The Way of Peace | Page 2

allowed to partake of the Bread of Life, and when you
have, by patient and uncomplaining effort, earned the spiritual wages for which you ask,
they will not be withheld from you.

If you really seek Truth, and not merely your own gratification; if you love it above all
worldly pleasures and gains; more, even, than happiness itself, you will be willing to
make the effort necessary for its achievement.
If you would be freed from sin and sorrow; if you would taste of that spotless purity for
which you sigh and pray; if you would realize wisdom and knowledge, and would enter
into the possession of profound and abiding peace, come now and enter the path of
meditation, and let the supreme object of your meditation be Truth.
At the outset, meditation must be distinguished from idle reverie. There is nothing
dreamy and unpractical about it. It is _a process of searching and uncompromising
thought which allows nothing to remain but the simple and naked truth_. Thus meditating
you will no longer strive to build yourself up in your prejudices, but, forgetting self, you
will remember only that you are seeking the Truth. And so you will remove, one by one,
the errors which you have built around yourself in the past, and will patiently wait for the
revelation of Truth which will come when your errors have been sufficiently removed. In
the silent humility of your heart you will realize that
"There is an inmost centre in us all
Where Truth abides in fulness; and around,
Wall
upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in;
This perfect, clear perception, which is Truth,
A
baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Blinds it, and makes all error; and to know,

Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,

Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without."
Select some portion of the day in which to meditate, and keep that period sacred to your
purpose. The best time is the very early morning when the spirit of repose is upon
everything. All natural conditions will then be in your favor; the passions, after the long
bodily fast of the night, will be subdued, the excitements and worries of the previous day
will have died away, and the mind, strong and yet restful, will be receptive to spiritual
instruction. Indeed, one of the first efforts you will be called upon to make will be to
shake off lethargy and indulgence, and if you refuse you will be unable to advance, for
the demands of the spirit are imperative.
To be spiritually awakened is also to be mentally and physically awakened. The sluggard
and the self-indulgent can have no knowledge of Truth. He who, possessed of health and
strength, wastes the calm, precious hours of the silent morning in drowsy indulgence is
totally unfit to climb the heavenly heights.
He whose awakening consciousness has become alive to its lofty possibilities, who is
beginning to shake off the darkness of ignorance in which the world is enveloped, rises
before the stars have ceased their vigil, and, grappling with the darkness within his soul,
strives, by holy aspiration, to perceive the light of Truth while the unawakened world
dreams on.
"The heights by great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But
they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night."

No saint, no holy man, no teacher of Truth ever lived who did not rise early in the
morning. Jesus habitually rose early, and climbed the solitary mountains to engage in
holy communion. Buddha always rose an hour before sunrise and engaged in meditation,
and all his disciples were enjoined to do the same.
If you have to commence your daily duties at a very early hour, and are thus debarred
from giving the early morning to systematic meditation, try to give an hour at night, and
should this, by the length and laboriousness of your daily task be denied you, you need
not despair, for you may turn your thoughts upward in holy meditation in the intervals of
your work, or in those few idle minutes which you now waste in aimlessness; and should
your work be of that kind which becomes by practice automatic, you may meditate while
engaged upon it. That eminent Christian saint and philosopher, Jacob Boehme, realized
his vast knowledge of divine things whilst working long hours as a shoemaker. In every
life there is time to think, and the busiest, the most laborious is not shut out from
aspiration and meditation.
Spiritual meditation and self-discipline are inseparable; you will, therefore, commence to
meditate upon yourself so as to try and understand yourself, for, remember, the great
object you will have in view will be the complete removal of all your errors in order that
you may realize Truth. You will