July Thoughts: James Allen

Wisdom is the aim of every philosophy.
Canst thou mend a broken vase by weeping over it?
The might of meekness!
Meekness is a divine quality, and as such is all powerful.
Nothing is hidden from him who overcomes himself.
He that hath not unbroken gentleness hath not Truth.
How can he fear any who wrongs none?

THE righteous man is invincible. No enemy can possibly overcome or confound him; and he needs no other protection than that of his own integrity and holiness. As it is impossible for evil to overcome Good, so the righteous man can never be brought low by the unrighteous. Slander, envy, hatred, malice can never reach him, nor cause him any suffering, and those who try to injure him only succeed ultimately in bringing ignominy upon themselves.

The righteous man having nothing to hide, committing no acts which require stealth, and harbouring no thoughts and desires which he would not like others to know, is fearless and unashamed. His step is firm, his body upright, and his speech direct and without ambiguity. He looks everybody in the face. How can he be ashamed before any who deceives none?

Ceasing from all wrong you can never be wronged; ceasing from all deceit you can never be deceived.

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 universe is preserved because Love is at the Heart of it.

THE Children of Light who abide in the Kingdom of Heaven see the universe, and all that it contains, as the manifestation of one Law—the Law of Love. They see Love as the moulding, sustaining, protecting, and perfecting Power immanent in all things animate and inanimate. To them Love is not merely and only a rule of life, it is the Law of life, it is Life itself. Knowing this, they order their whole life in accordance with Love, not regarding their own personality. By thus practising obedience to the Highest, to divine Love, they become conscious partakers of the power of Love, and so arrive at perfect Freedom as Masters of Destiny. Love is Perfect Harmony, pure bliss, and contains, therefore, no element of suffering. Let a man think no thought and do no act that is not in accordance with pure Love, and suffering shall no more trouble him.

Love is the only preserving power.
To know Love is to know that there is no harmful power in the whole universe.
Perfect Love is perfect Harmlessness.
And he who has destroyed in himself all thoughts of harm, and all desire to harm, receives the universal protection.
By self-enlightenment is Perfect Freedom found.
The Land of Perfect Freedom lies through the Gate of Knowledge.
Man will be free when he is freed from self.

ALL outward oppression is but the shadow and effect of the real oppression within. For ages the oppressed have cried for liberty, and a thousand man-made statutes have failed to give it to them. They can give it only to themselves; they shall find it only in obedience to the Divine Statutes which are inscribed upon their hearts. Let them resort to the inward Freedom, and the shadow of oppression shall no more darken the earth. Let men cease to oppress themselves, and no man shall oppress his brother. Men legislate for an outward freedom, yet continue to render such freedom impossible of achievement by fostering an inward condition of enslavement. They thus pursue a shadow without, and ignore the substance within. All outward forms of bondage and oppression will cease to be when man ceases to be the willing bond-slave of passion, error, and ignorance.

Freedom is to the free!
The True, the Beautiful, the Great is always childlike, and is perennially fresh and young.
Be thy simple self, thy better self, the impersonal self, and lo! thou art great!
The greatness that is flawless, rounded, and complete is above and beyond all art.
The greatness that is flawless, rounded, and complete is above and beyond all art.
It is Perfect Goodness in manifestation: therefore the greatest souls are always Teachers.
Every natural law has its spiritual counterpart.
The seen is the mirror of the unseen.
Energy to be productive must not only be directed towards good ends, it must be carefully controlled and conserved.
Noise and hurry are so much energy running to waste.

You are the creator of your own shadows; you desire, and then you grieve; renounce, and then you shall rejoice.

Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul. . . none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this—that man is the master of thought, the moulder of character, and the maker and shaper of character, environment, and destiny.

It is a great delusion that noise means power.
Working steam is not heard.
It is the escaping steam which makes a great noise.
Energy is the first pillar in the temple of prosperity.
No energy means no capacity.

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.

