You must never give up the quest; no matter how long drawn out or how painful or how many disappointments and deceivings, you must still keep up the search after God or after a Master; this determination will receive its reward ultimately. Even a man who has practised meditation all his life and apparently got no results, may very likely be given the reward at the moment of death.

Overview of Practices Involved > Uncertainties of Progress > Facing the problems of development

#3002 – 3.2.3.178

BN – Z – DEK

If one sticks to the Quest, come what may, he can be certain that his perseverance will eventually bring results. Some of the metaphysical studies and mystical exercises seem hard at first, but if one persists with them, the time will surely come when much which was hitherto obscure will suddenly become brilliantly clear and meaningful in a single instant before his eyes.

Overview of Practices Involved > Uncertainties of Progress > Facing the problems of development

#3010 – 3.2.3.186

BN – X – D

An aspirant on this Quest must hold on to his determination to improve and discipline himself even amidst all the different temptations and difficulties which he comes up against from time to time. For this is the way he builds the foundation for his future. Students are often apt to forget that it is their present thoughts, feelings, and actions which are predetermining the favourable or unfavourable conditions of incarnations to come, as well as the remainder of this one.

Overview of Practices Involved > Uncertainties of Progress > Facing the problems of development

#3011 – 3.2.3.187

BN – ZZ – DEK

To keep to this inner work steadfastly and persistently, to make of its exercises and practices a regular routine, is to make the undertaking easier for oneself in the end, as well as more successful in its results.

Overview of Practices Involved > Uncertainties of Progress > Facing the problems of development

#3023 – 3.2.3.199

BN – X – D

All quests involve some travelling, the periodical shift from one point to another. The spiritual quest involves constant intellectual travelling, but only a single important shift—that from the ego's standpoint to the Overself's.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3032 – 3.2.4.5

BA11 – ZZ – DK

What is the Overself waiting for, so long and so patiently? For our willingness to die in the ego that It may live in us. So soon as we make the signs of this willingness, by acceptance of each opportunity to achieve this destruction of egoism, the influx of new life begins to penetrate the vacated place.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3033 – 3.2.4.6

BN – X – D

Whatever helps to reduce the predominant influence of the ego helps his quest. Where the whole area of consciousness is taken up by it, attrition of the area is more important than the particular means used to secure it.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3034 – 3.2.4.7

BN – X – DEK

Let him face the fact that if he is seeking the Overself with one part of his being, he is also seeking his own ego with the other. He wants his desires satisfied and also wants That which is desireless at one and the same time. He is trying to walk in two different directions. One or the other must go.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3037 – 3.2.4.10

BN – X – D

In the effacement of his own egoism, brought about by a double discipline—first, the constant shaping of the character and second, learning to live in the deepest silence of meditation—he will allow the Overself to act within and through him.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3041 – 3.2.4.14

BN – X – D

Each time we attempt to deny the responsibility we bears for our own troubles and to shift it onto other people's shoulders, we make the repeated appearance of those troubles in our life a certainty. For the inner causes still remain.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3043 – 3.2.4.16

B_01 – ZZ – DK

Yes, the kingdom of heaven is certainly to be brought down and established on earth. But the meaning of Jesus was not social; it was individual. Each man is to establish it within his own sphere, within his own feelings thoughts and acts.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3045 – 3.2.4.18

BN – X – D

The vain man, the stupid man, or the lustful man cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. He must first be humble enough to silence the ego, intuitive enough to expose its deception, and strong enough to overcome its desires.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3046 – 3.2.4.19

BN – X – D

What does getting rid of the ego's dominance mean? Until we see this clearly, we shall not see what effort we have to make to achieve it. First, it means constant training to regard ourself and our fortunes as coolly, disinterestedly, and impartially as we regard other men and their fortunes. Second, it means constant vigilance to keep out the distorting, befogging, and perverting interference of personal habits of thought and feeling. It is the blind following of these tendencies of our nature, accumulated since a far past, that makes up most of the ego's life. Third, it means constant practice in repressing thoughts and emotions while cultivating mental stillness.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3048 – 3.2.4.21

BN – X – D

Watching his daily conduct and reviewing it in retrospect is not less needful than practising meditation.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3050 – 3.2.4.23

BN – Z – D

This is what Jesus meant when he declared, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." This is that crucifixion of the ego which is true Christianity and which leads directly to the resurrection in the reality of the Overself. Regard your worst, most irritating trouble as the voice of your Overself. Try to hear what It says. Try to remove the obstructions It is pointing to within yourself. Look on this special ordeal, this particular trial, as having the most important significance in your own spiritual growth. The more crushing it is, the more effort is being made to draw you nearer to the Overself. At every point of your life, from one event, situation, contact to another, the Infinite Intelligence provides you with the means of growth, if only you will get out of the egoistic rut and take them.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3051E – 3.2.4.24

B_11 – ZZZ – DEK

The place where you are, the people who surround you, the problems you encounter, and the happenings that take place just now—all have their special meaning for you. They come about under the law of recompense as well as under the particular needs of your spiritual growth. Study them well but impersonally, egolessly, and adjust your reactions accordingly. This will be hard and perhaps even unpalatable, yet it is the certain way to solving all your problems.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3051E – 3.2.4.24

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK3

Do not be so rigidly closed in by your practical affairs and personal relations. Open your soul to the admiration of Nature, the high flights of art, and above all, to Stillness.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3054 – 3.2.4.27

BSG_4 – P – D

His work is to prepare the ground and sow the seed; Nature will do the rest. That is to say, he is to arrange the favourable physical circumstances and the proper psychological concentration in which inspiration can most easily be born.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3055 – 3.2.4.28

BN – X – D

If he blames other men for his troubles, he thereby confesses his egoism. If he blames conditions as being their cause, he confesses his weakness. Every time he points outside himself in complaint he is unconsciously pointing to himself!

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3058 – 3.2.4.31

B_13 – ZZ – K

Each man has to work on himself and leave others alone. To criticize and to condemn them is easy, but it is to fail to mind one's own business. And what is one's own business? It is to work on oneself until one is aware of the divine part of oneself.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3061 – 3.2.4.34

B_13 – ZZZ – DK

His task is to discover the presence within himself of a deeper and diviner layer of the mind.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3062 – 3.2.4.35

BN – X – D

He is situated in measurable time and in massed form, yet is trying to understand, reach, and identify that which is timeless and formless. How can it be done unless the seeking self is transformed? But that merely removes obstructions: the further proviso is acceptance; let the self be dissolved into That: merger is finally the only way.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3065 – 3.2.4.38

BN – X – DEK

When one is working without a teacher, he must necessarily intensify his efforts. He should strive to develop a greater awareness of the meaning of all past and present experiences in the light of his new knowledge, to be more objective in his observance of himself, his thoughts and actions in every situation, and, finally, to recognize the fact that his own daily life is the material presented him to work on.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3068 – 3.2.4.41

BN – X – D

Each individual has quite enough to do to carry out the higher purpose of life, which is clear and definite: to attain awareness of the Overself, to surrender the heart and will to it utterly, and to overcome the ego—which, in itself, calls for the whole nature of a man or a woman.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3072 – 3.2.4.45

BN – X – D

Everything that helps one to become more aware of the existence of something higher than his personal self, and every experience that induces him to aspire towards a more spiritual way of life should be cultivated. Here, religion, the arts, Nature, and contact with wiser, more experienced individuals than himself, are valuable aids.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3073 – 3.2.4.46

BN – ZZ – DEK

He has to let the universal life power which is already within him take full possession of his heart and mind. The thing that prevents this is the personal ego, which thinks itself to be complete and which has separated itself from the universal life power. The philosophical discipline is intended to overcome this egoism, or as Jesus said: Give up your self if you would find it.”

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3074E – 3.2.4.47

B_11 – Z – DEK

If he looks to final ends he will know the right means. If he finds out what is the larger purpose behind the smaller ones, it will be immensely easier to know what to do in any given situation when he has to choose between opposite courses.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3075E – 3.2.4.48

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK3

He must study his failures minutely, reflect upon them deeply, and ascertain the causes which led to those lapses. The more he understands them, the less likely is he to repeat them. He should not be downhearted, especially if he is young. There are few who do not make mistakes in youth. It does not so much matter how many mistakes he makes if they spur him on to try even harder and if they encourage him to determine to learn their lessons and root out their causes. Let him remember that he cannot conquer his desires nor subdue his animal nature by his own strength alone. In the final outcome, it is divine Grace which releases him from his bondage. Grace comes only after he himself has made every possible effort, after he has practised sacrificing his desires and has offered up his whole lower nature to the Overself.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3077E – 3.2.4.50

BN – ZEL1/2 – DEK

Until he is freed from the chains of his ego, his strength may fail him in times of need. But when he finally and fully realizes his inadequacies and has done the very best that he knows how, then Grace will appear and assist him. 

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3077E – 3.2.4.50

BN – ZEL2/2 – DEK

To re-create himself by himself alone is hard. He will be better advised to accept the tested counsel offered by cultures of the past and by discriminated wisdom of the present.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3084 – 3.2.4.57

B_03 – Z – K

Because human beings are not all alike, the approaches they use to the spiritual goal also need not be alike. Routes may differ, destinations remain the same. The belief that the seeker must restrict himself to a particular named way only, is a narrow one. It oversimplifies the truth at the cost of truth.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3088E – 3.2.4.61

B_06 – ZZ – K

Intuition, inspiration, and even grace may come directly to him through prayer, meditation, and reading.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3089 – 3.2.4.62

BN – X – D

To increase his personal capacities for undertaking tasks demanded by his environment may be a worthy ambition but is not the primary aim of this work. To move away from such identification with the ego is now to be his purpose.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3090 – 3.2.4.63

BN – X – D

We need not step outside the house, the rooms, or the tent wherein we live to look for God. They, too, can become a holy place and a sanctuary provided we turn our mind inwards every day for a while and seek that which is beyond all buildings made by human hands.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3095 – 3.2.4.68

BN – Z – D

Frankly, and without shame, he will acknowledge the animal within him. He knows its place in the long growth which he underwent through many an earth-birth. It served its purpose. But a higher purpose has now shown itself and must in its turn be fulfilled. The half-human must next become the fully human. For this, the control of self must be learnt, hard though it be.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its nature

#3098 – 3.2.4.71

BN – X – D

Intellectual definitions of transcendental states merely leave us in the dark. We must practise walking on the divine path, and not merely talk about it, if we would know what these states really are.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3102 – 3.2.4.75

BN – X – D

He should make his mind the host to beautiful thoughts and fine moods and thus keep it ready as a place where the soul can enter untroubled.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3108 – 3.2.4.81

BN – X – D

There are laws of higher spiritual development, but they reveal themselves only upon their own terms. The first is that he shall apply what he already knows, and not let it rest as mere theory.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3111 – 3.2.4.84

BN – X – D

He who has done his best to the limit of his possibilities may patiently wait for the time when those possibilities will stretch themselves of their own accord.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3113 – 3.2.4.86

BN – ZZ – K

It is his duty to watch that no negative thought slips past his guard and enters his consciousness, no false belief infiltrates into his outlook. Such thought control pays the highest profits, for its effects on his outer life will unfailingly appear.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3115 – 3.2.4.88

BN – Z – D

It is important for the study of philosophy and especially for the practice of its Short Path to avoid negative thoughts and feelings, to rebut them as soon and as often as they arise. This is not only a moral necessity but also a practical one. Such avoidance helps the mind to reach or keep the delicate condition of intuitive transcendent understanding.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3116 – 3.2.4.89

BN – X – D

If words alone could work this miracle of changing men's hearts then Jesus and Buddha would have worked it long ago.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3121 – 3.2.4.94

BN – Z – K

A real Understanding of the Truth can be developed in only one way, through activity on the intuitive level, as distinguished from efforts made on the intellectual or physical level.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3124 – 3.2.4.97

BSG_4 – P – D

The thoughts he takes into his consciousness should be of a kind to carry him farther on his quest of the Perfect.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3132 – 3.2.4.105

BN – X – D

The importance and emphasis which is, in the beginning, quite rightly attached to the question What Am I? will gradually be shifted to the more encompassing What is the meaning of this world-experience? and What is the object of all existence?

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3140 – 3.2.4.113

BN – X – D

The meditational aspect of the quest, one of its most important parts, is like a spiral: it goes down deeper and deeper, circling all the while, as in advancing from the level of 'the world of maya,' casting off the illusory, to 'the world is Brahman, the Real.' Growth accrues with each circulation and further penetration; it is a repetition of the same cycle, but on a deeper level.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3143 – 3.2.4.116

UR_3.2 – Z – K

It would be wrong to believe that it is sufficient for the aspirant to join right theory with self-correction and right action to secure the highest result. The fourth item needed to complete his effort is even more important. It is proper meditation.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3146 – 3.2.4.119

BN – X – D

To sit, completely immobile, for a half or three-quarters of an hour while attention and aspiration are concentrated and merged, is an exercise needing much practice if success is to come.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3148 – 3.2.4.121

BN – X – DK

We can discover for ourselves if these statements are true or not by actually leading the inner life. The importance of a little practice of mental quiet each day is high. It is this practice which brings definite results in time and this which gives one strength as well as understanding. Effort is required.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3151 – 3.2.4.124

BN – Z – DEK

From one point of view, the work done on the Quest is simply an uncovering of what is covered up: thoughts, emotions and passions, unceasing extroversion and never-ending egoism lie over the precious diamond like thick layers of earth. This is why the penetrative action of meditation is so necessary.

