Reading Notes: The Secrets to Power, Mastery, and Truth

Collective writings from William Jordan, compiled and edited by Brett and Kate McKay

Here are my reading notes from an anthology of William George Jordan’s work, drawing from letters and lectures he made in the late 19th century, edited by Brett and Kate McKay. Per usual, notes taken directly from the book are quoted and italicized, sometimes with minor syntax or grammatical changes from me.

This books is short, but it makes up for brevity with its density. Sure, there were some chapters and stretches that didn’t ring quite as loudly to me as others (aren’t there always), but for the most part I was captivated, taking furious notes throughout the read.

Since it is a collection of mixed media from many years of work, there isn’t a traditional narrative or structure. Rather, the chapters are thematic in nature, and with plenty of logical overlap. I recommend picking this up; it’s very accessible, and could easily be used as a reference for writing prompts, meditative practice, and general reflection. Final logistics note: it’s really not dated, even though the content is 150 years old. Sure, it’s gender-specific, and overtly so, but I don’t remember anything that would legitimately upset the modern reader (although I could be forgetting something). Let’s get into it!

—

The first paragraph sets the tone, but don’t be put off by the immediate mention of God. The book is not overly religious in nature, rather it is a useful compliment to the broader messaging.

‘Man has two creators - his God and himself. His first creator furnishes him the raw material of his life and the laws in conformity with which he can make that life what he will. His second creator - himself - has marvelous powers he rarely realizes. It is what a man makes of himself that counts.'

Note that while quick referencing God as the Creator, Jordan quickly emphasizes self-reliance and the need for action. Autonomy and sovereignty come to mind. Themes evoked now that will continue throughout the text.

Jordan continues in the first chapter by disapproving of Man’s wont to blame others for failure and take credit for success. There is a victimhood hypocrisy in this logic, and it must be avoided.

‘Man is placed into this world not as a finality, but as a possibility. Man’s greatest enemy is himself. Whether he be victim or visitor depends largely on himself.’

There are no excuses, there is no blaming of others. You must look inward and accept the role of self-determination. You are responsible for your life; no one else. Are you up to the task?

Note this passage below in the same vein of Jordan Peterson’s mountaintop allegory, as well as the Hero’s Journey archetype (exemplified by Jesus Chris, as Joseph Campbell would put it):

‘To see his life as he might make it, man must go up alone into the mountains of spiritual thought as Christ went alone into the Garden, leaving the world to get strength to live in the world. He must there breathe the fresh, pure air of recognition of his divine importance as an individual, and with mind purified and tingling with new strength he must approach the problems of his daily living.'

I love that. If you believe in yourself, and that you have been called to a destiny of greatness in your life, you have to ascend on your personal journey to the top of the mountain, where God waits for you. This means setting your aim properly upward to what is most valuable. To get there, you have to shoulder the heaviest burden, which means serving others and taking on the most demanding of adult responsibilities. You also have to go alone, meaning you have released from the bondage of childhood and the protection of your parents, and you have become an adult.

You have learned from your parents, and you will encounter guides in the wilderness (if your eyes are open), but you have to enter the abyss with your sword drawn, and face the Dragon of chaos. In this battle you will obtain the strength that Chris found in the Garden, and you will return to the world as a teacher, a giver of life, a provider of abundance. You will have lessons and skills to pass on, and with which you can build and create for others. Taking on the task of provision and creation for those in your life who depend on you - this is the breathing in of fresh, pure air that Jordan calls out. It feels right, it fills your heart, and it sets you on the straight and narrow path with righteous energy in your steps.

—

Jordan goes on to stress the importance of self-control on one’s path to greatness:

‘At each moment of man’s life he is either a King or a slave. As he surrenders to a wrong appetite, to any human weakness as he falls prostrate in hopeless subjection to any condition, to any environment, to any failure, he is a slave. As he day by day crushes out human weakness, masters opposing elements within him, and day by day recreates a new self from the sin and folly of his past, then he is a King.’

This is obviously discipline, but it is also inspiration to improve, with knowledge and hope for the joy and success that follows victory over desire.

