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Self control and happiness. When mental
energy is allowed to flow in the line

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of least resistance and to fall into
easy channels, it is called weakness.

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When it is gathered, focused,
and forced into upward in different directions,

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it becomes power. And this concentration
of energy, an acquisition of power,

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is brought about by means of self
control. In speaking of self control,

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one is easily misunderstood. It should
not be associated with the destructive repression,

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but with a constructive expression. This
process is not one of death, but

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of life. It is a divine
and marsterly transmutation in which the weak is

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converted into the strong, the course
into the fine, and the base into

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the noble, in which virtue takes
the place of vice, and dark passion

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is lost in bright intellectuality. The
man who merely smothers up and hides away

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his real nature, without any higher
object in view than to create a good

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impression upon others concerning his character is
practicing hypocrisy and not self control. As

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the mechanic transmutes call into gas and
water into steam, and then concentrates and

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utilizes the finer forces for the comfort
and convenience of others, so the man

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who intellectually practices self control, transmutes
his lower inclinations into the finer qualities of

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intelligence and morality, to the increase
of his own and the world's happiness.

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A man is happy, wise,
and great in the measure that he controls

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himself. He is wretched, foolish, and mean in the measure that he

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allows his animal nature to dominate his
thoughts and actions. He who controls himself

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controls his life, his circumstances,
his destiny, and wherever he goes he

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carries his happiness with him as an
abiding possession. He who does not control

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himself is controlled by passions, by
his circumstances, and his fate. And

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if he cannot gratify the desire of
the moment, he is disappointed and miserable.

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He depends for his fitful happiness on
external things. There is no force

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in the universe which can be annihilated
or lost. Energy is transformed, but

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not destroyed. To shut the door
on old and bad habits is to open

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it to new and better ones.
Renunciation precedes regeneration. Every self indulgence,

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every forbidden pleasure, every hateful thought. Renounced is transformed into something more purely

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and permanently beautiful. Where debilitating excitements
are cut off, their spring up rejuvenating

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joys. The sea dies, that
the flower may appear, The grub perishes,

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but the dragonfly comes forth. Truly, the transformation is not instantaneous,

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nor is the transition a pleasant and
painless process. Nature demands effort and patience

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as the price of growth. In
the march of progress. Every victory is

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contested with struggle and pain. But
the victory is achieved and it abides.

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The struggle passes. The pain is
temporary only to demolish a firmly figure habit,

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to break up a mental tendency that
has become automatic with long use,

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and to force into birth and growth, a fine characteristic of lofty virtue.

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To accomplish this necessitates a painful metamorphosis, a transitional period of darkness to pass

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through which patience and endurance are required. This is where men fail. This

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is where they slip back into their
old, easy animal ruts and abandon self

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control as too strenous and severe.
They thus fall short of permanent happiness,

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and the life of triumph over evil
is hidden from their eyes. The permanent

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happiness which men seek in dissipation excitement
and abandonment to unworthy pleasure is found only

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in the life which reverses all this, the life of self control. So

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far as a man deviates from perfect
self command, just so far dos he

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falls short of perfect happiness, he
sinks into misery and weakness, the lowest

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limit of which is madness, entire
lack of mental control, the condition of

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irresponsibility. In so far as a
man approximates to perfect self command, just

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so near does he approach to perfect
happiness and rise into joy and strength.

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So glorious are the possibilities of such
divine manhood that no limit can be said

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to its grandeur and bliss. If
a man will understand how intimately yea,

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how inseparably self control and happiness are
associated, he has but to look into

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his own heart and upon the world
around, to find that there are joy

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destroying effects of uncontrolled tendencies. Looking
upon the lives of men and women,

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he will perceive how the hasty word, the bittery taught, the act of

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deception, the blind prejudice, and
foolish resentment bring wretchedness and even ruin in

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their train. Looking into his own
life, what days of consuming remorse of

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restless anxiety and of crushing sorrow arise
up before his mind periods of intense suffering

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through which he has passed through lack
of self control. But in the right

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life, though while governed life,
the victorious life life, all these things

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pass away, New conditions obtain,
and purer more is Spiritual instruments are employed

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for the achievements of happy ends.
There is no more remorse because there is

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no more wrongdoing. There is no
more anxiety, because there is no more

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selfishness. There is no more sorrow
because truth is the source of action.

