When we are free it means we are free from being seduced by the immediacy of the situation.


Sorry, but the laws of life dictate that you can’t have it all, and those who try end up losing everything important to them.


When you determine a choice for one thing you exclude another. What you exclude determines what you gain.


Freedom means you are a disciple of reality. And being a disciple of reality means you are limited.


If you don’t discipline yourself, circumstances will do it for you.


When we lose something dear to us, it is not the loss per se that counts so much, but our determination to regain it.


Do you have body experiences, ego experiences, or self experiences? Be careful how you answer for while the body and ego collaborate, the self is independent.


Many concentrate on building the body and/or ego, but few there be that concentrates on building the self. It is possible to build both the body and the self, and the body and the ego, but one cannot build all three at the same time or in the same degree.


Perhaps the person you have judged inferior is in fact superior. But you won’t detect that until the cataracts of your soul is removed and his sins are viewed in proper perspective.


Empathy is one of the most neglected of virtues. You simply cannot understand or sympathize with the sufferings of another until you have walked the path he has walked.

When you take off the mask to yourself you reveal yourself to yourself, and offer the most intimate part of your being to another.


If you go around hiding yourself to another you are engaging in deceit. Are you doing that?


When you truly desire to promote the happiness and welfare of another you have proven your love of yourself, of God, and of the other.


Does your giving reflect a pure heart, or does it represent a means to another end?


Once we have been hurt by the one we love, we have a natural tendency to want guarantees that we will not be hurt again. If one is unwilling to give such a guarantee he does not know himself well, and has made no commitment to the relationship.


A true lover must be willing to suffer for the other’s sake.


A mature person must opt for a particular orientation in life. That is, he must decide to either be open or closed to particular experiences. But, he must make the decision before the experience occurs. If he waits until it is presented it is usually too late.


These sayings to the mature person will be agreeable, even redundant. But to the immature they will either provoke deeper pondering or they will elicit offense and disagreement. Most, however, will not even be aware they exist.


Isn’t it amazing how many people prefer to be ignorant?


There are two kinds of obedience. There is blind obedience in which one obeys for the sake of obedience. The other kind listens to the self, and determines what kind of self one is, and if it is determined to be lacking, embarks on a goal to obtain that which is lacking. True obedience is liberating – it makes one more sensitive in differentiating between truth and error.


When you listen do you hear only what you want to hear and ignore the other? Learn to discriminate, not opinionate!


When you surrender yourself make sure you know what you’re surrendering. It’s better to find out before than after!


Does your main motivation come from within or from extraneous forces?


What impinges upon you, what attracts you, what provokes you, in and of itself is not what is important! What is important is how you respond.


Have you learned the difference between being dependent and interdependent?


We all have freedom of choice, but most people do not understand either that they have it or what it means. What it means is that you have the freedom to choose who you will be. Making the choice however, does not mean making the effort. But it is the first step. Now you have to make a choice to take the second step.


There is another inexorable law of life that we all are required to face. It is the law that says there is an opposition in all things. Are you prepared to recognize the opposition when it comes, or do you just wait until after it comes and has left its damage?


You have all heard the aphorism, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It means that it is better to prevent hurt rather than deal with it after it occurs.


If you want to get through life without stepping on egg shells and examining every possibility and analyzing every motivation, make it easy on yourself by going through the difficulty of changing yourself.

Integration is an achievement; it is not usually an endowment.


Having an apocalyptic experience is not the same as having a mystical one.


Learning to have faith is one thing. Learning to not lose it is another. Better still is learning to get it back once it is lost.
It is not a sudden burst of enthusiastic effort that accomplishes the task, but sustained effort.


Motivation is not accomplished by instant fervor, but by repetition at frequent intervals.


When you see a person mourning you witness mending taking place. He who does not mourn is untouched by tragedy and learns neither wisdom nor true power.


There is a difference between mourning and lamentation. Mourning occurs because one is sensitive enough to recognize the heartache brought about by tragedy. Lamentation occurs primarily because of one’s complaints. Mourning occurs when one is concerned about others. Lamentation occurs when one is concerned about self.


There is a direct connection between a thoughtful person and his capacity to mourn.


Those who are wont to rush aid to those who are starving for food whilst ignoring their starving for spiritual mana are very inept indeed because while their bellies may be filled, their soul remains empty.


Those who think it is manly to withhold tears do not know what it means to be a man.


Those who think they are demonstrating their manhood by having sex do not know what it means to be a man or a woman. Nor do they know the meaning of sex.


For some foolish reason a man is taught when he is a boy to repress his true feelings. Thus a man who thinks he is very strong may in fact be very weak.


When one is lacking needful things of life such as food, water, clothing and shelter, it is hard for them, if not impossible, to concentrate on their spiritual needs. But if one has sufficient food, water, clothing and shelter, and neglects his spiritual needs, he is lacking more than he thinks. Though he is surviving, he is not thriving.


The availability of wisdom is endless. The appropriation of it, however, is rare.


Is there ever a time when you feel significantly insignificant, and yet at the same time supremely important?


If we experience our limits as challenges to overcome them we are on the road to maturity. But they must not be expected to be overcome in a day. Persistence is the key.


You only respect yourself when you have respectful reverence for another person.


If you respect another person you are not seduced by another’s sensuality or attractiveness.

Even when one violates a law in total ignorance, even if he does it with good intentions, he will, nevertheless suffer, or cause another to suffer. That is the inevitable result of the violations of laws whether we know them or not. Therefore, don’t you think it behooves us to know them?


There is so much needless suffering in the world. And most of it is imposed on innocent people. All of it could be easily and instantly prevented if people would just learn the laws of their own natures and the unique laws of their relationships.


Yes, we all are born with appetites. But why let them control us? Just who or what is in control anyway; the appetites or us? Oh, you say, but I must be satisfied. But what are you going to do when circumstances won’ let them be satisfied? Are you then going to obsess and make yourself miserable because you cannot be satisfied and never will be?


People with high ideals are often decried by those who say they are unrealistic. However, though people with higher standards admit they have appetites, they deal with them with courage, meekness, and finesse, unlike those who don’t deal with them at all.


Those who think they are facing all the facts are not facing the facts of their personalities.


A person with high ideals who works his whole life long to change people will most likely fail. Some who hear the word will reject it. More will hear it, try it for a while, become discouraged and give up. Most will not even hear it at all because they are simply not interested and are too busy “having fun.” It is not that he has failed in converting others that count so much as that he converted himself and tried with courage and humility to live his ideals, even though he has to do it alone.
Those who are not ready will have to experience suffering until they are ready.


It is a wise person who knows his weaknesses and stays away from situations which brings out his weaknesses.


Not doing the wrong thing may be good, but the question is; did you refrain from doing it with a pure heart?


You may achieve a certain degree of content if you respond to the vicissitudes of life with gritty resignation, but if you do so you will never experience the glory and enthusiasm of maintaining high ideals.


What one sees in the world depends on his spiritual occularity; not on whether or not he needs glasses for his eyes.


How one responds depends on the nature of his being rather than on the nature of the stimuli.


