"Only One who was with God, and was God, can answer the deepest and most urgent questions of our soul."

"Only One who was with God, and was God, can answer the deepest and most urgent questions of our soul."

As you trust Him, exercise faith in Him, He will help you. That support will generally come step by step, a portion at a time. While you are passing through each phase, the pain and difficulty that comes from being enlarged will continue. If all matters were immediately resolved at your first petition, you could not grow.

Prison Warden Kenyon J. Scudder has told this story:

He happened to be sitting in a railroad coach next to a young man who was obviously depressed. Finally the man revealed that he was a convict returning from a distant prison. His imprisonment had brought shame on his family, and they had neither visited him nor written often. He hoped, however, that this was only because they were too poor to travel and too uneducated to write. He hoped, despite the evidence, that they had forgiven him.

To make it easy for them, however, he had written them to put up a signal for him when the train passed their little farm on the outskirts of town. If his family had forgiven him and felt that he could rebuild his life in his own home and own town, they were to put a white ribbon in the upper branch of the apple tree located in the lower pasture near the railroad tracks. If, however, they felt it would be best for him to rebuild his life in a new environment, in a new city, they were to do nothing, and he would remain on the train.

As the train neared his home town, the suspense became so great he couldn’t bear to look out of his window. His companion changed places with him and said he would watch for the apple tree. In a minute, he put his hand on the young convict’s arm. “I can see the tree,” he said.

The young man then asked, “Does it contain a white ribbon?”

The reply, “Not one white ribbon, but a white ribbon on every branch!”

In that instant, all the bitterness that had poisoned a life was dispelled. Warden Scudder said to the young man, “I feel as if I have witnessed a miracle.”

The young man responded, “Perhaps you have.”

What was the wise and inspired counsel from Alexander Pope? “To err is human; to forgive, divine.”

You can eat so much food that your belly aches-yet you still want more! Even though your belly is filled to the point of physical pain, you, the self, are not full; you still desire to consume more. The fact that the body can be full or satisfied while you still feel empty is evidence that the body is not you.

The material body is a vehicle which you are temporarily in and temporarily using. There are many examples which can help you understand that you're not the body.

Animals eat and humans eat. Animals sleep and humans sleep. Animals mate and humans mate. Animals defend and fight and so do humans. But human beings also possess the faculty for enquiring into and understanding the Absolute Truth. Humans have a faculty for spiritual growth. Humans can ask, "Who am I? What is the purpose of my existence?" If we utilize this faculty for spiritual realization then we are truly human beings. If we don't, if we simply concern ourselves with eating, sleeping, sex and fighting, then are we not human in name only?

It is natural for us to want to be happy, satisfied, and free. But due to ignorance of our true identity, our natural longing becomes misdirected and leads to further bondage and unhappiness.

The physical body is made up of countless numbers of tiny material particles called molecules and atoms. These material particles are constantly being replaced by material particles from the outside environment (in the form of food, water, air, and so on). Over a period of five to seven years, this process of metabolism brings about a complete change of the matter that makes up your body.

Buddhists do not believe in a life of hedonism because they believe in the law of karma (that is, a person's actions in this life will affect his existence in his next life) and because they preach that happiness can be obtained . . .