BYWAYS TO BLESSEDNESS + OUT FROM THE HEART +THROUGH THE GATES OF GOOD E-Book

James Allen

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

THE genius of the present age in matters spiritual is towards simplicity, and the hunger of the human heart is for Truth naked and uninvolved. That hunger wil eventual y bring about (is already bringing about) its own satisfaction, and here and there are men and women who, passing through the Gateway of Self-conquest, are entering into possession of the Transcendent Righteousness. The closing years of the nineteenth century witnessed the culmination of Formalism, and the spiritual reaction is now firmly established. Already "the end of old faiths and beginning of the new" is discernible to al who have removed from their mental vision somewhat of the textual dust of dying creeds, and have penetrated, however faintly, that sublime region of Truth which is discoverable only by practice, and which is made manifest by pure thoughts and holy deeds. The universal decay of effete religious systems which the world is witnessing today is matter for rejoicing; it is the death which precedes Life; it is the passing away of the false in order that the True may be more ful y revealed. The True can, at worst, but remain hidden. It endures. It remains forever. Its invincibility cannot be qualified, and he who has but one momentary glimpse of the True can never again be anxious for its safety. That about which men are anxious is the false, which they mistake for the True, and this, in spite of al their anxiety, must fade away at last. In the lives of al the Great Teachers we see a manifestation of that Universal Truth, the majesty and splendor of which is as yet but dimly comprehended by mankind, but which must, during the gradual transformation and transmutation which the accumulating ages shal effect, at last become the possession of al . That Truth, as manifested by the Teachers, was written by them, as it only can be written, in thoughts and deeds of the loftiest moral excel ence which have been permanently impressed upon the mind of mankind by their embodiment in preceptial form. It is to the sweet lives and 2 inspiring words of these mighty Teachers that the eyes of a hungering and thirsty world are again being turned, and the Light of Life is being lighted up, the world over, in hearts that are ready to attune themselves to the Eternal Song of Love and Peace. What religions have failed to do, Religion wil accomplish; what the Priest has obscured, the Spirit of Truth in the heart of man wil make plain, and the world is now finding spiritual healing and refreshment in turning away from traditional and historic accretions, and going back to the pure Fountain of Truth as revealed to them so simply, clearly and beautiful y by their blameless Teachers, and which had its inexhaustive spring within themselves. To aid men and women (more particularly those in Christian countries) more speedily to find this abiding Truth, these articles, setting forth the life and precepts of Jesus, were written. Formalism and self were heavy burdens to carry, and in directing the minds of men to blamelessness of conduct and purity of heart, I know I can leave the result with the Supreme Law, and that there are those who wil read and, having read, wil pass from the burdensome complexities of ignorance and formalism to the joyful simplicity of Enlightenment and Truth. James Allen.

Leseprobe

James Allen

BYWAYS TO BLESSEDNESS + OUT FROM THE HEART +THROUGH THE GATES OF GOOD

James AllenBookRix GmbH & Co. KG80331 Munich

BYWAYS TO BLESSEDNESS + OUT FROM THE HEART +THROUGH THE GATES OF GOOD

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BYWAYS TO BLESSEDNESS + OUT FROM THE HEART +THROUGH THE GATES OF GOOD

BYWAYS TO BLESSEDNESS

JAMES ALLEN

CONTENTS

Foreword

1. Right Beginnings

2. Smal Tasks and Duties

3. Transcending Difficulties and Perplexities

4. Burden-Dropping

5. Hidden Sacrifices

6. Sympathy

7. Forgiveness

8. Seeing No Evil

9. Abiding Joy

10. Silentness

11. Solitude

12. Standing Alone

13. Understanding the Simple Laws of Life

14. Happy Endings

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FOREWORD

Along the highways of Burma there is placed, at regular distances away from the dust of the road, and under the cool shade of a group of trees, a smal wooden building cal ed a “rest-house”, where the weary traveller may rest a while, and al ay his thirst and assuage his hunger and fatigue by partaking of the food and water which the kindly inhabitants place there as a religious duty. Along the great highway of life there are such resting places; away from the heat of passion and the dust of disappointment, under the cool and refreshing shade of lowly Wisdom, are the humble, unimposing “rest-houses” of peace, and the little, almost unnoticed, byways of blessedness, where alone the weary and footsore can find strength and healing.