The idealist does not assume that the telescope through which others see the universe is less strong than his, but that he is looking at a different galaxy.

What is attractive and appealing may in the long run become unattractive and unappealing.


The idealist does not believe that he is out of touch with reality, as he is often accused; he believes that others are.


If you put off until tomorrow what could have been done today you forfeit the blessings of today for a tomorrow that never comes.

There are many who believe that knowledge of the Bible, and of moral principles, will automatically result in religious and moral behavior. This is decidedly not true, as any acute observer and psychological counselor well knows. You simply cannot shame people into being good, nor can you educate them into being good, they have to change from within. They then do good, not because of their knowledge of principles, but because they are good. Religion should, therefore, teach people to change, not just teach them morals and principles.


Religious faith is often thought of as just one thing. But it is more complex than that. There are at least three types of religious faith. The first kind may be called intellectual faith. This kind of faith is derived from such reasoning as the ontological argument, the cosmological argument and the teleological argument. The second kind of faith is called credulity faith. In this kind of faith the believer believes anything he is told by authorities or tradition. The person who possesses this kind of faith believes all the doctrines of their particular church or religion without question. Another name for this kind of faith is blind faith. The third kind of faith is revelatory faith. It is a faith given to one by some invisible power. In this kind of faith the person “knows” but cannot explain how he knows.


Just because a person cannot explain why he believes and cannot trot out all the empirical evidence to prove his point, is no reason to invalidate his beliefs. He just may know something you don’t.


The reason some people do things of which they know better, is because they have not made a commitment to their being, to their unique relationships, and to life. If you haven’t, don’t you think it’s about time you did?


You can be aware and careful without being foolish and stupid.


Merely doing something because it is your duty may be good, but it is not holistic. Do something because you hunger and thirst after it, not because it is just your duty to do so.


If you do something that hurts another, you are faced with three major choices: You can sincerely, with broken heart and contrite spirit, truly repent and ask the hurt one for forgiveness, and work with him or her to overcome his or her hurt. Or you can decide to leave the relationship and enter another one which has different laws. Then you have to decide which choice is best.


One of the great secrets of life is to make choices which limit other choices.


Life hands us all choices which are inescapable. But to make other choices which burden us with additional choices is foolish.


Life seems to have so many choices which lead us either to confusion or despair. But handling them all is really simple. All you have to do is make a solemn commitment to do what is right rather than do what is convenient.


Once upon a time an orator declared, “I accept the universe.” One of the moderators commented, “She’d better.” The point is, while we do not have control over the universe, we do have control over ourselves. Moreover, whoever tries to live by the laws of the universe instead of trying to fight them, will be a much better adjusted person.


For people to not expect to suffer for their violations of universal laws is the most ludicrous of expectations.


It seems to be a common characteristic of man to want to set aside the laws of their own being, the laws of their relationships, and the laws of life in general when they are faced with the natural and inevitable consequences of their acts.

Don’t you find it fascinating that many people are so impressed with the unimpressionable? Now, before you trot out your arsenal of self-defenses and enter that safe haven known as denial, be it known to you that there are some people more enlightened than me who are of the same opinion. Of course I realize that, having said that, that people who should read this will not even be aware of it. Ignorance, it is said, is bliss. That may be so but it is a false bliss.


Love may be a many-splendored thing for a time, but if it is applied inappropriately it turns into a many- unsplendored thing.


Why is it that acts deleterious to both the individual and society as a whole are accepted with such cool detachment and tolerant insipidity?


The shrewd and the clever are not as smart as they think they are because their shrewdness and cleverness often lead them to out-smart themselves.


Raucous music and swivel-dancing is neither music or dancing! It is just loud dissonance and pelvic gyrations.


Auditions for T.V. shows like “The Great American Idol” bring out the least talented who are convinced they are the most talented.


Common sense and logical theories cannot themselves alone solve the problems of the spirit. Only a spiritual application can have a spiritual effect.


The keenest minds we know are sometimes the dullest minds there are.


Do you get the impression that I speak in sweeping generalities and that something remains unsaid? If so, you are right. However, I do so deliberately because I am trying to encourage you to think for yourself. Thus, I speak the generality and leave it to you to discover, or work out the specific.


If the truth about everything were to be suddenly revealed we would be astonished at how often we have been lied to, and how wrong we have been.


A lie is sometimes not blatant, but subtle, and is often cleverly presented as the truth.


The interesting thing about habitual liars is that they believe their lies to be the truth.


It is not lies alone which do us damage, but withholding the truth.


Lies cleverly arranged eventually become unconscious lies. But they are
lies, nevertheless.


Some people are immediately turned off to religion by a “Thou shalt not” attitude. It is readily admitted that this attitude can be carried too far. But it is also true that it is often not deeply pondered, seriously considered, and not carried far enough. People often reject religion because they feel guilty for doing, or having done, what “Thou shalt not.”


If the outer decree does not conform to the inner attitude it does not mean the outer decree is false. Maybe the inner attitude is.

What may not be universally applicable may be individually applicable. And what may apply to me may not apply to you. Oh, says the philosopher, then there are no eternal verities. You miss the point! There are both! But it takes a discerning and careful mind to determine which is which.


Thoughtless people answer one absurdity with another one.


The atheist would have only glory. No opposition, no struggle, no pain, only goodness. Oh, so you would have Him deny you the right to disbelieve and deny others the right to believe? So what would we have then? A world of coercion, rebellion and chaos!


Aren’t we reading something into reality when we interpret it from the lowest we know rather than from the highest we know? Isn’t mind and will, love and compassion, meaning and purpose, and other intangible attributes of man just as much a part of reality as atoms and molecules?


Man has a penchant for reducing complexity to simplicity, the unexplainable to what he thinks is explained, the transcendent to the ordinary, and thus gets himself further and further from the truth.


If one declares that the effect of religion in his life has been negligible perhaps it is really because he has been negligible.


If one complains that religion is ineffective perhaps it is because it hasn’t been tried. Or tried long enough! Or sincerely enough!


If one wants to have a rich life he has to spend some of himself.


Just as a strong body may be a cover-up for a weak mind, so a weak body may be a cover-up for a strong mind.


The next time you are tempted to deny the efficacy of religion, ask yourself this question: If I sincerely lived the noblest teachings of religion would I be mentally healthy or unhealthy?


Not everyone who declares he is a prophet; not everyone who writes a book; not everyone who creates a product or a program; not everyone who vows he knows the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; not everyone who has a high I.Q and a string of degrees from prestigious universities, is necessarily honest. Generally his greed for money or fame eclipses the truth.


Politicians are very adept at convincing people that their lies are the truth, and the people who elect them to office are often ignorant, uninformed or ill-informed people who are easily duped into believing

Atheism is often spoken of in terms of cold intellectualism, but that is usually the excuse one uses to hide from himself and from others the fact that at some point and time in his life he has been unloved.


Facts have limits. One of them is inappropriateness. Another one is that they often hide the truth and lead us astray.


Many of us are committed to half-truths as if they were the whole truth.


