April 25

A person can understand himself as a material or a spiritual being. When you understand yourself as a spiritual being, then you are free.

What is "love of God," if it is not the effort to add part of yourself to the higher creative flow of energy in this world? Divine force exists in everything, but the greatest manifestation of it in this world is in humanity, and in order to put it to work, one must understand it and accept it.

If a person does not believe himself capable of doing the best things in the world, then he starts to create the worst things.

I know that the sky knows everything, and that its laws are constant. I know that it sees everything, it gets into everything, and it is present in everything. The heavens can get into the depths of all human hearts in the same way that the daylight can lighten a dark room. We should try to reflect this heavenly light.

— Chinese Wisdom 

March 28

Wisdom can be achieved by inner work, through solitary communication with yourself; it also can be achieved when you communicate with other people.

Listen and be attentive, but do not speak too much; and when you are asked a question, answer briefly. Do not be ashamed to accept that sometimes you do not know an answer to what you were asked. Do not get into an argument just for the sake of argument; and do not boast.

— Sufi Wisdom

You can view your own drawbacks only through the eyes of other people.

— Chinese Proverb

I have learned many things from my teachers; I have learned many things from my friends; and I have learned even more from my students.

— The Talmud

If you see a holy man, think how could I become like him? If you see a dissipated man, think: don't I have the same vices?

— Chinese Wisdom

Real love is not in words but in deeds, and only love can give you real wisdom.

When you are in company, do not forget what you have found out when you were thinking in solitude; and when you are meditating in solitude, think about what you found out by communicating with other people. 

March 14

Love brings people to unification. The universal intellect, which is the same for everyone, supports this unification.

Look around. What do the world's people think about it? They think about everything except what is most important. They think about dancing, music, and singing; they think about houses, wealth, and power; they are jealous about the wealth of rich people and kings; but they do not think at all about what it means to be human.

— After Blaise Pascal

One of the major responsibilities of a person is to make that intellectual spark which you have received from heaven illuminate the world around you.

— Chinese Wisdom

Everything in this world is the manifestation of the divine intellect.

All that we know, we know through the intellect. Those who do not believe, people who say that you should not follow your intellect, remind me of those who suggest that you turn down the only lantern which shows you the way into the darkness.

February 14

A holy spirit lives within you.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

— John 3:3

Intellect can be enlightened only in a kind person. A person can be kind only when he has an enlightened intellect. One helps the other.

— Chinese Wisdom

A merchant married a princess, and he built a palace for her, bought luxurious dresses for her, and brought her hundreds of servants to make her happy. But the princess was bored. She was missing something, and she constantly thought about her royal origin. Thus it is with a human soul: you can surround it with all the pleasures on earth, but it will still be missing its home, the beginning which is called God, the place from which it has originated.

— After the Talmud

Even if people do not know what real kindness is, they nevertheless have it within them.

— Confucius

God lives in every one of us. When a person remembers this, the thought of it can save him from evil, and help him to do good.

November 29

A word is an action.

 

Do not say words you do not feel, lest your soul be blackened with darkness.

— From the Book of Divine Thoughts

 

Your enemies can be more useful to you than your friends, because your friends can often pardon your weaknesses, but your enemies notice them and attract your attention to them.

 

Do not neglect the opinion of your enemies.

 

A wise man does not judge a person for his words, but at the same time does not neglect another person’s words, even when these words are pronounced by an unworthy person.

— Chinese Wisdom

 

A person’s tongue is a tool which is sufficient to transmit the ideas created by the human mind. But in the domain of true and deep feelings, our tongue is weak.

— Lajos Kossuth

 

Never is there a single instance when a lie can be justified.

November 13

Self-perfection should be one's primary motivation. If you are truthful to yourself, you will never be satisfied with yourself.

A person should always develop his ability to do goodness. Make yourself better; this should be every person's goal.

— Immanuel Kant

The first rule of achieving goodness is this: think only about self-perfection, and do so without thought to being praised by others.

— Chinese Wisdom

He who moves from doing bad deeds to doing good deeds enlightens this world like the moon coming out from behind the clouds. This is the best thing in the world; this is the first step toward divinity.

— Dhammapada, a book of Buddhist Wisdom

Those who live life in perfection look only forward; those who have stopped moving forward look back on their achievements.

Dissatisfaction is a necessary condition of intellectual life. It is only this dissatisfaction that pushes you to work.

November 6

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.

— Chinese Wisdom

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. 

November 4

Debates conceal the truth more often than they reveal it. Real truth should be revealed in solitude. When it is revealed, it becomes clear to you that you can accept it without any argument or discussions.

