Speaker 1: Peace where passion is, peace is not where peace is passion.
Is not To know this is to master the first
letter in the divine language of perfect deeds. To know
that passion and peace cannot dwell together is to be
well prepared to renounce the lesser and embrace the greater.
Men pray for peace, yet cling to passion. They foster strife,
yet pray for heavenly rest. This is ignorance, profound spiritual ignorance.
It is not to know the first letter in the
alphabet of things divine Hatred and love. Strife and peace
cannot dwell together in the same heart. Where one is
admitted as a welcome guest, the other will be turned
away as an unwelcome stranger. He who despises another will
be despised by others. He who opposes his fellow man
will himself be resisted. He should not be surprised and
mourn that men are divided. He should know that he
is propagating strife. He should understand his lack of peace.
He is brave who conquers another, but he who conquers
himself is supremely noble. He who is victorious over another
may in turn be defeated. But he who overcomes himself
will never be subdued by the way of self. Conquest
is perfect peace achieved. Man cannot understand it, cannot approach
it until he sees the supreme necessity of turning away
from the fierce fighting of all things without and entering
the noble warfare against evils within. He who has realized
that the enemy of the world is within and not without,
that his ungoverned thoughts are the source of confusion and strife,
that his own unchastened desires are the violators of his
peace and of the peace of the world. Such a
man is already on the saintly way. If a man
has conquered lust and anger, hatred and pride, selfishness and greed,
he has conquered the world. He has slain the enemies
of peace, and peace remains with him. Peace does not fight,
It is not partisan, It has no blatant voice. The
triumph of peace is an unassailable silence. He who is
overcome by force is not thereby overcome in his heart.
He may be a greater enemy than before, But he
who is overcome by the spirit of peace is thereby
changed at heart. He that was an enemy has become
a friend. Force and strife work upon the passions and fears,
but love and peace reach and reform the heart. The
pure hearted and wise have peace in their hearts. It
enters into their actions. They apply it in their lives.
It is more powerful than strife. It conquers where force
would fail. Its wings shield the righteous. Under its protection,
the harmless are not harmed. It affords a secure shelter
from the heat of selfish struggle. It is the refuge
for the defeated, a tent for the lost, and a
temple for the pure, where peace is practiced and possessed
and known. Then sin in remorse, grasping and disappointment, craving
in temptation, desiring and grieving, All the turbulence and torment
of the mind are left behind in the dark sphere
of the self, to which they belong and beyond which
they cannot go. Beyond where these dark shadows move, the
radiant plains of divine beautitude bask in eternal light. And
to these the traveler on the high and holy Way
comes in due time from the blinding swamps of passion,
through the thorny forests of many vanities, Across the arid
deserts of doubt and despair, he travels on, not turning
back nor straying from his course. He ever moves towards
his sublime destination, until at last he comes, a humble
and lowly, yet strong and radiant conqueror to the beautiful
city of Peace.