, system, or religion, with any fixed dogmatism or free-thinking scepticism. It is a rival to none, competes with none. It reconciles the varied expressions of human thought and belief, accommodates them all by refusing their one-sidedness, bias, prejudice, but avoids their errors and incompleteness. It knows what it teaches, the final incontrovertible truth that there is nothing beyond Mind. It experiences the final uncontradictable reality where no distorting ego is present.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23710 – 13.19.2.16

BN – Z – K

The ultimate truth refers to the essence of a thing, its real nature. The immediate truth refers to its shifting conditions or passing states, the thing as it appears at the moment of perception.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > The Double Standpoint

#23723 – 13.19.2.29

UR_2.2 – ZZ – K

He has to practise living on two different planes of being at once, the immediate and ultimate, the short-range and long-range, the relative and the Absolute, not as if they were in eternal contradiction but as if they were one and indivisible.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > Its cultivation and application

#23732 – 13.19.2.38

BN – ZZ – K

In order to remember that we are godlike in essence we do not need to forget that we are human in existence.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > Its cultivation and application

#23739 – 13.19.2.45

B_08 – ZZ – DK

Does this double standpoint mean that there is a constant oscillation between the two aspects, a mind which flutters from one to the other over and over again? Of course not! Just as the small circle can be contained within a larger circle, so the mind can be at once in the practical and the metaphysical yet able to concentrate on the one needed at any moment.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > Its cultivation and application

#23741 – 13.19.2.47

BN – ZZ – K

He has a double existence, with the frontal part of his consciousness in time and the real part out of it. All the miseries and misfortunes which may enter into the one part will make no difference to the blessed tranquillity which permanently reigns in the other.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > Its cultivation and application

#23742 – 13.19.2.48

BN – ZZ – DK

His awareness of the relativity of things relieves the philosopher of any compulsion to identify himself with any particular viewpoint. His liberation from dogma enables him to take the viewpoint which best suits the circumstances. This does not at all mean that chaos will enter into his affairs, insincerity into his attitudes, and anarchy into his morals. He is safeguarded from such perils by the link he has established with the Overself's infinite wisdom and immeasurable goodness.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > Its cultivation and application

#23744 – 13.19.2.50

BN – ZZ – DK

Coming down here into the body of flesh and blood is our confusion. Experiencing the sufferings and distresses which we do is our fate. The satisfactions are there also, yes, and induce us to cling to life and return anew after each reincarnation. We need always remember that all this experience which a human undergoes is relative to time and place and must pass on and away. To what? To that higher order of the universe where we are with God as higher creatures.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > Its cultivation and application

#23749 – 13.19.2.55

BN – ZZ – DK

With this larger outlook comes a larger acceptance of the past, of bygone deeds and thoughts, however one may regret actions or feel guilty or embarrassed about emotions. For if there is to be a forgiveness of others, there must also be forgiveness of one's self. And if one has outgrown one's past self, it should be as if one were looking upon another being, a stranger being.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > Its cultivation and application

#23750 – 13.19.2.56

B_14 – Z – DK

The exterior reality being 'Maya', our universe becomes both an enigma and a paradox until nonduality is accepted as the final and only solution.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > Its cultivation and application

#23754 – 13.19.2.60

UR_3.2 – ZZZ – K

To live in the ego is to live in time, to live in the Overself is to live in timelessness. But because man must live in both to live on earth at all, let him learn the art of resting in the eternal Now, the continuing moment which opens on to eternity.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > Its cultivation and application

#23758 – 13.19.2.64

BN – ZZZ – DK

The statement "to be" is to be "in time" or "in timelessness." Most limit its meaning to the first phrase only. But the more enlightened know that the higher possibility has been realized by some.

The Reign of Relativity > The Double Standpoint > Its cultivation and application

#23761 – 13.19.2.67

BN – X – DK

The consciousness which inheres in the personal self is the palest possible reflection of the intensely real consciousness which inheres in the Overself.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The States of Consciousness

#23772 – 13.19.3.7

BN – X – D

The mistake too commonly made is to believe that the ordinary level of consciousness is the only possible one. Successful meditation is one way of getting free from it.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The States of Consciousness

#23774 – 13.19.3.9

BN – Z – DK*

The principle of consciousness in every human being is indeed the same thing as his spiritual consciousness and not a second thing, but he interposes so many clouds of thoughts, sensations, emotions, and passions into it that he seldom comes to this knowledge. He seldom isolates this consciousness principle.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The States of Consciousness

#23776 – 13.19.3.11

BN – Z – DEK

In unwittingly setting up waking consciousness as the sole arbiter of all his knowledge, Western man limits that knowledge unnecessarily. And in regarding other forms of consciousness as mere copies or aberrations of waking consciousness, or else denying their existence altogether, he bars himself from the supreme insight and the highest felicity open to him. Unless he brings the dream and the deep sleep states also into his reckoning, he will continue to be deceived by the Unreal and to mistake the shadow for the substance.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The States of Consciousness

#23783 – 13.19.3.18

BN – Z – K1

The first question is also the final one; it is quite short, quite simple, and yet it is also the most important question which anyone could ever ask, whether of himself or of others. This question is: "What is consciousness?" Whoever traces the answer through all its levels will find himself in the end in the very presence of the Universal Consciousness otherwise called God.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The States of Consciousness

#23797 – 13.19.3.32

BA11 – ZZ – DK

The adept not only knows when asleep that his dream-world is only mental, but he also knows when awake that his wakeful-world is also mental.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The mysterious significance of dreams

#23808 – 13.19.3.43

BN – X – DK

A dreaming body which believes itself to be running away from a tiger is really lying flat and motionless in bed. Behind the dream figure of a tortured man projected by the dream mind stands the dreamer himself. He is actually undergoing no torture at all. Similarly, if a waking-world tortured man could penetrate deeply enough into his own mental being, he would find the deeper portion of his mind which has projected his own waking self and which is likewise undergoing no torture at all. To achieve this, however, he would have to be as able to stand aside from the waking standpoint as he already is able, after awaking, to stand aside from the dream standpoint. But it must never be forgotten that the waking, dream, and deeper selves are three standpoints of one and the same mind, are all parts of the complex character of ourself. The mind wears three faces, as it were, two of which are visible and the other invisible.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The mysterious significance of dreams

#23812 – 13.19.3.47

BN – X – DEK

The intelligence which sometimes solves our problems for us during dreams is of a higher quality than that which ordinarily solves them during wakeful hours. It is indeed of the same order as that which we call intuition.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The mysterious significance of dreams

#23819 – 13.19.3.54

BN – X – D

The sense-experiences of the dream world occur without the use of any of the body's sense organs at all. They give us the experience of colour, without the eyes and without light; of form, without the touching hand and without an external object. Do they not point to the independence of the mind, to its reality in its own right, to the separateness of its sensations from physical causes?

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The mysterious significance of dreams

#23822 – 13.19.3.57

BSG_5 – P – D

It is true that the mind imposes its own ideas in dreams but this is only one of several factors to be considered. It is necessary to distinguish between the different classes of dreams. Some are dramatizations of physical disturbances but others are symbolic messages from the higher self. Thus most of our dreams are unimportant, but some are significant.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The mysterious significance of dreams

#23823 – 13.19.3.58

BN – X – DEK

Just as the spiritual ignorance of man reveals itself during his slumbers by his total lack of knowledge that the dream-experience is only a series of ideas, so the evil character of man reveals itself during his slumbers by the rule it imposes—unrepressed by legal sanctions or social codes—upon his dreams. This is one of the elements of truth in Freud's otherwise grossly materialistic teaching. The dream is partially a self-revelation. Hence it is the teaching of the mystical order of Turkish Sufis that the progress of a disciple is partially to be measured by his teacher by the progressive purification attained in the character of his dream life.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The mysterious significance of dreams

#23826 – 13.19.3.61

BN – X – K1

Our dream-self passes through five-sensed experiences and space-timed events which would entirely justify its assertion that the dream world is a material one. Yet the enlightenment gained on awaking entirely proves that the dream world is only a mental one.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The mysterious significance of dreams

#23835 – 13.19.3.70

BN – X – D

It is quite possible to visit in dream a place where the individual has not been during his present and waking life. This is not a trick of the mind; rather it is one of the powers of the mind to be able to see or be at a distance from the body.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The mysterious significance of dreams

#23848 – 13.19.3.83

BN – X – D

The bedside notebook and pencil will be better used for the intuitions with which we may awake from deep sleep than for the pictures which may survive from dream.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The mysterious significance of dreams

#23856 – 13.19.3.91

BN – X – DK

It is a startling moment when he wakes up to the fact that he is dreaming without waking up to the physical world at all. For then he is able to know as a scientific observable fact that the measurable space around him, the sensations of resistance and solidity in his feet and the hardness or smoothness of objects in his hands, are nothing else than mental creations.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The mysterious significance of dreams

#23858 – 13.19.3.93

BN – X – D

There is a strange happening which comes often to every man: first he is embraced by sleep, then during sleep he is embraced by imagination in the form of dream. All this is happening outside his ordinary awareness and independently of his personal control. What happens when he is embraced by deep dreamless sleep? The answer is that he has been taken to the source of his being for renewal of his forces physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. That which took him there is Grace.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23859 – 13.19.3.94

BN – Z – DEK

Deep dreamless sleep removes anxieties from the mind because it removes the ego which suffers them. It removes exhaustion from the physical body because the complete relaxation of tension consequent upon the ego's absence allows the universal life-force to permeate every cell.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23863 – 13.19.3.98

BN – X – D

Those who think that sleep is all we need to remove the body’s fatigue after activity and work may be surprised to learn that this is only true of deep dreamless slumber. In the case of dream-filled sleep, it is not more than partially true.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23867 – 13.19.3.102

BN – X – DK

When the ego suspends its action and falls—without an object for its consciousness or a body for its working—into profound slumber, it has returned to its source. The real "I" then rules.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23872 – 13.19.3.107

BN – X – D

With the onset of deep sleep we retreat into a timeless world, which swallows up and holds in suspension all our past and present existence.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23883 – 13.19.3.118

BN – X – D

Once he has attained the philosophic realization of the Overself, he goes nightly to sleep 'in it', if the sleep is dreamless and deep, or inserts it into his dreams if it is not. Either way he does not withdraw from it.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23887 – 13.19.3.122

BN – ZZ – DK1

What is known during deep sleep is the veil of ignorance which covers the Real. That is, the knowing faculty, the awareness, is still present, but caught in the ignorance, the veiling, and knowing nothing else. The sage, however, carries into sleep the awareness he had in wakefulness. He may let it dim down to a glimmer, but it is always there.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23888 – 13.19.3.123

BN – X – DEK

If the nightly return of the man to his Overself were really full and complete, he would not awake the day after into spiritual ignorance. Instead, he would consciously enjoy the peace and presence of the Overself.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23890 – 13.19.3.125

BN – X – D

That which is present during the interval between two thoughts is also present during deep sleep.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23891 – 13.19.3.126