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The much desired thing which self pursues
with breathless and uncontrolled eagerness, yet fails

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to overtake, comes unbidden and begs
to be admitted to him who works and

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waits in perfect self command. Hatred, impatience, greed, self indulgence,

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vain ambitions, and blind desires,
the instruments by which self shapes its ill

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finished existence. What clumsy tools they
are, and how ignorant and unskillful are

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they who employ them. Love,
patience, kindness, self discipline, transmuted

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ambitions, and chastened desires, instruments
of truth by which is shaped the well

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finished existence. What perfect tools they
are, and how wise and skillful are

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they who use them. Whatsoever is
gained by feverish haste and selfish desire is

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attained in fuller measure by quietness and
renunciation. Nature will not be hastened.

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She brings all perfection in due season. Truth will not be commanded. He

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has his conditions and must be obeyed. Nothing is more superfluous than haste and

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anger. A man has to learn
that he cannot command things, but that

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he can command himself, That he
cannot coerce the wilds of others, but

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that he can mold and master his
own will. And things serve him.

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Who serve truth, people seek guidance
of him who is master of himself.

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It is a little understood, yet
simple and profound truth that the man who

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cannot command himself under the severest external
stress is unfit to guide others or to

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control affairs. It is the fundamental
principles in the moral and political teachings of

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Confucius that before attempting to govern affairs, a man should learn to govern himself.

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Men who habitually give way under pressure
to hysterious suspicions, outbursts of resentments,

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and explosions of anger are unfit for
way to responsibility and lofty duties,

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and usually fail sooner or later,
even in the ordinary duties of life,

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such as the management of their own
family or business. Lack of self control

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is foolishness, and folly cannot take
precedence of a wisdom. He who is

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learning how to subdue and control his
turbulent wandering thoughts is becoming wiser every day.

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Though for a time the Temple of
Joy will not be completed, he

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will gather strength in laying its foundations, in building its walls, and the

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day will come when, like a
wise master builder, he will rest at

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peace in the beautiful habitation which he
has built. Wisdom in years, in

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self control, and in wisdom is
pleasantness and peace. The life of self

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control is no barren deprivation, no
wilderness of monotony. Renunciation there is,

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but it is a renunciation of their
ephemeral and false in order that the abiding

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and true may be ready. Enjoyment
is not cut off, It is intensified.

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Enjoyment is life. It is the
slavish desire for it that kills.

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Is there anyway a more miserable man
than he who's all his longing for some

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new sensation. Is there anyway a
more blessed being than he who, by

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self control is satisfied, calm,
and enlightened, who has most of physical

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life enjoy the glutton, the drunkard, and the sensualist who lives for pleasure

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only, or the temperate man who
holds his body in subjection, considering its

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needs and obeying its uses. I
was once eating a ripe, juicy apple

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as it came from the tree,
and a man near me said, quote,

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I would give anything if I could
enjoy an apple like that unquote.

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I asked, why can't you?
His answer was, quote, I have

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drunk whiskey and smoked tobacco until I
have lost all enjoyment in such things unquote.

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In pursuit of elusive enjoyments, men
lose the abiding joys of life.

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And as he who control he senses
as most of physical life joy and strength,

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so he who controls his thoughts has
most of spiritual life. Bliss and

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power. For not only happiness,
but knowledge and wisdom also are revealed by

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self control. As the avenues of
ignorance and selfishness are closed, the open

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gates of knowledge and enlightenment appear.
Virtue attained is knowledge gained. The pure

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mind is an enlightened mind. He
has well being who controls himself well.

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I hear men speak of quote,
the monotony of goodness unquote. If looking

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for things in the spirit which one
has given up in the letter were goodness,

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then indeed would it be monotonous.
The man of self control does not

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merely give up his base pleasures.
He abandons all longing for them. He

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presses forward and does not look back, and fresh beauties, new glories,

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sublime of vistas await him at every
step. I am astonished at the revelations

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which lie hidden in self control.
I am captivated by the infinite variety of

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truth. I am filled with joy
at the grandeur of the prospect. I

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am gladdened by its splendor and its
peace. Along the way of self control

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there is the joy of victory,
the consciousness of expanding an increasing power,

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the acquisition of the imperishable riches of
divine knowledge, and the abiding bliss of

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service to humankind. Even he who
travels only a portion of the way will

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develop a strength, achieve a success, and experience a joy which the idol

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and the thoughtless cannot know, and
he who goes all the way will become

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a spiritual conqueror. He will triumph
of all evil and will blot it out.

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He will gaze with in rapid vision
upon the majesty of the cosmic order,

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and will enjoy the immortality of truth.