Does the thought of God dismay you? Are you offended by morality? Does the subject of religion arouse your ire? Then perhaps it is you who is presumptuous and not the person or persons you blame.


Agnosticism and atheism is like a page torn out of the middle of a book. We know neither its context, its beginning or its afterward.

Most true believers will agree that the ontological, cosmological or teleological arguments for the existence of God are inadequate. They rely more on discernment than on raw intellectualism.


Total reliance on intellectualism is a sign of immaturity. The power of discernment, on the other hand, is a sign that one has at last become mature.


If your faith has been shaken to its foundations, perhaps it was a false or incomplete faith, and life is now ready to build a new edifice.


Having lost our faith and trust in life is very painful, but it is sometimes necessary in order that a new foundation be built.


If we want to evolve and grow, then we must learn to endure the pain of the process. Remember the old adage: “No pain, no gain.”


The partial man will think partial thoughts, and feel partial feelings.


The reasons that make some people atheistic are the same reasons which make some people very religious.


While thousands of people in the brutal concentration camps of the Nazis declared “Now I know there is no God,” there were some who declared, “Now, I know there is a God.”


It is a fallacy of the most unfair kind to presume that because a man believes in God he ought to always be supremely happy and never suffer.


It is not a question of “can He,” but “Will He.” Thus God is not wholly omnipotent. He does in fact limit Himself by the laws of His own creations. What? You expect Him to respond by whim and caprice just to satisfy your personal notions? Just how do you propose that he make water not drown us and at the same time float a ship? How do you propose He make it rain on the pumpkin patch but not the paved road? How do you propose that God grant some people freedom of choice and deny it to others? Would you make of him a respecter of persons? Or violate His own laws?

Even though you may mean well, the tone of your voice conveys more effect than the words you speak.


Think about this: Sometimes our love is a cover-up of our hate.


Isn’t it interesting: Dense, unenlightened people brag about their simplistic notions, equate elitism with intelligence, are confident that they are the only ones who have the truth, and yet are unknowingly grounded in ignorance?


Are you angry with your spouse? Maybe it’s because you are really angry with yourself.

Never make an important decision while you’re in a bad mood. Moods are transient and temporary. Don’t take this lightly, now. For many people this is a hard lesson to learn.


There is too much false interpretation of the invitation by many psychologists to accept ourselves. Yes, we must accept ourselves, but don’t use that as an excuse to not change ourselves.


Many people who are often offended by others have already offended themselves.


Don’t you think it’s about time to get rid of all those compulsions and hang-ups that have been stalking you and governing your life for so many years?


Death is not the ultimate evil although evil ones are deluded into thinking it is. No, the ultimate evil is the failure to love.


The most accomplished and the most applauded are not always the wisest and best.


It is far more important to genuinely love a person than it is to solve a problem.


I have learned by sad experience that education and learning, books and prolific readings, university degrees and certificates, accomplishment and honors, talent and applause, high I.Q and knowledge, position and power, notoriety and fame – none of them individually or in the aggregate, lead to happiness. Nor do they lead to assurance! All of them – every single one and all – eventually leave us and become but a vague memory, and we stand alone only with who we are.


The time in which we walk up and down in the earth is a gift of life to us. The legacy we leave behind is our gift to the gift. And thus one of our purposes in life is to be a giver of gifts.


Sometimes, when in solemn hours we nurse our sadness because we think others whom we love has let us down, it may in actual fact be because we have let ourselves down.


If we have learned to love others, but not ourselves, we have still not learned to love.

Many religious people are more committed to creeds than they are to the most blessed teachings of their religion: forgiveness and tolerance.


Some religious people fail to achieve balance in their faith. They are so committed to forgiveness and tolerance that they permit themselves to be used and abused by evil persons masquerading as good persons who take advantage of them. They have been duped by their very virtues to believe that there is no sin or evil people in the world.


Prophetic religion, depth psychology, existential philosophy and esoteric mysticism, have always taught that man is a responsible being and that the main constituent of his life is free agency. It has also taught that while man has the incipient power within himself to change, he cannot complete the task alone. There are extraneous divine powers ready to assist him, but they are in a state of suspended animation and wait for the individual to take the first step.


We cannot assess our own progress. We may be further advanced than we think we are. On the other hand we may be less advanced than we think we are.


Man looks on the accomplishments we have made. God looks on the condition of the heart we have made.


Please don’t consider me a cynic or a rebel if I announce what history has revealed: Organized religion, in spite of promulgating many benefits, has also been the cause of many morbid consciences, abject confusion about the self and about reality, and have persuaded its adherents to be satisfied with surface interjections instead of inner development.


A wise religion does not consist merely of sects and orthodoxies, or stirring speeches and charismatic personalities, but address the issues which face man in his struggle to find sense in his life, to quest with the hurting soul why he hates instead of loves, why he is so afraid, why he has lost his faith in himself, in others and in God. And help him not only to understand but to overcome, and become.


Children do not usually distinguish between fact and fantasy, and neither do they ponder the consequences of good and evil. They must be taught these things by their parents. Are you still a child?


One of the things I have sadly learned by my experience in this life is not to be too dependent on people because sooner or later they will betray you. The only way out of this sore dilemma, it seems to me, is to be dependent upon God. This is easier said than done if one loves deeply another. What then, is the difference between love and dependence?


There is a religious philosophy taught by some teachers that we should learn to love God first, and then we are given the power to love man. I wonder sometimes though, if it isn’t the other way around?


“Will power” is a poor substitute for “internal power.”


You must first be good to yourself before you can be good to others.


Man is a conglomerate of unrealized potential.


Remember this, oh you who think no one is looking. Your act affects generations you cannot see and who cannot see you.


If we would remember that our acts of today, whether they be good or bad, make the circumstances of tomorrow, perhaps we would be a little more alert and a little more careful.

Don’t you find it rather interesting, as well as perplexing, that man, afflicted with psychic anxieties, stricken with economic woes, assailed by emotional conflicts, mocked by mental and emotional challenges, attempts to solve these problems by drugging himself with alcohol or drugs, fatiguing himself with loud and noxious music, or indulging himself in sexual liaisons, all of which further pits himself against himself?


Wouldn’t it be nice if we could change ourselves by swallowing a pill, or taking a course three nights a week for four months, or attending a week-end seminar, or spending an hour listening to the harmonies of Beethoven? But we indulge ourselves, and our money, in a grand illusion if we think so!


It is a supreme fallacy that if we probe deeply into the psyche of the human mind we will discover a devil there. On the contrary, if we probe deep enough we will find an angel there. But it cannot emerge by itself. It needs help. From you!


We all have incredible powers of goodness within us, but they demand collaboration with us before they can garner their strength.


When are you going to find out who you really are instead of whom you think you are or who you have been told by others you are?


Psychology is not enough; philosophy is not enough; understanding is not enough. They provide keys to the good life, but they are not the good life itself. All of these are important avenues to truth, but they must be supplemented by an internal makeover.