BN – X – DK

Although the sage withdraws with the onset of sleep from wakeful awareness, he does not withdraw from all awareness. A pleasurable and peaceful sense of impersonal being is left over. In this he rests throughout the night.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23894D – 13.19.3.129

BN – X – D

When a man falls totally asleep, when no thoughts and no dreams are active, he has withdrawn (or more accurately been withdrawn) into the centre of his being. He can go no farther inwards. He is really alone with the Overself but, being unable to harmonize with it, the principle of consciousness is not active.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23909 – 13.19.3.144

BN – X – D

In sleep the non-existence of things is not known to you; therefore sleep is a state of ignorance, not of Gnanam, for the Gnani knows everything to be Brahman. The nonduality of sleep is not the nonduality of Gnanam. Brahman is not known in deep sleep but is known in Gnanam.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23912 – 13.19.3.147

BN – X – K1

In the ordinary waking state, men are well aware that they are not sleeping; but in the dreaming state they mistakenly believe that they are in the other one. A few, however, have come to a degree of development where they know that they are dreaming, and fewer still know that they are in deep thought-free sleep. They are the sages.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23913 – 13.19.3.148

BN – X – D

The moments between sleep and waking or between waking and sleep are very sensitive and very important. They should be used to switch thought to the highest ideal one knows.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23914 – 13.19.3.149

BN – X – D

As taught in 'The Wisdom of the Overself', use the last few minutes in the twilight state of consciousness before falling asleep at night for constructive self-improvement. The best form this can take during your present phase of development is to relax in bed, empty the mind of the day's cares, and make definite, concrete suggestions about the good qualities desired and imaginatively visualize yourself demonstrating these desired qualities. Furthermore, you should go even farther and visualize yourself in possession of the Higher Consciousness, attuned to the Higher Will and expressing the Higher Poise. All this will be like seeds planted in the inner being and growing during sleep.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23915 – 13.19.3.150

BN – X – DEK

Ask yourself before sleeping the questions that puzzle you and the answers may be there, waiting for you, on waking.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23923 – 13.19.3.158

BN – X – D

In those first moments when awakening from the nightly sleep, we may enter a heavenly thought-free state. Or, if we cannot reach so high, we may receive thoughts which give guidance, tell us what to do, warn us against wrong decisions, or foretell the future.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23924 – 13.19.3.159

BN – X – D

The moment he awakens in the morning he should turn his attention for a few minutes to the thought of the Quest. It this is done faithfully every day, it becomes a useful exercise with excellent results in the subsequent hours.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23925 – 13.19.3.160

BN – X – D

On awakening from the night's sleep, take the inspired book, which you are to keep on a bedside table for the purposes of this exercise, and open it at random. The higher self may lead you to open it at a certain page. Read the paragraph or page on which your glance first rests and then put the book aside. Meditate intently on the words, taking them as a special message to you for that particular day. In the course of your activities you may later find this to be so, and the message itself a helpfully connected one.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23926D – 13.19.3.161

BN – ZZZ – DEK

If, in the act of falling asleep, he invites the higher self through aspiration, he may one day find that in the act of waking up an inner voice begins to speak to him of high and holy things. And with the voice comes the inspiration, the strength, and the desire to live up to them.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23927 – 13.19.3.162

BN – X – D

Plato's precepts to Aristotle: "Do not sleep until you have put three questions to yourself: (a) Have I committed any sin? (b) Have I omitted any duty by accident? (c) Have I left anything undone intentionally?"

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23928 – 13.19.3.163

BN – X – D

Method of falling asleep by Su Tung-po, poet and mystic: ”I lie perfectly still. I listen to my respiration and make sure it is slow and even. After a short while, I feel relaxed and comfortable. A state of drowsiness sets in and I fall into sound sleep.”

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23932 – 13.19.3.167

BN – X – DK*

The ruling ideas with which he falls asleep will form a connection with the wakeful life and profoundly influence it.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23933 – 13.19.3.168

BN – Z – DK

Some who have attained sufficient proficiency in meditation have cured themselves of insomnia by affirming the divine Presence when they close their eyes in bed at night, and holding on to this affirmation.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > The deep stillness of sleep

#23936 – 13.19.3.171

BN – X – D

Consider the fact that our individual lives are totally suspended during sleep, that the waves of personal consciousness then merge utterly in the ocean. How clearly this shows the Divine to be also the Infinite and Universal, our lack of true spirituality, and our possession at best of its pale reflection! For where else could we go to sleep except in this Infinite and Universal Mind? Yet we know it not! To get rid of such ignorance, to attain transcendental insight into the fourth state of being, is the most wonderful of all the tasks which this philosophy sets before us.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > Trance and the 4th state of consciousness

#23944 – 13.19.3.179

BN – Z – K1

There are two kinds of consciousness, one is in ever-passing moments, the other ever-present. The one is in time, the other out of it. The ordinary person knows only the one; the enlightened sage knows both.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > Trance and the 4th state of consciousness

#23947 – 13.19.3.182

BA11 – Z – DK

A man never leaves Consciousness. The world comes into it as perception, that is, as idea. Whether anything, object or state, comes into it or not, Consciousness remains as his unchanging home. Whether asleep or awake, wrapped in himself or out in the world, his essential being remains what it is. His thoughts and sense-impressions, feelings and passions are produced by it or projected from it: they exist in dependence on it and die in it.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > Trance and the 4th state of consciousness

#23948 – 13.19.3.183

BN – X – D

In our view, even deep sleep unconsciousness is a form of this "consciousness" which transcends all the states we ordinarily know—waking, dream, and deep sleep—yet includes them when they merge back into it. Such a "consciousness" is unthinkable, unimaginable, but it is the true objective awareness. It is also the I you are seeking so much. But to reach it, then you have to let go of the I which you know so well.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > Trance and the 4th state of consciousness

#23949 – 13.19.3.184

BN – X – K1

The transcendental being is not an unconscious one. The absolute consciousness could not be other than self-conscious in its own impersonal way. Hence the fourth state is not the same as deep sleep.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > Trance and the 4th state of consciousness

#23950 – 13.19.3.185

BSG_5 – Z – K1

Is it not a strange thing that after a night's dreaming sleep when we may become some other person, some other character during our dreams, we yet wake up with the old identity that we had before the dream? And is it not equally strange that after a night's sweet, deep, dreamless slumber when we actually forget utterly that same previous identity, we are able to pick it up once more on awakening? What is the explanation of these strange facts? It is that we have never left our true selfhood, whether in dreams or deep slumber, never been other than we really were in essence, and that the only change that has taken place has been a change of the state of our consciousness, not of the consciousness itself.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > Trance and the 4th state of consciousness

#23951 – 13.19.3.186

BN – Z – DK1

"I would that thou hadst passed right through thyself as one who dreams in sleep yet sleepless."—"The Secret Sermon on the Mountain," Chapter 14 of Volume 2, Thrice Greatest Hermes by G.R.S. Mead

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > Trance and the 4th state of consciousness

#23956 – 13.19.3.191

BN – X – K

What is called 'Turiya' or the 'fourth state' in Sanskrit, although it is neither waking, dreaming, nor sleeping, is related however to all three as their background. Therefore, before one falls asleep it comes into play. Before one wakes up in the morning it also comes into play. Or before a dream comes to an end and deep sleep supervenes, it comes into play. This is why either the practice of meditation or the brief practice of spiritual remembrance at any of these three natural pause periods takes the fullest advantage of them. This is also why during the interval between two separate thoughts, it comes into play. Thus, throughout a man's life, he's comfortably being brought back into touch with his divine Self. But because his face is turned the other way and he's looking in the wrong direction, he never takes advantage and becomes aware of that Self.

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > Trance and the 4th state of consciousness

#23961 – 13.19.3.196

BSG_5 – Z – K

In his inmost being every man is rooted in the World-Mind. The three states pass away—sleep, dream, and waking go—but the fourth still remains: it is this root—being. How paradoxical: that the fourth state should be the First Principle of Being!

The Reign of Relativity > The States of Consciousness > Trance and the 4th state of consciousness

#23965M – 13.19.3.200

BSG_5 – Z – K

The three thought-forms of space, time, and cause necessarily dominate the universal experience of mankind. They are the relations wherein we experience that aggregate of objects which makes the world of Nature. They are not open to choice or rejection by anyone but are forced on all alike and felt by fool and philosopher.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Time, Space, Causality

#23966 – 13.19.4.1

BN – Z – K

The time-space-causality reference is an essential part of human nature, a governing law of human thinking. These three hold good solely within such thinking and can have no possible or proper application outside it. Man does not consciously or arbitrarily impose them upon his thought; it is beyond his individual power to reject them.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Time, Space, Causality

#23967 – 13.19.4.2

BN – X – K1

Living in time and space as we do, we perforce live always in the fragmentary and imperfect, never in the whole, the perfect. Only if, at rare moments, we are granted a mystical experience and transcend the time-space world, do we know the beauty and sublimity of being liberated from a mere segment of experience into the wholeness of Life itself.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Time, Space, Causality

#23968 – 13.19.4.3

BN – Z – K1

Our thinking process is bound by time and space relations, but there is something in us which is not. Ordinarily, we have no awareness of it, although it never leaves us.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Time, Space, Causality

#23972 – 13.19.4.7

BN – Z – DK

Everything that is manifested must be manifested in some space-time world—that is, it must have a shape and it must be subject to "Before" and "After."

