Thoughts for the week: 

April 25  NECESSITY FOR SELF-CONTROL

It was a distinct gain when primitive people could be persuaded not to murder but to develop sufficient self-control to master their anger. Spiritual demonstration demands that anger itself be overcome. It is simply not possible to get any experience of God worth talking about, or to exercise spiritual power until you have gotten rid of resentment and condemnation. You can have either your demonstration or your indignation, but you cannot have both.

April 29  AS A MAN THINKETH

People have always been accustomed to suppose that as long as their deeds conformed to the law, they have done all that can be reasonably expected of them, and that their thoughts and feelings are their own business. But the type of thought that we allow to become habitual will sooner or later find expression on the plane of action. 

The logical consequence of this fact is very startling. It means that if you entertain covetous thoughts for your neighbor’s money, you are a thief, even though you may not yet have put your hand in the till. The adulterer at heart is corrupting his soul even though his impure thought is never expressed on the physical plane. Lust, jealousy, vengeance, mentally entertained, carry the soul’s consent, and this soul-consent is the malice of sin.

    Fox, Emmet. Around the Year with Emmet Fox . HarperOne. Kindle Edition. (Excerpt)

Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (5:161):

Removing Resentment 

“Bhikkhus, there are these five ways of removing resentment

by which a bhikkhu should entirely remove resentment when it

has arisen toward anyone. What five? (1) One should develop

loving-kindness for the person one resents; in this way one

should remove the resentment toward that person. (2) One

should develop compassion for the person one resents; in this

way one should remove the resentment toward that person. (3)

One should develop equanimity toward the person one resents;

in this way one should remove the resentment toward that person.

(4) One should disregard the person one resents and

pay no attention to him; in this way one should remove the

resentment toward that person. (5) One should apply the idea of

the ownership of kamma to the person one resents, thus: ‘This

venerable one is the owner of his kamma, the heir of his kamma;

he has kamma as his origin, kamma as his relative, kamma as

his resort; he will be the heir of any kamma he does, good or

bad.’ In this way one should remove the resentment toward

that person. These are the five ways of removing resentment

by which a bhikkhu should entirely remove resentment when

it has arisen toward anyone.”