6.1: Self-control
The human will does consist in the independent attention of the individual, and it does belong to him alone. The independent attention can never be deprived from the man, no matter what can be experienced from within or externally. For the man does always possess a constant choice of that where his attention can be directed to, what he does choose to further notice and listen to or disregard, what he does choose to narrow in on or turn away from, and what he tries waiting on responding to or remain indifferent to. The man can always choose one thing while rejecting other things at the same time, whether it does involve the human spirit or the mind, through the values belonging to either one. The human spirit will continue to give good counsel and help the man for free, while the mind will continue to offer bad counsel and undermine the man for free. But the man does still have control of his will, what he does choose to give attention to, and in what way he will respond to it, during and after its experience. The sense organs make the man able to see and listen to information in the surroundings, but the sense organs do still not come up with interpretation or response on his behalf. That is rather being determined by the force working in his head and the force working underneath the middle of his chest (where the heart is and between the lungs). And yet the man seek shelter from such activity by relaxing the focus point between his eyebrows, and by hiding his focus point down below (as if he was being dead still and resting). It is based upon spiritual values in determining the man’s determination, self-control, and stoical fortitude. It is not like the man does need to know everything in advance or be able to predict the future. But it is only sufficient that he can possess certainty of his own determination, in receiving all things with inner calmness and a relaxed will. The man does first need to accustom himself to inner silence, before he can be able to concentrate upon all other things, by maintaining the attention alert in the long run. If the man is already silent then he can notice and learn new things with an open mind, because there is no distraction or interruption happening at the same time. The man would otherwise by self-absorbed by his own thoughts and whims, only listening to himself speak and what he wants to say, while neglecting other people and the environment. An inner silence is not something which needs to be strained for, or by repressing as many thoughts as possible, until there can finally be silence. It can rather be said that inner silence is about doing nothing at all, where it is allowed everything to pass through oneself, without showing any resistance, without attempting to defend oneself from anything. This does not mean that we have given up and yielded to temptations, because we know that the divinity understands our position and what we are going through in our life. This is why we do not need to be afraid of giving wrong impression and that we immediately need to explain ourselves. Our inner silence is another form in overcoming temptations in a more efficient way. The best defence is to rely upon no defence at all, but it is rather had faith in the divinity, that it will be able to save us from everything and conquer the mind on our behalf.
Self-control is about silent determination, as if the human will would be bare/naked, without needing any superfluous things stacked upon it. It can be observed and understood things in a silent way, without needing to explain it any further. For that all reassessment only came afterwards, but it does not prove to be the original source, which bestowed such sense or inspiration in the first place. It should be had silent faith in the human spirit and allowed it to do its work in the circumstance, because the human spirit is meant to be our only spiritual shelter, the only true deliverer of our soul. But our own words and effort would otherwise only get in the way, like when we seek to defend ourselves through frail means and we flee into a poor refuge which is easily shaken down. The human body proves to be greater than any clothes, which are only meant to shelter the body. And the similar thing applies to armour, in protecting the body from harm. So that clothes and armour is centred upon the human body, but it is not the other way around. It should be looked upon this in context with the human spirit, for it is well able to speak for itself and act on its own and in keep moving through things, without needing any help from us. We should not neglect that of heeding the human spirit while we are being encumbered with something superfluous and transient of our own making. We should not neglect that of receiving good things from the human spirit while we are being occupied by our own effort in doing something supposedly good on behalf of the human spirit. The human spirit is the last thread to hold unto after everything else has collapsed in the man’s life, manifesting itself in a silent awareness and determination. So it is like everything is made acceptable and easier to bear, even that the man has not said or done anything. It can happen that the man shows a sign of weakness and yield to a delusion, but he should still not have guilt over the matter and dwell further upon it. For the man will otherwise pick up the thread where it was last left, and remind himself of the very same temptations, even that it is done through different reasons, in wanting to resist it this time. The man should rather allow all thoughts to pass through himself throughout the day, while he does continue to move on with his schedule and have a useful activity. It is thereby like there does not exist any connection between that what is thought about, and what is being practiced at this moment, since the thoughts do either way have no bearing upon it.
It can happen that the man stumbles and falls many times on the same day, and yet he should still continue to raise himself up each and every time. It is thereby like it could go on endlessly, because the man will always stand up one more time, and continue with his attempts/resolve. It does correspond to the struggle against the mind, for the man can at some point receive delusions into his temper, where the delusions manage to get hold on him and affect his stability. But the man should still refuse to give up, and still refuse to yield any further, regardless of that where he does now find himself, since it is only sufficient to be vigilant at this moment, henceforth. It should not matter whether the man has already taken the first steps to corruption, because he can always repent and return to his original conviction, just as what applied before. The man can experience difficulty in withstanding temptations, not because of any lack of right/definitive answers, but it is rather because he experiences impulsiveness at the same time. It is like the man is unable to control his own reactions, where he does immediately show anger/resentment or some kind of weakness from within, every time he thinks about specific problems. It can thereby be helpful for the man to discover the root of the problem, by tracing himself from the fruits to the branches, and from the branches to the roots. The man must first ask himself why he does receive these things so much into himself, or why does he allow these things to affect himself so much, in taking things too personally. When the man has truthfully answered this question then he must ask again the same questions, unless the question does now apply to the (first) answer, why he does receive it so much into himself. It is thereby always questioned the new answer, and so forth, until it is discovered the root of the problem. The external matters are not the real problem, but it does rather consist in one’s own weaknesses, since that one’s weaknesses make oneself already receptive to temptations and easily manipulated by them. It does thereby not matter when or where the temptation will happen, or by whom one is being tempted, since that one would either way have been affected by it. But if one is already free of such weaknesses then nothing will be able to affect oneself, and one will no longer choose to see the external matters as a problem, relevant to oneself. It should thereby not only be renounced temptations, but also one’s own weaknesses, which such temptations have hitherto been appealing to and thriving upon. For example, if it is come across an enemy then his presence might seem tempt one into becoming angry and saying something against him, but if one ceases to be proud then one is no longer being provoked by his presence. That is more important than to merely seek to overcome one temptation of many, this or that exchange of words on this or that scene, while one continues to be proud about it at all times. It is not like the man should struggle against all kinds of subjective problems and enemies, while he does still leave his selfishness intact as the basis of all further weaknesses. It does never work out when the man attempts to focus upon that in experiencing a circumstance and that in saving himself from subjective problems at the same time. For these two things do contradict one another and cannot both be completed at the same time, where the man’s half-hearted effort is the same thing as no effort. It could be likened to that if the man would station himself at the border between two countries, so that he will have the left leg at one country and the right leg at the other. Therefore will the man be unable to enjoy either country, because he is stuck in between.
It can be mentioned the illusion when the mind does both tempt the man and pretend to answer/respond on his behalf, as if the man had already agreed with the temptation or yielded to it. For example, the man does first experience a delusion about something, and then immediately does appear another delusion which seems to answer it in a selfish way, sounding just like the man’s own voice. But both the delusion and the response is part of the very same temptation, as if a bad person could both offer something to the man and leave it in front of him, even that the man has not agreed to anything nor reached his hands forth to receive it. Therefore has the man still not made any choice, nor yielded to the temptation in question, but it is rather being tested in what way the man will respond after all these things have happened. It is not like the man can always be perfect in everything and never show a sign of weakness, when it comes to maintain distance from all thoughts, in being detached from their influence, and in blocking them at the outset. For there are always some thoughts which are harder to resist than other thoughts, or which can even seem irresistible. These type of thoughts can be called the greater demons, which are stronger than the man in his human might, so the man needs to rely upon the divinity in order to overcome the same (the divinity is strongest, thereby stronger than those which are stronger than the man). It is like the man is unable to control his own reactions, but he does immediately show anger or some kind of weakness from within, every time he thinks about a specific problem. The man is so personally involved that he cannot help himself, even that he might know thousand correct arguments against the one same problem. The problem does still manage to grab the man’s head and he finds himself unwilling to let go of it. For example, the man can still hold a grudge against false friends or enemies of the past. Every time the mind mentions these specific things then the man does immediately agree with it, where he begins to think evil toward other persons and wishes for evil to happen to them. But the man can still realize it within himself that he is now yielding to these thoughts, that what he is inclining to is wrong, that it should not be sought to justify it, and not acted upon it. The man can now turn to the divinity and confess the truth about his own position, that the man is unable to overcome these problems on his own and that he needs the divinity to help him through it. The man confesses that he is being so personally involved and biased in regard to those persons that he cannot think soberly and pass a fair verdict, that he is in no position to judge these absent persons in anything (based on their current attitude and choices). The man asks the divinity to help him forgive other people in his heart, and that the divinity might help him to receive its forgiveness. The man asks the divinity to help him cast all his burdens upon the divinity and allow it to take care of them. Even that these thoughts continue to emerge and the man can temporarily lose/forget himself in them (distraction, divided attention) then it is still only bound to the mind, without having any effects upon the man’s actual choices and dealings with other people. So that a seeming spiritual defeat is turned into a spiritual victory, by simply confessing the truth about that what the man is going through within and in relying upon the divinity for further reactions.
The man does not need to rely upon selfish arguments and tricks in order to secure/guarantee himself, because it is really only a dead weight to him, something which makes him become entangled (by his own words) and tired much sooner in the process. It can be likened to that of wearing heavy armour, where every movement costs more stamina and every received blow drains more stamina. Heavy armour is supposed to reduce the impact from blows, but it does never prevent blows. That to wear heavy armour can involve false sense of security, because it makes the man slow in movement (sluggish) and it becomes harder for him to avoid the blows of the enemy. Hence even that the man would wear a heavy armour and not be wounded by any blows; then he would still receive so many repeated blows by the enemy that the man would in the end become exhausted and drop to the ground. It would have been better if the man had no armour at all, but would rather rely upon mobility to avoid all blows from the outset. The best defence against delusions consists in that of relying upon no defence at all, because the divinity is meant to be our only spiritual refuge, the last thing standing after all else has collapsed. The man should never prefer his own transient creations above the divinity, what kind of words and human effort can be used against temptations (and the devils behind them). The creation can never become superior to the creator. So the divinity is superior to the man, and the man is superior to his own creations, but these creations can never surpass his own limits and manage to accomplish something which he himself cannot accomplish. If the man is already being driven/dictated by his fears and he does not believe that it is possible to overcome the temptations that are haunting his mind; then what is the point of him afterwards creating something as defence against the same? This very creation is already being tainted by his fears and unbelief and incompetence. It would have been better if the man had first turned to the divinity for help, that the divinity might free him from all these fears and from all this unbelief and from all this inability.
Equanimity is about experiencing nothing at all, except the unifying influence of inner silence, sobriety, calmness/peace, and stability. It is like the man does only experience silence in his mind, or at least most of the time. Although the man cannot control which thoughts come over to him (automatically) then he has still not been having any initiative in thinking further about something (manually). The man has at least not been stopped by thoughts and begin to agree with them, as if the man would begin to tell himself something indecent/inconsiderate about other people and what treacherous things he is intending regarding them. Equanimity is also about the man being free of all impulsiveness, which would otherwise have affected his body alongside thoughts. If the heart is made pure then the man’s facial expression will be pure as well, where his face will become expressionless, revealing no dubious and/or pretentious signs because there are none such things to be found within him as a driving force. The man is already being true and faithful in his ways, sincere and pure in his intentions, possessing self-control and self-restraint, so it is something to be noticed in his face and overall bearing. People do not only smile while they are glad, but they can also smile while possessing treacherous intentions (gloating), since it can be noticed something contemptuous or covetous in their eyes at the same time. They have this strange look and something feels off about them. This is why an expressionless face is being more straight-mannered and trustworthy/reliable in comparison to a constantly switching/changing face. Where there is equanimity there is also elegance, when the man does carry himself dignified in facial expression, speech, gesture, and the general movements of the body. The man will also move his limbs in an efficient way, with as few moves and touches as possible. It cannot be searched directly for elegance, but it is merely the consequence, after the man has maintained confidence and equanimity in the long run. The heart and the soul must first become pure before the body can be free of all disruptions, and the man must first be consistent within himself before his bodily performance can function as an unified whole.
An inner balance is about maintaining the same beat at regular intervals, like when it is had a stable breathing and a stable heart rate, unless it applies to the man’s spiritual side. First it is stabilized the spiritual side, and then it stabilizes the breathing and the heart rate of the body. An inner peace and stability is meant to be unconditional, something which comes first before everything else, which has priority over all external matters which can be obtained or missed out on. The inner calmness and balance is meant to influence the external things for the better, rather than the man would allow the external things to affect his internal condition for the worse. The man’s internal condition is not supposed to be depended upon the function of other things, as if inner balance would only come after it has been done this or that. It does not matter what can happen, how the circumstances can change for better or worse. For the man does already preserve an inner calmness, and he receive every incident just like any other ordinary thing, as if nothing is able to impress him or make him afraid. Both a time of prosperity and a time of adversity should be received with moderation, even indifference, since that such things prove to be transient while the man remains the same person. That which is being transient can just as easily disappear as it has appeared. Even that things have turned out in a good way then the man should still not stop and begin to gloat, as if he would feel good about himself or derive self-satisfaction. The man does rather acknowledge that the divinity is the one which have been making good things possible in his life and the divinity is also capable of taking the good things back to itself. The man does not possess any certainty what can happen in the future and how things can affect him. There will always be another day after this day and the spiritual struggle continues. Hence even that things have hitherto turned out in a good way then the man must still continue to be spiritually sober and on his spiritual guard at this very moment, without ever stopping and asserting that he has already gotten to the finish line and that he can finally begin ‘rewarding’ himself for it. The man can just as well continue to be calm and at peace with himself, without relying upon the addictive sinful pleasures of the world, since he does already possess greater blessings. This calmness or inner peace can constantly hold things in check within, so that in not feeling anything within is to feel something that prevents/blocks obsession and impulses.
Equanimity (being combined of sobriety, calmness/peace, and inner stability) can be likened to the number zero. It is the moderate middle course, which is free of both extremes, and which has no exposed side, and which is not being swung by anything. Everything from plus one to plus ten does signify various frequency of the selfishness, with its flatteries, briberies, and self-indulgence. Everything from minus one to minus ten does signify various frequency of the self-righteousness, with its self-accusations, deprivations, and self-constraint. The path of virtue is always maintained straight, stationed at the number zero, when it comes to undertake everything in an even/balanced and moderate way. Many small things will contribute to one great success, and it is the most rewarding system in the long run. But the two extremes are always followed by constant swings, where one day the man is at the number plus ten while the next day he is at the number minus ten. It is like there does not exist anything in between, for the man is being raised too high and then takes a deep dive, being raised again too high and takes another deep dive, and so forth. For example, the man does overwork one day and is being lazy the next day, or the man is being too self-indulgent on one day and too harsh/hard on himself the next day. The man might seem to be eager and devoted to something for some time, but he will soon give up and return to his old negligence, so that his previous conduct was only temporary. The extreme of selfishness is always accompanied by the extreme of self-righteousness, what comes before or after the other. Each selfish desire does not stand alone, but it is always accompanied by another driving force involving opposite effects. A needless expectation is always accompanied by disappointment, a too little self-esteem in one factor is always accompanied by too much self-esteem in other factors, and pleasures derived from substance abuse is always accompanied by addiction and withdrawal symptoms. If the former had not existed then the latter would not have existed as well. It would have been best in the beginning if the man had not felt anything at all except equanimity, and if he had already been contented with his life as it is. That by willingly receiving the free blessings which come naturally to us, without seeking any additional things to feel additional things. Then there would not exist a lack of one thing which would call for a search of another thing as its selfish remedy. Every selfish desire (obsession) proves to be insatiable in its nature. Selfish people participate in debauchery (drunkenness, fornication, violence) and all kinds of errors, because it is supposed to be some kind of remedy to satisfy their restlessness and inner emptiness. But their restlessness keeps reappearing, and they keep being reminded of their inner emptiness, so they keep repeating debauchery to obtain a brief respite from it or to delay facing/confronting it to another time. If the people involved were already being happy and contented with their lives as it is; then they would be happy and contented enough to cease participating in things that had once been a reaction to their restlessness and inner emptiness, even as a person having fully recovered from a sickness is now being healthy enough in no longer needing any remedies and outside help.
