The Life Triumphant/Right-Thinking and Repose
RIGHT-THINKING AND
REPOSE
LIFE is a combination of habits, some baneful, some beneficent, all of which take their rise in the one habit of thinking. The thought makes the man, therefore right-thinking is the most important thing in life. The essential difference between a wise man and a fool is that the wise man controls his thinking, the fool is controlled by it. A wise man determines how and what he shall think, and does not allow exernal things to divert his thought from the main purpose; but a fool is carried captive by every tyrant thought as it is aroused within him by external things, and he goes through life the helpless tool of impulse, whim, and passion.
Careless, slovenly thinking, commonly called thoughtlessness, is the companion of failure, wrong-doing, and wretchedness. Nothing, no prayers, no religious ceremonies, not even acts of charity, can make up for wrong-thinking. Only right-thinking can rectify a wrong life. Only the right attitude of mind towards men and things can bring repose and peace.
The Triumphant Life is only for him whose heart and intellect are attuned to lofty virtue. He must make his thought logical, sequential, harmonious, symmetrical. He must mould and shape his thinking to fixed principles, and thereby establish his life on the sure foundation of knowledge. He must not merely be kind, he must be intelligently kind; must know why he is kind. His kindness must be an invariable quality, and not an intermittent impulse interspersed with fits of resentment and acts of harshness. He must not merely be virtuous under virtuous circumstances; his virtue must be of that kind that shall continue to shine with unabated light when he is assailed with vicious circumstances. He must not allow himself to be hurled from the throne of divine manhood by the shocks of fate or the praise and blame of those about him. Virtue must be his abiding habitation; his refuge from the whirlwind and the storm.
And virtue is not only of the heart; it is of the intellect also; and without this virtue of the intellect, the virtue of the heart is imperilled. Reason, like passion, has its vices. Metaphysical speculations are the riot of the intellect, as sensuality is the riot of the affections. The highest flights of speculation—pleasing as they are—reveal no place of rest, and the strained mind must return to facts and moral principles to find that truth which it seeks. As the soaring bird returns for refuge and rest to its nest in the rock, so must the speculative thinker return to the rock of virtue for surety and peace.
The intellect must be trained to comprehend the principles of virtue, and to understand all that is involved in their practice. Its energies must be restrained from wasteful indulgence in vain subtleties, and be directed in the path of righteousness and the way of wisdom. The thinker must distingush, in his own mind, between reality and assumption. He must discover the extent of his actual knowledge. He must know what he knows. He must also know what he does not know. He must learn to discriminate between facts and opinions about facts, between belief and knowledge, error and Truth. In his search for the right attitude of mind which perceives truth, and works out a wise and radiant life, he must be more logical than logic, more merciless in exposing the errors of his own mind than the most sarcastic logician is in exposing the errors of the minds of others. After pursuing this course of discrimination for a short time, he will be astonished to find how small is the extent of his actual knowledge; yet he will be gladdened by its possession, for, small as it is, it is the pure gold of knowledge; and what is better, to have a few grains of gold hidden away in tons of ore, where it is useless, or to extract the gold and throw away the ore? As the miner sifts away bushels of dull earth to find the sparkling diamond, so the spiritual miner, the true thinker, sifts away from his mind the accumulation of opinions, beliefs, speculations, and assumptions to find the bright jewel of Truth which bestows upon its possessor wisdom and enlightenment.
And the concentrated knowledge which is ultimately brought to light by this sifting process is found to be so closely akin to virtue that it cannot be divided from it, cannot be set apart as something different. In his search for knowledge, Socrates discovered virtue. The divine maxims of the Great Teachers are maxims of virtue. When knowledge is separated from virtue, wisdom is lost. What a man practises, that he knows. What he does not practise, that he does not know. A man may write treatises or preach sermons on Love, but if he treat his family harshly, or think spitefully of his enemy, what knowledge has he concerning Love? In the heart of the man of knowledge there dwells a silent and abiding compassion that shames the fine words of the noisy theorist. He only knows what peace is whose heart is free from hatred; who lives at peace with all. Cunning definitions of virtue only serve to deepen ignorance when they proceed from vice-stained lips. Knowledge has a deeper source than the mere memorizing of information. That knowledge is divine which proceeds from acquaintance with virtue. The humility which purges the intellect of its empty opinions and vain assumptions, also fortifies it with a searching insight and invincible power. There is a divine logic which is indistinguishable from love. The reply, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her,” is unanswerable logic; it is also perfect love.