Overview of Practices Involved > Practise Mental Discipline > Its development

#3152 – 3.2.4.125

BN – X – D

Whoever wishes to develop beyond the spiritual level of the mass of mankind must begin by changing the normal routine of mankind. He must reflect, pray, and meditate daily. He must scrutinize all his activities by the light of philosophy's values and ethics. He may even have to change his residence, if possible, for serenity of mind and discipline of passion are more easily achievable in a rural village than in an urban city.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3156 – 3.2.5.4

BN – X – DEM

He has to learn how to surrender his egotism and swallow his pride. He has to cleanse his heart of impurity and then open it to divinity.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3157 – 3.2.5.5

BN – X – D

He should never forget that in his metaphysical studies or mystical practices he is working towards an ultimate goal which lies beyond both metaphysics and mysticism. He is preparing himself to become a philosopher, fitting himself to be granted the Overself’s Grace, unfolding passive intuition and critical intelligence only that the transcendental insight may itself be unfolded.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3158 – 3.2.5.6

BN – X – D

The aspiration has gotten into his bloodstream and every act, every thought follows inevitably from this one primal fact.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3160 – 3.2.5.8

BN – X – D

Make it a matter of habit, until it becomes a matter of inclination, to be kind, gentle, forgiving, and compassionate. What can you lose? A few things now and then, a little money here and there, an occasional hour or an argument? But see what you can gain! More release from the personal ego, more right to the Overself's grace, more loveliness in the world inside us, and more friends in the world outside us.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3164D – 3.2.5.12

BN – ZZ – DK

This Quest cannot be followed to success without the quality of courage. It is needed at the beginning, in the middle, and near the end. It is needed to think for oneself, to act in nonconformity to one's environment, and to obey intuitive leading toward new, unknown, or unfamiliar directions.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3165 – 3.2.5.13

BN – X – D

By the use of will, of force of a decision made and kept, a man may strive against his animal self to win peace. By the practice of mental quiet, of turning inward, of letting his higher nature emerge, he may win it, too.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3169 – 3.2.5.17

BN – X – D

Wisdom is needed to make the most of life. The discipline of character is needed to prevent avoidable suffering. The control of thought is needed to attain peace. Reverence for the highest is needed for spiritual fulfillment.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3178 – 3.2.5.26

BN – X – D

The man who takes his body for himself, misunderstands himself. Only a course of severe discipline will correct it and reveal to him by intense experience the power subtler than flesh, subtler even than intellect, which is at the vital centre deep within consciousness.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3179 – 3.2.5.27

BN – X – D

It is true that the aspiration for Overself is also a desire and must eventually also go. But it is useful and helpful in getting free from lesser or lower desires.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3183 – 3.2.5.31

BN – X – D

The means needed for the quest have been listed in Buddha's eightfold path: (1) right belief, (2) right decision, (3) right words, (4) right dealings, (5) right livelihood, (6) right tendency, (7) right thinking, (8) right meditative immersion into oneself.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3184 – 3.2.5.32

BN – X – D

The student has to unfold a wider sense. He must begin to see the whole of which he forms a part, which means he must become more philosophical. His physical existence depends on the services of others, from the parents who rear him, the wife who mates him, the customer who buys his goods or services, the farmer who grows his food, the soldier who guards his country, to the undertaker who buries his body. No man can forever isolate himself from the rest of mankind. In some way or other, for one essential need or another, he will come to depend on it. The shoes he wears or the food he eats were prepared for him by somebody else. Thus he is mysteriously chained to his human kith and kin. Thus he is forced to learn the lesson of unity and compassion.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3185 – 3.2.5.33

BN – X – DEK

He is not only to seek the Real, but he is also to love the Real; not only to make it the subject of his constant thoughts but also the object of his devoted worship.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3191 – 3.2.5.39

BN – X – D

When we feel the littleness of our ego against the greatness of our Overself, we become humble. Therefore it is that to those who feel neither the one nor the other, the first prescription is: cultivate humility.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3193 – 3.2.5.41

BN – X – D

Those who cannot or will not learn to bow their heads in reverence at certain times like sunsets, in certain places like massive mountains, or before certain men like sages, will not be able to learn the highest wisdom.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3194 – 3.2.5.42

BN – X – D

The refinement and evolution of a human being requires not only a cultivation of his intellectual faculties, not only of his heart qualities, but also of his aesthetic faculties. All should be trained together at the same time. A love of the beautiful in nature and art, in sunsets and pictures, in flowers and music, lifts him nearer the ideal of perfection.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3195 – 3.2.5.43

B_09 – ZZ – DMK

It may not be an axiom in many teachings, but it is in philosophy: to purify emotion, to refine feeling, to control attitude, and to uplift mood by accepting help from art and Nature are spiritual exercises.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3198 – 3.2.5.46

BSG_4 – P – D

The attitude of expectancy and hope in the matter of seeking illumination is a correct one. But the hour when this Grace will be bestowed is unpredictable; therefore, hope must be balanced with patience, and expectancy with perseverance. Meanwhile, there is all the work one can handle in attending to the improvement of character and understanding, the cultivation of intuition and practice of meditation, the prayers for Grace, and in self-humbling beneath the Will of the Overself.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3205 – 3.2.5.53

BN – X – D

Until the time his karma brings him the indwelling Master, the seeker must continue to prepare for what will then happen. He must seek to uncover and uproot all faults and characteristic weaknesses. He must resolve to achieve the best life—that is, one that exemplifies truth, goodness, and beauty. He must understand well the proper values to be attached to worldly matters and to spiritual ones. He must face the difficulties of everyday life with courage and with the knowledge gleaned from his study.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3207 – 3.2.5.55

B_05 – ZZ – DK

He must climb out of the dark pit of emotional resentment and self-pity into which the blows of life throw him. He should extirpate all the human and pardonable weakness which made him unhappy. He should be big-hearted and generous towards the failings of others who, he feels, have wronged him. It is a grand chance to make a quick spurt in his spiritual progress if he could change from the conventional emotional reaction to the philosophic and calmer one, if he could rise at one bound above what Rupert Brooke called "the long littleness of life." He should not continue to bear resentment against those who have wronged him, nor to brood over what they have done; let him forget the mean, the sordid, and the wicked things other people do and remember the great, the noble, and the virtuous things that he seeks to do.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3208E – 3.2.5.56

B_14 – ZEL1/2 – K

Follow Jesus' example and cheerfully forgive, even unto seventy times seven. By his act of forgiveness to them, he will be forgiven himself for the wrongs he also has done. In their pardon lies his own. This is the law. In this way he demonstrates that he is able to leap swiftly from the present self-centered standpoint to a higher one, and he deals the personal ego a single paralysing blow. This is without doubt one of the hardest efforts anybody can be called upon to make. But the consequences will heal the wounds of memory and mitigate the pains of adversity.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3208E – 3.2.5.56

B_14 – ZEL2/2 – K

In a certain type of person the most important factor in the inner life is the cultivation of the harder qualities like will, decision, execution, endurance, determination, energy, and the like.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3209 – 3.2.5.57

BN – Z – DM

Ultimately he will have to rise into that pure atmosphere whence he can survey his personal life as a thing apart. And, still more difficult as it is, he will have to live in such a way as to use personality to express the wisdom and goodness felt on that height. The second part of this program is almost beyond human strength to achieve. Therefore he has first to establish the connection with the Overself so that its strength and understanding will then rule him without requiring any effort on his part. The moment of this event is unpredictable. It depends on the Divine Grace. However, if he sticks to the Quest, its arrival is sure. After that, Fate re-adjusts his external circumstances in what may seem to be a miraculous manner and life becomes more satisfying.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3211 – 3.2.5.59

BN – ZZ – DEK

At last he finds that he must become as a little child and re-acquire faith. But this time it will not be blind faith; it will be intelligent. He must free himself from the pride, arrogance, and conceit of the intellect and bow in homage before the eternal Mystery; there is much that he can learn about himself, his mind, the laws of living, and the ways of Nature. Nothing is to be rejected. He needs to believe as well as to know. In the end, too, he has to drop all the isms, however much he may have got from them in the past, and think, feel, and live as a free being.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3212 – 3.2.5.60

BN – ZZ – DK

His personal duty is to grow spiritually all he can as quickly as possible. He must concentrate on himself, but always keep at the back of his mind the idea that one day he will be fit to serve others and do something for them too. Spiritual growth entails meditation practices kept up as regularly as possible, metaphysical study, cultivation of intuition, and a kindling of an ever increasing love for the divine soul, the true "I." It is this soul which is the ray of God reflected in him and it is as near to God as anyone can ever get. God is too great, too infinite, ever to be completely comprehended; but the Overself, which is God's representative here, can be comprehended.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3213E – 3.2.5.61

BN – ZEL1/1 – DEK

It is through heartfelt prayer and aspiration to become one with his own higher self that the student will eventually open the way for the further guidance he needs.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3214 – 3.2.5.62

BN – X – D

The fact that one may not have had any apparent mystical experience, even though he has tried practising concentration, need not dismay him. Concentration alone is not enough. It is no less important to practise prayer and aspiration, unremitting effort at improving character and eliminating weaknesses, strengthening the will and purifying the emotions. If he applies faithful and persistent effort in these directions, he will not only cultivate a properly balanced and well-developed personality, but he will eventually call forth the Grace and Guidance of the Overself.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3216 – 3.2.5.64

BN – X – D

In what way and by what means can a man discover the truth? By an aspiration active enough and intelligent enough to penetrate both mysticism and philosophy while saturating itself in reverence.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3219 – 3.2.5.67

BN – X – D

Counsel to a seeker: First hear or study, reflect and understand what you, the world, and God are. Then enter the Stillness, love it. The Stillness will take care of you, and of your problems.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3220 – 3.2.5.68

B_01 – ZZ – DK

The Quest uses the whole of one's being, and when enlightenment comes, all parts are illumined by it. To prepare for this, one should continue the self-humbling prayers for Grace, the exercise of sudden remembrance of the Overself, the surrender of the lower nature to the Higher, and the never-ceasing yearning for Reality.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3222 – 3.2.5.70

BN – X – D

Our human nature is so pitifully limited and imperfect that only its most rigorous discipline will bring the infinite and perfect enlightenment into consciousness without spoiling it in some way.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3227 – 3.2.5.75

BN – X – DK

He needs a humbleness like that of the grass which is trodden by all feet, a patience like that of the tree which is exposed to all weathers.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3228 – 3.2.5.76

BN – X – D

It is a work upon himself, his character and outlook, his knowledge and capacity. But especially is it a work upon his faculty of attention, his control of thought, his delicate awareness.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3230 – 3.2.5.78

BN – Z – DK

We are living in wonderfully momentous times and it is the task of those on the Path to become bearers of the light in a dark age. But first, before that can be, each one must purify, ennoble, and instruct himself. He must fit himself for the divine grace because nothing can be done by his own personal power.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3235 – 3.2.5.83

BN – X – D

If daily work is accompanied by daily remembrance, and if detachment from the ego is practised along with both, this goal can be attained by a worldling as much as by a world-renouncer.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3240 – 3.2.5.88

BN – X – D

These teachings have first to become known, then understood, next accepted, and lastly made a part of day-to-day living. 

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3241 – 3.2.5.89

BN – Z – D

He should ask of each day what it has yielded in this lifelong struggle for the realization of higher values.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3244 – 3.2.5.92

BN – X – D

He need not torment himself trying to understand everything in the teaching, if he finds many parts too difficult. It is enough to start with what he can understand and apply that to daily living. This will lead later to increased intuitive capacity to receive such ideas as he had to pass by for the time being.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3246 – 3.2.5.94

BN – X – D

In the spiritualization of active life, through the deeds that come from him and the events that come to him, he has one effectual method of self-development. For a valuable part of the quest's technique is to treat each major experience as a means of lifting himself to a higher level. All depends not on the particular nature of the experience, but upon his reaction to it. It may be pleasurable or painful, a temptation or a tribulation, a caress by fortune or a blow of fate; whatever its nature he can use it to grow. As he moves from experience to experience, he may move from strength to strength. If he uses each situation aright—studying it analytically and impersonally, supplicating the higher self for help if the experience is in the form of temptation, or for wisdom if it is in the form of tribulation—his progress is assured. Thus action itself can be converted into a technique of self-purification instead of becoming, as so many monastics think it inevitably must become, a channel of self-pollution.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3248 – 3.2.5.96

BN – Z – DE

There is great profit in the coinage of spiritual self-growth waiting to be picked up at every turn. The method is a simple one. Consider every person who makes an impact on your life as a messenger from the Overself, every happening which leaves its mark as a divinely-sent teacher.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3249 – 3.2.5.97

BN – X – D

We must endeavour to find this divinity within, not merely at set times of meditation, but also amid the press of the marketplaces.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3250 – 3.2.5.98

BN – X – D

Learn how to live the teaching out in the midst of the world, yes! with all the temptations and trials; to shun cloistered virtues which, because they are untested, may not be virtues at all; to stay amongst suffering ignorant men who need enlightenment and not to leave them to rot in their darkness; to face the difficulties of worldly life as brave students of philosophy and not as cowardly weaklings; to be too big-hearted and tolerant, too broad-minded and intelligent to separate yourselves; in short, to follow Jesus' advice and be in the world yet not of it.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3251 – 3.2.5.99

B_02 – ZZZ – K

Since most of us have to live in the world as laymen, or even prefer to do so, we must learn how to make use of the world so that it will promote our spiritual aspirations and not obstruct them.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3253 – 3.2.5.101

BN – X – D

The beginner needs knowledge, needs to attend lectures, study books, discuss ideas, and even debate the criticism of them. But the man who has done all that needs to move on, to get into the testing ground where teachings and values must prove themselves—that is, into life itself.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3255 – 3.2.5.103

BA11 – ZZ – DK

And the Gita tells us that no efforts are in vain; all bring their fruit sometime, somewhere—if not in this birth then in another, if not in this world then in the next.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Engage the whole being

#3259E – 3.2.5.107

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

When the will is feebler than the imagination, the life loses its balance.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3278 – 3.2.5.126

BN – X – D

To promote his idealistic tendencies and to neglect his realistic ones, to achieve a high level of intellectuality and to remain at a low level of morality, to be over-critical of others and under-critical of oneself—these are types of unbalance which he should adjust as soon as possible.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3280 – 3.2.5.128

BN – Z – DK

He may have difficulty in the world in generating the necessary ambition for pushing ahead with the business side of life. However, the strain and pain of his efforts will pass away eventually whereas the fruits in developed faculties and increased balance will remain as permanent possessions. He must stick to the task of rebuilding his personality on a more solid basis. He must take as his symbol the great pyramid with its huge square base but narrow pointed apex signifying that the broader and bigger the personality the more inspired the service that can be accomplished through it.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3281E – 3.2.5.129

BN – Z – K

The ideal is the fullness and harmony of balanced qualities, wasting none, denying none: the active will companioned by the mystical intuition, the pleasure-loving senses steadied by the truth-loving reason.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3283 – 3.2.5.131

BN – X – D

Philosophy teaches that both aversion from, and attraction to, the world are to be avoided if the fine balance of mind needed to perceive truth is to be attained.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3286 – 3.2.5.134

BN – ZZ – DK

Whatever faculty, quality, function, or aspect he is deficient in, he should seek to cultivate it. Whatever is present to excess, he should seek to curb or modify it. Harmony, Balance, and Completeness characterize the idea.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3295 – 3.2.5.143

BN – X – D

The virtue of balance is neither easily nor quickly bought, but its cost is repaid by the values it yields—greater security, more endurance, less error, and better progress.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3300 – 3.2.5.148

BSG_4 – P – D

He has to train himself to catch what the soul intuits as clearly as he can already catch what the intellect thinks and the body reports.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3305 – 3.2.5.153

BN – X – D

Whenever he observes too much one-sidedness in his being or living, he must attend to its balance and make needed adjustments.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3308 – 3.2.5.156

