10) The fact that the end of life is self-perfection, that the
perfection of the immortal soul is the only end of the life of man,
is already true because _every other end_ in the view of death, is
senseless.
11) If man deliberates upon the consequences of his act, then the
motives of his act are not religious.
12) The paper-knife on my knees fell over on account of its weight,
and it seemed to me that it was something alive, and I shuddered. Why?
Because there is a duty to everything living and I grew frightened
lest I hadn’t fulfilled it, and lest I had crushed, squeezed a living
being.
13) ... In this lies the whole matter--to destroy this hypnosis.
14) It is impossible not to wish that our acts be known and approved.
For him who has no God, it is necessary that his acts be known and
approved. But for him who has God, it is sufficient that they be
known. By this can it be verified if a man has God.
_4th Feb. Moscow. If I live._
_To-day, the 5th. Morning._
I do not feel like writing at all. All these last days, especially
yesterday, I have been feeling and applying to life, the consciousness
that the end of life is one: to be perfect like the Father, to do
that which He does, that which He wants from us, i.e., to love; that
love should guide us in the moments of our most energetic activity,
and that we breathe with it alone in the moments of our greatest
weakness. Whenever there is something difficult, painful, then it
suffices to remember this, and all this difficulty, this pain, will
vanish and only the joyous will remain.
To a man who seriously, truly uses his reason, it is obvious that
all ends are closed to him. One alone is reasonable: to live for the
satisfaction of the demands of God, of his conscience, of his higher
nature. (It is all the same thing.) If this is to be expressed in
time, then to live so as to prepare one’s soul to the passing-over
into a better world: if this is to be expressed accurately in terms
outside of time, then it is to fuse one’s life with its timeless
principle, with the Good, with Love, with God. I am afraid only of
one thing, that this strong consciousness acting beneficially on
me, that the only thing reasonable and free and joyous is the life
in God, be not calloused, that it do not lose its effect of lifting
me out of the petty annoyances of life, and of freeing me. Oh, if
that could be so to every one and if it could be so forever! In this
light last night I considered the various manifestations of life and
I felt so well and joyous. I will await the examination. I shall
prepare for it.
When I wrote out the notes, I forgot:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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