CHAPTER 11

"GEMS FROM THE EAST."

The following are a few extracts from "A THEOSOPHICAL BIRTHDAY-BOOK OF PRECEPTS AND AXIOMS."

"The heart which follows the rambling senses leads away his judgment as the wind leads a boat astray upon the waters." "He who casts off all desires, living free from attachments, and free from egoism, obtains bliss."

"As the bee collects nectar, and departs without injuring the flower, or its color or scent, so let a sage dwell in his village. "That man alone is wise who keeps the mastery of himself." "All our dignity consists in thought, therefore let us contrive to think well; for that is the principle of morals." "Flattery is a false coin which circulates only because of our vanity.'

"Musk is musk because of its own fragrance, and not from being called a perfume by the druggist."

"One proof is better than ten arguments.'

"To feel one's ignorance is to be wise; to feel sure of one's wisdom is to be a fool."

"He who hath subdued himself, may hope to subdue others. One's own self is the most difficult to master."

"Hatred is never quenched by hatred; hatred ceases by showing love; this is an old rule."

"To enjoy the day of plenty, you must be patient in the day of want.'

"Let a man overcome anger by love, evil by good, greediness by liberality, lie by truth.'

"The subtle self is to be known by thought alone; for every thought of men is interwoven with the senses, and when thought is purified, then the self arises."

"Lead me from the unreal to the real! Lead me from darkness to light! Lead me from death to immortality!

"Neither by the eyes, nor by spirit, nor by the sensuous

organs, nor by austerity, nor by sacrifices, can we see Brahma. Only the pure, by the light of wisdom and meditation, can see the pure Deity."

"By perfection in study and meditation the Supreme Spirit becomes manifest; study is one eye to behold it, and meditation is the other."

"Alas! we reap what seed we sow; the hands that smite us are our own.”

"Thoughts alone cause the round of rebirths in this world; let a man strive to purify his thoughts, what a man thinks, that he is this is the old secret."

666

'My sons are mine; this wealth is mine:’ with such thoughts is a fool tormented. He himself does not belong to himself, much less sons and wealth."

"The self is hidden in all beings, and does not shine forth; but it is seen by subtle seers, through their sharp and subtle intellect."

"Patience leads to power; but eagerness in greed leads to loss."

"When trust is gone, misfortune comes in; when confidence is dead, revenge is born; and when treachery appears, all blessings fly away."

"Like a beautiful flower, full of colour, but without scent, are the fine but fruitless words of him who does not act accordingly."

66

'When your mind shall have crossed beyond the taint of delusion, then will you become indifferent to all that you have heard or will hear."

"If thou losest all, and gettest wisdom by it, thy loss is thy gain.'

"Empty thy mind of evil, but fill it with good."

"Every man contains within himself the potentiality of immortality, equilibrated by the power of choice."

"He who lives in one color of the rainbow is blind to the rest. Live in the light diffused through the entire arc, and you will know it all."

"The Higher Self knows that highest home of Brahman,

which contains all and shines so bright. The wise who without desiring happiness worship that Self, are not born again.”

"One moment in eternity is as important as another moment, for eternity changeth not, neither is one part better than another part."

"By oneself the evil is done, by oneself one suffers; by oneself the evil is left undone, by oneself one is purified." "Purity and impurity belong to oneself; no one can purify another."

"Self is the lord of Self: who else could be lord! With self well subdued, a man finds a master such as few can find.” "If one man conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greater of the two conquerors."

"Who is the great man? He who is strongest in patience. He who patiently endures injury, and maintains a blameless life he is a man indeed!"

"If thou hast done evil deeds, or if thou wouldest do them, thou mayest arise and run wheree'er thou wilt, but thou canst not free thyself of thy suffering.”

"The calumniator is like one who flings dirt at another when the wind is contrary, the dirt does but return on him who threw it."

"The virtuous man cannot be hurt, the misery that his enemy would inflict comes back on himself.”

"The wise who knows the Self as bodiless within the bodies, as unchanging among changing things, as great and omnipresent, does never grieve."

"He who wrongs another unjustly will regret it, though men may applaud him; but he who is wronged is safe from regret, though the world may blame him."

"There is more courage in facing the world with undisguised truth, than in descending into a wild beast's den."

"True clemency is in foregoing revenge, when it is in one's power; true patience is in bearing up against disappointments.'

"There is 'true' Knowledge. Learn thou it is this:

To see one Changeless Life in all that lives,

And in the Separate, One Inseparable. "Theosophy is the vehicle of the spirit that giveth life; consequently, nothing dogmatic can be Theosophical."

"You cannot build a temple of truth by hammering dead stones. Its foundations must precipitate themselves like crystals from the solution of life."

"Many a man will follow a misleader. Few will recognize truth at a glance."

"Esteem that to be eminently good, which, when communicated to another, will be increased to yourself."

"Many men who have not learnt to agree rationally, still live according to reason."

"It is the property of a divine intellect to be always intently thinking about the beautiful.”

"As two pieces of wood may come together in the ocean, and having met, may separate again; like this is the meeting of mortals."

"Let the wise think on wisdom as unfading and immortal; let him fulfil his duty as though death grasped him by the hair."

"If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it.'

"The man who finds pleasure in vice, and pain in virtue, is still a novice in both."

"The wise man does good as naturally as he breathes." "The man who neglects the truth he finds in his soul, in order to follow its dead letter, is a time server."

"Grieve not about thy sustenance; nature will supply it. When a creature is born, the mother's breast supplies milk.” "Who gave the swan his whiteness, the parrot his wings of golden green, the peacock his iris-hues? Will not that which provided for them provide for thee?"

"All good fortune belongs to him of contented mind. Is not the whole earth leather-covered for him who wears shoes?'' "No plunge in clear cool water delights the heat-oppressed, no pearl necklace the maiden, as the words of the good delight the good."

"Good men vary. Some are like cocoa-nuts, full of sweet milk; others, like the jujube, externally pleasing."

"Shun him who secretly slanders, and praises openly; he is like a cup of poison, with cream on the surface."

"Like moonbeams trembling on water, truly such is the life of mortals. Knowing this, let duty be performed."

"The pure soul is a river whose holy source is self-control, whose water is truth, whose bank is righteousness, whose waves are compassion."

66

"He who wants a faultless friend, must remain friendless." "What good is soap to a negro, and advice to a fool?" "To him who has subdued self by SELF, his self is a friend; but to him who has not subdued senses by mind, that self is an enemy."

"Grief and wrath, avarice and desire, delusion and laziness, vindictiveness and vanity, envy and hatred, censoriousness and slander-are the twelve sins destructive of man's bliss." "The dog howls at the moon, but the moon heeds it not; be like the moon."

"The spirit it is, that, under the myriad illusions of life, works steadily towards its goal; silently, imperfectly, irresistibly, moving on to divinity."

"There is no death without sin, and no affliction without transgression."

"Man's actions are divided, as regards their object, into four classes; they are either purposeless, unimportant, or vain, or good."

"Where there are not virtue and discrimination, learning is not to be sown there, no more than good seed in barren soil." "A teacher is more venerable than ten sub-teachers; a father, than one hundred teachers; a mother, than a thousand fathers."

66

"One is not aged because his head is grey whoever, although a youth, has wisdom, him the gods consider an elder." "A wise man should ever shrink from honor as from poison, and should always be desirous of disrespect as if of ambrosia.".

"Though despised, one sleeps with comfort, with comfort