BN – X – DK*

Balance is needed in all ways on this Quest. The students must not overvalue their emotional experiences, nor overconcentrate upon their metaphysical studies. They must strive for Balance in all things and at all times…

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3310E – 3.2.5.158

BSG_4 – P – DE

Balance is needed in all ways on this quest. The student must not overvalue his emotional experiences, nor overconcentrate upon his metaphysical studies. He must strive for poise in all things and at all times. To lose it is to lose that integrality of character which is the mark of the true philosopher. The mournful consequences which follow are apparent in the fantastic cults which pass for mysticism, as well as in the fantastic movements which distort modern art; they can be seen also in the dry barren field of academic metaphysics as well as in the ugly earth-tied materialism of utilitarian science.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3310 – 3.2.5.158

BN – Z – DEK

The Sanskrit word for inner Balance is samadham, that poise which is maintained in all kinds of circumstances. By constantly thinking about the falsity of the ego and its phantom-like nature, it can be sublimated and its power divinely directed.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3312 – 3.2.5.160

BN – Z – DK

In the well-formed and well-informed aspirant the activities of both paths will be subtly blended. This is part of what is meant when it is said that he is properly balanced. And out of this union will come the second birth, the new man who reflects at last the glorious consciousness of the Overself.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3315 – 3.2.5.163

BN – X – D

Even when one’s deep sincerity and earnest aspiration are beyond question, and even though one may have already travelled fast and far in certain directions, this may not be enough to attain enlightenment. All sides of the psyche—including some previously neglected—must be evenly balanced and developed in order to lead one to a full and lasting illumination of the whole.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3316 – 3.2.5.164

BN – X – D

Energy and drive in action, calm and patience in meditation—this is the combination he ought to achieve.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3317 – 3.2.5.165

BN – X – D

Salvation does not depend on any one factor but on a balanced total of several factors. The devotional temperament is not enough. The disciplined will is not enough. The moral virtues are not enough. The trained intellect is not enough.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3322 – 3.2.5.170

BN – X – D

The more intellectual a man is, the more does he need to bring a devotional element into the studies and practices.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3336 – 3.2.5.184

BN – X – DK

All influences, contacts, persons, or places which destroy our balance are to be shunned as undesirable, if not evil.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3338 – 3.2.5.186

BN – X – D

A well-developed critical intellect in combination with over-concentration produces an exceptionally strong ego. Such a person should cultivate a little more humility so as to improve the natural balance of his personality. He must humble the ego. He should do this himself, secretly, and through calm, reflective meditation; then life will not do it to him openly and through bitter external circumstances.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3343 – 3.2.5.191

BN – ZZ – DEK

He must humble the ego. He should do this himself, secretly, and through calm, reflective meditation; then life will not do it to him openly and through bitter external circumstances.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3343E – 3.2.5.191

BA12 – ZZZ – DEK

Evolution is working along three lines in the human being: the intellectual, the mystical, and the moral-physical. All must be attended to. Hence it is not enough to develop any single part of one's being alone. The threefold path is what philosophy asks for although religion, science, or mysticism is usually satisfied with a single path. Meditation is the most important of all as without it one cannot transcend the intellect, but it is not enough by itself. He has to practise meditation, cultivate knowledge, and shape conduct aright—all these being directed towards the quest of the Overself. The combination of all three will yield results far in advance of those which a separate development could yield.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3347 – 3.2.5.195

BN – X – DEK

The quest is integral—a combined approach through formal meditation and study, analytic observation, reflection, moral endeavour, religious devotion, and constant self-recollection.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3349 – 3.2.5.197

BN – Z – DK

He must not only do so far as he can all that the Long Path demands from him but he must also step outside it altogether and do those totally different things that the Short Path demands.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3351 – 3.2.5.199

BN – X – D

But finding the higher presence within the heart is only the first step. The next is to surrender oneself to it, to be passive in its hands, to let it direct the course of thought, feeling, and conduct. This is a task which is not less hard, and will take not less time, than the first one. It is indeed an art to be learnt by unremitting practice.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3354 – 3.2.5.202

BN – X – D

The philosophic life accepts, combines, and follows all these four dictates: The Christian self-giving, the Roman-Stoic self-control, the Grecian self-balancing, and the Hindu self-knowledge.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3356 – 3.2.5.204

BN – X – K

The Quest has two aspects. One is the constant accumulation of right thoughts, feelings, and acts, along with the constant elimination of wrong ones. The other aspect called the Short Path is the constant remembrance and contemplation of the Overself.

Overview of Practices Involved > Balance the Psyche > Cultivate balance

#3361 – 3.2.5.209

BN – X – D

If he can bring himself to desert his habitual standpoint and begin to think as a sage thinks, his battle will be over bloodlessly. But if he cannot do so, cannot let go so abruptly of his old egoisms and animalisms, then there will be a long struggle, with its attendant wounds and inescapable sufferings.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Be objective

#3365 – 3.2.6.1

B_01 – ZZ – DEK

He will have to learn the art of standing aside from himself, of observing his actions and analysing his motives as though they belonged to some other person. He may cease to practise this art only when his actions reflect the calm wisdom of the Overself and when his motives reflect its detached impersonality.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Be objective

#3375 – 3.2.6.11

BN – ZZ – *DK

Once the past is properly, impersonally, understood; once the logic of its consequences is traced; once the implication of all this is practically applied, especially in self-discipline: let it go.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Be objective

#3376 – 3.2.6.12

BN – ZZ – DK

If he is to save himself he will need a relentless honesty about, and toward, himself. He must be uncompromising in getting at true appraisals of his motives, his actions, and his feelings.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Be objective

#3381 – 3.2.6.17

BN – Z – D

"Straight is the way and narrow the gate thereof" said Jesus. The Hindu Upanishads, the sacred and formerly secret works containing some of the highest wisdom of India, have a similar phrase: "The path which is as narrow as the edge of a razor". What do these words mean? They do not tell of a path to moral perfection, however desirable it may be to be morally perfect. No! the way they speak of is the Ultimate Path which demands from us utter and complete rectitude of thought and feeling. Every movement made in the heart and mind must be completely straight, undeflected, and undistorted. The mental activity must be true in every sense of the word.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Be objective

#3384E – 3.2.6.20

B_11 – ZEL1/2 – K

Life must become one-pointed, perfectly concentrated, moving always in a straight line. When ideas are warped by prejudices, or distorted by preconceptions, or clouded by illusions, or inflamed by excitements, then the movement of the mind is not straight but wavering from side to side. It may even turn round and move backwards. We inevitably approach life with a predetermined outlook which has gradually developed from the many influences played upon us since childhood. Rare indeed is the man who is immune to them. This bias tends to overload with personal feeling all judgement, and to raise selfish emotion to the status of a test of truth.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Be objective

#3384E – 3.2.6.20

B_11 – ZEL2/2 – K

The obstacles which he has put in his own path can be removed by no one but himself.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Be objective

#3386 – 3.2.6.22

BA12 – ZZ – DK

Concepts and procedures which served him on the Quest in the past—ideas symbols names and forms which helped him then—have become rigidly fixed in his mind and he himself has become so attached to them as to be dependent upon them. He has lost openness of mind and become dogmatic, the victim of his own jargon. Thus the very things which were of service to him are no longer so and, in fact, constitute barriers stopping his further progress towards the true freedom.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Be objective

#3394 – 3.2.6.30

BN – Z – K

The right creative use of faith and will, exercise and effort can work wonders in leading us out of the enslavement, the blindness, and the ignorance of the lower nature back to the enlightenment, the freedom, and the wisdom of the higher self.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3395 – 3.2.6.31

BN – X – D

Practice is the first requisite. Day after day one must dig into one's mind. One cannot learn swimming from a printed book alone, nor can one learn to know the Overself merely by reading about it.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3396 – 3.2.6.32

BN – X – D

Anyone who pursued the Quest with the same zeal with which everyone pursues earthly things, would soon come within sight of its goal.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3405 – 3.2.6.41

BN – X – D

There is a weapon which we can place in our hands that will render us independent of external patronage and make us master of circumstance's ebb and flow. This is the power of persistent Will.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3406 – 3.2.6.42

BA12 – ZZ – DK

To make the result dependent on grace alone would be to deny the existence and power of the universal law of recompense. The need of effort can only be ignored by those who fail to see that it plays an indispensable part in all evolution, from the lowly physical to the lofty spiritual.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3408D – 3.2.6.44

BN – X – D

If we were static beings fixed and chained by Nature, nothing would be worth the effort of trying. But we are not. We are dynamic centres of intelligence. Most of us revolve at low speeds. All of us could revolve more quickly. Some of us could even revolve at high speeds. For we can will ourselves into anything. In the silence of our heart we must will that this thing be accomplished, and lo, it is. "I will" carries man onward and upward, and defeat only spurs to further endeavour.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3409 – 3.2.6.45

BA12 – ZZ – DK

The iron strength of his purpose will shield him from temptations, the intense force of his loyalty to the truth will carry him through obstacles and barriers. He is astonished to find how easily the man who knows what he wants can conquer his way to it, if his will is able to go straight to its mark.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3410 – 3.2.6.46

BN – Z – DK

We have to demonstrate by our lives and to exemplify in our attitudes not only the truth of the ideas which rule our minds, but also the inherent power of these ideas.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3411 – 3.2.6.47

BN – X – D

The power to commune with the Overself is within us all, but most do not trouble to exert themselves in the nurture and cultivation of it. Hence they do not possess it in actuality.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3413 – 3.2.6.49

BN – X – D

The quest is a deliberate attempt to shorten the passage from life in the underself to life in the Overself. Therefore it involves a constant discipline of actions, feelings, thoughts, and words.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3414 – 3.2.6.50

BN – X – D

There is no room for spiritual lethargy and personal laziness in the philosophical aspirant's life. First, they will labour incessantly at the improvement of themselves; when this has been accomplished, they will labour incessantly at the improvement of others.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3415 – 3.2.6.51

BSG_4 – P – D

Form a plan of life and carry it out.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3417 – 3.2.6.53

BN – X – D

Nothing is more fortifying to the will than to do something every day along the lines of a declared intention to which all habit and environment are opposed.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3419 – 3.2.6.55

BA12 – ZZ – DK

To take up the practice every day afresh requires a certain strength of will, a certain stubbornness of purpose, and a certain appreciation of its worth. Few have this staying power.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3421 – 3.2.6.57

BN – Z – DEK

To believe that such a great task can be achieved without personal effort and self-control is merely to deceive themselves. It is to deny the biblical statement that only what they sow can they reap.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3425 – 3.2.6.61

BN – X – D

This is a work which calls for the interaction of two powers—man’s will and Overself’s grace. The will’s work is to engage in some measure of self-discipline, and yet to surrender itself entirely at the proper moment.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3426 – 3.2.6.62

BN – X – D

"No man can serve two masters", said Jesus. Thus he rejected all indecision of will.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3430 – 3.2.6.66

B_11 – ZZ – DK

We must lay siege to our own soul. If the fort of mind is attacked with dogged determination, the victory is promised us. But the siege must be maintained until the day the gates open.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3431 – 3.2.6.67

BN – X – D

If anyone really wants to progress, let alone succeed, I do not know any way of escaping these two indispensable conditions: exercise and perseverance. There is good hope for a man no matter how much of a beginner he is, but only if he is eager to see his mistakes, if he is his own harshest critic, and if he puts forth a continuous and persistent effort to amend his life.

Overview of Practices Involved > Self-Reflection and Action > Apply the will

#3433EM – 3.2.6.69

BA12 – ZZZ – DEMX

To deny himself is to refuse to accept himself as he is at present. It is to become keenly aware that he is spiritually blind, deaf, and dumb and to be intensely eager to gain sight, hearing, and speech. It is to realize that nearly all men complacently mistake this inner paralysis for active existence. It is restlessly to seek the higher state, the nobler character, a more concentrated mind: it is to be willing to withdraw from all that accumulation of memories and desires which ordinarily constitute the ego.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Renunciation

#3434 – 3.2.7.1

BN – ZZ – DEK

Disgust with life, recognition of the futility of all human exertions, is one common precondition of inwardly turning away from the world. The aspirant who feels this dies to the world and consequently to the personal self which was active in that world. After that, he is attracted only to that which is deep within him—to the utter Void of the Overself.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Renunciation

#3436 – 3.2.7.3

BN – X – D

It is not always and absolutely essential to remove from one's existence any thing, person, or habit to become detached from it. What is essential is to keep it at a distance emotionally.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Renunciation

#3441 – 3.2.7.8

BN – X – D

In the elderly man, desires are gradually outlived and dropped, ambitions begin to come to a natural death. But in the philosophic man they pass through the same process through his own deliberate choice and at an earlier age.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Renunciation

#3446 – 3.2.7.13

BN – X – D

Whether we acquire or renounce possessions is not really the main point. Renunciation is a dramatic and symbolic gesture whereby a man announces his change of course. No longer satisfied with worldly life, he will seek the kingdom of heaven in his heart. The physical manifestation will depend on circumstances, situation, family, country, and outer or inner guidance.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Renunciation

#3449 – 3.2.7.16

BN – Z – DEK

It is an inner emptiness gained by casting out desires and attachments, habits and tendencies, so that the heart is wide open to receive life's greatest gift—Grace. The craving to acquire personal possessions is a hard thing to still but once done we are rewarded a hundredfold.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Renunciation

#3450 – 3.2.7.17

BN – X – D

There comes a time when he has to turn his back on the past, for the old man is becoming a stranger and a new man is coming to birth. Memories would obstruct this process.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Renunciation

#3453 – 3.2.7.20

BN – X – D

We have come into incarnation for a purpose: life is our business here, not running away from it. When certain renunciations are called for, they are part of this preparation for life, because they are needed in the fulfilment of this purpose.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Renunciation

#3457 – 3.2.7.24

BN – X – D

A double work goes on: the man slowly withdraws from the things which hold him, which make him theirs, while his higher aspirations attract the higher self to slowly take over the place in his heart which they filled.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Renunciation

#3460 – 3.2.7.27

BN – X – D

If we are called by the Quest to give up everything for a time or for all time it is only that we may receive something infinitely better in exchange. The Quest calls us to renunciation of earthly desires not to make us miserable but to make us happy.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Renunciation

#3462 – 3.2.7.29

BN – X – D

He who is owned by things and no longer owns them should turn to asceticism and practise the virtue of renunciation. But he who is so enamoured of asceticism that he shrinks from comfort and shudders at the sight of pleasure should turn away from renunciation. Balance is required.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Asceticism

