Speaker 1: The glorious conquest. Truth can only be apprehended by the
conquest of self. Blessedness can only be arrived at by
overcoming the lower nature. The way of truth is barred
by a man's self. The only enemies that can actually
hinder him are his own passions and delusions. And till
a man realizes this and commences to cleanse his heart,
he has not found the path which leads to knowledge
and peace. And till passion is transcended, truth remains unknown.
This is the divine law. A man cannot keep his
passions and have truth as well. Error is not slain
until selfishness is dead. The overcoming of self is no
mystical theory, but a very real and practical thing. It
is a process which must be pursued daily and hourly
with unswerving faith and undaunted resolution, if any measure of
success is to be achieved. The process is one of
orderly growth, having its sequential stages, like the growth of
a tree, and as fruit can only be produced by
carefully and patiently training the tree, even so, the pure
and satisfying fruits of holiness can only be obtained by
faithfully and patiently training the mind. In the growth of
right thought and conduct. There are five steps in the
overcoming of passion, which includes all bad habits and particular
forms of wrongdoing, which I will call one repression, two endurance,
three elimination, four understanding, five victory. When men fail to
overcome their sins, it is because they begin to try
at the wrong end. They want to have the stage
of victory without passing through the previous four stages. They
are in the position of a gardener who wants to
produce good fruit without training and attending to his trees.
Repression consists in checking and controlling the wrong act such
as an outburst of temper, a hasty or unkind word,
a selfish indulgence, etc. And not allowing it to take
actual form. This is equivalent to the gardener nipping off
the useless buds and branches from his tree. It is
a necessary process, but a painful one. The tree bleeds
while undergoing the process, and the gardener knows that it
must not be taxed too severely. The heart also bleeds
when it refuses to return passion for passion, when it
ceases to defend and justify itself. It is the process
of mortals find the members of which Saint Paul speaks.
But this repression is only the beginning of self conquest.
When it is made an end in itself, and there
is no object of finally purifying the heart. That is
a stage of hypocrisy, a hiding of one's true nature
and striving to appear better in the eyes of others
than one really is. In that case it is an evil,
But when adopted as the first stage toward complete purification,
it is good. Its practice leads to the second stage
of endurance or forbearance, in which one silently endures the
pain which arises in the mind when it is brought
in contact with certain actions and attitudes of other minds
toward one. As success is attained in this stage, the
striver comes to see that all his pain actually arises
in his own weaknesses, and not in the wrong attitudes
of others toward him, these latter being merely the means
by which his sins are brought to the surface and
revealed to him. He thus gradually exonerates all others from
blame in his falls and lapses of conduct, and accuses
only himself, and so learns to love those who thus
unconsciously reveal to him his sins and shortcomings. Having passed
through these two stages of self crucifixion, the disciple enters
the third, that of elimination, in which the wrong thought
which lay behind the wrong act, is cast from the
mind immediately it appears. At this stage, conscious strength and
holy joy begin to take the place of pain, and
the mind, having become more comparatively calm, the striver is
enabled to gain a deeper insight into the complexities of
his mind, and thus to understand the inception, growth, and
outworking of sin. This is the stage of understanding perfection,
and understanding leads to the final conquest of self, a
conquest so complete that sin can no more rise in
the mind, even as a thought or impression. For when
the knowledge of sin is complete, when it is known
in its totality, from its inception as a seed in
the mind to its ripened outgrowth as act in consequence,
then it can no more be allowed a place in life,
but it is abandoned forever than the mind is at peace.
The wrong acts of others no longer arouse wrong and
pain in the mind of the disciple. He is glad
and calm and wise. He is filled with love and
blessedness abides with him, and this is victory. Chapter eighteen.
Contentment in activity, the confounding of a positive spiritual virtue
or principle with a negative animal vice, is common amongst writers,
even of what is called the Advanced Thoughts school, and
much valuable energy is frequently expended in criticizing and condemning,
where a little calm and reasoning would have revealed a
greater light and led to the exercise of a broader charity.
The other day I came across a vicious attack upon
the teaching of love, wherein the writer condemned such teaching
as weakly, foolish and hypocritical. Needless to say that which
he was condemning as love was merely weak sentimentality and hypocrisy.
Another writer, in condemning meekness, does not know that what
he calls meekness is only cowardice, while another who attacks
chastity as a snare is really confusing painful and hypocritical
restraint with the virtue of chastity. And just lately I
received a long letter from a correspondent who took great
pains to show me that contentment is a vice and
is the source of innumerable evils. That which my correspondent
called contentment is, of course animal indifference. The spirit of
indifference is incompatible with progress, whereas the spirit of contentment
may and does attend the highest form of activity, the
truest advancement and development. Indolence is the twin sister of indifference,
but cheerful and ready action is the friend of contentment.
Contentment is a virtue which becomes lofty and spiritual in
its later developments, as the mind is trained to perceive
and the hard to receive the guidance in all things
of a merciful law. To be contented does not mean
to forego effort. It means to free effort from anxiety.
It does not mean to be satisfied with sin and
ignorance and folly, but to rest happily in duty done,
work accomplished. A man may be said to be content
to lead a groveling life, to remain in sin and
in debt. But such a man's true state is one
of indifference to his duty, his obligations, and the just
claims of his fellow men. He cannot truly be said
to possess the virtue of contentment. He does not experience
the pure and abiding joy which is the accompaniment of
active contentment. So far as his true nature is concerned,
he is a sleeping soul, and sooner or later will
be awakened by intense suffering, having passed through which he
will find that true contentment is the outcome of honest
effort and true living. There are three things with which
a man should be content. One with whatever happens, Two
with his friendships and possessions, Three with his pure thoughts.
Contented with whatever happens, he will escape grief. With his
friends and possessions, he will avoid anxiety and wretchedness. And
with his pure thoughts he will never go back to
suffer and grovel in impurities. There are three things with
which a man should not be content. One with his opinions,
two with his character, three with his spiritual condition. Not
content with his opinions, he will continually increase in intelligence.
Not content with his character, he will ceaselessly grow in
strength and virtue. And not content with his spiritual condition,
he will every day enter into a larger wisdom and
fuller blessedness. In a word, a man should be contented,
but not indifferent to his development, as a responsible and
spiritual being. The truly contented man works energetically and faithfully,
and accepts all results with an untroubled spirit, trusting at
first that all is well, but afterwards with the growth
of enlightenment, knowing that results exactly correspond with efforts. Whatsoever,
material possessions come to him, come not by greed and
anxiety and strife, but by right, thought wise action, and
pure exertion.