The spendthrift can never become rich, but, if he begin with riches, must soon become poor.
The thrifty and prudent are on the way to riches.
Vanity leading to excessive luxury in clothing is a vice which should be studiously avoided by virtuous people.
Simplicity in dress, as in other things, is the best.
Money wasted can be restored; health wasted can be restored; but time wasted can never be restored.
The day is not lengthened for any man.
Wisdom is the highest form of skill.
Skill is gained by thoughtfulness and attention.
There is no striking a cheap bargain with prosperity.
Prosperity must be purchased, not only with intelligent labor, but with moral force.
Sterling integrity tells wherever it is, and stamps its hall-mark on all transactions.
The man of integrity is in line with the fixed law of things.
He is like a strong tree whose roots are fed by perennial springs, and which no tempest can lay low.
Ignorant men imagine that dishonesty is a short cut to prosperity.
The dishonest man is morally short-sighted.

MIND clothes itself in garments of its own making. Mind is the arbiter of life; it is the creator and shaper of conditions, and the recipient of its own results. It contains within itself both the power to create illusion and to perceive reality.

MIND is the infallible weaver of destiny; thought is the thread, good and evil deeds are the warp and woof, and the web, woven upon the loom of life, is character. Make pure thy heart, and thou wilt make thy life, rich, sweet, and beautiful, unmarred by strife.

Strong men have strong purposes, and strong purposes lead to strong achievements.
Moral force is the greatest power.

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs.

Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so when you perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it.

The test of a man is in his immediate acts, and not in his ultra sentiments.
Sympathy is a deep, inexpressible tenderness which is shown in a consistently self-forgetful, gentle character.
Lack of sympathy arises in egotism; sympathy arises in love.
Sympathy, in its real and profound sense, is oneness with others in their strivings and sufferings.

The true silence is not merely a silent tongue; it is a silent mind. To merely hold one’s tongue, and yet to carry about a disturbed and rankling mind, is no remedy for weakness, and no source of power.

Silentness, to be powerful, must envelop the whole mind, must permeate every chamber of the heart; it must be the silence of peace.

To this broad, deep, abiding silentness a man attains only in the measure that he conquers himself.

Gentleness is the hall-mark of spiritual culture.
Gentleness is akin to divinity.
A gentle man, one whose good behavior is prompted by thoughtfulness and kindliness, is always loved, whatever may be his origin.
Argument analyses the outer skin, but sympathy reaches to the heart.
Spurious things have no value, whether they be bric-a-brac or men.
The sound-hearted man becomes an exemplar: he is more than a man; he is a reality, a force, a molding principle.
Evil is an experience, and not a power.
Evil is a state of ignorance, of undevelopment, and as such it recedes and disappears before the light of knowledge.
When divine good is practiced, life is bliss.
Truth lies upward and beyond.

When the farmer has tilled and dressed his land and put in the seed, he knows that he has done all that he can possibly do, and that now he must trust to the elements, and wait patiently for the course of time to bring about the harvest, and that no amount of expectancy on his part will affect the result.

Even so, he who has realized Truth, goes forth as a sower of the seeds of goodness, purity, love, and peace, without expectancy and never looking for results, knowing that there is the Great Over-ruling Law which brings about its own harvest in due time, and which is alike the source of preservation and destruction.

Where passion is, peace is not; where peace is, passion is not.
By the way of self-conquest is the Perfect Peace achieved.
If men only understood That the wrong act of a brother Should not call from them another.

IF men only understood

That their wrong can never smother

The wrong doing of another;

That by hatred hate increases,

And by Good all evil ceases,

They would cleanse their hearts and actions,

Banish thence all vile detractions—

   If they only understood.

   If men only understood

That the heart that sins must sorrow,

That the hateful mind tomorrow

Reaps its barren harvest, weeping,

Starving, resting not, nor sleeping,

Tenderness would fill their being,

They would see with Pity’s seeing—

   If they only understood.

If men only understood

How Love conquers . . .

. . . They would ever

Live in Love, in hatred never—

If they only understood.

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.