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Time, Space, Causality

#23977 – 13.19.4.12

BN – Z – K

We are given forms embodied in space and minds working in time whereby we may come to decipher meanings in life and the world, develop awareness of the Infinite Being that is behind both, and know our true self, the Soul or Overself.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Time, Space, Causality

#23978 – 13.19.4.13

BSG_1 – ZZZ – DMK

So long as man’s awareness is trapped in space and time, so long will he be unable to know the reality that transcends them.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Time, Space, Causality

#23979 – 13.19.4.14

BA11 – Z – DK

Materialism is compelled to hold that there is only one uniform time. Mentalism holds that there are different kinds of time, not only for different kinds of beings but even for one and the same being.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Their relative and mental nature

#23982 – 13.19.4.17

BN – Z – K1

The most valuable metaphysical fruit of the quantum theory is its finding that the processes of the Universe which occur in space and time, emanate from what is fundamentally not in space and time.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Their relative and mental nature

#23983 – 13.19.4.18

BSG_5 – ZZ – DK1

The relativity theory brings space and time together as having no existence independent of each other. Mentalism explains why this is so. They are both inherent in one and the same thing—imagination; they are two ways in which the creative aspect of mind functions simultaneously.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Their relative and mental nature

#24021 – 13.19.4.56

BN – ZZZ – K1

In the last reckoning life is really a process whereby the individual becomes conscious of his own true identity. The spiritual nature of man does not exist potentially, but actually…

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Their relative and mental nature

#24040E-E – 13.19.4.75

BT1008 – P – DEK

The question of causality depends, like the question of the universe, on the particular point of view which we take up. It is real when considered as pertaining to two things, just as a dream table and chairs are real when considered by the dreamer himself. It is fictitious when we look not at the multiplicity of things but at the essence wherefrom they are derived, just as the dream table and chairs are fictitious when looked at from the broader point of view of the man who has awakened with the dawn.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Their relative and mental nature

#24040E – 13.19.4.75

BN – X – DEK

In the last reckoning life is really a process whereby the individual becomes conscious of his own true identity. The spiritual nature of man does not exist potentially, but actually. The discovery of his own identity is simply man's destruction of the hypnotic illusions of Ego, Time, Space, Matter, and Cause—his moment of release from untruth.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Their relative and mental nature

#24040E – 13.19.4.75

UR_5 – ZZZ – DEK

Do not confuse infinite time, which is duration, with timelessness, which is eternity. The first is just the lengthening of the ego's past, present, and future; the second is their dissolution in ecstatic smiling ego-free being.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Perpetuity, eternity, and now

#24048 – 13.19.4.83

BN – ZZ – K1

When in deep sleep we have absolutely no sense of Time's existence at all. We are then in eternity! When we become thoroughly convinced of the illusoriness of time, and make this conviction a settled attitude, eternity reveals itself even during the waking state. This is life in the Overself…

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Perpetuity, eternity, and now

#24049E – 13.19.4.84

BSG_5 – P – DE

Eternity contains, undivided, the past present and future. How it can do so is a mystery which human perception and human understanding may not ordinarily grasp. The unaided intellect is powerless to solve it. But there is, potentially, a fourth-dimensional intuitive faculty which can succeed where the others fail.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Perpetuity, eternity, and now

#24065 – 13.19.4.100

BN – X – K1

The feeling until now was one of living in time. Imperceptibly or suddenly this goes and he finds himself in a timeless condition, with the tick-tock of thoughts following one another absolutely stilled. It is temporary but it is also glorious.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Perpetuity, eternity, and now

#24066 – 13.19.4.101

BN – Z – K1

The mystery of the atom has resolved itself into the mystery of light, which is now the greatest mystery of physics. Einstein demonstrated the dependence of time upon the position and speed of motion of an observer. He showed, too, the amazing consequence of placing the latter in a stream of light wherein if he moved with the same velocity as light, the observer would then possess no sense of the passage of time. If this happened, what sort of a sense would he possess? Einstein could not tell us, but the mystic who has conquered mind can. He will possess the sense of eternity. He will live in the eternal, in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Perpetuity, eternity, and now

#24067 – 13.19.4.102

A231003 – Z – K1

The Overself is not in time and consequently has no history. It is, with no beginning and with no end. The intellect which flits from past to future, from one chronological event to another, finds such ideas strange, hard to comprehend, and puzzling.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Perpetuity, eternity, and now

#24074 – 13.19.4.109

BN – X – D

If in meditation he feels as if he had always been sitting there, it means he touched eternity, timelessness.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Perpetuity, eternity, and now

#24079 – 13.19.4.114

BN – X – D

When time stops, he feels that he has found his higher Self, that the ordinary everyday self is a shallow one. The other never changes, whereas the lower one changes during the years and with moods during the day.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Perpetuity, eternity, and now

#24081 – 13.19.4.116

BA11 – ZZ – DK

That there is an insight where all times lie side by side—the past, the present, the future—the twentieth century b.c. and the twentieth century a.d., may seem impossible to the ordinary mind.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Perpetuity, eternity, and now

#24087 – 13.19.4.122

BN – ZZ – K1

The fourth dimension is in everything existing in the three-dimensional space and at the same time exists in its own dimension. Now in the fourth is the same as here in the third dimensional world.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Perpetuity, eternity, and now

#24088 – 13.19.4.123

BN – X – K1

The present, despite its constant changes of form, is always with us. Why? Because our innermost real being, without those changes, is always with us.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Perpetuity, eternity, and now

#24102 – 13.19.4.137

BN – X – D

We live inside time; yet real life is outside time.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Perpetuity, eternity, and now

#24106 – 13.19.4.141

BN – Z – K

We may live in the mere succession of events and so remain victims of time, or we may, while still noting them, raise our consciousness out of such involvement to a level so high as to become a mere spectator of them.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24119 – 13.19.4.154

BN – ZZ – DK

If man is inwardly already godlike, pure Spirit, only the development and evolution which are gained from experience—that is, time—can bring him to conscious realization of the fact.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24133 – 13.19.4.168

UR_5 – ZZZ – K

When a master mystic like Jesus tells men to refrain from being anxious about the morrow and to let today's evil be sufficient for today, he speaks out of his own consciousness of living in this Eternal Now. Consequently, he spoke not of periods involving twelve or twenty-four hours, but of pinpoints of a moment. He told them to live timelessly, to let the dead past bury itself. He is indeed a Christian, a Christ-self man, who lives cleanly and completely in the present—free, uncontrolled, and unconditioned by what he was, believed, or desired yesterday.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24136E – 13.19.4.171

B_11 – ZZ – DEMK

The illumined mind must live in the eternal Now, which is not the same as the temporal Present. Because it is beyond the reach of events the Now is saturated with Peace. Because it is forever drifting on the surface of events the Present is agitated with change. Each of us can learn to live in the happy presence of this peace if he will prepare the way by (stoically) disciplining the thoughts he brings into every moment. He alone is responsible for them, he alone must have the hardihood to reject every one that reduces his stature to the little, time-bound, desire-filled ego.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24147 – 13.19.4.182

BN – Z – DEK

The space in which the process of thinking takes place, is time. It could not exist without the dimension of time. If thought is ever transcended, time is transcended along with it. Such an achievement throws the mind into the pure present, the eternal now, "the presence of God" of all mystics.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24148 – 13.19.4.183

BN – X – K1

In contemplating deeply Nature's beauty around one, as some of us have done, it is possible to slip into a stillness where we realize that there never was a past but always the NOW—the ever-present timeless Consciousness—all peace, all harmony; that there is no past—just the eternal. Where are the shadows of negativity then? They are non-existent! This can happen if we forget the self, with its narrowed viewpoint, and surrender to the impersonal. In that brief experience there is no conflict to trouble the mind.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24149 – 13.19.4.184

BN – ZZ – K1

Remembrance of the past, and especially attachment to it, supports the ego, maintains and preserves it. The quester must hold his memories loosely for, after all, this present life is only one of a string which in itself is only a dream.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24152 – 13.19.4.187

BA12 – ZZZ – DK

Memories keep a man fastened to the old ways of life, however stupid they have proved themselves to be and however worthless their values have shown themselves. There is no way out of them except to put the destructive ones, the limiting ones, the useless ones, and the obstructive ones to the stake, burn them, and be done with them—and be done with them ash and all.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24153 – 13.19.4.188

BN – ZZZ – DK

Recollections of the desired or feared past snare you still further in the ego. Anticipation of a desired or feared future do the same. But by letting both go, living in the eternal Now, you weaken the ego.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24156 – 13.19.4.191

BN – X – D

This feeling of being in a dimension outside time confers a sense of being really alive. The past fades away and no longer hangs heavily over him. To help the birth of this new awareness Jesus advised: "Let the dead bury their dead". [Luke 9:60]

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24165 – 13.19.4.200

B_11 – ZZ – K

We are so enmeshed in the past, in its obsessive memories, tendencies, and drives, that we tend to repeat and perpetuate its errors and stupidities.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24175 – 13.19.4.210

BN – Z – D

In the mind’s deep stillness we live neither in past memories nor future fears and hopes, nor in the moving present, but only in an emptiness which is the everlasting Now. Here alone we can remain in unbroken peace, paid for by being devoid of expectations and free from desires, cut off from attachments and above the day’s agitations or oscillations.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24176E – 13.19.4.211

BN – Z – DEK

Every man is a victim of his own past until he awakens to this recognition—that at his best level he is divine in a timeless way, that there he may rise above this past and free himself from it.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24179 – 13.19.4.214

BN – Z – DM

We must refuse to chain ourselves either to the past or to the future by refusing to chain our thoughts to them. That is to say, we must learn to let them come to rest in the timeless Void.

The Reign of Relativity > Time, Space, Causality > Living with time

#24183 – 13.19.4.218

BN – X – D

The Void is the state of Mind in repose, and the appearance-world is its (in)activity. At a certain stage of their studies, the seeker and the student have to discriminate between both in order to progress; but further progress will bring them to understand that there is no essential difference between the two states and that Mind is the same in both.

The Reign of Relativity > The Void As Metaphysical Fact > The Void As Metaphysical Fact

#24190 – 13.19.5.7

BN – X – K1

What we have called "the void" is the same as what medieval German mystics like Tauler and Boehme have called "the abyss." It is the Eternal Silence behind all activities and evolutions, the Mother of all that exists.

The Reign of Relativity > The Void As Metaphysical Fact > The Void As Metaphysical Fact

#24191 – 13.19.5.8

BSG_5 – ZZ – K

On one hand there is the emptiness of the Void, on the other hand there is the fullness of the cosmos which comes into being to occupy it.

The Reign of Relativity > The Void As Metaphysical Fact > The Void As Metaphysical Fact

#24199 – 13.19.5.16

BN – X – K

The Void is empty of matter, yes, of all material universes—but it is not lacking in Reality. It is in fact the mysterious support of all material universes.

The Reign of Relativity > The Void As Metaphysical Fact > The Void As Metaphysical Fact

#24201 – 13.19.5.18

BN – X – K

The momentary pause in every heartbeat is a link with the still centre of the Overself. Where the rhythm of activity comes to an end—be it a man's heart or an entire planet—its infinite and eternal cause is there. All this vast universal activity is but a function of the silent, still Void.

The Reign of Relativity > The Void As Metaphysical Fact > The Void As Metaphysical Fact

#24209 – 13.19.5.26

BN – Z – K1

The One behind the Many is not to be mistaken for the figure one which is followed by two, three, and so on. It is on the contrary the mysterious Nought out of which all the units which make up multiple figures themselves arise. If we do not call it the Nought it is only because this might be mistaken as utter Nihilism. Were this so then existence would be meaningless and metaphysics absurd. The true ineffable Nought, like the superphysical One, is rather the reality of all realities. From it there stream forth all things and all creatures; to it they shall all return eventually. This void is the impenetrable background of all that is, was, or shall be; unique, mysterious, and imperishable. He who can gaze into its mysterious Nothingness and see that the pure Divine Being is forever there, sees indeed.

The Reign of Relativity > The Void As Metaphysical Fact > The Void As Metaphysical Fact

#24225 – 13.19.5.42

BN – Z – K1

We may begin by asking what this philosophy offers us. It offers those who pursue it to the end a deep understanding of the world and a satisfying explanation of the significance of human experience. It offers them the power to penetrate appearances and to discover the genuinely real from the mere appearance of reality; it offers satisfaction of that desire which everyone, everywhere, holds somewhere in his heart—the desire to be free.

