The Untroubled MindHall, Herbert J. (Herbert James)
Philosophy
The Untroubled Mind
Hall, Herbert J. (Herbert James)
Mental health
How are we to live the larger life? Partly through uninspired struggle
and through the brave meeting of adversity, but partly, also, in a way
that may be described as "out of hand," by intuition, by exercise of the
quality of mind that sees visions and grasps truths beyond the realms of
common thought.
I am more and more impressed with the necessity of inspiration in life
if we are to be strong and serene, and so finally escape the pitfalls
of worry and conscience. By inspirations I do not mean belief in any
system or creed. It is not a stated belief that we need to begin with;
that may come in time. We need first to find in life, or at least in
nature, an essential beauty that makes its own true, inevitable response
within us. We must learn to love life so deeply that we feel its
tremendous significance, until we find in the sea and the sky the
evidence of an overbrooding spirit too great to be understood, but not
too great to satisfy the soul. This is a sort of mother religion--the
matrix from which all sects and creeds are born. Its existence in us
dignifies us and makes simple, purposeful, and receptive living almost
inevitable. We may not know why we are living according to the dictates
of our inspiration, but we shall live so and that is the important
consideration.
If I urge the acquirement of a religious conception that we may cure
the intolerable distress of worry, I do what I have already warned
against. It is so easy to make this mistake that I have virtually made
it on the same page with my warning. We have no right to seek so great a
thing as religious experience that we may be relieved of suffering.
Better go on with pain and distress than cheapen religion by making it a
remedy. We must seek it for its own sake, or rather, we must not seek it
at all, lest, like a dream, it elude us, or change into something else,
less holy. Nevertheless, it is true that if we will but look with open,
unprejudiced eyes, again and again, upon the sunrise or the stars above
us, we shall become conscious of a presence greater and more beautiful
than our minds can think. In the experience of that vision strength and
peace will come to us unbidden. We shall find our lives raised, as by an
unseen force, above the warfare of conscience and worry. We shall begin
to know the meaning of serenity and of that priceless, if not wholly to
be acquired, possession, the untroubled mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account