Speaker 1: Right thinking, and repose. Life is a combination of habits,
some baneful, some beneficent, all of which take their rise
in one habit of thinking. The thought makes the man. Therefore,
right thinking is the most important thing in life. The
essential difference between a wise man and a fool is
that the wise man controls his thinking, the fool is
controlled by it. A wise man determines how and what
he shall think, and does not allow external things to
divert his thoughts from the main purpose. But a fool
is carried captive by every tyrant thought as it is
aroused within him by external things, and he goes through
life the helpless tool of impulse, wom and passion. Careless
slovenly thinking, commonly called thoughtlessness, is the companion of failure, wrongdoing,
and wretchedness. Nothing, no prayers, nor religious ceremonies, not even
acts of charity, can make up for wrong thinking. Only
right thinking can rectify a wrong life. Only the right
attitude of mind towards men and things can bring repose
and peace. The triumphant life is only for him whose
heart and intellect are attuned to lofty virtue. He must
make his thought logical, sequential, harmonious, symmetrical. He must mold
in shape his thinking to fixed principles, and thereby establish
his life on the sure foundation of knowledge. He must
not merely be kind. He must be intelligently kind, must
know why he is kind. His kindness must be an
invariable quality, and not an intermittent impulse interspersed with fits
of resentment and acts of harshness. He must not merely
be virtuous under virtuous circumstances. His virtue must be of
a kind that shall continue to shine with unabated light
when he is assailed with vicious circumstances. He must not
allow himself to be hurled from the throne of divine
manhood by the shocks of fate or the praises and
blame of those around him. Virtue must be his abiding habitat,
his refuge from the whirlwind and the storm. And virtue
is not only of the heart, it is of the
intellect also, And without this virtue of the intellect, the
virtue of the heart is imperiled. Reason, like passion, has
its vices. Metaphysical speculations are the riot of the intellect,
as sensuality is the right of the affections. The highest
flights of speculation, pleasing as they are, reveal no place
of rest, and the strained mind must return to facts
and moral principles to find that truth which it seeks.
As the soaring bird returns for refuge and rest to
its nest in the rock, so must the speculative thinker
return to the rock of virtue for surety and peace.
The intellect must be trained to comprehend the principles of
virtue and to understand all that is involved in their practice.
Its energies must be restrained from wasteful indulgence in vain subtleties,
and be directed in the path of righteousness, in the
way of wisdom. The thinker must distinguish in his own
mind between reality and assumption. He must discover the extent
of his actual knowledge. He must know what he knows.
He must also know what he does not know. He
must learn to discriminate between belief and knowledge, error and truth.
In his search for the right attitude of mind, which
perceives truth and works out a wise and radiant life.
He must be more logical than logic, more merciless in
exposing the errors of his own mind than the most
sarcastic logician is in exposing the errors of the minds
of others. After pursuing this course of discrimination for a
short time, he will be astonished to find how small
is the extent of his actual knowledge. Yet he will
be gladdened by its possession. For small as it is,
it is the pure gold of knowledge. And what is
better to have a few grains of gold hidden away
in tons of oree where it is useless, or to
extract the gold and throw away the ore. As the
miner sifts away bush shells of dull earth to find
the sparkling diamond, so the spiritual miner, the truth thinker,
sifts away from his mind and the accumulation of opinions, beliefs, speculations,
and assumptions, to find the bright jewel of truth, which
bestows upon his possessor wisdom and enlightenment, and the concentrated
knowledge which is ultimately brought to light. By this sifting process,
is found to be so closely akin to virtue that
it cannot be divided from it cannot be set apart
as something different. In his search for knowledge, Socrates discovered virtue.
The divine maxims of the great teachers are maxims of virtue.