What Is Philosophy? > What Is Philosophy? > What Is Philosophy?

#24227D – 13.20.0.2

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The old Oriental idea is to be lost in the Infinite. The new Occidental ideal is to be 'in tune' with the Infinite.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24228 – 13.20.1.1

BN – X – D

The complaint has been made not seldom that the Indian version of this quest is too largely a process of dehumanization. I must leave it to the public propagandists of Indian teachings to give their own defense in this matter. But the philosophic attitude seeks a balanced wisdom, a removal of negative, ignoble, sensualist, narrow-minded, unpractical, and fanatical traits from character and action. Beyond that it welcomes the fine flowering of human culture, the refinement of human living, and the enchantment of human quality.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24233 – 13.20.1.6

BN – Z – DEK

Philosophy overcomes the mystic's fear of worldly life and the worldling's fear of mystical life by bringing them together and reconciling their demands under the transforming light of a new synthesis.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24235 – 13.20.1.8

BN – Z – DK

The battle to secure mental stillness must first be fought and won before the battle of the ego can be brought to an end. For it is only in that deep state wherein all other thoughts are put to rest that the single thought of "I" as ego can be isolated, faced, fought until its strength is pitilessly squeezed out and destroyed at last. The attainment of this inner stillness is yoga; this conquest of the ego in it and after it is philosophy.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24240 – 13.20.1.13

BN – ZZ – DEK

The practice of philosophy is an essential part of it and not only consists in applying its principles and its wisdom to everyday active living, but also in realizing the divine presence deep, deep within the heart where it abides in tremendous stillness.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24244 – 13.20.1.17

BN – ZZ – DK1

Genuine wisdom, being in its highest phase the fruit of a transcendental insight, is sublimely dateless and unchangeable. Yet its mode of expression is necessarily dated and may therefore change. Perhaps this pioneering attempt to fill the term "philosophy" with a content which combines ancient tradition with modern innovation will help the few who are sick of intellectual intolerances that masquerade as spiritual insight. Perhaps it may free such broader souls from the need of adopting a separative standpoint with all the frictions, prejudices, egotisms, and hatreds which go with it, and afford them an intellectual basis for practising a profound compassion for all alike. It is as natural for those reared on limited conceptions of life to limit their faith and loyalty to a particular group or a particular area of this planet as it is natural for those reared on philosophic truth to widen their vision and service into world-comprehension and world-fellowship.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24245E – 13.20.1.18

BN – Z – DEK3

I do not know of any better or broader name with which to mark those who pursue this quest than to say that they are students of philosophy.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24245E – 13.20.1.18

BA12 – Z – DEK3

The more we believe in the oneness of life, the less we ought to herd ourselves behind barriers. To add a new cult to the existing list is to multiply the causes of human division and thence of human strife.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24245E – 13.20.1.18

BSG_5 – ZZ – DEK3

In my secret heart I separate myself from nobody, just as this teaching itself excludes no other in its perfect comprehension. Because I had to call it by some name as soon as I began to write about it, I called it philosophy because this is too wide and too general a name to become the property of any single sect. In doing so I merely returned to its ancient and noble meaning among the Greeks who, in the Eleusinian Mysteries, designated the spiritual truth learnt at initiation into them as "philosophy" and the initiate oneself as philosopher or lover of wisdom…

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24245E – 13.20.1.18

BSG_1 – ZZZ – DEK

The philosopher's larger and nobler vision refuses to establish a separate group consciousness for himself and for those who think as he does. Hence he refuses to establish a new cult, a new association, or a new label. To him the oneness of mankind is a fact and not a fable.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24245E – 13.20.1.18

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK3

Science suppresses the subject of experience and studies the object. Mysticism suppresses the object of experience and studies the subject. Philosophy suppresses nothing, studies both subject and object; indeed it embraces the study of all experience.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24248 – 13.20.1.21

BN – Z – DK1

It is perhaps the amplitude and symmetry of the philosophic approach which make it so completely satisfying. For this is the only approach which honours reason and appreciates beauty, cultivates intuition and respects mystical experience, fosters reverence and teaches true prayer, enjoins action and promotes morality. It is the spiritual life fully grown.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24249 – 13.20.1.22

BN – ZZ – DK1

The esoteric meaning of the star is "Philosophic Man," that is, one who has travelled the complete fivefold path and brought its results into proper balance. This path consists of religious veneration, mystical meditation, rational reflection, moral re-education, and altruistic service. The esoteric meaning of the circle, when situated within the very centre of the star, is the Divine Overself-atom within the human heart.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24250 – 13.20.1.23

BN – X – DEK1

On Spinoza's Doctrine. Part 2: (d) Spinoza's pantheism made him declare that everything is God. This is the theological outlook. The philosophical one declares that everything is a manifestation of One Infinite Reality. For if the ego also is God, then who is God? (e) Spinoza's teaching that God has two attributes, Mind and Matter, that reality has two aspects, mind and body, made him a dualist. Philosophy knows only one reality—Mind. It admits causality only for the immediate and practical purposes of the illusory world. (f) His teaching on how to live so as to fulfil the proper purpose of life is identical with philosophy's teaching. He saw that man so far must become wholly free inwardly and as free as possible outwardly. This is to be achieved by self-mastery, by overcoming desires, subjugating passions, and simplifying existence. This brings true happiness.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24257E – 13.20.1.30

A231010 – ZEL2/2 – K

It is significant that in Sanskrit the term which stands for philosophy is also given the meaning of "insight." Hence an Indian philosopher was someone who not merely 'knew' about things, like a metaphysician or scientist, but who had an insight into them.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24263 – 13.20.1.36

BN – ZZ – K

Here is a teaching which the intellect may accept, and the conscience may approve. Here are complex ideas which will need time for the modern man to work them out in his own way; here are germinal conceptions whose full significances may at first remain unrecognized but will disclose themselves as gradually as trees disclose themselves out of seeds.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24273 – 13.20.1.46

B_02 – ZZ – K

We call ourselves students of philosophy because we cannot take any name derived from a human teacher. We are not followers of this person or that person exclusively, but of the inner light.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24275 – 13.20.1.48

B_01 – ZZZ – K

Taking no theoretical position, not committed to any beliefs, not wearing any labels, not putting himself in any categories, the philosophical student starts his search for Truth in intellectual freedom and ends it in personal inner freedom. We call ourselves students of philosophy because we cannot take any name derived from a human teacher. We are not followers of this person or that person exclusively, but of the inner Light.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24275EM – 13.20.1.48

UR_2.5 – ZZZ – K

Certain truths are immovably fundamental to all worthy systems of mysticism and tremendously important to all mankind: there exists a supreme reality beyond the awareness of sense or intellect; there exists a soul in man which is rooted in this reality; the higher purpose of human life is to establish full consciousness of and communion with this soul; a good life increases happinesses and attracts rewards, but wrong-doing increases misery and attracts retribution.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24282 – 13.20.1.55

BN – ZZZ – DEK

Philosophy never ceases to affirm that the soul exists, and that human consciousness can be raised to embrace it.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24283 – 13.20.1.56

B_02 – ZZ – K

Philosophy affirms, not on the basis of theoretical speculation but on that of direct experience, that every human being has a divine soul from which it draws life, consciousness, and intelligence.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24286 – 13.20.1.59

BN – Z – D

Genuine philosophy is a living force actively at work in molding the character and modifying the destiny of its votaries.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24288 – 13.20.1.61

BSG_4 – ZZ – DM*

This is philosophy which opens the way to bigger thoughts, wider minds, and finer ideals; which makes the quest for truth an inner adventure and a religious duty; and which finally points to a supernal divine stillness as the place where the revelation must be made.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24294 – 13.20.1.67

BN – Z – DK

The popular view merely looks 'at' life; the philosophic view looks 'into' life.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24305 – 13.20.1.78

BN – ZZ – K

This is the gospel of inspired action, of dynamic philosophy, of rational religion, of balanced mysticism.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24314 – 13.20.1.87

BN – Z – DK

It is not quite the same to go in search of a faith to believe in as to go in search of a truth to understand. Philosophy, however, unites the two endeavours.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24320 – 13.20.1.93

BN – X – D

Dharma = moral living

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24327 – 13.20.1.100

UR_3.2 – Z – K

Calmness and balance are the most admired virtues in the philosophic code. The first is developed to the extent of becoming superb self-composure, the second until it integrates utter opposites.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Toward Defining Philosophy

#24335 – 13.20.1.108

BN – X – D

It may be asked why I insist on using the word 'philosophy' as a self-sufficient name without prefixing it by some descriptive term or person's name when it has held different meanings in different centuries, or been associated with different points of view ranging from the most materialistic to the most spiritualist. The question is well asked, although the answer may not be quite satisfactory. I do so because I want to restore this word to its ancient dignity. I want it used for the highest kind of insight into the Truth of things, which means into the Truth of the unique Reality. I want the philosopher to be equated with the sage, the man who not only knows this Truth, has this insight, and experiences this Reality in meditation, but also, although in a modified form, in action amid the world's turmoil.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > On the term 'philosophy'

#24354 – 13.20.1.127

UR_3.2 – ZZZ – K1

There is a kind of understanding combined with feeling which is not a common one here in the West, indeed uncommon enough to seem more discoverable and less puzzling in the Asiatic regions. It is puzzling for four reasons. One is that it cannot be attributed to the intellect alone, nor to the emotional nature alone. Another is that it provides an experience so difficult to describe that it is preferable not to discuss it at all. A third is that although the most reverent it is not allied to religion. A fourth point is that it is outside any precise labelling as for instance a metaphysics or cult which could really belong to it. Yet it is neither anything new or old. It is nameless. But because there is only one way to deal with it honestly—the way of utter silence, speechless when in contact with other humans, perfectly still when in the secrecy of a closed room—we may renew the Pythagorean appellation of "philosophy" for it is truly the love of wisdom-knowledge.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > On the term 'philosophy'

#24356 – 13.20.1.129

BN – ZZ – K1

Although philosophy propounds statements of universal laws and eternal truths, nevertheless each man draws from its study highly personal application and gains from its practices markedly individual fulfilment. Although it is the only Idea which can ever bring men together in harmony and unity, nevertheless it becomes unique for every fresh adherent. And although it transcends all limitations imposed by intellect emotion form and egoism, nevertheless it inspires the poet, teaches the thinker, gives vistas to the artist, guides the executive, and solaces the labourer.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Philosophy's transcendental "position''

#24377 – 13.20.1.150

BN – ZZ – K1

The would-be philosopher should not feel bound by labels, categories, and other fences which people want to put on others simply because they themselves live quite willingly surrounded by such fences and cannot understand someone who refuses to do so. Philosophy is a path which ends in the pathless—a way to the inner freedom which comes with truth.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Philosophy's transcendental "position''

#24380 – 13.20.1.153

BN – X – D

Philosophy explains life, guides man, and—by removing his misunderstanding about his own identity—redeems him.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24397 – 13.20.1.170