He has power who can keep silent in an argument, even though he is right.

You should abstain from arguments. They are very illogical ways to convince people. Opinions are like nails: the stronger you hit them, the deeper inside they go.

— Decimus Junius Juvenalis

If you live alone, think about your own sins; if you are in society, forget about the sins of others.

— Chinese Wisdom

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

November 1

A man who considers himself the master of his own life can never be humble, because he thinks that he has no obligation to anyone. The man who considers service to God to be the purpose of his life is always humble, because he feels that he has never fulfilled his obligations.

And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So like-wise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

— Luke 17:5-10

Truly kind people forget the good things they have done in the past. They are so involved in the things they do now that they forget the things they have done before.

— Chinese Wisdom

The better a person knows himself, the smaller and less significant he seems to himself, and the higher he elevates himself toward God.

— Thomas A Kempis 

October 19

The meaning of life is revealed to those who are ready to accept the things which will be revealed. And it is he who has already decided that he will accept the truth as it is, and not the truth itself, which will change the way of life he has been accustomed to.

Who am I? What should I do? What should I believe in and what should I hope for? All of philosophy is in these questions, said the philosopher Lichtenberg. But among all these questions, the most important one is that which is in the middle. If a person knows what he should do, he will understand everything which he should know.

Woe to the people who look without understanding, who do not know their foundation.

— After the Talmud

Every bird always knows where to make her nest. And if she knows how and where to make her nest, this means that she knows her purpose in life. And why does man, who is the wisest among all creatures, not know that which any bird knows, that is, his purpose in life?

— Chinese Wisdom

The real meaning of life is not possible to embrace, if you are looking for the universal meaning of life. And at the same time it is so simple that it can be explained to fools and to infants when what to know is what you should do as an individual.

September 13

A wise man does not wish to change his situation, because he knows that it is possible to fulfill the law of God – the law of love – in every situation.

A wise man looks for everything inside of himself; a madman seeks for everything in others.

— Confucius

I never complain about my fate. Once, I did not have shoes, and I complained to God. I went into church with a heavy heart and in the church I saw a man without both feet. So I thanked God that he had given me both feet, and that my only problem was that they were unshod. — Muslih-Ud-Din Saadi

A wise man innately knows how to act without searching, because he has the divine within himself. The further you search and seek, the less you know.

— Lao-Tzu

You should treat your thoughts the way you treat your self, and treat your wishes the way you treat your children.

— Chinese Wisdom

Try to establish an inner silence in yourself, a complete silence of your lips and your heart. Then you will hear how God speaks to us, and you will know how to fulfill His will.

The more upset a person is with other people, and with circumstances, and the more satisfied he is with himself, the further he is from wisdom.

September 4

Real goodness is not something that can be acquired in an instant, but only through constant effort, because real goodness lies in constantly striving for perfection.

The following words were carved on the bathroom of the king Jinx-Hang: "Renew yourself completely every day, and starting afresh, from the beginning."

— Chinese Wisdom

The journey of the wise to virtue is as a journey to a remote land, or the ascent of a high mountain. People who travel to a faraway place start with a single step, and those who climb a high mountain start from the bottom.

— Confucius

And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

— Luke 9:62

Strive for goodness without any expectations for rapid or noticeable success. You will not see the results of your efforts, because the further you progress, the higher the ideal of perfection toward which you strive, rises. The effort of striving for goodness, the process itself, justifies our lines.

August 1

The intellect can liberate a person; the less of an intellectual life one has, the less liberated one is.

If you wish to do no evil then there is not a single good deed which you cannot do.

—Chinese Wisdom

A wise person lives in accordance with his desires, because he wants only that which is attainable. Such a person is free.

Diogenes said, “A wise man becomes free when he is ready to die at any moment.” He wrote to the Persian king, “You cannot enslave truly free people, just as you cannot enslave a fish. You may capture them, but you cannot force them to serve; they prefer to die as captives. So, what would it profit you to imprison them?” This is speech of a really free man, a man who recognizes his own freedom.

—Epictetus

We have created a way which is contrary to mankind’s moral and physical nature, and yet we want to be free while living this kind of life.

Freedom cannot be achieved by looking for it, but in looking for truth. Freedom should not be a purpose, but a consequence.

Freedom cannot be granted to you by others. Each person can liberate only himself.

April 25

A person can understand himself as a material or spiritual being. When you understand yourself as a spiritual being, then you are free.

What is “love of God,” if it is not the effort to add part of yourself to the higher creative flow of energy in this world? Divine force exists in everything, but the greatest manifestation of it in this world is in humanity, and in order to put it to work, one must understand it and accept it.

