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Speaker 1: Right beginnings, all common things, each day's events that with

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the hour begin and end. Our pleasures and our discontents

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are rounds by which we may ascend. We have not wings,

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we cannot soar, but we have feet to scale and climb.

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Longfellow for common life, its wants and ways, would I

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set forth in beauteous hues browning. Life is full of beginnings.

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They are presented every day and every hour to every person.

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Most beginnings are small and appear trivial and insignificant, but

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in reality they are the most important things in life.

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See how in the material world everything proceeds from small beginnings.

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The mightiest river is at first a rivulet over which

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the grasshopper could leap. The great flood commences with a

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few drops of rain. The sturdy oak which has endured

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the storms of a thousand winters, was once an acorn,

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And the smoldering match carelessly dropped may be the means

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of devastating a whole town by fire. Consider also how

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in the spiritual world the greatest things proceed from smallest beginnings.

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A light fancy may be the inception of a wonderful invention,

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or an immortal work of art. A spoken sentence may

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turn the tide of history. A pure thought entertained may

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lead to the exercise of a worldwide regenerative power, and

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a momentary animal impulse may lead to the darkest crime.

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Have you yet discovered the vast importance of beginnings? Do

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you really know what is involved in a beginning? Do

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you know the number of beginnings you are continuously making

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and realize their full import? If not, come with me

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for a short time and thoughtfully explore this much ignored

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by way of blessedness. For blessed it is when wisely

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resorted to, and much strength and comfort it holds for

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the understanding mind. A beginning is a cause, and as

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such it must be followed by an effect or a

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train of effects, and the effect will always be the

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same nature as the cause. The nature of an initial

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impulse will always determine the body of its results. A

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beginning also presupposes an ending, a consummation, achievement, or goal.

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A gate leads to a path, and the path leads

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to some particular destination. So a beginning leads to results,

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and results lead to a completion. There are right beginnings

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and wrong beginnings, which are followed by effects. Of like nature.

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You can, by careful thought, avoid wrong beginnings and make

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right beginnings, and so escape evil results and enjoy good results.

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There are beginnings over which you have no control and authority.

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These are without in the universe, in the world of

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nature around you, and in other people who have the

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same liberty as yourself. Do not concern yourself with these beginnings,

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but direct your energies and attention to those beginnings over

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which you have complete control and authority, and which bring

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about the complicated web of results which compose your life.

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These beginnings are to be found in the realm of

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your thoughts and actions, in your mental attitude, under the

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variety of circumstances through which you pass in your conduct

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day by day, In short, in your life as you

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make it, which is your world of good or ill,

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in aiming at the life of blessedness. One of the

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simplest beginnings to be considered and rightly made is that

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which we all make every day, namely, the beginning of

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each day's life. How do you begin each day? At

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what hour do you rise? How do you commence your duties?

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In what frame of mind do you enter upon the

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sacred life of a new day. What answer can you

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give your heart to these important questions? You will find

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that much happiness or unhappiness follows upon the right or

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wrong beginning of the day, and that when every day

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is wisely begun, happy and harmonious sequences will mark its course,

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and life in its totality will not fall short of

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the idle blessedness. It is a right and strong beginning

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to the day to rise at an early hour, even

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if your worldly duty does not demand it. It is

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wise to make of it a duty and begin the

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day strongly by shaking off indolence. How are you to

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develop strength of will and mind and body if you

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begin every day by yielding to weakness. Self indulgence is

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always followed by unhappiness. People who lie abed till a

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late hour are never bright and cheerful and fresh, but

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are the prey of irritabilities, depressions, debilities, nervous disorders, abnormal fancies,

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and all unhappy moods. This is the heavy price which

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they pay for their daily indolence. Yet so blinding is

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the pandering to self that the drunkard who takes his

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daily dram in the belief that it is bracing up

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the nerves which it is all the time shattering. So

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the lie of bed is convinced that long hours of

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ease are necessary for him as a possible remedy for

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those very moods and weaknesses and disorders of which his

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indolence is the cause. Men and women are totally unaware

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of the great losses which they entail by this common indolence,

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loss of strength of both mind and body, loss of prosperity,

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loss of knowledge, and loss of happiness. Begin the day, then,

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by rising early, if you have no object in doing so,

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never mind, get up and go out for a gentle

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walk among the beauties of nature, and you will experience

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a buoyancy, a freshness, and a delight, not to say,

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a peace of mind, which will amply reward you for

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your effort. One good effort is followed by another. And

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when a man begins the day by rising early, even

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though with no other purpose in view, he will find

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that the silent early hour is conducive to clearness of

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mind and calmness of thought, and that his early morning

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walk is enabling him to become a consecutive thinker, and

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so to see life and its problems as well as

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himself and his affairs in a clearer light, and so

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in time he will rise early with the express purpose

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of preparing and harmonizing his mind to meet any in

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every difficulty with wisdom and calm strength. There is indeed

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a spiritual influence in the early morning hour, a divine silence,

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an inexpressible repose. And he who purposeful and strong throws

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off the mantle of ease and climbs the hills to

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greet the morning sun will thereby climb no inconsiderable distance

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up the hills of blessedness and truth. The right beginning

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of the day will be followed by cheerfulness at the

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morning meal, permeating the household with a sunny influence, and

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the task and duties of the day will be undertaken

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in a strong and confident spirit, and the whole day

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will be well lived. Then there is a sense in

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which every day must be regarded as the beginning of

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new life, in which one can think, act and live

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newly and in a wiser and better spirit. Every day

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is a fresh beginning. Every morn is the world made new.