The value of impartiality does consist in that of being initially neutral toward everyone and everything, that is to say before it has been observed what people are actually saying and doing and furthering/promoting. And next will be passed an impartial and fair verdict concerning the specific case, according to the objectivity of the facts, the choices involved, and what is deemed to be right in general. It is about the merit of the case and issues that do belong to it alone, while it is not allowed any personal bias or outside factors to affect one’s decision in any way. It should never be taken any side in advance before it has actually been witnessed the case in question, like when it is favoured one’s friends/teammates even that they have been doing the wrong thing, or when it is disfavoured one’s enemies/opponents even that they have been doing the right thing. For that one’s personal attachment and personal grudge is completely irrelevant to the matter, what kind of emotions or impulses are felt about someone, for better or worse. It should rather be discerned the human motivation, morality, and causality, in what way the persons involved approached the test/challenge and what measures were carried through the incident. Next it can be determined which person has a more rightful claim than the other and is being more worthy of being sided with. It can be mentioned competitive sports as a good example about personal bias or partiality. The fans have already taken side with their favourite team even before the game has begun and before it has been played to the very end. These fans complain when the judge makes a correct verdict at the expense of their favourite team, while they rejoice if the judge makes an incorrect verdict at the expense of the other team. But the value of impartiality does rather consist in evaluating the actual performance during the game, whether the team involved played in an honest way, and showed more team-work and more merit in deserving a victory. It should thereby first be watched the full game and afterwards be come up with a fair verdict, which favours the better and more deserving team, regardless of its outward appearance.
It should first and foremost be taken side with the truth and the justice, where the truth and the justice will honour any person which has the conviction to choose abiding by it. The person will have a sense of decency and succeed in its pursuits for a long time it stays loyal to the goodness, while the person will lack a sense of decency and fail in its pursuits for as long time it stays loyal to the evilness. If the man abides by the truth and its moral principles then it will affect his person for the better. If the man deliberately neglects to do so then it will affect his person for the worse. It is namely the man’s own choices which define who he is and what he is capable of and what he is calling for. The man should only take side with the rightful claim, instead of being a respecter of the person making the claim while being blind to the claim itself. The man should not consider his own life to be of any value, namely when it is looked upon his life lonesome, without that life being put into context of that in serving the greater good or the welfare of other people. It is not being imperative to the man to save his own life only to save his own life, through any means or regardless of the means, deemed treacherous to others or degrading to himself. It can rather be said that the man’s life does only have value through that for whom and what is lived for and died for. It is about living for the rightful cause, which makes the man able to have a meaningful life and a higher purpose, something good to be inspired into aspiring for above all else. The faith in the possibilities of the goodness is the best preventive measure, making the man capable of discerning temptations being temptations and rejecting them at the outset, as soon as possible. Therefore will the man not sow evil seeds on the ground or feed a monster which is still being a small infant, since the man does not even consider evil possibilities nor mention them. But when the man shows unbelief in the possibilities of the goodness then the exact opposite thing will happen. For the man will become unrestrainedly drawn to temptations and dwell further upon them, until the evil seeds have become a huge tree or the monster has reached full mature size. So the man has already reaped an all-spreading corruption in his soul and far-reaching evil consequences from his behaviour, making things harder to bear and escape from (when being accompanied by obsession, self-constraint, and restlessness).
Industriousness is about noble aspirations and useful industry for its own sake, regardless of that what kind of rewards or recognition can be had from it, which only came afterwards. For the man will be lively and sober in his spirit while the industry does last, and it is like the external challenges serve the purpose in promoting his personal growth. This means that the man will become a better person and move on with his life, rather than by being stuck on the same selfish problems or have a stagnant life during idleness. The useful industry will sharpen the man’s internal activity, where he will have something to look forward to in his life and receive stabilizing effects from his work. It can be cherished the industry for its own sake, for that during its participation the man did at least experience benefits within himself, like more confidence, dignity (self-respect), sobriety, and moderation. But idleness does breed delusions (selfish problems) at random, so the man will be compelled to listen to it all day long, while he is not doing anything else with his time. The matter in question is not about discovering right answers to such problems, but it should rather be asked why the man is idle to begin with, and why he does not have any useful goals to pursue. It is like all these problems will exist during the idleness, but they will be immediately dispelled during some useful activity. Education is not about collecting books and have a good memory, nor is physical training about good looks and watching oneself in mirror. It is rather meant to make the man ready and competent for the real challenges, where this knowledge and healthiness is meant to be of practical use in doing things more efficiently. That to participate regularly in physical training or profession can serve as a preventive measure. That one does participate in this that one might become focused and active enough in everything else undertaken during the day. That one does never stop and become too lazy or tired to do something, but one is constantly being active in something. This regular body activity in physical training or profession makes one feel refreshed and energized enough when it is undertaken a personal project (one’s true calling) and hobby/entertainment in between. Orderliness is about fulfilling the needs of the body, to make it refreshed and re-energized enough for the challenges ahead, that the man can be in position to handle them in the long run. It does first concern basic needs like food, sleep, cleanliness, and bodily exercise, which needs to be done at regular intervals, in moderate quantity, and preferably at a fixed time during the day. It is not directly spoken about such things during a profession, when the man needs to participate in something with other people and promote a common goal. But these issues do indirectly affect the man’s performance during the profession, whether he will attend to the work at the right time, whether he will be focused enough and up to the tasks at hand. If the man is orderly in small matters then he will also be so in the greater matters. For the man must first be able to take care of his own life before he be trusted with an important position concerning the lives of other people. But the man would never be able to do if he does already neglect basic needs of his body, like when idleness and loose habits does only make him distracted and weak.
Physical training is all about making one’s best possible effort, until one is unable to move anymore during the exercise, since there is no longer any energy left in one’s body to continue. It is not like one should decide to stop when the exercise starts to feel uncomfortable and tiring, since it has more to do about one’s mindset than the actual capability of the body. For that one’s thoughts and words are irrelevant to the matter in question, but one should rather remain silent and allow the body to let one know what one can truly endure and accomplish. Before it is begun a physical exercise then one can feel tired or hesitant or not in the mood to do it. However, it is all an illusion in the head. Once one has begun a physical exercise then it is forgotten oneself in it, and before one knows it then one has already accomplished/finished everything. One is being so involved in doing one thing at a time, and that to head from one exercise to another at regular interval (after having rested a little), that the activity of the body replaces the activity of the mind. It is only lived in the moment, or one is somehow being spirited away from the mind. It is not about thinking first and then doing, but rather to first do it and think later. If one is being hesitant in doing an exercise then it should simply be forced oneself to begin, and forced it on oneself to be daring for a couple of seconds, and then the rest/remainder will take care of itself. When it is lifted weight then it is best to take the moderate middle course, where it is neither done too many times (too light weight) nor done too few times (too heavy weight). For example, when it is begun to lift a specific moderate weight then one can only do it about ten times (during the one same exercise). When it is done the same exercise three days later then one does progress about one more time, so that one can do it eleven times. It is progressed one more time every three days. The goal is to lift that weight up to fifteen times, which is being accomplished after about two weeks or five to six exercises in total (since it was first begun on that specific weight). And next time doing that exercise (three days later) then one does increase the weight to the next level (about four or five kilograms more in total). When it is begun using more weight then one can only do it about ten times, and the same process will repeat itself henceforth. Also every time it is finished a specific exercise (ten to fifteen times) then it is waited for about twenty to thirty seconds before doing it again, so that when it is used the remaining energy of the body then one can only do that exercise about three to four times. Progress is all about ‘one more time’, little by little, again and again, until it has reached one great result with the time.
What can be said about the moderate middle path versus the excessive path. That to do the will of God is the same thing as to move on with one’s life and to do something constructive with one’s life, to keep to the most important things in life and fulfill them before attending to things of lesser importance, that when it is participated in something (like profession) then it is done to the best of one’s knowledge and ability, and that one is being there for the beloved ones and it is shown mercy to those that live in weakness. When it is done the will of God on this day then God will bless one for it by making one internally sound and stable when it is participated in all the other things. When it is taken a break (in between) and participated in a hobby then everything goes smoothly. One is being blessed with a good taste and preferences, and one knows how to approach the hobbies in a proper way and make proper use of things, and one is able to enjoy things and feel relaxed. It is done the will of God for some moderate time, and next taken a break and participated in a hobby for some moderate time, and then felt energized and lively again to resume doing the will of God for some moderate time, and so forth. But what happens when one does neglect the will of God on this day and spends too much time upon unimportant matters (entertainments, lifeless objects). Then one will become obsessive over the same things, and make all kinds of needless changes which lead to mistakes and waste of time. Like when it is played a role-playing video game then one becomes so restless and pedantic about character development that one keeps quitting half-way through the game and keeps starting a new game, only to become dissatisfied and restless all over again, and thereby resuming/repeating such cycle. By wanting to have everything perfect then one becomes dissatisfied over the most trivial and petty issue. And one can become so obsessive and restless about that in finishing all quests as soon as possible that one does no longer enjoy the game, and one becomes distracted and restless just by thinking about the game in the meantime. It has been digressed from the original purpose of the entertainment. It is no longer being a tool to refreshen oneself between work. If the man is being moderate in all things then he makes the important things come first and the hobbies come after. The moderate man is actually better off during the participation of the hobbies; than those which gaze upon these hobbies above everything else and neglect everything else for them. Fictional entertainments are most appreciated when not taken too seriously. The goal is not to have everything perfect and to have anticipated everything. It is being adequate while one is being competent enough to continue the story/gameplay and finish the game. It only becomes a problem which calls for major overhaul if one is constantly failing (dying) at the same obstacle and being stuck in the story. Otherwise it applies not to fix something which is not broken. It should not be needlessly sought to change something which has hitherto been working out and moving things forth.
6.2: Contentment of the Soul
Gratefulness is about learning to appreciate the good things which are already had in one’s life. It does especially apply to the relationship with the beloved ones, in loving them and being loved by them, in rejoicing with their good lot and by being willing to share good things with them. Gratefulness is not only connected with that in having received good things from other people, but one can also become grateful for having been given the chance to do good things to other people. When it is provided help/support to other people then it is a good thing to feel good about, and it is a good thing to know that the divinity made one both willing and able to help them. That to find it in one’s heart to help other people for free, that can be called a spiritual feat only made possible by the divinity. Otherwise one would be hard-hearted and already closed in advance toward other people, and find it too difficult to let go of one’s selfish inclinations. The divinity had already given us the greatest blessings from the beginning of our existence, like good health and innocence (pure soul, pure attitude), that of being able to love and tell the truth, that of being able to feel joy and peace, and that of being curious and active. This is what we possessed in ourselves even before we had actually made any choices or obtained anything from the world. Such benefits can be constantly experienced within, at any time and any place, while everything belonging to the world is outside our soul and body. The grateful man does not care about the transient things of world and what transient things other people can own, but he is most of all grateful that the divinity has given him life and existence to begin with. The spiritually blind men have selfish needs and they travel around the world in order to satisfy them, even that all selfish desires proves to be insatiable in their nature. It is like a bottomless pit that creates even more emptiness and hunger in the man’s soul, since that selfish desires do only led to problems and maladies but are unable to heal and purify anything. The selfish man foolishly presumes that material things and other people are meant to make him happy, where he must first acquire something desirable once and for all, or accomplish a specific deed once and for all, before he can finally ‘deserve’ happiness and peace. But the same man will be no nearer to happiness and peace, just as much before he began to search for it, since he is already spiritually empty and afflicted by corruption. If the man is not already happy and contented in his soul then he will also not be so in the future, no matter how often he can repeat the same fruitless approach. Because the man is already being spiritually corrupt and sick then that same corruption and sickness prevents him from experiencing good effects within himself. The divinity must first forgive the man and purify his soul and restore his spiritual side back to full health, and only then will the man be able to become happy and at peace and contented with his life. It is only the divinity which is in position to make these things possible through grace, but the man is never able to produce it by his own effort or by coming up with some beautiful words. It cannot be searched directly for happiness and inner peace, because it is merely the consequence, caused by the presence of the divinity, after it has revealed itself to the man. If the man is already being happy and at peace with himself then it is because the divinity has already shown him grace, making him capable of experiencing such benefits in the first place.
Needless expectation will only lead to needless disappointment, and create needless bitterness. If the man had never had such expectation in the first place then he would have avoided both disappointment and bitterness, so the man would actually have been better off by having nothing on his mind. It can be mentioned when the man does only gaze upon the things which he has still not obtained in his life, or which is completely beyond his reach (above/out of his league). At the same time the man is neglecting all the good things in his life, which are still being accessible and able to benefit him. When that man has finally obtained the desirable thing in question then he will also not learn to appreciate it, while he gazes upon something else instead, so the same process will continue to repeat itself while the man is being covetous and ungrateful. It does not make any sense when the man allows external things to trouble and disrupt himself, as if such things were being more important than his own health and sanity. It is not like the man should cut off parts of his feet in order to make the feet fit shoes that are too small for him, but he could just as well be without shoes or look for befitting shoes elsewhere. It can be mentioned when the man is already being happy and contented with his current lot, and it is like there does not exist any problem in his eyes. Then it happens that the man begins to covet a specific thing but is unable to obtain it, or the man manages to obtain a specific thing but he later loses it from his grasp. Then the man presumes himself to be worse off, even that he had originally been happy and contented with his life as it was, before he had coveted that specific thing or obtained it. It can be said that nothing has changed in the situation, but it is rather the man that has allowed his own desires to change himself, in what way he does notice the external matters and considers them relevant to himself. Its personal attachment has only affected the man’s condition for the worse, and led to completely opposite effects, since he had wanted such things to make him happy but he allowed these things to make him become unhappy over them. It does thereby prove to be counterproductive, defeating the purpose why the man had sought for such things in the first place, since that nothing good did ever come out from it for him. For example, let’s say that the man falls in love with a woman only because of her looks, while overlooking that the woman is a hard-hearted and mean-spirited person. When the man tries to impress that woman then it utterly fails, and that woman treats him as garbage. Then that man becomes sad/depressed and he is being afflicted by thoughts of that what he could not have. Let’s consider the beginning of this and the consequence, when it comes to determine whether this did really come from and belong to the goodness. Firstly, the man thought he loved that woman when he was really being desirous/covetous and only in love with a superficial aspect. Secondly, because the woman turned out to be a hard-hearted and mean-spirited person then it cannot be that the goodness wanted the man to befit such a none-good person. Thirdly, because this failed undertaking only led to bad effects within the man then it cannot be that the goodness wanted it to happen, since that only good comes from that which is being good. Hence the desire for this woman proved to be unfounded and needless at the very outset. If the man manages to obtain a desirable thing and he later loses it from his grasp; then it is a sign that he was never meant to have it in the first place, either because it proved to be a useless thing to him, or the man was not deemed worthy and responsible enough to receive it.
Modesty is about letting those things suffice oneself which are truly necessary and useful, when it comes to satisfy the basic needs of one’s body and soul, what makes one able to stay alive and well and focused, and what does actually need to be used upon daily basis for the goals at hand. It should kept to the general role of each object, what it is meant to be used for and to help improve one’s lot, while the outward appearance does not matter as much. For example, the nutrition had from food is more important than that how the food looks and tastes. Clothes are important so long as they can cover one’s nakedness and offer protection from the weather, while it is not being as important what kind of impression one’s clothes can have on other people. The home is important while it offers a shelter and privacy, and while it can store all the things which one needs for a daily function/activity, while it is not being as important what is the size of the home in comparison to other homes. (Because there is either way no need for extra space for extra activity. One can go to specialized places for extra activity, like the gym for physical training.) The shape of tableware is being of use when eating food, while it does not matter whether the tableware is being made of cheap material (steel) or expensive material (gold). Beautiful clothes and luxurious objects cannot in any way exalt one’s person, because it is irrelevant to good sense and good qualities and good choices. These good things are not for sale and they cannot be bought. Luxury tends to be superfluous, like when something is beautiful to look upon, but that object does otherwise remain stuck at the same place and cannot be used for anything at all. It should rather be kept oneself to things which appeal to one’s needs and ability, like what can be used for survival, education, profession, creative work, and physical exercises. The man should only seek for those things which he is willing to deserve through honest work. But he should otherwise not seek for such things in the first place, if the man is not ready to make the required sacrifices and assume responsibility of it. Covetousness and envy only gazes upon the consequence, or incidental things, while it is neglected the path prior to it, how to make an accomplishment that leads to reward. It is not like the man should crave these or those things, expensive and luxurious, only because other people possess it and the man wants to advertise himself among them. For it means that the man is really in no need of such things, where the man does not even know what he should use it for and it will either way do him no good.
