August Thoughts: James Allen.

Let a man abandon self, let him overcome the world, let him deny the personal; by this pathway only can he enter into the heart of the Infinite.

“GOODWILL gives insight”, and only he who has so conquered his personality that he has but one attitude of mind, that of goodwill, is possessed of divine insight, and is capable of distinguishing the true from the false. The supremely good man is, therefore, the wise man, the divine man, the enlightened seer, the knower of the Eternal. Where you find unbroken gentleness, enduring patience, sublime lowliness, graciousness of speech, self-control, self-forgetfulness, and deep and abounding sympathy, look there for the highest wisdom, seek the company of such a one, for he has realized the Divine, he lives with the Eternal, he has become one with the Infinite. Those who are spiritually awakened have alone comprehended the Universal Reality where all appearances are dispersed and dreaming and delusion are destroyed.

To center one’s life in the Great Law of Love is to enter into rest, harmony, peace.

To enter into a realization of the Infinite and Eternal is to rise superior to time.

To realize this Law, this Unity, this Truth, is to enter into the Infinite, is to become one with the Eternal.

Become established in Immortality, Heaven, and the Spirit, which make up the Empire of Light.

Seeking to save his personal life, man forfeits the greater impersonal Life of Truth; clinging to the perishable, he is shut out from a knowledge of the Eternal.

Self and error are synonymous.

At rest in the Infinite.

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.

The region of Reality. Unchanging principle.

By the surrender of self all difficulties are overcome.

There is no more regret, nor disappointment, nor remorse, where all selfishness has ceased.

He who is patient, calm, and forgiving under all circumstances manifests the Truth.

Practice heart-virtue, and search humbly and diligently for the Truth.

There is one great all-embracing Law which is the foundation of the universe, the Law of Love.

To become possessed of a knowledge of the Law of Love, to enter into conscious harmony with it, is to become immortal, invincible, indestructible.

The Spirit of Love is alone singled out as worthy to receive the unstinted worship of posterity.

Truth cannot be limited.

Every holy man became such by unremitting perseverance in self-sacrifice.

He who enters upon the holy way begins by Restraining his passions.

WHAT the saints, sages, and saviours have accomplished, you likewise may accomplish if you will only tread the way which they trod and pointed out, the way of self-sacrifice, of self-denying service.

Truth is very simple. It says, “Give up self”, “Come unto Me” (away from all that defiles) “and I will give you rest.” All the mountains of commentary that have been piled upon it cannot hide it from the heart that is earnestly seeking for righteousness. It does not require learning; it can he known in spite of learning. Disguised under many forms by erring, self-seeking men, the beautiful simplicity and clear transparency of Truth remains unaltered and undimmed, and the unselfish heart enters into and partakes of its shining radiance. Not by weaving complex theories, not by building up speculative philosophies, is Truth realized; but by weaving the web of inward purity, by building up the Temple of a stainless life, is Truth realized.

Saintship is the beginning of holiness.

Only when you identify yourself with the Divine can you be said to be “clothed and in your right mind”.

Give up all self-seeking; give up self, and lo! The Peace of God is yours.

Come out of the storms of sin and anguish.

O THOU who wouldst teach men of Truth!

   Hast thou passed through the desert of doubt?

Art thou purged by the fires of sorrow?

                   Hath truth

The fiends of opinion cast out

   Of thy human heart? Is thy soul so fair

That no false thought can ever harbor there?

                  

O THOU who wouldst teach men of Love!

   Hast thou passed through the place of despair?

Hast thou wept through the dark night of grief?

           does it move

   (Now freed from its sorrow and care)

Thy human heart to pitying gentleness,

Looking on wrong, and hate, and ceaseless stress?

O THOU who wouldst teach men of Peace!

   Hast thou crossed the wide ocean of strife?

Hast thou found on the Shores of the Silence release

   From all the wild unrest of life?

From thy human heart hath all striving gone,

Leaving but Truth, and Love, and Peace alone?

Twelfth Enter the inward resting-place.

Make yourself pure and lovable, and you will be loved by all.

Be friendly towards others, and friends will soon flock round you.

To dwell continually in good thoughts is to throw around oneself a psychic atmosphere of sweetness and power which leaves its impress upon all who come in contact with it.

There is no evil in the universe but has its root and origin in the mind.

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.

Renounce.

IF you are given to anger, worry, jealousy, greed, or any other inharmonious state of mind, and expect perfect physical health, you are expecting the impossible, for you are continually sowing the seeds of disease in your mind. Such conditions of mind are carefully shunned by the wise man, for he knows them to be far more dangerous than a bad drain or an infected house.

