* * * * *
The "higher patience" alluded to also requires a care. It is the fine
line between pride and humility. Both are extremes and mistakes;
oscillations from one to the other are only a trifle better. How shall
we be proud when we are so small? How dare we be humble when we are so
great? In both we blaspheme. But there is that firm spot between the
two which is the place "neither too high nor too low" on which Krishna
told Arjuna to sit; a spot _of his own_. It is the firm place which our
faith has won from the world. On it we are always to stand calmly, not
overshadowed by any man however great, because each of us contains the
potentialities of every other. "Not overshadowed" does not mean that
we are not to show reverence to those through whom the soul speaks.
It is the great soul we reverence, and not the mortal clay. We are to
examine thoughtfully all that comes to us from such persons, and all
that comes to us from any source wearing the aspect of truth, and try
faithfully to see wherein it may be true, laying it aside, if we fail,
as fruit not ripe for us yet. We are not to yield up our intuitions to
any being, while we may largely doubt our judgment at all times. We
are not to act without the inner asseveration, but we must not remain
ignorant of the serious difficulty of separating this intuitive voice
from the babble and prattle of fancy, desire, or pride. If we are just
to ourselves we shall hold the balance evenly. How can we be just to
any other who are not just to ourselves? In the Law a man suffers as
much from injustice to himself as to another; it matters not in whose
interests he has opposed the universal currents; the Law only knows
that he has tried to deflect them by an injustice. It takes no account
of persons nor even of ignorance of the Law. It is an impartial,
impersonal force, only to be understood by the aid of the higher
patience, which at once dares all and endures all.
"Never regret anything." Regret is a thought, hence an energy. If we
turn its tide upon the past, it plays upon the seeds of that past and
vivifies them; it causes them to sprout and grow in the ground of the
mind: from thence to expression in action is but a step. A child once
said to me when I used the word "Ghosts," "Hush! Don't think of them.
What we think of always happens." There are no impartial observers like
children when they think away from themselves.