Generosity does not only reach to that in giving away money or material objects to other people, sharing possessions with them or offering them temporary access to one’s possession for free (borrowing). It is also important that the man can have a lively, light-hearted, and generous spirit, a constructive presence which is able to arouse something good in other people. Thereby do the people involved enjoy the company of each other, forgetting all about their problems and afflictions, and becoming instead confident and cheerful, comforted and hopeful about everything. The man becomes generous to other people because they are more in need of it than him, whether it does apply to their morale/spirit or their living conditions. It should be done the decent thing for its own sake, and as its own reward, so it is never expected any repayment or recognition from it. For the generous man did truly believe in the value of that choice, that it was able to help and benefit the persons involved. In a way the generous act did not make the generous man become blessed, because the generous man was already being blessed when doing it, since the divinity made him capable of being generous and made things able to go smoothly. The generous act should always reflect a generous spirit, the nobility of soul or altruism of the doer. It is thereby most important that the man can first become generous in his attitude and intentions, and then it will affect his conduct in a corresponding way, in what way he does treat other people. The generous man is really willing to do so by his own free will, where he does really care for the person he wants to help and what kind of value it has for the person as a recipient. Generosity is not the same thing as a selfish compromise, like when it is paid money to charity organization in return for a specific service or an access to entertainment for ‘free’. It is not being consistent with virtue when the man does intentionally reveal his good act to other people and/or does boast about having done it, which thereby makes him openly receive recognition from it. For that generosity is about giving something for free, without getting anything in return, whether directly or indirectly. A true generosity does always involve a selfless act. There does not exit anything in between, but the man is either being generous or not. The generous man is supposed to be discreet, where he is only concerned about that in helping other people, and that the matter stays between him and them. He is only content with the accomplishment, so long as that person was able to receive help, whether the man himself or somebody else provided it. It is sufficient for the generous man to know the truth for himself, and what the divinity feels about it, while it does not involve anyone else. The whole world or the rest of mankind are being irrelevant. It is not like everyone would need to be overly generous, by offering everything which they own to other people, while leaving nothing for themselves (which would thereby make them unable to survive and unable to provide for their own family and unable to resume function in goals). It can rather be said that it is only sufficient for people to share things together, and be willing to loan objects to one another, according to the need of the moment. For example, the man can own hand tools, but he does need to carry such tools and use them all the time. The man can just as well loan the tools to other people, until he is again in need of them, but it does otherwise not matter what person uses the tools in the meantime.
Chastity is not only bound to sexual abstinence or faithfulness during marriage. It is also about spiritual purity. If the man is already pure in his heart then he will look upon all things with pure eyes, experience everything in a pure way, and approach the matter in a pure way. The man’s heart and eyes will correspond to a white and empty paper, so it can be written precisely down that information which is required to be known. There is no stain upon the paper, which would otherwise get in the way and make everything distorted to read. Such stain on paper applies when contempt and covetousness makes the man already biased and impure when noticing and receiving things. The spiritual chastity is like a faithful relationship with the divinity, because it is abstained from all selfish intentions and corruption, which does belong to the opposite source. Where there is purity there is also sincerity and charity, when it comes see/notice the person as it is, accept and receive the person as it is, and esteem the wellbeing of the person most above other things. It is held the person in the same sincere and charitable regard, and nothing is able to change that. The man will give himself proper time and space in order to get acquainted with the person, in knowing what kind of person it is, and what dwells in its heart. It is had more interest in the person than what can be obtained from the person, so it is not like anyone needs to prove himself or offer some advantage to the other. A selfish man seeks to exploit or manipulate another person, as if that person was a mere tool for something else to be had, only having value for as long as the man can satisfy his impulses or selfish desires. A selfish man does implicate his own impulses to the person in advance, like sexual lust or hatred, but he does not actually see/notice the person as it is, outside/beyond his own self. If the man is having difficulty resisting sexual desires and he is beginning to fantasize about sinful things; then he should remind himself that covetousness does contradict pure and sincere love. He should only focus upon that in noticing the person when it is actually met with it, above that in having thoughts about the person and preferring such illusion over the actual person. For that when the man does finally meet with the person then he is being roused to decency and he repents of having thought of the person in such way. And the man should remind himself of that how the divinity has led him into the truth, and made him understand what kind of forces are working within the man, and made him able to withstand temptations and rise above them. It would indeed be an indecent thing if the spiritually discerning man would be exploiting the position of a woman which is living in weakness, where that woman is being credulous toward her internal activity, where she is being swept back and forth by thoughts/impulses which she does not discern to be equally wrong, and she does not know what she is doing. She is being needy and only trying to feel better by doing something, however misguided it can be.
If the man is being a true spiritual figure then his main objective is to help other people feel better, to bless them with his good presence and make them be at peace with themselves. A truly virtuous man would not trade away the integrity behind it for anything, like by having sexual intercourse with women that look up to him and seek his spiritual support, as if his spirituality could be rewarded with carnality. That in itself would make him just as carnally minded as the ungodly. If the one writing this ever manages to spread out the message to people and restore the ‘church’ of God (the community of the true believers); then may God make him boring and unresponsive as a person, that people might learn to follow God alone and trust in His words, instead of following a ‘charismatic’ human leader and centre their lives upon him. Let it be duly noted that the one writing this has little by little accumulated moral lessons from God, as when the Israel people gathered ‘manna’ (heavenly bread) in the desert. And yet there is really nothing more behind the man writing this, since he is otherwise being an empty and restricted person. It can apply that if the spiritually discerning man is going to help a spiritually sick person then all words or correct arguments can be insufficient to begin with. It corresponds to that if a man would seek to convince an intoxicated person of that what is being rational, where every argument would fail to obtain reception because of the internal condition of the same person. Since the person is being spiritually sick then it experiences everything in a spiritually sick way, where the person is being so fearful and distracted and afflicted by the mind that it is no condition to receive a correct argument and understand it further and apply to its life. The mind does immediately distract the person and makes it misinterpret the correct argument, so that there is derived some improper meaning from it and it leads to improper response. Hence the spiritually discerning man must first pray for the wellbeing of the spiritually sick person, and bless that person with his presence, that the bad internal things might go away and good things enter instead. Once the person does experience inner peace and wide enough space within (opposite to the obsessive and narrowing thoughts) then the person is in better condition to be taught the right path, and to give itself time to understand it, and to find itself willing to do it.
Altruism is the same thing as a self-sacrifice, where it is willingly sacrificed any concerns for one’s self-image and self-interest that one can stay loyal to the divinity and obey its voice in humility. The man should love the divinity more than he loves himself, because the divinity loves him more than he loves himself and is in better position to know what is best for him. The faith in the divinity is the supreme means in loving and helping oneself, because it is guaranteed that it will be treated oneself with self-awareness and self-knowledge and dignity (self-respect). It is not through the self that one becomes aware and knowledgeable and dignified, but one is being aware when one’s self is involved, and one is being knowledgeable in confessing what can make one rise above the self, and one is able to maintain dignity by staying detached from the self while waiting for the divinity to pass verdict upon one (one is not being united with the self seeing oneself through the self, but one is seeing oneself through eyes of another beyond/outside the self). It can be added that one is able to maintain dignity through fair/even and principled dealings, by having treated other people as one wants to be treated by them, and that one can expect something comforting from the divinity when one is in need of comfort. Altruism is about benefiting the common good, the welfare of the whole people. The man does willingly choose to forfeit his selfish claims, and prefer the rightful cause above his own life, so the common undertaking can be more likely to harmonize and go smoothly. The man did at least do his part and give a good example to other people. If all men were as equally selfless then nothing would be impossible for them. If the man is truly noble in his soul then he will be willing to confess it when he is wrong about something, and then stand aside and make a room for a more worthy person with a better claim. And the noble man does never want other people to become troubled on his behalf and suffer for having made a wrong decision concerning his life. The noble man is already contented with his life and at peace, since the divinity has already saved his soul and delivered him from the evil nature. It does not matter whether the noble man can be deprived of everything around him, since he is already being rich in spirit. It is namely our compassion and mercy toward each other which is able to redeem us. We might fail and suffer defeat in our body, but we have still proven victorious in our spirit, since that we did at least attempt to help and deliver each other. But it is a shameful thing when the man chooses to be indifferent and refuses to help another person in distress. If everyone would behave in such way then the human race would be already doomed. The merciless bystander proves to be just as uncharitable as he that commits a crime against another person. The noble man does not care about any pain and shame which could befall him, for he is only concerned about preventing similar evils from befalling innocent persons, by helping them escape from it, or by reducing the harm from it. If the heart is already full of love then it will overflow any selfish desires that seek to infiltrate it, since the wrong things contradict the love had for oneself and other people. The noble man does not do good acts at random, but it is always in context with the love of the divinity. First the divinity loved the man, and next the divinity taught the man to love himself, and then finally was the man able to love other persons, since he already knows it of his own accord.
The divinity is capable of bestowing heavenly citizen rights to the man, which are meant to guarantee his self-love, spiritual freedom, reason, and bold aspiration. The human rights of the society are meant to appeal to and encourage corresponding rights from within, the humane side in the man and what is considered natural to him, so the man cultivate it further and become spiritually mature/complete. It can be said that just laws of a just society are meant to remove all needless restrictions, like ignorance, prejudices, superstition, and corruption, so these things will not get in the way of the human spirit. It should be discerned the spirit of the law, why such laws were made in the first place, what kind of behaviour the laws are meant to encourage or discourage from. It is in the nature of the justice to understand the human nature, what did originally happen from within, what motivated the man’s intentions and behaviour. It is first understood the man himself before it can be understood the things which come from him, why the man does speak and react and act in such way. For example, the man seeks food because he is already hungry, and he seeks the company of other people because he already cares about them or he already feels lonely. The human soul needs moral principles and privacy, even as the physical body needs food and shelter. All men are equal before the truth and the justice of the divinity, where every man shall be judged by the truth and the justice, whether the man has been abiding by the truth and the justice or siding away from it. The justice does not only reach to that in punishing crimes, but it is also about preventing it in the first place, by educating the citizens in virtue and creating ideal conditions in the society, so there will be no shortage internally and/or externally which can nurture errors. All crimes are originated in the deliberate will to sin, while the environment only got involved afterwards. People can experience the same living conditions and yet respond in a completely different way, where it has all to do about their internal activity with its interpretation and motivation. This is why it is more important to nullify/undo the will to sin than by applying all kinds of punishments. It can be treaded the moderate middle path by claiming that it should be sought to reform those criminals that repent while it should be punished those criminals that do not repent, instead of going too far by claiming that it should be sought to reform everyone or punish everyone as an end in itself. Even that it is afterwards punished a crime then it does still not deal with the original cause, what encouraged the man to commit crime. Living beings are the most precious resource upon the earth, where everything is made possible so long as they can continue to live and become better with the time. Only a living being is able to make a choice for itself, by repenting of its faults and do better next time, while a dead person is no longer able to do anything.
6.3: Overcoming the Fear
The man is not really struggling against himself in the mind, but he is really struggling against the impersonation of the mind. For the mind does pretend to be the man’s own voice, and makes it look like the man has consciously or unconsciously wanted such selfish thoughts to appear, when such process would either way happen automatically. The mind itself is the root of the problem, for it is thoughts that distort the man’s vision of external things and other people into seeming problematic, and it is implicated fears and impulses to the external things, as if the latter had caused it or aroused such fears from within. But it did originally begin from within, according to the initiative of the mind, where it had in real nothing to do with the external things which were thought of at the same time. All the conceived reasons are a merely a pretext, because all temptations are originated from the mind’s malice, when deliberately seeking to corrupt and enslave the man. But it has nothing to do with the man himself, what he has hitherto experienced and done. If the man is afraid of unpleasant thoughts and imaginations then it means that he is really afraid of the mind, what kind of opposition the mind can threaten to inflict upon him. But if the man does no longer fear the mind itself then no external things will be able to scare him, since the fear does begin from within and it is then implicated to incidents and other people. The man must first overcome his own fears before he can overcome the world, where he must conquer himself before he can be able to conquer. It should be replaced the fear with hatred toward the mind and all the evilness which it stands for, as if the man’s hatred would prove stronger than his own self-preservation, forgoing any profit and pleasure that could otherwise be derived from selfishness. The man must be willing to sacrifice any weakness and dishonest gain in order to conquer the mind, as if it would be applied ‘scorched earth policy’ toward any selfish desire, since the mind could otherwise use it against him and obtain power over his will.
The struggle against the wicked is not originally about physical force. A spiritual force comes before physical force and determines the latter, where one should first maintain full self-control and then discern whether there is a need for physical force, instead of immediately losing all self-control and be manipulated into doing something when provoked by the wicked. The struggle against the wicked is first about wiping away all their evil influence/trace from one’s soul, and to make their remembrance cease within oneself, as if they they had been wiped off the face of the earth and that they no longer existed at all. It is kept renouncing all concerns and affections for the wicked until it is no longer turned the face to them at all and ever moved past them. It is like they are being dead to one and no longer there and never regarded in anything. Even so it should be treated the mind, the most wicked invisible adversary ever craving for one’s attention. We do not ask the divinity to humiliate our wicked enemies and make them feel miserable. We do not ask the divinity to kill or destroy our wicked enemies. It is only sufficient that the divinity drive our wicked enemies out before us, and turn their attention away from us, and turn our attention away from them. That the divinity cast our wicked enemies out of our sight, and make them absent from our lives. An absent enemy equals a killed/dead enemy, involving the very same end, since that wicked enemy is no longer there and we are being rid of his presence. When we are being tested by the divinity then it is like the divinity does temporarily allow an invisible evil spirit to come in front of us, so that we temporarily experience evil thoughts or evil influence from the presence of that evil spirit. We do not know when the divinity will banish this evil spirit away from our lives, but what matters is that we confront that evil spirit long enough in rejecting it with firm determination. Once the divinity knows that is our true stance, and that we are being consistent in rejecting evil, even after all of this which has happened and despite all of this; then the divinity does deem it the proper time to cast that evil spirit out of our sight. When we have a difficulty resisting temptation then it is like we want to do two opposite things at the same time, which thereby makes it into an internal struggle/conflict. But even that we are being weak and unstable in our determination in fully rejecting evil; then the faith does still offer us a a way out of this, if we are at least willing to confess the truth about it, and that even after all this movement back and forth within then we still refuse to justify that corruption in being part of our lives. We acknowledge that this spiritual adversary is being strong or stronger than us (having some kind of hold over us), and yet we also acknowledge that this does not diminish the power of God in any way, since God is being just as capable in overcoming that adversary on our behalf. Whatever our failures and shortcomings (with its realization of our powerlessness); then God does ever remain the same person. By believing in a perfect being then it makes us, an imperfect being, able to do the perfect thing in the situation. By believing in a being which is higher than us then it makes us, whom have stumbled and fallen down on the ground, still able to rise up and rise above the hindrance and reach out for higher things in life.
The man must overcome any evil influence from within himself, which does manifest itself in selfish desires, delusions, and impulses. But in order to accomplish it the man must first look upon the mind in the same way as if a human adversary would be involved, unless that adversary is being positioned behind the man and cannot be seen. That adversary is constantly pointing at and lying about the things in front of the man, for the purpose of misleading and manipulating and corrupting and destroying the man from within. Therefore is that adversary doing everything in his power to undermine the man through personal attacks and provocations, in daring the man to do something wrong through a fear or covetousness of something else, by slandering and distorting the interpretation of the man’s intentions or that of other people. Now the man is not able to look behind himself and notice that human adversary, but the man is still the same able to hear his voice and understand what that adversary is saying to him. The man does allow such adversary to obtain power over himself for as long time as the man is willing to heed his lies and obey them. But if the man is going to overcome that adversary then he must refuse to heed him any further, and no longer want him to be part of the man’s life. This is why the man must be willing to endure any lie with full self-control, where it is not shown any sign of weakness or need for that adversary. The man must be willing to stand his ground and answer truthfully, for the purpose of convincing himself about the proper course, and in being consistent with his own conviction. The man is not really being alone with himself and struggling against himself, as if the man would constantly need to persuade himself of something opposite that which is being thought of and which he fears that he could do against his own consent. It does not involve an efficient struggle when it is overlooked the very presence of that human adversary and the man resorts to indirect means to overcome the words of the adversary, like when the man is constantly repeating clichés with himself, relying upon methods and tricks in order to deceive himself, by attempting to change the words of the adversary into having another meaning. This is why it can be condemned psychology for being vainglorious and foolish, since it cannot be changed or convinced the mind to be of different nature than it already is.
