External discipline is the acquisition of
righteousness as a way of living;
internal discipline is the acquisition
of spiritual experience as a perpetual treasure.
When one cultivates the inner look,
one attains the conviction of the basic equality of all.
Every individual is a pilgrim
on that road proceeding at his/her own pace,
according to qualification and the stage reached by its means.
The advice that appeals to one of you
or applies to one of you might not be appropriate to another,
who has traveled less distance or reached a more advanced state.
When one person follows
one line of spiritual discipline,
it is specifically for his/her benefit;
do not take it as prescription for your benefit also.
Each has a different make-up - mental, physical, and spiritual.
When a person is obese, doctor advises certain types of food;
when a person is lean, doctor advises other types.
When doctors who treat diseases
of the body have to prescribe different remedies,
how much more specific and personal
must be the remedies for the complex and
varied conditions of mental situations and
spiritual yearnings and aspirations?
Unless you make earnest inquiry,
you cannot discover the remedy applicable
to your temperament and its problems.
Study with faith and devotion.
Delve into the significance and
the meaning of what you read; and,
always have before you the goal
of putting what you read into practice.
What have you gained?
Knowledge, what this or that author
says or this or that sage teaches is not
what a study circle or individual must aim to acquire.
Not information,
but transformation;
not instruction,
but construction should be the aim.
divinely sent