‘Self-control may be developed in precisely the same manner as we tone up a weak muscle - by little exercises day by day. Let us each day do, as mere exercises of discipline in moral gymnastics, a few acts that are disagreeable to us, the doing of which will help us in instant action in our hour of need.’

This is training the anterior mid-singular cortex that Andrew Huberman talks about - the positive feedback loop of strengthening one’s willpower (and possibly extending life) by way of executing tasks you don’t want to do. This is cold plunges, chores, getting out of bed, cleaning up, hitting the gym, skipping dessert, etc.

It’s also preparing yourself for battle. Daily discipline and practice hones your skills for when they are needed in combat. Remember, it is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war.

—

Jordan then pivots to calmness as a virtue, and its majesty (as he puts it). As you’ll see, his use of calmness is synonymous with resolute stillness, and focus. I love this paragraph:

‘Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the poise of a great nature, in harmony with itself and its ideals. It is the moral atmosphere of a life self-reliant and self-controlled. Calmness is singleness of purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious power - ready to be focused in an instant to meat any crisis.’

I might put this one on my wall. To me, it evokes a great man, a virtuous leader and role model. Bear with my cheesy nerd-out here, but I read that paragraph and instantly think of Marcus Aurelius and Maximus from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator walking and speaking together on the battlefield after the film’s opening scene. These are men of the conscious power Jordan speaks of - they emanate confidence and purpose, ready to meet cries (they just did), all while maintaining the powerful stoicism that later came to embody the image of Aurelius himself.

Jordan goes on to warn of what he calls fatalism - what we might call nihilism and depression now. He describes a man who is ‘coward slave of his environment, hopelessly surrendering to his present condition, recklessly indifferent to his future’. While this description doesn’t immediately contradict calmness as we might think of it, Jordan elaborates: ‘He has no compass, no chart, no known port to which he is sailing’. Notes of Seneca in that passage: ‘If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable’. Again, lamenting a man who gives up his self-control, and becomes a victim of fate, rather than a champion of his own destiny.

So we can interpret that the calm man - calm in mind, body, and spirit - is in this sense calm because he has properly oriented his ship. He has built with strong materials, he has mastered the skills to man the helm, and he knows where he is going. He also knows that there will be obstacles, and adversity, but he is prepared to battle and go through them. He refuses to let the transgressions of what would stand against him determine his place in the world.

‘Storm, fog, night, tempest, danger, hidden reefs - he is ever prepared and ready for them. He is made calm and serene by the realization that in these crises of his voyage he needs a clear mind and a cool head; that he has naught to do but to do each day the best he can by the light he has; that he will never flinch nor falter for a moment; that, though may have to tack and leave his course for a time, he will never drift, he will get back into the true channel, he will keep ever headed toward his harbor.’

MAN THAT’S GOOD STUFF. What tempest or hidden reef might you encounter while at sea, on your personal journey? Is your mind clear, your head cool? Will you flinch, will you drift? What is the true channel of your life that you must return to? Are you aiming for the harbor you are meant for, that you’re supposed to reach?

‘When he will reach it, how he will reach it, matters not to him. He rests in calmness, knowing he has done his best. To no man is permitted to know the future of his life, the finality. God commits to man ever only new beginnings, new wisdom, and new days to use the best of his knowledge.’

Strength. Determination. Calmness.

He goes on with advice on regaining calmness when the day gets away from us. Stop, rest for a moment. Breathe. He even reminds us to be stoic when the flood does arrive (truncated):

‘In some great hour of your life, when you stand face to face with some awful trial, you will be brave. You can then fold your arms calmly, look out upon the ashes of your hope, and with brave heard you may say “So let it be - I will build again”.’

I love a few of the bits he ends the chapter with:

‘Calmness cannot be acquired of itself; it must come as the culmination of a series of virtues. What the world needs is a higher standard of living, a great sense of the privilege and dignity of life, a higher and nobler conception of individuality.

With this great sense of calmness permeating an individual, man becomes able to retire more into himself, away from the noise, the confusion and strife of the world, which come to his ears only as faint, far-off rumblings.