The man should not be credulous when the mind pretends to be his own voice, by mistaking the will of the mind for being his own will and then attempt to justify that’s how he is like. A permanent ‘personality’ or qualities is a mere illusion. The voices and the tones in the mind are completely different from the man’s real voice, when the man does actually speak with his mouth and how it does sound to other people. The subjective voices might sound somewhat similar to the man’s voice, but it can still the same be sensed something different about them, pretentious and exaggerated. There exist ego-tones, quibbling tones, doubtful tones, arrogant tones, envious tones, flattering tones, covetous tones, and so forth, according to each vice. It can happen that the man heeds specific thoughts and allow them to change his mind/stance, so the man does then say something in egoistical or quibbling tone (childishly, immaturely), like when it is rebelled against the higher authority or disregarded the transparent truth in the situation. The mind is false and wicked, constantly lying and trying to deceive the man, but there is no truth or wisdom to be derived from the mind, as some kind of logical process of elimination. It is not like the man is able to outsmart the mind through similar craftiness and tricks. That to rely upon evil means against the evilness is to be still listening to the evilness how to overcome the evilness, and that makes these suggested evil means be bad advices leading to entrapment/entanglement. The mind can come up with a trick which seems to be simple and obvious, but there can actually be a greater trick behind it, appealing to the man’s pride and vanity. It is like the mind would first pretend that the man is winning the struggle and that it will make the man become confident in vanity, only to later shatter that vanity that the man will lose all confidence and despair of his life. It corresponds to that in warfare when an enemy army consisting of cavalry deliberately creates an opening for a part of the other army to seemingly escape, only to later encircle that part and massacre it. The man should not move over to the mind’s foundation and then attempt to overcome it there, since he will otherwise fight at a natural disadvantage and where the rules are biased against him. For example, the man can seek for answers upon a wrong basis, be occupied in a needless struggle against illusions, and obtain a ‘wrong’ victory at most (red herring), since he only ended up alienating himself from the truth and the goodness.
The subjective psychology might at first look well on paper, because the healthy psychologist does not experience aggressive and unpleasant thoughts all day long. But the mental patient can find himself in a position where he needs to endure constant interference of delusions and impulses, so he does not have the time to answer each and every interference. Each delusion can last about a second, while that in coming up with an answer to it can last for much longer time, so if the mental patient would seek to answer every delusion then he would need to be on the defensive all day long. That to be constantly reacting to thoughts would make the mental patient too self-absorbed to know and do anything else. It is much more efficient if the mental patient remains silent on his behalf and ignores every thought, while focusing upon actual choices in the reality. The mind is on the offensive when seeking to interrogate the man, by coming up with aggressive questions, quibbling and distorting every answer from the man, and accusing the man of everything. The person that asks the question is in better position than the one which answers it. For the questioner is constantly obtaining new information about the answerer, while the answerer is only revealing his own vulnerabilities and restrictions. The attention keeps being on the answerer when he is supposed to given an account of himself, while the questioner is being exempt of the same. So the questioner has everything to gain, while the answerer has everything to lose. This means that the answerer will make himself exposed to manipulation of the questioner, while he is trying to defend and explain and justify himself before the questioner. We can already discern that the hostile person is our enemy, constantly tempting and opposing us, so that anything we say will never be able to convince that person of anything. Therefore should we not seek to convince our enemy to cease his opposition, but we should rather convince ourselves in enduring it, with courage and firm resolution. Silence is the most efficient protection against any question and accusation and trick and trap, since it will either way ignore everything. The adversary will know nothing about us, what kind of person we are, and what kind of strengths and weaknesses we have, so that he will be unable to connect our internal activity with external lures and provocations. It is matter of overcoming our enemy in the long run, by being more patient than him, and being always willing to endure his opposition one more time.
Impulses like fear can befall the man at random, without being in relation to the circumstances that he is experiencing at that moment or what is actually being thought of while the fear does last. The man can all of a sudden experience fear that manages to affect his stability or even seem to overwhelm himself. The man does first experience a fear, and he does afterwards tend to assume all kinds of reasons in order to explain the fear, what had actually caused it, even that the fear itself emerged by the initiative of the mind. It is namely the mind which does produce a fear in the man’s body while he is in the presence of other people, while experiencing specific circumstances. But the man should not implicate the external matters to the fear in question, as if these incidental things had caused it, since the contrary thing does apply. It is the namely the mind which implicates the fear to the external things, in order to make the fear seem logical, even that the fear itself came first, and would either way have happened. The man can experience fear of something which he has still not participated in, and a fear of a specific location which he has still not arrived to. But the man is actually experiencing completely different circumstances during the fear, like when it feared to travel with an airplane even that the man is still on the ground and far away from it. Therefore has the fear in real nothing to do with the flight of the airplane, but it does only seem so because the man is thinking about such things at the same time. These thoughts and imaginations would otherwise not seem dreadful in the man’s eyes, if he was not experiencing any effects of the fear in his heart or body at the same time. It is because of the impulse, which seems to touch or get a hold of the man’s body in some way, affecting his stability, leading to instable breathing or pressure in his head. It is like the man’s sight was temporarily being shrouded in darkness, in only noticing and interpreting dark things to befall himself, as if he had already lost the struggle and lost his self-control.
The fear can be likened to that if an invisible adversary was positioned behind the man, and able to temporarily grab the man’s body in an unpleasant way while the man is thinking about something at the same time. Now since the man cannot see that invisible adversary then he assumes that the unpleasant grabbing of his body is being caused by the words that he is hearing in the mind, or because of the place where he is now at. That might seem logical because the man has hitherto not experienced such fear elsewhere. The man does not need to stop everything in his life and first try to get rid of the fear, because the fear which accompanied the delusions could not have happened in any other way. It is being a spiritual test, and this unpleasant experience would otherwise not be a spiritual test if it did not have any effects upon the man. Just like that fear did appear at random then that same fear will vanish at random, sometime later on, since the divinity is capable of dispelling such fear on the man’s behalf. This is why the man should constantly move on with his life, in doing the things which he had intended for all along, before he had experienced that fear in the first place. The man does not need to try to save himself from the fear or try to get rid of the fear directly, but the matter is rather about that in showing courage and stoical mind after it has been experienced. This means that the man will still feel the fear from within, and yet the fear is still somehow made bearable and the fear does not manage to control the man’s decisions/choices. The man is still able to undertake the challenges in question and endure them to the very end, even that the fear did not make the experience easy or delayed the man for some time. It should be learned to live with the fear, and as if the fear could exist alongside other matters. The man should willingly allow the fear to befall himself for as long time as possible, because it is something which can be endured rather than prevented from happening. The man does not need to give the fear further attention, nor try to sort out anything in the mind. It can happen that the man does not feel any fear in his heart, but he does still experience its symptoms in his body, like stammering, shaking limbs, or difficulty in breathing. So it might seem to give the wrong impression that the man is being afraid of something, and other people will presume so, unless it is no context with his current attitude.
If one does begin loving one’s enemy then one will also begin ceasing to fear one’s enemy. That to love another person and being concerned about its wellbeing does somehow make things turn out in a lucky way. It is like the courage itself as good quality does freely intervene on behalf of those that love. The little child that was being sincere and innocent was being watched over by the courageous and strong angel of God. One was not being prepared for anything and one did never seek to encourage oneself in being courageous, and yet somehow one was able to approach the adversity with a stoical mind and things went smoothly. It is like things happened so fast that one did not have time to become fearful, and it was by some luck that one was able to do the right/necessary thing during the experience. Because the divinity showed one grace and mercy then this seemingly bad experience turned into a good experience of one’s behalf, where this lucky internal condition came as a free gift and one was being carried forth by the breath/wave of courage without actually realizing that it was being courage. That to love can lead to the same beneficial end as if courage was being involved. God managed to appeal to the better side in the persons involved. The people simply found it in themselves to let go of their resentment. Nobody needed to fight anyone for victory. Nobody needed to seek directly for courage in order to resolve the matter. Nobody won and nobody lost, because nobody became exalted at the expense of someone else. For example, we can regularly encounter a specific person which is being rude and pressing/demanding toward us. This does not mean that we should ask God for help in order to repay evil with evil. We should not seek for something bad which we could rely on and use against that specific person. We should rather keep asking God to bless that person, and keep asking God to help us bear with that person. We keep seeking for good things which can be relied on and used for that person. Every time that the person reveals a sign of weakness then we show mercy and we never mention it to anyone. Every time that our enemy falls into our hands and we are in a better/higher position in passing verdict upon him; then we do still choose to let him go with his dignity intact. When some time has passed (we do not know when and we have not been expecting anything) then that specific person simply ceases to be rude and pressing of its own accord. Things just happen. When God decides something then people are being blown in that direction (their inclination). They no longer feel/experience the need for that in doing the wrong thing. It can happen that the man is being beset with all kinds of adversity and distractions of the world. That includes that when the man is constantly misunderstanding the situation and committing unintentional mistakes, and revealing his ignorance and weaknesses to other people, which can be afterwards hard for him to know of and live with. And yet it is being uncalled for that the man should seek to save himself from it and/or try to overcome his enemies directly (by trying to divert the attention to someone else and attacking his weaknesses in order to conceal own weaknesses). It is like most of these things most of the time was being irrelevant distractions, an one big illusion which there is no need to try sorting out. The only thing needful/necessary in the situation is for the man to keep his eyes open when he comes across a person in need/distress and to show mercy to that person. That is really the only meaningful choice amidst all these adversity and distractions of the world. The man did at least show mercy to a person in a more exposed position and he is being redeemed by that choice. The divinity will also show mercy to the man when he finds himself in a vulnerable position, and the mercy in itself will make up for all the things found lacking in his life.
It can be said that the man’s life does not have any worth in itself (lonesome, separately), but it only haves value while he is able to do the right thing, in living for a higher cause, in helping and benefiting other persons. The man should thereby choose to continue to live if the benefits do outweigh the bad things, if he is able to endure and fight another day for the good cause, and save more people in the process. But the man should otherwise not choose life through base and degrading means, like by complying with the wicked demands of wicked men and become enslaved by them, by betraying and persecuting innocent persons in order to avoid that of being himself targeted/persecuted, or by doing anything which is unbecoming the man as a dignified human being. The man should welcome pain and death if it is preferable to a dishonourable survival, where the man is either way not able to do further service to the goodness except by sacrificing himself, and thereby in/through death freeing himself from the power of wicked enemies. In can be mentioned when the man’s enemies possess information which can be used against him, like concerning faults from the past or something deemed shameful. These enemies do thereby threaten to reveal that information openly, unless the man does comply with their demands, since the alternative would otherwise seem humiliating to him and to his people. The most prudent thing is to consider such information something which is already out of his reach, since the man was not able to prevent it before it was too late. The man should rather focus upon that in enduring the humiliation when it will happen, and suffer for that in being consistent with himself. It is preferable to that in falling under the evil influence/control of the blackmailers. The man did perhaps commit faults in the past, but it is no longer relevant if the man has already repented and is doing the right thing in the present time. It does not make any sense if the man would again commit faults in the present time, by yielding to the demands of evil men and give them power over his will, just so that other people will not know about the faults which belonged entirely to the past. This is why it is prudent to turn the thing upside down, and respond in the exact opposite way. It would be better if the whole world would know about the man’s past faults, while he is able to maintain his will free and be at peace with himself. It is a preferable option than if the man would keep such faults secret to the whole world, while being slave to evil men at all time, even that he can pretend to be free in the eyes of other people.
The worst case scenario consists in that when wicked men have an innocent person as a hostage, someone which the man cares about and is afraid that it can come to harm. The man should be willing to sacrifice himself if possible and switch places with that person, or by offering any transient riches in order to guarantee that person’s release, since that a living being is always more important than any lifeless things (money, objects). But it is different when the blackmailers threaten to harm their hostage, unless the man will help promote their evil ends, at the expense of other innocent people in the process. If the man does comply with the blackmailers then he will give them even more power to inflict harm, so it is sought to escape from one danger to a greater one. For the man can seek to save an innocent person that he knows, while disregarding innocent persons that he does not know, even that they do otherwise share corresponding position. These wicked men possess the will to commit evil deliberately, in harming and abusing innocent persons at any time and any place, in complete disregard for truth and sense of decency. So that nothing good ever comes out from that in helping the wicked men, since they still possess the same evil intentions and they still can still commit evil all of a sudden. The man should never help a wicked person, which does at the same time want to harm him and his beloved ones, whether that wicked person will attempt to do so now or in the future. It does not make any sense that the man should seek to make that wicked person more powerful, in better position to commit evil against innocent persons, and more likely to get away with it. Imagine if a terrorist would take one person hostage, and then threaten to harm that hostage unless he will get two hostages, and so forth, until he will be in position to corrupt and destroy everyone. This is why it should never be complied with the demands of terrorists, because it will otherwise encourage them to commit similar crimes in the future. First it happens that wicked persons take someone hostage and then threaten to harm that hostage unless the man will pay ransom and/or comply with their demands. Next these wicked persons will make use of that same money and advantages to draw more wicked persons to their cause, and to further their wicked operations in taking more hostages and blackmailing more beloved ones of hostages.
Every good or evil act is originated in the man’s will to do so, where he has already chosen and sided with either influence from within, even before he has committed the actual deed. In this world can be experienced pain, shame, loss, and death. It is actually the evil man which degrades himself when he does commit an evil deed and mistreats an innocent person. The innocent person suffering an evil has not done anything wrong, nor wished for anything wrong to happen. That person should not have any guilt over the matter, nor feel responsible for it. It can be mentioned Aesop’s fable when a mischievous man sought to prove that a particular oracle was a fraud. That man held a live sparrow in his hand from behind or underneath a cloak, and he wanted to ask the oracle whether that bird was alive or dead. For that if the oracle would say that the bird was alive then the man would crush the bird in his hand, and then present it forth as dead. But if the oracle would say that the bird was dead then the man would present it forth unharmed. However, the oracle did tell that man that it was depended upon him alone, whether that he was holding was dead or alive. It should be looked upon this in context with that when wicked men threaten to harm their hostage, someone that the man involved cares about, unless he will further their evil designs. It is the wicked men alone which commit the wicked act, but it is not fault of those who have refused to comply with their wicked demands. The wicked men might perhaps proclaim that it was all that man’s fault, that his inactivity guaranteed that the hostage would be harmed by them, instead of being saved. However, the wicked men choose to interpret things in an evil way and they made the evil choice. Nobody forced them to do it, and it had nothing to do with the choices of other people. The wicked men would either way have distorted the interpretation of everything, by deriving an evil meaning from it, seeking for pretexts in order to justify their evil acts. It does of course not matter whether the man in question gets all the blame or not, so long as the hostage can be saved or spared further harm. But the man should seek to deliver the hostage in honourable way, without being at the expense of someone else. A person capable of such wicked things (blackmail, taking hostage and threatening to harm him/her) is also capable of being false (lying about everything) and betraying its promises. Even if the man would do everything in a faithful way on his behalf then the wicked person would still respond to everything in a treacherous way. It is not a question of money (how much money), but about the recipient of the money. The matter is not about that whether the man (being targeted for blackmail) could receive blame or be held responsible for bad consequences, or that he should seek to gratify his self-image in being caring for his beloved ones by complying with everything which the wicked person demands from him. For that by giving money to a wicked person does not end the matter, since that wicked person will make use of that same money to promote further wickedness to other people. It should not be sponsored a wicked person in sponsoring wickedness, when a wicked person draws other wicked people to its wicked cause and bribes people in important positions to give their support in corrupting the society.
If a blackmailer has two innocent persons as hostages and he gives the man a choice between saving one person while dooming another to death; then it would be most ideal if the man would choose himself to be the one doomed to death while these two persons would be allowed to go free. (But that is something unlikely to happen because of the wicked disposition of the blackmailer, since the blackmailer wants to manipulate the man into doing something that will be hard for him to bear.) Or if a blackmailer has two innocent persons as hostages and he gives the man a choice between saving one person while dooming another to death; then the man should consider that what the hostage involved would have wanted and answered for itself. A decent person would be willing to die that another decent person might live instead, and thereby not feel regret that the man would make choice to that effect. And if the man would have to choose between saving one innocent person that he knows (personal attachment) and many innocent people that he does not know (strangers); then it can be taken into consideration what that one innocent person would afterwards feel about that if the man would choose to save that person at the expense of many innocent people. Would not that person experience disapproval and regret that its survival came at the cost of many innocent people? Hence if the persons involved are being decent persons then they find consolation in their decency toward one another. The decent person that has to make the hard choice should not become tormented over guilt of having doomed one person to die in order to save other persons, if the very same doomed person understood that choice and approved of it and would have wanted the same.
