Speaker 1: Self control and happiness. When mental energy is allowed to
flow in the line of least resistance and to fall
into easy channels, it is called weakness. When it is gathered, focused,
and forced into upward in different directions, it becomes power.
And this concentration of energy, an acquisition of power, is
brought about by means of self control. In speaking of
self control, one is easily misunderstood. It should not be
associated with the destructive repression, but with a constructive expression.
This process is not one of death, but of life.
It is a divine and marsterly transmutation in which the
weak is converted into the strong, the course into the fine,
and the base into the noble, in which virtue takes
the place of vice, and dark passion is lost in
bright intellectuality. The man who merely smothers up and hides
away his real nature, without any higher object in view
than to create a good impression upon others concerning his
character is practicing hypocrisy and not self control. As the
mechanic transmutes call into gas and water into steam, and
then concentrates and utilizes the finer forces for the comfort
and convenience of others, so the man who intellectually practices
self control, transmutes his lower inclinations into the finer qualities
of intelligence and morality, to the increase of his own
and the world's happiness. A man is happy, wise, and
great in the measure that he controls himself. He is wretched, foolish,
and mean in the measure that he allows his animal
nature to dominate his thoughts and actions. He who controls
himself controls his life, his circumstances, his destiny, and wherever
he goes he carries his happiness with him as an
abiding possession. He who does not control himself is controlled
by passions, by his circumstances, and his fate. And if
he cannot gratify the desire of the moment, he is
disappointed and miserable. He depends for his fitful happiness on
external things. There is no force in the universe which
can be annihilated or lost. Energy is transformed, but not destroyed.
To shut the door on old and bad habits is
to open it to new and better ones. Renunciation precedes regeneration.
Every self indulgence, every forbidden pleasure, every hateful thought. Renounced
is transformed into something more purely and permanently beautiful. Where
debilitating excitements are cut off, their spring up rejuvenating joys.
The sea dies, that the flower may appear, The grub perishes,
but the dragonfly comes forth. Truly, the transformation is not instantaneous,
nor is the transition a pleasant and painless process. Nature
demands effort and patience as the price of growth. In
the march of progress. Every victory is contested with struggle
and pain. But the victory is achieved and it abides.
The struggle passes. The pain is temporary only to demolish
a firmly figure habit, to break up a mental tendency
that has become automatic with long use, and to force
into birth and growth, a fine characteristic of lofty virtue.
To accomplish this necessitates a painful metamorphosis, a transitional period
of darkness to pass through which patience and endurance are required.
This is where men fail. This is where they slip
back into their old, easy animal ruts and abandon self
control as too strenous and severe. They thus fall short
of permanent happiness, and the life of triumph over evil
is hidden from their eyes. The permanent happiness which men
seek in dissipation excitement and abandonment to unworthy pleasure is
found only in the life which reverses all this, the
life of self control. So far as a man deviates
from perfect self command, just so far dos he falls
short of perfect happiness, he sinks into misery and weakness,
the lowest limit of which is madness, entire lack of
mental control, the condition of irresponsibility. In so far as
a man approximates to perfect self command, just so near
does he approach to perfect happiness and rise into joy
and strength. So glorious are the possibilities of such divine
manhood that no limit can be said to its grandeur
and bliss. If a man will understand how intimately yea,
how inseparably self control and happiness are associated, he has
but to look into his own heart and upon the
world around, to find that there are joy destroying effects
of uncontrolled tendencies. Looking upon the lives of men and women,
he will perceive how the hasty word, the bittery taught,
the act of deception, the blind prejudice, and foolish resentment
bring wretchedness and even ruin in their train. Looking into
his own life, what days of consuming remorse of restless
anxiety and of crushing sorrow arise up before his mind
periods of intense suffering through which he has passed through
lack of self control. But in the right life, though
while governed life, the victorious life life, all these things
pass away, New conditions obtain, and purer more is Spiritual
instruments are employed for the achievements of happy ends. There
is no more remorse because there is no more wrongdoing.
There is no more anxiety, because there is no more selfishness.