Nor can these byways be ignored without suffering. Along the great road of life, hurrying, and eager to reach some il usive goal, presses the multitude, despising the apparently insignificant “rest-houses” of true thought, not heeding the narrow little byways of blessed action, which they regard as unimportant; and hour by hour men are fainting and fal ing, and numbers that cannot be counted perish of heart-hunger, heart-thirst, and heart-fatigue. But he who wil step aside from the passionate press, and wil deign to notice and to enter the byways which are here presented, his dusty feet shal press the incomparable flowers of blessedness, his eyes be gladdened with their beauty, and his mind refreshed with their sweet perfume. Rested and sustained, he wil escape the fever and the delirium of life, and, strong and happy, he wil not fal fainting in the dust, nor perish by the way, but wil successful y accomplish his journey.

James Allen

Broad Park Avenue Ilfracombe, England.

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1. RIGHT BEGINNINGS

“Al common things, each day’s events,

That with the hour begin and end;

Our pleasures and our discontents

Are rounds by which we may ascend.”

“We have not wings, we cannot soar;

But we have feet to scale and climb.”

Longfel ow.

“For common life, its wants

And ways, would I set forth in beauteous hues.”

Browning.

Life is ful of beginnings. They are presented every day and every hour to every person. Most beginnings are smal , and appear trivial and insignificant, but in reality they are the most important things in life.

See how in the material world everything proceeds from smal beginnings.

The mightiest river is at first a rivulet over which the grasshopper could leap; the great flood commences with a few drops of rain; the sturdy oak, which has endured the storms of a thousand winters, was once an acorn; and the smouldering match, carelessly dropped, may be the means of devastating a whole town by fire.

Consider, also, how in the spiritual world the greatest things proceed from smal est beginnings. A light fancy may be the inception of a wonderful invention or an immortal work of art; a spoken sentence may turn the tide of history; a pure thought entertained may lead to the exercise of a world-wide regenerative power; and a momentary animal impulse may lead to the darkest crime.

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Have you yet discovered the vast importance of beginnings? Do you real y know what is involved in a beginning? Do you know the number of beginnings you are continuously making, and realise their ful import? If not, come with me for a short time, and thoughtfully explore this much ignored byway of blessedness, for blessed it is when wisely resorted to, and much strength and comfort it holds for the understanding mind.

A beginning is a cause, and as such it must be followed by an effect, or a train of effects, and the effect wil always be of the same nature as the cause. The nature of an initial impulse wil always determine the body of its results. A beginning also presupposes an ending, a consummation, achievement, or goal. A gate leads to a path, and the path leads to some particular destination; so a beginning leads to results, and results lead to a completion.

There are right beginnings and wrong beginnings, which are followed by effects of a like nature. You can, by careful thought, avoid wrong beginnings and make right beginnings, and so escape evil results and enjoy good results.

There are beginnings over which you have no control and authority- these are without, in the universe, in the world of nature around you, and in other people who have the same liberty as yourself.

Do not concern yourself with these beginnings, but direct your energies and attention to those beginnings over which you have complete control and authority, and which bring about the complicated web of results which compose your life. These beginnings are to be found in the realm of your own thoughts and actions; in your mental attitude under the variety of circumstances through which you pass; in your conduct day by day - in short, in your life as you make it, which is your world of good or il .

In aiming at the life of Blessedness one of the simplest beginnings to be considered and rightly made is that which we al make everyday - namely, the beginning of each day’s life.

How do you begin each day? At what hour do you rise? How do you commence your duties? In what frame of mind do you enter upon the sacred

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life of a new day? What answer can you give your heart to these important questions? You wil find that much happiness or unhappiness follows upon the right or wrong beginning of the day, and that, when every day is wisely begun, happy and harmonious sequences wil mark its course, and life in its totality wil not fal far short of the ideal blessedness.

