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James Allen Daily

Discussion in 'Self Improvement' started by 虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず, Dec 23, 2016.

  1. I'm not anywhere near the kind of man these words describe.

    I just relapsed today in fact. Still in relapse mode.

    But I am striving towards a higher ideal than I am presently dwelling in.

    Always strive. Keep your ideal in sight. Never lose hope. We will achieve that ideal one day if we don't give up hope.

    Inside the gateway of unselfishness lies the elysium of Abiding Joy.

    December Thirtieth.
    KNOWING this—that selfishness leads to misery, and unselfishness to joy, not merely for one’s self alone—for if this were all how unworthy would be our endeavours !—but for the whole world, and because all with whom we live and come in contact will be the happier and the truer for unselfishness ; because Humanity is one, and the joy of one is the joy of all—knowing this, let us scatter flowers and not thorns in the common ways of life—yea, even in the highway of our enemies let us scatter the blossoms of unselfish love—so shall the pressure of their footprints fill the air with the perfume of holiness and gladden the world with the aroma of joy.

    Seek the highest Good, and you will taste the deepest, sweetest joy.

    Thirtieth Morning
    When the farmer has tilled and dressed
    his land and put in the seed, he knows
    that he has done all that he can possibly
    do, and that now he must trust to the
    elements, and wait patiently for the
    course of time to bring about the harvest,
    and that no amount of expectancy
    on his part will affect the result.

    Even so, he who has realized Truth,
    goes forth as a sower of the seeds of
    goodness, purity, love, and peace, without
    expectancy and never looking for results,
    knowing that there is the Great Over-
    ruling Law which brings about its own
    harvest in due time, and which is alike the
    source of preservation and destruction.

    Thirtieth Evening
    The virtuous put a check upon themselves,
    and set a watch upon their passions and
    emotions; in this way they gain possession
    of the mind, and gradually acquire calmness;
    and as they acquire influence, power,
    greatness, abiding joy, and fullness and
    completeness of life.

    He only finds peace who conquers
    himself, who strives, day by day, after
    greater self-possession, greater self-control,
    greater calmness of mind.

    Where the calm mind is there is
    strength and rest, there is love and
    wisdom; there is one who has fought
    successfully innumerable battles against
    self, who, after long toil in secret against
    his own failings, has triumphed at last.

    It will happen naturally. One desire at a time. Let's all aim for 100% NoFap progress right now. Don't worry about other things. Just overcome fapping first. Then onto the next.
     
  2. Back on the wagon. What a waste of a day yesterday. I was up all night, literally. Drunk and tweaking (seems I don't just fap these days but get twisted once I lose all self control by giving into an urge), fapping away my soul to the depths. Burn and start again.



    The universe has no favorites; it is supremely just, and gives to every man his rightful earnings.

    December Thirty-first.
    HAPPY in the Eternal Happiness is he who has come to that Life from which the thought of self is abolished. Already, even now and in this life, he has entered the Kingdom of Heaven. He is at rest on the bosom of the Infinite.

    Sweet is the rest and deep the bliss of him who has freed his heart from its lusts and hatreds and dark desires; and he who, without any shadow of bitterness or selfishness, can breathe, in his heart, the blessing:

    Peace unto all living things,

    making no exceptions or distinctions—such a man has reached that happy ending which can never be taken away, the fulness of peace, the consummation of Perfect Blessedness.

    Man can find the right way in life, and, having found it, can rejoice and be glad.

    Thirty-First Morning
    Sympathy bestowed increases its store in
    our own heart and enriches and fructifies
    our own life. Sympathy given is blessedness
    received; sympathy withheld is blessedness
    forfeited.

    In the measure that a man increases
    and enlarges his sympathy so much
    nearer does he approach the ideal life,
    the perfect blessedness; and when his
    heart has become so mellowed that no
    hard, bitter, or cruel thought can enter,
    and detract from its permanent sweetness,
    then indeed is he richly and divinely
    blessed.

