Speaker 1: Self discipline. A man does not live until he begins
to discipline himself. He merely exists like an animal. He
gratifies his desires and pursues his inclinations just where they
may lead him. He is happy as a beast is happy,
because he is not conscious of what he is depriving himself.
He suffers as the beast suffers, because he does not
know the way out of suffering. He does not intelligently
reflect upon life, and lives in a series of sensations, longings,
and confused memories which are unrelated to any central idea
or principle. A man whose inner life is so ungoverned
and chaotic must necessarily manifest this confusion in the visible
conditions of his outer life in the world. And though
for a time, running with the stream of his desires,
he may draw to himself a more or less large
share of the outer necessities and comforts of life, he
never achieves any real success, nor accomplishes any real good,
and sooner or later, worldly failure and disaster are inevitable
as the direct result of the inward failure to properly
adjust and regulate those mental forces which make the outer life.
Before a man accomplishes anything of an enduring nature in
the world, he must first of all acquire some measure
of success in the management of his own mind. This
is as mathematical a truism as that two and two
are four. For out of the heart are the issues
of life. If a man cannot govern the forces within himself,
he cannot hold a firm hand upon the outer activities
which form his visible life. On the other hand, as
a man succeeds in governing himself, he rises to higher
and higher levels of power and usefulness and success in
the world. The only difference between the life of the
beast and that of the undisciplined man is that the
man has a wider variety of desires and experiences a
greater intensity of suffering. It may be said of such
a man that he is dead, being truly dead to
self control, chastity, fortitude, and all of the nobler qualities
which constitute life. In the consciousness of such a man,
the crucified Christ lies entombed, awaiting that resurrection which shall
revify the mortal sufferer and wake him up to a
knowledge of the realities of his existence. With the practice
of self discipline, a man begins to live. For He
then commences to rise above the inward confusion and to
adjust his conduct to a steadfast center within himself. He
ceases to follow where inclination leads him, reigns in the
steed of his desires, and lives in accordance with the
dictates of reason and wisdom. Hitherto his life has been
without purpose or meaning. But now he begins to consciously
mold his own destiny. He is clothed in his right mind.
In the process of self discipline, there are three stages,
namely one control, two purification, three relinquishment. A man begins
to discipline himself by controlling those passions which have hitherto
controlled him. He resists temptation and guards himself against all
those tendencies to self gratifications which are so easy and natural,
and which have formally dominated him. He brings his appetite
into subjection and begins to eat as a reasonable and
responsible being, practicing moderation and thoughtfulness in the selection of
his food, with the object of making his body a
pure instrument through which he may live and act as
becomes a man, and no longer degrading that body by
pandering to gustatory pleasure. He puts a check upon his tongue,
his temper, and in fact his every animal desire and tendency.
And this he does by referring all acts to a
fixed center within himself. It is a process of living
from within outward, instead of as formerly from without inward.
He conceives an ideal and enshrining that ideal in the
sacred recesses of his heart. He regulates his conduct in
accordance with its exaction and demands. There is a philosophical
hypothesis that at the heart of every atom and every
aggregation of atoms in the universe, there is a motionless
center which is the sustaining source of all the universal activities.
Be this as it may, there is certainly in the
heart of every man and woman a selfless center, without
which the outer man could not be, and the ignoring
of which leads to suffering and confusion. The selfless center,
which takes the form in the mind of an ideal
of unselfishness and spotless purity, the attainment of which is desirable,
is man's eternal refuge from the storms of passion and
all the conflicting elements of his lower nature. It is
the rock of ages, the Christ within, the divine and
immortal in all men. As a man practices self control,
he approximates more and more to this inward reality, and
is less and less swayed by passion and grief, pleasure
and pain, and lives a steadfast and virtuous life, manifesting
manly strength and fortitude. The restraining of the passions, however,
is merely the initial stage and self DEAs discipline, and
is immediately followed by the process of purification. By this,
a man so purifies himself as to take passion out
of the heart and mind altogether, not merely restraining it
when it rises within him, but preventing it from rising altogether.
By merely restraining his passions, a man can never arrive
at peace, can never actualize his ideal. He must purify
those passions. It is in the purification of his lower
nature that a man becomes strong and godlike, standing firmly
upon the ideal center within and rendering all temptations powerless
and ineffectual. This purification is affected by thoughtful care, earnest meditation,
and holy aspiration, and as success is achieved, confusion of
mind and life pass away and calmness of mind and
spiritualized conduct insure true strength and power and usefulness are
born of self purification. For the lower animal forces are
not lost, but are transmuted into intellectual and spiritual energy.
The pure life, pure in thought, indeed, is a life
of conservation of energy. The impure life, even though the
impurity should not extend beyond thought, is a life of
dissipation of energy. The pure man is more capable and
therefore more fit to succeed in his plans and to
accomplish his purposes than the impure. Where the impure man fails,
the pure man will step in and be victorious, because
he directs his energies with a calmer mind and a
greater definiteness and strength of purpose. With the growth in purity,
all the elements which constitute a strong and virtuous manhood
are developed in an increasing degree of power. And as
man brings his lower nature into subjection and makes his
passions do his bidding, just so much will he mold
the outer circumstances of his life and influence others for good.
The third stage of self discipline, that of relinquishment, is
a process of letting the lower desires and all impure
and unworthy thoughts drop out of the mind, and also
refusing to give them any admittance, leaving them to perish.
As a man grows purer, he perceives that all evil
is powerless unless it receives his encouragement, and so he
ignores it and lets it pass out of his life.
