All affairs of life depend upon a person’s attitude. The mechanical work that is psychologically done is such that before a person steps forward to work, they see their attitude being reflected in their affairs. For instance, if a person starts to do something with doubt in their mind, they will see the shadow of doubt projected on that affair. When a person wants to do something which they know is not quite just, before they begin the work, they see the phantom of injustice before them.
The human heart, as the Sufis say, is a mirror. All that is reflected in this mirror is projected upon other mirrors. When a person has doubt in their heart, that doubt is reflected upon every heart with which they come in contact; when they have faith, that faith is reflected upon every heart. Can there be a more interesting study and a greater wonder than to observe this keenly in life? As soon as a person is able to watch that phenomenon in life it is just like a magic lantern that is making everything so clear. How foolish in this light the cleverness and the crooked ways of the dishonest will appear to the person who for a moment thinks that they are profiting by it, and who for a moment may seem to be benefited by it.
Worldly gains, that are snatched from one hand to the other, are not worth making in this life on earth upon which we cannot depend, even until tomorrow. The only thing that is comforting and consoling through all this life of falsehood is that feeling of purity in your own heart, when you feel that your own attitude in life is right and just. The person who experiences it will certainly say that it is greater than all the riches of the world.
It is the knowledge of this philosophy which seems to be lost from the heart of humanity at the present time. It is therefore that all things go wrong. If there is any preventive which can be used against it, it is to make your own life, as much as you can, an example of your ideal; although to do it perfectly is most difficult. There is nothing like trying, and if once failed, another time you will succeed.
December 11, 1922
CW 1922, Vol. II, pp. 247-249.
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