#3474 – 3.2.7.41

BN – X – D

You are to hate nobody but to extend to everybody the sincere hand of goodwill, to bless all because in your own heart the conscious presence of the Overself has itself blessed you. Hence to purify your personal feelings from hate, resentment, anger, or malice, it is always needful to lift the problem of your enemy or your critic onto that plane where divine love and forgiveness can be felt and bestowed. But to discharge the social duties of the world in which we live, it is also needful to deal with him according to reason. The two attitudes are not conflicting ones. For whatever practical action you will then take will be taken calmly, nobly, and justly.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Asceticism

#3528 – 3.2.7.95

B_14 – ZZZ – DEMK

The body, passions, and undesirable emotions must be perseveringly disciplined. Whilst ungoverned and running wild, they constitute the lower nature that is symbolized in so many myths as a dragon, lion, or serpent which has to be slain before the guardians of the divine gate permit entrance. Such purification is a necessary preliminary to and prerequisite of the higher training, which opens the individual mind to spiritual consciousness. This does not mean that total asceticism is demanded, and, indeed, in the present era, such a demand would often be an impractical one. What is demanded is inner asceticism, that is, inner purification of thought and feeling. External measures may be adjusted later, according to the individual circumstances and personal inclinations.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Asceticism

#3539 – 3.2.7.106

BN – X – DEK

Asceticism is not identified with philosophy but only with mysticism. Nevertheless there comes a period in his life when he has to go through the battles of Hercules, fight and overcome his lower nature before he may be initiated into higher realizations. Sex must and can be conquered. Only when this is done can rapid spiritual advancement be in order.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Asceticism

#3540 – 3.2.7.107

BN – X – D

He is here to understand life; and it can be understood just as well in business as in a cave. Moreover if he stays in the world he will have a far better opportunity to serve mankind than if he runs away. The time for withdrawing from business in order to have more time for meditation and study will come when it is right later on. He will gain little by withdrawal unless he does so under the orders of a competent teacher, whereas he will be able to benefit by the invaluable lessons and practical experience that business affords him. It is not a matter of finding time, this business of self-realization, but of finding the right tuition.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Asceticism

#3542 – 3.2.7.109

BN – ZZZ – DEK

A man may quite properly seek his material welfare without in any way being a materialist. The kind of ascetic mysticism which confuses the two is based on mere surface readings, not inner realities. The modern Westerner quite rightly has no use for that medieval outlook, that spurious holiness which praises the spiritual man only when he is also a starved man. He will prefer to follow Jesus' injunction to be in the world, but not of it.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Asceticism

#3550 – 3.2.7.117

B_11 – Z – K

Those who wish to respond to the quest's silent invitation must begin by repentance, continue by self-discipline, and end by surrender.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Asceticism

#3556 – 3.2.7.123

BN – X – D

The same possessions which enslave one man may set another free. For where the first uses them to strengthen desires, nourish passions, increase selfishness, and exploit humanity, the second may use them to build character, improve intelligence, foster meditation, and serve humanity…

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Possessions

#3558E – 3.2.7.125

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

It may be a help to some in the attainment of inner freedom if they stop using the possessive pronoun “my” in reference to anything that belongs to them except their weaknesses.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Possessions

#3565 – 3.2.7.132

BN – X – D

It is easy to fall into the error that spirituality means stagnation, that transcending the worldly life means abandoning it. This error arises because it is not clearly comprehended that the operative principle is what one does with his thoughts, not with his things. For the second activity is always a result of the first.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Possessions

#3577 – 3.2.7.144

B_01 – ZZ – DK

The more possessions the more time we have to give to them, and therefore the more energy. There is then proportionately less of both available for higher studies, meditation practice, and metaphysical reflection.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Possessions

#3596 – 3.2.7.163

BN – X – D

"Blessed are the poor", said Jesus. Jesus could not have meant that there is spiritual advantage in living in a slum. It is more likely to breed discontent, or why do those who increase their income move to a better neighbourhood? The phrase is not to be taken literally but metaphorically, as were so many utterances by Orientals. To live inwardly ever detached from things—whether they are owned and used or not—is a blessed state, giving peace of mind.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Possessions

#3605 – 3.2.7.172

B_11 – ZZ – K

There is nothing wrong, but, rather, everything right in aspiring to a certain amount of success in worldly life along with one's spiritual development. But one must make sure that the worldly attainments are not gained at the expense of neglecting his inward development, and that they do not infringe upon the ethical principles which govern discipleship.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Possessions

#3607 – 3.2.7.174

B_08 – ZZ – DK

After an active, aggressive business life one does reach the time when more emphasis should be placed on inner development. Outer acquisition can become largely a distraction as that period emerges.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Possessions

#3608 – 3.2.7.175

BN – X – D

It is usually the moneyless aspirants who decry wealth and praise poverty (calling it simplicity). If money can chain a person more tightly to materialism, it can also give him the conditions whereby he can set to work freeing himself from materialism.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Possessions

#3611 – 3.2.7.178

BSG_5 – P – DE

To use possessions while being inwardly detached from them, to work as actively as if one had the ambition to succeed while all the time as indifferent toward success as toward failure—this is part of the freedom he seeks and gains.

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Possessions

#3616 – 3.2.7.183

BN – X – D

If a little extra comfort leaves one’s thoughts untroubled, one’s feelings undisturbed, why not indulge in it?

Overview of Practices Involved > Discipline Desires > Possessions

#3617 – 3.2.7.184

BN – ZZ – DK*

We lament the lack of time. But if we critically scrutinized our actions, and even made some kind of schedule beforehand, we would find that some activities are unnecessary and others are useless. These not only rob us of time but they deprive us of some of the energy needed for meditation, rendering it harder or even impossible.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3623 – 3.2.8.1

BN – X – D

He may succeed in his aim only if he succeeds in not getting entangled by irrelevant activities and intruding persons.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3629 – 3.2.8.7

BN – X – D

Time is like a great treasury. Put nothing of value into it and you will get nothing out. Put philosophic study and self-training into it and at the very least you will draw out a measure of peace and understanding, at the most you may enter into realization of the Truth.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3630 – 3.2.8.8

BN – X – D

He should sometimes ask himself for how many more years may he hope to be given the chance which every lifetime gives a man to transcend himself.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3631 – 3.2.8.9

BN – X – D

He will be forced to admit, with sorrowful head, that he had been too busy with the trivial matters of the moment to break through the mysterious barriers that bar our human way out of the prison of time and space.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3635 – 3.2.8.13

BN – X – D

The Quest does not demand the renunciation of worldly business but only the renunciation of a small daily fragment of the time hitherto devoted to such business. It asks for half or three-quarters of an hour daily to be faithfully given to meditation exercises. It asserts that the fullest realization of the Overself can be attained without becoming a whole-time yogi.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3637 – 3.2.8.15

BN – X – D

No man can escape responsibility for the way he uses his day. He can either carefully organize it to serve his highest purposes or he can carelessly fritter it away in trivial activity or idle sloth.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3638 – 3.2.8.16

BN – ZZ – DK

He is also too much aware of his own precarious mortality to permit useless involvements and irrelevant commitments to waste his life.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3641 – 3.2.8.19

BN – Z – DK

Once he recognizes his responsibility toward the fulfilment of this higher purpose, for which the Infinite Wisdom has put him here, he will have to recognize also the obligation of devoting some time every day for study of, and meditation upon, it. The philosophic standard of measurement enables him to see plainly that however fully he has fulfilled all other demands made upon him—to the point that all his time is engaged—if he has neglected this single one, he is still at fault.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3644 – 3.2.8.22

BN – ZZ – DEK

To find the time required for meditation may call for a little planning of our time and a lot of revision of our values. But this in itself is a worthwhile self-discipline. For we rush hither and thither but have yet to ask ourselves where we are rushing to. What better use could we make of the treasure of leisure than soul-finding?

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3645 – 3.2.8.23

BN – X – D

To find the time required for meditation may call for a little planning of our time and a lot of revision of our values. But this in itself is a worthwhile self-discipline. For we rush hither and thither but have yet to ask ourselves where we are rushing to. What better use could we make of the treasure of leisure than soul-finding?

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3645 – 3.2.8.23

BA11 – ZZ – DK

Earthly life is fleeting, transient, never permanently satisfying, and therefore only the outer face of his life; deep within must be a persistent quest of truth and reality which alone confer everlasting peace.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3648E – 3.2.8.26

BA11 – ZZ – DEK

If you think you have not the necessary time for the practice of mental quiet, then make it. Push out of the day's program the least important items so as to make room for this, the most important of all activities.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3655 – 3.2.8.33

BN – X – D

The real work on the Quest has to be carried out within and by the mind, not the body. The aspirant must try to live his outward life as normally as possible and avoid making a public spectacle of the fact he is following the spiritual path.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3658 – 3.2.8.36

BN – X – D

It is only the novice, enthusiastic but inexperienced, who loudmouthedly tells all and sundry about each one of his surface-scratching spiritual experiences. The man who is very far advanced on the quest acquires great discretion. In fact, the more advanced he is the more secretive does he become about such matters. He will not speak a word upon them unless he is bidden by the inner Voice to do so. The Overself does not live in public but in secret. It is totally outside the world's activity. Therefore the closer you approach it, the more secretive you are likely to become concerning the event. And when you do succeed in finally uniting yourself with it, your lips will be completely shut—not only because of the ego's greater humility but because the Overself desires it so. There is a further feature of this question of secrecy which deserves comment. Those who are very far advanced tend also to withdraw increasingly from the social circles or vocational activity which formerly engaged them. They vanish into retreat and withdraw into solitude for longer and longer intervals. Unless they are charged with a public mission, the world seldom hears of them.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3665 – 3.2.8.43

BN – ZZZ – DEK

You must remember that everyone without exception stands in life just where the evolutionary flow has brought him and that his outward life is the result of all those previous experiences in many, many incarnations.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3670E – 3.2.8.48

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

The seeker is warned not to talk about his inner experiences. They have to be well-guarded by silence if they are to be kept or repeated.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3672 – 3.2.8.50

BN – Z – K

Nothing ought to be overdone. The overdoing of asceticism produces cranks—unbalanced, illogical, and self-deceiving persons.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3677E – 3.2.8.55

B_01 – ZZ – K

Such secrecy as he is expected to maintain about his quest is also due to the utter seriousness with which he must take it. It is something too sacred and too intimate to be talked about or argued about.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > On time and solitude

#3679 – 3.2.8.57

BN – ZZ – K

All the great prophets have made special mention of the fact that the task of spiritually enlightening others is the most important and most beneficial activity in which any man can engage. He who wishes to stimulate others to start on the spiritual Quest, to help those who have already started to find the right direction in which to travel, and to make available to the public generally the leading truths of spiritual knowledge, feels that this is the most worthwhile activity. The effective and enduring preparation for this is first to spiritualize oneself and therefore it is up to him to carry on even more ardently with his efforts than he has done hitherto.  

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3686 – 3.2.8.64

BN – Z – DEK

Philosophy bids him follow its quest and practise its ethics in his own person before he bids others do so. Only after he has succeeded in doing this, can he have the right to address himself to them. Only after he has discovered its results and tested its values for himself, can he guide them without the risks of deception on the one hand or hypocrisy on the other.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3687 – 3.2.8.65

B_02 – ZZ – K

He may seek, when better equipped to do so, to render service to many people. But until that time comes, it is better to go on working upon himself, improving his moral character, increasing his knowledge of the philosophic teachings, humbling himself in daily prayer and worship, and cultivating that thread of intuition which links him to the Soul.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3688 – 3.2.8.66

BN – X – D

The seeker who follows this path is and will be of some service as a channel for the inspiration and enlightenment of others less advanced than he—within, of course, his own capacity and subject to his own limitations. Because of this, he should make every effort to acquire accurate knowledge of what the Quest is, what Philosophy contributes to it, and what—in everyday language—these mean and offer to the individual's everyday life.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3689 – 3.2.8.67

B_05 – Z – DK

The acts of service are yours, the consequences of service are God's. Do not be anxious where anxiety is not your business.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3690 – 3.2.8.68

BN – ZZZ – K

It is an error to place too much stress on unselfish activity as an element in the aspirant's qualifications. We did not incarnate primarily to serve each other. We incarnated to realize the Overself, to change the quality of individual consciousness. Altruism is therefore always subordinate to this higher activity. The sage's compassion is not primarily for other people's troubles, although he certainly feels that too, but he knows that these will continue without end in some form or other—such being the unalterable nature of mundane existence. His compassion is for the ignorance out of which many avoidable troubles spring or which when they are unavoidable prevents people from attaining inner peace. Hence he economizes time and energy by refraining from devoting them merely and solely to humanitarian work and uses them instead for the root-work of alleviating spiritual ignorance.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3697 – 3.2.8.75

BN – Z – DEK

This does not mean that one is to renounce all ideas of rendering service. It merely means that one is to withdraw from premature acts of service, to withdraw for a time sufficient to prepare oneself to render real service, better service. One is to become possessed of patience and to wait during this period of preparation.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3700 – 3.2.8.78

BN – Z – K

They have no adequate idea of what they mean when they use this term "service." And in its absence they are liable to do as much harm as good. For they do not know in what consists the real good of other persons.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3701 – 3.2.8.79

BN – ZZ – K

The divine power to help, heal, guide, or instruct others begins to show itself when we begin to turn our face towards it humbly, prayerfully, and thus make the necessary connection through meditation and study, through altruistic action and religious veneration.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3702 – 3.2.8.80

BN – X – D

By identifying emotionally with another's suffering, when this is based on futile, vain, or unwise demands, one does not really help him by supporting, or seeking to satisfy, those demands. One merely prolongs the fog of error around him. It is better to engage in the unpleasant duty of pointing out their unwisdom, of throwing cold water upon them. But this should be accompanied by positive suggestion, by pointing out the benefits of a self-disciplined attitude, by explaining how this is the correct way to heal the suffering emotions and bring peace to the agitated mind, because it is the harmony with the higher law.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3715 – 3.2.8.93

B_17 – ZZZ – K

He who has helped himself to inner strength and knowledge, outer health and spiritual energy, becomes a positive force in the world, able to assist others instead of asking assistance from them. Self-salvation must come first.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3717 – 3.2.8.95

BN – X – D

What is the best charity, the truest philanthropy? It is so to enlighten a man that thereafter he will find within himself all the resources he needs to manage his life so as to bring him the greatest happiness.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3722 – 3.2.8.100

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

Love is to be given as a first duty to our own higher self, and only then to other men. We are here on earth to find the soul, not to better the social relationship nor to construct utopia. These are highly desirable things, let us seek them by all means, but let us not make the mistake in thought of calling them first things. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive. They ought to be, and can be, held side by side, but one as primary and the other as secondary.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3723 – 3.2.8.101

BN – ZZ – DEK

The feeling of compassion and the doing of service help to cleanse the human mentality of its innate egoism and to release the human heart from its inborn selfishness. Thus they are useful to the aspirant who is treading the path of purification.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3724 – 3.2.8.102

BN – X – D

To recognize that the conventional world is ruled by monstrous stupidity and malignity, to realize that it is useless, vain, and to no purpose to fight these powerful rulers—since failure alone can be the result—is practical wisdom. Let it be called selfishness and escapism, but to refuse the sacrifice of energy and the spending of time in so-called service of humanity is simply an acknowledgment partly that no good can come from meddling in other people's affairs that would not have come anyway, and partly that the character of humanity cannot be changed within one man's lifetime but only by the slow long processes of evolution. It is delusory to believe that anything effectual can be done to perceptibly weaken the real rulers of the world, the stupidity and malignity against which prophets have spoken and sages have warned mankind since thousands of years ago. The fruit of their denunciations hangs on history's tree before us—more stupidity and more malignity today than ever before! Time has not evolved virtue; it has only accumulated folly.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3726 – 3.2.8.104

BN – Z – K

Service must be thoroughly practical as well as conceived in a spirit of noble and generous endeavour.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3732 – 3.2.8.110

BN – Z – K

The only kind of service he may render is unpaid service. This condition he cheerfully accepts. For whatever he does to help others, he does out of love of the deed itself.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3734 – 3.2.8.112

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The attempt to improve other people's lives can easily mask a presumptuous interference with them. This is especially true when the hidden realities and long-term causes of a situation are not known, or are misread, or when the higher laws which govern mankind are ignored. In all these cases, the old evils may merely be replaced by new ones, so that the improvement is entirely fictitious. In the early Christian times, Saint Cyril saw and said what, much more than a thousand years later, Ananda Metteya the Buddhist and Ramana Maharshi the Hindu told me—that one best saves society by first saving oneself. This is why the philosopher does not try to impose on others the Idea or the Way which he has espoused. For the itch to improve them or alter them is, he now knows, a form of interference. He minds his own business. But if the higher power wants to use him to affect others, he will not resist it!

