Page 3 - Sincerity and Religion

Sometimes one may read a whole book

of philosophy and not progress a step

farther. Sometimes one may be quite a

fervent devotee of a religion and not

progress. There are people who have

spent entire lifetimes seated in

contemplation and attained nothing.

There are people (we have well-known

examples) who used to do the most

modest of manual works, like a cobbler

mending old shoes, and who had an

experience. It is altogether beyond

what one thinks and says of it. It is a

gift, that’s all. And all that is needed is to

be that — to succeed in identifying

oneself with it and live it. At times you

read one sentence in a book and that

leads you there. Sometimes you read

entire books of philosophy or religion

and they get you nowhere. There are

people, however, whom the reading of

philosophy books helps to go ahead. But

all these things are secondary. There is

only one thing that’s important: that is a

sincere and persistent will, for these

things don’t happen in a twinkling. So

one must persevere. . . .

The Mother, CWM, 6: 25-26