    Thirty-First Evening
    Sweet is the rest and deep the bliss of him
    who has freed his heart from its lusts and
    hatreds and dark desires; and he who,
    without any shadow of bitterness resting
    upon him, and looking out upon the world
    with boundless compassion and love, can
    breathe, in his inmost heart, the blessing:

    Peace unto all living things,

    making no exceptions or distinctions-
    such a man has reached that happy ending
    which can never be taken away, for this is
    the perfection of life, the fulness of peace,
    the consummation of perfect blessedness.
     
  3. [​IMG]

    8. The Belief that Saves
    It has been said that a man’s whole life and character is the outcome of his belief, and also that his belief has nothing whatever to do with his life. Both statements are true. The confusion and contradiction of these two statements are only apparent, and are quickly dispelled when it is remembered that there are two entirely distinct kinds of beliefs, namely, Head-belief and Heart-belief.

    Head, or intellectual belief, is not fundamental and causative, but it is superficial and consequent, and that it has no power in the moulding of a man’s character, the most superficial observer may easily see. Take, for instance, half a dozen men from any creed. They not only hold the same theological belief, but confess the same articles of faith in every particular, and yet their characters are vastly different. One will be just as noble as another is ignoble; one will be mild and gentle, another coarse and irascible; one will be honest, another dishonest; one will indulge certain habits which another will rigidly abjure, and so on, plainly indicating that theological belief is not an influential factor in a man’s life.

    A man’s theological belief is merely his intellectual opinion or view of the universe. God, The Bible, etc., and behind and underneath this head-belief there lies, deeply rooted in his innermost being, the hidden, silent, secret belief of his heart, and it is this belief which moulds and makes his whole life. It is this which makes those six men who, whilst holding the same theology, are yet so vastly at variance in their deeds - they differ in the vital belief of the heart.

    What, then, is this heart-belief?

    It is that which a man loves and clings to and fosters in his soul; for he thus loves and clings to and fosters in his heart, because he believes in them, and believing in them and loving them, he practises them; thus is his life the effect of his belief, but it has no relation to the particular creed which comprises his intellectual belief. One man clings to impure and immoral things because he believes in them; another does not cling to them because he has ceased to believe in them. A man cannot cling to anything unless he believes in it; belief always precedes action, therefore a man’s deeds and life are the fruits of his belief.

    The Priest and the Levite who passed by the injured and helpless man, held, no doubt, very strongly to the theological doctrines of their fathers- that was their intellectual belief,- but in their hearts they did not believe in mercy, and so lived and acted accordingly. The good Samaritan may or may not have had any theological beliefs nor was it necessary that he should have; but in his heart he believed in mercy, and acted accordingly.

    Strictly speaking, there are only two beliefs which vitally affect the life, and they are, belief in good and belief in evil.

    He who believes in all those things that are good, will love them, and live in them; he who believes in those things that are impure and selfish, will love them, and cling to them. The tree is known by its fruits.

    A man’s beliefs about God, Jesus, and the Bible are one thing; his life, as bound up in his actions, is another; therefore a man’s theological belief is of no consequence; but the thoughts which he harbours, his attitude of mind towards others, and his actions, these, and these only, determine and demonstrate whether the belief of a man’s heart is fixed in the false or true.
     
  4. Scientists say your “mind” isn’t confined to your brain, or even your body

    In Progressing, Our Mind Modifies Its Ideas
    Translated from the French of Lamennais

    Truth grows, broadens ceaselessly, for in itself it is infinite. Like a divine stream, it flows from its eternal principle, waters and fertilizes the furthest depths of the universe, quenching the searching minds that are carried on its divine waves and, in its invariable course that nothing can impede, that nothing can hinder, raises them little by little to the source whence it came. And, as it is infinite, no one, whoever he may be, no matter at what period life may have been given to him, can vaunt himself of possessing it completely. What proportion, what common measure exists between truth and him? An imperceptible shell on the shore saying to itself; I have the ocean in me! No state then, more unreasoning than that of retaining unchangeable ideas, when they are those which form to some extent, the bed on which truth progressing perpetually flows. For this state implies, either the persuasion that one knows all, that one has seen all, conceived all, or, the will to see no further, nor to conceive anything higher, and when, to add to this one presumes to make of this insignificant idea the last stage of humanity, which in passing by has been clutched at as one clutches at a rock overhanging the river, no tongue can furnish words to express such excessive un reasonableness.

