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Speaker 1: Doing and knowing. Let a man realize that his life,

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in its totality, proceeds from his mind. Let him realize

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that the mind is a combination of habits which he can,

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by patient effort, modify to any extent, and over which

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he can thus gain complete ascendency, mastery, and control. At

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once he will have obtained possession of the key which

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shall open the door to his complete emancipation. But freedom

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from the ills of life, which are the ills of

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one's mind, is a matter of steady growth from within,

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and not a sudden acquisition from without. Hourly and daily

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must the mind be trained to think stainless thoughts and

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adapt right in dispassionate attitudes under those circumstances in which

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it is prone to fall into wrong and passion. Like

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the patient's sculptor upon his marble, the aspirant to the

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right life must gradually work upon the crude material of

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his mind until he is wrought out of it the

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ideal of his holiest dreams. In working towards such supreme accomplishment,

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it is necessary to begin at the lowest and easiest steps,

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and proceed by natural progressive stages to the higher and

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more difficult The law of growth, progress, evolution, and unfoldment

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by gradual and ever ascending stages is absolute in every

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department of life and in every human accomplishment. Where it

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is ignored, total failure will result. In acquiring education, in

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learning a trade, or in pursuing a business, this law

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is fully recognized and minutely obeyed by all, But in

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acquiring virtue, in learning truth, and in pursuing the right

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conduct and knowledge of life, it is unrecognized and disobeyed

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by nearly all. Hence virtue, truth, and the perfect life

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remain unpracticed, unacquired, and unknown. It is a common error

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to suppose that the higher life is a matter of

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reading and the adoption of theological or metaphysical hypotheses, and

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that the spiritual principles can be understood by this method.

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The higher life is higher living in thought word. Indeed,

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and the knowledge of those spiritual principles, which are imminent

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in man and in the universe, can only be acquired

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after long discipline. In the pursuit and practice of virtue,

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the lesser must be thoroughly grasped and understood before the

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greater can be known. Practice always proceeds real knowledge. The

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schoolmaster never attempts to teach his pupils the abstract principles

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of matter mathematics. At the start, he knows that such

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a method of teaching would be in vain and learning impossible.

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He first places before them a simple sum, and, having

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explained it, leaves them to do it. When, after repeated

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failures an ever renewed effort, they have succeeded in doing

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it correctly, a more difficult task is set before them,

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and then another and another. It is not until the

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pupils have, through many years of diligent application, mastered all

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the lessons in arithmetic that he attempts to unfold to

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them the underlying mathematical principles. In learning a trade, say

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that of a mechanic, a boy is not at first

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taught the principles of mechanics, but a simple tool is

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put in his hand and he is told how to

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rightly use it. He is then left to do it

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by effort and practice. As he succeeds implying his tools correctly,

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more and more difficult tasks are set before him, until

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after years of successful practice, he is prepared to study

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and grasp the principles of mechanics. In a properly governed household.

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The child is first taught to be obedient and to

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conduct himself properly under all circumstances. The child is not

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even told why he must do this, but is commanded

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to do it. Only after he has far succeeded in

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doing what is right and proper is he told why

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he should do it. No father would attempt to teach

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his child the principles of ethics before extracting from him

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the practice of family duty and social virtue. Thus, practice

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ever precedes knowledge, even in the ordinary things of the

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world and in spiritual things in the living of the

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higher life. This law is rigid in its demands. Virtue

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can only be known by doing. The knowledge of truth

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can only be arrived at by perfecting one's self in

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the practice of virtue. To be complete in the practice

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and acquisition of virtue is to be complete in the

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knowledge of truth. Truth can only be arrived at by

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daily and hourly doing the lessons of virtue, beginning with

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the simplest and passing on to the more difficult. A

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child patiently and obediently learns his lessons at school by

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constantly practicing and ever exerting himself until all failures and

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difficulties are surmounted. Likewise does the child of truth, undaunted

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by failure and made stronger by difficulties, apply himself to

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right doing and thought in action. As he succeeds in

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acquiring virtue, his mind unfolds itself in the knowledge of truth,

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and it is a knowledge in which he can securely

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rest