The first thing to understand without the shadow of a doubt, is
that, man is not in freedom when he is following his own selfish
instincts. He is only in the appearance of freedom, and the
appearance of freedom, without the reality, leads invariably to the
worst bondage. A man who loves drink feels that he is free if he can
drink as much as he wants, but that leads to degradation and
delirium tremens. A man who has an inherited tendency toward the
disobedience of any law feels that he is free if he has the
opportunity to disobey it whenever he wants to. But whatever the law
may be, the results have only to be carried to their logical
conclusion to make clear the bondage to which the disobedience
leads. All this disobedience to law leads to an inevitable,
inflexible, unsurmountable limit in the end, whereas steady effort
toward obedience to law is unlimited in its development of strength
and power for use to others. Man must understand his selfish
tendencies in order to subdue and control them, until they become
subject to his own unselfish tendencies, which are the spiritual
laws within him. Thus he gradually becomes free,--soul and
body,--with no desire to disobey, and with steadily increasing joy
in his work and life. So much for the bondage of doing wrong, and
the freedom of doing right, which it seems necessary to touch upon,
in order to show clearly the bondage of doing right in the wrong
way, and the freedom of doing right in the right way.
It is right to work for our daily bread, and for the sake of use to
others, in whatever form it may present itself. The wrong way of
doing it makes unnecessary strain, overfatigue and illness. The
right way of working gives, as we have said before, new power and
joy in the work; it often turns even drudgery into pleasure, for
there is a special delight in learning to apply one's self in a true
spirit to "drudgery." The process of learning such true application
of one's powers often reveals new possibilities in work.
It is right for most people to sleep eight hours every night. The
wrong way of doing it is to go to sleep all doubled up, and to
continue to work all night in our sleep, instead of giving up and
resting entirely. The right way gives us the fullest possible amount
of rest and refreshment.
It is right to take our three meals a day, and all the nourishing
food we need. The wrong way of doing it, is to eat very fast,
without chewing our food carefully, and to give our stomachs no
restful opportunity of preparation to receive its food, or to take
good care of it after it is received. The right way gives us the
opportunity to assimilate the food entirely, so that every bit of
fuel we put into our bodies is burnt to some good purpose, and makes
us more truly ready to receive more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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