Thoughts for Aspirants, compiled of Notes and Writings of N. Sri Ram, The Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Madras, India, 1957
Thoughts for aspirants
N. Sri Ram
With the sword of my will, I carve for myself a throne in the realm of the Spirit, which I shall ascend.
Contents
[ in the original booklet there are 15 more chapters. There is also a second volume. So, if you find this book somewhere, buy it! - well worth your cash. The esteem members of the Theosophical Society have for it can be seen from the fact that new E.S. (Esoteric Section) members often receive it as a gift on the day they enter the E.S. ]
IV
Wisdom
- Wisdom is an aspect of God, which shines through the creative Spirit. Hence, His Wisdom is in all things, in their being as well as their becoming, in each separate thing as well as in the totality.
- Wisdom is ancient yet young, or perennial charm and inspiration, ever-vital, ever-growing, because Nature herself is growing and unfolding. It is the product of Self-knowledge gained from all human contacts and experience.
- In the light of God's Wisdom, all human knowledge is but ignorance.
- Wisdom is not a question of learning facts with the mind;
it can only be acquired through perfection of living. - Wisdom is the root-principle in man, which has to flower in right thought, right action and right living from every point of view.
- He is the wise man who is able to distinguish between his limited wisdom and his unlimited ignorance.
- There is not Wisdom without love. The heart of Love, embedded in knowledge, is transformed into Wisdom.
- Wisdom implies knowledge of life, in addition to knowledge of form; a knowledge not only of particulars, but also of that which binds the particulars, the unity in them.
- To discover the law in one's own being and live it is Wisdom.
- To work for God, for Nature, for one's fellow-beings, understanding the practical synonymousness of these terms, is the only true Wisdom.
- It is not by knowledge that Wisdom is measured, but by the influence which the knowledge exerts upon us, our attitude to that knowledge. Hence the more the lacunae in our knowledge, the better is the illustration of the poise which must characterize Wisdom.
- Wisdom lies in knowledge of the significance of things, which significance is in their indwelling Life.
- It is application which brings out the force and value of every truth. A concept which fails to act fails to manifest its truth. Wisdom, not being limited by the mind, does not stop short of action.
- It is not possible to gain any spiritual knowledge, except by preparing ourselves to receive it. There has to be the virgin soil in which the divine seed can strike its roots and grow.
- To know ourselves, at least to the extent we are able to see ourselves, is the first step to Wisdom, and such knowledge will increasingly bring both clarity and charity.
- Wisdom is not knowledge, but lies in the use we make of knowledge. It arises from knowledge guided by love. To use knowledge with goodness is to make it shine with a value which reflects Eternity in time.
- We cannot separate one aspect of Wisdom from another, neither the philosophic from the scientific, nor the wisdom that is in the heart from the wisdom that issues from the hands, in other words, the ideal from the practical.
- Wisdom is a complex only from the lower analytical point of view; it is in truth an all-round rightness.
- Wisdom shines with a dual quality of courage and caution.
- When Wisdom is absolute, the Reason can extend indefinitely in all directions, binding all things in a perfect order.
- Wisdom is that nature which is projected through subject upon object from a Centre transcending both, and transforming them both into a shape of unity.
- To gain its ends, Wisdom must arrive at the true relations between qualities and the forms of external perception. We need to know not only the relations between things as they appear, but also the things in themselves.
- Wisdom in an individual is the capacity to react to any person or any given situation in the light of a knowledge of the true nature of each; it is a principle that embodies itself and operates in any set of circumstances.
- Wisdom consists not in expansion, but in a perfect integration. It is Brahma who expands into the privation of matter and creates ever-new matter, new notes for all possible combinations. It is Vishnu who expresses Himself in the music which is made out of them.
- To be conscious of one's ignorance is the beginning of wisdom, and an ignorance of parts will not trouble the man who has achieved a happy sense of relationship with the whole. All truth will come to him who has a living relation to things, since to live is to grow and progress.
- Wisdom is not a matter of study, but a matter of living, and of sure action which rises above opposites.
- It is out of the immaculateness of an eternal and allcomprehending Wisdom that every perfect and exquisite trend in Nature manifests itself as a ray from an ever-existing Sun, differing in its effect according to the nature of the ground on which it falls.
- Wisdom cannot be communicated by another, for it is the incommunicable source, which must be discovered by yourself, from which you gather nectar as from an unseen flower.
- To contemplate without fear what is to come, what may come, is in itself a condition of wisdom. To be oppressed by what may happen in the future, immediate or remote, is to miss or destroy the present.
- Wisdom is that nature which blossoms like a rose, when the time comes, in the spiritually barren desert of life in ignorance.
- To be wise is to live in an inner harmony that eventually overcomes all outer discords.
- We need not head-learning, of which we have plenty, but Soul-Wisdom, the ability to discern the truth behind every mask of self-deception and falsehood. One can carry a vast load of learning, yet be foolish; also, it is possible with a little knowledge to be greatly wise.
- Wisdom lies less in what we learn and more in our reactions to that learning; less in the quantity and more in the quality of our knowledge; less in the accumulation of facts and nomenclature, and more in knowledge of principles; less in the possession of ideas and more in the right employment of them; less in all that we gather and must shed, and more in what we assimilate into the texture of that being which is an immortal reflection of the soul.
- The final Wisdom of God is in the synthesis of all evolved beings - a certain order in them which is a perfect order.
- To be truly wise is to be truly free. For Wisdom does not lie in prejudice, in a conditioned approach, in seeing things of the present through ideas of the past.
- He is a wise man who knows how to use his knowledge, who, while planning to discharge all his responsibilities, lives in a state of essential unconcern as to the future. He is then light-hearted as a bird; without being irresponsible, he can re-capture the adventurousness of life.
- When Wisdom rules the world, all things in it will be re-arranged so as to cause that light which is in each thing and in all men to shine.
- Wisdom lies in the search for and discovery of the true ends of life, all of which are comprised in one end, conceive it as Perfect Happiness, Perfect Beauty or Perfect Action.
- To live is to seek means to grow - into wisdom. The plenitude of life is in plenitude of Wisdom.
- Wisdom is always the blossoming of the quality of life, revealing Life's deep meanings. It is the unity of the all, reflected in the unity of a part. It is a movement of life which shows life in its superlativeness and at its best. It is thought released from every tether, formed by a direct impulse from heaven. It is a divine ray which penetrates both heart and mind and unifies them. It is the breath of God of which the heat is life, and the light is love and beauty.
- He is the wise man who has by perfect living gained the instinct of rightness by which he guides himself, whether in thought or action, who has found that centre of balance which is always over his point of contact with circumstances. He is the man whom Nature pours the riches of all her instincts.