A Calendar of Wisdom

A person can understand his real destination in life only after he manages to liberate himself from the sensual material world.

All people of the world have an equal right to the privileges of this world.

Equality cannot be reached, as some people think, only by civil measures. It can be reached only by love of God and people, and this love can be reached, not by civil measures, but only as the result of spiritual learning.

They say that equality is not possible, because some people will always be stronger or smarter than others. But it is exactly because of this, said Lichtenberg, precisely because some people are stronger and smarter than others, that the principle of equality is necessary. The advantages of the rich over the poor demonstrate not only inequality of force and intellect, but inequality of civil rights.

Christ revealed to humanity those things which their best selves already knew: that people are equal because the same spirit lives in all of them. . . . Learn from the small children, behave like children, and treat all people on an equal basis, with love and tenderness.

Personality is a mask which disguises the divine being which lives in every person. The more one rejects personality, the more this divine beginning is manifested.

You must love only God, and you must hate only yourself.

Only those people who deny their own personality can understand the religious teaching.

Those who do not see the meaning of their life in temporary things, in their names and bodies, those people know the truth of life.

Only when we forget about ourselves, when we get out of the thoughts of ourselves, can we fruitfully communicate with others, listen to them, and influence them.

It is a sin not to be engaged in work, even if it is not necessary for you to make your living with everyday work.

One of the best and purest joys is having a rest after labor.

Work all the time. Do not think that work is a disaster for you, and do not seek praise or reward for your work.

The most outstanding gifts can be destroyed by idleness.

Nothing can make a person feel more noble than work. Without work, a person cannot have human dignity. It is because of this that idle people are so much concerned by the superficial, outer expression of their importance; they know that without this, other people would despise them.

When we accept truth and repent our sins, we understand that nobody can have special rights, advantages, or privileges in this life. There is no end or limit to our duties and obligations. And the first and the most important obligation for us is to fight with nature for our life and for the lives of other people.

Humankind goes on without stopping. This movement forward is necessary for you as an individual as well. If you want to serve God, you should be a worker for the spiritual progress of humanity.

The way of life of any people depends on their faith. Faith, with time, becomes more simple, more clear, and closer to the real truth, and in accordance with the simplifying and clarifying of faith, people become more and more United.

If you think it is ever warranted to stop on the path of further understanding, you are very far from the truth. The life which we received was given to us not that we might just admire it, but that we should ever look for new truth hidden from us.

Mankind makes progress when its faith progresses. And if there is any progress in religion, it is not in the discovery of something new, but in the purifying of the truths which have been revealed and explained to us.

We should not substitute real religious progress with other types of progress: technical, scholarly, and artistic. These technical, scholarly, and artistic achievements can certainly coexist with religious backwardness, as happens in our time.

If you want to serve God, you should work on the side of religious progress in the fight against prejudice, toward a better understanding of the clear and pure religion.

There was a time when people ate each other. They no longer do so, but they still eat animals. The time will come when more and more people will drop this terrible habit.

It is a mistake to believe that we need obey no moral in our attitude to the animals, that we have no moral responsibilities to them. This way lies complete vulgarity and rudeness.

The killing and eating of animals is a prejudice accepted by those who think that animals were given to people by God to eat, so that there is nothing wrong in killing them. This is not true. It may be written in some books that it is not a sin to kill an animal, but it is written in our own hearts more clearly than in any books - that we should take pity on animals in the same way as we do on each other. And we all know this, if we do not deaden the voice of our conscience inside of us.

All that is written about God, and all that people say about Him, still falls short of the mark. Certain things, which every person can understand about God, can never be expressed, things necessary for everyone, and things which cause the love of God.

An intellect which can be understood is not an eternal intellect; a being which can be named is not an eternal being.

There is a force which resides in all things, without which there is no heaven and no earth. This force cannot be perceived. People try to describe its qualities, to give it different names, such as “intellect” or “love,” but the being itself has no name. It is very remote from us, and it is closest to us.

God is the limitless being which accepts only truth.

Those people who ask where God is are crazy; God is everywhere, in all of nature and in the soul of each person. There are many different religions, but there is only one God. If a person cannot understand himself, how can he understand God?