    Solva said: “l grow old always learning." This advancement in knowledge, this continual evolution of the intelligence into truth, is one of the first laws of the mind. But all knowledge, each new thought, does not only add itself to the ideas and to the knowledge already acquired, it modifies them still more, whilst intermingling with them; so that the mind cannot grow in light, widen its horizon, penetrate further, without finding something to reorder in its ideas and previous judgments. Those who announce with superiority the pretension of being unchangeable in this sense, who say: As for me, I have never changed, my opinions are the same as they were ten, thirty years ago, those persons miserably err, they have too much faith in their own stupidity. But there is no one who, wishing it or no, that is not influenced by the general progress. In spite of oneself one advances, the crowd carries you forward, and the weak vanity that disputes this movement is dragged backward at every step, and sees its unchangeable convictions disappearing by little in the distance.

    As for us, our purest and most satisfying joy is to feel nothing in ourselves that impedes this marvelous impulse, which is not of one person, but of every one, the result of which is the development of truth in the reason of all. This development, in our eyes, encloses all the terrestrial aspirations of man; for he cannot believe in truth without believing also in love, and love and truth are the two elements of his life progressively most perfect.
     
  5. [​IMG]

    This thread is not for those of you who would choose the blue pill :confused:

    [​IMG]



    [​IMG]

    I wish I would have stated more in the first post. I will continue catering to mundane minds with tidbits alongside the excerpts I suppose. I am still quite a worldly person myself.

    [​IMG]
     
    ZenPhysics likes this.
  6. How to spot a fake 'guru': Are they out for profit, fame, wealth, and reputation? If so, they are not a genuine spiritual Master.

    That's not to say people charging exorbitant fees for 'teachings' or selling a certain type of meditation practice don't have any insight to offer.

    I'm not saying someone like Dandapani is a fraud out for profit and fame.

    Hey, if his words help you more power to you. But there ain't gonna be anymore 'pseudo gurus' in this thread after this post:



     
  7. If the practice of egolessness begins to become just another way of building up your ego – building your ego by giving up your ego – it is like eating poisonous food; it will not take effect. In fact, rather than providing an eternally awakened state of mind, it will provide you with death, because you are holding on to the ego. So if your reason for sitting or doing post-meditation practice is self-improvement, it is like eating poisonous food. “If I sit properly, with the greatest discipline and exertion, then I will become the best meditator of all” – this is a poisonous attitude.

    ~ Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

    [​IMG]

    I used to be obsessed with self improvement.

    The self sure is giving me alot of trouble though, ego is my worst enemy.

    I view 'self' improvement quite differently these days hehe.
     
  8. Last edited: Dec 31, 2016
  9. An aging master grew tired of his apprentice’s complaints. One morning, he sent him to get some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master told him to mix a handful of salt in a glass of water and then drink it.

    “How does it taste?” the master asked.

    “Bitter,” said the apprentice.

    The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, “Now drink from the lake.”

    As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked, “How does it taste?”

    “Fresh,” remarked the apprentice.

    “Do you taste the salt?” asked the master.

    “No,” said the young man. At this the master sat beside this serious young man, and explained softly,

    “The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains exactly the same. However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”

    [​IMG]
     
  10. It's hip to be square. Funny how people indulging in all kinds of drugs used to call people who didn't party as such 'square' back in the 'sexual revolution' era with its notorious mass dosings of LSD. As if abandoning virtuous conduct and embracing a hedonistic, unrestrained lifestyle is somehow 'hip'. Ahhh, the pseudologic of drug users. Hey hippy, are you also a vegan environmentalist? If not, bug off cause you don't really care about Earth if that's the case. You're just someone who doesn't want to follow any rules and wants to justify a hedonistic lifestyle in some self-proclaimed righteous manner most likely. The evolution of hippy to hipster was inevitable. Such a shallow existential path to tread if I may say from experience.

