A Calendar of Wisdom

The more urgently you want to speak, the more likely it is that you will say something foolish.

Thought is the glorification of truth; therefore, bad thoughts are those which have not been thought through to the end.

In order that a lamp can give good light, you should put it in a place protected from the wind. If the light is in the wind, then it will leave long, trembling shadows. So too will bad thoughts drop shadows on the white surface of your soul.

Establish your purpose when you are alone and without temptations.

Meditation is the way to eternity; lightheartedness is the way to death. Those who meditate never die; those who are lighthearted remind me of death.

You cannot send away a bad thought when it appears in your mind, but you can create other thoughts which will weaken or destroy this bad thought. For example, I may imagine that your friend or neighbor has some drawback, and I may not be able to banish this thought, but when I concentrate on the thought that criticizing another person is bad because I am not perfect, and he has the same God within him as I have within me, then I cannot stop loving this person.

Blaming your neighbor is harmful, both for you and for others.

Yesterday at a party, when a guest said good-bye and departed, everyone who was left started to slander him. The same thing happened to the second person when he left, and to all the guests, one after another, as they left. The last guest said, “Let me stay here and spend the night. I saw that all the people who left suffered and I am afraid for myself.”

Be strict to yourself, and forgive others, and then you will have no enemies.

I once met an old man who spoke very slowly, pausing for several seconds between his words. He did this because he was afraid to sin with his words.

Let us forgive each other. If we can forgive each other, then we can live in peace.

A word is an expression of thoughts; thoughts are the expression of divine force. Therefore, words should correspond to our true meaning. Speech can be indifferent, but it should not be an expression of evil.

You can look at life as death, and death as an awakening.

I cannot stop thinking that I was dead before I was born, and at my death I will return to the same state.

I do not regret that I was born here and that I lived part of my life here, because I lived in a way that I think was useful. When the end comes, I will leave my life in the same way, as if I leave an inn and not my home, because I think that my stay in this life is temporary and that death is only a transfer to another state.

Even if I err in saying that the soul is eternal, nevertheless I am happy that I made this mistake. And while I am alive, not a single person can take away this assurance which gives me complete calmness and great satisfaction.

We ask the wrong question when we say, “What will happen after death?” When we speak about the future, we speak of time, but when we die, we leave time behind.

We come to a right understanding of our life in relation to God in the same way we understand our relation to the world and to its things. Without conscience, we would never know anything about God.

The question is whether the intellectual one, without the heart, can understand God. The truth is that if our heart understands God our intellect will then start to seek Him.

The basic foundation of the understanding of God is inside of us.

A good worker probably does not know the details of the life of his master. Only a lazy worker tries to do nothing except find out more about his master’s way of life, tastes, and preferences in order to please him. The same is true of a person’s attitude to God. It is important to accept Him as your master and to know what He wants you to do. I may never know the answers to the questions “What is He?” and “How does He live?” I will never find out because I am not equal to Him. I am His worker, not His master.

Every person understands God in different ways, but people fulfill His will in the same way.

Self-admiration is the beginning of pride. Pride is dissipated self-admiration.

Those who do not hate their own selfishness, their placing of themselves higher than the rest of the world, are blind, because this action contradicts the truth.

The lighter and less dense a substance is, the less space it occupies. The qualities which a proud person attributes to himself can be compared to this. There are many people who claim to be teachers of others who should themselves be taught first of all.

The most important thing in life is the path to perfection, and what kind of perfection can exist if a person is proud and satisfied with himself?

From the first moment the members of a religious gathering said, “The Holy Spirit is among us.” when they claimed theirs the highest authority above all other authorities, when they accepted the results of their own meditation as more worthy than the divine spark that exists in every person (that is, the intellect and the conscience), from this time, a great lie originated, a lie which deceives the bodies and souls of many people, which has destroyed millions of human beings, and which continues its terrible work.

In 1682, a Dr. Leyton, a respected citizen of England who wrote a book criticizing a bishop, was put on trial and severely punished. First he was harshly beaten, then one ear was cut away. After several days he was beaten again, though the injuries on his back had not healed; then they cut off his second ear, and tore off his nose. This was done in the name of Christianity.

Christ never founded any church, never created any state, never passed any law, never established any government or other authority. He wanted to put the law of God into the hearts of people, to make them self-governed.

If there is a true church, the people who are inside it cannot see it from the outside.