Many people do not understand what religion is. They think it is going to church, reading the scriptures, attending meetings, being of service, etc. While these are important they are not complete. Many who do them are hypocrites. True religion is internalizing the accumulated wisdom of the ages so that they act in accordance to what they are or are in the process of becoming. They walk the walk instead of just talking or preaching about it.


Many are they who are intellectually full, but emotionally empty. And many are they also who are emotionally full but intellectually empty. When a balance is achieved one will then be spiritually filled.


I am far more impressed with that humble soul who is bowed low in sorrow but is mightily struggling to find his faith and walk with God – he is the real hero of life - than I am with that pompous preacher who denigrates him because he “lacks faith” or has “lost the spirit.”


No one who has not lost his faith can know the struggles he undergoes to regain it. It may not be easy to regain it, but once he does, it is usually stronger than before he lost it.


Despair is a temporary response to heartbreak and is a precursor to hope. Despair will disappear when the heartbreak is healed.


Yes, it is true; some lack faith or, and has lost the spirit. Then instead of accusing them, help them find it!

Seek not to pursue the easy way. If you do you will discover that your life will be hard.


Life is not always something to be deliberately pursued, for life “happens.” No, it is our task to find meaning and purpose in it.


If the miseries of life make you an atheist, perhaps it is because God is trying to get your attention.


The biggest illusion we habitually believe in is that social peace can be legislated. Social peace and international harmony will never be achieved unless individuals stop engaging in civil war with themselves.


I see it happen every four years. The politicians pompously proclaim that if we just vote for them our problems will all be over. And the majority of the voting public votes for whoever is most charismatic and clever, and tells the most lies.


Don’t you get tired of voting for the lesser of two evils?


As long as man continues to be man he will inevitably face crucial problems.


No thinking person will doubt that social conditions determine our individual responses, and that unfair economic circumstances create dilemmas which not only sorely taxes the human spirit and cause incredible personal suffering and aggregate miseries. However, should we not view the whole from a higher vantage point and learn to handle our neuroses with greater finesse and manage our psychic needs with greater artistry?


It is not so much what happens to us that counts as much as what happens in us.


Somehow, in some way, it is vitally incumbent upon us to stop this misery we perpetuate upon ourselves. Why do we hate ourselves, and others? Why do we so often become afraid and can’t figure out why we do? Why do we lose faith, in ourselves, in our friends, in life, and in God? The answer is so simple; it escapes us because we search for answers that are so complex. We need to reach down deep into the labyrinths of our being and change it so that love can permanently abide there. Not until then will you have peace of mind. Oh, you say, its easier said than done. Yes it is, but the secret is, it can be done, and you can do it. The question is; will you do it?


Maybe your prayers bounce off the ceiling, seem unanswered, and you conclude from this that God is not there. Perhaps it is because you are praying for the wrong things, which if answered as if God were Santa Claus, would be detrimental to you. Perhaps you pray with words rather than with soul and though you may be impressed with your eloquence, God is impressed with a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

The popular beliefs and rigid dogma promulgated by some theologians and pharisaical types obscure, or make rocky, the path upon which pilgrims searching for the truth travel.


When you finally get in touch with yourself you will discover that you have a fundamental longing for something. What is it?


You either stagnate, or advance, or retreat, but you never stand still.


Whether you believe it or not does not constitute its validity.


To seek, or not to seek; that is your choice.


Whatever you seek, persist and you will ultimately find it. Or it will find you! So, what is it you seek? Is it comfort, or purpose? Is it pleasure, or meaning? Is it lust, or Desire?


Dilettantes beware. You will get just about as much as you put into it. And remember: the best things require more effort.


Know ye not that there are regions of the human spirit which cannot be touched by physics, or fully explained by a glib tongue?


Someone aptly said; “What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to Him.”


The pangs of failure and pain in this mortal world are the birth-throes of our transition to a greater world.


It is our spiritual blindness which separates us from our mortal possibilities.


Do you allow your unconscious appetites to control you and determine your behavior, or your conscious evaluation?


Be careful of your explanations for you may merely identify and define yourself.


He who repeatedly defends himself accuses himself.


Persistence without change results in death of the spirit.

We need to convert what is currently actual, into what is possible and what is possible into what is probable, and what is probable into a different kind of actuality.


Some people who think they are very close to God are actually very far from Him.


Remember the old saying, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die?” Well, if you eat, drink and be merry tomorrow you will die!


Too many people, especially politicians and preachers, make words more important than being.


Transformation is not the work of one day, nor is it the play of children, or the sport of youth whose emphasis is on having fun and dissipating their energies.


Rebirth has its uneasy challenges. It is not a sudden occurrence, but a continuous and persistent process.


If you decide to enter the spiritual realm, be prepared for demands higher than all others. But though its standards may be difficult, the ultimate rewards are greater than any you ever dreamed of. Alas, many people will never know these extraordinary rewards, nor even be aware that they exist.


There are at least two things which prevent a person from achieving transformation; the flaws in their own personalities and the flaws in their society. Yet, in spite of this, those who are committed to the task eventually overcome these obstacles.



One cannot love another merely by obeying the principle of love. In order to genuinely love one must be love.


Obeying the principle is only the beginning of the process. One must first make a commitment and then continue by determined will. At the end or conclusion of the process one acts not because a good principle tells him he ought to but for no reason at all. He does what he does automatically because that is the kind of being he has become.


To be grounded in being and essence is to grounded in the spiritual essence of the universe, not exclusively to the material earth.


Oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful if people would learn that their choices make their circumstances?

Cease being a stumbling block for people and giving them a reason to not believe in God.


Don’t you realize yet that there is a light shining through you, and also darkness? A sensitive person will pick up on whichever you manifest and will either be elevated by it or denigrated by it.


What may be interpreted by us to be a harmless event may be utterly devastating to another.

Sometimes our hard-earned wisdom fails us, our most astute philosophical analysis is barren, and the clever and meaningful phrases we have learned from our readings are disremembered. Even the consolation offered by our friends falls to the ground inert. It is at such times that we just must stand and take the blows. And rely on unknown and unseen powers to help us.


To love yourself properly is not to abandon yourself to the folly of the moment.


People reading these sayings may fear that eradicating something in themselves is giving up themselves. Not so! We are talking in these sayings not so much eradication as replacement and transference.


Do you ever pause to contrast what you are and what you could be?


When you are in the Light be careful that you don’t cast a shadow. It becomes necessary therefore, to remove the obstructions around you.


Oh, we can, if we so choose, drive the spirit out and away from us. But if we do so be prepared for life to lose its savor.


What may taste so good in the beginning may later turn into a sour stomach. Be careful, therefore, what you eat.


Death is the final detachment from an old consciousness in order that you may have a new one.


It may be trite but it is true, nevertheless: Don’t put off until tomorrow what should be done today.


Don’t reject a truth just because it is trite.


A sure way to incur the wrath of life is to always say “I” instead of “We.”


When a person finally succeeds in renouncing all the superfluous claims of his troubled ego he will begin seeing life in ways he never saw it before, and he will learn that yesterday’s terrible offense has turned into today’s mere trifle, and tomorrow’s infinite blessing.