    The Quarry (Poem)
    Who by the Universal squares his life,
    Sees but success in all its finite strife;
    In all that is, his Truth-enlightened eyes
    Detect the May-be through its thin disguise;
    And in the Absolute’s unclouded sun,
    To him the two already are the one.

    So mount ye into purer, freer air,
    And find the roof that arches everywhere;
    That which but failure seems, shall build Success,
    For all—as possible—thou dost possess.

    - Adelaide Reynolds Haldeman

    Self Improvement Update:

    How much of my desire dare I say greed to have more, be different than what I am now, or be more popular is motivated by illusion? Mainstream culture is a poisonous thing really. Whatever benefits others and this planet I suppose is worthy of striving after, but I no longer feel driven to be accepted, get rich, or be popular by any means. A simple life is fine by me. The Stoics have said that becoming famous or rich should simply be a by-product of right efforts and intentions and not what a man striving for Areté should focus on. To aim solely at riches or fame is folly and will produce no worthy fruits once such temporal prizes wither.

    Film Recommendation: Captain Fantastic

     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2017
  11. Taking care of the body is very important for someone trying to gain greater possession of their own mind. Highly recommend this documentary I don't think it's out yet though:



    WHAT THE HEALTH
    The Health Film that Health Organizations Don't Want You to See!

    "This film is a combination of Forks Over Knives and Cowspiracy, on steroids."

    Walking this path, one cannot rush results. This kind of self improvement requires long term commitment, years of commitment, lifelong commitment if one would reach the highest fruits. So don't beat yourself up for making mistakes. Don't let your ego run your life by any means, but also understand one cannot just go and become some selfless sage without proper guidance, intention, and effort. One needs a blueprint. A Teacher/Master makes one able to read and understand the blueprints better if one is inclined towards the highest. Even if reaching the highest fruit does not appeal to you right now per se, within James' treasury of teachings lie all the secrets for rising to any heights you so desire in terms of worldly success.
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2017
  12. Nectar and Ambrosia ~ Lilian Whiting ~

    Nectar and Ambrosia should not be regarded as refreshment sacred only to festive occasions, but as human nature's daily food. It is the natural sustenance of life, not a luxury for an occasional holiday. It is the initial business and purpose of life to be happy; and, lest the moralist should object to this as a frivolous proposition, it may be added that it is that true happiness synonymous with holiness which is meant—the quality of happiness that manifests itself in abounding energy and good-will, that radiates exhilaration and enthusiasm. This state should be regarded as the normal condition of life; and when one is below it, he should inquire into the reason, and see if it is not a result of causes which can be removed or changed. No one has any more right to go about unhappy than he has to go about ill-bred. He owes it to himself, to his friends, to society and the community in general, to live up to his best spiritual possibilities, not only now and then, once or twice a year, or once in a season, but every day and every hour. The aim of spiritual perfection is one that should never be lost from view.

    For this state of positive exhilaration and enjoyment, whose results are abounding energy and radiant good-will, no price is too great to pay. Emerson truly says that life is an ecstasy, and nothing less is really living. And to achieve this state requires new elements all the time. It may not always require change of location; material change is of little importance compared to that mental variety which is the secret of advancing life. To lay hold on new ideas, to climb to new spiritual heights, is the change which is growth and development, and which brings one into touch with new atmospheres.

    To go about moping, depressed, blue, out of spirits in general, is to exist but not to live. It is the condition of a mollusk and unworthy a human being. Worry is a state of spiritual corrosion. A trouble either can be remedied, or it cannot. If it can be, then set about it; if it cannot be, dismiss it from consciousness, or bear it so bravely that it may become transfigured to a blessing.

    A great deal of life is lost in getting ready, as is commonly believed, to live. To scorn delights and live laborious days; to bind one's self to an unceasing and unchanging routine, as Ixion to his wheel, for the sake of amassing money that some time, in a dim and abstract future, one may begin to live—is simply to attempt building a superstructure without a foundation. Life stretches on like an endless chain, whose initial links we know not, nor yet those to come. But that we are each day the sum of all that we ever have been is a truth as undeniable as any of exact mathematics. We cannot skip a single link. One act, one mood, predetermines another.

