They say: just try to live only in the law of love, while all the people around you will live like everyone else, they will rob you, they will torment you, they will make fun of you. That's what people say, but it's not true. It can't be like that. Love and mind are not only in me, but in all people. Couldn't God put love and mind in us, a part of Himself, only for us to feel sorry for trying to live in the love that was planted in us and that attracts us. It can't be like that.
What happiness to feel, as I sometimes feel, that I have no other starting point in life than to fulfill the will of the Messenger. I'm going to die, so what? All the better. If I, L. N., will not fulfill this will, it will be fulfilled by the people who will understand from me, through me, that life is only the fulfillment of this will.
What happiness is life! Sometimes now, ever advancing towards old age, I feel such happiness that it seems to me that there can be no greater happiness. And after a while, I feel an even more intense happiness than before.
Why are uneducated people wiser than scholars? Because in their consciousness the natural and wise order of the importance of objects, questions is intact. False science brings disruption.
Family pretensions cannot justify immoral acts, just as contracting cannot justify dishonest accounts with suppliers.
Necessity is more useful to the family than luxury.
I, a rich man, must educate my children. How to dress them? What should I feed them? What should I teach them? For the needy man these questions have a better answer than for the rich man.
The education we give to people is similar to the cultivation of some fruits (apples and others) where almost everything is only the (tasty) covering of the seed. And the seed, if possible, no longer exists at all. To educate people so that the soul is as small as possible, so that only the body exists.
Only because of time, movement is possible self-condemnation, repentance, and therefore the joy of increasing in spirit. Only because of space and separation is love and its joy possible. For the creature that does not move and is not separated, for God, there was neither the joy of increase in spirit, nor the good of love.
The outward signs of worship before God are necessary, they are indispensable to men. The man who, being alone, will cross himself and say, "Lord, have mercy," thereby shows that he recognizes his relation to the Existent and Impenetrable One with the mind. Those who do not recognize this relationship are pitiable. God wants the good of everyone. If I want to live according to God's will, I must wish the good of everyone, that is, love.
In me dwells something that wants good. Only out of a misunderstanding I think I want the best for myself. The desire of good, which dwells in me, cannot wish good to me alone. The desire for good is the voice of God, who wants the good of all.
For the wise man, who lives in the spiritual life, the mind is the guide of life. To the unwise, living in the carnal life, the mind is only a tool that can be used successfully for the good of the personal life.
Life is not a joke, but a grand, solemn thing. We should live as seriously and solemnly as we die.
When people talk, it seems like all talk is the same. But these speeches are of two kinds, absolutely different from the point of view of the causes that cause them, and from the point of view of the consequences. Generally, people talk only to give free rein to their feelings. That is empty talk; the second occurs when people speak to convey an idea to another for his benefit. That is good speech.
There are periods when I am not self-conscious, but even then I know what I am. But what is that thing of which I know it to be, though I have no consciousness of it? It is the divine, God in me.
To have the consciousness of God within yourself is one, and you can reach it easily in solitude. But to have His consciousness not only in yourself, but also in others, when you meet them, is much more difficult. And you have to learn this. I'm learning. Help me, Lord.
True firm faith in God means doing what God wants, regardless of the judgment of men, and being reconciled.
How good, how relieved I feel admitting my guilt. Everything that is complicated and difficult finds its explanation and becomes easy.
It is said, and I say it too, that printing did not contribute to the good of the people. Little said. Nothing that increased the possibility of human interaction: railways, telegraph, telephones, ships, cannons, all military devices, explosives and everything called "culture", nothing contributed to the good of the people, on the contrary. Nor could it be otherwise for the people, who for the most part live a life devoid of religion, an immoral life. If the majority is immoral, then the means of influence will obviously only contribute to the spread of immorality. The means of influence of culture can be beneficial only when the majority, be it simple, is religious and moral. It is desirable that the relationship between morality and culture be such that culture evolves simultaneously and slightly behind morality. When culture takes over, as it does these days, it's a great misfortune. It may be a temporary misfortune, and I think it is. The pursuit of the elevation of culture above morality should produce temporary suffering. The backwardness of morality will bring with it suffering, which will have the effect of blocking culture, the movement of morality will accelerate, and the normal balance will be restored.
The dream differs from the waking state in that the most important thing in life is impossible in the dream: moral effort. That is why in a dream you commit terrible things undisturbed by their immorality.
Life seems sometimes one, sometimes another, sometimes bodily benefit, sometimes illness, sometimes burden, sometimes joy, and the whole life is only "resurrection", that is, the increase of love, the elevation of love from the grave of the body. And this is a constant joy. And then gradually you identify more and more with what you love and love everything, and thus you truly become God.
How do people not understand that the existing order of society can only be negated on the basis of another absolutely new order, which is not based on violence, and this absolutely new order we cannot even imagine and know? We can deny violence not only as a tool, but also as an evil deed, but to deny the order, whatever it is, without denying the violence, is madness.
One of the common errors of men is to attribute to themselves those changes which are constantly taking place in the bodily and spiritual life of individuals, human assemblies, societies. "I healed, I taught, I arranged, and all this was done by the ceaseless movement in time of everything and everything. You can only change yourself.
Life is continuous spiritual evolution. But in childhood, in youth, when along with spiritual growth comes bodily growth, people easily take bodily growth as their whole life and devote themselves to it, forgetting about spiritual life. The mistake becomes apparent when the body begins to break down, but it can be difficult to correct because of inertia, habit.
It is good that waking up, getting out of bed, to say to ourselves, "Help me, my God (from within me and outside of me), to live this day, or at least that part of it that belongs to me to live , according to my will and in accordance with Your Divine will."
Non-resistance to evil through violence is not a commandment, but a clear law of life, intelligible to every man and to all mankind, even to all living things. This law is fulfilled without ceasing. Wolves degenerate, rabbits multiply. This law, like any law, is an ideal towards which everything that lives naturally tends and towards which every man must aim. This law seems incorrect only when it is represented as a requirement for complete realization, and not (as it should be understood) as an eternal, unceasing, unconscious and conscious tendency towards its realization... Nicolae with Stolâpin and the revolutionaries, destroying themselves , they who are the enemies of non-resistance, unconsciously contribute to the fulfillment of the law.
It's strange that I have to be silent around the people who live next to me and only talk to those who are far away from me in time and space, who will hear me.
The greater the selfishness, the more difficult it is to understand the other, to transpose yourself into the other, and that's all. And vice versa.
Any bad deed, like any good deed, leaves behind consequences. Consequences are the reinforcement of the bad or good habit.
The problem is not that everyone should be equal, but that everyone should love each other. You can be rich and love the poor, and have the same wealth as everyone else and hate them.