There is no more sorrow because truth is the source
of action. The much desired thing which self pursues with
breathless and uncontrolled eagerness, yet fails to overtake, comes unbidden
and begs to be admitted to him who works and
waits in perfect self command. Hatred, impatience, greed, self indulgence,
vain ambitions, and blind desires, the instruments by which self
shapes its ill finished existence. What clumsy tools they are,
and how ignorant and unskillful are they who employ them. Love, patience, kindness,
self discipline, transmuted ambitions, and chastened desires, instruments of truth
by which is shaped the well finished existence. What perfect
tools they are, and how wise and skillful are they
who use them. Whatsoever is gained by feverish haste and
selfish desire is attained in fuller measure by quietness and renunciation.
Nature will not be hastened. She brings all perfection in
due season. Truth will not be commanded. He has his
conditions and must be obeyed. Nothing is more superfluous than
haste and anger. A man has to learn that he
cannot command things, but that he can command himself, That
he cannot coerce the wilds of others, but that he
can mold and master his own will. And things serve him.
Who serve truth, people seek guidance of him who is
master of himself. It is a little understood, yet simple
and profound truth that the man who cannot command himself
under the severest external stress is unfit to guide others
or to control affairs. It is the fundamental principles in
the moral and political teachings of Confucius that before attempting
to govern affairs, a man should learn to govern himself.
Men who habitually give way under pressure to hysterious suspicions,
outbursts of resentments, and explosions of anger are unfit for
way to responsibility and lofty duties, and usually fail sooner
or later, even in the ordinary duties of life, such
as the management of their own family or business. Lack
of self control is foolishness, and folly cannot take precedence
of a wisdom. He who is learning how to subdue
and control his turbulent wandering thoughts is becoming wiser every day.
Though for a time the Temple of Joy will not
be completed, he will gather strength in laying its foundations,
in building its walls, and the day will come when,
like a wise master builder, he will rest at peace
in the beautiful habitation which he has built. Wisdom in years,
in self control, and in wisdom is pleasantness and peace.
The life of self control is no barren deprivation, no
wilderness of monotony. Renunciation there is, but it is a
renunciation of their ephemeral and false in order that the
abiding and true may be ready. Enjoyment is not cut off,
It is intensified. Enjoyment is life. It is the slavish
desire for it that kills. Is there anyway a more
miserable man than he who's all his longing for some
new sensation. Is there anyway a more blessed being than
he who, by self control is satisfied, calm, and enlightened,
who has most of physical life enjoy the glutton, the drunkard,
and the sensualist who lives for pleasure only, or the
temperate man who holds his body in subjection, considering its
needs and obeying its uses. I was once eating a ripe,
juicy apple as it came from the tree, and a
man near me said, quote, I would give anything if
I could enjoy an apple like that unquote. I asked,
why can't you? His answer was, quote, I have drunk
whiskey and smoked tobacco until I have lost all enjoyment
in such things unquote. In pursuit of elusive enjoyments, men
lose the abiding joys of life. And as he who
control he senses as most of physical life joy and strength,
so he who controls his thoughts has most of spiritual life.
Bliss and power. For not only happiness, but knowledge and
wisdom also are revealed by self control. As the avenues
of ignorance and selfishness are closed, the open gates of
knowledge and enlightenment appear. Virtue attained is knowledge gained. The
pure mind is an enlightened mind. He has well being
who controls himself well. I hear men speak of quote,
the monotony of goodness unquote. If looking for things in
the spirit which one has given up in the letter
were goodness, then indeed would it be monotonous. The man
of self control does not merely give up his base pleasures.
He abandons all longing for them. He presses forward and
does not look back, and fresh beauties, new glories, sublime
of vistas await him at every step. I am astonished
at the revelations which lie hidden in self control. I
am captivated by the infinite variety of truth. I am
filled with joy at the grandeur of the prospect. I
am gladdened by its splendor and its peace. Along the
way of self control there is the joy of victory,
the consciousness of expanding an increasing power, the acquisition of
the imperishable riches of divine knowledge, and the abiding bliss
of service to humankind. Even he who travels only a
portion of the way will develop a strength, achieve a success,
and experience a joy which the idol and the thoughtless
cannot know, and he who goes all the way will
become a spiritual conqueror. He will triumph of all evil
and will blot it out. He will gaze with in
rapid vision upon the majesty of the cosmic order, and
will enjoy the immortality of truth.