Speaker 1: Exhortation, Disciples of truth, lovers of virtue, seekers of wisdom,
You also, who are sorrow stricken, knowing the emptiness of
the self life, and who aspire to the life that
is supremely beautiful and serenely joyful, Take now yourselves in hand,
Enter the door of discipline and know the better life.
Put away self delusion, behold yourself as you are, and
see the path of virtue as it is. There is
no lazy way to truth. He who would stand upon
the mountain's summit must strenuously climb, and must rest only
to gather strength. But if the climbing is less glorious
than the cloudless summit, it is still glorious. Discipline in
itself is beautiful, and the end result of discipline is sweet.
Rise early in meaday, Begin each day with a conquered
body and a mind fortified against error and weakness. Temptation
will never be overcome by unprepared fighting. The mind must
be armed and arrayed in the silent hour. It must
be trained to perceive, to know, to understand. Sin and
temptation disappear when right understanding is developed. Right understanding is
reached through unabated discipline, truth cannot be reached, but through discipline.
Patience will increase by effort in practice, and patience will
make discipline beautiful. Discipline is irksome to the impatient man
and the lover of self, so he avoids it and
continues to live loosely and confusedly. Discipline is not irksome
to the lover of truth, and he will find the
infinite patience which can wait, work and overcome. Just as
the joy of the gardener who sees his or her
flowers develop day by day, so is the joy of
the man of discipline, who sees the divine flowers of purity, wisdom, compassion,
and love grow within his heart. The loose liver cannot
escape sorrow and pain. The undisciplined mind falls weak and
helpless before the fierce onslaught of passion. Array your mind, then,
lover of truth, be watchful, thoughtful, and resolute. Your salvation
is at hand. Your readiness and effort are all that
are needed. If you fail ten times, do not be disheartened.
If you should fail a hundred times, rise up and
pursue your way. If you should fail a thousand times,
do not despair. When the path is entered success is
sure if the path is not utterly abandoned. First strife
and then victory, First labor and then rest, First weakness
and then strength. In the beginning the lower life and
the glare and confusion of battle, and at the end
the life beautiful, the silence and the peace, all common
things each day's events, that with the hour begin an end.
Our pleasures and our discontents are rounds by which we
may ascend. We have not wings, we cannot soar, but
we have feet to scale and climb. Longfellow,