It is a right and strong beginning to the day to rise at an early hour. Even if your worldly duty does not demand it, it is wise to make of it a duty, and begin the day strongly by shaking off indolence. How are you to develop strength of wil and mind and body if you begin every day by yielding to weakness? Self-indulgence is always followed by unhappiness. People who lie in bed til a late hour are never bright and cheerful and fresh, but are the prey of irritabilities, depressions, debilities, nervous disorders, abnormal fancies, and al unhappy moods. This is the heavy price which they have to pay for their daily indulgence. Yet, so blinding is the pandering to self that, like the drunkard who takes his daily dram in the belief that it is bracing up the nerves which it is al the time shattering, so the lie-a-bed is convinced that long hours of ease are necessary for him as a possible remedy for those very moods and weaknesses and disorders of which his indulgence is the cause. Men and women are total y unaware of the great losses which they entail by this common indulgence: loss of strength both of mind and body, loss of prosperity, loss of knowledge, and loss of happiness.

Begin the day, then, by rising early. If you have no object in doing so, never mind; get up, and go out for a gentle walk among the beauties of nature, and you wil experience a buoyancy, a freshness, and a delight, not to say a peace of mind, which wil amply reward you for your effort. One good effort is followed by another; and when a man begins the day by rising early, even though with no other purpose in view, he wil find that the silent early hour is conducive to clearness of mind and calmness of thought, and that his early morning walk is enabling him to become a consecutive thinker, and so to see life and its problems, as wel as himself and his affairs, in a clearer light; and so in time he wil rise early with the express purpose of preparing and harmonising his mind to meet any and every difficulty with wisdom and calm strength.

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There is, indeed, a spiritual influence in the early morning hour, a divine silence and an inexpressible repose, and he who, purposeful and strong, throws off the mantle of ease and climbs the hil s to greet the morning sun wil thereby climb no inconsiderable distance up the hil s of blessedness and truth.

The right beginning of the day wil be followed by cheerfulness at the morning meal, permeating the house-hold with a sunny influence; and the tasks and duties of the day wil be undertaken in a strong and confident spirit, and the whole day wil be wel lived.

Then there is a sense in which every day may be regarded as the beginning of a new life, in which one can think, act, and live newly, and in a wiser and better spirit.

“Every day is a fresh beginning;

Every morn is the world made new,

Ye who are weary of sorrow and sinning,

Here is a beautiful hope for you,

A hope for me and a hope for you.”

Do not dwel upon the sins and mistakes of yesterday so exclusively as to have no energy and mind left for living rightly today, and do not think that the sins of yesterday can prevent you from living purely today. Begin today aright, and, aided by the accumulated experiences of al your past days, live it better than any of your previous days; but you cannot possibly live it better unless you begin it better. The character of the whole day depends upon the way it is begun.

Another beginning which is of great importance is the beginning of any particular and responsible undertaking. How does a man begin the building of a house? He first secures a plan of the proposed edifice and then proceeds to build according to the plan, scrupulously following it in every detail, beginning with the foundation. Should he neglect the beginning -

namely, the obtaining of a mathematical plan - his labour would be wasted, and his building, should it reach completion without tumbling to pieces,

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would be insecure and worthless. The same law holds good in any important work: the right beginning and first essential is a definite mental plan on whichto build. Nature wil have no slipshod work, no slovenliness, and she annihilates confusion, or rather, confusion is in itself annihilation. Order, definiteness, purpose eternal y and universal y prevail, and he who in his operations ignores these mathematical elements at once deprives himself of substantiality, completeness, success.

“Life without a plan,

As useless as the moment it began,

Serves merely as a soil for discontent

To thrive in, an encumbrance ere half spent.”

Let a man start in business without having in his mind a perfectly formed plan to systematical y pursue and he wil be incoherent in his efforts and wil fail in his business operations. The laws which must be observed in the building of a house also operate in the building up of a business. A definite plan is followed by coherent effort; and coherent effort is followed by wel -

knit and orderly results - to wit, completeness, perfection, success, happiness.

