You actions are not your own unless they spring from true self-knowledge—regardless of whether they appear to be right or wrong from a lofty viewpoint. They are but the actions of a puppet.
If you act from self-knowledge, you will always fully express your true nature. Then, regardless of the outcome of your actions, you will feel no great dissatisfaction. Even in the event of failure, somehow one derives a certain pleasure in thinking of doing better in the future.
However, if one’s actions fail to spring from self-knowledge, arising instead from other motives/sources, then even if one’s endeavor is successful, it will be of no true worth to anyone. Underlying the superficial success, such action is no more than the posturing of a puppet on his stage.
When an endeavor ends in failure, we really need be no more than mildly disappointed. Yet it is our tendency to take regret and reproach (not for our own inadequacy, but directed at others) and pile them upon our backs until we are nigh unto collapse. This is because from the beginning the endeavor was not a course that we pursued through our own thought and hardship, but one that we simply let ourselves be led into.
Therefore, regardless of success or failure, unswayed by the criticism of others, and with true self-awareness at each moment, we must discover our own path with our own eyes, and advance along it with our own feet. If we fail to do this, there can be no true progress and understanding.
However, with most of the people in this world, should someone else run to the West, they will turn in that direction as well; or should someone make a fuss in the East, they will rush off to the East to see what it’s all about. Such action is only too common.
True self-knowledge is simply the inflow of divine inspiration into the self. There is nothing more dangerous than to ignore this divine inflow, relying only upon the superficial affairs that lie before our eyes.
If in your innermost heart you cannot accept something, then even should a messenger of God stand before you and urge you to accept, it would be best to refuse. Conversely, if you feel deep in your heart that it is right to do something, should a million people try to dissuade you, it is still best to see it through.
Self-knowledge springs from our own true identity, which generally takes a definite form after we reach maturity. During our childhood, we are already actively being guided and raised by the influence of our higher self, but we have yet to take on a strong individual character.
True self-knowledge comes not from within oneself but directly from God. Our own observations and experiences are not reliable. And it is dangerous to base our actions on them rather than on the self-knowledge we receive from God.
Among today’s youth there are many who believe that merely by skillfully studying the research and experiences of others they have acquired so-called wisdom. However, though the experiences of others may serve as a reference when going through the same situations, by no means can the experiences of others be easily made your own. What you can acquire mastery of is limited to what you have chewed in your own mouth, swallowed with your own throat, and digested with your own stomach.
If you seek things on your own by experiencing various realms one after another, then no matter how difficult the situation you encounter, you will be able to calmly find an appropriate way out, and emerge unperturbed to a safe place. If, however, you are suddenly placed alone in the middle of a world conjured from the searchings of others—what then? Until someone comes along to guide you, you are well and truly lost. You won’t even be able to summon up the courage to take a single step forward on your own.
In such a situation, your borrowed faith and wisdom is revealed as but a fleeting sham—lasting no more than a brief instant. You are no better than someone proudly living in a castle built on air. Similarly, there is nothing more dangerous and foolish than to act without self-awareness and conviction, blindly following along behind others.
We must pay no heed to the criticisms and judgments of others, and develop the courage to calmly act in the way we believe to be our utmost best.
It is best to assume that no one truly knows you, other than God.
There is nothing more uncertain than the realization of our hopes. However, because we insist on clinging to unreliable expectations, and unwittingly growing ever more attached to them, then once these hopes are dashed, we will, in proportion to the degree of our attachment to them, be left suffering and at a loss. All the joy and suffering in the world varies according to the degree of our preparation for the worst.
However, people in general are deeply self-centered, and rarely able to meet adversity with calm readiness. Aspiring only to realize personal gain, they are intractable in their selfish and greedy expectations. If only we face events with a truly selfless and thorough readiness, then no matter how poorly events turn, we will not blanch or lose our composure.
With such selfless and thorough readiness, we can see that regardless of a thing’s success or failure, or whether it is temporarily advantageous or not, from a broad viewpoint even our present failures are valuable steps towards success in the long run. It is human nature to become caught up in partial and temporary matters, and so we find ourselves in a state of constant distress and suffering. In order to shake ourselves free of this, we must first manage to firmly grasp our own limitless and eternal nature, and use this as a base from which to view all around us.
The present faults and uglinesses of the self are an essential part of the process towards a self of limitless good and beauty. There’s absolutely no need to feel pessimistic or desperate; we need only change our attitude and these feelings will swiftly be replaced by ones of gratitude and benediction. If only we learn to view the present and the limited from such an eternal and boundless standpoint, all things will seem enjoyable, blessed, and full of interest.
Making a shift from a fixed situation to an unfamiliar one involves no small amount of trouble and hardship. But unless we cast off our shells, we cannot receive the light. Failing to take a step outside the confines of our familiar conditions, we will never understand the world. Each of us has many entrenched habits, whose reform takes extreme effort and pains.
When we have climbed to a higher level, and turn to look back below, we can’t help but laugh at our former narrow-mindedness and ugliness, and wonder, “How could I have been so childish, shameful, and absurd!?” This may happen again and again without limit. It’s the way we gradually advance.
The nature of the cycle of completion is that things do not reach perfection of a sudden, but rather do so gradually and cyclically. For example, when we decide to make something and conceive of it in our minds, that is the first level of completion. Next, by assigning it a shape, we bring it to the second level. Assembling its component materials, and then putting together the framework are the third and fourth levels. In this way the final stage of completion is eventually reached. The perfection of the universe, of course, follows this pattern as well, and we should keep this in mind in even our most trivial actions.
Likewise in seeking knowledge, unless we first understanding things by their overall outline, our efforts will be wholly bootless. Thus, according to this cycle of completion, things gradually move towards true perfection. In education as well, this happens without our realizing it.
It is not at all true that we must devote many long years, or drastically change our circumstances, in order to accumulate practical experience. Those who are right-minded and quick to comprehend are able to discover in just a single day or hour a path that may take others ten or a hundred years to find. They are also able to engage their full mind and attention, to draw limitless truth from even a small and worthless incident.
Indeed, since time and space originate entirely from our thoughts, then according to the nature of these thoughts a single day may have the value of a hundred years, or only that of a single hour. Therefore, by refusing to live in mediocrity while in this world—using a single hour as though it were a full day or even ten days, and using a single day as though it were a full hundred or even a thousand years—we may live long and spiritually. Accordingly, by finding spiritual advancement through our experience of various circumstances, we may attain in only five or ten years a level that takes others their entire lives.
Let us first boldly step forward, then carefully explore.
To know everything, to know nothing; to appear wholly ignorant, to appear immeasurably wise—this is the ideal state.
