1
00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:06,400
Aspiration. With the clear perception of
one's own ignorance, comes the desire for

2
00:00:06,599 --> 00:00:11,800
enlightenment, and thus in the heart
is born aspiration, the rapture of the

3
00:00:11,839 --> 00:00:16,800
saints. On the wings of aspiration, man rises from earth to heaven,

4
00:00:17,399 --> 00:00:23,120
from ignorance to knowledge, from the
under darkness to the upper light. Without

5
00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:28,440
it, he remains a groveling animal, earthly, sensual, unenlightened, and

6
00:00:28,559 --> 00:00:35,560
uninspired. Aspiration is the longing for
heavenly things, for righteousness, compassion,

7
00:00:36,079 --> 00:00:42,320
purity, love, as distinguished from
desire, which is the longing for earthly

8
00:00:42,399 --> 00:00:50,200
things, for selfish possessions, personal
dominance, low pleasures, and sensual gratifications.

9
00:00:51,679 --> 00:00:55,880
As a bird deprived of its wings
cannot soar, so a man without

10
00:00:55,960 --> 00:01:00,920
aspiration cannot rise above his surroundings and
become a mass of his animal inclinations.

11
00:01:03,039 --> 00:01:07,920
He is the slave of passions,
is subject to others, and is carried

12
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:11,760
hither and thither by the changing current
of events. For one to begin to

13
00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:17,920
aspire means that he is dissatisfied with
his low status and is aiming at a

14
00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,280
higher condition. It is a sure
sign that he has aroused out of his

15
00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:29,560
lethargic sleep of animality and has become
conscious of nobler attainments and a fuller life.

16
00:01:29,719 --> 00:01:34,519
Aspiration makes all things possible. It
opens the way to advancement, even

17
00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:40,560
the highest state of perfection conceivable.
It brings near and makes real and possible,

18
00:01:41,359 --> 00:01:47,400
for that which can be conceived can
be achieved. Aspiration is the twin

19
00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:53,439
angel to inspiration. It unlocks the
gates of joy, singing, a company's

20
00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:59,640
soaring music, poetry, prophecy,
and all high and holy instruments are at

21
00:01:59,719 --> 00:02:04,840
last placed in the hands of those
whose aspirations flag not, whose spirit does

22
00:02:04,879 --> 00:02:09,599
not fail. So long as animal
conditions taste sweet to a man, he

23
00:02:09,639 --> 00:02:15,719
cannot aspire. He is already satisfied. But when their sweetness turns to bitterness,

24
00:02:16,479 --> 00:02:22,080
then in his sorrow he thinks of
nobler things. When he is deprived

25
00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:27,039
of earthly joy, he aspires to
the joy which is heavenly. It is

26
00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:35,199
when impurity turns to suffering that purity
is sought truly. Aspiration rises phoenix like

27
00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:40,240
from the dead ashes of repentance.
But on its powerful opinions man can reach

28
00:02:40,319 --> 00:02:46,360
the heaven of heavens. The man
of aspiration has entered the way which ends

29
00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:51,080
in peace, and surely he will
reach that end. If he neither stays

30
00:02:51,159 --> 00:02:55,039
nor turns back, If he constantly
renews his mind with glimpses of the heavenly

31
00:02:55,120 --> 00:03:00,800
vision, he will reach the heavenly
state. Man attains to the measure that

32
00:03:00,879 --> 00:03:06,080
he aspires. His longing is to
be the gauge of what he can be.

33
00:03:06,719 --> 00:03:09,919
To fix the mind is to foreordain
the achievement. As a man can

34
00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:15,240
experience and know all low things,
so he can experience and know all high

35
00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:21,919
things, as he has become human, so he can become divine. The

36
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,840
turning of the mind in high and
divine directions is the sole and needful task.

37
00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:31,879
What is impurity but the impure thoughts
of the thinker? What is purity

38
00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:37,719
but the pure thoughts of the thinker. One man does not do the thinking

39
00:03:37,759 --> 00:03:44,240
of another. Each man is pure
or impure of himself alone. If a

40
00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:49,280
man thinks it is through others,
or circumstances, or heredity that I am

41
00:03:49,319 --> 00:03:53,639
impure, how can he hope to
overcome his errors? Such a thought will

42
00:03:53,719 --> 00:04:00,520
check all holy aspirations and will bind
him to the slavery of passion. When

43
00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:05,000
a man fully perceives that his errors
and impurities are his own, that they

44
00:04:05,039 --> 00:04:11,400
are generated and fostered by himself,
that he alone is responsible for them.

