Foundation Stones To Happiness And Success (Audiobook Part 3)

Hi,

This is Stefania and this is an audiobook recording of the classic self-help book Foundation Stones to Happiness and Success.

And now Foundation Stones to Happiness and Success continues with the conclusion Parts 3 and 4.

True Speech Truth is known by practice only.

Without sincerity there can be no knowledge of truth,

And true speech is the beginning of all sincerity.

Truth in all its native beauty and original simplicity consists in abandoning and not doing all those things which are untrue,

And in embracing and doing all those things which are true.

True speech is therefore one of the elementary beginnings in the life of truth.

Falsehood and all forms of deception,

Slander and all forms of evil speaking,

These must be totally abandoned and abolished before the mind can receive even a small degree of spiritual enlightenment.

The liar and slanderer is lost in darkness,

So deep is his darkness that he cannot distinguish between good and evil.

And he persuades himself that his lying and evil speaking are necessary and good,

That he is thereby protecting himself and other people.

Let the would-be students of higher things look to themselves and beware of self-delusion.

If they are given to uttering words that deceive or to speaking evil of others,

If they speak in insincerity,

Envy or malice,

Then they have not yet begun to study higher things.

They may be studying metaphysics or miracles or psychic phenomena or astral wonders.

They may be studying how to commune with invisible beings,

To travel invisibly during sleep,

Or to produce curious phenomena.

They may even study spirituality theoretically and as a mere book study.

But if they are deceivers and bagbiters,

The higher life is hidden from them.

For the higher things are these,

Uprightness,

Sincerity,

Innocence,

Purity,

Kindness,

Gentleness,

Faithfulness,

Humility,

Patience,

Pity,

Sympathy,

Self-sacrifice,

Joy,

Goodwill,

Love.

And those who would study them,

Know them,

And make them their own must practice them.

There is no other way.

Lying and evil speaking belong to the lowest forms of spiritual ignorance,

And there can be no such thing as spiritual enlightenment while they are practiced.

Their parents are selfishness and hatred.

Slander is akin to lying,

But it is even more subtle,

As it is frequently associated with indignation,

And by assuming more successfully the appearance of truth,

It ensnares many who would not tell a deliberate falsehood.

For there are two sides to slander.

There is the making of it.

There is repeating of it.

And there is the listening to it and acting upon it.

The slanderer would be powerless without a listener.

Evil words require an ear that is receptive to evil in which they may fall,

Before they can flourish.

Therefore,

Those who listen to a slanderer,

Who believe it and allow themselves to be influenced against the person whose character and reputation are defamed,

Is in the same position as the one who framed or repeated the evil report.

The evil speaker is a positive slanderer.

The evil listener is a passive slanderer.

The two are co-operators in the propagation of evil.

Slander is a common vice and a dark and deadly one.

An evil report begins in ignorance and pursues its blind way in darkness.

It generally takes its rise in a misunderstanding.

Someone feels that he or she has been badly treated and,

Filled with indignation and resentment,

Unburdens himself to his friends and others in vehement language,

Exaggerating the enormity of the supposed offense on account of the feeling of injury by which he is possessed.

He is listened to and sympathized with.

The listeners,

Without hearing the other person's version of what has taken place,

And on no other proof than the violent words of an angry man or woman,

Become cold in their attitude towards the one spoken against,

And repeat to others what they have been told.

And,

As such repetition is always more or less inaccurate,

A distorted and altogether untrue report is soon passing from mouth to mouth.

It is because slander is such a common vice that it can work the suffering and injury that it does.

It is because so many,

Not deliberate wrongdoers and unconscious of the nature of the evil into which they so easily fall,

Are ready to allow themselves to be influenced against one whom they have hitherto regarded as honorable,

That an evil report can do its deadly work.

Yet its work is only amongst those who have not altogether acquired the virtue of true speech,

The cause of which is a truth-loving mind.

When one who has not entirely freed himself from repeating or believing an evil report about another hears of an evil report about himself,

His mind becomes aflame with burning resentment,

His sleep is broken,

And his peace of mind is destroyed.

He thinks the cause of all his suffering is the other man and what that man has said about him,

And is ignorant of the truth that the root and cause of his suffering lies in his own readiness to believe an evil report about another.

The virtuous man,

He who has attained to true speech and whose mind is sealed against even the appearance of evil speaking,

Cannot be injured and disturbed about any evil reports concerning himself.