When knowledge is separated from virtue, wisdom is lost. What
a man practices that he knows. What he does not practice,
that he does not know. A man may write treatises
or preach sermons on love, But if he treats his
family harshly or thinks spitefully of his enemy, what knowledge
has he concerning love? In the heart of the man
of knowledge, there dwells a silent and abiding compassion that
shames the fine words of the noisy theorist. He only
knows what peace is, whose heart is free from hatred,
who lives in peace? With all cunning definitions of virtue
only serve to deepen ignorance when they proceed from vice
stained lips. Knowledge is the deepest source than the mere
memorizing of information. That knowledge is divine, which proceeds from
acquaintance with virtue. The humility which purges the intellect of
its empty opinions and vain assumptions, also fortifies it with
a searching insight and invincible power. There is a divine
logic which is indistinguished from love. The reply quote, he
that is without sin among you, let him cast the
first stone unquote is unanswerable. Logic. It is also perfect love.
The wrong thinker is known by his vices. The right
thinker is known by his virtues. Troubles and unrest assail
the mind of the wrong thinker, and he experiences no
abiding repose. He imagines that others can injure, snub, cheat, degrade,
and ruin him. Knowing nothing of the protection of virtue,
he seeks the protection of self and takes refuge in suspicion, spite, resentment,
and retaliation, and is burnt in the fire of his
own vices. When slandered, he slanders in return. When accused,
he discriminates. When assailed, he turns upon his adversary with
double fierceness. Quote I have been treated unjustly unquote, exclaims
the wrong thinker, and then abandons himself to resentment and misery.
Having no insight and unable to distinguish evil from good,
he cannot see that his own evil, and not his neighbors,
is the cause of all his trouble. The right think
is not concerned with thoughts about self and self protection,
and the wrong actions of others towards him cannot cause
him trouble or unrest. He cannot think quote this man
has wronged me unquote. He perceives that no wrong can
reach him but by his own evil deeds. He understands
that his welfare is at his own hands, and thus
none but himself can rub him of his repose virtues,
his protection, and retaliation is foreign to him. He holds
himself steadfastly in peace, and resentment cannot enter his heart.
Temptate cannot find him unprepared, and it assails in vain
the strong citadel of his mind, Abiding in virtue, he
abides in strength and peace. The right thinker has discovered
and acquired the right attitude of mind toward men and things,
the attitude of a profound and loving repose. And this
is not resignation, It is wisdom. It is not indifference,
but watchful and penetrating insight. He has comprehended the facts
of life. He sees things as they are. He does
not overlook the particulars of life, but reads them in
the light of cosmic law, sees them in their right relations,
as the proportions of the universal scheme. He sees the
universes upheld by justice. He watches, but does not engage
in the pitu quarrels and fleeting strifes of men. He
cannot be partisan. He sympathies withal. He cannot favor one
portion more than another. He knows that good will ultimately
conquer in the world, as it is conquered in individuals.
That there is a sense in which good already conquers.
For evil defeats itself. Good is not defeated. Justice is
not set aside whatever a man may do. Justice reigns,
and its eternal throne cannot be assailed and threatened, much
less conquered and overthrown. This is the source of the
true thinker's abiding repose. Having become righteous, he perceives a
righteous law. Having acquired love, he understands the eternal love.
Having conquered evil, he knows that good is supreme. He
is only the true thinker, whose heart is free from hatred,
lust and pride, who looks out upon the world through
eyes watched free from evil, whose bitterest enemy arouses no enmity,
but only tender pity in his heart, who does not
talk vainly about things of which he has no knowledge,
and whose heart is ally is at peace. And by
this a man may know that his thoughts are in
accordance with the truth, that there is no more bitterness
in his heart, that malice has departed from him, that
he loves what he formerly condemned. A man may be learned,
but if he is not wise, he will not be
a true thinker. Not by learning will a man triumph
over evil. Not by much study wily overcome sin and sorrow.
Only by conquering himself will he conquer evil. Only by
practicing righteousness will he put an end to sorrow. Not
for the clever, nor the learned, nor the self confident
is the life triumphant. But for the pere, the virtuous,
the wise. The former achieved they particular success in life,
But the latter alone achieved great success, a success so
invincible and complete that even an apparent defeat shines with
added victory. Virtue cannot be shaken, Virtue cannot be confounded,
Virtue cannot be overthrown. He who thinks in accordance with virtue,
who acts righteously, whose mind is the servant of truth, heed,
it is who conquers in life and in death, For
virtue must triumph, and righteousness and truth are the pillars
of the universe.