The Way of Peace | Page 3

begin to question your motives, thoughts, and acts,
comparing them with your ideal, and endeavoring to look upon them with a calm and
impartial eye. In this manner you will be continually gaining more of that mental and
spiritual equilibrium without which men are but helpless straws upon the ocean of life. If
you are given to hatred or anger you will meditate upon gentleness and forgiveness, so as
to become acutely alive to a sense of your harsh and foolish conduct. You will then begin
to dwell in thoughts of love, of gentleness, of abounding forgiveness; and as you
overcome the lower by the higher, there will gradually, silently steal into your heart a
knowledge of the divine Law of Love with an understanding of its bearing upon all the
intricacies of life and conduct. And in applying this knowledge to your every thought,
word, and act, you will grow more and more gentle, more and more loving, more and
more divine. And thus with every error, every selfish desire, every human weakness; by
the power of meditation is it overcome, and as each sin, each error is thrust out, a fuller
and clearer measure of the Light of Truth illumines the pilgrim soul.
Thus meditating, you will be ceaselessly fortifying yourself against your only real enemy,
your selfish, perishable self, and will be establishing yourself more and more firmly in
the divine and imperishable self that is inseparable from Truth. The direct outcome of
your meditations will be a calm, spiritual strength which will be your stay and
resting-place in the struggle of life. Great is the overcoming power of holy thought, and
the strength and knowledge gained in the hour of silent meditation will enrich the soul
with saving remembrance in the hour of strife, of sorrow, or of temptation.
As, by the power of meditation, you grow in wisdom, you will relinquish, more and more,
your selfish desires which are fickle, impermanent, and productive of sorrow and pain;
and will take your stand, with increasing steadfastness and trust, upon unchangeable
principles, and will realize heavenly rest.

The use of meditation is the acquirement of a knowledge of eternal principles, and the
power which results from meditation is the ability to rest upon and trust those principles,
and so become one with the Eternal. The end of meditation is, therefore, direct
knowledge of Truth, God, and the realization of divine and profound peace.
Let your meditations take their rise from the ethical ground which you now occupy.
Remember that you are to grow into Truth by steady perseverance. If you are an orthodox
Christian, meditate ceaselessly upon the spotless purity and divine excellence of the
character of Jesus, and apply his every precept to your inner life and outward conduct, so
as to approximate more and more toward his perfection. Do not be as those religious ones,
who, refusing to meditate upon the Law of Truth, and to put into practice the precepts
given to them by their Master, are content to formally worship, to cling to their particular
creeds, and to continue in the ceaseless round of sin and suffering. Strive to rise, by the
power of meditation, above all selfish clinging to partial gods or party creeds; above dead
formalities and lifeless ignorance. Thus walking the high way of wisdom, with mind
fixed upon the spotless Truth, you shall know no halting-place short of the realization of
Truth.
He who earnestly meditates first perceives a truth, as it were, afar off, and then realizes it
by daily practice. It is only the doer of the Word of Truth that can know of the doctrine of
Truth, for though by pure thought the Truth is perceived, it is only actualized by practice.
Said the divine Gautama, the Buddha, "He who gives himself up to vanity, and does not
give himself up to meditation, forgetting the real aim of life and grasping at pleasure, will
in time envy him who has exerted himself in meditation," and he instructed his disciples
in the following "Five Great Meditations":--
"The first meditation is the meditation of love, in which you so adjust your heart that you
long for the weal and welfare of all beings, including the happiness of your enemies.
"The second meditation is the meditation of pity, in which you think of all beings in
distress, vividly representing in your imagination their sorrows and anxieties so as to
arouse a deep compassion for them in your soul.
"The third meditation is the meditation of joy, in which you think of the prosperity of
others, and rejoice with their rejoicings.
"The fourth meditation is the meditation of impurity, in which you consider the evil
consequences of corruption, the effects of sin and diseases. How trivial often the pleasure
of the