If there is anything that depth psychology, acute philosophical analysis, and deep pondering teaches us it is that the concrete human being has the capacity to develop spiritual attributes and lead a better life.

God does not dwell in your understanding, however astute, nor in your will and memory, however powerful, nor in your knowledge of religion or the world, however extensive, but in the depths of your soul. And from these depths come the meaning and expression of all these other faculties.


In all thy learning, learn to be genuine.


Becoming true to one’s self, and others, is the process of becoming like God. Being true to one’s self and others is God.


If you’re going to clean up your act you have to cast out all the pain in your heart, fear, envy and uncontrolled passion from your soul, and follow what is stronger than you.


There is no promise that your life will be easier if you follow the spiritual Way. But your burdens will be lighter so that you can better carry them.


Happiness is freedom from pain. Joy is the ability to endure it while learning from it.


What you assiduously seek seeks you; what you relentlessly pursue, pursues you; and what you earnestly flee, flees you.


You have not lost yourself or given up yourself if you surrender yourself to an ideal which transcends yourself.


What you initially perceive as loss may ultimately prove to be gain.


Do not for long lament your weaknesses, for they are intended to be turned into strengths.


Sorry is the man who indulges his weaknesses, for while they may be pleasurable for a time, he renders himself weaker, and as he grows weaker the pleasure dissipates. It is only by overcoming them that he becomes stronger.


You may not be able to pay completely your secret debts, but you can feel sorry for them, and repent of actions which caused them.

Idealism, moral insight, stringent endeavor, are all good, but they are insufficient to make the internal changes we desire viable and permanent. In order for that to occur we must be assisted by a reliable power outside ourselves; i.e. God!


A rich imagination is a good thing – until it turns into imaginative suffering.


We must look at our faults and weaknesses not as the pharisaic moralist would do – with devaluation and interminable shame, but as a curious scientist would do, with objective research. And as the philosopher would do, with deep analysis. And as the true religionist would do, with compassion and love.


It is a mistake to assume that all people are intrinsically good and seek for ways to overcome their weaknesses. There are some people whose recklessness, sensuality, and wantonness pleases them and which lie at the depths of their unconscious life. These people do not value loyalty and kindness. They do not hunger and thirst after righteousness and deem their dishonesty to be the truth.


What seems now to be so hostile, so untrustworthy, may, both in our most perspicacious moments, and eventually by the passage of time, become that which is most friendly and trustworthy.


Perhaps he or she who does such terrible things to us and which causes us such awful suffering, are suffering themselves and in their own distorted way are calling out to us for help.


Sometimes he who we think is our worst enemy turns out to be our best friend. Let us remember that perhaps we have been someone’s enemy too.


The greatest treasure we shall ever find is usually hidden under a rock in a field that we must dig. It is Humility! And the field that we are required to dig in is our own soul. Once it is possessed we desire that all should have it but we discover that we cannot give it away; it must be searched and dug for by the other.


Is your spirit torn? Is your heart bewildered? Is your mind angry? Is your soul in pain? Then cease to nurse them; instead learn to love and they will go away.


Ignorance and stupor can lead to as much pride as knowledge and
esteem.

He who arrogantly declares “mine” is under the false assumption that he is the master of the house.


You may think you own your house and your dog and your land, but before you permit yourself to be so prideful ask yourself this perspective question: Am I the owner of the sun which makes the plants to grow, to flower and bear fruit? Am I the owner of the lightning, or the clouds and rain, or the orbiting earth in the vastness of space? Am I the owner of the nostrils which enable me to smell, or the tongue which enables me to taste, or the stomach which enables me, without my effort, to digest my food, etc, etc. Don’t you think humility is the better part of wisdom?


One’s tentative and temporary opinion is often thought of as the final truth. He who thinks so has arrogated to himself a premature and totally undeserved omniscience.


The more I learn, and the more educated I become the more convinced I am that I really know very little.


Man knows so much about other things but so little about himself.


Most people’s opinions are not carefully worked out but are mere quotations of what someone else has said.


The same light that reveals your faults is the same light that will dissipate them. However, you have to let the light shine.


Apparently there are some people who see in the dark while most are blind even in the light.


When one says “I” they are unknowingly referring to their Ego, not their imprisoned Self. It is our task to eliminate the Ego and emancipate the Self. When are you going to begin doing it?


The most awful characteristic of man, which leads to the most awful internal pain and destruction known to man, is his egocentricity, which is another word for selfishness.


The enlightened and awakened person will admit that it is imperative that he destroy his egocentricity. But, he simply cannot do it alone. There must be a power outside himself which gets into him and works a mighty change within him. However that power must be called upon.


God’s will is seldom enacted in behalf of an individual until that person’s will corresponds with His.

Often the choices we face are not between right and wrong, good and bad – that is easy if we are clear on our values – but between good and better.


What appears to be good may, upon further experience and reflection, actually be bad.


The knot which we have tied around ourselves and which is choking us cannot be cut; it must be untied.


Don’t blame life for all its evil; blame yourself for succumbing to it.


The problem with modern society is that its private vices have become public virtues.


Sometimes the most horrible of violences are done in the most gentle of ways.


Those who strive to keep their illusions tend to stagnate and do not move on; those who fear their illusions generally create more and thus walk backwards thinking they are walking forward; those who overcome them – and they do so by walking the hard road of persistence – walk forward.


One of the purposes of remembering is to remember to forget.


Idle thoughts sometimes generate profound ideas.


Those who appear idle are sometimes engaged in exhausting work.


He who is truly successful has no regrets of the past and no fears of the future. I would like to meet such a person.

Do you ever wonder who you may have associated with in your past life?

Interesting thing about failure: Those who have never or seldom experienced it have never or seldom stretched themselves beyond their grasp.

When we try anything there is always the risk of failure. And when we fail, yes, it hurts. When we are disappointed, especially in ones we love and trust, we hurt. And when such hurt ensues, after so many prior hurts, maybe we just don’t have the internal resources anymore to try again. If so, then we must lean on someone when we are not strong. Maybe that someone is the very one, now repentant and contrite, who hurt us. Maybe now it is he or she who will save us.


Be careful before you put all your trust in mammon, for mammon has a history of betrayal. He who appears to be wisest and strongest may prove to be unwise and weak.


Hearing with your ears is one thing; hearing with your soul is quite another.


Finding meaning in sound comes from hearing with our ears. Finding meaning in the silence means hearing with the soul.


You will never attain or obtain the highest and best if you don’t first learn to renounce the lowest and worst.


What you try so hard to keep may be exactly what you need to let go in order to have something better. On the other hand, maybe you already have the best and what you intend to let go may be exactly what you need to keep.
The greatest challenge in life, obscured by a multitude of temporary pleasures, is to discover our higher self.


Whenever we touch another human body we are touching a holy and sacred thing. Be careful, therefore, how you touch it.


Smart people often fail because they are in a world controlled by dumb people.


Some people are often intellectually smart but intelligently stupid.


Have you decided where you want to go and how to get there? Or are you just drifting hoping that the currents will favor you and get you there?


Do we allow the age in which we live to influence us, or do we influence the age in which we live?