And although his reputation may for a time be stained in the minds of those who are prone to suggestions of evil,

His integrity remains untouched and his character unsoiled.

For no one can be stained by the evil deeds of another but for his own wrong doing.

And so,

Through all misrepresentation,

Misunderstanding,

And contumelence,

He is untroubled and unrevengeful.

His sleep is undisturbed and his mind remains in peace.

True speech is the beginning of a pure,

Wise,

And well-ordered life.

If one would attain to purity of life,

If she would lessen the evil and suffering of the world,

Let her abandon falsehood and slander in thought and word.

Let her avoid even the appearance of these things,

For there are no lies and slanders so deadly as those which are half-truths,

And let her not be a participant in evil speaking by listening to it.

Let her also have compassion on the evil speaker,

Knowing how such a one is binding himself to suffering and unrest,

For no liar can know the bliss of truth,

No slanderer can enter the kingdom of peace.

By the words which he utters is a man's spiritual condition declared.

By these also is he finally and infallibly adjudged.

For as the divine master of the Christian world has declared,

By thy words shalt thou be justified and by thy words shalt thou be condemned.

Number five,

Equal-mindedness.

To be equally minded is to be peacefully minded.

For a man cannot be said to have arrived at peace who allows his mind to be disturbed and thrown off the balance by occurrences.

The man of wisdom is dispassionate and meets all things with the calmness of a mind in repose and free from prejudice.

He is not a partisan,

Having put away passion,

And he is always at peace with himself and the world,

Not taking sides nor defending himself,

But sympathizing with all.

The partisan is so convinced that his own opinion and his own side is right and all that goes contrary to them is wrong,

That he cannot think there is any good in the other opinion and the other side.

He lives in a continual fever of attack and defense and has no knowledge of the quiet peace of an equal mind.

The equal-minded man watches himself in order to check and overcome even the appearance of passion and prejudice in his mind,

And by doing so he develops sympathy for others and comes to understand their position and particular state of mind.

And as he comes to understand others,

He perceives the folly of condemning them and opposing himself to them.

Thus there grows in his heart a divine charity which cannot be limited,

But which is extended to all things that live and strive and suffer.

When a man is under the sway of passion and prejudice,

He is spiritually blind,

Seeing nothing but good in his own side and nothing but evil in the other.

He cannot see anything as it really is,

Not even his own side.

And not understanding himself,

He cannot understand the hearts of others and thinks it is right that he should condemn them.

Thus there grows up in his heart a dark hatred for all who refuse to see with him and who condemn him in return.

He becomes separated from his fellow men and confines himself to a narrow torture chamber of his own making.

Sweet and peaceful are the days of equal-minded people,

Fruitful and good,

And rich in manifold blessings.

Guided by wisdom,

They avoid those pathways which lead down to hatred and sorrow and pain,

And take those which lead up to love and peace and bliss.

The occurrences of life do not trouble them,

Nor do they grieve over those things which are regarded by mankind as grievous,

But which must befall everyone in the ordinary course of nature.

They are neither elated by success nor cast down by failure.

They see the events of life arrayed in their proper proportions,

And can find no room for selfish wishes or vain regrets,

For vain anticipations and childish disappointments.

And how is this equal-mindedness,

This blessed state of mind and life acquired?

Only by overcoming one's self,

Only by purifying one's own heart.

For the purification of the heart leads to unbiased comprehension,

Unbiased comprehension leads to equal-mindedness,

And equal-mindedness leads to peace.

The impure man is swept helplessly away on the waves of passion.

The pure man guides himself into the harbor of rest.

The fool says,

I have an opinion.

The wise man goes about his business.

Number six,

Good results.

A considerable portion of the happenings of life comes to us when it's without any direct choosing on our part,

And such happenings are generally regarded as having no relation to our will or character,

But as appearing fortuitously,

As occurring without a cause.

Thus,

One is spoken of as being lucky,

And another unlucky,

The inference being that each has received something which he never earned,

Never caused.

Deeper thought and a clearer insight into life convinces us,

However,

That nothing happens without a cause,

And that cause and effect are always related in perfect adjustment and harmony.

This being so,

Every happening directly affecting us is intimately related to our own will and character,

Is indeed an effect justly related to a cause having its seat in our consciousness.

In a word,

Involuntary happenings of life are the result of our own thoughts and deeds.