45
00:04:12,199 --> 00:04:16,000
Then he will aspire to overcome them. The way of attainment will be opened

46
00:04:16,079 --> 00:04:20,120
up to him, and he will
see from where and to what destination he

47
00:04:20,199 --> 00:04:26,720
is traveling. The man of passion
sees no straight path before him, and

48
00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:30,360
behind him all his fog and gloom. He seizes the pleasure of the moment

49
00:04:30,879 --> 00:04:36,319
and does not strive for understanding or
think of wisdom. His way is confused,

50
00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:42,720
turbulent, and troubled, and his
heart is far from peace. The

51
00:04:42,759 --> 00:04:47,120
man of aspiration sees before him the
pathway up the heavenly heights, and behind

52
00:04:47,199 --> 00:04:53,399
him are the circuitous routes of passion, up which he has hitherto blindly groped,

53
00:04:54,519 --> 00:04:59,319
striving for understanding, and his mind
set on wisdom, His way is

54
00:04:59,399 --> 00:05:05,160
clear, and his heart already experiences
a foretaste of the final peace. Men

55
00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:12,319
of passions strive mightily to achieve little
things, things which speedily perish, and

56
00:05:12,399 --> 00:05:15,879
in the place where they were,
leave nothing to be remembered. Men of

57
00:05:15,959 --> 00:05:21,399
aspiration strive with equal might to achieve
great things, things of virtue, of

58
00:05:21,519 --> 00:05:28,600
knowledge of wisdom, which do not
perish, but stand as monuments of inspiration

59
00:05:28,759 --> 00:05:34,360
for the uplifting of human kind.
As the merchant perceives worldly success by persistent

60
00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:43,040
exertion, so the sane achieves spiritual
success by aspiration and endeavor. One becomes

61
00:05:43,079 --> 00:05:47,120
a merchant, the other a saint
by the particular direction in which his mental

62
00:05:47,199 --> 00:05:53,800
energy is guided. When the rapture
of aspiration touches the mind, it at

63
00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:58,560
once refines it, and the dross
of its impurities begin to fall away.

64
00:05:59,759 --> 00:06:04,079
While aspiration holds the mind, no
impurity can enter it, for the impure

65
00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:10,000
and the pure cannot, at the
same moment occupy the thought. But the

66
00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:15,800
effort of aspiration is at first spasmodic
and short lived. The mind falls back

67
00:06:15,839 --> 00:06:21,160
into its habitual error and must be
constantly renewed. The lover of the pure

68
00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:28,439
life renews his mind daily with the
invigorating glow of aspiration. He rises early

69
00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:33,160
and fortifies his mind with strong thoughts
and strenuous endeavor. He knows that the

70
00:06:33,199 --> 00:06:38,480
mind is of such a nature that
it cannot remain for a moment unoccupied,

71
00:06:39,199 --> 00:06:43,959
and that if it is not held
and guided by high thoughts and pure aspirations,

72
00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:48,959
it will assuredly be enslaved and misguided
by low thoughts and base desires.

73
00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:56,439
Aspiration can be fed, fostered,
and strengthened by daily habit, just as

74
00:06:56,519 --> 00:07:00,800
desire. It can be sought and
admitted into the mind is a divine guide,

75
00:07:01,519 --> 00:07:05,680
or it can be neglected and shut
out, to retire for a short

76
00:07:05,759 --> 00:07:11,600
time each day to some quiet spot, preferably in the open air, and

77
00:07:11,639 --> 00:07:15,920
there call up the energies of the
mind and surging waves of holy rapture.

78
00:07:15,759 --> 00:07:23,000
Is to prepare the mind for great
spiritual victories and destinies of divine import For

79
00:07:23,079 --> 00:07:29,319
such a rapture as the preparation for
wisdom and the prelude to peace. Before

80
00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:32,279
the mind can contemplate pure things,
it must be lifted up to them.

81
00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:39,160
It must rise above impure things,
and aspiration is the instrument by which this

82
00:07:39,319 --> 00:07:44,879
is accomplished. By its aid,
the mind's source swiftly and surely into heavenly

83
00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:51,240
places and begins to experience divine things. It begins to accumulate wisdom and to

84
00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:57,000
learn to guide itself by an ever
increasing measure of the divine light of pure

85
00:07:57,079 --> 00:08:03,240
knowledge. To thirst for righteousness,
to hunger for the pure life, to

86
00:08:03,399 --> 00:08:07,279
rise in holy rapture on the wings
of angelic aspiration. This is the right

87
00:08:07,399 --> 00:08:13,720
road to wisdom. This is the
right striving for peace. This is the

88
00:08:13,839 --> 00:08:15,639
right beginning of the way divine