Watch out! Be alert! Sometimes our greatest attributes can turn into our worst enemies.


Love is a choice available to us all. But few choose it. And of those who do, few endure its demands.


Free choice means God will not impose upon us His will. Churches do, but God won’t.


Our penchant for noticing ourselves and fulfilling our selfish needs does not correspond with our power to notice the goings-on in the vast universe, and it is especially derelict in its notice of the invisible.


Why is it that we use such a small portion of our capacities?


Is it any wonder that we don’t hear anything else when we listen to such loud, frantic music? Or detect anything else when we don’t pay attention to anything but the frenetic activity surrounding us?


What we choose to make the ruling fact of our existence determines what kind of being we are.


If you don’t take matters into your own hands and determine what your standards will be, circumstances will choose for you. You will then discover that you don’t like the choices.


The questions are often asked, but seldom answered: Who am I? What is my purpose here?


You will find that you will get more answers to your questions about life if you listen instead of talking so much.


Many people don’t listen when others are talking. They are merely preparing their next rebuttal.


Alas! Many people who will not change their minds in the light of new evidence, but assume that their evidence, which usually has a peculiar spin on it, is the only validity there is. Thus many are frozen and few are warm.


We have control over many things, but not everything.


Sacrifice is not loss, but gain.


In this life people are divided up into winners and losers. But in the eternal scheme of things the race is not to either, but to he who endures.
Our generation would do well to remember the poem of Rudyard Kipling entitled “IF.” It starts
out like this: “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…,”

To be absorbed and intoxicated by the world around us rather than the world within us is to recognize only what is present and tangible instead of what is possible and transformational.


The soul which is overwhelmed by external stimuli is unable to reflect, stays stuck, and cannot look where it is going.


Contemplate this: Simplicity is different from simplistic!


The way to self-victory is the way of over-coming.


“Adaptation” and “Adjustment” are the hallmarks of this go-along generation when what is needed and called for is the up-grading of perceptions.


The reason the world is in such a mess is that unenlightened people vote in office unenlightened politicians. We are influenced more by bombast than by perceptive acuity.


There are certain conditions of life which MUST be met and which will not change. Learn what they are! Trying to change them instead of us is not only destructive but futile.
The modification of ourselves leads to the edification of ourselves.


You have not got the message of these sayings if you believe them to be mere moral idealisms or a prescription for principles. They do, indeed, encompass those ideas, but they are not the whole of it.


Do we allow evolution to determine who we are or do we decide who we shall be?

Evolution has done its work! Now, what are you going to do?


When we are faced with the stresses of choice we are faced with the opportunity to be blessed.

We all seek for what is likeable, what is enjoyable. But what is likeable or what is enjoyable may not be the best for us. None of us like to suffer, yet suffering may be exactly what we need. Choice, decision, implies suffering; otherwise we merely evolve but don’t become.


In the rhythms of the world, which we think is everlasting, is a strange, unseen, often undetected, redeeming grace which, if we collaborate with it, erases all our failures and introduces to us our escape from this mortal trial, and thrusts us into a transition to better things.


Out of the quagmire of our mistakes, out of the dilemmas, perplexities and consternations of our lives, is a constant, albeit subtle, reminder of our eternal destiny, and an invitation to develop a larger heart.


Persistence without change of heart constitutes raw stubbornness and is not the virtue often supposed.


Why is it so few ever find the Way? Because they don’t pause to define themselves! They act more out of impulse than out of thought. They have a viewpoint rather than a point-of-view.


There is no more pressing need than finding the Way, yet people generally do not search for it because, in the first place, they are asleep, and in the second place it isn’t easy. The process of achieving it is arduous and long – no instant gratification here – no quick-fix here – and requires a fundamental reorientation of the entire personality.

The greatest illusion of man is that he cannot change! “I am the way I am” is the regular utterance, conscious and verbal, or unconscious and unspoken, of most people. Thus do they fix themselves in stagnation! Yet if they unscrambled their will and woke up they would see their incredible capacity for change.


What enters into man determines what exits from him.


The greatest advice ever given to man is this simple invitation: “Think on these things.”

We need to abandon the idea that this world is the central point of the universe.


Do our idiosyncrasies and personal ideas represent things as they are, or as we are?


Have we harvested from our selves a richer, fuller fruit from a seed once barren and void, from a soil blanched with tears, but now fertile and ripe?

Can we now, after all those strife-ridden years which strove to tear us apart, look up to glory and solace, or are we still cast down by the weight of life’s mighty winds?


There is no need to be lonely wanderers, no need to search but never find, for the truth is already here. All you have to do is reach out and grasp it and make it your own.


So what if it’s easier said than done! Put ease in its proper place by doing it. Just who, after-all, is in control: You or ease?


So, what do you wish to pursue: The small gleam or the brightest star?


What we follow determines whether we become followers or leaders.


Open the door to your dank prison and let in the bright of sun and the smell of the winsome grass. Then go out where you can breathe the fresh air and be beside the beauteous flowers.


It seems to be an axiom of life that the best treasures are hidden and must be sought. Jesus said something similar when he said, “Seek and ye shall find.”
Perhaps, after years of searching for your treasure and not finding it, you have been looking in the wrong place. It’s not out there someplace, it’s in here. Often, however, we don’t know it’s within us until we travel long distances without us and dug in the wrong field.

What, then, is an awakened person? One who has a longing for unity, who engages in a sincere quest for consciousness, who aspires to doing what’s right in spite of pressures against it, who conducts his life according to sound principles of goodness, who acts from the intrinsic nature of his being rather than the periphery of his personality, and one who desires with a consuming desire to be one with the universe.


What, then, is an awakened person not? He is not perfect, but he does not make excuses for his imperfection. And he is not offended by shoulds and oughts.


As I reflect on my sojourn through life I sometimes get this uncanny feeling that while I am searching for the highest and best, the highest and best is searching for me. The question I ask then is, have I at last found the highest and best, and has the highest and best found me. Or is the search a never-ending quest?


Not until you have been possessed with an insatiable desire to continue the quest have you been found.


We are not misled by falsehood so much as we are by half-truths.


What discourages us most in the pursuit of our spiritual goals is not our vision of the outcome – that we have a clear vision of – but the process, which is often obscure and difficult.


The Ten Commandments offend the radical liberal. The reason why is that they do not know, or will not accept, that they are but paradoxical laws. They do not know, or do not care, that when they break them they break themselves.


All the king’s men and all the king’s horses may not put Humpty Dumpty back together again. But God can!


To exalt one’s self is the greatest kind of humility.


Oh, let the self exalt itself,
Not sink itself below:
Self is the only friend of self.
And self Self’s only foe.
For self, when it subdues itself,
Befriends itself. And so
When it eludes self-conquest, is
Its own and only foe.

So calm, so self-subdued, the Self
Has an unshaken base.
Through pain and pleasure, cold and heat,
Through honor and disgrace.

The Bhagavad- Gita


One of our greatest illusions is the assumption that actions determined by following our uninspired inclinations, by obeying our unschooled instincts and habits, is expressing our selves. In reality we have forfeited our freedom at the core level and frustrated the expression of our selves.

