Truth Definitions 3

ALL THAT IS GREAT
Study this regularly:
The great beginning: A wish for freedom.
The great virtue: Self-honesty.
Great encouragement: Actual self-transformation.
Great barrier: Refusal to listen.
Great technique: Self-awareness.
Great support: The truth itself.
Great error: Self-centeredness.
Great inspiration: Sensing rightness.
Great aim: Self-knowledge.
Great despair: Feeling separated.
Great healing: Of painful illusion.
Great aid: Patient investigation.
Great correction: Self-correction.
Great result: Self-liberty.

CHANGE
     A persistent discontent with ourselves as we are is the first call to the other way of life. When feeling this discontent sharply, we can then make one of the great decisions of our life. It is the decision to change ourselves, instead of trying to change the exterior world, which changes nothing. It is challenging work at times, but is also a lot of fun. Above all, it is really the only sensible task we have here on earth.

SELF-OBSERVATION
     Self-observation is a classical technique which leads to self-liberty. You should observe your thoughts and words and acts impartially, reacting with neither praise nor condemnation to whatever is observed. You must not identify with anything, that is you must not think that your thoughts and acts represent your true self. Self- observation enables you to separate yourself from mechanical thoughts to become more conscious and happy.

MAN HAS EVERYTHING BACKWARDS
     The trouble is, many people take the healing truth as a personal insult. A sufferer comes for help and is told, ‘Your self-centeredness must be abolished.’ He never returns. Man has everything exactly backward. He takes rejection of the true as the way to avoid self-destruction, and takes acceptance of falsehood as the way to live. With the courage to reject falsehood, even in small ways at first, we catch a glimpse of our life-damaging error. From that point on we begin to truly save ourselves.

SOCIETY’S SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS
     When society does not know what to do about a problem, it invents theories to make it appear that it does know what to do. The appointed crime committee concludes that crime is caused by poverty or drugs or broken homes, which is like saying that illness is caused by sickness. Social problems are caused by human ignorance of spiritual truths, but since few can face this fact in themselves, the problems continue.

TO DO SOMETHING JUST START
     The way to do something is simply to start doing it. You don’t need details about how to do it; just start. The way to think for yourself is to start thinking for yourself. The way to get rid of worry is to start understanding the false power of worry. The way to learn from unexpected events is to start listening to the valuable lesson they are trying to teach.