Quotations from "The Mystic Masters Speak"
by Vernon Howard
Section A: The Mind
Q: There are so many topics of study, like habits and success and happiness, so how can we avoid getting lost in the maze of all these subjects?
A: At bottom there is but one subject of study.....the mind. All other subjects may be reduced to that; all other studies bring us back to this study. (Amiel)
Q: Why do human beings generally fail to receive the higher truths?
A: They are, in effect, deaf to that internal voice which, nevertheless, calls to them so loud and emphatically. A mere machine is evidently incapable of thinking.....whereas in man there exists something perpetually prone to expand, and to burst the chains by which it is confined. (Rousseau)
Q: A main mental problem is our absence from ourselves, our inability to be conscious of what we are doing at the time we are doing it. What can we do to keep at home to ourselves?
A: Remember yourself. (Gurdjieff)
Q: What is the cure for mental suffering?
A: It follows absolutely, that one who uses his understanding correctly, can fall a prey to no sorrow. (Spinoza)
Q: I was once advised to unlearn many of my acquired ideas which swelled me up with pride. How would you confirm the necessity for this?
A: Humility, like darkness, reveals the heavenly lights. (Thoreau)
Q: Intuition has been defined as a higher form of understanding. In what way does it perceive things?
A: Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once. (Lavater)
Q: Is there a point along the spiritual path when we become aware of new values and new directions, I mean, will we see a clear difference in the way we think and feel and act?
A: There is a moment.....at which flattery and falsehood can no longer deceive, and innocence itself can no longer be misled. (Junius)
Q: What thought can begin to shake us loose from the illusion that others have power over us?
A: Most powerful is he who has himself in his power. (Seneca)
Q: What basic idea can we reflect upon during the day, in order to expand our awareness of things as they really are?
A: Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, these three alone lead life to sovereign power. (Tennyson)
Section B: Lasting Peace
Q: It seems that we must have a fondness for what is right.
A: For a happy life is joy in the truth. (Augustine)
Q: The open or subtle competition between men for power and prestige is an obvious factor in turning life sour. What do men who live in reality say about such competition?
A: If two angels were sent down from heaven - one to conduct an empire, and the other to sweep a street - they would feel no inclination to change employments. (Newton)
Q: To feel good we must obviously choose what is truly right for us, but that is our problem. We are so confused regarding what is truly right.
A: That is always best which gives me to myself. The sublime is excited in me by the great stoical doctrine, Obey thyself. That which shows God in me, fortifies me. (Emerson)
Q: What is the answer to those who feel that life in general has treated them unfairly?
A: Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves. (Rousseau)
Q: Peace among human beings can come only with the unity of all hearts and minds. What cosmic fact can help us achieve this unity?
A: All are but parts of one stupendous whole. (Pope)
Section C: How Can Problems Disappear
Q: What is the basic cause of all our problems?
A: There are people in the world, who having renounced all the laws of God and nature, have made laws for themselves which they strictly obey. (Pascal)
Q: Nervousness is a troublesome emotion with many people. We are nervous over money and health and politics and everything else. What can settle us down?
A: True philosophy is that which renders us to ourselves, and all others who surround us, better, and at the same time more content, more patient, more calm, and more ready for all decent and pure enjoyment. (Lavater)
Q: I am tired of being told how I should behave. If we have duties to perform in life, they must certainly have nothing to do with hypocritical moral codes invented by pious frauds.
A: In society as it is now constituted, all the established rules are so many mechanical duties, while real duty consists in obeying the laws of our own being. (Cherbuliez)
Q: Why do the wise men of all philosophies advise us to keep our self-work to ourselves, and not even mention it to most people?
A: That conduct sometimes seems useless in the eyes of the world, the secret reasons for which, may, in reality, be wise and solid. (La Rochefoucauld)
Q: You teach that wisdom must be mixed in with our love. Will you please explain what you mean?
A: Forgiveness is commendable, but apply not ointment to the wound of an oppressor. (Saadi)
Section D: Secrets of Self-Freedom
Q: Where do we start our quest for freedom and independence?
A: Thought takes a man out of servitude into freedom. (Emerson)
Q: What do we need to know about self-slavery?
A: I will have care of being a slave to myself, for it is a perpetual, a humiliating, and the heaviest of all servitudes. Liberty is maintained by moderate desires. (Seneca)
Q: I am in conflict over the possibility of losing part of my financial security. Can these lessons teach me to remain calmly unaffected about such things?
A: Every mind seems capable of entertaining a certain quantity of happiness, which no institutions can increase, no circumstances alter, and entirely independent of fortune. (Goldsmith)
Q: Am I correct in defining freedom as an absence of worry and hostility?
A: Who then is free? The wise man who can govern himself. (Horace)
Q: Please give us a starting point for overthrowing the common human weakness for flattery.
A: Do you wish to be praised by a man who curses himself three times an hour? Do you wish to please a man who cannot please himself? (Aurelius)
Q: What is the right attitude to take towards a person who praises you one moment and threatens you the next?
A: The anger of an ape - the threat of a flatterer - these deserve equal regard. (Epictetus)
Q: I need to discover freedom from a tense self-defensiveness, which leaves me exhausted at the end of the day.
A: Dwelling in the light, there is no occasion at all for stumbling, for all things are discovered in the light. (Fox)
Q: I wish to avoid unnecessary problems in my esoteric studies. What can remind me to remain constant and systematic?
A: He is unwise who looks at the fruit of lofty trees, but does not measure their height. (Quintus)