Speaker 1: Doing and knowing. Let a man realize that his life,
in its totality, proceeds from his mind. Let him realize
that the mind is a combination of habits which he can,
by patient effort, modify to any extent, and over which
he can thus gain complete ascendency, mastery, and control. At
once he will have obtained possession of the key which
shall open the door to his complete emancipation. But freedom
from the ills of life, which are the ills of
one's mind, is a matter of steady growth from within,
and not a sudden acquisition from without. Hourly and daily
must the mind be trained to think stainless thoughts and
adapt right in dispassionate attitudes under those circumstances in which
it is prone to fall into wrong and passion. Like
the patient's sculptor upon his marble, the aspirant to the
right life must gradually work upon the crude material of
his mind until he is wrought out of it the
ideal of his holiest dreams. In working towards such supreme accomplishment,
it is necessary to begin at the lowest and easiest steps,
and proceed by natural progressive stages to the higher and
more difficult The law of growth, progress, evolution, and unfoldment
by gradual and ever ascending stages is absolute in every
department of life and in every human accomplishment. Where it
is ignored, total failure will result. In acquiring education, in
learning a trade, or in pursuing a business, this law
is fully recognized and minutely obeyed by all, But in
acquiring virtue, in learning truth, and in pursuing the right
conduct and knowledge of life, it is unrecognized and disobeyed
by nearly all. Hence virtue, truth, and the perfect life
remain unpracticed, unacquired, and unknown. It is a common error
to suppose that the higher life is a matter of
reading and the adoption of theological or metaphysical hypotheses, and
that the spiritual principles can be understood by this method.
The higher life is higher living in thought word. Indeed,
and the knowledge of those spiritual principles, which are imminent
in man and in the universe, can only be acquired
after long discipline. In the pursuit and practice of virtue,
the lesser must be thoroughly grasped and understood before the
greater can be known. Practice always proceeds real knowledge. The
schoolmaster never attempts to teach his pupils the abstract principles
of matter mathematics. At the start, he knows that such
a method of teaching would be in vain and learning impossible.
He first places before them a simple sum, and, having
explained it, leaves them to do it. When, after repeated
failures an ever renewed effort, they have succeeded in doing
it correctly, a more difficult task is set before them,
and then another and another. It is not until the
pupils have, through many years of diligent application, mastered all
the lessons in arithmetic that he attempts to unfold to
them the underlying mathematical principles. In learning a trade, say
that of a mechanic, a boy is not at first
taught the principles of mechanics, but a simple tool is
put in his hand and he is told how to
rightly use it. He is then left to do it
by effort and practice. As he succeeds implying his tools correctly,
more and more difficult tasks are set before him, until
after years of successful practice, he is prepared to study
and grasp the principles of mechanics. In a properly governed household.
The child is first taught to be obedient and to
conduct himself properly under all circumstances. The child is not
even told why he must do this, but is commanded
to do it. Only after he has far succeeded in
doing what is right and proper is he told why
he should do it. No father would attempt to teach
his child the principles of ethics before extracting from him
the practice of family duty and social virtue. Thus, practice
ever precedes knowledge, even in the ordinary things of the
world and in spiritual things in the living of the
higher life. This law is rigid in its demands. Virtue
can only be known by doing. The knowledge of truth
can only be arrived at by perfecting one's self in
the practice of virtue. To be complete in the practice
and acquisition of virtue is to be complete in the
knowledge of truth. Truth can only be arrived at by
daily and hourly doing the lessons of virtue, beginning with
the simplest and passing on to the more difficult. A
child patiently and obediently learns his lessons at school by
constantly practicing and ever exerting himself until all failures and
difficulties are surmounted. Likewise does the child of truth, undaunted
by failure and made stronger by difficulties, apply himself to
right doing and thought in action. As he succeeds in
acquiring virtue, his mind unfolds itself in the knowledge of truth,
and it is a knowledge in which he can securely
rest