But not only mechanical and commercial enterprise - al undertakings, of whatsoever nature, come under this law. The author’s book, the artist’s picture, the orator’s speech, the reformer’s work, the inventor’s machine, the general’s campaign, are al careful y planned in the mind before the attempt to actualise them is commenced; and in accordance with the unity, solidarity, and perfection of the original mental plan wil be the actual and ultimate success of the undertaking.

Successful men, influential men, good men are those who, amongst other things, have learned the value and utilised the power which lies hidden in those obscure beginnings which the foolish man passes by as

“insignificant.”

But the most important beginning of al - that upon which affliction or blessedness inevitably depends, yet is most neglected and least understood

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- is the inception of thought in the hidden, but causal region of the mind.

Your whole life is a series of effects having their cause in thought - in your own thought. Al conduct is made and moulded by thought; al deeds, good or bad, are thoughts made visible. A seed put into the ground is the beginning of a plant or tree; the seed germinates, the plant or tree comes forth into the light and evolves. A thought put into the mind is the beginning of a line of conduct: the thought first sends down its roots into the mind, and then pushes forth into the light in the forms of actions or conduct, which evolve into character and destiny.

Hateful, angry, envious, covetous, and impure thoughts are wrong beginnings, which lead to painful results. Loving, gentle, kind, unselfish and pure thoughts are right beginnings, which lead to blissful results. This is so simple, so plain, so absolutely true! and yet how neglected, how evaded, and how little understood!

The gardener who most careful y studies how, when, and where to put in his seeds obtains the best results and gains the greater horticultural knowledge. The best crops gladden the soul of him who makes the best beginning. The man who most patiently studies how to put into his mind the seeds of strong, wholesome, and charitable thoughts, wil obtain the best results in life, and wil gain greater knowledge of truth. The greatest blessedness comes to him, who infuses into his mind the purest and noblest thoughts.

None but right acts can fol ow right thoughts; none but a right life can follow right acts -and by living a right life al blessedness is achieved.

He who considers the nature and import of his thoughts, who strives daily to eliminate bad thoughts and supplant them with good, comes at last to see that thoughts are the beginnings of results which affect every fibre of his being, which potently influence every event and circumstance of his life.

And when he thus sees, he thinks only right thoughts, chooses to make only those mental beginnings which lead to peace and blessedness.

Wrong thoughts are painful in their inception, painful in their growth, and painful in their fruitage. Right thoughts are blissful in their inception, blissful in their growth, and blissful in their fruitage.

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Many are the right beginnings which a man must discover and adopt on his way to wisdom; but that which is first and last, most important and al embracing, which is the source and fountain of al abiding happiness, is the right beginning of the mental operations - this implies the steady development of self-control, wil -power, steadfastness, strength, purity, gentleness, insight, and comprehension. It leads to the perfecting of life, for he who thinks perfectly has abolished al unhappiness, his every moment is peaceful, his years are rounded with bliss - he has attained to the complete and perfect blessedness.

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2. SMALL TASKS AND DUTIES

“Wrapped in our nearest duty is the key

Which shal unlock for us the Heavenly Gate: Unveiled, the Heavenly Vision he shal see, Who cometh not too early nor too late.”

“Like the star That shines afar,

Without haste And without rest,

Let each man wheel with steady sway

Round the task that rules the day,

And do his best.”

Goethe.

As pain and bliss inevitably follow on wrong and right beginnings, so unhappiness and blessedness are inseparably bound up with smal tasks and duties. Not that a duty has any power of itself to bestow happiness or the reverse - this is contained in the attitude of the mind which is assumed towards the duty - and everything depends upon the way in which it is approached and done.

Not only great happiness but great power arises from doing little things unselfishly, wisely, and perfectly, for life in its totality is made up of little things. Wisdom inheres in the common details of everyday existence, and when the parts are made perfect the Whole wil be without blemish.