But the calm man does not selfishly isolate himself from the world, for he is intensely interested in all that concerns the welfare of humanity. His calmness is but a Holy of Holies into which he can retire from the world to get strength to live in the world.’

Echoes of James Hollis, paraphrasing: ‘step out of the stimulus-response melee of every day life’.

—

We are not talking about becoming a recluse; quite the opposite, as Jordan emphasizes with the ‘retire / live’ sentence. There is too much distraction, too much waste, if we do not grant ourselves the serenity we need by raising our standard of living and blocking out the useless noise. Now, you must be able to recognize what is useless noise, and what is valuable signal.

Tim Ferriss has often talked about an ‘information diet’, and Ryan Holiday emphasizes ‘mental sobriety’. What are you filtering in and out of your life? What are you seeing and hearing on a daily basis? Is this input an asset or a liability? Block out the bullshit, consume what is needed to cultivate your Sacred Garden (Jordan’s Holy of Holies). We need our inner space of peace and quiet so that we can focus our energy on what is demanded from all of us: the tasks, people, and quests that matter.

Without the bombardment of nonsense that permeates life these days, you can get that creative project done. You can give your partner the time you both deserve. You can deliver real value at your job. You can actually get a great workout in, instead of just scrolling your phone with bad posture on the bench.

‘Beware of judging the misfortune of others. Have you been eavesdropping at the door of paradise? We do too much watching of our neighbor’s garden, and too little weeding in our own.’

Pretty straightforward here! I like the paradise metaphor - cautioning against the hubris that we might know what it means to be perfect. Don’t occupy your mind with what other people struggle with, unless you can (and should) help. As Jordan Peterson would say: clean your damn room first, and then you can consider heading outside. Are your affairs in order? Are you judging from a glass house? Could you possibly help, support, or encourage, instead of castigate?

‘If there is one place in life where the agnostic is beautiful, it is in the judging of others. The courage to say ‘I don’t know’.’

—

Jordan’s next chapter is titled ‘The Greatness of Simplicity’. Simplicity here is similar to previous examples of word choice by Jordan (control, calmness) that might not be exactly as profound as we might see them today, but once we unpack the text it’s fantastic:

‘Simplicity kills the weeds of vice and weakness so that flowers of virtue and strength may have room to grow. Simplicity cuts off waste and intensifies concentration. It converts flickering torchlights into powerful searchlights.’

Warning us of being spread too thin, pulled in too many directions with our time and energy. Fatigue and lack of depth allows for the weakness of vice Jordan refers to: when we’re not in a high energy flow state, or caught up in a righteous day of action, we slip and reach for stimulus, for pleasure, to regulate our affect in the absence of vigor. When we have clarity of mind and a purposeful direction - which requires simplicity - we exemplify virtue, and we act with strength.

‘Simplicity is the pure white light of a love lived from within. It is destroyed by any attempt to abide by public approval.’

Think of how easy it is to go off course when you succumb to the thoughts, judgments, and wishes of others. First of all, those judgments of others are almost always greatly overblown in our own heads, if they even exist at all. Think of your own daily perceptions - yes you think of and judge others, but you are primarily focused on your own life and circumstances. So is everyone else. They have their own feelings, stimuli, responsibilities, bothers, struggles, etc. Most of them aren’t thinking of you at all, some will, but then they move on, and a very small number might actually exercise serious consideration of you and your choices. Maybe some of those matter - friends or family that you need to respect and cooperate with in some regard.

But for most? They (friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, phantoms of the internet) should not determine or even affect your true journey - that should be the pure white light guiding you from within, from above. That harkens back to the divine voice and inspiration we seek by clearing our hearts and minds and setting sail for our destiny. That is certainly not the business of others, even though our journey is one that serves others, it comes from our own calling, not the misplaced ridicule of society.

A tangent on this idea looms even darker: many people actually fear your endeavor for truth and prosperous adventure, and they will attack out of self-preservation. Your quest of seeking abundance by way of a disciplined life focused on responsibility and adventurous spirit is a direct threat to the complacency and inadequacy of the masses. Yes, that’s cynical, and thankfully it’s only a generalization, but it’s a real one that must not be ignored, to our folly.