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3739 – 3.2.8.117

BN – ZZZ – K

To dedicate life to spiritually uplifting and guiding others, to the extent one is capable of, is to make certain of receiving the same help from those beyond oneself.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3741 – 3.2.8.119

BN – X – D

Do not attempt to make people act on a level beyond their comfortable traditional one if they neither want nor understand the higher one. They will resist or resent your attempt, which necessarily must fail.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3743 – 3.2.8.121

BN – ZZ – K

The best form of social service is the one which leads others to the higher understanding of truth. For from that single cause will issue forth various effects in higher moral character, better human relations, and finer spiritual intuitions. Interfering with the freedom of others and meddling in their affairs, while the true laws of man's being and destiny are still hardly understood, leads always in history to unfortunate results.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3744 – 3.2.8.122

BN – ZZZ – DEK

Moreover, whatsoever we give or do to others is ultimately reflected back to us in some form by the power of karma, and if he frequently nurses the ideal of serving mankind he will attract to himself the spiritual help of those who themselves have this same aim.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3745 – 3.2.8.123

BA11 – ZZ – DK

Although it is true that the help we give others always returns to us in some way, somewhere, somewhen, nevertheless he is not motivated in this matter by the desire of reward or return. He will engage in the service of humanity because compassion will arise in his heart, because of the good it will do.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3746 – 3.2.8.124

BN – ZZZ – DK

That alone is pure authentic service which asks for no return.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3748 – 3.2.8.126

BN – Z – K

After the student has sufficiently prepared himself—that is, after he has undergone the philosophic discipline for purifying character, subjugated his lower nature, developed his intellect, and cultivated his intuition—he will then be able to use his gifts in the practice of a higher order of meditation, which will bring him the bliss of communion with the Overself. Others, who may have benefited hitherto by association with him, will find that the earlier benefits were superficial compared with those following his transformation. Thus, one's first duty is always towards oneself—although the idea of service may and should be held in the background for later use.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3753 – 3.2.8.131

BN – X – DEK

As to the time taken for attainment, one has certainly to go through many incarnations before becoming a fit channel for the Overself. But this does not mean that he is not used by the higher power until then. The student who has not yet been purified of egoism can only be used brokenly, in patches, and at intervals, whereas one who has made and implemented the requisite inner delegation of self to Overself is used continuously.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3756 – 3.2.8.134

BN – ZZZ – DEM

In trying to help others in these unsettled times—perhaps one's own children—one should try to think of them in their larger relation to God, rather than in their relation to familiar surroundings, filial attachments, or the unexpected, disturbing situations which have come up, over which one has limited or no control. Prayer and positive thinking will be as much of a help at these times as anything else one can say or do.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3758 – 3.2.8.136

BN – X – D

Whenever the aspirant volunteers spiritual help to another, or seeks it for himself, he ought not to take money in return on the one hand, nor give it in payment on the other. Such needs will be attended to by the Infinite Intelligence at the proper time.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3760 – 3.2.8.138

BN – Z – D

If he finds that the Overself is using him at any particular time as the personal instrument for its guidance, blessing, or healing, he must take care to be detached and keep ego out of the relationship.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3763 – 3.2.8.141

BN – X – D

Let it not be forgotten that goodwill towards mankind does not exclude goodwill towards oneself. The way of martyrdom, of dying uselessly for others, is the way of emotional mysticism. The way of service, of living usefully for others, is the way of rational philosophy.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3771 – 3.2.8.149

BN – X – D

Those men who have known this inner life, that other Self, and who have the talent to communicate in speech, writing, or action, have a duty laid on them to tell others of it. But if they lack this talent, they do no wrong to remain in silence about it. For, as Ramana Maharshi once said to me, "Silence also is a form of speech."

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3775 – 3.2.8.153

BN – Z – D

He who attains even a little power to help others cannot measure where that help will stop. If it gives a lift to one man whom he knows, that man may in his turn give a lift to another person, and so on indefinitely in ever-widening ripples.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3776 – 3.2.8.154

BN – X – D

Those who are searching for truth are only a small number but still they are a growing number. Each of us may repay his own obligation by saying the right word at the right time, by lending or giving the right book to the truth-hungry person.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3779 – 3.2.8.157

BN – Z – D

There is a proper time for everything. When he has reached the age when he has to consider his own spiritual interests he should lessen his activities and save his energies for a higher service, first to himself and then to others.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3783 – 3.2.8.161

BA12 – ZZ – DK

The noble and beautiful teachings of old Greece, from the Socratic to the Stoic, harmonize perfectly with the age-old teachings of the higher philosophy. Although they taught a lofty self-reliance they did not teach a narrow self-centeredness. This is symbolized vividly in Plato's story of the cave, where the man who attained Light immediately forsook his deserved rest to descend to the help and guidance of the prisoners still living in the cave's darkness.

Overview of Practices Involved > The Quest and Social Responsibility > Spiritual service

#3786 – 3.2.8.164

BN – X – D

When his mind has habituated itself to this kind of keen, abstract thinking and in some measure has developed the capacity to rest absorbed in its own tranquil centre, when the emotions have purified themselves of personal and animal taints, he has prepared himself for the highest kind of knowledge

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3787E – 3.2.9.1

BN – X – DEK

When the changes in habit come unbidden as the natural result of a more sensitive nature, a deeper outlook, a more compassionate heart, they come rightly. There is then less strain, less likelihood of lapse than when they come artificially or prematurely or through someone else’s insistent pressure.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3788 – 3.2.9.2

BN – Z – DK

The setting of rules and the chalking out of a path are only for beginners. When a man has made sufficient advance to become aware of inner promptings from his higher self, he should allow them to become active in guiding him and should let them take him freely on his spiritual life course.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3789 – 3.2.9.3

BN – ZZZ – DEK

Only at a well-advanced stage does the disciple begin to comprehend that his true work is not to develop qualities or achieve tasks, to evolve character or attain goals but to get rid of hindrances and pull aside veils. He has to desert the false self and uncover the true self.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3792 – 3.2.9.6

BA12 – ZZZ – DK

Once the transition period comes to an end, a subtle change enters into his attitude toward the old habits. They lose their tempting quality and instead begin to acquire a repelling one. This feeling will increase and become firmly established.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3795 – 3.2.9.9

BN – X – D

Shen-Hui declared, in a sermon, that Enlightenment came as suddenly as a baby's birth. But what about the nine long months of development which precedes the birth?

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3797 – 3.2.9.11

BN – X – D

The problem of philosophic attainment is one which man cannot solve by his own unaided powers. Like a tiny sailing boat which needs both oars and a sail for its propulsion, he needs both self-effort and grace for his progress. To rely on either alone is a mistake. If he cannot attain by his own strivings, neither is the Overself likely to grant its grace without them.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3804 – 3.2.9.18

BN – X – DEK

There is a proper time for all acts and attitudes. The improper time to drop mystical technique and quit meditational exercises is when you are still a novice, still aware only of thoughts and emotions on the ordinary plane. The proper time to abandon set practices is when you are a proficient, when you have become adequately aware of the divine presence. Then you need engage yourself only in a single and simple effort: to persevere in paying attention to this presence so as to sustain and stretch out the welcome intervals of its realization.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3805 – 3.2.9.19

BN – X – D

Before he reaches a certain stage, he will necessarily have to seek guidance from without, from books and teachers, because of his uncertainty, lack of confidence, and ignorance. But after he reaches it, it will be wiser and safer for him to seek guidance from within. The higher self will impart all the knowledge he needs, as and when he needs it.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3808 – 3.2.9.22

B_07 – ZZ – DK

The desire to get at the soul must become so predominant and so anxious that a continuous tension is created within him.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3810 – 3.2.9.24

BN – X – D

The experience of being gripped and physically shaken by some extraordinary power will also occur at certain intervals along this path. This is not to be feared but rather to be welcomed. It always signifies a descent of grace and is a herald of coming progress of some kind or other.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3813 – 3.2.9.27

BN – X – D

When he feels the gentle coming of the presence of the higher self, at this point he must train himself in the art of keeping completely passive. He will discover that it is endeavouring actually to ensoul him, to take possession of him as a disembodied spirit is supposed to take possession of a living medium. His task now is purely negative; it is to offer no resistance to the endeavour but to let it have the fullest possible sway over him. The preliminary phases of his progress are over. Hitherto it was mostly his own efforts upon which he had to rely. Now, however, it is the Overself which will be the active agent in his development. All that is henceforth asked of him is that he remain passive, otherwise he may disturb the holy work by the interference of his blind ignorant self-will. His advance at this point no longer depends on his own striving.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3816 – 3.2.9.30

BN – X – DEK

There is Infinite Intelligence always at work on this planet; … the real Giver of all things; … that God is the very Provider of all.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3824EM – 3.2.9.38

BSG_4 – P – DX

When a seeker has developed sufficient mystical intuition, it becomes necessary for him to balance up by cultivating intellectual understanding. In this way he will be able to deal more effectively with the problems of the present age. At first, his progress in the new direction may seem slow and disappointing; but he should be cheered to know that he is, in fact, working and co-operating with Higher Forces. There is Infinite Intelligence always at work on this planet, and the seeker's own sense of being, motivated as it is by his individual intelligence, is a microcosmic facsimile of the Great Cosmic Workings. One day he will see the whole of the picture, not just the lower part of it, and he will understand that it is his own Overself which has brought him to—and led him safely through—the disheartening experiences of his present incarnation.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3824 – 3.2.9.38

BN – X – DEK

One day he will see the whole of the picture, not just the lower part of it, and he will understand that it is his own Overself which has brought him to—and led him safely through—the disheartening experiences of his present incarnation.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3824E – 3.2.9.38

BA11 – ZZ – DEK3

There is Infinite Intelligence always at work on this planet. Everything around us and every event that happens to us is an expression of God's will.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3824EM – 3.2.9.38

BA11 – ZZZ – DXK

The condition of spiritual dryness about which he may complain is a common phenomenon in the mystical life. It arises from various causes but he need not doubt that it will pass away.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3827 – 3.2.9.41

BN – X – D

If he once has an experience of his divine soul he should remember that this was because it is always there, always inside of him, and has never left him. Let him but stick to the Quest, and the experience will recur at the proper time.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3828 – 3.2.9.42

BN – X – D

It is through meeting and understanding the difficulties on the path, through facing and mastering them, that we grow. Each of us in this world lives in a state of continuous struggle, whatever outward appearances to the contrary may suggest. Repose is for the dead alone—and then only for a limited time. We must study the lessons behind every experience, painful or pleasant, that karma brings. We lose nothing except what is well worth losing if we frankly acknowledge past errors. Only vanity or selfishness can stand in the way of such acknowledgement. Earthly life is after all a transient means to an enduring end.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3829E – 3.2.9.43

B_05 – ZEL1/2 – DEK

The worth or worthlessness of its experiences lies not in any particular external form, but in the development of consciousness and character to which they lead. Only after time has cooled down the fires of passion and cleared the mists of self-interest are most people able to perceive that these mental developments are the essential and residual significance of their human fortunes. With the seeker after truth, the period of meditation must be devoted, at least in part, to arriving at such perceptions even in the midst of life's events.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3829E – 3.2.9.43

B_05 – ZEL2/2 – DEK

It is not possible for a student to know the changes which are going on in his subconscious mind and which will eventually break through into his consciousness at some time. If he feels he is failing in some way through his attachment to material things, the very recognition of this is itself a sign that he has half-progressed out of this condition and is not satisfied to remain inside these attachments. Of course, the struggle to free himself from them is at its worst when he does not have the feeling of the Divine Presence. But when that feeling comes the struggle itself will automatically begin to die down.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3830 – 3.2.9.44

BN – X – D

The integral ideal of our path is threefold: (a) meditation, (b) reflection, and (c) action. The passing over from one phase of development which has been over-emphasized to another which has been neglected is necessarily a period of upheaval, depression, and unsettlement. But it draws to an end. After the storm comes peace.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3832 – 3.2.9.46

BN – X – D

The blind gropings of those early days give place, after many years, to the clear-sighted steps of these later ones. The completion of his quest now becomes an impending event; the quintessence of all his experience now expresses itself in this fullness of being and knowing which is almost at hand.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3837 – 3.2.9.51

BN – X – D

Little by little, at a pace so slow that the movement is hardly noticeable, his mind will give entrance to thoughts that seem to come creeping from some source other than itself, for they are thoughts irrelevant to his reasonings and inconsistent with his convictions. They are indeed intuitions. If he submits to their leading, if he surrenders his faith to them, if he drops his blind resistances, all will be well with him. He will be guided out of darkness into light, out of materiality into spirituality, out of black despair into sublime hope.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3838 – 3.2.9.52

BN – X – D

If weeping comes, be it in sound or in silence, it will not be to express unhappiness nor to express joy. For it is very important, and on a deeper, more mysterious, level. So let it continue if it chooses.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3840 – 3.2.9.54

