Not long ago a group of us were having a discussion when a young man from Jamaica asked, "How can man elevate himself?" He said, "We look around us and also we study man's record in past ages, and all through we see wars, murders, and cruelty. It seems that man is doomed to destroy himself, to become victimized by life's dark and selfish forces. When do we hear of positive values?" He went on to lament his background and the fierce competition he had encountered in school. "But," he reflected, "one day I asked a friend how he managed to be so peaceful and calm, and he said, 'because I have learned to accept me.' This set me on a new train of thought and I began to reconsider many things."
Accepting ourselves, the wholeness of our being, and trying continually to discover the realness within, without worrying about being like someone else, or worse yet, trying to outdo someone else, is a good starting point. It is clear that competitiveness has gone beyond all reasonable healthy limits. In striving to get ahead, many are content to trample on other people to reach their goal. Such an attitude divests man of his innate dignity, and negates the moral and ethical principles belonging to the human estate.
"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." We are what we think. We are also what we think we are. And therefore we can be what we know we are, deep within ourselves, for within us is all the wisdom of the universe. We cannot convince another, but it is worth every effort to try to persuade ourselves that life is positive and hopeful to the degree that we make it so. Whatever we may think, and however we may mentally try to deny or ignore the fact, we are primarily on a search to find and ultimately to become the nobility that we are in our highest aspect, and to understand and follow the path to our inner sun. The marvel of this search is that each one is his own pathway while endeavoring to fulfill the spiritual destiny common to all. Have you ever observed the path of sunlight on the ocean as the sun begins to set? It suggests this paradoxical truth: as you walk along the beach you discover that the path is directed towards you and follows you as you walk. Yet all see the same golden path from wherever they are.
What a strengthening thought it is that the sunlight of truth is within us and that at any moment we can invite the force of divinity into our lives and so ennoble our thoughts and actions. As we learn from numerous examples of inner human triumph, no burden is too great if we can maintain the right attitude, and this is, of course, where we fail many times. The impingements and demands of society often make us feel like an ant about to be crushed, but, as someone rightly said, "What's wrong with being like an ant? An ant is capable of carrying a burden many times its size." Each of us has a greatness within that far surpasses anything that happens to or around us, and an indomitable spirit that no one can destroy.
Quite unexpectedly incidents happen along the road of life that reinforce one's faith in the goodness of humanity. Some time ago a television commentator named compassion, integrity, humility, and unselfishness as the qualities of true greatness. His words were arresting in their simplicity and optimism. He told of a blind cabinet maker who, through the feeling in his hands, turns out beautiful work, comparable to the finest. This takes perseverance, optimism, and the right attitude in himself. The commentator closed with the thought that greatness has little or nothing to do with rising to the top; there are bad people who are in the limelight and great ones — great by reason of what they are within themselves — whom the world may never know. These quiet ones, with their inner nobility and steadfastness, are the real heroes.
(From Sunrise magazine, April/May 1982. Copyright © 1982 by Theosophical University Press)