Negative energy, passive aggressive warnings, and intrusive opinions are the evil manifestations of this fear felt from others when they see you climbing the mountain. In a way, you represent their own failures, and certainly their weakness that was exposed when they refused to answer any number of calls to adventure in their own lives. It’s sad, and I hate to stay in this cynical vein, but it’s true. Unfortunately this often comes from family members. But also friends, colleagues, peers, and most definitely from the inauthentic buzz of society writ-large, which must be ignored. After some feeble and gross attempts to suppress your adventurous energy and steps towards greatness, the detractors will retreat, often with resentment. Let them, and continue. Your only hope is that as you continue to climb, they eventually recognize the beauty in your efforts every day to better yourself, those around you, and the world, and they either feel inspired to pursue the same, or perhaps they will simply benefit from your actions. You are, after all, lifting the heaviest possible burdens you can at every moment, and that will often include direct acts of service for others.

To briefly pivot away from Jordan, the musician Shawn James writes masterfully of this insidious dynamic in his song The Curse of the Fold:

Give me your heart and I'll show you how to feel

Send me your soul and you'll know what it is to be free

We all need a deeper purpose. One that's true and bold

The only thing that could hurt us is the curse of the fold

I once knew a man who had fire in his eyes

Bloody right hand, he had taken his enemies lives

The past was his torture

The future held his hope

Until he chose his fortune has the curse of the fold

Although you may feel like giving up, it's not the only road

The path less often traveled holds the highest, the highest of hopes

Some used to say that I'd never scale this mountain

Now that I'm close they shut their eyes and draw their curtains

Those who don't believe will always encourage defeat

They'll scream and shout and scold for the curse of the fold

Although I felt like giving up, it's not the road I chose

The path less often traveled held the highest, the highest of hopes

Held the highest, the highest of hopes

—

Back to William Jordan, and a few brief but worthy notes on simplicity:

‘Have contempt for the non-essentials of life.’

‘Comparison kills simplicity and the truth.’

Focus, and focus hard. What are your first principles? What are you goals and values, and what is actually required to realize them every day, without any fluff or bullshit?

‘A man of real character looks Truth and Honesty straight in the face.’

Do you have the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual clarity to know what is really true, and to actually be honest in your speech and actions? If not, what are you doing to achieve that kind of simplicity?

‘The first step of moral reform is always sacrifice. Reject and destroy elements of habit and life that are keeping you from what is highest.’

I think we usually know what behaviors we need to eliminate. What is slowing you down? Maybe more potent: what are you doing, saying, or even thinking, that you are ashamed of? Clean it up.

The beauty of needing to clean up our morals is that you can get started right now, and then you can try again tomorrow with a stronger effort. One of my favorite lines from the book:

‘Every sunrise is a new birth, every morning a delicate new beginning, and a chance to put to new and higher uses the results of your past.’

—

Jordan pivots into the semantics of duty, which he takes strong issue with. He warns of duty for duty’s sake, rather than acting responsibly (and dutifully) out of proper motivation: love, passion, service, and the betterment of the world.

‘Love transmutes duty into privilege’. Love that one! Apply this to everything from serving your spouse, your personal and professional obligations, and certainly to loving yourself enough to focus on your own creative tasks.

‘Every day, radiate calmness, trust, generosity, truth, justice, loyalty, and nobility.’

‘You are given a marvelous power for good and evil: it is the unseen radiating influence of your life.’

‘To make your influence felt, you must live in faith, and you must practice what you believe.’

‘Let your presence be that of towering strength.’

Not much to add here. Harness and emanate virtue in every moment of every day. If you do, the world benefits.

—

The next chapter is about self-reliance, which of course was a main theme of Jordan’s transcendental contemporaries. Jordan starts with powerfully direct words about self-reliance, it’s worth reading:

‘The man who is self-reliant says ever: "No one can realize my possibilities for me, but me; no one can make me good or evil but myself." He works out his own salvation - financially, socially, mentally, physically, and morally. Life is an individual problem that man must solve for himself. Nature accepts no vicarious sacrifice, no vicarious service. Nature never recognizes a proxy vote.

