To put into practice the little you know is the best way to learn more; it is the most powerful means of advancing on the way – a little bit of really sincere practice. For example, not to do something that you know must not be done. When you have seen a weakness, a disability in your being, you must not allow it to happen again. When, if only for a moment, you have had the vision of what you must be, in an ardent aspiration, you must not – you must never forget to become that.
Some people are always complaining about their disabilities. But that doesn’t lead you very far. If, once, you have truly seen your weaknesses and truly, sincerely understood, seen that you must not be like that – that’s the end of complaining. Then there is the daily effort, the building up of the will, the vigilance of every moment – you must never allow a recognised mistake to renew itself. To err through ignorance, to err through unconsciousness, is obviously very unfortunate, but it can be put right. Whereas to go on making the same mistake, knowing that it must not be made, is an act of cowardice which we must not permit ourselves.
To say, “Oh, human nature is like this. Oh, we are in the inconscience. Oh, we are in the ignorance” – all this is laziness and weakness. And behind this laziness and weakness there is a huge bad will. There!
I say this because many people have made this remark to me, many. And it is always a way of justifying oneself: “Oh, we are doing what we can.” It is not true. Because if you are sincere, once you have seen – as long as you have not seen, nothing can be said – but the moment you see is the moment when you receive the Grace, and once you have received the Grace, you no longer have the right to forget it.
The Mother
