Monday, November 12, 2007
The Rock of Principles
It is a sad world we live in; it is filled with people who are only seeking pleasure, seeking to fulfill their own selfish desires, excitement, and novelty. They are not seeking strength, and power; but courting weakness, and eagerly engaging in dispersing what power they have.
Those people of real power and influence are few, because few are prepared to make the sacrifice necessary to the acquirement of power, and fewer still are ready to patiently build up character. To allow your self to be swayed by your fluctuating thoughts and impulses is to be weak and powerless; to rightly control and direct those forces is to be strong and powerful. People with strong animal passions have much of the ferocity of a beast, but this is not power. The elements of power are there; but it is only when this ferocity is tamed and subdued by the higher intelligence that real power begins; and you can only grow in power by awakening themselves to higher and ever higher states of intelligence and consciousness.
The difference between a person of weakness and one of power is not a simple measurement of the personal will (for the stubborn person is usually weak and foolish), but in that focus of consciousness which represents their states of knowledge. The pleasure seekers, the lovers of excitement, the hunters of novelty, and the victims of impulse and hysterical emotion lack that knowledge.
It is the knowledge of principles which gives balance, stability and influence. A person begins to develop power when you check your impulses and selfish inclinations, and instead focuses upon the higher and calmer consciousness within and steady yourself upon a principle.
The realization of unchanging principles in your consciousness is at once the source and secret of the highest power. When, after much searching, and suffering, and sacrificing, the light of an eternal principle dawns upon your soul, a divine calm ensues and joy unspeakable gladdens the heart.
The person, who is governed by selfishness, and not by a principle, changes their front whenever those selfish comforts are threatened, they become deeply intent upon defending and guarding their own interests, they regard all things as lawful that will serve that end. They are continually scheming as to how they can protect against their enemies, being too self-centered to perceive that they are their own enemy.
The one that stands upon a principle is the same calm, dauntless, possessed individual under all circumstances. When the hour of trial comes, and you have to decide between personal comfort and Truth, you give up this comfort and remain firm. The person of self regards the loss of wealth, comfort, or life style as the greatest calamities which could occur, while the person of principle looks upon these same incidents as insignificant, and not to be weighed with loss of character, or loss of Truth. To desert Truth is the only happening which can really be called a calamity.
It is the hour of crisis which decides who are the minions of darkness, and who are the children of light, it is the epoch of threatening disaster, ruin, and persecution which divides the sheep from the goats, and reveals to the reverential gaze of succeeding ages the men and women of power.
It is easy for a person, so long as they are left in the enjoyment of their possessions, to persuade their self that one believes in and adheres to the principles of Peace, Brotherhood, and Universal Love; but if and when those enjoyments are threatened, or imagines they are threatened, they begins to clamor for war and retribution and demanding their rights be defended. This shows that they believe in and stands upon, not Peace, Brotherhood, and Love, but strife, selfishness, and hatred.
The one who does not desert their principles when threatened with the loss of every earthly thing, even to the loss of reputation and life, is the person of power. There is no way to the acquirement of spiritual power except by that inward illumination and enlightenment which is the realization of spiritual principles; and those principles can only be realized by constant practice and application.
Take the principle of divine Love, and quietly and diligently meditate upon it with the object of arriving at a thorough understanding of it. Bring its searching light to bear upon all your habits, your actions, your speech and interactions with others, your every secret thought and desire. As you persevere in this course, the divine Love will become more and more perfectly revealed to you, and your own shortcomings will stand out in more and more vivid contrast, spurring you on to renewed effort; and having once caught a glimpse of the unsurpassed majesty of that immortal principle, you will never again rest in your weakness, your selfishness, or your imperfection, but will pursue that Love until you have relinquished every discordant aspect, and have brought yourself into perfect harmony with it. That state of inward harmony is spiritual power.
Take also other spiritual principles, such as Purity and Compassion, and apply them in the same way, and, so exacting is Truth, you will be able to rest until the innermost part of your soul is clear of every stain, and your heart has become incapable of any hard, disparaging, or pitiless impulse. Only in so far as you understand, realize and rely upon, these principles, will you acquire spiritual power, and that power will be manifested in and through you in the form of increasing calmness, patience and poise.
Dispassion argues superior self control; sublime patience is the very hallmark of divine knowledge, and to retain an unbroken calm amid all the duties and distractions of life, clearly marks the person of power. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great person is the one who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect attractiveness the independence of solitude.
Some mystics hold that perfection in dispassion is the source of that power by which miracles are performed, and truly the one who has gained such perfect control of all their interior forces that no shock, however great, can for one moment unbalance them, must be capable of guiding and directing those forces with a master-hand. To grow in patience and poise, is to grow in strength and power; and you can only thus grow by focusing your consciousness upon a principle.
Rely upon your own judgment, be true to your own conscience, and follow the Light that is within you; all outward lights are just so many will-o'-the-wisps. There will be those who will tell you that you are foolish; that your judgment is faulty; that your conscience is all awry, and that the Light within you is darkness; but don’t listen to them for if what they say is true then the sooner you, as a searcher for wisdom, find it out the better, and you can only make the discovery by bringing your powers to the test. Therefore, pursue your course bravely.
You will have many falls, will suffer many wounds, will endure many buffetings for a time, but press on in faith, believing that sure and certain victory lies ahead. Search for a rock, a principle, and once you find it cling to it; get it under your feet and stand erect upon it, until at last, immovably fixed upon it, you succeed in defying the fury of the waves and storms of selfishness.
