DEVELOPING THE SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS: Page 73

more. But from the very first sitting a sense of assurance, the consciousness of an internally developing force, shall come to you:-and this if you have been thoroughly earnest over your task. Perseverance and patience you must have. Indeed! to have these is to have everything. There shall come about a step forward in your evolution at each sitting. This is the art of willing. You get it cheap. Do not treat it with indifference. Practice for a fortnight will prove to you conclusively the verity of my remarks. You have been neck-deep in carnalities: it is high time you thought of a change. Be earnest. Be a determined man. Focus upon an idea and stick to it with the bull-dog's tenacity, till you have seen it through to the end. Do not talk of it to others. Never tell others that you are in training. Sufficient gratification of your vanity shall you have when you have acquired the wished-for object. The praise of the world is not at all necessary to your happiness. The approval of your own soul is quite sufficient. Each man sets his own measure. If you believe that you are uniquely fitted to be a virtuous pure-hearted man, so will the world also. Stick to your own. Do not be a busy body, for then you shall be nobody. Be an earnest thoughtful man. Stand rigidly by your ideal. Do not force it upon others. But do not be forced out of it. Simply be earnest. "To your own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, Thou can'st not then be false to any man/'