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New Era Community (1926) - 246:
246. The man who is not free, who thinks of himself, who acts for himself, is plunged into an ocean of false currents. The man even remodels his speech into a manifestation of external expression that is in conformity with his egotism. Pay attention to how accents are displaced on words of foreign tongue, in disregard of meaning and philology. People re-cut alien sounds to fit the custom of their own country. Indeed, the self-conceit of ignorance and a contempt for the neighbor are indicated in the distortion of speech. To reason out and to penetrate into the meaning of a neighbor's feeling is incompatible with the coarseness of petty self-conceit. The feeling of irresponsibility and the undiscarded sense of ownership create the feudal lords of our contemporary times. Fiery World - Book 2 (1934) - 134:
134. Competition is one of the difficult concepts. Only the fiery heart understands how many measures may be placed upon the light and upon the dark side. A pure understanding of self-perfection will not evoke competition. Where the consciousness is wild and unrestricted, there competition leads to mutual destruction. Envy nests around competition. It leads to the most subtle crimes. Cooperation must bring balance to the misunderstood competition. It is not easy to fix for oneself the boundary of a reasonable competition. The word competition itself is already dangerous; in it is expressed jealousy, in other words, a corrupt devotion. Therefore, it is best wherever possible to replace the concept of competition with that of perfectionment. A great number of concepts must be revised from their contemporary connotation. It should be acknowledged that a just history of beliefs would reveal the roots of many most perverted concepts. Care should be taken that the language of the basic ideas be resounding and as clear-cut as possible. One may enrich the language with new definitions, but senseless buzzing will not bring any benefit. Each letter denotes by its sound a vibration of the centers. It is foolish to infringe uselessly upon harmony. Turn your attention to the resonance of the ancient names of places. The new places do not always produce the same useful vibration. The ancient names had a timeless significance. Often no philology can discover the root inserted by manifest powerful peoples. The more carefully, then, must we regard an inheritance which is unknown but which forces our hearts to resound.
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