Now, the last part deals with relinquishments.
Once you’ve made the first relinquishment
you have found inner peace, because it’s the
relinquishment of self-will. You can work on
subordinating the lower self by refraining from
doing the not-good things you may be motivated
toward-not suppressing them, but transforming
them so that the higher self can take over your
life. If you are motivated to do or say a mean
thing, you can always think of a good thing. You
deliberately turn around and use that same energy
to do or say a good thing instead. It works!
The second relinquishment is the relinquishment of
the feeling of separateness. We begin feeling very
separate and judging everything as it relates to us, as
though we were the center of the universe. Even after
we know better intellectually, we still judge things
that way. In reality, of course, we are all cells in the
body of humanity. We are not separate from our
fellow humans. The whole thing is a totality. It’s only
from that higher viewpoint that you can know what it
is to love your neighbor as yourself. From that higher
viewpoint there becomes just one realistic way to
work, and that is for the good of the whole. As long
as you work for your selfish little self, you’re just one
cell against all those other cells, and you’re way out
of harmony. But as soon as you begin working for
the good of the whole, you find yourself in harmony
with all of your fellow human beings. You see, it’s
the easy, harmonious way to live.
Then there is the third relinquishment, and that is
the relinquishment of all attachments. No one is
truly free who is still attached to material things,
or to places, or to people. Material things must be
put into their proper place. They are there for use.
It’s all right to use them, that’s what they’re there
for. But when they’ve outlived their usefulness,
be ready to relinquish them and perhaps pass
them on to someone who does need them.
Anything that you cannot relinquish when it has
outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this
materialistic age a great many of us are possessed
by our possessions. We are not free.
I considered myself liberated long before it became
the fashion. First I liberated myself from debilitating
habits, and went on to free myself of combative,
aggressive thoughts. I have also cast aside any
unnecessary possessions. This, I feel, is true liberation.
There is another kind of possessiveness. You do
not possess any other human being, no matter
how closely related that other may be. No husband
owns his wife; no wife owns her husband; no
parents own their children. When we think we
possess people there is a tendency to run their
lives for them, and out of this develop extremely
inharmonious situations. Only when we realize
that we do not possess them, that they must live
in accordance with their own inner motivations,
do we stop trying to run their lives for them,
and then we discover that we are able to live in
harmony with them. Anything that you strive to
hold captive will hold you captive-and if you
desire freedom you must give freedom.
Associations formed in this earth life are not
necessarily for the duration of the life span.
Separation takes place constantly, and as long as
it takes place lovingly not only is there no spiritual
injury, but spiritual progress may actually be helped.
We must be able to appreciate and enjoy the places
where we stay and yet pass on without anguish
when we are called elsewhere. In our spiritual
development we are often required to pull up
roots many times and to close many chapters in
our lives until we are no longer attached to any
material thing and can love all people without
any attachment to them.
Now the last: the relinquishment of all negative
feelings. I want to mention just one negative
feeling which the nicest people still experience,
and that negative feeling is worry. Worry is
not concern, which would motivate you to do
everything possible in a situation. Worry is a
useless mulling over of things we cannot change.
One final comment about negative feelings, which
helped me very much at one time and has helped
others. No outward thing - nothing, nobody from
without - can hurt me inside, psychologically. I
recognized that I could only be hurt psychologically
by my own wrong actions, which I have control over;
by my own wrong reactions (they are tricky, but I
have control over them too); or by my own inaction
in some situations, like the present world situation,
that need action from me. When I recognized all
this how free I felt! And I just stopped hurting
myself. Now someone could do the meanest thing
to me and I would feel deep compassion for this
out-of-harmony person, this sick person, who is
capable of doing mean things. I certainly would
not hurt myself by a wrong reaction of bitterness or
anger. You have complete control over whether you
will be psychologically hurt or not, and anytime
you want to, you can stop hurting yourself.
These are my steps toward inner peace that I
wanted to share with you. There is nothing new
about this. This is universal truth. I merely talked
about these things in everyday words in terms
of my own personal experience with them. The
laws which govern this universe work for good
as soon as we obey them, and anything contrary
to these laws doesn’t last long. It contains within
itself the seeds of its own destruction. The good
in every human life always makes it possible for
us to obey these laws. We do have free will about
all this, and therefore how soon we obey and
thereby find harmony, both within ourselves and
within our world, is up to us.
During this spiritual growing up period I desired
to know and do God’s will for me. Spiritual
growth is not easily attained, but it is well worth
the effort. It takes time, just as any growth takes
time. One should rejoice at small gains and not be
impatient, as impatience hampers growth.
The path of gradual relinquishment of things
hindering spiritual progress is a difficult path,
for only when relinquishment is complete do
the rewards really come. The path of quick
relinquishment is an easy path, for it brings
immediate blessings. And when God fills your
life, God’s gifts overflow to bless all you touch.
To me, it was an escape from the artificiality of
illusion into the richness of reality. To the world
it may seem that I had given up much. I had
given up burdensome possessions, spending time
meaninglessly, doing things I knew I should not
do and not doing things I knew I should do. But
to me it seemed that I had gained much - even the
priceless treasures of health and happiness.
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