The wicked person is already guilty and accursed, pronouncing its own harsh verdicts and falling into the very same trap which it had intended for innocent people. The wicked person may escape from the authority of men, but it can never do so from within, when it is experienced spiritual death, emptiness, torment, chaos, insanity, and maladies. The divinity is able to make the innocent person of stoical mind, when it comes approach adversity with humility and go through it with longsuffering. The divinity is also able to comfort the person, give it hope, raise its spirit, and heal its spiritual wounds. And the divinity is always able to have the final word, in passing the final verdict, both during this human existence and in the next existence. This means that the wicked men will never prove victorious in the end, even that they are able to hide their crimes from other people and escape from the human authority. For the divinity knows everything and is able to make anything happen, so the wicked men will surely be punished after death, experiencing far greater suffering than anything humanly conceived of and inflicted by human hands. The divinity can also create a new world and a new life for the innocent persons, so the persons will no longer remember the suffering and shame that belonged to the past. The human existence in this world is being a test, which determines what kind of existence is had next, for better or worse. Even if a wicked person would manage to come out on top of this world and rule the whole world; then the wicked person would still end up defeated and lose everything upon death, since the wicked person has failed the test and it is not deemed worthy for a better afterlife. This is why the wicked men do only ambush their own soul, when they threaten to harm innocent persons. For the wicked person is threatening to commit a wicked act, which will guarantee that the wicked person will be in danger of hell fire, be doomed to end there for all eternity. The innocent person does on the other hand obtain hope in its suffering, because the divinity can always nullify any bad experience and resurrect the person in the next existence.
6.4: External Adversity
Now the man can show a sign of selfishness or self-righteousness in his bearing, but it is still not the same thing as if he was evil or that he could not be redeemed. For the man can have his faults in small matters while he does otherwise prove to be scrupulous in the greater matters. That man does really love other persons and he is there for them in life, is humble enough to repent of his faults and confess it, and is understanding and merciful toward other people in distress. It can happen that the man commits some faults, but it does still involve a mistake or accident on his behalf, something caused by ignorance on his behalf. So the man did never commit evil in a deliberate way, nor was it directed personally against anyone. A person can show a sign of weakness in its human frailty, but it can still have the heart in the right place, since the person would have done the right thing if it would only know better and be given the chance. The person did not know what it was doing, where it was like a unwary child with good intentions being misled by an adult with bad intentions (higher forces at work behind the scene). An ignorant person thought/believed it was doing the right thing when it turned out to be a wrong thing, and that person was unintentionally being wrong about something when it thought it was telling the truth (based on automatic assumptions, an inaccurate memory). An angry person was not thinking clearly and not being in full control of its temper when it retaliated evil with evil, and that person was being so blinded in the heat of the moment that it did not foresee the damage that its action would lead to. So it is a fact that the ignorant or angry person did something wrong, but it can still be said in that person’s defence that it was not being led by deliberate and calculating ill will (malice). Or an unhappy person does know that drunkenness and fornication is being wrong, and that person really tries to resist its urges and stay sober. But since the person lacks faith in dealing with its internal activity in the long run; then it succumbs to its weakness. But it can be said in the defence of that person that it kept repenting and trying again to do the right thing, without giving itself wholly over to the wrong things. That person did at least try to do something right within the wrong things, by trying to do wrong things in a less wrong way and still maintain some degree of decency, by being open about that how things really are and not try to make it seem like something else. It is a misguided thing when it is tried to mix right things with wrong things, and yet that person did what it could in its human weakness while knowing little and possessing little strength. But a truly wicked person does know what is being true and right, and yet it deliberately chooses to disregard it. And that person does know what is being false and wrong, and yet it deliberately chooses to do it, while being internally stable and in full control of itself, without being under any compulsion or seeming forcing of circumstances. The wicked person does give itself wholly over to the lies and wickedness of the mind, and it wholly conspires with other wicked people in undermining and destroying the righteous. The wicked person wholly betrays the truth and goodness of the human spirit, and it wholly betrays human beings in their human weakness. It should be evaluated each person by its merit, where every good quality should be commended and acknowledged, regardless of that whether that person is our friend or enemy. Even that the man has been persecuted by his enemies then he is still unable to predict the future, whether some of them will repent or not, in becoming a better person and able to help other people in distress. So the man may not understand it now in his current position, but perhaps later on his enemies can finally be converted from within. This is why the man should not wish for the downfall of his enemies. For such people may be ignorant now and not know what they are doing, but these persons can later on experience similar adversity in their own life and be taught humility by it. So that for as long as that person continues to live then it can be given a further chance to be spiritually redeemed.
It can apply that a person is being hostile and resentful toward the man, not because that person is being evil, but because it is being unhappy and unsatisfied with its life. That person has been discriminated and excluded by the group/majority, and it has not yet experienced acts of kindness and mercy from a noble man that is genuinely concerned about its welfare. If that person would feel good and become contented with its life; then it would become grateful enough to let go of its hostility and resentment. Hence we should pray for those that are being hostile and resentful toward us, that the divinity might help them to feel good and be at peace with themselves, that they will no longer care about their subjective problems and forget all about them. Just like a person can be quick to become resentful over bad/unfair treatment then it can become quick to become grateful over good/generous treatment, where little good things can rouse the person to repentance and decency once it has been experienced, and convince that person to turn away from great and many sins. It can apply that a person is being so accustomed to that in being treated in a good way by other people that the good things fail to reach to the heart of that person. All these good things, no matter how great and many, fail to rouse gratitude and repentance and humility in the person. But if that person would for once experience what it is like to be selflessly good and to do good to another person (instead of receiving it); then it would acquire ‘taste’ for the goodness and be encouraged to do good again. When the person does now know it for itself what it is like to be good then it will also learn to appreciate that in being treated in a good way by other people. The person will confess it with itself that it is being treated better than it deserves, and it will thank the divinity for all the good people that are in its life. When it is raised a child then it should be created opportunities which appeal to its giving/generous side, instead of the child always being on the receiving side. If the man does truly repent in his heart of all the suffering which he has caused to other people; then he should never become dejected in spirit or overwhelmed by his guilt. For the divinity has made that man capable of repenting in the first place, and humble enough to confess that he has been at fault. This is why the man is both able to ask for forgiveness and receive it, because the divinity has prepared his heart and soul from within. The man should consider himself fortunate, that the divinity loves him enough to make such repentance possible, making the man worthy to be redeemed in its eyes. But if the man was truly irredeemable then he would never experience any repentance in his heart, where he would be indifferent to the suffering of other people, be proud and stubborn enough in continuing with his evil ways, and that without confessing anything. The humble sinner does on the other hand assume responsibility of his choices, and he is able to become a better person after having repented of his faults. For that man does not repeat such errors again, not against the same persons, and not against people in similar position. But that man has already improved from within and in his conduct as well. When it was repented then it was sought to do better next time in a corresponding situation, henceforth. When the man succeeded following it through then he made peace with his conscience. But when a wicked man does not experience any repentance then it is because he is still being punished from within, and brought to even more shame by the divine justice. It is because the divinity has not restrained nor disciplined that wicked man in any way, which would otherwise have preserved him from greater corruption and troubles. But this process will continue to escalate while that man remains so proud and stubborn.
When wicked people are involved then they commit evil in a deliberate way, and it is directed against the person, for the purpose of causing it harm and shame and loss. The wicked man seeks to mislead the person, to corrupt and destroy it from within. This makes the wicked man already guilty in his intentions, even before he has actually said or done anything, since he has wished for evils to befall an innocent person and rejoiced over its misfortune. This is why it should be rejected wicked people from the outset, because they are already contemptuous and covetous in their heart, false and treacherous, and hypocritical in all their dealings. It should not be regarded the wicked people nor had any company with them, since that nothing which one can do on their behalf is able to change them for the better. Even that the man can do a good act toward a wicked person then the latter will still never see it as a good act, where it will neither acknowledge nor appreciate its significance. For the wicked person is already corrupt and spiritually distorted, which makes it interpret everything in a corrupt and distorted way, suspecting other people of the same false and treacherous intentions as itself possess. The wicked person does consider the goodness of other people to be a weakness, something which can be exploited against them, to betray their trust and turn against them when given the opportunity. The decent people can do the right thing toward the wicked person, through pure and good intentions, but that person will still always choose to see something contemptuous and covetous about it. The ideal thing is to love all people in an unconditional way and treat them in a decent way. But it does still not mean that one should trust everyone and/or seek to have company with everyone. One should still not seek for the company of the wicked men while they continue to be wicked. It is not like one should consider oneself in need of the wicked men or crave their approval, but they are the ones which must first have an initiative to repent and be converted by the divinity, before they can begin to approach other people in a true and honest way.
It can happen that the man allows himself to be deceived by delusions, which make him continue to have company with wicked people in order to help them and change them for the better, since the man will otherwise experience guilt over that in deliberately shunning their presence. However, if all previous effort has hitherto been fruitless then it will also be so in the future, because the wicked people continue to have the same heart and mindset in all things. No man is able to help and/or change the wicked person, but it is ultimately depended upon its choice alone, whether that person will sincerely repent in its heart and turn to the divinity for redemption. The matter is only between that person and the divinity, what is heeded and chosen from within, whether it is preferred truth and moral principles of the human spirit over the extreme and unrestrained influence of the mind, or the other way around. The wicked person will otherwise blame everyone and everything for its own evil choices, as if other people had first started the problem and that person is merely repaying them in the same way. But if that person would find itself all abandoned and isolated then it would discover that all such evil desires and delusions is bound to itself alone, since that person continues to crave such things even that other people are absent. It is not like the man does first need to have friendship with wicked people and be betrayed by them, before that man can finally cease to trust them and reject further dealings with them. It can already be felt something off about them at the very outset. It can already be discerned dubious signs in their bearing. It can already be read between the lines during the human relations, in sensing something false and contemptuous and covetous in the eyes of the wicked person, and where its tone proves to be pretentious and egoistical. It can be noticed that person having the eyes and smile of wickedness (gloating), the eyes and smile of the devil. The wicked person can all of a sudden let out an improper opinion, like when it is spoken shamelessly about indecent things like any ordinary topic, or too lightly about the misfortunes of other people. And when the wicked person notices another person in a weakened state then it immediately seeks to exploit the opportunity, by openly revealing it to everyone and seeking to exalt itself at the expense of the other person and to weaken that person even further. The wicked person did originally not dare anything while the other person was being healthy and strong, but when the other person becomes sick and weak then the wicked person does everything in its power to keep that person sick and weak, and thereby denying that person recovery from it. When the wicked keep using the bad past of the person against the person then it is like the wicked keep wetting and reopening the spiritual wounds of the person, so the wounds are unable to heal while that person is given no space/privacy to move on with its life. That to deny a person a healthy/ordinary life is no different from that in murdering a person.
The wicked person is already insincere in its intentions, having ulterior motives behind its outward speech and gesture. That person is unable to suppress the signs that follow treacherous desires and thoughts. It does correspond to a fair-weather friend to some extent, where that person is the first one to seek us and pretend to be our friend when we experience a time of prosperity. But that person will be the first one to abandon us and turn against us when we experience a time of adversity and there is no longer any advantage to be had from us. It is a sign that such person was never our friend to begin with, because that person did never have any sincere and good intentions when we accepted it as our ‘friend’. It can happen that the man does have a friendship with a wicked person, even that he does not find himself in such bad company and he dislikes the person, so he does no longer feel any longing in continuing such friendship. But the man, against his willingness and better judgment, does still not choose to end such friendship, because of his misplaced concern for the wicked person. It is because the man is afraid of making that person upset and unhappy, if he does cease to give that person attention and has no further dealings with it. The man is thereby inventing these or those reasons which seek to justify further friendship with the wicked person, as if there was something good about it or to be hoped for in the future. But all such enumerated reasons are made upon a wrong basis, because they have nothing to do with the actual person, its attitude and choices in general. For it is like the man could invent such ‘positive’ reasons about anyone in order to justify anything, without being in context with current circumstances and his personal experience, how the matters have hitherto been and will continue to be in the future. These ‘positive’ reasons do not change anything about that wicked person and what it is capable of, but the man must rather make decisions based upon facts and adapt to the situation.
The spiritual soil in the wicked person is already barren, where nothing good can be aroused in it, regardless of that whether one can have good intentions and wish to help it in some way. The goodness is meant to lead to good reception, in benefiting the man from within and making him a better person, in increasing his good faith and understanding and capability in the process. If the man’s effort for the sake of a wicked person does not lead to anything good; then it means that such an effort was never being influenced by the goodness in the first place. The goodness did never encourage the man to throw his ‘pearls before the swine’, because the goodness did already know it in advance that all such effort would be doomed to failure. The wicked person is already closed in advance, and no man will be able to convince that person otherwise, since that wicked person has already rejected the divinity from within itself. It does not matter whether the wicked person had once done favours to the man, because it does still not justify that he should be obliged to repay the wicked person with complicity in corruption. For that a good act should call for another good act, rather than an evil one. It can be mentioned when a wicked person has hitherto never appreciated anything which the man has done for it, no matter how great and many things. It has nothing to do with the man himself and what he should ‘rather’ have done, but it has everything to do about that person’s ingratitude and inner emptiness. It would not have mattered if the man had been perfect and made some great accomplishments, because that wicked person would still not acknowledge it nor appreciate anything. That wicked person is expecting too much and demanding too much from the man, while the wicked person is not expecting and demanding anything similar from itself. That makes the wicked person have a hypocritical standard, which makes it self-condemned in its ways. That to waste time and effort upon an hypocritical person; is a time and effort that could have been invested in a decent person. Just like weeds take the soil and deny that soil to beneficial plants; then a company with a hypocritical person makes one miss out on company with decent persons, which would otherwise have made one feel good in doing good to and receiving good from. That to hate evil and to separate oneself from an evil company is necessary if one is going to aspire for good things and make good use of one’s life. Otherwise one would always be spiritually stuck in seeking to gratify selfish and ungrateful people, where one would neglect to change within while seeking to change them, even as when it is sought to change the nature of the mind.
The man should invest his time and effort upon a mutual friendship, which is most giving to both persons, since they know how to appreciate what the other one is doing. It should thereby be cultivated further relationship with those that do already love in an unconditional way. If a person does already love us then that person will continue to love us, no matter what can happen and change in the situation. But if a person does not already love us then it will either way not love us when some conditions have been met, since such conditions were put forward by unloving attitude. Hence we should not seek to gratify unworthy persons that are incapable of loving us, while we neglect the decent persons that do already love us. If the man is going to separate himself from a wicked person then he must sever all direct and indirect communication with it, no matter what that person can attempt to do about it. It is not like the man does first need to explain himself before that person, since that person will either way disregard the truth and continue to obtrude into his life. The man should rather convince himself in continuing to reject that person, when it comes to shun dealings with that person in all forms and never reveal any sign of weakness to it. It should thereby never be made any compromises, nor given in to any demands. Now the wicked person can come up with excuses and promise to behave better in the future, but it does still not involve a genuine repentance. For that person is only coming up with a temporary outward show in order to convince the man that it is being repentant, while that person has not convinced itself of repentance from within. There is no genuine conviction and understanding behind that which the wicked person might seem to be doing as an amend, as if that person was merely pretending to be ‘human’ because that was something to be expected from it. The wicked person can change its manner of speech and gesture, by pretending to be ‘good’ for some time, but it does never involve any right underlying premises/intentions. Let’s say that the wicked person does really repent and carries an endeavour in improving itself, regardless of that whether the man will believe it or not, forgive it or not, welcome it or not. That attitude and conduct proves to be genuine at that moment, and yet it is also a matter of that whether the person will remain so, by being consistent with it in the long run. The man can thereby still understandably be wary of the person and be justified in that of not giving it his trust too hastily. But both of them can go their separate way for some time, and focus upon their own lives. For the man can very well have a decent life without that person, and that person can very well have a decent life without the man. But perhaps can it be begun a new friendship sometime in the future, if that person has proven itself honest and reliable in its own affairs.
The man can find himself living in a place where the majority of the people are hostile and discriminating to him. It can apply that the man is innocent, where he has done nothing wrong in order to deserve such treatment, but he is being persecuted for not being as corrupt as that people. Or it can apply that the man does have a bad reputation because of the faults of his past life, so it is like he is being condemned and shunned in advance, even that he has already repented and improved. If the man does find himself in such position then it has in real nothing to do with his person and what he can do about it. It is not like the man does first need to prove himself in the eyes of other people before he can finally be accepted by them, or by seeking to convince that people to cease their disrespect. For these people are already biased and closed in advance through an ill will. The man should thereby not consider himself obligated to stay in such place and continue to look for company with such people. But the man should rather seek to begin a new life, at a new place with a new people, which is solely for his own sake and not for anyone else, since the man should do things according to his own premises. It can of course happen that some person are good and friendly to the man, but it does still not mean that he is obligated to stay in such place, only for their sake, especially if these persons do already have an acceptable life. A similar thing can apply when the man does have false and treacherous friend, which is constantly going behind his back and does not appreciate his company. For that false friend can be friendly to the man sometimes in between, but the man should still not feel guilt over that in wanting to end the friendship, since the man is already unhappy and vexed most of the time.