As you grow in spiritual life, and become established upon principles, you will become as beautiful and as unchangeable as those principles, and you will taste of the sweetness of their immortal essence.
Be Blessed
Those people of real power and influence are few, because few are prepared to make the sacrifice necessary to the acquirement of power, and fewer still are ready to patiently build up character. To allow your self to be swayed by your fluctuating thoughts and impulses is to be weak and powerless; to rightly control and direct those forces is to be strong and powerful. People with strong animal passions have much of the ferocity of a beast, but this is not power. The elements of power are there; but it is only when this ferocity is tamed and subdued by the higher intelligence that real power begins; and you can only grow in power by awakening themselves to higher and ever higher states of intelligence and consciousness.
The difference between a person of weakness and one of power is not a simple measurement of the personal will (for the stubborn person is usually weak and foolish), but in that focus of consciousness which represents their states of knowledge. The pleasure seekers, the lovers of excitement, the hunters of novelty, and the victims of impulse and hysterical emotion lack that knowledge.
It is the knowledge of principles which gives balance, stability and influence. A person begins to develop power when you check your impulses and selfish inclinations, and instead focuses upon the higher and calmer consciousness within and steady yourself upon a principle.
The realization of unchanging principles in your consciousness is at once the source and secret of the highest power. When, after much searching, and suffering, and sacrificing, the light of an eternal principle dawns upon your soul, a divine calm ensues and joy unspeakable gladdens the heart.
The person, who is governed by selfishness, and not by a principle, changes their front whenever those selfish comforts are threatened, they become deeply intent upon defending and guarding their own interests, they regard all things as lawful that will serve that end. They are continually scheming as to how they can protect against their enemies, being too self-centered to perceive that they are their own enemy.
The one that stands upon a principle is the same calm, dauntless, possessed individual under all circumstances. When the hour of trial comes, and you have to decide between personal comfort and Truth, you give up this comfort and remain firm. The person of self regards the loss of wealth, comfort, or life style as the greatest calamities which could occur, while the person of principle looks upon these same incidents as insignificant, and not to be weighed with loss of character, or loss of Truth. To desert Truth is the only happening which can really be called a calamity.
It is the hour of crisis which decides who are the minions of darkness, and who are the children of light, it is the epoch of threatening disaster, ruin, and persecution which divides the sheep from the goats, and reveals to the reverential gaze of succeeding ages the men and women of power.
It is easy for a person, so long as they are left in the enjoyment of their possessions, to persuade their self that one believes in and adheres to the principles of Peace, Brotherhood, and Universal Love; but if and when those enjoyments are threatened, or imagines they are threatened, they begins to clamor for war and retribution and demanding their rights be defended. This shows that they believe in and stands upon, not Peace, Brotherhood, and Love, but strife, selfishness, and hatred.
The one who does not desert their principles when threatened with the loss of every earthly thing, even to the loss of reputation and life, is the person of power. There is no way to the acquirement of spiritual power except by that inward illumination and enlightenment which is the realization of spiritual principles; and those principles can only be realized by constant practice and application.
Take the principle of divine Love, and quietly and diligently meditate upon it with the object of arriving at a thorough understanding of it. Bring its searching light to bear upon all your habits, your actions, your speech and interactions with others, your every secret thought and desire. As you persevere in this course, the divine Love will become more and more perfectly revealed to you, and your own shortcomings will stand out in more and more vivid contrast, spurring you on to renewed effort; and having once caught a glimpse of the unsurpassed majesty of that immortal principle, you will never again rest in your weakness, your selfishness, or your imperfection, but will pursue that Love until you have relinquished every discordant aspect, and have brought yourself into perfect harmony with it. That state of inward harmony is spiritual power.
Take also other spiritual principles, such as Purity and Compassion, and apply them in the same way, and, so exacting is Truth, you will be able to rest until the innermost part of your soul is clear of every stain, and your heart has become incapable of any hard, disparaging, or pitiless impulse. Only in so far as you understand, realize and rely upon, these principles, will you acquire spiritual power, and that power will be manifested in and through you in the form of increasing calmness, patience and poise.
Dispassion argues superior self control; sublime patience is the very hallmark of divine knowledge, and to retain an unbroken calm amid all the duties and distractions of life, clearly marks the person of power. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great person is the one who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect attractiveness the independence of solitude.
Some mystics hold that perfection in dispassion is the source of that power by which miracles are performed, and truly the one who has gained such perfect control of all their interior forces that no shock, however great, can for one moment unbalance them, must be capable of guiding and directing those forces with a master-hand. To grow in patience and poise, is to grow in strength and power; and you can only thus grow by focusing your consciousness upon a principle.
Rely upon your own judgment, be true to your own conscience, and follow the Light that is within you; all outward lights are just so many will-o'-the-wisps. There will be those who will tell you that you are foolish; that your judgment is faulty; that your conscience is all awry, and that the Light within you is darkness; but don’t listen to them for if what they say is true then the sooner you, as a searcher for wisdom, find it out the better, and you can only make the discovery by bringing your powers to the test. Therefore, pursue your course bravely.
You will have many falls, will suffer many wounds, will endure many buffetings for a time, but press on in faith, believing that sure and certain victory lies ahead. Search for a rock, a principle, and once you find it cling to it; get it under your feet and stand erect upon it, until at last, immovably fixed upon it, you succeed in defying the fury of the waves and storms of selfishness.
As you grow in spiritual life, and become established upon principles, you will become as beautiful and as unchangeable as those principles, and you will taste of the sweetness of their immortal essence.
Be Blessed
Labels: life, self improvement
http://www.staffofpower.com
