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Each was ardently attached to his particular form of belief, and all were in a strange way ruthless.
They appeared meek and gentle, particularly the man of brother hood, but there was a hardness of heart and that peculiar intolerance which is characteristic
of the superior. They were the chosen, the interpreters; they knew and were certain.
if you wanted certain organizational activities carried on, you had to be a little bit on the hard side. The work was important because it was helping mankind, and anyone who opposed it had to be put aside gently, of course.
for the means is of no consequence; the end justifies any means."
They are not ambitious in the worldly sense, they do not want high honors, wealth or recognition; but they are ambitious in a much more subtle way.
They do not see that this desire denies peace, brotherhood and supreme happiness.
Ambition in any form for the group, for individual salvation, or for spiritual achievement is action postponed. Desire is ever of the future; the desire to become is inaction in the present. The now has greater significance than the tomorrow. In the now is all time, and to understand the now is to be free of time. Becoming is the continuation of time, of sorrow. Becoming does not contain being. Being is always in the present, and being is the highest form of transformation. Becoming is merely modified continuity, and there is radical transformation only in the present, in being.
This identification puts an end to all creative under standing, and then one becomes a mere tool in the hands of the party boss, the priest or the favored leader.
ownership denies love, does it not? To own is to be secure; possession is defense, making oneself invulnerable.
Love is vulnerable, pliable, receptive; it is the highest form of sensitivity, and identification makes for insensitivity.
Identification destroys freedom, and only in freedom can there be the highest form of sensitivity.
To experience, all identification must cease. To experiment, there must be no fear. Fear prevents experience. It is fear that makes for identification with another, with a group, with an ideology, and so on.
Truth or happiness cannot come without undertaking the journey into the ways of the self. You cannot travel far if you are anchored. Identification is a refuge.
He who has identified him self can never know freedom, in which alone all truth comes into being.
They are both the out come of a restless mind.
To talk about another, pleasantly or viciously, is an escape from oneself, and escape is the cause of restlessness.
Escape in its very nature is restless.
As we are concerned with what others think of us, so we are anxious to know all about them;
The more externalized we are, the more sensations and distractions there must be, and this gives rise to a mind that is never quiet, that is not capable of deep search and discovery.
If we did not worry, most of us would feel that we were not alive;
We cannot imagine life with out a problem; and the more we are occupied with a problem, the more alert we think we are. The constant tension over a problem which thought itself has created only dulls the mind, making it insensitive and weary.
But for most people, a quiet mind is a rather fearsome thing; they are afraid to be quiet, for heaven knows what they may discover in them selves, and worry is a preventive. A mind that is afraid to discover must ever be on the defensive, and restlessness is its defense.
Defense is resistance, which prevents understanding.
it arises from attraction and not earnestness. Attraction is ever changing, and that is why the objects of worry and gossip change.
Gossip and worry can come to an end only when the restlessness of the mind is understood.
Understanding comes with self-knowledge.
Thought with its emotional and sensational content, is not love.
it is only when the thought process ceases that there can be love.
Where jealousy is, obviously love is not; and yet with most people, jealousy is taken as an indication of love.
There is freedom from thought only when its deep significance is fully understood; and for this, profound self-knowledge is essential, not vain and superficial assertions.
One is alone, like the fire, like the flower, but one is not aware of its purity and of its immensity. One can truly communicate only when there is aloneness.
Aloneness is indivisible and loneliness is separation.
Reward in any form is extremely gratifying, especially a so-called spiritual reward when one is somewhat indifferent to the honors of the world. Or when one is not very successful in this world, it is very gratifying to belong to a group especially chosen by someone who is supposed to be a highly advanced spiritual being, for then one is part of a team working for a great idea, and naturally one must be rewarded for one's obedience and for the sacrifices one has made for the cause.
But to be told by another that you are a pupil of a Master, or to think that you are, obviously leads to many ugly forms of exploitation. Unfortunately, both the exploiter and the exploited feel elated in their mutual relationship.
you are not in direct physical contact with him.
Reward and punishment exist only when there is no humility.
A virtue that is cultivated ceases to be a virtue, for then it is merely another form of achievement, a record to be made.
Humility is unaware of the division of the superior and the inferior, of the Master and the pupil.
Truth is the understanding of what is from moment to moment without the burden or the residue of the past moment.
but to the man who is seeking truth, which brings supreme happiness, surely this question is utterly irrelevant.
but what is important is to understand yourself.
Without first knowing yourself, how can you know what is true? Illusion is inevitable without self knowledge. It is childish to be told and to accept that you are this or that.
Beware of the man who offers you a reward in this wor...
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They are not the possessors of wealth, but are possessed by wealth, which is worse than death.
With so much poverty and degradation, one must have a very thick skin to be rich.
They speculate, not only upon the market, but upon the ultimate.
To renounce the world of wealth, comfort and position is a comparatively simple matter; but to put aside the craving to be, to become, demands great intelligence and understanding.
Self expansion in any form, whether through wealth or through virtue, is a process of conflict, causing antagonism and confusion.
Tranquility is a state of under standing, and becoming denies this understanding.