It can be hard for a sinner to become a new and better person while the people of that place continue to see and judge/treat him as the same bad person of the past. They are ever questioning his motives, always seeing/interpreting something bad about every choice he makes, and inventing something new to hold against him. The sinner is ever seeing himself through their hostile eyes, and it can be such a distracting experience for him that he treats himself as such (loss of faith in himself, low self-esteem, repeating again the faults that he had tried to avoid). However, the repentant and improved sinner does not really need to say or do anything about this. He can continue to move on with his life and do the right thing, while he willingly allows all these hostile people to judge him and slander him behind his back. For that man is not judging anyone for their faults and he is showing mercy to those that live in weakness, while these hostile people continue to judge him for the past faults and they are showing no mercy to those that live in weakness. These hostile people judge themselves by judging others, since they have been committing corresponding faults which they accuse others of. These people have not been doing things any better than those they judge so harshly, and they have not been experiencing the same difficult positions that they have been putting other persons into. These hostile people will only turn out to be hypocrites in the long run, when it is manifested that the persecuted person has changed for the better and is now doing the right thing, while these hostile people have still failed to change and they are still doing the wrong thing. Hence it is best to allow the weaknesses of our enemies to prove their own undoing, without ourselves needing to regard them or lift up a finger for them. All this superficial and hypocritical prattle of our enemies subjects them under the same superficial and hypocritical standard. Hence we are actually being prudent by allowing them to prattle as much as possible and to take care of everything from their end. We should not regard those who sit comfortably and speak ill of those that are distant, being themselves far away from all hard choices and circumstances, without daring to confront anything or openly stand up for that which they claim in secret.
Wicked people are either unwilling or unable to withstand the selfish thoughts in their lives, and hence they fail to change in their lives. When the wicked people realize they cannot overcome these selfish thoughts/problems then they try to divert their attention from this, by judging and slandering and persecuting those persons which are able to rise above these things. These selfish thoughts have managed to make the wicked people so resentful and angry and bitter that they seek someone as a target to unleash their frustration upon, as if that was supposed to make their problem go away or make them forget all about it. When a wicked person is alone with its thoughts then it becomes fearful and cowardly when the thoughts manage to affect its self/ego, and that person allows itself to be enslaved and controlled by the mind. Next the wicked person reacts to this by pretending to be courageous when provoking innocent people, as if that was supposed to exalt the wicked person and make it seem powerful in the eyes of other people. But none of this would have happened if the wicked person been manly enough to endure the thoughts in its life, without being so proud/sensitive and receiving things too personally, without being so quick to lose patience and give up. The wicked person that openly seemed to act so tough was really being motivated by unmanly reasons in secret (fearing about its image and reputation among other people, fearing giving a wrong impression in the eyes of other people). The wicked people have failed to become virtuous in their own lives, and yet they presume that if they punish ‘sinners’ for their sins then that is supposed to make up for all the good things they lack in their own lives. They try to make it seem like the victim is supposed to have done something bad to make it into a bad person and that it deserves to be badly treated by them. The wicked people are still doing bad things to other people, whatever the reasons/pretexts behind it. They look as far back as they can to ‘dig up’ something bad from the past and then try to hide behind it when making their attacks, since they could otherwise not openly persecute a good person for being a good person. Because the wicked are being wicked then they will never confess the true motivation behind their actions and never openly agree that the good is being good. The divinity is the ultimate judge which decides who is being forgiven and having his sins forgotten, and who is being condemned and having his sins revealed. The wicked people should first and foremost be concerned about giving account of their own sins to/before the divinity. It can be come up with a following parable about hypocrisy. Three men participate in an archery contest. The first man manages to hit the mark. The second man misses the mark. The third man misses the mark further away. The second man now presumes himself to be in position to condemn and mock the third man for having missed the mark further away, even that he himself neither hit the mark. That makes the second man into a self-condemned hypocrite. Instead of trying to improve himself and manage to hit the mark; then he spends his time belittling those that are trying to improve themselves and hit the mark (repentant sinners).
If the man has been brought up in a place where the majority of the people are hostile and discriminating to him; then it is too time-consuming and energy-draining for him to keep answering and reacting to every disrespectful move of theirs. If the man is constantly on the defensive and following the initiative of his enemies; then he will remain spiritually stagnant (fail to grow as a person). But if the man continues to disregard his enemies while focusing upon that in growing as a person; then he will in the end become spiritually strong and wise enough to outgrow his enemies. The man will no longer feel the need to say or do anything in regard to these enemies, since they only seemed to be big in the man’s eyes while he had been little/immature in the past. But now the man has become a different person, doing different things, and faring in a different way, while these enemies are still stuck on the same things in their lives. It is enough to let the silent accomplishments speak for themselves and let them disprove the problem, when it is already transparent who has been doing things which work out and who has been doing things which do not work out, who is now being better off and who is now being worse off. Let’s say that enemies mock or accuse the man of being bad in a particular sport. Then the man should not put a stop to the training while producing endless arguments in order to convince his enemies otherwise. But the man should rather disregard his enemies while focusing upon the training in that sport, until the man has become good enough in the sport to disprove all false/unjustified claims. Even so we should not quarrel with our enemies when they ascribe something bad to our person, but we should rather focus upon that in becoming a better person. We should cease to repeat things that are blameworthy and instead surpass our enemies in virtue. These hostile people presume that they can hide behind the group when doing evil, convince each other and agree among themselves that the man is an object of contempt. If the man is stationed at an unfavourable place and being outnumbered then he should not seek to fight an enemy here or there. But the man should rather ‘pull up the ground under the enemies’, along with them all, and ‘throw it into the sea’. That to ‘pull up the ground under the enemies’ is to not desire the things that they desire, and not to pursue the things that they pursue (debauchery), and not to have the bad qualities that they have, and not to seek to become like them and one of them. The man should rebuke and chasten them all as a group, by making the same rule befall them all and without making any exception for anyone. The man keeps being indifferent to all of them, shunning them all, and moving past them all. It is not like the man would only disregard some of them while regarding others, have no initiative in talking to some of them while being the first one to talk to others, or seek no company with some of them while seeking the company of others. But the man should consider that group to be the one and same person, and treat them as one and the same person (all of the same bad sort). First the man should move away from that place and live elsewhere, that he might have a proper space and peace to grow as a person, and that the hostile people might no longer find shelter in their numbers. Then if a hostile person from that place ever comes over to the man’s place (his basis) and they come across one another somewhere sometime by chance; then the man should focus upon withstanding that person as a single and isolated enemy. It is not about fighting everyone at the same time, but rather to focus upon one enemy at a time, until the next one, as if the rest of them were waiting in a row. So when the man finally meets with one of the hostile people then he treats it with utter indifference, without regarding that person the slightest, without saying or doing anything for it, while the man keeps doing his intended thing and moving on with his life. Spiritual victory is determined by that which person considers itself less in need of the other person, and which shows less attention to the other person. It is a question of that who goes back to the other, and who goes after the other, who is the first one to lose patience and have an initiative in seeking the other’s attention. Even if an enemy does openly speak bad of the man then it is still a sign of the enemy’s weakness, since he is the one constantly giving the man attention with this and chasing after him. That enemy would not be doing this unless he was constantly thinking about the man. But the persecuted man who thinks little as possible of that enemy, and never mentions him at all, and never goes over to him; that same man does hold the higher ground. It is not about convincing our enemies to cease their disrespect or to make them suffer, but rather to rise above them all and be wholly free of their influence. And if we really want to insult our enemies in a discreet way then we should continue to be spiritually free and happy regardless of them, as if all of them were being expendable to us, having nothing to offer in regard to spiritual progress and happiness. They are being shut out and excluded from the bright time we are having, where they get no share in our time of prosperity which they had no part in promoting. We are being better off without them, while they are being worse off without us. It can now be noticed the bright countenance of those that were persecuted and driven out of that hostile place, and also the bright countenance of former persecutors that have already repented and are now having the heart in the right place, where the divinity is being gracious to them and shining on them and making them prosperous. It can be noticed a clear difference between the righteous and the wicked, when righteous people are drawn to other righteous people and keeping to that side, when they are being separated from the company of the wicked and maintaining their distance from them and not going over to the other side.
Even that some of the people are now being open and friendly toward the man during his regained time of prosperity; then he should still not allow it to ensnare him into returning back to the people as a group. Otherwise he will soon find himself back in the same position of being disrespected and provoked by worthless people, and have his current prosperity undermined by them. But the man should be mindful of the time when he was spiritually down on the ground and what was then the people’s attitude toward him and how they treated him. They had back then rejoiced when he was down on the ground and ‘kicked’ him, while they now feel bad after he has stood up of his own accord, or they finally changed their mind and are now showing ‘mercy’ when it no longer applies. Since the man is now doing well for himself (higher position) then it does no longer involve a choice in showing mercy to someone in a lower position. It should be shown mercy to a person while it is being sick and weak, instead of finally showing ‘mercy’ to that person after it has managed to become healthy and strong again. Now these people are being open and friendly to the man because they think there is some kind of advantage to be had from his higher position. They are not in love with the man, but rather in love with his prosperity (the bright time he is having). If the man would still be down on the ground then the same people would still be exploiting his weaknesses and advertising his shame to everyone. If the man had always lived among these people then he would never have recovered from his spiritual wounds and sickness, and never have managed to obtain this prosperity in the first place. These people are even now still despising and discriminating other persons in a corresponding position that the man had once found himself in among them. Their attitude has not changed, in what way they behold those that are in a higher position and those that are in a lower position. If the people are now truly being sincere and repentant of that in having despised and discriminated the man in the past; then they really not need to do anything for him. But they should in their hearts cease to despise and discriminate the lacking persons that are still among them, and rather open their hearts to those persons, and welcome them among them, and treat them as their equals. And if the people truly care about the man and wish him all the best and rejoice with his prosperity; then they should stand aside and let him go, that he might continue to feel good in the things he has hitherto been doing, being free from the place of his misery, even that it means that the people will no longer have him in their lives. But why should the man consider himself obligated by little friendly things to turn back and keep staying in a place involving so much hostile things? The man would not be doing it for himself but rather for the sake of other persons. It is sufficient that the man speak neither good nor bad to the people, and that they speak neither good nor bad to him. May the divinity bless those persons that were being sincere and compassionate and merciful toward the man during his time of misfortune, and may the divinity make it up to them that the man has not had initiative in being open and friendly to them in turn, since it was expedient to his spiritual recovery not to go back.
The wicked people kept persecuting the righteous people and driving them out of the town; until there would only be wicked people remaining there. Now the divinity would no longer shine on the many for the sake of the few, but the divinity would in the end punish them all with the same thing at the same time. Their wickedness was not being rebuked and chastised at regular interval, thereby seemingly enforcing their presumption that they would always be able to get away with everything and continue it endlessly. Unlike God’s chosen people, which kept experiencing many little adversity that they might be saved/restrained from a greater adversity to come, since they would be humbled by it and repent and turn back to decency. But the divine wrath over the continuing proud and stubborn attitude of the wicked would be stored up and finally unleashed in one great catastrophic punishment. Now let these wicked people try to hide behind the group when they are feeling bad, convince each other and agree among themselves that they should feel better, that they are being justified and deserving of spiritual relief from their spiritual anguish. Let the wicked people flee to each other and seek comfort with one another, whom are feeling just as miserable and helpless within. And let the wicked flee from one place to another, when the whole basis under them is cursed and the whole area around them a spiritually barren wasteland. What are the wicked going to come up with when their soul/heart keeps being hit and penetrated by subjective problems (spiritual sword), being disturbed and made upset by it, roused to fear and desperation? What are the wicked going to come up with when their souls keeps being blocked from all spiritual benefits and relief (spiritual famine), when their spirit and inner life and energy keeps being drained by long-term absence of good? What are the wicked going to come up with when their soul is being tormented and made restless and maddened by overwhelming sickening (spiritual pestilence), as if each moment was being unbearable and impossible? The wicked people keep trying to save their own self/ego from this and resorting to alternate means to deliverance, without realizing that these seemingly ‘positive’ thoughts and fleeting/temporary sensations are misleading them (false saviour on a white horse), where all of this will lead to a dead end and a waste of effort and further alienation from the truth. Even that a wicked person has experienced continual prosperity for a long time and without any setbacks; then all of this does still not mean anything when the divinity finally decides to punish that person with spiritual ruin. In one moment, in a blink of an eye, then everything will go straight to hell and become unbearable for all time. When a wicked person thinks that it has finally reached the top and made everything in a perfect condition to enjoy henceforth; then that person will in an instant become swallowed up by its own mind, and experience everything in a bad way from the belly of the dragon, and not know how to get out of it. A man of good sense will stand aside and depart and not be among the wicked when the divinity will punish them all, that he might not be consumed with them. Let this be their epitaph: a people which pushed their weak brethren out of the way and left them spiritually dying nearby, while the people got drunk and had fun and fornicated, ever passing by their weak brethren, not even once visiting them in their time of distress, never reconsidering the matter, since the people kept telling themselves they were already occupied with their own lives, that they had no time for their weak brethren, and that they would not miss out on the fun that others were having.
It is in the nature of the spiritually blind men to appeal to corresponding vices/weaknesses in other people, just as what such men possess and experience in their own lives. For example, a self-righteous man can preach something to other people, that they might become just as meddlesome and obtrusive as him. A selfish man can come up with flatteries toward other people, that they might become just as vainglorious and self-indulgent as him. And a malicious man can come up with a hard speech directed against innocent people, that the audience might be filled with the same ill will and cruelty as him. The spiritually blind man has already been defeated by selfish desires and vices, where he is now being enslaved by the mind and he does not dare to rise up against it. That man does now wish other people to share his spiritual defeat and he tries to drag them down with his fall, so he tries to tempt that people into having the same wrong opinions and corruption as he. The innocent person is unable to prevent evil people from speaking evil things about it, and what kind of evil devices they can come up with in order to undermine it. For such evil people had already been intent upon that in doing the wrong thing, regardless of the truth in that matter, what the innocent person could say for itself or do in order to appease them. It is already transparent that evil people are being false and guilty of wrongdoing, where nobody is able to control in what way they choose to think and speak openly of. But the innocent person does still possess a free choice, how it is chosen to look upon the adversity, and how it is chosen to react toward the opposition of evil men. That person can always refuse to allow such things to affect itself in any way, by ceasing to become credulous and sensitive about it, since such things would either way not have been avoided. The innocent person does at least know the truth for itself, and it can continue to do the right thing in regard to its own life, while the choices of evil men are their own problem and responsibility. It is most important that the innocent person does not give such opposition any power over its will, where the person will no longer consider this to be its problem, and no longer have any initiative in subjecting itself under its influence. This means that the person will never lose faith in itself, never restrict itself, never neglect its true potential, and never cease to treat itself with self-love and self-awareness and dignity (self-respect). It is the divinity which is able to understand everything and determine everything. It is the divinity which passes the final verdict, when it comes to justify someone over someone being condemned. The empty words of evil men are powerless, and cannot change anything from within, unless the innocent person chooses to believe their lies and treat itself in a superficial and unfair way. It is most important that the innocent person can overcome its own weaknesses, which make itself receptive toward such temptations and opposition from other people. It is true that an evil man is guilty of falsity and wrongdoing, but the innocent person does have itself to blame for choosing to heed and yield to such temptations. The evil man did not force the innocent person to make wrong decisions and commit wrong acts, but such troubles happened after that person did choose to become too credulous and sensitive, in receiving such things too much into itself (too personally). For example, the innocent person can begin to neglect its own affairs and even ‘punish’ irrelevant people for the faults of the evil man which disrespected it. Hence the main problem does not really consist in the original incident with the evil man, but rather in that person’s improper interpretation and response.
