December Thoughts: James Allen

In aiming at the life of blessedness, one of the simplest beginnings to be considered, and rightly made, is that which we all make every day—namely, the beginning of each day’s life. There is a sense in which every day may be regarded as the beginning of a new life, in which one can think, act, and live newly, and in a wiser and better spirit. The right beginning of the day will be followed by a cheerfulness permeating the household with a sunny influence, and the tasks and duties of the day will be undertaken in a strong and confident spirit, and the whole day will be well lived.

Indolence is the twin sister of indifference, but ready action is the friend of contentment.

CONTENTMENT is a virtue which becomes lofty and spiritual, as the mind is trained to perceive and the heart to receive the guidance, in all things, of a merciful law.

To be contented does not mean to forgo 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, and work accomplished.

A man may be said to be content to lead a grovelling 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 achievement.

True contentment is the outcome of honest effort and true living.

The truly contented man works energetically and faithfully, and accepts all results with an untroubled spirit.

Results exactly correspond with efforts.

Universal Brotherhood is the supreme Ideal of Humanity, and towards that Ideal the world is slowly but surely moving.

In whatsoever heart discord rules, Brotherhood is not realized.

Brotherhood is at first spiritual, and its outer manifestation in the world must follow as a natural result.

Where pride, self-love, hatred, and condemnation are there can be no Brotherhood.

Having clothed himself with humility, the first questions a man asks himself are:—

“How am I acting towards others?”
“What am I doing to others?”
“How am I thinking of others?”
“Are my thoughts of, and acts towards others prompted by unselfish love?”

As a man, in the silence of his soul, asks himself these searching questions, he will unerringly see where he has hitherto failed.

Brotherhood consists, first of all, in the abandonment of self by the individual.

THEORIES and schemes for propagating Brotherhood are many, but Brotherhood itself is one and unchangeable, and consists in the complete cessation from egotism and strife, and in practising goodwill and peace; for Brotherhood is a practice and not a theory. Self-surrender and Goodwill are its guardian angels, and peace is its habitation.

Where two are determined to maintain an opposing opinion, the clinging of self and ill-will are there, and Brotherhood is absent.

Where two are prepared to sympathize with each other, to see no evil in each other, to serve and not to attack each other, the love of Truth and Good-will are there and Brotherhood is present.

Brotherhood is only practised and known by him whose heart is at peace with all the world.

Prejudice and cruelty are inseparable.

When a man is prone to harshly judge and condemn others, he should inquire how far he falls short himself.

Dislike, resentment, and condemnation are all forms of hatred, and evil cannot cease until these are taken out of the heart.

He who is troubled and disturbed about the sins of others is far from the Truth.

He who is troubled and disturbed about his own sins is very near to the Gate of Wisdom.

Let those who aim at the right life, calmly and wisely understand.

A pure heart and a righteous life are the great and all important things.

Truth is not something that can be gleaned from a book; it can be learned and known by practice only.

He only has Truth who has found it by practice.

He only has Truth whose life shows it forth in pure and blameless conduct.

Love, all inclusive.

Hatred is absence of Love, and therefore absence of all that is included in Love.

Love broadens and expands the mind of a man until it embraces in its kindly folds all mankind without distinction.

He who has Love of whatsoever creed or none is enlightened with the Light of Truth.

The Life of Truth is that in which wrong-thinking and wrong-doing are abandoned, and right-thinking and right-doing are embraced.

Walk with lowly footsteps the holy way of Truth.

The principles of Truth are fixed and eternal, and cannot be made or unmade by anyone.

Religions change from age to age, but the principles of divine virtue are eternally the same.

If men only understood that their hatred and resentment slays their peace and sweet contentment, hurts themselves, helps not another, does not cheer one lonely brother, they would seek the better doing of good deeds which leaves no ruing:—

If they only understood.

If men only understood how Love conquers; how prevailing is its might, grim hate assailing; how compassion endeth sorrow, maketh wise, and doth not borrow pain of passion, they would ever live in Love, in hatred never:—

If they only understood.

Truth is one, though it has a variety of aspects, and is adaptable to men in various stages of growth.

Great Teachers are perfected flowers of humanity, types of what all men will one day be.

Perfect purity of heart is a condition of emancipation from all the cravings and indulgences of self.

A lover of Truth must be a lover of all men.

He must let his love go out without restraint or stint.

The ground of certainty on which we can securely rest amid all the incidents of life, is the mathematical exactitude of the moral law.

Given the same cause, there will always be the same effect.

All the spiritual laws with which men are acquainted have, and must have, the same infallibility in their operations.

The moral order of the universe is not, cannot be disproportionate, for if it were, the universe would fall.

Nothing can transcend right.

Man cannot suffer for something which he has never done, or never left undone, for this would be an effect without a cause.

Talent, genius, goodness, greatness, are not launched upon the world ready-made. They are the result of a long train of causes and effects.

There is always a changing, a growing, a becoming.

An awakened vision calls us to a nobler life.

We must shake the mud of the valley from our feet if we are to commune with the mountain silence.

Right thoughts spring from a right mental attitude, and lead to right actions.

All the successful people, through all time, have reached their particular success by laboring for it.

Suffering is a purifying and perfecting process.

“We become obedient by the things which we suffer.”

By acquainting man with suffering, it enables him to feel for the sufferings of others.

Every resource is already with you and within you.

There is no way to strength and wisdom but by acting strongly and wisely in the present moment.

The year is passing, and blessed are they who can let its mistakes, its injuries, and wrongs pass away forever, and be remembered no more.

Blessed is he who has no wrongs to remember, no injuries to forget; in whose pure heart no hateful thought about another can take root and flourish.

No man can be confronted with a difficulty which he has not the strength to meet and subdue.

There is no peace in sin, no rest in error, no final refuge but in wisdom.

Go to your task with love in your heart and you will go to it light-hearted and cheerful.

The duty which you shirk is your reproving angel; the pleasure which you race after is your flattering enemy.

Animal indulgence is alien to the perception of Truth.

Live superior to the craving for sense-excitement, and you will live neither vainly nor uncertainly.

Sacrifice all hatred, slay it upon the altar of devotion—devotion to others.

Open the floodgates of your heart for the inpouring of that sweet, great, beautiful love which embraces all.

Inside the gateway of unselfishness lies the Elysium of Abiding Joy.

Seek the highest Good, and you will taste the deepest, sweetest joy.

The universe has no favorites; it is supremely just, and gives to every man his rightful earnings.

HAPPY in the Eternal Happiness is he who has come to that Life from which the thought of self is abolished. Already, even now and in this life, he has entered the Kingdom of Heaven. He is at rest on the bosom of the Infinite.

Sweet is the rest and deep the bliss of him who has freed his heart from its lusts and hatreds and dark desires; and he who, without any shadow of bitterness or selfishness, can breathe, in his heart, the blessing:

Peace unto all living things, making no exceptions or distinctions—such a man has reached that happy ending which can never be taken away, the fullness of peace, the consummation of Perfect Blessedness.

Man can find the right way in life, and, having found it, can rejoice and be glad.

James Allen

(1864 – 1912)

Sweet is the rest and deep the bliss of him who has freed his heart from its lusts and hatreds and dark desires; and he who, without any shadow of bitterness resting upon him, and looking out upon the world with boundless compassion and love, can breathe, in his inmost heart, the blessing: Peace unto all living things, making no exceptions or distinctions—such a man has reached that happy ending which can never be taken away, for this is the perfection of life, the fullness of peace, the consummation of perfect blessedness.