On the Power within Us

Let us be very deeply and wonderfully grateful, therefore, that eternal Providence has placed within us this power to become, for a moment at least, greater than our lesser selves, to be unselfish, to be patient and to be kind. Strangely, miraculously, in the twinkling of an eye, we have the power to release ourselves from constant and continuous prejudice, and are able to transcend all other considerations in this simple statement of our own humanity. That this power is in us, is the wonder of all time. It is this power which science cannot reach, cannot understand. It is this power that takes the humblest of things and reminds us of the greatness that is locked inside. This power extends not only through humanity, but to all the creatures that exist in the universe. In everything there is this inner self.

Lecture 56 - Reflections on the Deeper Meaning of Thanksgiving Day in Light of President Kennedy's Tragic Death (1963), page 3

On Love

When we love someone sincerely, we want his happiness and security; we want to advance the destiny of that other person. In terms of beauty or art or music, when these things become tremendously important to us, we want to perfect them. So the person who loves the world, loves life, loves man, and loves God, wishes to enrich living. He finds his joy not in what comes to him, but in what he is able to bestow upon others. He is therefore saved from one of the greatest causes of suffering today, and that is self-centeredness. Where love is, self-centeredness cannot be; and where self-centeredness is, love cannot be, regardless of the protestations that may be made. And one of the great proofs of love is that we think not about our own good, but about the good of others; that we are more interested in making others happy than we are in being successful ourselves.

Lecture 108 - "As a Man Thinketh in His Heart" (1968), page 4

On Happiness

In the case of man, the individual feels that if he could gratify more desires, he would be happy, but there is no proof that there is one whit of fact in this entire concept. Granting for the moment that it is not gratification that brings happiness, what does? Happiness comes with simplification, which in this case means to get away from the conflicts of things. Within this pattern of progress that we have borrowed, begged, or stolen from each other, two streams are naturally flowing together. One might be termed the stream of true civilization, the advancement of essential truths; the other is the vast stream of opportunism and the exploitation of essential truths. And each person also has this compound within himself. There is a certain integrity in him, and there is a certain lack of integrity.

Lecture 119 - Enlightenment and the Collective Liberation - The New Concept of Freedom (1969), page 10

On the Holy of Holies

In our own nature, there is a divine power, seated and rooted in the very inscrutable mystery of the sanctum sanctorum. In the mysterious holy of holies there dwells the final authority over our lives; for it is this authority by which we exist. This authority is truly that in which we live and move and have our being, and to most believing people, it is merely a spark from the great flame of existence itself — that part of the Divine by means of which every living thing participates in the ultimate Divinity.

Lecture 121 - "In My Father's House are Many Mansions" - A Mystical Interpretation of the Universe (1969), page 7

On Beauty

In other parts of the world we find other phases of moral beauty. There is something transcendently sensitive about the moral beauty of Krishna, the wonderful Indian personification of the love of God. Krishna represents the more sensitive, aesthetic qualities of beauty: beauty as the song, the dance; beauty as a tremendous graciousness of spirit; beauty breaking forth in love and romance, enchantment and magic; beauty as a garden; beauty as a sunset or as a white marble palace set amidst flowers and ponds filled with beautiful fishes. In the Krishna concept we have a child-beauty, a tremendous regeneration of all things. We have the laughter of the gods. We have the sunshine of moral beauty as the basis of pure joy, wonder, adventure, and the going forth each day into newness, something that is perhaps quite far from our daily experience.

Lecture 128 - "Moral Beauty Is the Basis of Civilization" - Alexis Carrel (1968), page 7

On the Invisible Sun

Therefore we should venerate the sun, the great source of our light. By means of the physical sun, the earth is made fruitful and the seasons follow each other and the harvest comes. But we must also value the light of that invisible sun — the light of Spirit — for without this all things fail. Without the light of spirit, there will be no material seasons and no harvest. While living it is constantly necessary to balance these two values. Our victory over the ills that now beset us, results from the victory of the individual's consciousness of eternal value over the indecisions, fears, attitudes, doubts and uncertainties of mortal mind. Until this victory is achieved, the individual will never find the security that he seeks. He must, according to his own insight, turn the ultimate rulership of his life over to that directing power which alone can rule wisely.

Lecture 129 - The Road to Inner Light - the Path That Leads to Understanding (1969), page 10

On Devotion

Therefore I think the beginning of our devotional life now is a simple abstract acceptance of the fact that we do live in a magnificent, honorable, beautiful, fair and just universe; the troubles we bear are the troubles we make for ourselves through ignorance and selfishness. As the first act of worship, the first proof that we have this enlightened religion, we will quietly apply our understanding to every doubt and problem that arises in our own living; we will try every day to solve our difficulties according to the laws of light, truth, love, and kindness. We will remove from our lives all toxic attitudes through the continuance of which we destroy our own inward vision. We clear our vision through constructive conduct; we clear vision through always applying the principles that we know to the problems that come; and where we know in our own hearts that love is the answer to our problems, we will try to answer these problems correctly as proof of the fact that we are loving, loving our God and our fellow men.

Lecture 149 - A New Approach to the Devotional Life (1971), page 14

On the Heart Doctrine

We live in a mystery, and no one can live in a mystery that is dark; but we can all live in a mystery if it is beautiful. And in this case the mystery is beautiful because it is God. Having somewhat this thought in the back of our lives, or the back of our consciousness, we can subconsciously and continuously absorb symbolical evidence of the fact that the power of things not only comes quickly but is always here. Out of this realization there is a transformation of our attitudes. We begin to naturally respect life; from respect we grow perhaps to admiration, and from admiration to veneration. Veneration is the discovery of the Divine architect in all the productions which we call living. Moving gradually to this point of view, something happens. In place of our constant complaints, there is more of gratitude. Instead of demanding more, we experience more and demand less. Instead of trying to build an empire upon the shifting sands of our mortal concerns, we begin to respect the universal empire and prepare ourselves for mature citizenship in a system we could never invent but which we have the right to obey.

Lecture 198 - The Mysteries of the Heart Doctrine according to Esoteric Buddhism (1975), page 6