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You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, here is

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a beautiful hope for you, a hope for me, and

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a hope for you. Do not dwell upon the sins

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and mistakes of yesterday so exclusively as to have no

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energy in mind left for living rightly today, And do

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not think that the sins of yesterday can prevent you

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from living purely today. Begin today, aright and aided by

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the accumulated experiences of all your past days. Live it

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better than any of your previous days. But you cannot

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possibly live it better unless you begin it better. The

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character of the whole day depends upon the way it begins.

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Another beginning, which is of great importance, is the beginning

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of any particular and responsible undertaking. How does a man

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begin the building of a house? First secures a plan

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of the proposed edifice, and then proceeds to build according

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to the plan, scrupulously following it in every detail, beginning

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with the foundation. Should he neglect the beginning, namely the

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obtaining of a mathematical plan, his labor would be wasted,

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and his building, should it reach completion without tumbling to pieces,

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would be insecure and worthless. The same law holds good

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in any important work. The right beginning and first essential

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is a definite mental plan on which to build nature

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will have no slipshod work, no slovenliness, and she annihilates confusion,

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or rather confusion is in itself annihilation. Order, purpose eternally

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and universally prevail. And he who, in his operations ignores

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these mathematical elements at once deprives himself of sustainability, completeness,

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and success. Life without a plan, as useless as the

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moment it began, serves merely as a soil for discontent

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to thrive in an encumbrance ere hath spent. Let a

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man start in business without having in his mind a

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perfectly formed plan to systematically pursue, and he will be

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incoherent in his efforts and will fail in his business operations.

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The laws which must be observed in the building of

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a house also operate in the building up of a business.

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A definite plan is followed by coherent effort, and coherent

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effort is followed by well knit and orderly results to wit, completeness, perfection, success, happiness.

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But not only mechanical and commercial enterprise, All undertakings of

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whatsoever nature come under this law. The author's book, the

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artist's picture, the order's speech, the reformer's work, the inventor's machine,

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the general's campaign are all carefully planned in the mind

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before the attempt to actualize the miscommenced, and in accordance

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with the unity, solidarity, and perfection of the original mental plan,

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will be the actual and ultimate success of the undertaking.

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Successful men, influential men, good men are those who, amongst

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other things, have learned the value and utilized the power

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which lies in those obscure beginnings which the foolish man

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passes by as insignificant. But the most important beginning of all,

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that upon which affliction or blessedness inevitably depends, yet is

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most neglected and least understood, is the inception of a

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thought in the hidden but casual region of the mind.

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Your whole life is a series of effects, having their

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cause and thought in your own thought. All conduct is

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made and melded by thought. All deeds, good or bad,

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are thoughts made visible. A seed put into the ground

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is the beginning of a plant or tree. The seed germinates,

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the plant or tree comes forth into the light and evolves.

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A thought put into the mind is the beginning of

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a line of conduct. The thought first sends down its

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roots into the mind and then pushes forth into the

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light in the forms of action or conduct, which evolve

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into character and destiny. Hateful, angry, envious, and impure thoughts

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are wrong beginnings which lead to painful results. Loving, gentle kind, unselfish,

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and pure thoughts are right beginnings, which lead to blissful results.

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This is so simple, so plain, absolutely true, and yet

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how neglected, how evaded, and how little understood. The gardener

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who most carefully studies how, when, and where to put

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his seeds obtains the best results and gains the greater

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horticulture knowledge. The best crops gladden the soul of him

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who makes the best beginning. The man who patiently studies

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how to put into his mind the seeds of strong, wholesome,

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and charitable thoughts will obtain the best results in life,

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and will gain greater knowledge of truth. The greatest blessedness

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comes to him who infuses into his mind the purest

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and noblest thoughts. None but right acts can follow right thoughts.

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None but a right life can follow right acts, And

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by living a right life, all blessedness is achieved. He

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who considers the nature an import of his thoughts, who

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strives daily toils, eliminate bad thoughts and supplant them with

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good comes. At last, to see that thoughts are the

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beginnings of results which affect every fiber of his being,

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which potently influence every event and circumstance of his life.

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And when he thus sees, he thinks only right thoughts,

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chooses to make only those mental beginnings which lead to

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peace and blessedness. Wrong thoughts are painful in their inception,

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painful in their growth, and painful in their frutage. Right

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thoughts are blissful in their inception, blissful in their growth,

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and blissful in their frutage. Many are the right beginnings

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which a man must discover and adopt on his way

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to wisdom. But that which is first and last most

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important in all embracing, which is the source and fountain

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of all abiding happiness, is the right beginning of the

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mental operations. This implies the steady devas development of self control, will, power, steadfastness, strength, purity, gentleness, insight,

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and comprehension. It leads to the perfecting of life. For

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he who thinks perfectly has abolished all unhappiness. Every moment

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of his life is peaceful. His years are rounded with bliss.

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He has attained to the complete and perfect blessedness