If the man has been betrayed by a false person then the real problem does not consist in that person, but rather in the man’s own credulity and error of judgment, in having presumed that such person was being trustworthy and having chosen to have association with it. If the man does have a friendship with an ungrateful person which does not appreciate him and treats him with disrespect; then the real problem does not consist in that person. But rather in that the man does consider himself to be in need of such person, in making himself too depended upon it. The man did first want something from that person (expectation), and next he began to regard that person (attention), and then finally he began to seek its company (behaviour). The actual problem did exist within the man long before he experienced bad things from that person. The bad things within did draw the man toward bad things on the outside. But if the man had never wanted anything from that person in the first place; then he would never have wanted to have anything to do with that person. The mind obtains power over the man’s will every time the man wants/desires something selfish, where all these selfish expectations of the future (as a selfish remedy to selfish problems) makes the man depended upon the mind when trying to make it become true. That is how the great tempter manages to gain access to the man’s heart and soul, where the man is willing to listen to the mind while the mind says that what the man wants to hear and get (illusions). But if the man frees himself from all selfish desires then the mind loses all power over his will. The man will no longer regard anything which the mind can come up with, whether it is bound to bad things of the past or ‘good’ things of the future, that in seeking for or trying to get some kind of self-gratification. It is usually dwelt on selfish problems and selfish expectations to this end: that the man might justify himself and be right/correct about something, that he might get the better of his enemies and make them suffer, and that other people should please him and make him happy (sexual fantasy). If the man does experience an adversity from another person and he allows it to have bad influence upon his temper, resulting in negligence of his life and beloved ones; then the real problem does consist that man’s own sensitivity and revengefulness. If the man has been deceived by another person and underwent some loss (fraud, scam, hoax) then the real problem does not consist in that person. But rather in the man’s own vanity and greed, which had blinded him to that what was really happening and made him short-sighted and easily exploited. If an intoxicated man has been convinced by another person into doing something reckless and fall into unforeseen trouble; then real problem does not consist in that person. But that man is rather to be blamed for having chosen to drink alcohol in the first place, which made him lose his judgment and self-control. It can be calculated the real intentions of evil people, by being aware of that what kind of reactions they are attempting to arouse in us, by saying or doing this or that. It should be noticed what kind of response or consequences will happen if there is believed their words and acted upon it, so it can thereby be discovered their real plans. It does correspond to the principle that if a crime has been committed then it should be inquired which party does profit most from the crime in question. It is about discerning what kind of selfish desires drive the evil people, for there is always some selfish advantage or profit or pleasure which they do covet for themselves. It is like everything else is a pretext, what they can pretend to say and do in order to obtain it.
Pride and covetousness can be likened to shackles, because if the man possesses such weaknesses then he will allow himself to be drawn/attached to the bad company of bad people. A better man can be overcome by a worse man if the better man makes use of worse things in their dealings. When a righteous man keeps to the righteous side then he cannot be overcome by a wicked person, but if the righteous man leaves the righteous side and goes over to the wicked side of the wicked person then it exposes him to manipulation. For example, when a wicked person says or does something bad to the righteous man then it is in the power of the latter to not allow it to go/reach any further, since the righteous man has himself not been doing anything bad and he is not being responsible for it. But if the righteous man becomes proud over this then it will induce him into thinking about the wicked person and showing it attention, and to seek the company of the wicked person that he might have the ‘final word’ during such confrontation. So that righteous man, which is being righteous in all factors expect in this one (pride, absence of humility), allows this weakness of his to draw him to the wicked person, and their meeting/quarrel will become a new source of bad things said and done. The end of one thing will mark the beginning of another, as if this could go on endlessly. This corruption, which began with pride, will spread out to other factors and lead to many vices. If the man seeks for a confrontation with a ‘tempter’ because of the previous temptation; then the man will only end up getting tempted further. If the righteous man keeps repaying evil with evil then he will in the end possess nothing good which can be drawn from within himself. And let’s say that the man has been righteous in all factors, but if he is now yielding to covetousness (no longer being righteous in that factor) then he will be drawn to a wicked person which he expects to help him obtain success in its pursuit. But the wicked person, being the worse person, will exploit this opportunity to deceive and manipulate and undermine the better person, and to cause it shame and loss. The better person will only end up making a fool out of itself, having been unaccustomed to the falsity and deception and hypocrisy of the wickedness, having listened to the bad advises of the worse person and deemed it to be trustworthy. The better person was being covetous in that factor, and yet it retained the virtue of sincerity and truthfulness, by being honest and outspoken about its covetous inclination. But the better person made the error of judgment in presuming that the worse person it consulted with did also possess such good qualities, when the worse person was altogether being pretentious and false and dishonest. The better person was doing things in good faith with the worse person, while the worse person was being altogether faithless and treacherous. It is like the better person was trying to do bad things through the truth (misguided attempt), when a true evilness is devoid of all truth, always making use of lies as means to an evil end. If a righteous man seeks to play the ‘game of the devil’ then he will surely get outmaneuvered and beaten by a wicked person (which is being more crafty and insolent). It is like a sheep would go over to the wolves and try to become like a wolf, but that sheep would lack their sharp teeth and appetite for meat, and ultimately be unwilling to be as aggressive as them (to go that far in insolent and despicable dealings). By being among the wolves the sheep is only calling for that in being targeted and eaten by the group.
A truly wicked person is also being false and pretentious, while a truly righteous person is also being truthful/sincere and outspoken. It is truly bad persons which pretend to be good in the eyes of other people, instead of confessing it openly that they are being bad. They pretend to be good in order to be openly approved/honoured for it, and to deceive good people into becoming compliant with their evil wishes. But when bad people are among bad people then they reveal all their wicked thoughts and desires to one another. It is something which is being done in secret, whether it is spoken despicably about other people or plotted against them. A truly righteous persons would never pretend to be bad in the eyes of other people, because that would contradict the truth that they feel and know in their hearts. It can happen that a well-intentioned person pretends to be bad in the eyes of other people, because that person believes/presumes that it is being bad when it is not being bad (in the greater matters), because that person has a misplaced concern for bad people (people unworthy of all the kindness and helpfulness shown to it), because that person does not want to become a target to the bad people (while being considered one of them). That person can have a good heart and try to do wrong things in a less wrong way, but that person is still not being truly righteous (whole-heartedly), since that involves integrity or consistency between that what is felt and said and done. A truly righteous person dares to speak the truth and to stand by it, and it is being willing to suffer wrong for doing the right thing. A truly righteous person is being supported by the good qualities of wisdom and courage, because that person discerns the voice of the good source and firmly keeps to its good belongings. A person can have good intentions, but because it lacks a spiritual roothold in its life then it does not know ‘how’ it can actually be done good things. That person possesses the potential to become righteous, but it is still being undecided and half-hearted (not whole-hearted), being weak and unstable, or somewhat influenced by the extremes of selfishness and self-righteousness. That well-intentioned person can be called the repentant and sincere and humble sinner, which chooses the company of bad people while not really being one of them, since these people are not being repentant and sincere and humble. It is like that person would dress itself like a bad person, or put on a monstrous costume, but when it is looked into the eyes of that person then its eyes give it away, because it has the eyes of kindness (harmless dove or sheep). It is eyes of a person that is soft enough to ultimately bow down to the voice of the truth in its heart. It does not involve the evil eyeing that bad people have, whether it can be called ‘glint in their eyes’, gloating eyes, rough/hard-hearted eyes, or hungry-looking eyes. It can of course happen that bad people pretend to have ‘a kind look’, so it is something which one has to judge/ascertain on the scene. When these bad people find out that this well-intentioned person is not being bad as them, and not willing to go as far as them in bad things; then they turn against that person and treat it as trash/garbage (outcast). Once that person reveals a sign of weakness or becomes exposed to attacks then these people reveal their ugly character, which they had all along. The humble sinner was being inexperienced in the ways of the world, and ignorant about the true character of bad people. He was being deceived by thoughts which made it look like there was something beautiful and redeeming to be seen about wicked people, while failing to notice the actual people and what they were truly capable of. Once being ‘branded’ then they act like he does not exist in their eyes, despite all the kindness and helpfulness that he had shown them. It is a sign that he should never have shown them any kindness and helpfulness in the first place. He should never have sought their company in the first place.
If the man is going to overcome the opposition of evil people then he must first overcome his own selfishness, namely any concern for his self-image and self-interest and self-preservation. If there does not exist any ego then there will also not exist any problem, at least not in the man’s eyes, since there is no fear or vanity in him which can be appealed to and nurtured. The external things are not the original problem, but it is rather the mind with its delusions which seeks to make everyone and everything become a problem in the man’s eyes. The wrong opinions of other people are unable to harm the man, unless the man chooses to receive it into himself, by behaving according to such lies and slander as if it was being true about him. The man does not first need recognition or approval of hostile people, as if their permission was required before he could finally aspire for greater things and manage to have a decent life. But the man can very well do so without such people, and without the mind’s intervention. Even that nobody has faith in the man then it does still not matter, so long as the man has faith in himself, thereby confirming that the divinity has faith in him. It does not work the other way around, namely if everyone had faith in the man except the man himself. If an evil man is not persuaded after the first few truthful arguments (or rebukes); then it would also not matter whether one would produce thousand additional arguments. That evil man has already been intent upon that in making an evil choice, and he does afterwards come up with a pretext or excuse in order to cloak his real intentions. It is something which has already been planned in advance, what the evil man would say and commit at the scene, even before he had heard what other people had to say about it. That man is already closed in advance, hypocritical and self-condemned in his ways. It is most important to stand one’s ground, as if nothing could change one’s determination and conviction, when it comes to oppose lies and injustice in all things. The spiritually blind man should be allowed to be selfish and stupid in peace, by being so full of himself and wrong about everything, so long as it does involve his life alone. But it should otherwise be stood up to the evil man, if his choice is about to or is already affecting other people for the worse.
The man cannot expect that it is possible for him to overcome the enemy, if the man is already afraid of the enemy in advance, if the man is already being too hesitant and fighting half-heartedly. That would prevent the man from being fully concentrated upon that in overcoming the enemy himself, since that his attention is upon things irrelevant to victory. This does especially apply to the man’s concerns for his self-preservation, like by being afraid of the possible pain which the enemy could inflict upon him, by being too passive and on the defensive, merely following the initiative of the enemy’s attacks. But the man must rather fight with his whole heart, by being fully devoted to the struggle, in making his best possible effort, and be determined for its own sake. That to save the body at the expense of the spirit does always prove to be counterproductive, because the spirit is meant to be the driving force of the body but not the other way around. If the spirit is neglected then the body will be neglected as well. If the man abandons the moral high ground for the sake of temporary security/respite from adversity; then the man will soon find himself carried away by the worldly current and become manipulated by the agenda of someone else. If an understanding and capable man allows himself to be enslaved by evil people; then his understanding and capability will from now on only serve their evil ends. But if the man does willingly sacrifice the body in order to uphold the spirit then he will be more likely to save both. The man should never comply with the demands of an evil person, but he should on the contrary be willing to endure the opposition which the threat does reach to. It is preferable that the man should endure such pain above any shameful dealings, because he will continue to be free after the pain, not be burdened with the presence of that evil person. That evil person would otherwise become the root of the problem, constantly creating new evil demands and new problems, since it does possess the deliberate will to cause evil. The matter in question is not about the possibility of avoiding all harm, or by having an easy victory against an easy opponent, as if it could already be foreseen the outcome and ‘played it safe’. It all comes down to that whether the man will abide by a principle, by continuing to withstand the evilness in an unconditional way, regardless of the enemy and the time and the place. It is as if the external conditions do not matter or how powerful the enemy can be, so long as the man is willing to live and die for a higher cause, rather than by trying to save his life in a shameful way. The man can perhaps be defeated in regard to the physical body, but he has still the same conquered in regard to his spirit, by maintaining his freedom and dignity and innocence intact. The noble man does not necessarily care whether he can win or lose in these or those fights, because he does already have faith in himself, does never give up on himself, does never yield to his enemies, and he will continue to persist to the very end. It does not make any sense when the man surrenders his freedom and dignity to the evil enemies in order to save his physical body temporarily from harm. By doing so that man will encourage all other evil men to treat him in the same way, where they will come up with similar threats and exploit the same weaknesses against him. This is why it is preferable to continue to persist to the very end and be willing to die with honour, since the alternative will otherwise make life become worse than death. It is most important that the man can be freed from his fear of pain and death, because his enemies have hitherto only seemed dreadful because they are able to inflict pain and death upon him. But if there is no fear of pain and death then there will also be no fear of any human enemies, because it does all come down to the same destination, the ability to endure suffering. It does not make any sense when the man craves for the survival of the body, even that he has nothing worth living for, since only the spiritual aspect can make his life meaningful.
It can be a needless thing when the man remains bitter and still carries personal grudge against people which did him wrong in the past. It can namely apply that the man has already been healed of his weakness, and the problem has already been solved which had once been used against him. For example, the man was once insatiable and unhappy, but he is now contented and happy with his life. The man was once cowardly and weak, but he is now being courageous and strong. And he was once foolish and easily exploited by other people, but the man is now being wise and spiritually sober. The wrong things do thereby no longer exist in the man’s life, which he is supposed to be upset over. The man did once not have faith in himself, in his capability to have decent life of his own. The man did not believe that he could resist temptations, and he did not believe that he could do the right thing, and he did not believe that he could be changed for the better. Once the man did give up on himself then he committed many shameful things, provoking many people and often making a fool out of himself in their eyes. Therefore did the man obtain a bad reputation, and other people began to shun his company and treat him with disrespect. However, the man should still not blame these people for the things which went wrong in his life, because it was merely the consequence, the after-effect, or incidental things. The primary goal is not about satisfying a personal revenge, in hurting his enemies or to make them acknowledge their past faults. It is much more important what dwells within the man at all times, what kind of attitude and understanding and capability does follow him everywhere, and affects his personal experience of everything. This is why the man should forget all about the enemies of the past, while rather being concerned about that in understanding himself and improving himself, when it comes learn from the mistakes and do better next time, when finding himself in a corresponding situation. The people of the past were not the only evil persons in the world, but the man would surely have met some other evil persons instead, even that he had been somewhere else at some other time. For that any evil person would have spotted/noticed his transparent weaknesses and sought to exploit it against him, long as that man would remain so easily swayable and not stand up for himself. The best preventive measure is to be free from such weaknesses, while accustoming oneself to firm determination and conviction. It should not be wished the people of the past any evil or rejoiced over their misfortunes, since it is a despicable thing to attack people while they are down on the ground.
The divinity is the supreme judge, which passes the final decision on the human lot. When the divinity passes a righteous judgment then it evens everything out, regarding prosperity which can be deserved or undeserved, and regarding adversity which can be deserved or undeserved. If the man does experience undeserved adversity then it means that the divinity will later make it up to him with free blessings. This can also apply to adversity within the man, when the man is being haunted by his own mind while he is hating evil and abstaining from evil, and that nothing good seems to be aroused within him and making the situation any better. All these aggressive and unpleasant thoughts, chaos and suffering in the flesh, spiritual poverty and restrictions, do yet serve the higher purpose in the long run. The man is storing up free blessings from the divinity, as if it was being a sum in a bank, where the bad things undeserved do equal good things deserved. The divinity can equalize the situation by making the man more lucky and prosperous in his life, or the man can allow the divinity to transfer these free blessings to other people, whom are having a harder time than him and are in more need of help. It is not lost a prosperity. That prosperity does merely switch places, according to necessity. So these blessings can fly away and land on someone else, where before the afflicted person knows it then it does already feel better and is freed from all its problems. The righteous man who suffers evil undeservedly and maintains his integrity; that man obtains the greatest spiritual treasure, which is namely the favour of God. This means that the favoured man can be bold in the presence of God, when it comes to ask God for good things and that God might spare the many for the sake of the few.
