The Freedom of Life | Page 7

wise from within and from without, his power
for distinguishing gradually improves, the fog lifts, and he finds within
himself a sure and delicate instinct which was formerly atrophied for
want of use.
The first thing to understand without the shadow of a doubt, is that,
man is not in freedom when he is following his own selfish instincts.
He is only in the appearance of freedom, and the appearance of
freedom, without the reality, leads invariably to the worst bondage. A
man who loves drink feels that he is free if he can drink as much as he
wants, but that leads to degradation and delirium tremens. A man who
has an inherited tendency toward the disobedience of any law feels that
he is free if he has the opportunity to disobey it whenever he wants to.
But whatever the law may be, the results have only to be carried to their
logical conclusion to make clear the bondage to which the disobedience
leads. All this disobedience to law leads to an inevitable, inflexible,
unsurmountable limit in the end, whereas steady effort toward
obedience to law is unlimited in its development of strength and power
for use to others. Man must understand his selfish tendencies in order
to subdue and control them, until they become subject to his own
unselfish tendencies, which are the spiritual laws within him. Thus he

gradually becomes free,--soul and body,--with no desire to disobey, and
with steadily increasing joy in his work and life. So much for the
bondage of doing wrong, and the freedom of doing right, which it
seems necessary to touch upon, in order to show clearly the bondage of
doing right in the wrong way, and the freedom of doing right in the
right way.
It is right to work for our daily bread, and for the sake of use to others,
in whatever form it may present itself. The wrong way of doing it
makes unnecessary strain, overfatigue and illness. The right way of
working gives, as we have said before, new power and joy in the work;
it often turns even drudgery into pleasure, for there is a special delight
in learning to apply one's self in a true spirit to "drudgery." The process
of learning such true application of one's powers often reveals new
possibilities in work.
It is right for most people to sleep eight hours every night. The wrong
way of doing it is to go to sleep all doubled up, and to continue to work
all night in our sleep, instead of giving up and resting entirely. The
right way gives us the fullest possible amount of rest and refreshment.
It is right to take our three meals a day, and all the nourishing food we
need. The wrong way of doing it, is to eat very fast, without chewing
our food carefully, and to give our stomachs no restful opportunity of
preparation to receive its food, or to take good care of it after it is
received. The right way gives us the opportunity to assimilate the food
entirely, so that every bit of fuel we put into our bodies is burnt to some
good purpose, and makes us more truly ready to receive more.
It is right to play and amuse ourselves for rest and recreation. We play
in the wrong way when we use ourselves up in the strain of playing, in
the anxiety lest we should not win in a game, or when we play in bad
air. When we play in the right way, there is no strain, no anxiety, only
good fun and refreshment and rest.
We might go through the narrative of an average life in showing briefly
the wonderful difference between doing right in the right way, and
doing right in the wrong way. It is not too much to say that the

difference in tendency is as great as that between life and death.
It is one thing to read about orderly living and to acknowledge that the
ways described are good and true, and quite another to have one's eyes
opened and to act from the new knowledge, day by day, until a normal
mode of life is firmly established. It requires quiet, steady force of will
to get one's self out of bad, and well established in good habits. After
the first interest and relief there often has to be steady plodding before
the new way becomes easy; but if we do not allow ourselves to get
discouraged, we are sure to gain our end, for we are opening ourselves
to the influence of the true laws within us, and in finding and obeying
these we are approaching the only possible Freedom of Life.

II
How to Sleep Restfully

IT would seem that