BN – X – D

Not only does philosophical study inform the mind, it also elevates the mind.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24399 – 13.20.1.172

BN – Z – DK

The sincere, who are honestly desirous of discovering Truth at whatever cost, will be helped within their limitations; the insincere, who seek to support their petty prejudices rather than to follow Truth, will have their hearts read and their hollowness exposed.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24401 – 13.20.1.174

BN – Z – K1

He who has sufficiently purified his character, controlled his senses, developed his reason, and unfolded his intuition is always ready to meet what comes and to meet it aright. He need not fear the future. Time is on his side. For he has stopped adding bad karma to his account and every fresh year adds good karma instead. And even where he must still bear the workings of the old adverse karma, he will still remain serene because he understands with Epictetus that "There is only one thing for which God has sent me into the world, and that is to perfect my nature in all sorts of virtue or strength; and there is nothing that I cannot use for that purpose." He knows that each experience which comes to him is what he most needs at the time, even though it be what he likes least. He needs it because it is in part nothing else than his own past thinking, feeling, and doing come back to confront him to enable him to see and study their results in a plain, concrete, unmistakable form. He makes use of every situation to help his ultimate aims, even though it may hinder his immediate ones.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24402E – 13.20.1.175

BN – ZEL1/3 – DEK1

Such serenity in the face of adversity must not be mistaken for supine fatalism or a lethargic acceptance of every untoward event as God's will. For although he will seek to understand why it has happened to him and master the lesson behind it, he will also seek to master the event itself and not be content to endure it helplessly. Thus, when all happenings become serviceable to him and when he knows that his own reaction to them will be dictated by wisdom and virtue, the future can no more frighten him than the present can intimidate him. He cannot go amiss whatever happens. For he knows too, whether it be a defeat or a sorrow in the world's eyes, whether it be a triumph or a joy, the experience will leave him better, wiser, and stronger than it found him, more prepared for the next one to come.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24402E – 13.20.1.175

B_01 – ZEL2/3 – DEK1

The philosophic student knows that he is here to face, understand, and master precisely those events, conditions, and situations which others wish to flee and evade, that to make a detour around life's obstacles and to escape meeting its problems is, in the end, unprofitable. He knows that his wisdom must arise out of the fullness and not out of the poverty of experience and that it is no use non-cooperatively shirking the world's struggle, for it is largely through such struggle that he can bring forth his own latent resources. Philosophy does not refuse to face life, however tragic or however frightful it may be, and uses such experiences to profit its own higher purpose.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24402E – 13.20.1.175

B_01 – ZEL3/3 – DEK1

The mastery of philosophy will produce a supreme self-confidence within him throughout his dealings with life. The man who knows nothing of philosophy will declare that it has nothing to do with practical affairs and that it will not help you to rise in your chosen career, for instance. He is wrong. Philosophy gives its votary a thoroughly scientific and practical outlook whilst it enables him to solve his problems unemotionally and by the clear light of reason. He will, however, be under certain ethical limitations from which other men are exempt, for he takes the game of living as a sacred trust and not as a means for personal aggrandizement at the expense of others.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24403 – 13.20.1.176

BN – ZZ – K1

Those who would assign philosophy the role of a leisurely pastime for a few people who have nothing better to do, are greatly mistaken. Philosophy, correctly understood, involves living as well as being. Its value is not merely intellectual, not merely to stimulate thought, but also to guide action. Its ideas and ideals are not left suspended in mid-air, as it were, unable to come down to earth in practical and practicable forms. It can be put to the test in daily living. It can be applied to all personal and social problems without exception. It shows us how to achieve a balanced existence in an unbalanced society.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24404E – 13.20.1.177

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

If philosophy begins with doubt and wonder, it ends by taking away whatever doubts are left in the mind and converting the wonder into holy reverence.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24405 – 13.20.1.178

BN – X – D

What is the worth of the philosophic attainment? Perhaps one of the best answers would be: suppose all men and women possessed it, what would civilized society be like then? It would certainly be freer of its present defects and fuller of realized virtues. War would be unknown, destitution would vanish; peace, knowledge, beauty, joy, and goodness would flourish.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24408 – 13.20.1.181

BN – ZZ – DK

The divine character of his inmost being will become plain to him, and that not as a matter of wishful thinking or suggested belief but as firsthand personal experience.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24421 – 13.20.1.194

BN – X – D

Each person who brings more truth and goodness, more consciousness and balance into his own small circle, brings it into the whole world at the same time. A single individual may be helpless in the face of global events, but the echoes of the echoes of his inspired words and deeds, presence and thoughts, may be heard far from him in place and time.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24427 – 13.20.1.200

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The first awakening to intellectual and artistic values in a young person is an important event, as the first awakening at puberty to sex is a dynamic one. But the first awakening to the vision of what philosophy has to offer transcends them all.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24436 – 13.20.1.209

BN – X – D

To pass on this philosophical knowledge is as necessary as to pass on essential forms of agricultural or industrial knowledge.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24448 – 13.20.1.221

BN – ZZ – DK

Philosophy sees the whole route and therefore can correctly point out the next step forward to those who are still groping their way along it.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24449 – 13.20.1.222

BN – ZZZ – DK

When a man sticks to unshakeable principles and abides by unalterable ethics, he derives an inner strength which not only is protective but also makes him feel secure.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24453 – 13.20.1.226

BN – Z – D

A mind freed from its weaknesses and illuminated by the Overself, a life guided from within and ruled by truth—these are some of the rewards the quest offers him.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24456 – 13.20.1.229

BN – X – D

There is a deep joy in this growing perception of life's larger meaning, a profound comfort in the ever increasing knowledge of its beneficent purpose.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24461 – 13.20.1.234

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The worth of this teaching does not depend upon the numbers of people who espouse it. The weaker the response which it receives from the world in general, the stronger should be the effort put forth by the few, if they really believe in it, to keep it alive.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24477 – 13.20.1.250

B_02 – ZZZ – DMK

The philosophic movement is a loose and free one. Its strength cannot be measured by numbers or institutions, for externality and rigidity are out of harmony with its teaching and character. Yet, unorganized and unadvertised though it be, it is not less vital and not less significant than more visible movements.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24479 – 13.20.1.252

BA11 – ZZ – DK

In philosophy a man can find everything he needs for his spiritual guidance throughout life. His religious, mystical, metaphysical, and ethical requirements are all provided for. If he faithfully follows its teaching, no other system will ever attract him again.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24490 – 13.20.1.263

BN – X – D

When our eyes have been opened to the true meaning of man, when we know that this is not to be found in his transient personality but in his enduring essence, life will possess a quality it never had before.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24492 – 13.20.1.265

BN – Z – D

Whoever thinks wills and acts by the light of, and in harmony with, these truths attains goodness free from mere sentimentality, wisdom unmarred by intellectual arrogance, and strength purified from low egoism.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24494 – 13.20.1.267

B_10 – ZZ – K

A teaching which helps men and women to meet adversity with courage, opposition with serenity, and temptation with insight can surely render a real service to the modern world.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24511 – 13.20.1.284

B_02 – ZZ – DMK

If someone were to compile a list of the famous ones who found in philosophy the truth they could find nowhere else, the names would stretch from the Far East to the Far West, from pre-Greek antiquity to postwar modernity.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24518 – 13.20.1.291

BN – ZZ – DK

The first feeling is one of astonishment that such a large area of knowledge and experience should exist among us humans and yet be almost unknown to most of us.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24520 – 13.20.1.293

BN – X – D

We may call that ideal worth following which brings people closer to knowing the truth about life, which offers them what is real, not illusory, which improves and refines character, and which can be tested by practicable action.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24524 – 13.20.1.297

UR_2.4 – ZZZ – K

In the end all students will become philosophers in the ancient sense of this term—that is, "lovers of wisdom"—and therefore not only feel the Divine but also understand it. Not only this, but they will be able to help others to attain like understanding and be desirous of doing so. The greater their knowledge, the greater their power to help others. Moreover, knowledge of how the Divine works is a safeguard against the pitfalls, pseudo-teachers, and evil ones, for they can then be perceived instantly. Philosophers will not then be deceived by face values. Jesus said, "Be ye harmless as doves but shrewd as serpents".

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24525 – 13.20.1.298

B_01 – ZZ – K

He who has ascended to these higher levels of being, reflects the changed point of view in all his personal relationships. Resentment collapses, forgiveness arises.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24527 – 13.20.1.300

B_14 – ZZ – DK

How many persons have told me that it was the help and support got from these philosophic ideas, truths, and principles which enabled them to endure periods of public terror or private distress without nervous breakdown!

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24530 – 13.20.1.303

BN – X – D

The knowledge of philosophy takes the bitterness out of tragedy and the frustration out of adversity.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24531 – 13.20.1.304

BN – ZZ – K

When a man or woman comes into fuller awareness of the True Self he arrives at the same time at the discovery of his true work, together with the capacity to perform it. Such an individual usually has innate ability—but the development of this ability depends upon his struggles to achieve it. Also, its sphere of activity may not necessarily be what he at first believes. In this case, disappointments and frustrations will arise to serve as indications that he has yet to find the right road. The appearance of talents and capacities can be hastened if one acquires better balance.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24548 – 13.20.1.321

BN – X – DEK

We must hold to the value of wisdom, which gives to man so much dignity and goodness, so much honour and usefulness, but we must hold to it above all because it is part of that goal which God has set before us for attainment on this earth.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its value and benefits

#24550 – 13.20.1.323

BN – Z – DK

Bradley defined philosophy as the finding of bad reasons for what one believes by instinct but Aldous Huxley has endeavoured to improve on this. He says, "finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons—that's philosophy."