Attempting to escape the suffering exacted upon us by life, and which if endured will lead to meaning, will eventually lead to yet a different kind of suffering which is more intense and meaningless.


Not until we extend ourselves beyond ourselves do we begin to see in ourselves the habit patterns that need transcended.


There are four basics which seem to motivate man: Happiness, money, love, and the fullness of life. The first three are illusions. Only the last one will give man the peace he searches for.


In the unseen regions of the human spirit lies a craving untrammeled by the physical world of possessions, social power or influence, sex and love. It is the hunger and thirst for the right direction.


Every system of religion, every system of psychology, every system of philosophy, is but an underlying search for the right direction.


No one is born a new being. But everyone is born with the potential for becoming so. The choice is always ours.


Is it not astonishing that we allow our culture to mold our personality rather than permit our personality to mold our culture?


Continued observation of the dynamics of human thinking and perception more and more convinces me that there is a deeper aspect to their humanity than is ordinarily utilized.

The horrible pain and utter failure we experience is usually brought upon ourselves by not only our indifference but our blindness to higher values. The greatest failure we experience is the failure to recognize that we are built for success in being, not the success espoused by the world.


What do you choose? Comfort and pleasure, or meaning and purpose. You cannot have both. How long does it take to learn that the latter has greater satisfactions than the former?

Never to have known the truth is better than to have
known it but acted against it.


It is easy to establish a doctrine or a theology. But it is quite another to be visited by such a doctrine or theology and deal with it. For example, a fundamental doctrine of life is that there is opposition in all things. But be compelled to face an opposition directly in our lives and we lament and retreat.


Many are they who seek to find a Way. But few find, fewer still enter, and fewer still endure.


What one does unconsciously reflects what one thinks consciously.


Often the accumulation of rigid dogma and beliefs obscures the original insights and convictions which generated them.


It is an axiom of life that our inner dilemmas reflect our outer lives. We therefore need to learn that both our inner and outer lives are irretrievably connected and interdependent


It is amazing to me that man is such a noble presentiment in the universe, yet spends so much of his time and effort in rendering himself unconscious.


We cannot escape the inevitable effects of our issues. Sooner or later we will be billed an onerous bill, the payment of which must be made.


When we pursue material success, worldly happiness and peace, telestial security and certainty, we are worshiping false gods which do not deliver what they promise.


Grappling with the elements of nature, especially including our own nature should not eclipse the very essence of our greatness.

We all come in folded layers. And in those folds lie the secrets of ourselves. It is our task to unfold ourselves.


Metaphors are wonderful expressions of the eloquence of life. But life is more than metaphors. Metaphors can trigger beautiful and transformational experiences and can enhance our understanding, but they are not the experiences or the understanding themselves.


Life is not just a technique. It is a discovery. And a process.

The unity of man and spirit becomes apparent in the similar descriptions of him in virtually all cultures and all sacred traditions the world over.


Why, I regularly ask myself, do most men work so persistently at overcoming themselves?

The primordial urges of man are often spoken of in negative terms, but man also has urges to become better than he is.


One cannot fully appreciate the beauty of a butterfly if he does not know that first it was a caterpillar.


Transformation does not usually occur in the collective, but in the individual. Perhaps that is one of the reasons we hear so little about it.

Society or humanity will never be transformed until the individual is transformed. That is why all the legislation of governments will never reform nations.


This is the greatest truism about man ever discovered: He is a god in embryo. But it is he who determines whether the embryo gives birth.


Oh, Man! Wake up. Give birth. Examine yourself, and spread your wings.

You reveal by outward action your inner state. Do you want to be known by who you really are or by who you pretend to be?


What we were yesterday need not be what we are today.


By plotting to get even we are actually falling behind.


Someone said “Tomorrow never comes!” Oh, yes it does!


To be clever and devious in trying to hide ourselves will eventually reveal our deviousness and dishonesty, and thus expose ourselves.


When we enter the spiritual realm, the secular forms don’t seem to matter much anymore.


To focus on our strengths by making them stronger is better than always trying to overcome our weaknesses.


When we consecrate ourselves to any noble cause our individuality is enhanced, not diminished.


When we have an eye single to the glory of God a strange, unexpected event happens: We become more glorified!


Consequences of our acts are not determined by whether you want them or not.


All you have to do to put the shadow behind you is to turn around and face the sun.


There is so much talk from so-called spiritual adepts about the shadow within. When are they going to discover the light within?

Neither glibness, nor accentuated decibels, nor quickness of talk, nor witty remarks, add to the validity of our argument.


Churchianity is not Christianity. Churchianity is strict adherence to doctrines. Christianity is strict adherence to Christ.


Authority is not intended to deny us freedom, but to grant it.


A genuinely good man or good woman is better than a talented one.


There are some who, even though they have left the world and joined the Kingdom, still like to party there or visit it on week-ends.


It is easier to stay out of debt than to get out of debt.


Isn’t it rather curious how some people seem to have this inordinate ability to fool themselves.


Sometimes it isn’t excited thrust that leads us where we want to go, but slow plodding.




The glib talk, the fast way, the loud voice, the failure to listen, is just what often keeps us stuck.


When you are on the inside often it is mere exacerbation of what is on the outside.


If we spent more time counting our blessings instead of nursing our hurts we would be happier.


Blessings come only after we have paid our dues.


Do not carry over from yesterday its hurts, but begin the day anew. New days are offered for new beginnings.

The hard, cold fact of reality is that we have our free-agency and it will not be abrogated merely because we make choices which make ourselves and others miserable. The secret is to use our freedom wisely.


Maybe we ought to stop wringing our hands in anxiety and fold them in prayer.


It is not as important to concentrate on who our rescuer is as it is to be thankful that we were rescued.


Are you a true believer in the Kingdom, or are you just a tourist passing through?


Beware when you are feted before the large and raucous crowd for someday you will stand before a much smaller and quieter assembly: the judgment bar of God.


I have solemnly and sadly observed that the quiet and gradual relinquishment of faith results in surrender to the world.


Succumbing to temptation means one has grossly undervalued himself and overvalued the temptation.

How easy it is to get caught in the traps of the world and how hard it is to extricate one’s self.


Our tendency to belong and to be loved should not permit us to be manipulated and maneuvered.


To follow good principles and ideals is good. But it is better to be those principles and ideals.

It is O.K. to ask why, for then you are geared to look for the answer.


Maybe there is no answer to your question. Just hold it to your bosom, then, and recognize the majesty in mystery. If the answer were given now perhaps you wouldn’t understand it anyway.


So, you’ve received bad breaks. What you have to work for is that they don’t break you.


A momentary lapse, though it may be extremely hurtful and we think at the time that it is everlasting, when the hurt finally dissipates and our perspective grows wiser, we then understand that the moment of lapse does not nullify a lifetime of being at one’s best.


We must not assume that because something at present is not explainable that it has no explanation.


What may now appear to be an aberration may later become clear.


It is so easy to walk to the thermostat and turn down the heat. Would that it would be so simple in life!


