What are the basic principles of nature?

What are the basic principles of nature?

The basic principles of nature are health, hope, everything in moderation, glory and grandeur, even holiness, all the beauty of this world, well-designed, and everything in balance.

Climbers ascending at Ullu-Tau Range, Caucasus Mountains, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia | Jaan Künnap | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Do strange things happen?

Do strange things happen?

When everything seems to happen at just the right time, then yes, strange things do happen.

Underwater view of a woman, wearing a long gown, floating in water | Toni Frissell | Toni Frissell collection at the Library of Congress

Link your thought with purpose.

Until your thought is linked with purpose, there is no intelligent accomplishment. 

A boy wearing a protective mask during the COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt | Eman arab | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International | Wiki Loves Africa 2021

What will form a new starting point for future growth?

What will form a new starting point for future growth?

Spiritual ideal, or a worldly object, whichever it is, steadily focus your thought upon the ideal or object which you have set before you. Now, having conceived of a legitimate purpose in your heart, set out to accomplish it. Make your purpose the centralising point of your thoughts. Make your purpose your supreme duty and devote yourself to its attainment. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought. Even if you fail again and again to accomplish your purpose, the strength of character gained will be the measure of your true success, and this will form a new starting point for future power and triumph.

Alexander Bassano (1829 – 1913)

What always leads to failure?

What always leads to failure?

Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplish anything, and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in.

Alexander Bassano (1829 – 1913)

The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do.

The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. 

Alexander Bassano (1829 – 1913)

What are the great enemies of knowledge?

What are the great enemies of knowledge?

Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge.

Alexander Bassano (1829 – 1913)

What is the direct result of your own thoughts?

What is the direct result of your own thoughts?

All that you achieve, and all that you fail to achieve, is the direct result of your own thoughts.

Alexander Bassano (1829 – 1913)

Our suffering and happiness evolve from within.

Our suffering and our happiness are evolved from within. 

Alexander Bassano (1829 – 1913)

As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.

 As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.

Alexander Bassano (1829 – 1913)

Rise and achieve by lifting up your thoughts.

You can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up your thoughts. 

Alexander Bassano (1829 – 1913)

Lift up your thoughts.

You can only remain weak, abject, and miserable by refusing to lift up your thoughts.

Alexander Bassano (1829 – 1913)

You are limited only by the thoughts which you choose.

You are limited only by the thoughts which you choose.

Alexander Bassano (1829 – 1913)

You receive that which you earn; no more, no less.

You receive that which you earn; no more, no less. 

Alexander Bassano (1829 – 1913)

Chance is not.

There are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. Chance is not. 

Alexander Bassano (1829 – 1913)

What is born of pure spirit?

Happiness is born of pure spirit.

Love governs your entire existence.

You are truly loved. You were created in love and love governs your entire existence.

Good Neighbours | John William Waterhouse (1849–1917)

What would love do?

If you are concerned that you may be getting things wrong, concerned about what truth is, what to believe, what not to believe, ask yourself, What would love do?

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May | John William Waterhouse (1849–1917)

Follow your deep inner feelings.

Follow your deep inner feelings; trust what feels good, for what feels good is the measurement of your success.

Lamia | John William Waterhouse (1849–1917)

Enjoy the journey!

There are no rights or wrongs, but only meanderings along the path of experience towards that which fulfils, inspires and energises you. Enjoy life! Celebrate life! All is well with you and your world. Truly, it is.

The Bouquet | John William Waterhouse (1849–1917) | Falmouth Art Gallery | Art UK

What then is truth?

What then is truth? 

If something feels good, if it elevates your vision of yourself and of humanity, then that is truth.

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May | John William Waterhouse (1849–1917)

Faith has great power and magnitude.

Christ recognised faith as a great attribute of the human soul, and being aware of its power and magnitude, He said—

If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto the mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible to you.

—Matt. 17:20

Thurman Fleet, Revised Edition, Copyright, 1950, by Thurman Fleet, Rays of the Dawn—Laws of the Body—Mind—Soul, Part Three—The Laws of the Soul, XVII, Faith, 109

Jenny Bergensten | Hallwyl Museum | National Historical Museums of Sweden

What is the world's most desperate need?