IF you would be free from all physical aches and pains, and would enjoy perfect physical harmony, then put your mind in order, and harmonize your thoughts. Think joyful thoughts; think loving thoughts; let the elixir of goodwill course through your veins, and you will need no other medicine. Put away your jealousies, your suspicions, your worries, your hatreds, your selfish indulgences, and you will put away your dyspepsia, your biliousness, your nervousness and aching joints.

If you would secure health, you must learn to work without friction.

Order your thoughts and you will order your life.

Follow, under all circumstances, the highest promptings within you.

Let your heart grow large and loving and unselfish, and great and lasting will be your influence and success.

Learn by constant practice how to husband your resources, and to concentrate them, at any moment, upon a given point.

Passion is not power; it is the abuse of power, the dispersion of power.

Be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.

Happiness is that inward state of perfect satisfaction

which is joy and peace.

THE satisfaction which results from gratified desire is brief and illusionary, and is always followed by an increased demand for gratification. Desire is insatiable as the ocean, and clamours louder and louder as its demands are attended to. It claims ever-increasing service from its deluded devotees, until at last they are struck down with physical or mental anguish, and are hurled into the purifying fires of suffering. Desire is the region of hell, and all torments are centred there. The giving up of desire is the realization of heaven, and all delights await the pilgrim there.

“I sent my soul through the invisible,

Some letter of that after life to spell,

And by and by my soul returned to me,

And whispered,

‘I myself am heaven and hell.’ ”

Heaven and hell are inward states.

Heaven and hell are inward states. Sink into self and all its gratifications, and you sink into hell; rise above self into that state of consciousness which is the utter denial and forgetfulness of self, and you enter heaven.

So long as you persist in selfishly seeking for your own personal happiness, so long will happiness elude you, and you will be sowing the seeds of wretchedness. In so far as you succeed in losing yourself in the service of others, in that measure will happiness come to you, and you will reap a harvest of bliss.

To seek selfishly is only to lose happiness

SINK into self and all its gratifications, and you sink into hell; rise above self into that state of consciousness which is the utter denial and forgetfulness of self, and you enter heaven. Self is blind, without judgment, not possessed of true knowledge, and always leads to suffering. Correct perception, unbiased judgment, and true knowledge belong only to the divine state, and only in so far as you realize this divine consciousness can you know what real happiness is. So long as you persist in selfishly seeking for your own happiness, so long will happiness elude you, and you will be sowing the seeds of wretchedness. In so far as you succeed in losing yourself in the service of others, in that measure will happiness come to you, and you will reap a harvest of bliss.

Abiding happiness will come to you when, ceasing to selfishly cling, you are willing to give up.

Whatsoever you constantly meditate upon you will not only come to understand, but will grow more and more into its likeness.

If you constantly dwell upon that which is selfish and debasing, you will ultimately become selfish and debased.

If you would enter into possession of profound and abiding peace, come now and enter the path of meditation.

The sluggard and the self-indulgent can have no knowledge of Truth.

The direct outcome of your meditations will be a calm, spiritual strength.

Great is the overcoming power of holy thought.

Meditation will enrich the soul with saving remembrance in the hour of strife, of sorrow, or of temptation.

Remember that you are to grow into Truth by steady perseverance.

Believe that a life of perfect holiness is possible.

He who believes climbs rapidly the heavenly hills.

Where self is, Truth is not; where Truth is, self is not.

You cannot perceive the beauty of Truth while you are looking out through the eyes of self.

The lovers of Truth worship Truth with the sacrifice of self.

As you let self die, you will be reborn in Truth.

Every holy man is a savior of mankind.

To be in the world and yet not of the world is the highest perfection.

HE who knows that Love is at the heart of all things, and has realized the all-sufficing power of that Love, has no room in his heart for condemnation.

IF you love people and speak of them with praise, until they in some way thwart you, or do something of which you disapprove, and then you dislike them and speak of them with dispraise, you are not governed by the Love which is of God. If, in your heart, you are continually arraigning and condemning others, selfless love is hidden from you.

Train your mind in strong, impartial, and gentle thought; train your heart in purity and compassion; train your tongue to silence, and to true and stainless speech; so shall you enter the way of holiness and peace, and shall ultimately realize the immortal Love.

The cause of all power, as of all weakness, is within.

There is no progress apart from unfoldment within.

There is no sure foothold in prosperity or peace except by orderly advancement in knowledge.

There is no room for a complainer in a universe of law, and worry is soul-suicide.

What your thoughts are, that is your real self.

You are swayed by circumstances because you have not a right understanding of the nature, use, and power of thought.

Book of Meditations

&

Thoughts for the Day

For Every Day in the Year

A combination of two books: 'Morning and Evening Thoughts' by James Allen, published 1909 and 'James Allen's Book of Meditations' published 1913.