BN – X – D

The timetable of a seeker's advance depends on several factors, but without doubt the most important of them all is the strength of the longing within his heart for the Highest.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3844 – 3.2.9.58

B_05 – ZZ – DMK

When the acceptance of these truths becomes instinctive, even if it remains inarticulate, he will begin to gather strength from them, to feel that the little structure of his life has nothing less than cosmic support beneath it.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3846 – 3.2.9.60

BN – X – D

The two most important tenets of mystical philosophy are: that we in our deepest being are an immortal soul, and that there is a path whereby all may discover it for themselves.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3847E – 3.2.9.61

BSG_4 – Z – DE

Consciousness is the ultimate, as science is beginning vaguely to see. With a concentrated, sharpened mind he can pierce into his deepest self and then endeavour to understand it; he can also pierce into the external world of matter and understand that too. Unthwarted by the illusions of the ordinary man, who takes what his eyes see for granted, he can probe beneath appearances. And when he can at last see the Truth, his spiritual ignorance falls away of its own accord and can never come back to him again.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3849E – 3.2.9.63

BA11 – ZZ – DEK3

The actual finding of Truth, which is the same as Nirvana, Self-Knowledge, Liberation, is really a work of brief duration—perhaps a matter of minutes—whereas the preparation and equipment of oneself to find it must take many incarnations.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3849E – 3.2.9.63

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

He discovers that the world of matter is ultimately space and that all material forms are merely ideas in his mind. He discovers, too, that his inmost self is one with this space, because it is formless. He perceives the unity of all life and he has found Truth, the whole Truth.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The development of the work

#3849ED – 3.2.9.63

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK3

You may believe in a religion, but it is not enough to believe in philosophy; you have also to learn it. Nor can it be learnt through the head alone, it has also to be learnt through the heart and the will. Therefore, do not expect to master it within a few years but allot your whole lifetime for this task.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3850 – 3.2.9.64

BN – X – D

Lao Tzu said, "Do nothing by self-will but rather conform to heaven's will, and everything will be done for you." The whole of the quest may be summed up as an attempt to put these wise words into practice. However, the quest is not a thing of a moment or a day; it extends through many years, nay, through a whole lifetime. Therefore, merely to learn how to "do nothing" is itself a long task, if it is to be truly done and if we are not to deceive ourselves.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3851 – 3.2.9.65

BN – ZZ – DEK

It is natural for the ego to assert itself and it will continue to do so even if he retires from the world. Only when the ego loses the power to rule the affairs of a man does the Overself step in and rule them for him, but this position is not reached merely by saying or wishing that it should be reached. It represents the culmination of a lifelong struggle.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3852E – 3.2.9.66

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

Only if a man falls in love with his soul as deeply as he has ever done with a woman will he even stand a chance of finding it. Incessant yearning for the higher self, in a spirit of religious devotion, is one of the indispensable aspects of the fourfold integral quest. The note of yearning for this realization must sound through all his prayer and worship, concentration and meditation. Sometimes the longing for God may affect him even physically with abrupt dynamic force, shaking his whole body, and agitating his whole nervous system. A merely formal practice of meditation is quite insufficient although not quite useless. For without the yearning the advent of Grace is unlikely, and without Grace there can never be any realization of the Overself.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL02/40 – DEK

The very fact that a man has consciously begun the quest is itself a manifestation of Grace, for he has begun to seek the Overself only because the Overself's own working has begun to make it plain to him, through the sense of unbearable separation from it, that the right moment for this has arrived. The aspirant should therefore take heart and feel hope. He is not really walking alone. The very love which has awakened within him for the Overself is a reflection of the love which is being shown towards him.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL03/40 – DEK

Thus the very search upon which he has embarked, the studies he is making, and the meditations he is practising are all inspired by the Overself from the beginning and sustained by it to the end. The Overself is already at work even before he begins to seek it. Indeed he has taken to the quest in unconscious obedience to the divine prompting. And that prompting is the first movement of Grace. Even when he believes that he is doing these things for himself, it is really Grace that is opening the heart and enlightening the mind from behind the scenes.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL04/40 – DEK

Man's initiative pushes on toward the goal, whilst divine Grace draws him to it. Both forces must combine if the process is to be completed and crowned with success. Yet that which originally made the goal attractive to him and inspired him with faith in it and thus gave rise to his efforts, was itself the Grace. In this sense Paul's words, "For by Grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves," become more intelligible.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL05/40 – DEK

The Grace of God is no respecter of persons or places. It comes to the heart that desires it most whether that heart be in the body of a king or of a commoner, a man of action or a recluse. John Bunyan the poor tinker, immured in Bedford gaol, saw a Light denied to many kings and tried to write it down in his book Pilgrim's Progress. Jacob Boehme, working at his cobbler's bench in Seideburg, was thrice illumined and gleaned secrets which he claimed were unknown to the universities of his time.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL06/40 – DEK

If a man has conscientiously followed this fourfold path, if he has practised mystical meditation and metaphysical reflection, purification of character and unselfish service, and yet seems to be remote from the goal, what is he to do? He has then to follow the admonition of Jesus: "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you." He has literally to ask for Grace out of the deep anguish of his heart. We are all poor. He is indeed discerning who realizes this and becomes a beggar, imploring of God for Grace.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL07/40 – DEK

He must pray first to be liberated from the heavy thraldom of the senses, the desires, and the thoughts. He must pray next for the conscious presence of the Overself. He should pray silently and deeply in the solitude of his own heart. He should pray with concentrated emotion and tight-held mind. His yearning for such liberation and such presence must be unquestionably sincere and unquestionably strong. He should begin and close—and even fill if he wishes—his hour of meditation with such noble prayers. He must do this day after day, week after week. For the Overself is not merely a concept, but a living reality, the power behind all his other and lesser powers.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL08/40 – DEK

No aspirant who is sincere and sensitive will be left entirely without help. It may appear during temptation when the lower nature may find itself unexpectedly curbed by a powerful idea working strongly against it. He may find in a book just that for which he has been waiting and which at this particular time will definitely help him on his way. The particular help he needs at a particular stage will come naturally. It may take the form of a change in outward circumstances or a meeting with a more developed person, of a printed book or a written letter, of a sudden unexpected emotional inspiration or an illuminating intellectual intuition. Nor is it necessary to travel to the farthest point before being able to gather the fruits. Long before this, he will begin to enjoy the flavour of peace, hope, knowledge, and divine transcendence.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL09/40 – DEK

In the moment that a man willingly deserts his habitual standpoint under a trying situation and substitutes this higher one, in that moment he receives Grace. With this reception a miracle is performed and the evil of the lower standpoint is permanently expelled from his character. The situation itself both put him to the proof and gave him his chance.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL10/40 – DEK

The factuality of Grace does not cancel out the need of moral choice and personal effort. It would be a great mistake to stamp human effort as useless in the quest and to proclaim human inability to achieve its own salvation as complete. For if it is true that Divine Grace alone can bring the quest to a successful terminus, it is likewise true that human effort must precede and thus invoke the descent of Grace. What is needed to call down Grace is, first, a humility that is utter and complete, deeply earnest and absolutely sincere, secondly, an offering of self to the Overself, a dedication of earthly being to spiritual essence, and, thirdly, a daily practice of devotional exercise. The practices will eventually yield experiences, the aspirations will eventually bring assistance. The mysterious intrusion of Grace may change the course of events. It introduces new possibilities, a different current of destiny.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL11/40 – DEM*

Our need of salvation, of overcoming the inherently sinful and ignorant nature of ego, isolated from true consciousness as it is, is greater than we ever comprehend. For our life, being so largely egotistic, is ignorant and sinful—a wandering from one blunder to another, one sin to another. This salvation is by the Overself's saving power, for which we must seek its Grace, approaching it with the childlike humility of which Jesus spoke.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL12/40 – DEK

No man is so down, so sinful, so weak, or so beaten that he may not make a fresh start. Let him adopt a childlike attitude, placing himself in the hands of his higher self, imploring it for guidance and Grace. He should repeat this at least daily, and even oftener. Then let him patiently wait and carefully watch for the intuitive response during the course of the following weeks or months. He need not mind his faults. Let him offer himself, just as he is, to the God, or Soul, he seeks. It is not indifferent nor remote.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL13/40 – DEK

The forgiveness of sins is a fact. Those who deny this deny their own experience. Can they separate from the moon its light? Then how can they separate forgiveness from love? Do they not see a mother forgive her child a hundred times even though she reproves and chastises it?

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL14/40 – DEK

The value of repentance is that it is the first step to set us free from a regrettable past; of amendment, that it is the last step to do so. There must be a contrite consciousness that to live in ego is to live in ignorance and sin. This sin is not the breaking of social conventions. There must be penitent understanding that we are born in sin because we are born in ego and hence need redemption and salvation. It is useless to seek forgiveness without first being thoroughly repentant. There must also be an opening up of the mind to the truth about one's sinfulness, besides repentance, an understanding of the lesson behind this particular experience of its result.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL17/40 – DEK

This primary attribute is extolled in the world's religio-mystical literature. "Despair not of Allah's mercy," says the Koran. "What are my sins compared with Thy mercy? They are but as a cobweb before the wind," wrote an early Russian mystic, Dmitri of Rostov. "Those who surrender to me, even be they of sinful nature, shall understand the highest path," says the Bhagavad Gita.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL19/40 – DEK*

Yes, there is forgiveness because there is God's love. Jesus was not mistaken when he preached this doctrine, but it is not a fact for all men alike. Profound penitence and sincere amendment are prerequisite conditions to calling it forth. It was one of the special tasks of Jesus to make known that compassion (or love, as the original word was translated) is a primary attribute of God and that Grace, pardon, and redemption are consequently primary features of God's active relation to man. When Jesus promised the repentant thief that he would be forgiven, Jesus was not deceiving the thief or deluding himself. He was telling the truth.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL20/40 – DEK

The discovery that the forgiveness of sins is a sacred fact should fill us with inexpressible joy. For it is the discovery that there is compassionate love at the heart of the universe.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL22/40 – DEK

The aspirant's best hope lies in repentance. But if he fails to recognize this, if he remains with unbowed head and unregenerate heart, the way forward will likewise remain stony and painful. The admission that he is fallible and weak will be wrung from him by the punishments of nature if he will not yield it by the perceptions of conscience. The first value of repentance is that it makes a break with an outworn past. The second value is that it opens the way to a fresh start. Past mistakes cannot be erased but future ones can be avoided.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL24/40 – DEK

The man that he was must fill him with regrets; the man that he seeks to be with hopes. He must become keenly conscious of his own sinfulness. The clumsy handiwork of his spiritual adolescence will appall him whenever he meditates upon its defects. His thought must distrust and purge itself of these faults. He will at certain periods feel impelled to reproach himself for faults shown, wrongs done, and sins committed during the past. This impulse should be obeyed. His attitude must so change that he is not merely ready but even eager to undo the wrongs that he has done and to make restitution for the harm that he has caused.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL25/40 – DEK

We do not get at the Real by our own efforts alone nor does it come to us by its own volition alone. Effort that springs from the self and Grace that springs from beyond it are two things essential to success in this quest. The first we can all provide, but the second only the Overself can provide. Man was once told by someone who knew, "The Spirit bloweth where it listeth." Thus it is neither contradictory nor antithetic to say that human effort and human dependence upon Divine Grace are both needed. For there is a kind of reciprocal action between them. This reciprocal working of Grace is a beautiful fact. The subconscious invitation from the Overself begets the conscious invocation of it as an automatic response.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL26/40 – DEK

When the ego feels attracted towards its sacred source, there is an equivalent attraction on the Overself's part towards the ego itself. Never doubt that the Divine always reciprocates this attraction to it of the human self. Neither the latter's past history nor present character can alter that blessed hope-bringing fact. Grace is the final, glorious, and authentic proof that it is not only man that is seeking God, but also God that is ever waiting for man.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL27/40 – DEK*

The Grace is a heavenly superhuman gift. Those who have never felt it and consequently rush into incautious denial of its existence are to be pitied. Those who flout the possibility and deny the need of a helping Grace can be only those who have become victims of a cast-iron intellectual system which could not consistently give a place to it.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL28/40 – DEK

This is the paradox, that although a man must try to conquer himself if he would attain the Overself, he cannot succeed in this undertaking except by the Overself's own power—that is, by the Grace "which burns the straw of desires" as Mahopanishad poetically puts it. It is certain that such an attainment is beyond his ordinary strength.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL30/40 – DEK

All that the ego can do is to create the necessary conditions out of which enlightenment generally arises, but it cannot create this enlightenment itself. By self-purification, by constant aspiration, by regular meditation, by profound study, and by an altruistic attitude in practical life, it does what is prerequisite. But all this is like tapping at the door of the Overself. Only the latter's Grace can open it in the end.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL31/40 – DEM*

The will has its part in this process, but it is not the only part. Sooner or later he will discover that he can go forward no farther in its sole dependence, and that he must seek help from something beyond himself. He must indeed call for Grace to act upon him. The need of obtaining help from outside his ordinary self and from beyond his ordinary resources in this tremendous struggle becomes urgent. It is indeed a need of Grace. Fortunately for him this Grace is available, although it may not be so on his own terms.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL32/40 – DEK

At a certain stage he must learn to "let go" more and allow the Overself to possess him, rather than strain to possess something which he believes to be still eluding him. Every aspirant who has passed it will remember how he leapt ahead when he made this discovery.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL33/40 – DEK

At another stage, the Overself, whose Grace was the initial impetus to all his efforts, steps forward, as it were, and begins to reveal its presence and working more openly. The aspirant becomes conscious of this with awe, reverence, and thankfulness. He must learn to attend vigilantly to these inward promptings of Divine Grace. They are like sunbeams that fructify the earth.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL34/40 – DEK

With the descent of Grace, all the anguish and ugly memories of the seeker's past and the frustrations of the present are miraculously sponged out by the Overself's unseen and healing hand. He knows that a new element has entered into his field of consciousness, and he will unmistakably feel from that moment a blessed quickening of inner life. When his own personal effort subsides, a further effort begins on his behalf by a higher power. Without any move on his own part, Grace begins to do for him what he could not do for himself, and under its beneficent operation he will find his higher will strengthening, his moral attitude improving, and his spiritual aspiration increasing.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL35/40 – DEK

The consciousness of being under the control of a higher influence will become unmistakable to him. The conviction that it is achieving moral victories for him which he could not have achieved by his ordinary self, will become implanted in him. A series of remarkable experiences will confirm the fact that some beneficent power has invaded his personality and is ennobling, elevating, inspiring, and guiding it. An exultant freedom takes possession of him. It displaces all his emotional forebodings and personal burdens.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL36/40 – DEK

Philosophy affirms the existence of Grace, that what the most strenuous self-activity cannot gain may be put in our hands as a divine gift.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL38/40 – DEK

As at the beginning, so at the end of this path, the unveiling of the Overself is not an act of any human will. Only the Divine Will—that is, only its own Grace—can bring about the final all-revealing act, whose sustained consciousness turns the aspirant into an adept.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL39/40 – DEK

In seeking the Overself, the earnest aspirant must seek it with heartfelt love. Indeed, his whole quest must be ardently imbued with this feeling. Can he love the Divine purely and disinterestedly for its own sake? This is the question he must ask himself. If this devotional love is to be something more than frothy feeling, it will have to affect and redeem the will. It will have to heighten the sense of, and obedience to, moral duty. Because of this devotion to something which transcends his selfish interests, he can no longer seek his selfish advantage at the expense of others. His aim will be not only to love the soul but to understand it, not only to hear its voice in meditation but to live out its promptings in action.