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL01/38 – K

In India, popular ignorance gradually identified philosophy with those monks and anchorites who had fled from the world and its woes to monasteries or mountains.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL02/38 – K

It was once the fashion of many people to sneer at philosophy and to regard philosophers as a ridiculous compound of foolishness and fatuity, but time has begun to change all that.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL03/38 – K

The notion that there is something futile about philosophy is quite correct when applied to what passes under that name very often, but quite incorrect when applied to genuine philosophy; and it is genuine philosophy which is here presented.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL04/38 – K

The value of knowing truth lies in its potency for making clear the art of fine living. A philosophy which is not strong enough to vivify personal life is no more than a dry dusty intellectualism, and when philosophy becomes a mode of intellectual wrestling, contributing little or nothing to action, it falls rightly into neglect. Its proper business is to rescue man from mechanical and unintelligent activity and put him on the path to a deliberately wise existence. It should be an insurance against making ethical errors or undertaking stupid enterprises, and its study is the premium to be paid for this valuable insurance.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL05/38 – K

Here then is a teaching, very old and very wise, which summarizes all human knowledge, actual and possible, and which shows man how best to shape his personal and practical life. I am not its originator. I can but try to re-present it to a troubled, broken, and blinded world which waits for this knowledge in modern form, as a benighted traveller waits for the dawn.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL06/38 – DEK

This philosophy rightly understood and rightly used will make men who make history. It calls for people who are ready and able to raise it above the status of a tea table topic, and to devote to its study and practice not merely an occasional free evening, but their whole lives; who will not only understand these great truths intellectually, but feel their transforming power in their hearts, and courageously live them in everyday life. For whoever masters this philosophy will soon feel its invigorating influence in every sphere of his activity, and in its light he will walk life's ways with calm assurance.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL07/38 – DEK

Once I stood on the wide pavement of Broadway. All around flashed and reflashed the electric advertising signs of "The Great White Way." A ragged young man bearing a bundle of newspapers came up to me, thrust a paper close to my face, and shouted raucously, "Man and woman shot." The never ending roar of motor traffic dinned in my ears. Crowds of people pressed by me: expectant faces intent on snatching an evening's pleasure, tired faces eager to get home after a day's toil, painted faces striving to retain a semblance of beauty, hard ominous faces emerging from New York's underworld with sinister intent. There was the stir of exultant activity. I looked around at the crowd which jostled me, and peered questioningly into the faces which moved like a cinema film before my eyes. Which one seemed to express the attainment of inward happiness? Which one revealed a serene detachment from its destructive environment? I turned away, sadly disappointed in my quest. Nearly all had been suborned by the temptations that form such an alluring accompaniment to modern existence.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL08/38 – K

They did not understand that the transitory is true but trivial, the eternal is true and great. They did not understand that baronets cannot escape broken hearts, nor millionaires the miseries of disappointment. They did not know that once a man has taken measure of the suffering which is inherent in life, the wrinkled demon of reflection will pursue him into the very haunts of revelry. He may view with pleasure a hundred happy figures dancing in gay abandon, when lo! its sneer sounds abruptly in his ear, "and even these are but dream figures dancing towards their silent graves." And so they wander through the years alternating between the red flames of passion and the grey coolness of calculation, until the little candles of their lives have guttered out.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL09/38 – K

They who think that the purpose of human incarnation is to increase pleasures and accumulate property have learned nothing from the instability of life and insecurity of possessions which have marked the period now passing.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL10/38 – DEK

The greatest evils of our age are not in its outward materialism but in its inward ignorance, and not in its practical inventiveness but in its mental unbalance.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL11/38 – DEMK

When we mistake transient sense gratifications for true happiness we suffer later for our error. When we fail to discriminate between what is perishable in our lives and what is truly enduring we rely upon illusory values. The future tempts or torments us; the past keeps us half-buried in its memories; while the truth which could lift us into a region that liberates us from all temporal tyrannies is disdained. Yet peace, sublime and ego-free, can exist for us only when we learn to live, as it were, upon the pinpoint of a moment where all hopes for the future are not allowed to imprison us, and where equally all memories of the past are merely held and do not hold us.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL12/38 – K

We attain peace, as Buddha pointed out, when we are free from all [egoistic] desires.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL13/38 – K

Inspired action is the means of reconciliation between seclusion and society, the service of the noisy crowd with the silence of lofty thought. Spirituality ceases to be a monopoly of the cloister, comes out of the confinement of church, temple, monastery, or mosque, and walks in the marketplace among busy men.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL14/38 – K

For philosophy teaches us that there is no sharp division between the world of surrounding things and the world of internal aspirations, that both are of the same ultimate essence of mind. Therefore the philosopher will despise nothing because it is supposed to be material, just as he will discard nothing because it is supposed to be anti-spiritual. He has glimpsed the great mystery of all existence, and knows that all things are within and participate in the Overself. Philosophy is identical with action and not with inertia. To make it anything less is to abuse words, for as the "love of wisdom" it must include the application of wisdom.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL15/38 – K

"Love cannot be idle," says Ruysbroeck.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL16/38 – K

"I preach you the truth, O monks, for deliverance and not for keeping idle," says Buddha.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL17/38 – K

The hidden teaching affirms that the universal manifested existence is a Becoming, a change from one condition to another. It is absurd to suggest that a truly spiritual life must be a static one. A static human existence is impossible, and whoever seeks it seeks in vain.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL18/38 – K

Life in the active world is simply expression, and the divine life can be lived everywhere.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL19/38 – K

No defense need be made to the fanatics who decry and denounce our desire to get some comfort and convenience from the earth's resources. Western civilization, so condemned by Oriental critics, possesses much that is admirable, despite its obvious faults.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL20/38 – K

Man is not called upon to renounce his great discoveries and works, but to renounce selfish usage of them.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL21/38 – K

There can be no salvation in the attitude of mind which denounces the West as wicked and material Occidentalism and upholds an ascetic disdain of material things.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL22/38 – K

The God Who is to be found within ourselves must also exist equally outside ourselves in the phenomenal universe, else how would He be Infinite?

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL23/38 – DEK

No, we must rebut the accusation of materialism as stupid, and point out that a better name would be realism. Life in activity is as real as life in repose; expression is no less divine than meditation; and they who have discovered the divinity within themselves will forthwith recognize it throughout the universe.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL24/38 – K

We need to achieve a balanced life with a wise alternation between action and repose, work and meditation, being positive and being passive.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL25/38 – DEK

Only the philosopher has the orientation of outlook which enables a man to take his political, social, and economic bearings correctly.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL26/38 – K

It may not be often that the floors of city offices are trodden by the feet of those who also wander in the caves of mystic contemplation; nor the hubbub of the stock exchange heard by those who also hear the sweet silence of the inner self. The combination in one personality of the two opposite characteristics of meditation and action may be infrequent, but there are those who have achieved it, and who realize that work is not only to make a living, but a life.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL27/38 – K

When there are more such men and women in towns and cities, when they walk in the hard metropolitan streets and the busy bartering places revealing a serene state of mind which is held and maintained no less among crowds than in solitary places, the soulless character of so much of modern life will be redeemed. The philosophy of inspired action of such persons brings blessings on mankind. Such persons have accepted their lot in worldly life and seek to do their duty; they turn occasion into opportunity and bring the sense of sublimity into their prosaic hours. Their own diviner peace and spiritual poise is blessing to their neighbours like fresh dew on a parched land.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL28/38 – K

Another name for inspired action is unselfish work. The spiritual man will work no less hard than the average man; his work will be done well, with understanding, calmly, with detachment. His aspiration is towards Perfection, the Supreme Divinity, and this attitude will be seen in all his work, even in the meanest task. He works without the fever of ambition or greed, and he does not allow any pains or pleasures, difficulties or problems to move him from the ideal he has set before him. With calm and equable spirit he does his best. More he cannot do.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL29/38 – DEK

A man who is attuned to cosmic harmonies cannot fail to express harmony in all his worldly activities.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL30/38 – K

This is a quest to be undertaken by those who have suffered and smiled and are still ardently alive, not for those heavy humourless persons who are ascetically dead. Therefore let those of us who are condemned to toil for our daily bread not forget to toil for the spiritual Bread of Life. The notion that a spiritual man may not work vigorously in the world of business and industry is as nonsensical as the notion that a man who can compose perfect music may not eat a hearty dinner.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL31/38 – K

There is nothing to prevent the sage from being a successful businessman, and nothing wrong in practical activities, for the simple reason that he will not cease being a sage nor lose himself in his activities, and he will remain rooted in Reality amid the world of thoughts and things.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL32/38 – K

Voltaire wrote of Marlborough that he had a calmness in the midst of tumult and danger "which is the greatest gift of nature for command." Thus even a soldier can derive great benefit from yoga.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL33/38 – K

Daily meditation will overcome the materializing effect of constant contact with worldly influences, by bringing together the inner and outer selves in communion with each other: one giving strength and light to the other, and the latter expressing this inspiration in active life.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL34/38 – DEK

We are able to live a complete and creative existence only after we have arrived at a true attitude towards life through spiritual unfoldment. Only then can we walk the world's ways in safety.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL35/38 – K

In the end we may learn whether our feelings were wise or deceptive, our thinking sound or unsound, by the experience which comes from our consequent acts. Dreamers, escapists, and ascetics who shy away from activity deprive themselves of this valuable test.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL36/38 – K

We shall find we must have the strength to say "No" to a thing before we have the inner right to take it. We must learn how to renounce a thing before we can possess it.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL37/38 – K

We must learn to remain ultramystically aware always, even while we are externally occupied with any matter in hand. Our work will not suffer, but be all the better for the poised emotion and peaceful mind which this brings.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

A230510 – ZEL38/38 – K

We need to achieve a balanced life with a wise alternation between action and repose, work and meditation, being positive and being passive…

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

BA12 – ZZ – DEK3

The God Who is to be found within ourselves must also exist equally outside ourselves in the phenomenal universe, else how would He be Infinite?

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

BA11 – ZZ – DEK3

Here then is a teaching, very old and very wise, which summarizes all human knowledge, actual and possible, and which shows man how best to shape his personal and practical life. I am not its originator. I can but try to re-present it to a troubled, broken, and blinded world which waits for this knowledge in modern form, as a benighted traveller waits for the dawn.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

B_02 – ZZZ – DEK

The notion that there is something futile about philosophy is quite correct when applied to what passes under that name very often, but quite incorrect when applied to genuine philosophy; and it is genuine philosophy which is here presented.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

BA13 – ZZZ – DEK

The notion that there is something futile about philosophy is quite correct when applied to what passes under that name very often, but quite incorrect when applied to genuine philosophy; and it is genuine philosophy which is here presented.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24552E – 13.20.1.325

B_02 – ZZZ – DEK

Philosophy combines a lofty idealism with an intense practicality.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24553 – 13.20.1.326

BN – X – D

This teaching can be understood only by those who try to live it: all others merely think they understand it. Only those who have incorporated it in their lives for a number of years can know how intensely practical philosophy is.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24554 – 13.20.1.327

B_02 – ZZ – DK

This teaching will only be of interest to those who have long felt an aspiration towards higher-than-ordinary experience. It can be understood only by those who try to live it: all others merely think they understand it. Only those who have incorporated it in their lives for a number of years can know how intensely practical philosophy is.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24554M – 13.20.1.327

BA11 – ZZZ – DX

Practical philosophy is the art of living so as to fulfil life's higher purpose.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24556 – 13.20.1.329

A230510 – ZZZ – DK

It is a grave mistake to regard these matters as having no more than a theoretical interest, to be played with or not according to one's taste. Whoever finds the answers to the questions, whoever knows what man really is, what his prenatal and post-mortem destinies are, what his highest good is, will necessarily find that his practical everyday living is much affected by them.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24557 – 13.20.1.330

BN – ZZZ – DEK

Wisdom begins only when you apply in practice what you absorb in theory.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24559 – 13.20.1.332

BN – X – D

It is uncommon to find an individual who, in a single personality, combines a highly spiritual outlook with a truly practical character. He who succeeds in effecting this combination is rare, but he is the type that the coming age needs and demands. For he can prove and demonstrate convincingly to all the world that loftiness of philosophic ethics will not be a weakness in practical life. On the contrary, because it is informed by knowledge and based upon wisdom, it will be a source of strength.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24561 – 13.20.1.334