Everything in the universe is made up of little things, and the perfection of the great is based upon the perfection of the smal . If any detail of the universe were imperfect the Whole would be imperfect. If any particle were omitted the aggregate would cease to be. Without a grain of dust there could be no world, and the world is perfect because the grain of dust is

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perfect. Neglect of the smal is confusion of the great. The snowflake is as perfect as the star; the dew drop is as symmetrical as the planet; the microbe is not less mathematical y proportioned than the man. By laying stone upon stone, plumbing and fitting each with perfect adjustment, the temple at last stands forth in al its architectural beauty. The smal precedes the great. The smal is not merely the apologetic attendant of the great, it is its master and informing genius.

Vain men are ambitious to be great, and look about to do some great thing, ignoring and despising the little tasks which cal for immediate attention, and in the doing of which there is no vainglory, regarding such “trivialities”

as beneath the notice of great men. The fool lacks knowledge because he lacks humility, and, inflated with the thought of self-importance, he aims at impossible things.

The great man has become such by the scrupulous and unselfish attention which he has given to smal duties. He has become wise and powerful by sacrificing ambition and pride in the doing of those necessary things which evoke no applause and promise no reward. He never sought greatness; he sought faithfulness, unselfishness, integrity, truth; and in finding these in the common round of smal tasks and duties he unconsciously ascended to the level of greatness.

The great man knows the vast value that inheres in moments, words, greetings, meals, apparel, correspondence, rest, work, detached efforts, fleeting obligations, in the thousand-and-one little things which press upon him for attention - briefly, in the common details of life. He sees everything as divinely apportioned, needing only the application of dispassionate thought and action on his part to render life blessed and perfect. He neglects nothing; does not hurry; seeks to escape nothing but error and fol y; attends to every duty as it is presented to him, and does not postpone and regret. By giving himself unreservedly to his nearest duty, forgetting alike pleasure and pain, he attains to that combined childlike simplicity and unconscious power which is greatness.

The advice of Confucius to his disciples: “Eat at your own table as you would at the table of a king,” emphasises the immeasurable importance of little

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things, as also does that aphorism of another great teacher, Buddha: “If anything is to be done, let a man do it, let him attack it vigorously.” To neglect smal tasks, or to execute them in a perfunctory or slovenly manner, is a mark of weakness and folly.

The giving of one’s entire and unselfish attention to every duty in its proper place evolves, by a natural growth, higher and ever higher combinations of duties, because it evolves power and develops talent, genius, goodness, character. A man ascends into greatness as natural y and unconsciously as the plant evolves a flower, and in the same manner, by fitting, with unabated energy and diligence, every effort and detail in its proper place, thus harmonising his life and character without friction or waste of power.

Of the almost innumerable recipes for the development of “wil -power” and

“concentration” which are now scattered abroad, one looks almost in vain for any wholesome hint applicable to vital experience. “Breathings,”

“postures,” “visualisings,” “occult methods” are practices as delusive as they are artificial and remote from al that is real and essential in life; while the true path - the path of duty, of earnest and undivided application to one’s daily task - along which alone wil -power and concentration of thought can be wholesomely and normal y developed, remains unknown, untrodden, unexplored even by the elect.

Al unnatural forcing and straining in order to gain “power” should be abandoned. There is no way from childhood to manhood but by growth; nor is there any other way from fol y to wisdom, from ignorance to knowledge, from weakness to strength. A man must learn how to grow little by little and day after day, by adding thought to thought, effort to effort, deed to deed.

It is true the fakir gains some sort of power by his long persistence in

“postures” and “mortifications,” but it is a power which is bought at a heavy price, and that price is an equal loss of strength in another direction.

He is never a strong, useful character, but a mere fantastic specialist in some psychological trick. He is not a developed man, he is a maimed man.

True wil -power consists in overcoming the irritabilities, fol ies, rash impulses and moral lapses which accompany the daily life of the individual, and which are apt to manifest themselves on every slight provocation; and in

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developing calmness, self-possession, and dispassionate action in the press and heat of worldly duties, and in the midst of the passionate and unbalanced throng. Anything short of this is not true power, and this can only be developed along the normal pathway of steady growth in executing ever more and more masterful y, unselfishly, and perfectly the daily round of legitimate tasks and pressing obligations.

