On Refraining: Selections from “The Pathway of Life” by Leo Tolstoy (vegetarian): Volume 2, Part 2 of 2

We would like to continue today’s show with the insightful excerpt from Volume 2 of “The Pathway of Life,” called “On Refraining.”

“In order to learn restraint man must learn to divide himself into a physical and a spiritual man and to compel the physical man to do not that he desires but that which the spiritual man desires.”

“Only if you have trained the physical man from childhood to obey the spiritual man will you find it easy to restrain yourself from your desires. The man who has learned to restrain himself from his desires will find life in this world joyful and easy.”

“In order to esteem others as ourselves, and to do unto them as we would that they do unto us (and herein is the principal concern in life) we must be master of our own self, and in order to be master of our own self, we must train ourselves for it.”

“In order not to commit any evil act, it is not enough to abstain from the act itself; learn to abstain from evil conversation, and especially refrain from evil thoughts. As soon as you observe that a conversation is evil - if you ridicule, condemn or abuse another - stop, be silent, don't listen. Do the same when evil thoughts enter your head: are you thinking evil of your neighbor (it is all the same whether your neighbor is deserving of criticism or not), stop and try to think of something else. Only when you learn to abstain from evil words and evil thoughts will you have strength to abstain from evil deeds.”

“The driver does not abandon his reins because he fails to stop his horses at once, but continues to hold them - and the horses halt. Even so with our passions: if you fail once, keep on struggling, and finally you will be the master and not your passions.”

“Some say that Christianity is the doctrine of weakness because it does not prescribe acts but mainly the refraining from acts. Christianity a doctrine of weakness! A fine doctrine of weakness, the founder of which died a martyr on the cross rather than be untrue to Himself, and among whose followers there are numbered thousands of martyrs, the only people who boldly faced the evil and withstood it. The tyrants of old who put Christ to death, and the present day tyrants know full well what sort of a doctrine of weakness it is, and they dread this doctrine above all things. They feel instinctively that this doctrine alone will most surely destroy and uproot that order of things which they maintain. Much more strength is required to abstain from evil than to perform the most difficult act which we account good.”