The Majesty of Calmness; individual problems and posibilities — John Shaqi
The Majesty of Calmness; individual problems and posibilitiesJordan, William George
Philosophy
The Majesty of Calmness; individual problems and posibilities
Jordan, William George
Character; Conduct of life
Conquest is the overcoming of an evil habit, the rising superior to
opposition and attack, the spiritual exaltation that comes from
resisting the invasion of the grovelling material side of life.
Sometimes when you are worn and weak with the struggle; when it seems
that justice is a dream, that honesty and loyalty and truth count for
nothing, that the devil is the only good paymaster; when hope grows dim
and flickers, then is the time when you must tower in the great sublime
faith that Right must prevail, then must you throttle these imps of
doubt and despair, you must master yourself to master the world around
you. This is Conquest; this is what counts. Even a log can float with
the current, it takes a man to fight sturdily against an opposing tide
that would sweep his craft out of its course. When the jealousies, the
petty intrigues and the meannesses and the misunderstandings in life
assail you,--rise above them. Be like a lighthouse that illumines and
beautifies the snarling, swashing waves of the storm that threaten it,
that seek to undermine it and seek to wash over it. This is Conquest.
When the chance to win fame, wealth, success or the attainment of your
heart's desire, by sacrifice of honor or principle, comes to you and it
does not affect you long enough even to seem a temptation, you have
been the victor. That too is Conquest. And Conquest is part of the
royal road to Happiness.
Conscience, as the mentor, the guide and compass of every act, leads
ever to Happiness. When the individual can stay alone with his
conscience and get its approval, without using force or specious logic,
then he begins to know what real Happiness is. But the individual must
be careful that he is not appealing to a conscience perverted or
deadened by the wrongdoing and subsequent deafness of its owner. The
man who is honestly seeking to live his life in Consecration,
Concentration and Conquest, living from day to day as best he can, by
the light he has, may rely explicitly on his Conscience. He can shut
his ears to "what the world says" and find in the approval of his own
conscience the highest earthly tribune,--the voice of the Infinite
communing with the Individual.
Unhappiness is the hunger to get; Happiness is the hunger to give. True
happiness must ever have the tinge of sorrow outlived, the sense of
pain softened by the mellowing years, the chastening of loss that in
the wondrous mystery of time transmutes our suffering into love and
sympathy with others.
If the individual should set out for a single day to give Happiness, to
make life happier, brighter and sweeter, not for himself, but for
others, he would find a wondrous revelation of what Happiness really
is. The greatest of the world's heroes could not by any series of acts
of heroism do as much real good as any individual living his whole life
in seeking, from day to day, to make others happy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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