This,

I admit,

Is not apparent on the surface,

But what fundamental law,

Even in the physical universe,

Is so apparent?

If thought,

Investigation,

And experiment are necessary to the discovery of the principles which relate one material atom to another,

Even so are they imperative to the perception and understanding of the mode of action which relates one mental condition to another.

And such modes,

Such laws,

Are known by the right doer,

By him or her who has acquired an understanding mind by the practice of true actions.

We reap as we sow.

Those things which come to us,

Though not by our own choosing,

Are by our causing.

The drunkard did not choose the delirium trimmings or insanity which overtook him,

But he caused it by his own deeds.

In this case,

The law is plain to all minds,

But where it is not so plain,

It is nonetheless true.

Within ourselves is the deep-seated cause of all our sufferings,

The spring of all our joys.

Alter the inner world of thoughts,

And the outer world of events will cease to bring you sorrow.

Make the heart pure,

And to you all things will be pure,

All occurrences happy and in true order.

Within yourselves deliverance must be sought.

Each man his own prison makes.

Each woman her own prison makes.

Each hath such lordship as the loftiest ones.

Nay,

For with powers above,

Around,

Below,

As with all flesh and whatsoever lives,

Act maketh joy or woe.

Our life is good or bad,

Enslaved or free,

According to its causation in our thoughts.

For out of these thoughts spring all our deeds,

And from these deeds come equitable results.

We cannot seize good results violently like a thief,

And claim and enjoy them,

But we can bring them to pass by setting in motion the causes within ourselves.

Men strive for money,

Sigh for happiness,

And would gladly possess wisdom,

Yet fail to secure these things while they see others to whom these blessings appear to come unwidden.

The reason is that they have generated causes which prevent the fulfillment of their wishes and efforts.

Each life is a perfectly woven network of causes and effects,

Of efforts or lack of efforts,

And results.

And good results can only be reached by initiating good efforts,

Good causes.

The doer of two actions who pursues sound methods,

Grounded on right principles,

Would not need to strive and struggle for good results.

They will be there as the effects of his righteous rule of life.

He will reap the fruit of his own actions,

And the reaping will be in gladness and peace.

This truth of sowing and reaping in the moral sphere is a simple one,

Yet people are slow to understand and accept it.

We have been told by a wise one that the children of darkness are wiser in their day than the children of light.

And who would not expect in the material world to reap and eat where he has not sown and planted?

Or who would expect to reap wheat in the field where he had sown tares?

And who would fall to weeping and complaining if he did not?

Yet this is just what people do in the spiritual field of mind and deed.

They do evil and expect to get from it good.

And when the bitter harvesting comes in all its ripened fullness,

They fall into despair and bemoan the hardness and injustice of their lot,

Usually attributing it to the evil deeds of others,

Refusing even to admit the possibility of its cause being hidden in themselves,

In their own thoughts and deeds.

The children of light,

Those who are searching for the fundamental principles of right living,

With a view to making themselves into wise and happy beings,

Must train themselves to observe this law of cause and effect in thought,

Word and deed,

As implicitly and obediently as the gardener obeys the laws of sowing and reaping.

She does not even question the law.

She recognizes and obeys it.

When the wisdom which she instinctively practices in her garden is practiced by people in the garden of their minds,

When the law of sowing of deeds is so fully recognized that it can no longer be doubted or questioned,

Then it will be just as faithfully followed by the sowing of those actions which bring about a reaping of happiness and well-being for all.

As the children of matter obey the laws of matter,

So let the children of spirit obey the laws of spirit,

For the law of matter and the law of spirit are one.

They are but two aspects of one thing,

The outworking of one principle in opposite directions.

If we observe right principles or causes,

Wrong effects cannot possibly accrue.

If we pursue sound methods,

No shoddy thread can find its way into the web of our life.

No rotten brick enter into the building of our character to render it insecure.

And if we do true actions,

What but good results can come to pass.

For to say that good causes can produce bad effects is to say that nettles can be reaped from a sowing of corn.

They who order their lives along the moral lines thus briefly enunciated will attain to such a state of insight and equilibrium as to render them permanently happy and perennially glad.

All their efforts will be seasonally planted.

All the issues of their lives will be good.

And thus they may not become millionaires as indeed they will have no desire to become as such.

They will acquire the gift of peace.

And true success will wait upon them as its commanding master.

And that's the end of the James Ellen book Foundation Stones to Happiness and Success.

Until next time…