    Man is his own star; and the soul that can
    Render an honest and a perfect man,
    Commands all light, all influence, all fate;
    Nothing to him falls early or too late.
    Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
    Our fatal shadows that walk by us still. 1

    Now, happiness produces happiness. Enjoyment may be cultivated, and is, after all, largely a condition of habit. Precisely the same circumstances will yield delight to one and discontent to another, and no process of culture is so admirable as that which fosters the habitual mood of sunny enjoyment.

    No price is too great to pay for the mood of inspiration. Draw out the money in the bank, if need be, and invest it in travel, change, books, social life; so shall its value return to you a thousand fold.

    It will yield an interest on a richer investment than that of bank accounts; and not only interest, but interest compounded innumerable times and at an accelerated ratio. Acquire the habit of expecting success, of believing in happiness. Nothing succeeds like success; nothing makes happiness like happiness.

    'The aim—at least in this way alone can I look at human life—is not to make rich and successful, but noble and enlightened men,' says Bishop Spaulding. 'Hence the final thought in all work is that we work not to have more, but to be more; not for higher place, but for greater worth; not for fame, but for knowledge. In a word, the final thought is that we labor to upbuild the being which we are, and not merely to build round our real self with marble and gold and precious stones. This is but the Christian teaching which has transformed the world. The end is infinite, the aim must be the highest. Not to know this, not to hear the heavenly invitation, is to be shut off from communion with the best, is to be cut off from the source of growth, is to be given over to modes of thought which fatally lead to mediocrity and vulgarity of life.'

    This plane of living is that on which alone true work is done.

    And the nectar and ambrosia are offered us daily. We have only to recognize and receive. Life is the result of a process of selection; and he only is the true artist who chooses the finer elements and out of them creates his World Beautiful.

    Footnotes:
    1. Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortunes.
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2017
  13. Jodo Kus

    Jodo Kus Fapstronaut

    300
    300
    63
    Hello @虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず
    Great thread! I really appreciate the work you do here. I knew The James Allen Library before but it's great to have a place on NoFap were I can find chunks of James Allen's and Alan Watts wisdom and more.

    Read you later :)
     
  14. I intend to make a habit out of reading his work. I want this stuff to stick in my mind, this thread is very much a tool for me but it is also here for anyone to discuss something in it. I discovered him, gosh over 5 years ago it must be now, dare I say 6? And yet I have not managed to consistently embody the teachings in his works. I don't expect to completely kill off my ego until no trace of self is left by reading his books hahaha, he often mentions self-sacrifice, but I definitely would like to practice much of what he writes about. Some passages are a bit too much for me where I'm currently at, but other passages are like how can I possibly not read this stuff and say I am interested in self-development? It's timeless and priceless wisdom that no one else writes about in the world these days.
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2017
    black_coyote likes this.
  15. That library is a goldmine man, like there's so many hidden gems on there by other authors of his time. I'll try to mine the depths of it hahaha and share the most universally applicable insights.

    Where is peace to be found! Where is the hiding-place of truth!

    January Second.
    LET first things be put first; work before play; duty before enjoyment; and others before self: this is an excellent rule which cannot lead astray. To make a right beginning is half-way to victory. The athlete who makes a bad start may lose his prize; the merchant who makes a false start may lose his reputation; and the Truth-seeker who makes a wrong start may forego the crown of Righteousness. To begin with pure thoughts, sterling rectitude, unselfish purpose, noble aims, and an incorruptible conscience—this is to start right * this it is to put first things first,

    [​IMG]

    so that all other things will follow in harmonious order, making life simple, beautiful, successful, and peaceful.

    The soul will cry out for its lost heritage.

    Second Morning
    None but right acts can follow right
    thoughts; none but a right life can follow
    right acts; and by living a right life all
    blessedness is achieved.