If a person does not believe himself capable of doing the best things in the world, then he starts to create the worst things.

I know that the sky knows everything, and that its laws are constant. I know that it sees everything, and it gets into everything, and it is present in everything. The heavens can get into the depths of all human hearts in the same way that the daylight can lighten a dark room. We should try to reflect this heavenly light.
— Chinese Wisdom

July 20

The feeling of compassion for other living beings reminds me of the feeling of pain in our body. Just as you can become less sensitive to pain in your body with time, you can become less compassionate to others.

The first condition to bringing religion into your life is manifesting love and pity toward all living creatures.

— Chinese Wisdom

Compassion for animals is closely connected with character type. You can say with confidence that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a kind man.

— Arthur Schopenhauer 

Every murder is terrible. But most terrible is the murder in which you want to eat the creature you have killed, when you kill for the satisfaction of your stomach.

— Mikhail Goldstein

When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one, but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to him who suffers, and try to help him.

July 16

Nothing can support idleness better than empty chatter. People would be better to keep silent and not speak the boring, empty things they routinely say to entertain themselves. How can they endure it?

The person who speaks much will seldom fulfill all his words in his actions. A wise person is always wary lest his words surpass his actions.

— Chinese Wisdom

First think, then speak. Stop when told “enough.” A person is higher than an animal because of his ability to speak, but he is lower than an animal if he cannot properly use this ability.

— Muslih-Ud-Din Saadi

Those people speak most who do not have much to say.

If you want to stop a person from an action, ask him to speak more on the topic. The more people speak, the less desire they have to act.

— Thomas Carlyle

The less you speak, the more you will work.

June 7

Calmness and humility provide pleasures which are not accessible to the selfish and the proud.

The prerequisite of a good life is peace between people, and the major obstacle to peace is pride. A person should be humble, prepared to be falsely accused, ready for everything; only then can he bring peace into his relationships and into the lives of others.

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

— Matthew 11:28-30

Pride defends itself, and not only itself but other sins, and it hates humility, so it rejects the cure, and hides and justifies the sin. The understanding of sin has a positive influence on a person; it is even more useful than a good deed, which can increase pride.

Be strict in judging yourself and gentle in judging others, and you will have no enemies.

— Chinese Wisdom

Do not be afraid to be humiliated if you can accept this with humility — you will be repaid many times in the spiritual blessings which are connected with humility.

May 19

The foundation of all faiths is the same.

It only seems that people are busy with trade, with making agreements, negotiations and wars, science and the arts. There is in fact only one thing which people do; this is to search for the understanding of the moral law by which they live. And this understanding is not only the most important but the only real concern for all humankind.

A wise man was asked, “Is there a single word which you can follow throughout all your life?” And the wise man answered, “There is such a word. This is shu.” And the meaning of this word is, “If we do not want certain things to be done to us, we should not do such things to others.”

— Chinese Wisdom

You should behave in such a way that you can say to everybody, “Behave as I do.”

— Immanuel Kant

The really true and unchanging law, that law which gives us true direction and which forbids us to do bad things, is the intellect of a higher, superior being.

— Marcus Tuilius Cicero

When you clash with other people, remember the law of reciprocity. You should do to others those things which you want done to you. This should become your way of life.

May 17

The greatest joy, according to the works of Francis Assisi, is that you can endure everything, you can even suffer slander and physical pain, and at the end you are able to feel no animosity toward these sufferings, but you feel joy, because you have faith; such joy cannot be destroyed, either by evil people or by your own suffering.

The quality of a really virtuous person is to be unknown to people, or to be misunderstood by people, but not to be disappointed by this.

— Chinese Wisdom

When they blame you and scold you and discuss you, then you should rejoice; when they praise you and admire you, then you should be sad.

Libel and a false reputation which you can destroy is the best school of goodness.

The blaming and criticism of other people is bad. But at the same time it is understandable, and it is valuable as the only test of your love for God and your neighbor.

May 13

Every person should decide questions of life and death for himself.

A wise man sets requirements only for himself; an unwise man makes requirements for others.

— Chinese Wisdom

A soul does not learn; it simply remembers what it knew all the time.

— Daud El Gaffer

A wise man always finds some support for himself in everything, because his gift is in obtaining goodness from everything.

— John Ruskin

Nothing will bring you peace except yourself.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Only the truth which was acquired by your own thinking, through the efforts of your intellect, becomes a member of your own body, and only this truth really belongs to us.

— Arthur Schopenhauer