The master is not he whose “psychological accomplishments,” rounded by mystery and wonder, leave him in unguarded moments the prey of irritability, of regret, of peevishness, or other petty folly or vice, but he whose “mastery” is manifested in fortitude, non-resentment, steadfastness, calmness, and infinite patience. The true Master is master of himself; anything other than this is not mastery but delusion. The man who sets his whole mind on the doing of each task as it is presented, who puts into it energy and intel igence, shutting al else out from his mind, and striving to do that one thing, no matter how smal , completely and perfectly, detaching himself from al reward in his task - that man wil every day be acquiring greater command over his mind, and wil , by ever-ascending degrees, become at last a man of power - a Master.

Put yourself unreservedly into your present task, and so work, so act, so live that you shal leave each task a finished piece of labour - this is the true way to the acquisition of wil -power, concentration of thought, and conservation of energy. Look not about for magical formulas, for strained and artificial methods. Every resource is already with you and within you. You have but to learn how wisely to apply yourself in that place which you now occupy. Until this is done those other and higher places which are waiting for you cannot be taken possession of, cannot be reached.

There is no way to strength and wisdom but by acting strongly and wisely in the present moment, and each present moment reveals its own task. The great man, the wise man does smal things greatly regarding nothing as

“trivial” that is necessary. The weak man, the foolish man, does smal things carelessly, and meanly, hankering the while after, some greater work for which, in his neglect and inability in smal matters, he is ceaselessly advertising his incapacity. The man who leasts governs himself is always more ambitious to govern others and assume important responsibilities.

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“Who so neglects a thing which he suspects he ought to do because it seems too smal a thing is deceiving himself; it is not too little but too great for him that he doeth it not.”

And just as the strong doing of smal tasks leads to greater strength, so the doing of those tasks weakly leads to greater weakness. What a man is in his fractional duties that he is in the aggregate of his character. Weakness is as great a source of suffering as sin, and there can be no true blessedness until some measure of strength of character is evolved. The weak man becomes strong by attaching value to little things and doing them accordingly. The strong man becomes weak by fal ing into looseness and neglect concerning smal things, thereby forfeiting his simple wisdom and squandering his energy. Herein we see the beneficent operation of that law of growth which is expressed in the little understood words: “To him that hath shal be given, and from him that hath not shal be taken away even that which he hath.”

Man instantly gains or loses by every thought he thinks, every word he says, every act he does, and every work to which he puts hand and heart. His character from moment to moment is a graduating quantity, to or from which some measure of good is added or subtracted during every moment, and the gain or loss is involved, even to absoluteness, in each thought, word, and deed as these follow each other in rapid sequence.

He who masters the smal becomes the rightful possessor of the great. He who is mastered by the smal can achieve no superlative victory.

Life is a kind of cooperative trust in which the whole is of the nature of, and dependent upon, the unit.

A successful business, a perfect machine, a glorious temple, or a beautiful character is evolved from the perfect adjustment of a multiplicity of parts.

The foolish man thinks that little faults, little indulgences, little sins, are of no consequence; he persuades himself that so long as he does not commit flagrant immoralities he is virtuous, and even holy; but he is thereby deprived of virtue, and holiness, and the world knows him accordingly; it does not reverence, adore, and love him; it passes him by; he is reckoned of no account; his influence is destroyed. The efforts of such a man to make the world virtuous, his exhortations to his fel ow-men to abandon great

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vices, are empty of substance and barren of fruitage. The insignificance which he attaches to his smal vices permeates his whole character and is the measure of his manhood: he is regarded as an insignificant man. The levity with which he commits his errors and publishes his weakness comes back to him in the form of neglect and loss of influence and respect: he is not sought after, for who wil seek to be taught of folly?

His work does not prosper, for who wil lean upon a reed? His words fal upon deaf ears, for they are void of practice, wisdom, and experience, and who wil go after an echo?

The wise man, or he who is becoming wise, sees the danger which lurks in those common personal faults which men mostly commit thoughtlessly and with impunity; he also sees the salvation which inheres in the abandonment of those faults, as wel as in the practice of virtuous thoughts and acts which the majority disregard as unimportant, and in those quiet but momentous daily conquests over self which are hidden from other’s eyes.