What is the world's most desperate need?

Love to God, and Man.

Rocks formations and the Dedo de Deus (God's Finger) peak in the background, at the Serra dos Órgãos National Park, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil | Carlos Perez Couto | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

The Prayer of Peace

The Prayer of Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is error, the truth;

Where there is doubt, the faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled, as to console;

To be understood, as to understand;

To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

A Bedtime Prayer | Auguste Toulmouche (1829–1890)

A Prayer for Understanding

O Christ, the Divine Power within me,

Help me to unfold and develop the great love-force and the great understanding,

That back of the mind, and back of all life,

There is a Divine Something, which can accomplish that which nothing mundane can touch.

Curtiss, Harriette Augusta, F. Homer, Letters from the Teacher, 1924, The Curtiss Philosophic Book Co. California, U. S. A., Vol. II, Chapter IX, Financial Problems, 127-8

O my soul, my soul!

O my soul, my soul, dwell thou in peace, and bless thy Maker—Thou knowest that I love Thee.

United States Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs division

You are a god in the making.

Ye are gods was not said in a figurative sense.

We are all gods in the making.

Contribute to the creation of a beautiful world.

Your positive emotions and feelings have an effect on the world moment by moment. If you send out words and images of creativity then you will be contributing to the creation of a beautiful world.

Rayonnant north rose window of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris | Krzysztof Mizera | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

It is change that pleases.

 It is change that pleases.

Amman Wahab Nizamani | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

The spirit of anticipation adds zest.

 The spirit of anticipation adds zest. Remember that.

Anticipation | Leo Putz | Sotheby's

Learn to rid yourself of needless fears.

Learn to rid yourself of needless fears.

Copyright Tonino CRAPIZ | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

The Eternal Oneness of Life

The Eternal Oneness of Life

David Knights-Whittome (1876–1943)

Pray! 

Prayer is the affirmation by the soul of its unity with the One.

The eternal Oneness of life—that is redemption, both of man and of the earth.

Humanity is the One and humanity is the many and all together you may come into the inheritance of your Father, which is in heaven.

He is the One and the Many, for He is in the many and the many are in Him. You cannot realise Krishna save as you realise Him as the Self that is seated in the hearts of all beings. You cannot realise the Christ until you can see Him in the hearts of all beings.

Boatwoman, Canton (Guangzhou), Kwangtung province, China | John Thomson, 1869 | Wellcome Images

If we could get into our consciousness a realisation, not a mere philosophic theory, of the One and the many, we would understand that the One is in all the many, whether some of them be our friends or our enemies.

Edward S. Curtis (1868–1952) | United States Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs division

In Him, we are One—a unit in the Great Universal Being—a microcosm in a macrocosm.

Princess Durri-Chechvar Sultane | Sebah & Joaillier, 1923 | United States Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs division

Are not all men sons of the common Father?

Étienne Gibert (1859-1929) | User Geoleplubo from Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

No man will ever know God until he consciously becomes One with God.

Jesus, the Master, reflected that Light pure and untrammelled during His dwelling in the density of crude matter. The Light dwells in all of us as a shining effulgence, the Light of Oneness with all Spirit, the blessed awareness and acknowledgement of unity with all creation, from the lesser to the Higher Orders, even to the Throne of Grace Itself.

Frances Benjamin Johnston | United States Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs division

Multitudes of people are like the million dewdrops in which the one sun is reflected. Untold millions of them but only one sun. So is our relation to the eternal One.

Vedic Teaching

Two photographs displaying the understructure of a hoop skirt| United States Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs division

This is the statement which I have to make—that there are many gods and that the One God is the sum total of all of them. All gods exist in God. Do what you like with that statement, dear world, for truth is more vital than anybody’s dream, even yours or mine.

Wise words to live by.

Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.

—Rumi

Lightning within the cloud illuminates the entire cloud blanket over the Mojave Desert during an electrical rainstorm | Jessie Eastland | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International