To live in the hearts and minds of men forever

"A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."

From: To Jerusalem and Back by Saul Bellow, Canadian-born American writer.

To stand face to face with truth; to arrive, after innumerable wanderings and pains, at wisdom and bliss; not to be defeated, but to triumph over every inward foe - such is man's divine destiny; such his glorious goal; and this, every saint, sage, and saviour who walked the planet, has declared. Thus, to live in the hearts and minds of men forever; one must live, experiencing truth. All what is required of men, to live forever in the hearts and minds of men, is to lead a life of truth.

This is what every being who ever entered the hearts and minds of men and lives endlessly there, generation after generation, did. Yet, modern man finds it the most difficult thing to do. Why is this so very difficult when all it requires is, the courage of one's convictions; the fearlessness to be truthful.

Modern man lives with heartaches no one can heal, in spite of the fact that honest love and loving kindness leaves a memory that no one can steal. Thus, to begin with, if one is to live in the hearts and minds of men, honesty and sincerity of purpose is a necessity, a must. Deceit is the blindest folly. Hypocrisy is the weakest thing on earth. In trying to deceive others, a man most of all deceives himself. He does so in two ways: he believes in what is not true; and he refuses to believe what is true.

Thus, this fool of a liar, unlike liars who lie to others, lies to himself. He forgets that, the denied reality will come back to haunt his life forever. Of all the liars in the world, the worst are those who lie to themselves, because they lead a life haunted by their own fears.

Man remains a craving, weeping, sinning, repenting creature because he wills to do so. There is no end to his desires, his craving. Yet, if, and when, he wills to shake off his joyless and morbid dreams; dreams that are induced by his avarice, his cravings, his yearnings; and decides to rise; he arises, achieves, and finds contentment.

Human being

The fact of the matter is that every human being, living on earth, lives in his own mental world. His joys, his sorrows, his defeats, his triumphs are all, the creations of his own mind, none other, and dependent upon that mind for their existence. In the midst of the world, darkened with many sins and sorrows brought on due to avarice and greed, amidst which the majority live; there abides another world; lighted up with shining virtues and unpolluted joy, in which the perfect ones live. This world can be, found and entered; and the way to it is by self-control and moral excellence.

It is the world of the perfect life, and it rightly belongs to man, who is not complete until crowned with perfection. The perfect life is not the faraway, impossible thing that men who are in darkness imagine it to be; it is supremely possible, and very near and real.

It is men who lead such life, who live forever in the hearts and minds of all men, the world over. In the present stage of the life of humanity, because of the decline in values and moral principles, comparatively few reach this place of triumph - though all will reach it at last.

The difficulties of life are great, its battle fierce; and it is no wonder that every hour men and women are breaking down under the strain of living.

Yet these conditions have no objective and arbitrary existence. In their true nature, they are subjective and purely mental; and therefore, irrespective of the hurdles, the stress, and pain; they can be defeated.

Men and women are born as learners in the school of life; and most men die as learners.

The distresses, the heartaches, the miseries, and the sadness of life are profound and deeply rooted; but can be fathomed and rooted out with right thinking.

The passions and emotions of human nature are such that in their ungoverned state, they are overwhelming and painfully conflicting; but they can be so softened down, harmonised, and wisely directed and understood. Before man can be truly divine, he must be manly; before a woman can be truly god like, she must be womanly.

There can be no true goodness apart from moral strength. Simpering, pretence, artificial behaviour, flatteries, insincerities, and smiling hypocrisies; they cannot make a man or woman divine until these baser human qualities are destroyed and banished from our minds forever. Some men and women, however, find the courage, in this life, to achieve the fixity of purpose, to fight against darkness, pain, and ignorance.

Hence, they acquire a right knowledge of life, and traverse joyfully beyond the pupil stage into the realm of those who live forever in the hearts and minds of men.

Most people lead a busy lonely life. They may accept it or not, but the fact is, it is true if you look deep down into your self.

There are those who, having yielded to defeat in the battle of life, talk thoughtlessly about the wrongs they have suffered at the hands of others.

They believe - and try to make others believe - that they would have been successful or rich or famous but for the treachery and villainy of those about them. They tell, for the thousandth time, how they have been deceived, defrauded, and degraded by others.

They imagine that they themselves are all trust, all innocence, all honesty and good nature, and that nearly everyone else is all that is bad and malicious.

They tell how they would have been just as prosperous and honoured as others, if they had been as selfish as those others; that their great drawback, and the chief source, in themselves, of their failures, is that they were born with too great an endowment of unselfishness. Such self-praising complainers cannot distinguish between good and evil, and their faith in human nature and the goodness of the universe is dead.

Looking upon others, they have eyes for evil only; looking upon themselves, they see only suffering innocence.

To live in the hearts and minds of men forever, discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it. Life is a combination of habits; some baneful, some beneficent, all of which take their rise in the one habit of thinking.

Difference

The thought makes the man. Hence, right thinking is the most important thing in life.

The essential difference between a wise man and a fool is that the wise man controls his thinking; the fool is, controlled by it.

The result: the wrong thinker is known by his vices; the right thinker, by his virtues. Therefore, honour others and respect yourself. Choose your own path and walk it with a firm, unflinching step, but avoid a meddlesome interference with others.

The afflictions of arrogance, is the folly of pride. A person is only beautiful, when their own beauty, is reflecting on to others. It is better to have eyes that cannot see; ears that cannot hear; lips that cannot speak; than a heart that cannot love.

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