BN – ZZ – D

The effect of his studies and meditations will slowly but surely reveal itself in his life. His world outlook will sparkle with vitality, his speech will form itself with precision, his deeds will be wise and more virtuous. For philosophy, unlike metaphysics, is not only a theory to be learned from books but even more an integral way of life to be practised in society.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24562 – 13.20.1.335

BN – ZZ – D

Philosophy will show a man how to find his better self, will lead him to cultivate intuition, will guide him to acquire sounder values and stronger will, will train him in right thinking and wise reflection, and, lastly, will give him correct standards of ethical rightness or wrongness. If its theoretical pursuit is so satisfying that it can be an end and a reward in itself, its practical application to current living is immeasurably 'useful', valuable, and helpful.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24564 – 13.20.1.337

B_02 – ZZ – DEK

It is not that truth has to be made practical, for it is the most practical thing which exists. It is that men have to become better instructed in it, as well as in the higher laws which reflect it, and then live out what they have learned.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24565 – 13.20.1.338

BN – Z – D

Not to escape life, but to articulate it, is philosophy's practical goal. Not to take the aspirant out of circulation, but to give him something worth doing is philosophy's sensible ideal.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24567 – 13.20.1.340

BN – ZZ – K1

If leadership and guidance, inspiration and light are ever to come to humanity from mystical circles during this colossal upheaval, be sure that they will come only from those who have wedded head to heart and contemplation to practical service.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24568 – 13.20.1.341

BN – ZZ – DK

To bring the divine presence into the midst of one's work and one's work continually into the divine presence—this is an inspired and worthwhile active life.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24571 – 13.20.1.344

BN – ZZ – DK

When these thoughts pass down from his head to his heart and from his heart to his will, only then will he really be a student of philosophy. The heart must be opened to them, the will must be directed by them. With that his life will change, at first little by little, into a blessed one.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24581 – 13.20.1.354

BN – ZZ – DK

Philosophy demands that we actualize our ideals. Wisdom must flower in deeds that accord with it or it is not wisdom. Action is the decisive factor, the acid test of all mystical, metaphysical, and religious pretensions to a superior ethic. Therefore the ethical values, such as compassion and integrity, which arise from the interior experience of metaphysical and mystical meditation must also be upheld in the exterior space-time world.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24584 – 13.20.1.357

B_02 – ZZ – DEMK

The man who faithfully obeys the injunctions and practices the regimes of philosophy can never be a failure, whatever the world says. Nor can he be unemployed, for he understands that his real employer is the Overself and that the work he is doing will not end while life does not end.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24616 – 13.20.1.389

BN – X – D

The time has come to develop the knowledge and extend the understanding of a teaching which few know and fewer still understand. Occupied principally, as it is, with matters of eternal rather than ephemeral life, it finds today a larger opportunity for service than it could have found at any earlier period in consequence of the evolutionary forces which have been working on man's history, ideas, attitudes, communications, and productions. It is the most important knowledge which any human being could study.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its inspired practicality

#24624E – 13.20.1.397

BA11 – ZZ – DEK3

If he can combine and balance a practical attitude towards the world with a transcendental detachment from the world, he will fulfil man’s higher purpose.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its 'worldliness'

#24643 – 13.20.1.416

B_08 – ZZ – DK

The worldly side of things must be included with the spiritual side, related to it, balanced by it, purified through it. This is the sane view of philosophy.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its 'worldliness'

#24648 – 13.20.1.421

B_08 – ZZZ – K

Not by moving further and further away from reality, blindly and obstinately, can the seeker discover truth. He must face the facts of common life before he can unveil those of the uncommon life.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its 'worldliness'

#24650 – 13.20.1.423

B_05 – ZZ – K

The attraction toward the divine need not mean repulsion from the world. There is room in human life for both the heavenly and the earthly. To deepen knowledge and increase beauty, to spread compassion and to uplift man—this is our work today.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its 'worldliness'

#24652E – 13.20.1.425

BA12 – ZZ – DEK

The philosophic student will not make the mistake of using the quest as an excuse for inefficiency when attending to duties. There is nothing spiritual in being a muddler. The performance of worldly duties in a dreamy, casual, uninterested, and slovenly manner is often self-excused by the mystically minded because they feel superior to such duties. This arises out of the false opposition which they set up between Matter and Spirit. Such an attitude is not the philosophical one. The mystic is supposed to be apathetic in worldly matters, if he is to be a good mystic. The philosophical student, on the contrary, keeps what is most worthwhile in mysticism and yet manages to keep alert in worldly matters too. If he has understood the teaching and trained himself aright, his practical work will be better done and not worse because he has taken to this quest. He knows it is perfectly possible to balance mystical tendencies with a robust efficiency. He will put as much thought and heart into his work as it demands.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its 'worldliness'

#24661 – 13.20.1.434

B_08 – ZZZ – K1

Henry Suso acquired a reputation for mystical wisdom and ascetic piety when he remained secluded inside a monastery for twenty years. He lost it in less than half that time when he emerged to live and act in the outside world. For there was the testing-ground which measured his real achievement, as well as the evil forces which would destroy such a man's good work.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Its 'worldliness'

#24665 – 13.20.1.438

B_16 – Z – K

Philosophy includes religion but not "a" religion. It is universal, not sectarian.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Relation to religion & mysticism

#24672 – 13.20.1.445

B_02 – Z – DK

Our personal concern is not with exoteric religions, which are all without exception in their period of decay and dissolution; it is with esoteric knowledge, the knowledge which was possessed by Jesus, Buddha, and Krishna alike and secretly taught to their closest disciples.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Relation to religion & mysticism

#24677 – 13.20.1.450

A241224 – ZZ – K

The Advaitin who declares that as such he has no point of view, has already adopted one by calling himself an Advaitin and by rejecting every other point of view as being dualistic. A human philosophy is neither dualistic alone nor nondualistic alone. It perceives the connection between the dream and the dreamer, the Real and the unreal, the consciousness and the thought. It accepts Advaita, but refuses to stop with it; it accepts duality, but refuses to remain limited to it; therefore it alone is free from a dogmatic point of view. But in attempting to bring into harmony that which forever is and that which is bound by time and space, it becomes a truly human philosophy of Truth.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Living synthesis, not anemic eclecticism

#24705D – 13.20.1.478

BN – X – K

It is the joyous duty of philosophy to bring into systematic harmony the various views which mankind has held and will ever hold, however conflicting they seem on the surface, by assigning the different types to their proper level and by providing a total view of the possible heights and depths of human thought. Thus and thus alone the most opposite tendencies of belief and the most striking contrasts of outlook are brought within a single scheme. All become aspects, more or less limited, only. None ever achieves metaphysical finality and need never again be mistaken for the whole truth. All become clear as organic phases of mankind's mental development. Philosophy alone can bring logically opposite doctrines into harmonious relation with each other by assigning them to their proper places under a single sheltering canopy. Thus out of the medley of voices within us philosophy creates a melody.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Living synthesis, not anemic eclecticism

#24708 – 13.20.1.481

BN – X – K1

There are fragments of this teaching to be found in ancient Rome amongst the Stoics, in ancient Greece amongst the Platonists, and in ancient India amongst the Buddhists. But they are fragments only. If you want the complete system, you must go to philosophy.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Living synthesis, not anemic eclecticism

#24712 – 13.20.1.485

BN – X – K

Philosophy rises above sects and is therefore free from sectarian dispute, friction, and hostility. It is naturally tolerant, knowing that as men rise in cultural and moral development, their beliefs will rise in truthfulness and nobility.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Living synthesis, not anemic eclecticism

#24724 – 13.20.1.497

B_02 – ZZ – DK

Those who have not taken the precaution to study other teachings, other ideas, other experiences, and other revelations, but only the views of their own favoured teacher, may have learned the worst and not the best. And those who know only their own religion, their own nation's history and form of government may pay in some way or other for their ignorance. Comparative study will be part of the education of a better world. It will not only bring less prejudice and more tolerance, but also—what is more important—help to establish truth.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Living synthesis, not anemic eclecticism

#24733 – 13.20.1.506

BN – ZZ – K

Physics, metaphysics, religion, and mysticism must unite before each can speak truth, which is a unique whole and not a particular fragment as they individually are.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Living synthesis, not anemic eclecticism

#24739 – 13.20.1.512

BN – X – DK

The Greek love of balance and sense of proportion are incorporated in philosophy as much as the Roman-Stoic love of self-mastery and sense of mental values.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Living synthesis, not anemic eclecticism

#24741 – 13.20.1.514

BN – X – K

By refusing to join philosophy to any built-up structure, social or cultural organization, or particular group of people, this approach keeps its own freedom and bestows that same freedom on those who study it.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Living synthesis, not anemic eclecticism

#24746 – 13.20.1.519

BA11 – ZZ – DK

By refusing to join philosophy to any built-up structure, social or cultural organization, or particular group of people, this approach keeps its own freedom and bestows that same freedom on those who study it.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Living synthesis, not anemic eclecticism

#24746 – 13.20.1.519

BSG_1 – ZZZ – DK

As one reflects upon the majestic grandeur of this teaching, its amplitude and height, one feels like a traveller who stands for the first time at a vantage point of the Himalayas, where loftier and ever loftier snowy summits fill the whole horizon to his left and right, as far as his eyes can see.