    Mind is the Master-power that moulds
    and makes.
    And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes.
    The Tool of thought, and, shaping what
    he wills,
    Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand
    ills;-
    He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
    Environment is but his looking-glass.

    Second Evening
    Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful
    jewels of wisdom. A man becomes calm in
    the measure that he understands himself
    as a thought-evolved being. . . .

    And he as he develops a right
    understanding, and sees more and more
    clearly the internal relations of things by
    the action of cause and effect, he ceases to
    fret and fume, and worry and grieve, and
    remains poised, steadfast, serene.

    Sharing mainly for the amazing accent (I'm honestly not a fan of Stephen Covey but this a First Things First themed post):

     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2017
  16. [​IMG]

    "We have everywhere met an element that is incommunicable, that must be lived and practiced in order to be known. There is much that can only be understood through patient investigation, much, too, that would well repay scientific investigation. Facts and possibilities are revealed through careful study of the inner process which throw a flood of light alike on the nature of mind and on the mystery of life. The thought is well-nigh overwhelmed by the scope and meaning of these inner experiences. It seems almost impossible even to suggest such insights and experiences to the general reader; for one must talk enigmatically at times, and rely on the reader's forbearance and willingness to test that which can only be proved through a similar experience. But it is everything to know that such possibilities exist, and to make a step toward their realization. It is enough at first to be turned in the right direction; to feel that help is for us, and only awaits our receptivity; to have some inkling of the great Power of silence. All else will come in due course if one have a deep desire for it. And, if we have considered the one essential, and begun to realize its deep meaning for ourselves and for our fellow-beings, the larger and more complex life of the outer world will be explained by the light and wisdom from within.

    For, who shall limit the possibilities of the one whose life is centered in this spiritual consciousness, the one who knows the Real, and can tell it from the transient and illusive? Do we have more than the faintest glimmering of our own possibilities—we who live beholden to matter, as if it were the all in all? Have we really begun to live, are we even half what we should be, whiffed about as we are by opinions and fears, at the mercy of other minds and of our own unconquered selves? Half the facts of life go to show that man is a product of matter, and his thoughts and feelings mere effects of a fateful outer cause. The other half show that he is a master—a master in embryo, it may be, but a sharer of the only Life and the only Power by virtue of his individual will and his invincible power of thought. Life and all it brings him, ultimately, depends on his own wisdom and the intelligence he puts into it. He is weak and fearful, at the mercy of matter and passion, only as long as he lacks understanding. To know self and overcome it, to know the law and obey it, —this is the sum of righteousness; and all that duty demands of us at first is to make the start, to remember nature's law of growth, and persistently to keep the great end in view."

    ~ Horatio W. Dresser ~

    Self Improvement Update:

    Dear Ego,

    May I not stray from the path of righteousness, for everytime I do, I am one step closer to death. One step closer to endlessly revolving in the cycle.
     
  17. [​IMG]

    Self Improvement Update:

    I just unreservedly and unabashedly gave into a desire to fondle myself to a beautiful woman online. I wasn't trying to escape any discomfort whatsoever. This was pure lust, pure desire for the flesh. Much work to do. I mean don't beat yourself up trying to improve, but there comes a time where we have to realize fapping is unreserved desire for the flesh. There is no excuse other than thirst for sensuality. Somehow I was able to stop, my rational mind kicked in and utterly shut down my ability to continue edging to any women online within less than 5 minutes. I am now resolved again. I can't believe I let a trigger take over my entire resolve. I mean triggers are not the problem, but if you're not strong in your resolve a beautiful female online that is scantily clad in a bikini nonetheless can completely hijack your intentions to improve yourself.

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    I mean I'm sorry if you fap to escape, I have to. Self-compassion we must show ourselves, but discipline is just as important.

    The excuses cease here.

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  18. [​IMG]

    I must warn any readers, it is going to get quite heavy in here. I am finding that censoring what I share is counterproductive to the mission of this thread.

    Please do not continue to visit this thread if what you have seen so far makes you feel uneasy or averse. The content herein is not for everyone. There are all kinds of ways to make progress without delving into this type of material.

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