She has nothing to do with middlemen - she deals only with the individual. Nature is constantly seeking to show man that he is his own best friend, or his own worst enemy. Nature gives man the option on which he will be to himself.’

…and then hits us with an unexpected and poignant dressing down of the collapse of the Roman Empire:

‘The wealth and prosperity of ancient Rome, relying on her slaves to do the real work of the nation, proved the nation's downfall. The constant dependence on the captives of war to do the thousand details of life for them, killed self-reliance in the nation and in the individual.

Then, through weakened self-reliance and the increased opportunity for idle, luxurious ease that came with it, Rome - a nation of fighters - became a nation of men more effeminate than women. As we depend on others to do those things we should do for ourselves, our self-reliance weakens and our powers and our control of them becomes continuously less.’

Beware the hedonism of Babylon, and worshipping the Tower of Babel. Build strength, develop skills, serve others through honest action, and keep your sword sharp.

‘Be an oak tree, not a vine.’

‘Man develops self-reliance by surpassing himself, not others. A great man seeks to excel his own past and present.’

To me, there is nothing more admirable than a man who has built a strong foundation of health, safety, and abundance for his family. He is the solar center of gravity from which others draw their strength and venture out into the world. He is the source of abundance and provision that enables joy and prosperity for his family. For some, the legacy reaches beyond to future generations, community, and the world. He is the Oak Tree.

—

On truth and honesty:

‘Truth is the sun and the heavens; we can walk by its light and live in its warmth.’

And honesty in parenting…

‘Do not scare your child into ‘not lying’. Rather, urge them to be honest, loyal, and fearless. Tell them about the nobility of the courage to speak the truth, live righteously, and hold fast the principles of honor. With the virtue of honesty, they never have to fear any crises. This is how the great men and women have lived.’

Hold fast the principles of honor. Might have to hang that one on my wall.

‘The parent must live truthfully in all actions and speech, or the child will not.’

I’ve been reading Ryan Holiday’s parenting aphorism book The Daily Dad every morning as we prepare for the birth of our daughter. He talks about this concept of living by example with great emphasis - and anyone with enough life experience will agree that kids are sponges of both words and action. We must embody what we preach, and more importantly, what we hope for our children.

‘A man must live honestly in every detail of thought, word, and deed. Be a sun of honest radiance. Let your silent influence speak for itself, and let your actions glorify the world. Seek to be, before you teach.’

‘Truth is intellectual honesty, craving to know what is right. Truth is moral honesty, hunger to live properly.’

‘Avoiding vice is keeping weeds out, which is good. But one must also cultivate what is good.’

Note the references to gardens throughout great works: here, in Bly’s Iron John, Peterson’s We Who Wrestle, obviously the Bible, etc. Sacred places and the beauty of cultivation for abundance.

—

Jordan then goes into a topic he summarizes as ‘Air-Castles’. While it might not be the most elegant metaphor, the content below is poignant. Daydreams, fantasies, useless chatter, bloviating, and procrastination are all insecure pseudo-foundations of ‘Air-Castles’, instead of course of firm, solid, well-built structures (literally and figuratively) that serve us and the world.

‘Don’t build an air-castle of vague hopes and phantom ideals. There are built downward, instead of upward from a firm foundation of purpose and energy.’

‘Ambition is a great thing when married to energy.’

‘Man cannot reach what is highest by what he would like to do, but only by what he endeavors.’

‘Day by day, stone by stone, we build the might structure of our life’s work.’

‘The Air Castile is of the architect without a builder, the talker without a doer, the academic without the practitioner.’

‘Forsake Air-Castiles of dreaming for strongholds of action.’

The last one sums it up - strongholds of action are what we must build our lives with.

—

Jordan continues the theme of taking meaningful action, and not wasting our time (or life):

‘Time is the most valuable possession of man, all too often squandered.’

‘The man who longs for adventure is living a falsehood. Daily heroism vitalizes a man’s power and prepares him for the time when he must be ready.’