It makes sense when the true believer does constantly experience internal temptations and adversity, restrictions and weaknesses, ignorance and foolishness. Just like Jesus Christ carried the sins of other people then the true believer is doing his part in spiritually carrying the burdens of other people. Jesus Christ became spiritually poor that He might spiritually enrich His people. That to be a true believer is to be a spiritual organ donor to those that are spiritually handicapped Let’s say that there is a group of people and each person has a part of its spiritual body tainted by a different thing. One person is spiritually tainted in its leg, another person tainted in its hand, a third person is tainted in its torso, a fourth person is tainted in its head. One person is being troubled by bad past/memories, another person is being troubled by the fear of doing something wrong, a third person is being troubled by obsession and restlessness, a fourth person is being troubled by that how other people see it. Each person can be so affected by a specific subjective problem that this spiritual taint quells/suffocates spiritual growth and the person fails to reach its full potential. The person allows this tainted part to overshadow everything else which is being healthy and functional. Because something important to the person is lacking then it prevents the person from becoming happy and contented with its life. But what if one person would receive into itself all this taint which belongs to the other persons, so that all the other persons might brighten up and move on with their lives and become prosperous. For example, instead of one fully healthy person and ten persons having each ten percent tainted part (which manages to affect the rest of their activity for the worse); then the fully healthy person takes on itself one hundred percent taint and the ten persons become wholly healthy. The divinity redistributes the good things and bad things involved, that the true believer might spiritually carry all these burdens for the sake of other people and promote maximum benefits to them. All these devils behind subjective problems are being transferred over to the true believer and they harass/haunt his mind instead. When the believer is being mentally harassed by the enemies of God then the believer is ‘taking hits for the team’ (the people of God). When a specific devil is being occupied in hitting the believer then that devil is thereby not hitting someone else somewhere else. Someone else somewhere else is being spared all this. It is like the true believer manages to pin down these devils, where he makes them waste all their time and effort upon him. A noble man keeps telling himself that it is better that he experiences all these bad things than someone else (which would have been sensitive to the same). If the man is truly being noble then he does not become resentful that other people are having better lot than him; but he does on the contrary become grateful that they are having better lot than him. If the man truly loves another person then he considers it to be a good thing that the same person is being better than him and of better understanding and of better capability. It might at first seem unfair and undesirable that true believer should be experiencing all these bad things within and that nothing good is ever being roused within to counter it. Even that the true believer keeps rejecting all these wrong possibilities and abstaining from corruption then he never ‘heals’ in a sense, is never being rewarded with good mood or better understanding and capability. He keeps being just as ignorant and restricted within. But when it is noticed all the good changes in the lives of other people and how bright they have become and living their lives to the full; then it is all being worth it for the true believer. The true believer is grateful that all these people are experiencing good in their lives, regardless of his own life, regardless of that how it might affect his own life, regardless of that what is lacking in his own life, regardless of that how empty and barren his own life is. When the true believer is able to bear and outlast the spiritual burdens of other people; then it is not because he is being strong in willpower, or clever enough to see through tangled arguments, or that he has more merit than other people. The true believer is being just as weak and helpless as other people. The difference between the true believer and the people involved is that he approaches the divinity regarding the burdens, and he confesses the truth about his own frail position and that he is need in help, and he asks the divinity to carry/lead him through this experience, and he believes that it is possible and that it can be overcome these difficult things. That alone is sufficient to last through all these great and many burdens. That alone is being transformed into spiritual benefit stored up in heaven. The true believer takes the place of another person, and he stands before the divinity and pleads on behalf of that person, and that person is being rewarded for it.
When the believer undergoes a ‘baptism of fire’ then it is like he is being stationed in the fires of hell, and the most powerful and clever devils are tempting/attacking him from every possible angle. If the believer comes up with imperfect and transient arguments against such temptations then these devils will immediately discover its weakness/holes and exploit it against him. Such arguments would not involve an universal truth, a general truth, or a common/shared truth, something which is able to apply to and last in all these situations with the time. It corresponds to that when cheap materials like stubble and wood do burn up in the fire (wholly wasted away), while precious materials like gold and silver are being refined in the fire. Hence if we are going outlast all these convincing and difficult temptations of the greater devils then we must make use of the word of God, and understand it further, and explain further its moral principles. We can discover further truth about these moral principles and come up with additional arguments to enforce/encourage them, as what applies to the purpose of this work. It is like the divinity has burned down everything within the believer (mood, willpower, cleverness), except the believer’s awareness of his human frailty, and his reliance on God, and his willingness to heed and obey the voice of God. It makes sense that the believer should have one great talent (the knowledge of God, patience amidst temptations) which can be fully focused on and invested all the required time in, rather than by having many talents of limited focus and of partially invested time. So what little and narrow thing the believer is given, he does it well. It makes sense that the divinity does deliberately deny the believer specific ability/competence which would otherwise have made him successful in worldly affairs, when these worldly affairs are in themselves being transient and vainglorious. It would otherwise have distracted and delayed the believer from a higher calling regarding spiritual matters. For example, a man can have it in himself to finish military training and become a competent soldier, and yet such success is being misused when he fights for the selfish agenda of selfish leaders. Or the man has it in himself to finish education and get a high position in a company, when that company is being founded upon greed and exploitation and unfair wages to its workers. It is like the man becomes ‘good’ in something that steals his attention from the greater good. A rich country is being invaded for its resources, and animals are being tamed for their natural products (milk, wool), while those that do not seem to offer any advantage are left alone. It can be a good thing to be rich in spiritual affairs and poor in worldly affairs, or at least to seem poor to other people. The poor person is automatically being free of the company of pretentious and hypocritical people, because they do not notice any advantage to be exploited from it and thereby shun/disregard it. The poor person does not need to reject the advances of such people because they never went over to it in the first place. The poverty became a preventive measure against flatterers and parasites, separating the false persons from the true ones. It can be a good thing in a bad thing when we have transparent weaknesses and restrictions, when something lacking in ourselves drives away a specific sort of people. Let’s consider the search for true love. If the man is being outwardly ugly or unattractive then it excludes all the people that only seek outward beauty in relationship or which value that most in a relationship. These people would either way not have truly loved the man during a relationship. Just like they would not seek relationship with the man before he became beautiful; then they would have abandoned the man after him having lost his beauty. If a person truly loves the man with all its heart and only wishes him the best; then that person will still continue to love the man in all his weaknesses and restrictions, despite all his weaknesses and restrictions. We have our weaknesses and restrictions to thank for that we are being free of superficial and hypocritical people, that they are not being drawn to us. Our weaknesses and restrictions automatically got rid of them for us.
Just like God is being selfless then the true believer is being selfless and the faith in God makes sense from that perspective. But the phony believer expects God to fulfill his selfish needs and he gives up on the faith when it does not come true. It includes that when the phony believer wants God to reveal Himself to him and to witness supernatural signs that he might ‘feel better about himself’. It includes that when the phony believer expects God to make him always experience prosperity and never any adversity, as if everything would always be easy and never difficult, never involving any temptations and hard choices, never putting to test his loyalty to God and to the moral principles which belong to God. The phony believer says that he believes in God as his Savior, and yet he keeps trying to save himself from selfish problems, instead of confirming that only God can save him from it and that he who believes is already being saved as a free gift of grace. The true believer is meant to stand fast in the moral principles of the Scripture, to keep abiding by the same things in the long run, no matter what could change within him or around him. The phony believer does on the contrary keep changing his answers and reactions to temptations. When things change in his mind then his resolve is being changed as well. He says that he agrees with the moral principles of God, and yet he is quick to abandon such resolve when it does not seem to yield immediate results, to arouse something good within or to make bad things go away. Hence he is constantly inventing something new in his mind to rely upon and hide behind, and expecting that it will this time lead to a different result. It is not really meant that what is being said nor is it believed in its value, but it is pretended something temporarily and made a guess for something which is supposed to make him feel better. It involves a short-sighted chase for good consequences, as if the phony believer was trying to force something to happen or pretend like he was reacting on behalf of God for his self, when he does not possess any control of that what will be God’s answer and response. A long-term resolve in abiding by that which is true and morally right would have made good consequences come over to us (the angels of God attending to our needs). What can be said about our internal condition and activity, when there is a conflict between the Spirit of God in our heart and the spirit of the Enemy in our mind? First God does come over to us, and He tells us to do the true and decent thing in the situation. Next God does temporarily go away or hide Himself from us. Then comes to the devil over to us, and he tries to contradict that what we had previously been taught by God, to distract us from it and make us digress from it, that we might ‘not’ do the true and decent thing in the situation. After that the devil goes away, and God does again come over to us or again reveal Himself to us. Then God finds out whether we have stayed true/faithful to His words or whether we have betrayed His trust, and God will then reward us or reprimand us accordingly. Hence it is not really us that manage to find/arouse good things within ourselves, but it is rather like good things manage to find us. Even that we do not seem to experience any immediate reward within us (good mood); then God has still entrusted us for more spiritual and moral things. Something has happened within us which makes us able to confess further truth about our life and develop further sense of decency (attitude, human relations). When we keep moving on with our lives and remain consistent with our conviction; then it is had all kinds of invisible and unhearable changes within. It is something which has already happened before we know of it or become aware of it. It is something unexpected, where we have no way of determining its timing and manifestation. We never needed to stop our lives and ‘check’ whether good things were now coming or not. We never needed to stop our lives and ‘check’ whether we were now supposed to deserve blessing and immediately demand it from God. God will in due time set things right and straighten things out within us.
As the man has more faith in the divinity then things will get easier for him, because it involves that in heading in the right direction and doing things right at the very beginning, by being governed by right premises when approaching things, by getting straight to the point when speaking to the divinity and heading straight to the root/source of the solution. The difficult thing is to keep denying our self/ego on the path in unlocking more faith, to cease to be proud and cease to rely on our own human effort in trying to force things, to realize that the things we considered to be ours are not really ours and belonging to higher powers, and to realize that we are doing things upon a wrong basis and based on a faulty premise. The difficult thing is to recognize the root/source of the problem (the mind itself), that we might not keep repeating the same mistakes and not get stuck on new illusions/problems which the tempter invents instead of those sorted out. If it is neglected the very beginning of things then all subsequent effort will be doomed to failure, having been needless and a waste of time, having been irrelevant and digressive from the things that we were trying to obtain. It is an easy and effortless thing to receive a spiritual benefit/victory as a free gift from the divinity, but it can be a difficult thing for us to remain humble and patient enough to wait for it in the meantime, and that to maintain the same resolve amidst so many conflicting thoughts. It might be hard to begin with, like when something seemingly unfair manages to make one angry enough to complain, but once it has been accustomed oneself to whole/entire attitude and practice for some time then that attitude and practice does follow oneself. It is just something which one does, and which one keeps doing either way, without ever stopping to question it or seeking further/additional reasons in encouraging it. Once it has been gotten over the beginner’s phase/problem then the rest becomes easy. The true believer will experience more temptations and harder temptations with the time, and yet at the same time the divinity (in its grace) makes it easier for him to turn to the divinity for help and rely on it to counter everything. Even that things are not being perfect and something manages to affect the believer in some way; then he does still consider things to be acceptable and bearable. A true believer and non-believer can encounter the same problem which initially manages to affect them in the same way, and yet they differ in that how it is chosen to see the problem and what is chosen to do after having realized their own weakness. The true believer justifies God for being true and righteous in all things, and confesses that he can only overcome this weakness through God’s truth and righteousness. But the non-believer tries to justify himself, and he lies something to himself and tries to hide behind something when complying with corruption.
The wicked people can deceitful and crafty, but they are still the same not prudent and wise (wisdom). That craftiness can only work out if the man is credulous and believes their lies, by assuming such people to be trustworthy, and while he is unprepared for their treacherous move. But after the wicked people have betrayed the man and turned against him then they will be unable to do again, since he now knows their true nature and intentions. The wicked people are full of weaknesses, where there is no existing virtue which makes them strong and wise. They can only rely upon the foolishness and weaknesses of other men. And the wicked people might rely upon lies and tricks in order to deceive other men, but they can still be utterly incapable of discerning the same things in others, whether they are telling the truth or not. The wicked person does already live in self-deception, where it does not heed the truth in its own life, so that person can easily be deceived by the lies of other wicked people, or that person does not believe the truthful testimony of a honest man when the latter points out something to it. A quarrel with its exchange of insults is not something which belongs to the goodness, so the goodness will not help the better man scorn and humiliate his enemy. The wicked man is already worthless, and he does have nothing to lose during a quarrel, by relying upon personal attacks and insults, which is deemed shameful to him. But the better man does only degrade himself by relying upon evil against evil, by going down to the same level as his wicked enemy, so that he has nothing to gain and everything to lose by participating in a quarrel. For the honest man wants to maintain his self-control, innocence, and dignity intact, so it would have been better if he had never participated in the quarrel at the outset. First the devil helps a wicked man to insult an innocent person, and some time after the incident the devil pretends to be helping the innocent person by suggesting a witty insult which the innocent person can make use of against the wicked man. But when the innocent person begins quarrelling with the wicked man then the devil stands aside and does nothing to help the innocent person insult the wicked man, while the devil is constantly suggesting new insults to the wicked man which he can make use of to humiliate the innocent person. That to seek to repay evil with evil exposes the innocent person to betrayal of the devil. The main objective is not about getting the better of insolent person in a needless quarrel, nor to come up with a witty insult which might seem funny, but it is rather about being altogether free of the presence of that person. That to not regard an insolent person and to forget all about it within, that is being priceless.
One is not being a wretch/loser by revealing a sign of weakness, but one is being a wretch/loser by deliberately exploiting the weaknesses of other people. Wickedness involves a loser-attitude. A wicked man seeks to exploit the weak position of another person, when something is not being on equal terms. Let’s say that a wicked man has training in a martial art. He can know the basics of fighting, but because of his inner failings then he is unable to advance in it. When that man fights against other trained fighters then his performance is poor. Because of the wickedness of that man then he avoids fights against his equals (those having similar training and skill level), while he rather seeks to abuse and oppress persons that lack all training in a martial art. A virtuous man with the same training (having had the same opportunities to develop his fighting skill) would have bested that wicked man. Virtue is superior to wickedness on equal terms. Wickedness seeks to obtain victory through irrelevant means (cheating, dirty tricks), thereby making such victory empty in itself and without confirming any merit/superiority. Many people join in attacking a single person. It is made use of weapon against an unarmed person. It is suddenly attacked a person which did not know that it was going to happen and was altogether unready for it. But if the better person would have been ready for it and able to make use of same things (equal terms, as in a contest, where the same rules and the same equipment apply to the contestants) then it would have performed better. It can be mentioned the contradiction when violence is supposed to exalt the violent man and make him seem more manly by it. Which is being more difficult experience of these two, that to punch someone in the face or to get punched in the face? It is harder to suffer beating than to make someone else suffer beating. It does of course apply that a cowardice of a person is being unmanly, and when that person gets unwillingly beaten by someone then that person does not become manly/courageous by it. But when a man is courageous enough in being willing to take a beating for doing the right thing; then that is being manly and tough of him to do. (It is the ideal thing when two men of similar physical strength and fighting skill do fight one another, where both of them are being courageous and stoical in accepting that they will take much beating during the fight, where they are both equally willing to hit and take hits, and they keep exerting themselves skilfully to the very end of the fight.) But why should the violent man be considered manly and tough when he is being so willing to hit another person, while that same man immediately flinches or falls back through fear of that in being hit by someone in turn. It is not being an even thing when a man becomes confident and bold when torturing another person, when that same man would not be so confident and bold when himself is being tortured. Hence the golden rule, that you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
The wicked men are especially those which deliberately seek to harm and abuse other people, whether it does involve violence, sexual abuse, oppression, discrimination, manipulation, temptation to complicity in corruption, or slander aimed toward ruining the reputation of others. The divinity can punish the wicked man from within, even that he has not experienced any external incidents or intervention from his human enemies. This means that the wicked man has not received/experienced pain through violence nor shame openly, but the wicked man does still experience another kind of pain and shame from within. Let’s say that a wicked man manages to make use of dirty tricks and cheat his way to victory. Or the wicked man manages to become victorious over his enemies by surpassing them in wickedness, by doing something despicable to them which was being very low of him and which his enemies would never have been so despicable to do to him. Although the wicked man is being proclaimed victor, and everyone believe him to be a victor and treat him as a victor; then he is still not being convinced that he is a victor. He does still not believe himself to be a victor, and he does not feel victorious within, but he does experience internal condition alike of those that have failed miserably and been defeated. He can fool the whole world and even manage to escape the human justice, but he cannot fool his own conscience and he cannot escape from his own conscience. Hence the wicked man continues to have low self-esteem and to feel miserable after all of this. The wicked people have already been marked out for punishment by the divinity, because they are already being wicked. They are unable to go over to the other side and know the benefits of the goodness. As the wicked person becomes the more stubborn in its evil ways and refuses to repent; then it will experience the more chaos, torment, madness, and maladies in its soul, as if each moment would become unbearable. It is much greater punishment than any personal revenge from a human enemy, since it is constantly experienced from within while the latter does only last temporarily in the flesh. The man does not become virtuous by killing human enemies, nor will a misfortune make the man into a better person by default. It can happen that a wicked person does experience a misfortune which arouses pity from other people. But that same wicked person had been devoid of all compassion and mercy toward other people in distress, secretly wishing for such things to happen and rejoicing over their misfortune. It can thereby apply that the wicked person does experience a misfortune of its own making, because that person has pronounced its own harsh verdict and received similar evils. The wicked person was being so self-absorbed and delusional that it became distracted and negligent of itself, thereby falling into some unforeseen accident or undertaking a task far beyond its capability.
Larus Thorhallsson 