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New Era Community (1926) - 213:
One should not reconcile oneself to the thought that someone else is at fault. It were better to calculate soberly one's own feelings. It were better, without a crooked smile, to consider that it is possible to reform beginning with today, and to examine the quality of each one's actions. In this, one should begin checking the most trivial matters. Have you slept too long? Have you spoken with those around you? Have you deferred an urgent task? Have you told false dates? Have you forgotten solicitude about the Common Good? Thus question yourself without hypocrisy. Fiery World - Book 3 (1935) - 59:
59. The most widespread cult is the cult of self-service. The champions of this cult always have stopped at nothing, and the aspects of their attempts are as varied as they are numerous. In the crooked mirrors of these champions of evil one can observe how monstrously distorted are good beginnings. Truly these followers of self-service stop at nothing, beginning with the smallest actions which gratify selfhood and ending with the plundering of the Highest gifts. Self-service can reveal itself in a most unexpected display; for instance, a pseudo heir imposes a veto on a spatial decision. It is impossible to enumerate all the distortions resulting from self-service. Who will take upon himself the sacrificial labor? He who represents the Heavenly Forces on Earth; He who knows the fiery Cult of Renunciation; He who knows Cosmic Service. Co-workers, manifest understanding of the harm of self-service. Thus let the successful co-worker remember on the path to the Fiery World. Sacrificial labor is the crown of the spirit. Brotherhood (1937) - 206:
206. Likewise let us learn to distinguish the smallest signs. There are very many of them, flashing out as sparks; but let us not fall into bigotry or suspiciousness. The latter is to be distinguished from keenness. It has been said that keenness is straight, whereas suspiciousness is crooked. Besides, he who is suspicious is not pure and is not free. Knowledge must not be clouded by violence, neither external or internal. People often deplore cruelty, yet they are cruel to themselves. Such cruelty is worst of all. Apprehend justly the mean between apparent contradictions. Supermundane - The Inner Life - Book 1 (1938) - 36:
36. Urusvati understands the significance of the calmness necessary for action. People find many ways to explain this quality. Some think that without an effort of the will there can be no calm. Others see calmness as a true innate characteristic, and still others say that a crooked beginning brings a crooked end, or that calmness depends upon the method of labor. All of these observations have a part of the truth in them, but the most basic one, the quality of experience, is often forgotten. An inexperienced seaman is apprehensive when boarding a ship, but after ten voyages he astonishes those around him by his calmness.
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