The wrong-thinker is known by his vices; the right-thinker is known by his virtues. Troubles and unrest assail the mind of the wrong-thinker, and he experiences no abiding repose. He imagines that others can injure, snub, cheat, degrade, and ruin him. Knowing nothing of the protection of virtue, he seeks the protection of self, and takes refuge in suspicion, spite, resentment, and retaliation, and is burnt in the fire of his own vices. When slandered, he slanders in return; when accused, he recriminates; when assailed, he turns upon his adversary with double fierceness. “I have been treated unjustly!” exclaims the wrong-thinker, and then abandons himself to resentment and misery. Having no insight, and unable to distinguish evil from good, he cannot see that it is his own evil, and not his neighbour’s, that is the cause of all his trouble.
The right-thinker is not concerned with thoughts about self and self-protection, and the wrong actions of others towards him cannot cause him trouble or unrest. He cannot think—“This man has wronged me.” He perceives that no wrong can reach him but by his own ill deeds. He understands that his welfare is in his own hands, and that none but himself can rob him of respose. Virtue is his protection, and retaliation is foreign to him. He holds himself steadfastly in peace, and resentment cannot enter his heart. Temptation does not find him unprepared, and it assails in vain the strong citadel of his mind. Abiding in virtue, he abides in strength and peace.
The right-thinker has discovered and acquired the right attitude of mind toward men and things—the attitude of a profound and loving repose. And this is not resignation, it is wisdom. It is not indifference, but watchful and penetrating insight. He has comprehended the facts of life; he sees things as they are. He does not overlook the particulars of life, but reads them in the light of cosmic law; sees them in their right relations as portions of the universal scheme. He sees that the universe is upheld by justice. He watches, but does not engage in, the petty quarrels and fleeting strifes of men. He cannot be a partisan. His sympathy is with all. He cannot favour one portion more than another. He knows that good will ultimately conquer in the world, as it has conquered in individuals; that there is a sense in which good already conquers, for evil defeats itself.
Good is not defeated; justice is not set aside. Whatever man may do, justice reigns, and its eternal throne cannot be assailed and threatened, much less conquered and overthrown; and this is the source of the true thinker’s abiding repose. Having become righteous, he perceives the righteous law; having acquired Love, he understands the Eternal Love; having conquered evil, he knows that good is supreme.
He only is the true thinker whose heart is free from hatred, lust, and pride; who looks out upon the world through eyes washed free from evil; whose bitterest enemy arouses no enmity, but only tender pity in his heart; who does not talk vainly about things of which he has no knowledge, and whose heart is always at peace.
And by this a man may know that his thoughts are in accordance with Truth—that there is no more bitterness in his heart, that malice has departed from him; that he loves where he formerly condemned.
A man may be learned, but if he is not wise he will not be a true thinker. Not by learning will a man triumph over evil; not by much study will he overcome sin and sorrow. Only by conquering himself will he conquer evil; only by practising righteousness will he put an end to sorrow.
Not for the clever, nor the learned, nor the self-confident is the Life Triumphant, but for the pure, the virtuous, the wise. The former achieve their particular success in life, but the latter alone achieve the Great Success, a success so invincible and complete that even in apparent defeat it shines with added victory.
Virtue cannot be shaken; virtue cannot be confounded; virtue cannot be overthrown. He who thinks in accordance with virtue, who acts righteously, whose mind is the servant of Truth, he it is who conquers in life and in death; for virtue must triumph, and Righteousness and Truth are the pillars of the universe.