What Is Philosophy? > Toward Defining Philosophy > Living synthesis, not anemic eclecticism

#24751 – 13.20.1.524

BN – Z – DK

These teachings have appeared in the world in their present form and at the present time because they correspond to a genuine need of a certain section of humanity.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24753 – 13.20.2.1

B_02 – ZZ – DMK

These truths, which were formerly kept wholly esoteric and narrowly confined to an intellectually privileged elite, must now be given to the widest possible audience because humanity's position is so precarious. The old secrecy has outlived its usefulness.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24756 – 13.20.2.4

BN – ZZ – DK

It is the business of philosophy to cast out error and establish truth. This takes it away from the popular conceptions of religion. Philosophy by its very nature must be unpopular; hence it does not ordinarily go out of its way to spread its ideas in the world. Only at special periods, like our own, when history and evolution have prepared enough individuals to make a modest audience, does philosophy promulgate such of its tenets as are best suited to the mind of that period.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24759 – 13.20.2.7

BN – ZZZ – K1

The work done by science and rationalism has been a necessary one, but it was destructive of religious codes and consequently of moralities based on those codes. Mankind must now perform a piece of constructive work in the sphere of ethics or it may experience a social collapse of colossal magnitude. It is here that the hidden teaching can step in and offer a valuable contribution.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24763 – 13.20.2.11

BA11 – ZZ – DK

The duty to which we are called is not to propagate ideas but to offer them, not to convert reluctant minds but to satisfy hungry ones, not to trap the bodies of men into external organizations but to set their souls free to find truth. There are individuals today to whom these teachings are unknown but who possess in the deeper levels of their mind latent tendencies and beliefs, acquired in former lives, which will leap into forceful activity as soon as the teaching is presented to them.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24768 – 13.20.2.16

BN – ZZZ – DEK

It is true that the differences of evolutionary grades must be respected. It is true that the mass of people are children spiritually. But it is also true that children can be taught something and led a few steps onward however low their grade. Moreover, we live in times when the old evil forces are so active only because they feel the approach of new and good ones.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24771 – 13.20.2.19

B_16 – Z – DEMK

Will the masses ever come of cultural and spiritual age? Can the common man ever find enough nourishment in true philosophic ideas? Yes, this can happen if those at the top accept truth, for sooner or later their ideas filter downward, even if somewhat thinned by the process of popularization.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24773 – 13.20.2.21

BN – Z – DK

In the end philosophy is not only for the minority of well-educated minds or for the elite of the persons refined by culture, upbringing, innate sensitivity, but also for the majority who can take it in partially; here and there some points can be grasped and accepted. Properly presented with psychological perception of the audience's disposition, nature, capacities, knowledge, and faith, it can be linked up with what they already hold, dovetailed in, and built up further.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24775 – 13.20.2.23

BN – Z – DEK

If it is to be popularized, this must be done under some reserves, to protect its own purity and integrity. But these reserves need not and ought not be as large and forbidding as they often have been in the past. The extraordinary times in which we live, the world-wide area of the crisis, and the nature of the crisis itself require this liberalization.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24782 – 13.20.2.30

BN – Z – D

We do not need to persuade or convert others to philosophy but we ought to offer them the material which they can investigate as and when they feel inclined to do so.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24790 – 13.20.2.38

BN – ZZ – D

Those who do not like philosophy and cannot understand it are simply not ready for it. We cannot compel them to take it up. But we can keep it available for them, whenever the time comes that they do feel a need for it.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24797 – 13.20.2.45

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The time has come when it is dangerous not to divulge these straight truths to everybody but to keep them back from everybody. The lack of spiritual reverence and the lowness of moral tone, the ignorance of karmic consequences and the violence of greed and hatred—these are the things today which are immensely dangerous to humanity—not the divulgements of philosophy.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24800 – 13.20.2.48

BN – ZZ – DEK

The whole of philosophy cannot be disseminated quickly and easily to the masses. But this is not to be used as an excuse to do nothing at all for them.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Response to a vital need

#24801 – 13.20.2.49

BN – ZZZ – DK

The immediate task today is for philosophy to deliver its message. The secondary task is to assist those who accept this message to come to a proper and adequate understanding of it. The first is for the multitude and hence public. The second is for the individual and hence private.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > A more timely formulation

#24815 – 13.20.2.63

B_02 – ZZ – DK

The spiritual seekers who followed René Guénon and the poets who followed T.S. Eliot fell into the same trap as their leaders. For in protesting, and rightly, against the anarchy of undisciplined and unlimited freedom, both Guénon and Eliot retreated backwards into formal tradition and fixed myth. Both had served their historic purpose and were being left behind. Both men were brilliant intellectuals and naturally attracted a corresponding type of reader. Their influence is understandable. But it is not on the coming wave of the Aquarian Age. New forms will be needed to satisfy the new knowledge, the new outlook, the new feelings. The classical may be respected, even admired; but the creative will be followed.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > A more timely formulation

#24818 – 13.20.2.66

BN – X – K1

This is a pioneer work, this making of a fresh synthesis which draws from, but does not solely depend upon, the knowledge of colleagues scattered in different continents as well as the initiations of masters belonging to the most different traditions.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > A more timely formulation

#24819 – 13.20.2.67

UR_2.1 – ZZZ – K1

Today the seeker finds offered to him the culture of the whole world. The wisdom of many civilizations has been bequeathed to him from the past, from long-gone eras as also those more recent in time or distant in space. How fortunate is his position in these ways!

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > A more timely formulation

#24820 – 13.20.2.68

B_05 – Z – DK

The needs of this age emphatically demand action in the outer world. Quite a few people of talent, position, vision, or influence have adopted these views, and will take their place in the forefront of things when the destined hour of the New Age sweeps down.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > A more timely formulation

#24825 – 13.20.2.73

BN – ZZ – D

The esoteric tradition has come down to its present state of shreds and patches but even so it is of the utmost value to the seeker after truth. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries produced situations and created circumstances which began to force its disclosure. The twentieth century has continued this activity and yielded new materials.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > A more timely formulation

#24833 – 13.20.2.81

B_05 – Z – K

These ideas are not really new, but they have been half-forgotten or wholly overlooked. Anyway, the time is ripe to restate them. But they must be restated with electrical sparkle and spring freshness. The old forms simply will not suit us.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > A more timely formulation

#24842 – 13.20.2.90

BN – ZZZ – DEK

Philosophy may be—indeed must be—written afresh for every fresh generation but its principles are imperishable. They cannot change. Only the methods of expounding them, only the phraseology of expressing them can change.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > A more timely formulation

#24846 – 13.20.2.94

BN – Z – D

The truths which were known by Lao Tzu, Buddha, and Jesus are still valid in the conditions of today—which are so different—otherwise they would not be true. But the form of expressing them may well be different.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > A more timely formulation

#24851 – 13.20.2.99

A241224 – ZZ – DK

The essential truth of things being always the same, its restatements can never alter, its principles never become obsolete, its revelations never become false. Nevertheless, the presentation of truth must be evolutionary in its development if it is to keep pace with the development of human mentality.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > A more timely formulation

#24852 – 13.20.2.100

BN – ZZZ – K

Philosophy can give nothing original to the present-day world, but it can make alive for, and usable by, the world, truths which were faded through neglect or even discarded through ignorance.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > A more timely formulation

#24854 – 13.20.2.102

BN – ZZZ – K

We do not claim that an entirely new teaching has been given to the world. But we do claim that a teaching and a praxis which we found in a primitive antique form have been brought up-to-date and given a scientific modern expression, that some parts of it which were formerly half-hidden, and others wholly so, have been completely revealed and made accessible to everyone who cares for such things.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > A more timely formulation

#24855 – 13.20.2.103

BN – ZZZ – K1

The only choice which is usually presented to us is a vicious and false one. We are asked to choose between materialism and orthodox religion, thus dividing us into the supposition that these are the only possible spiritual views which mankind can adopt. This supposition is an unjustified one. We are moving beyond them. We are no longer limited to such a narrow choice. There is a third road open to us—that of the philosophic view. Out of the clash between two such opposite attitudes, there has been born for independent thinkers a third attitude which is truer than both.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24869 – 13.20.2.117

BN – ZZ – K

The theory of philosophy is suited and available to everyone who has the intelligence to grasp it, the faith to accept it, the intuition to recognize its supreme pre-eminence. The practice of philosophy is more restricted, being for those who have been sufficiently prepared by previous inner growth and outer experience to be willing to impose its higher ethical standards, mental training, and emotional discipline upon themselves. To come unprepared for the individual effort demanded, unfit for the intellectual and meditational exertions needed, unready for the teacher or the teaching, is to find bewilderment and to leave disappointed. A premature attempt to enter the school of philosophy will meet with the painful revelation of the dismaying shortcomings within oneself, which must be remedied before the attempt can be successful.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24872 – 13.20.2.120

BN – ZZ – K1

It is a teaching for the person of large mind and larger heart, who is no longer satisfied with creeds or systems that are only fragmentarily true.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24875 – 13.20.2.123

B_02 – ZZ – K

Philosophy is not a physically-organized sect but a movement of thought. It is for those who insist on finding a relationship with God through their own experience.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24876 – 13.20.2.124

BN – ZZ – DK

Philosophy is for those who prefer to face realities free of myths, veils, and distortions; who prefer to be mentally mature and want to understand life as it is and not make a pretense of what it is not. Hence ideas which religion presents under thick incrustations of mythopoetic pictures, philosophy explains by rational thinking which leads later to intuitive understanding.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24878 – 13.20.2.126

BSG_1 – ZZZ – K

If a life of inward beauty and emotional serenity appeals to a man, he is ready for philosophy.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24882 – 13.20.2.130

BN – X – D

If embittered heretics in orthodox religion and frustrated sufferers in personal life come to philosophy for negative reasons, hopeful seekers after truth and intelligent appraisers of value come to it for positive ones.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24895 – 13.20.2.143

BN – Z – K

It is not just for academic students—although they, as human beings equipped with minds, need it too—but for all life-meaning students, all truth-seekers, all would-be reality-experiencers.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24896 – 13.20.2.144

B_05 – ZZZ – K

Philosophy offers itself to men of the world, although monks may take to it if they wish. It ends in inspired action, not in dull reverie.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24897 – 13.20.2.145

BN – Z – D

Humanity’s essential need of knowing what it is, what the world is, and what to make of its own life.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24898E – 13.20.2.146

BSG_4 – ZZZ – DE

If there is any future for a teaching, it belongs to the present one. It does not have to stand on the defensive just as it does not have to use loud-speaking propagandists. Its existence is justified by humanity's essential need of knowing what it is, what the world is, and what to make of its own life. If humanity finds such needs satisfied by its orthodox religions, mysticisms, and metaphysics—why then, that is as it should be. For only when it has tried and tested them all, only when it has noted their insufficiencies and failures, only when its own mind and heart have adequately matured is it likely to appreciate our teaching. The great intellectual width of this teaching, the grand compassion which it inculcates, and the sane balance which it advocates must commend it to those enquiring minds who not only seek but are ready for the best.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24898 – 13.20.2.146

B_02 – ZZZ – DEK

If there is any future for a teaching, it belongs to the present one. It does not have to stand on the defensive just as it does not have to use loud-speaking propagandists. Its existence is justified by humanity’s essential need of knowing what it is, what the world is, and what to make of its own life.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24898E – 13.20.2.146

BSG_4 – ZZZ – DEK

The philosophic world-view will be satisfactory to those few only who do not scorn mysticism because they esteem science and who do not scorn science because they esteem mysticism.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24900 – 13.20.2.148

BN – Z – K

Philosophy does not have to defend itself, nor even to explain itself. It is only for those who have grown and grown until they are ready for it. They will appreciate its worth and perceive its truth without argument.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24905 – 13.20.2.153

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The interest in philosophy develops out of different motives. The need of finding inner peace is one man's motive; the wish to understand life is another's.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24912 – 13.20.2.160

BA11 – ZZ – DK

They come to philosophy when they have exhausted other sources, paths, and directions, only when their search is prolonged enough and intelligent enough to show, with time, that the Truth is not findable elsewhere.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24914 – 13.20.2.162

BA11 – ZZ – DK

This teaching will only be of interest to those who have long felt an aspiration towards higher-than-ordinary experience.

What Is Philosophy? > Its Contemporary Influence > Whom it best serves

#24916 – 13.20.2.164

B_02 – ZZ – DK