Part of our waking up occurs when we are tried at the point where we thought we were strongest, but it turns out it was our weakest.


We must be alert to not only what goes on around us but to what goes on in us.


Sometimes our best is ameliorated by someone else’s worst.


Do you realize that it takes the same muscles to smile as it does to sneer?


Our mistakes are not set in concrete; our weaknesses can turn into strengths if we allow ourselves to be tutored by higher standards.

Isn’t it better to develop sensitivity rather than have it foisted upon us?


Oh, so it’s rained on your parade and you got wet. Get used to it for in this life it will often happen. But, remember, the sun will eventually come out and dry you off.


I used to think that a faith-filled life was a stress-free life. Now that I’m older I know better.


We do not glide through life; we stumble through it. The secret is keeping our balance, and getting back up and continuing the journey when we fall.


We seem to pre-determine the suffering we will put up with. We will endure physical pain, grief, sorrow, loneliness, but not betrayal or forsakenness of loved ones. But they are part of the challenges of the spirit, too, and we had better learn to put up with them.


We are required by the soul-alert life to not merely put up with our suffering, but to forgive it and transcend it.

Of course it isn’t easy. But some have done it. And if others have done it, why can’t I?


Suffering may, in the eternal scheme of things, result in our consecration. It is intended to hallow us rather than denigrate us.


Oh, how hard it is to learn the lessons we must learn. But let us be touched by this knowing: The more difficult the lesson, the more glorious the learning of it.


We live in a time when “men’s hearts shall fail them.” Then do something to strengthen your heart!

Whenever we see someone with great ability we naturally think that such ability is a free gift; he or she was, in other words, born with it. That may be true. But it is more likely that those “gifts” were earned by painstaking effort, here a little, there a little –it is like everything else, a process of growth.


The manufacture of a multitude of words often are used to cover up a multitude of sins.


Do not be deceived into thinking that you are now clean merely because you’ve washed your hands of the whole thing.


Be careful when you roll a pebble down a hill. You may start an avalanche.


Generosity in one thing does not remove niggardliness in another. Neither does remembrance of one thing negate forgetfulness in another.


Our lost faith cannot erase the effect of our past faith. Well, on second thought that aphorism needs to be pondered. It may be true in one sense but not in another. The trails we leave behind may or may not make clear the road ahead.


Recognize that sometimes there is a whole lot of love in a very big challenge.


To lose one’s sense of belonging is to lose one’s sense of Life. To gain, therefore, perspective, ask yourself this question: To whom, or what, do I choose to belong?


Sometimes, what we are so desperately searching for has already been found.


Deprivation often leads to magnification. But we have to wait and endure before it manifests.


Refining fire means we may be burned. Of course we do not like it because it is painful. But, the burning may be necessary in order to burn away the chaff.


What may be inexplicable to us now may be explicable later. In the meantime we will go through a lot of irony, paradox, injustice and unfairness. Maybe those trials are the tools which at last render what is now inexplicable explicable, and not our categories of rationality.


Do not let our darkest hours eclipse our finest hours.


The fact that we sometimes feel dark, and lonely, and unloved, bespeaks what a high order of species we are.

The trouble with many Christians is that they try to have one foot in the world and the other in the temple. In other words, church and good behavior is reserved for Sunday and the rest of the week we can indulge ourselves.


The paradox of the divine tutorial is that suffering will come to us if we are serious and that our afflictions become a form of learning, and that our learning is exactly that which wrenches our hearts and is the most difficult for us to do. This is why sometimes the best people have the worst things happen to them.


The true citizenship for the disciple of peace lies in another world; we merely have a temporary passport to this one.


It is often not the noble and great, the talented and gifted, the famous and notorious, who fight the greatest battles of life, but the quiet ones who, according to the world’s ways, never achieve anything noteworthy.


Or task is not to make a favorable impression on the world, but a favorable impact on ourselves.


It is the person who works silently in the background, unnoticed and unheralded, who lives his life with purpose and strain and dies his death in ignominy and pain in some obscure place, who is the true hero of life.


Do you entirely fathom the insight that of all the billions of people who have lived on this planet and who will live on this planet, you are unique. There has never been one exactly like you here before, and after you leave, there will never be another exactly like you here again. Individuality is an awesome thing. But, don’t be puffed up about it; be thankful for it.


If we are lucky we will leave only a legacy of excerpts on our tenure here, but no lengthy books will be written and no memorable speeches or accolades given.


The legacy we leave of our life, whether quotable or not, whether memorable or not, do not represent the frequency or the power with which we have felt or spoken. Thus are the greatest aspects of our lives held in secret.


The one thing I want my children to remember about me is that I loved them. And that they learned to love me!


Not remembrance of my mistakes and failings, but remembrance of my struggles and purpose – that is what I want to be remembered for.

Wherever you go or whatever you do you cannot escape the laws of being and existence. One of those laws is that there is an opposition in all things. There will always be some thing or some person who will sabotage your becoming or there will be obstacles in your way. Just keep on keeping on and someday you will discover that those obstacles were forces of strength and the path which was often difficult now becomes easier.


Oh, how onerous the sacrifices we must make in the process of our becoming! Especially the sacrifice of our sins.


You must – MUST – give up your short-term pleasures for long-term, more lasting satisfactions. Isn’t that the definition of maturity?


We generally react to one of the most healing and safest words in the English language with fear and pride and stubborn resistance. That word is Repentance! What repentance does is free us from all the rubbish and bad habits that have held us captive and wrecked our lives.


“Endure to the end” is an axiom that many quote, but do not know its full meaning and intent. It is assumed that if one does it his salvation is assured. Thus they take life as a pleasant, complacent place of ease where they expect to be rescued at last if they just follow the rules and don’t do anything terribly bad. “Enduring to the end” means that our spiritual growth is a continuous discipleship, and we fail if we rest on our laurels

I used to think that retirement should allow me to now at last take it easy, only to discover that after I retired I am still faced with difficulty and challenges. One’s discipleship is a never-ending process, not only of advancement, but of discovery. When, I ask, will I ever be allowed to rest? Not until you become what you have designed for yourself to become.


A human being is like a garden. It must be fertilized, weeded, watered and cared for.


A true Christian does not forgive because he ought to, or love because he should, but does so as a natural result of the kind of being he is. So then, we need to pause in our journey once in a while and ask ourselves: What kind of being have I become, and what kind of being am I in the process of becoming?


If you pause often to count the cost, you will never accumulate the
benefits.


There are some things we must deny ourselves. Of course indulgence is comfortable, but what you don’t see at the time is that you may have to give up some other desirable thing. You simply cannot have it both ways. The law of life is that if you claim something you have to give-up something else. The quest therefore is, not do I want it, or is it a good thing, but is it appropriate? What will it manifest in the long run?


We must be devoted to singleness of purpose. If we indulge in every attractive thing, we lose our promise. The world is filled with attractive things which tempt us, but attractive things have a curious way of turning into unattractive things.


The trouble with many Christians is that they try to have one foot in the world and the other in the temple. In other words, church and good