Man’s Place
REALIZATION OF POWER
The way to acquiring of spiritual power is by illumination and enlightenment. That is, the realization of spiritual principles, achieved only by constant practice and application of self control.
Way of Power
It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. Some mystics hold that perfection in dispassion is the source of that power by which miracles (so called) are performed. Truly he who has pined such perfect control of all his interior forces that no shock, however great, can for a moment, unbalance him, must be capable of guiding and directing those forces with a master hand. 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, marks the man of power.
To grow in self control, in patience, in equanimity, is to grow in strength and power; and you can only thus grow by focusing your consciousness upon a principle. As a child, after making many and vigorous attempts to walk unaided, at last succeeds, after numerous falls, in accomplishing this, so you must enter the way of power by first attempting to stand alone. Break away from the tyranny of custom, tradition, conventionality, and the opinions of others, until you succeed in walking lonely and erect among men. Rely upon your own judgment; be true to your own conscience; follow the Light that is within you; all outward lights are so many will-o’-the-wisps. There will be those who tell you that you are foolish; that your judgment is faulty, that your conscience is all out of whack, and that the Light within you is darkness, but heed them not. If what they say is true, the sooner you, as a searcher of wisdom, find it out the better, and you can only make that discovery by bringing your powers to the test. Therefore, pursue your course bravely.
Defying the Storm
Your conscience is at least your own, and to follow it to be courageous, to follow the conscience of another is to be a slave. You will have many falls, will suffer many wounds, will endure many buffets for a time, but press on in faith, believing that sure and certain victory lies ahead. Search for a rock, a principle, and having found it cling to it; get it under your feet, and stand erect upon it, until at last, immovably fixed upon it, you defying the fury of the waves and storms of selfishness.
For selfishness in any and every form is dissipation, weakness, death; unselfishness in its spiritual aspect is conservation, power, life. As you grow in spiritual life, and become established upon principles, you will become as beautiful and as unchangeable as those principles, will taste of the sweetness of their immortal essence, and will realize the eternal and indestructible nature of the God within.
Take the principle of divine Love, and quietly meditate upon it aiming at arriving at a thorough understanding of it. Bring its searching fight to bear upon all your habits, your actions, your communication with others, your every secret thought and desire. As you persevere in this course, the divine Love will become more perfectly revealed to you. Your own shortcomings will stand out in more vivid contrast, spurring you on to renewed endeavor, and having once caught a glimpse of that imperishable principle, you will never again rest in your weakness, your selfishness, your imperfection, but you will continue until you have relinquished every discordant element, and have brought yourself into perfect harmony with it. This state of inward harmony is spiritual power.
It is only as you understand, realize and rely upon these principles, that you will acquire spiritual power, and that power will be manifested in and through you in the form of increasing peace, patience and equanimity.
April 2nd, 2024Topic: Uncategorized Tags: None