It is by pursuing this aspect of self discipline that
a man enters into and realizes the divine life, and
manifests those qualities which are distinctly divine, such as wisdom, patience,
non resistance, compassion, and love. It is here also where
a man becomes consciously immortal, rising above all the fluctuations
and uncertainties of life, and living in an intelligent and
unchangeable peace. By self discipline, a man attains to every
degree of virtue and holiness, and finally becomes a purified
son of God, realizing his oneness with the central heart
of all things. Without self discipline, a man drifts lower
and lower, approximating more and more nearly to the beast,
until at last he grovels a lost creature in the
mirror of his own befolment. By self discipline, a man
rises higher and higher approximating more and more nearly to
the divine, until at last he stands erect in his
divine dignity, a save soul, glorified by the radiance of
his purity. Let a man discipline himself, and he will live.
Let a man cease to discipline himself, and he will perish.
As a tree grows in beauty, health, and fruitfulness by
being carefully pruned and tended, so a man grows in
grace and beauty of life by cutting away all the
branches of evil from his mind. And as he tends
and develops the good by constant and unfailing effort. As
a man by practice acquires proficiency in his craft, so
the earnest man acquires proficiency in goodness and wisdom. Men
shrink from self discipline because in its early stages it
is painful and repellent, and the yielding to desire is
at first sweet and inviting. But the end of desire
is darkness and unrest, whereas the fruits of discipline are
immortality and peace. Chapter sixteen. Resolution. Resolution is the directing
and impelling force in individual progress. Without it, no substantial
work can be accomplished. Not until a man brings resolution
to bear upon his life. Does he consciously and rapidly develop.
For a life without resolution is a life without aims,
and a life without aims is a drifting and unstable thing.
Resolution may, of course be linked to downward tendencies, but
it is more usually the companion of noble aims and
lofty ideals, And I am dealing with it in this
its highest use in application. When a man makes a resolution,
it means that he is dissatisfied with his condition and
is commencing to take himself in hand with a view
in producing a better piece of workmanship out of the
mental materials of which his character and life are composed.
And in so far as he is true to his resolution,
he will succeed in accomplishing his purpose. The vows of
the saintly once are holy resolution directed towards some victory
over self, and the beautiful achievements of holy men, and
the glorious conquests of the divine teachers were rendered possible
and actual by the pursuit of unswerving resolution to arrive
at the fixed determination to walk a higher path than hithertofore.
Although it reveals the great difficulties which have to be surmounted,
it yet makes possible the treading of that path, and
illuminates its dark places with the golden halo of success.
The true resolution is the crisis of long thought, protract
its struggle, or fervent but unsatisfied aspiration. It is no
light thing, no whimsical impulse or vague desire, but a
solemn and irrefacable determination not to rest nor cease from
effort until the high purpose which is held in view
is fully accomplished. Half hearted and premature resolution is no
resolution at all, and it is shattered by the first difficulty.
A man should be slow to form a resolution. He
should searchingly examine his position and take into consideration every
circumstance and difficulty connected with his decision, and should be
fully prepared to meet them. He should be sure that
he completely understands the nature of his resolution, that his
mind is finally made up, and that he is without
fear and doubt in the matter. With the mind thus prepared,
the resolution that is formed will not be departed from,
and by the aid of it, a man will in
due time accomplish his strong purpose. Hasty resolutions are futile.
The mind must be fortified to endure. Immediately the resolution
to walk a higher path is made, temptation and trial begin.
Men have found that no sooner have they decided to
lead a truer and nobler then they have been overwhelmed
with such a torrent of new temptations and difficulties as
to make their position almost unendurable. And many men, because
of this relinquish their resolution. But these temptations and trials
are a necessary part of the work of regeneration upon
which the man has decided, and must be hailed as
friends and met with courage if the resolution is to
do its work. For what is the real nature of
a resolution? Is it not the sudden checking of a
particular stream of conduct and the endeavor to open up
an entirely new channel. Think of an engineer who decides
to turn the course of a powerfully running stream or
river in another direction. He must first cut out his
new channel, and must take every precaution to avoid failure
in the carrying out of his undertaking. But when he
comes to the all important task of directing the stream
into its new channel, then the flowing force, which for
ages has steadily pursued its accustomed course, becomes refractory. And
all the patience and care and skill of the engineer
will be required for the successful completion of the work.
It is even so with the man who determines to
turn his course of conduct in another and higher direction.
Having prepared his mind, which is the cutting of a
new channel, he then proceeds to the work of redirecting
his mental forces, which have hitherto flowed on uninterruptedly, into
the new course. Immediately this is attempted, the arrested energy
begins to assert itself in the form of powerful temptations
and trials hitherto unknown and unencountered. And this is exactly
as it should be. It is the law, and the
same law that is in the water is in the mind.
No man can improve upon the established law of things,
but he can learn to understand and the law. Instead
of complaining and wishing things were different. The man who
understands all that is involved in the regeneration of his
mind will glory in tribulations, knowing that only by passing
through them can he gain strength, obtain purity of heart,
and arrive at peace. And as the engineer, at last,
perhaps after many mistakes and failures, succeeds in getting the
stream to flow on peacefully in the broader and better channel,
and the turbulence of the water is spent, and all
dams can be removed. So the man of resolution at
last succeeds in directing his thoughts and acts into the
better and nobler way to which he aspires, and temptations
and trials give place to steadfast strength and settled peace.
He whose life is not in harmony with his conscience,
and who is anxious to remedy his mind in conduct
in a particular direction, let him first mature his purpose
by earnest thought and self examination, and having arrived at
a final conclusion, let him frame his resolution, and having
done so, let him not swerve from it. Let him
remain true to his decision under all circumstances, and he
cannot fail to achieve his good purpose, For the great
law ever shields and protects him who, no matter how
deep his sins, or how great his many failures and mistakes,
has deep in his heart resolved upon the finding of
a better way, And every obstacle must at last give
way before matured and unshaken resolution.