Overview of Practices Involved > Conclusion > The working of Grace

#3853E – 3.2.9.67

A260321 – ZEL40/40 – DEK

It is not that the Soul cannot be found in populous cities but that it can be found more easily and more quickly in solitary retreats. Its presence comes more clearly there. But to learn how to keep it we have to return to the cities again.

Relax and Retreat > Relax and Retreat > Relax and Retreat

#3856 – 3.3.0.2

BN – Z – DK

If you begin the day with love in your heart, peace in your nerves, and truth in your mind, you not only benefit by their presence but also bring them to others—to your family or friends, and to all those whom destiny draws across your path that day.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Take Intermittent Pauses

#3860 – 3.3.1.4

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The aggressive world of our time needs to learn how to get out of time. The active world needs to learn to sit still, mentally and physically, without becoming bored.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Take Intermittent Pauses

#3864 – 3.3.1.8

BN – X – D

The earth will continue to turn on its axis, with or without him. He is not so important as he thinks.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Take Intermittent Pauses

#3869 – 3.3.1.13

BN – X – D

It is good to forget for twenty or thirty minutes each day the world and its affairs in order to remember the Overself and its serenity. This forgetfulness is exalting and uplifting in proportion to the distance it carries us from the ego.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Take Intermittent Pauses

#3880 – 3.3.1.24

BN – X – D

A day begun with mental quiet and inner receptivity is a day whose work is well begun. Every idea, decision, move, or action which flows out from it later will be wiser better and nobler than it otherwise would have been.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Take Intermittent Pauses

#3881 – 3.3.1.25

BN – X – D

Those who give too few minutes during the day to thought about, remembrance of, or meditation on the higher self cannot justly demand a spiritual return out of all proportion to what they have given.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Take Intermittent Pauses

#3910 – 3.3.1.54

BN – X – D

Escape from worldly life and big cities for suitable periods and on the proper occasions can be used to promote spiritual advancement and to perfect spiritual capacity.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Take Intermittent Pauses

#3923 – 3.3.1.67

B_08 – Z – K

Take these beautiful moments, which Nature's rhythm has provided or man's art has fabricated, as a grace and benefit by them on a deeper level. But to do this there must be a pause in the oscillations of active life, a deliberate stilling of the self, be it short or long.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Take Intermittent Pauses

#3928 – 3.3.1.72

B_09 – ZZ – K

If men live in the flesh alone, if they have no spiritual core within which to retreat from time to time, they must endure, unsustained by anything from within, the sufferings and infirmities of the flesh.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Take Intermittent Pauses

#3932 – 3.3.1.76

B_17 – ZZ – K

Jesus showed men what to do, for although he often went apart to commune with God, he always returned to live with his fellows.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Balance inner and outer

#3959 – 3.3.1.103

B_12 – ZZ – K

The divine part of our being is always there; why then is it not available to us? We have to practise making ourselves available to It. We have to pause, listen inwardly, feel for Its blessed presence. For this purpose meditation is a valuable help, a real need.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Shorter pauses

#3980 – 3.3.1.124

BN – X – D

His earthly business will not suffer in the end but he himself will gain much profit if he detaches himself from it once or twice a day to turn his attention toward celestial business for which he was really put on earth.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Shorter pauses

#3982 – 3.3.1.126

BN – X – D

It is more than a short respite from personal troubles, more than a white magic which leads him away from a hard and crazy world: it is a return to the source of Life.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Shorter pauses

#3985 – 3.3.1.129

BN – X – D

There is so much power and light in these quiet periods that the public ignorance of meditation is more than regrettable.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Shorter pauses

#3993 – 3.3.1.137

BN – X – D

The man who cannot free himself for half an hour every day from overactivity whether in work or in entertainment is a self-made slave. To what better use could he put this small fraction of time than to withdraw for such a high purpose as seeking himself?

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Shorter pauses

#3998 – 3.3.1.142

BN – X – D

He is soon distracted by the routines, the duties, the cares, and the activities of life, however petty they are, so that the great eternal truths recede from his vision. This is why such periods of temporary withdrawal are absolutely necessary every day.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Shorter pauses

#3999 – 3.3.1.143

B_08 – ZZ – DMK

Is it too much to ask a man to pause in each of his busy days long enough to cultivate the one faculty―intuition―which offers him an utterly disproportionate return for the investment of time and attention?

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Shorter pauses

#4003 – 3.3.1.147

BSG_5 – P – D

The Overself asks to be alone with him for certain periods every day. This is not too much to ask, yet it seems too much to give for most people.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Shorter pauses

#4018 – 3.3.1.162

BN – Z – D

A day may come when builders and architects will make a small room for silence and meditation a part of every structure—be it residential or business.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Shorter pauses

#4022 – 3.3.1.166

BN – X – D

A few minutes every day for relaxing the thoughts and feelings will help one to endure the harassments of time and activity. A little study now and then will reveal the Higher Purpose behind it all—and there is one!

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Shorter pauses

#4025 – 3.3.1.169

BN – X – D

Sometimes it is high wisdom to desert the world for awhile, resting in a hermitage or reposing with Nature. For a fresh point of view may be found there, what is happening within oneself may be better understood, the tired mind may gain some concentration, and the fringe of inner peace may be touched.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Longer pauses

#4028 – 3.3.1.172

BN – X – D

When we walk under the groined arches of a cathedral we do not usually feel the same emotions as when we step out of the lift into the bargain basement of a department store. This is what I mean when I say that every place has its mental atmosphere, formed from thousands of thoughts bred in it; and this is why I suggest that retreat now and then into a secluded place for spiritual self-development is something worthwhile for the aspirant who is compelled to live amid the tumults of a modern city.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Longer pauses

#4042 – 3.3.1.186

BN – Z – DEK

The risk of being carried away by the world is always present for those who try to spiritualize their life in the world rather than in a monastery or ashram. It is a risk which calls for watchfulness, management, and occasional periods of retreat.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Longer pauses

#4054 – 3.3.1.198

BN – Z – DK

There are times when he must live a withdrawn life for a while if the slender young plant beginning to grow within him is to survive.

Relax and Retreat > Take Intermittent Pauses > Longer pauses

#4057 – 3.3.1.201

BN – X – D

The dominant habits, regimes, and practices of the regular routine which modern Western man follows show in themselves how far he has lost the true purposes of living, how disproportionate is the emphasis he has put on the things of this world.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure

#4079 – 3.3.2.15

BN – X – D

Action is right, needful, and inevitable, but if it is overdone, if we become excessive extroverts, if it drives us like a tormenting demon, then no inward peace is ever possible for us.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure

#4091 – 3.3.2.27

BN – X – D

When the divine is utterly forgotten in the press of daily activity, the negative, the foolish, and the self-weakening will be easily remembered.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure

#4119 – 3.3.2.55

BN – X – D

The extroversions of the ego block the communication of the Overself.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > Price of excessive extroversion

#4177 – 3.3.2.113

BN – X – D

Too much absorption with outward things, too little with inner life, creates the unbalance we see everywhere today. The attention given by people to their outer circumstances amounts almost to obsession.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > Price of excessive extroversion

#4182 – 3.3.2.118

BN – X – D

Most men are so smugly content to do their own ego’s will all the time that it never enters their minds to pause and enquire what the Overself’s will for them is.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > Price of excessive extroversion

#4183 – 3.3.2.119

BN – Z – D

We listen to so many outer voices that we do not have time, or give place, to listen directly to the Inner Voice, the Overself’s.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > Price of excessive extroversion

#4184 – 3.3.2.120

BN – X – D

The mass of outer activities becomes a heavy burden. Whether trivial or important, casual or essential, they keep us from looking within for the real self just as much as preoccupation with the mass of superfluous possessions.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > Price of excessive extroversion

#4185 – 3.3.2.121

BN – X – D

Our attention is now so fully absorbed by externals that we never have the leisure to cultivate inwardness or the inwardness to make a spiritual use of leisure. We are enslaved by attachments and distractions. We pursue the mirage of life, never life itself.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > Price of excessive extroversion

#4190 – 3.3.2.126

BN – ZZ – DEK

The more activities that receive his attention, the more is he apt to be distracted from his higher purpose.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > Price of excessive extroversion

#4195 – 3.3.2.131

BN – ZZ – DK

While they are caught in a tangle of work or overwork, with the worries that often accompany it, they are unable to give their concentrated thought to abstract questions and spiritual issues.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > Price of excessive extroversion

#4196 – 3.3.2.132

B_08 – ZZ – K

If worldly business and external pleasures occupy modern man's mind to such an extent that they have virtually crowded out all thoughts of the higher meaning and spiritual duties of life, then that business and these pleasures will lead him not to a happier earthly existence, as they could, but to bitter disappointment and painful catastrophe.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > Price of excessive extroversion

#4197 – 3.3.2.133

B_08 – ZZZ – K

The true place of peace amid the bustle of modern life must be found within self, by external moderation and internal meditation.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > The true place of peace

#4200D – 3.3.2.136

BN – Z – K

After he has exhausted all worldly means and hopes, in any particular direction, where else can a man turn except backward—back to his own divine source?

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > The true place of peace

#4202 – 3.3.2.138

UR_5 – ZZZ – DK

Meditation must become a daily rite, a part of the regime which is, like lunch or dinner, not to be missed, but regarded with a sacredness the body's feeding does not have.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > The true place of peace

#4203 – 3.3.2.139

BN – X – D

How valuable are those few minutes deliberately removed from the daily routine for this practice of mental quiet! The world is so busy with its business that the profit to be gained from inner contact with the Source is quite unperceived, even unknown.

Relax and Retreat > Withdraw from Tension and Pressure > The true place of peace

#4210 – 3.3.2.146

BN – Z – K

Tension may be eased by the simple exercise of total relaxation. At least twice a day, the student should stretch out and lie perfectly still. He must endeavour to consciously relax every part of the body. Breathing should be slowed down and kept at an even pace, the intake matching the outflow. The exercise need only take a few minutes—or until all signs of tension are gone.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4220 – 3.3.3.3

BN – X – D

If he can take a few minutes of concentrated rest at odd times, or even only one to three minutes at a time when he can get no more, he will benefit out of all proportion. The nerves will be soothed, the mind relaxed from its cares, the body-battery recharged, and the emotions calmed.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4222 – 3.3.3.5

BN – X – D

Sleep exercise: Roll your head around in a circle until the neck muscles are well relaxed and the chin easily touches the chest. Rest. Repeat the cycle of exercise and rest a number of times. Its effect is to increase the capacity to fall asleep more quickly.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4224 – 3.3.3.7

BN – X – D

Tension of some kind cannot be avoided, for all activity, physical or mental, calls it forth. It becomes harmful when it is not rightly balanced by relaxation, when it alone rules the man.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4240 – 3.3.3.23

BN – X – D

Release from tension is the beginning of release from ego. To relax body, feeling, and mind is to prepare the way for such a desirable consummation. The current propaganda and education of people in relaxation methods is to be welcomed for this reason alone, quite apart from the reasons usually given beyond which the propagandist's vision does not usually extend. But to remove tension is only a first step, not a final one.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4243 – 3.3.3.26

BN – ZZ – DEK

There is no doubt that the man who has completely mastered relaxation can let it pass into meditation more easily and quickly than the man who has not.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4244 – 3.3.3.27

BN – X – D

He refuses to be forced by his contemporaries into their feverish activity but insists on retaining the dignity of an unharried pace. The body may be fugitive but his own existence is eternal—whether viewed as emerging in other appearances on earth or as pure timeless spirit.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4250 – 3.3.3.33

BN – X – D

When the great liberation from his ego is attained, his entire physical organism will reflect the experience. All its muscular tautness will vanish; hands, shoulders, neck, facial expression, and legs will relax spontaneously of their own accord as his mind relaxes. He will be transformed.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4252 – 3.3.3.35

BN – X – D

It is needful to bring oneself to abstain from all actions for a short time daily, and to let thinking and feeling slip little by little into complete repose. As the movements of the body are suspended and the workings of the mind are reduced, the rest afforded both of them opens a way for the presence of intuition to be detected, recognized, and connected with. The ego begins to get out of the way, giving what is behind it a chance to reveal itself and be heard.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4256 – 3.3.3.39

BN – X – D

By becoming mindful of the rise and fall of breath, by transferring consciousness to the respiratory function alone, thought becomes unified, concentrated, rested in a natural easy manner.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4276 – 3.3.3.59

BN – X – D

Do not interrupt those wonderful moments, when all is still, by descending to trivial doings, or even necessary ones. Let them wait, let brain and body rest, let the world go, and give this fraction of time to the Timeless.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4280 – 3.3.3.63

BN – Z – DM

It is worthwhile giving all his attention to any feelings which he may meet unexpectedly within himself and which show an unusual relaxation, a release from tenseness, a freedom from care. They are to be caught on the wing, not allowed to escape and pass away. They are to be nurtured, cherished, and developed. They may be silent voices from the higher self drawing his attention to its own existence.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4282 – 3.3.3.65

BN – X – D

What happens during these relaxed moods? The focus of the conscious mind is withdrawn from the flesh and the vital centres, leaving the unconscious mind in sole sovereignty over them. What results from this? The destruction of the body’s tissue is repaired, the fatigue of its nervous and muscular systems is removed. The fuller the relaxation, and the soul activity within, the fuller the recuperation.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4284 – 3.3.3.67

ME_01 – P – K

To cast out tensions of body and mind and keep relaxed is to keep free and open and receptive to the higher forces—and especially to the intuitive ones.

Relax and Retreat > Relax Body, Breath, Mind > Relax Body, Breath, Mind

#4295 – 3.3.3.78

BN – X – D

The divine power is not less present in the home or the office than in the church or the monastery. If we do not find this so, it is because we are more ready and more willing to give attention to it in the one than in the other.

