Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge. Pleasure and
happiness come to an end. It is a mistake to suppose that pleasure is the goal.
The cause of all the miseries we have in the world is that men foolishly think
pleasure to be the ideal to strive for. After a time man finds that it is not
happiness, but knowledge, towards which he is going, and that both pleasure and
pain are great teachers, and that he learns as much from evil as from good.
…Good and evil have an equal share in moulding character, and in
some instances misery is a greater teacher than happiness. In studying the great
characters the world has produced, I dare say, in the vast majority of cases,
it would be found that it was misery that taught more than happiness, it was
poverty that taught more than wealth, it was blows that brought out their inner
fire more than praise.
Sense-happiness is not the goal of humanity. Wisdom is the goal of
all life. We find that man enjoys his intellect more than an animal enjoys his
spiritual nature even more the this rational nature. So the highest wisdom must
be this spiritual knowledge. With this knowledge will come bliss. All these
things of this world are but the shadows, the manifestations in the third or
fourth degree of the real Knowledge and Bliss.
Only the fools rush after sense-enjoyments. It is easy to live in
the senses. It is easier to run in the old groove, eating and drinking; but
what these modern philosophers want to tell you is to take these comfortable
ideas and put the stamp of religion on them. Such a doctrine is dangerous.
Death lies in the senses.
Life on the plane of the Spirit is the only life, life on any other
plane is mere death; the whole of this life can be only described as a
gymnasium. We must go beyond to enjoy real life.
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