Relax and Retreat > Retreat Centres > Retreat Centres

#4313 – 3.3.4.2

BN – X – D

To renounce the world is merely to exchange one kind of residence and one form of activity for another. We live in the consciousness, experience all happenings in it, and cannot renounce it whatever form or appearance it takes. There is in fact a hierarchy of worlds to be passed through.

Relax and Retreat > Retreat Centres > Retreat Centres

#4331 – 3.3.4.20

BA11 – ZZ – DEK

There is a danger that the atmosphere of goodness evoked and cultivated in monastic institutions may become artificial and studied. Goodness becomes more natural when it is lived out and tested in the busy haunts of men.

Relax and Retreat > Retreat Centres > Problems, limitations

#4439 – 3.3.4.128

B_03 – ZZ – K

Thus what we develop mentally in solitude we must work out physically in society. What we achieve quietly in the heart's stillness must be expressed and tested in external activities. What we learn in peaceful rural retreat must be appraised for its soundness by bustling city work and pleasure. This integral approach must be the twentieth-century way, not the permanent indulgence in escape which was the way of antique and medieval monasticism.

Relax and Retreat > Retreat Centres > Problems, limitations

#4443 – 3.3.4.132

B_03 – ZZ – K

These noble feelings, these lofty thoughts, these grand intuitions are welcome testimonies of the change that is happening. But until they—and we—are brought to the test of everyday living, their correct measure and ours will not really be known.

Relax and Retreat > Retreat Centres > Problems, limitations

#4446 – 3.3.4.135

BN – ZZ – DEK

Misdirected idealism sets traps for the young, the naïve, the inexperienced, and the ill-informed in political circles as much as for the aspirants or the seekers in spiritual circles, takes pleasant sounding, attractively suggestive words like "harmony" and "unity" or phrases like the "brotherhood of man" and uses them as if they could become realities. This is just not possible in human relations, not in any full, adequate, or lasting sense. Not only so, but it has never been possible in the past—despite the myth of an imagined golden age—nor clearly is it possible in the present. Everywhere we see that even where such idealism seems to be successfully realized, it is only on the surface and vanishes as soon as we probe beneath the surface.

Relax and Retreat > Retreat Centres > Problems, limitations

#4461E – 3.3.4.150

A250426 – ZEL1/2 – DEK

We see religions, old and new, well-known and hardly known, divided into sects, groups, or factions which oppose each other. Nor are the ashrams and monasteries very much better, as they are supposed to be. In the world at large, where little wars and rebellions are being fought with savage ferocity, where political success is achieved by attacking, denigrating, or besmirching others, a semantic analysis of present conditions shows up the self-deception of the idealists and utopians. The lesson has not been learned that because egoism rules men, brotherhood is not possible, and that because no two minds are alike, unity is not possible. Harmony can be found only inside man himself, not in his relations with other men, and then only if insight is developed enough to track the ego down to its lair, expose it for what it is, and live in the peace of the Overself. But other men will continue to live in and from egoism.

Relax and Retreat > Retreat Centres > Problems, limitations

#4461E – 3.3.4.150

A250426 – ZEL2/2 – DEK

To shift the centre of interest from worldly to spiritual affairs but to magnify the ego as a consequence of doing so, is something that happens just as readily to dwellers in ashrams as to those outside them.

Relax and Retreat > Retreat Centres > Problems, limitations

#4465 – 3.3.4.154

B_08 – ZZ – K

It is men who are suffering and toiling in the world who have a heavier burden to carry than the monks in the ashrams. And it is the depth of suffering which in the end measures the extent of aspiration to be liberated from it.

Relax and Retreat > Retreat Centres > Problems, limitations

#4508 – 3.3.4.197

B_17 – ZZ – K

One needs a place where the only noise is that which one makes oneself. Then, the lovely stillness without helps to induce the lovely stillness within.

Relax and Retreat > Solitude > Solitude

#4514 – 3.3.5.1

BN – Z – D

When his commerce with God becomes his most important activity and remembrance of God the most habitual one, solitariness grows deeply on a man. His need for friends grows less.

Relax and Retreat > Solitude > Solitude

#4519 – 3.3.5.6

BN – X – D

When a man enters this phase, he begins to feel a great weariness with life. He loses his interest in many things which may have absorbed him before. He becomes emotionally indifferent to activities and persons formerly attractive to him. He withdraws more and more from people and society. When this fatigue with all existence descends upon him, then he will be more ready and more willing to lose the personal ego in the universal ocean of being.

Relax and Retreat > Solitude > Solitude

#4544 – 3.3.5.31

BN – Z – DEK

The desert has given mankind some of its greatest prophets. Out of its solitude there appeared a wild-looking man, dressed in a rough camel's hair girdle. He came living on locusts and wild honey but fasting often. He went among the cities of Judea, praying, calling for repentance, denouncing wickedness, and proclaiming the Coming. This man was John the Baptist.

Relax and Retreat > Solitude > Solitude

#4547E – 3.3.5.34

B_12 – Z – K

The essential thing is what we do with the mind. Socrates nurtured his philosophy in what was for that time a large city; he did not need, like Thoreau, to withdraw into Nature's solitudes.

Relax and Retreat > Solitude > Solitude

#4556 – 3.3.5.43

A241129 – Z – DK

Privacy is a great privilege—almost, in these noisy days, a luxury. To be able to live without being interrupted by others, to be able to converge all one's thoughts, without being disturbed, upon the highest of all thoughts, the discovery of the Overself, is a satisfaction indeed!

Relax and Retreat > Solitude > Solitude

#4564 – 3.3.5.51

BN – X – D

The enforced cessation from external activity which imprisonment may bring could be a help to spiritual awakening. A few months before he died Oscar Wilde said, “I have lived all there was to live. I found the sweet bitter and the bitter sweet. I was happy in prison because there I found my soul.”

Relax and Retreat > Solitude > Solitude

#4573 – 3.3.5.60

BN – X – D

The need of withdrawing at certain times from outer contact with other human beings will be felt and if so should be obeyed. If he disregards it, he misses an opportunity to progress to a higher stage.

Relax and Retreat > Solitude > Solitude

#4602 – 3.3.5.89

BA12 – ZZZ – DK

"I regard my last eight months in prison as the happiest period in my life. It was then that I was initiated into that new world . . . which enabled my soul . . . to establish communion with the Lord of all Being. This would never have happened if I had not had such solitude as enabled me to recognize my real self. Although I did not study mysticism, the mystics I read in prison appealed to me tremendously." —Anwar el Sadat, former president of Egypt

Relax and Retreat > Solitude > Solitude

#4631 – 3.3.5.117

BN – X – DEK

The beauty we see in a single flower points to a MIND capable of thinking such beauty. In the end Nature and Art point to God.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4677 – 3.3.6.1

B_09 – ZZ – DK

Nature produces new or nobler feelings in the more sensitive wanderers into her domain. The sunset's peace, the dawn's promise of hope, and the pleasure of beauty's presence are always worthwhile and should fill us with gratitude.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4680 – 3.3.6.4

BN – Z – DEK

He will accomplish this disciplinary work best if he retires to the quietude and contemplation of Nature, to a country seclusion where he can be least distracted and most uplifted. Here is the temple where aspiration for the Higher Self can find its best outlet; here is the monastery where discipline of the lower self can be easiest undertaken.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4684 – 3.3.6.8

BN – X – D

To look steadily at Nature's own artwork for a while—be it mountain, valley, or moving waves—with growing deep feeling until the self is forgotten, is also a yoga practice.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4689 – 3.3.6.13

B_09 – Z – DMK

In Nature’s solitary places, in its forests, mountains, and grasslands, it is easier to cultivate the philosopher’s trinity of goodness, truth, and beauty than in the crowded quarters of towns.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4696 – 3.3.6.20

BN – X – D

We need quiet places where the earth is left in its natural state and where men can seek in leisure and freedom to recover their independence of thought and to restore awareness of their inner selves—so hard to gain and so easy to lose in the modern world.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4697 – 3.3.6.21

BN – X – D

It is a soothing experience to sit in the grass high on the top of a cliff, to look out at the vast spread of sea, and then to let the mind empty itself of accumulated problems. As the minutes pass, equanimity is restored and repose laps one about.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4711 – 3.3.6.35

BN – X – D

In the beauty of a rose and the loveliness of a sunset the man of aesthetic feeling or poetic temperament may unconsciously find a reminder of the grander beauty of the Overself.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4714 – 3.3.6.38

BN – X – D

To the sensitive person, an unspoiled scenery of lakeland or woodland, sea or mountain, brings with its silent contemplation a nostalgic longing for return to his true spiritual home.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4715 – 3.3.6.39

B_09 – ZZ – DK

Those who are responsive to Nature, and more especially to the beautiful colours released at the sun's rise and fall, to the silences of woods and forests, or to the ocean's vast spaciousness, may use such contacts for attempts to get spiritual glimpses.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4716 – 3.3.6.40

B_09 – Z – K

There is one quality which re-enters man when the spring season re-enters the yearly cycle. It is hope.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4718 – 3.3.6.42

BN – X – D

It is a common experience that in shady woodland walks there is an effluence of peace in the atmosphere. We need not wonder that in such and kindred places it is easier to find the quietness within. It is true that men have found their way to the Overself in almost every kind of environment, but there was more help and less conflict when they were alone with primeval Nature.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4720 – 3.3.6.44

BN – Z – DK*

From the hill on whose side I dwell, at the very edge of Montreux, my window looks across sloping vineyards. It has a long view. This means much when one has to live closed in a small apartment every day, every year, with fifty families in the same building. I like the freedom of solitude, the view through unobstructed space. To let the green scenery take my thoughts away into a pleasant harmony with Nature for a few minutes at least, is a daily need, not a luxury. To sit even longer and go far away in consciousness until an unworldly quiescence is reached, is my evening bread.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4727 – 3.3.6.51

BN – X – D

The gardener who waters his flowers and shrubs with loving patience receives love from them in return. It is not like the human kind, but is the exact correspondence to it on the plant level.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4730 – 3.3.6.54

BN – X – D

The flower's beauty is simply a pointer, reminding us to think, speak, and behave beautifully.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4731 – 3.3.6.55

BN – X – D

In looking for the beauty in Nature, a man is looking for his soul. In adoring this Beauty when he finds it, he is recognizing that he not only owns an animal body, but is himself owned by a higher Power.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4748 – 3.3.6.72

BN – Z – DK*

There are men who may appear to be materialistic but the admiration for Nature's beauty or the inspiration from noble music is their way of showing spiritual sensitivity. It is possibly the only way, given their past history and present character.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4750 – 3.3.6.74

B_09 – ZZ – K

There are moments when a man may sit alone with nature, when no sound intrudes and all is quiet, pleasant, harmonious. If he will enter into this stillness with nature and enter it deeply enough, he will find that it is associated with what most religions call God.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4753 – 3.3.6.77

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

When we are disgusted with the pettiness of mankind we may turn in appreciation to the grandeur of Nature.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4761 – 3.3.6.85

BN – X – D

The beautiful in Nature, the singing of birds, the coming of Spring's colours recall the beautiful moods in ourself when glimpses revealed the soul.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4775 – 3.3.6.99

BN – X – D

A sensitive person may be gently influenced by such beauty of Nature to pause and gaze, holding himself still for the while, admiring and appreciating the scene, until he is so absorbed that he is lost in it. The ego and its affairs retreat. Unwittingly he comes close to the delicious peace of the Overself.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4778 – 3.3.6.102

BN – X – D

The travelling Goethe wrote his friends in Germany about a Princess he met in Naples—she was young, gay, and superficial—who advised him to go to her large country estate in Sorrento where “the mountain air and lovely view would soon cure me of all philosophy!” Some of us, however, would only be more incited by them to philosophy.

Relax and Retreat > Nature Appreciation > Nature Appreciation

#4779 – 3.3.6.103

BN – X – DK*

The two great daily pauses in Nature offer wonderful minutes when we, her children, should pause too. Sunrise is the chance and time to prepare inwardly for activity; sunset to counterbalance it. We do not take proper advantage of the gifts of Nature but let ourselves be defeated by the conditions in which we have to live under our times and civilization.

Relax and Retreat > Sunset Contemplation > Sunset Contemplation

#4780 – 3.3.7.1

BN – X – D

In those moments of suspense when light is yielding so reluctantly to the dark, there is an opportunity to look within and come closer to the Overself.

Relax and Retreat > Sunset Contemplation > Sunset Contemplation

#4793 – 3.3.7.14

BN – X – D

To anticipate the sunset hour or await the break of dawn, with body unmoving and mind absorbed, is one timing of this exercise which allies itself with Nature's helpful rhythm.

Relax and Retreat > Sunset Contemplation > Sunset Contemplation

#4796 – 3.3.7.17

BN – X – D

Rich are those possible experiences when one sits and gazes at the western horizon before eventide, the sun going out of sight, the heart open to beauty and grace as it longs for the Overself.

Relax and Retreat > Sunset Contemplation > Sunset Contemplation

#4802 – 3.3.7.23

BN – X – D

When the coming of night brings repose to Nature and silence to the landscaped scenes, we experience a stillness outside the self comparable to the stillness which contemplation brings out inside the self.

Relax and Retreat > Sunset Contemplation > Sunset Contemplation

#4827 – 3.3.7.48

BN – X – D

The asceticism has its place, just like the Long Path, of which it is a component, but when it is stressed to an unnatural point, fanaticism is born, equilibrium is lost, and tolerance is destroyed.

Relax and Retreat > Sunset Contemplation > Sunset Contemplation

#4838 – 3.3.7.59

BN – X – D

My happiest hours come when the sun is about to bid us farewell. Those lovely minutes are touched with magic; they bring my active mind and body to a pause. They invite me to appreciate the radiant glowing colours of the sky and finally they command me to enter the deep stillness within, so that when all is dark with the coming of night all is brilliantly illuminated inside consciousness.

Relax and Retreat > Sunset Contemplation > Sunset Contemplation

#4842 – 3.3.7.63

BN – X – D

The sun is God's face in the physical world.

Relax and Retreat > Sunset Contemplation > Sunset Contemplation

#4853 – 3.3.7.74

BN – X – D

… Just as the visible sun is essential to human bodily life and existence, so the invisible sun of consciousness is essential to its mental, emotional, and spiritual life. It is our Overself and God: give it homage.

Relax and Retreat > Sunset Contemplation > Sunset Contemplation

#4857 – 3.3.7.78

BN – X – D

When the sun dips low and vanishes, when dusk begins to fall and the colours darken and merge, the mind can move with Nature into its great pause. A man whose temperament is sensitive, aesthetic, religious, psychic, or Nature-loving can profit by this passage from day to night and come closer to awareness of his soul.

Relax and Retreat > Sunset Contemplation > Sunset Contemplation

#4886 – 3.3.7.107

BN – X – D