I’ll slightly push back and say it can be ok to long for adventure as long as you are putting the longing into action, and quickly at that. If you feel the longing, start planning. Something is calling to you, and you have to get up and get moving. Figure out what is beckoning, realize you are longing, yearning, needing to go, and set out the door like Bilbo Baggins.

‘The courage of the soul is to remain steadfast and sincere to your beliefs every day, despite all opinions, obstacles, and opposition. This courage makes the simple life great, and makes the great life sublime.’

Don’t lose sight of your values, and what allows you to feel whole and well at the end of each day - in mind, body, and spirit.

—

On Individuality:

‘Every man reigns a king over the kingdom of self. He wears the crown of individuality that no hands but his own can ever remove. He should not only reign, but rule. His individuality is his true self, his best self, his highest self, his self victorious. His thoughts, his words, his acts, his feelings, his aims, and his powers are his subjects. With gentle, firm strength he must command them, or they will take from his hands the reins of government and rule in his stead. Man must first be true to himself or he will be false to all the world.’

Strong similarities to Iron John here! Your inner king, your moral compass, and your mandate to make sure your truest self is what is governing your life - not all of the bullshit that comes from the world.

‘We must stand in silent strength, the lone sentry keeping guard over a sleeping village, in the grim shadows of night, facing the terror of solitude, the darkness, the loneliness, the isolation, and the phantom invasion of memories.’

Another one worthy of the wall. The beauty of a metaphor that can be envisioned literally - the times in life when we have had to venture into the dark and act bravely on behalf of others. Maybe during a self-defense or home security event, a bad storm or natural disaster, literal battle and military action, or time spent on the mountain, in the backcountry, on a wilderness quest to bring wild game home to your family. And Jordan strikes a true chord with the evocation of the phantom invasion of memories. We’ve all been there, when those buried thoughts and scars rise to the surface and attempt to divert your course. Hold fast the helm.

‘Individuality does not mean merely being our self, but our highest self. It never means living for self alone. The world, in every phase, must be saved by individuals. You cannot take humanity in mass up in moral elevators; they must receive and accept good as individuals. The united work of individuals makes up the action of society.’

Start small, start locally. Your habits and health first, then your family’s, then your community, then the world makes itself good and whole. Imagine the peace and harmony if everyone out there was working within their immediate circle on being their best self, and aiming highest? I can’t help but remember comedian Adam Carolla’s annual New Year’s resolution: ‘My resolution is for everyone else to get their shit together.’

‘Let us reign a king over our individuality by conquering every element of weakness within us that keeps us from our best and raising every element of strength to its highest power by living in simple harmony with our ideals. We should begin it today. Today is the only real day of life. Today is the tomb of yesterday, the cradle of tomorrow. Begin today.’

Powerful message to wrap up individuality there. Take that one to heart, as much as you can.

—

On regret:

‘Do not shy of regret. Regret illuminates wisdom.’

Ditch the reminiscing, the shame and cringey memories that creep into anxious mindsets. Yes, you made mistakes, and they are certainly hard to think about, and we wish we could have some of those embarrassing or even hurtful moments back. But we can’t, until you invent a time machine. So, learn from them, register the lesson, and then move on. Do this actively when the unhelpful regrets creep up, literally say to yourself ‘knock it off. That was then, and I was a different person (probably young and dumb), and guess what, so was everyone else involved. They either aren’t thinking about it, or they are thinking about their own missteps and regret. Better yet - right now recognize why you are cringing at that memory, and don’t act like that again. Ok, now get up and get moving.’

‘There are only two classes of people who never make mistakes: they are the dead and the unborn.’

‘We stumble into memory and regret of what could have been. It’s impossible. The past does not belong to us to change. It is only the golden present that is ours to make.’

‘The other road always looks attractive. Distant sails are always white, far-off hills always green. Maybe there could have been some good, but the little hand of love that rests so trustingly in ours might not have been.’

As an expecting father, that last one really hit home! I’ve certainly chased greener pastures in my life, and I’ve regretted some not pursued. Sure, as Jordan says, there may have been value to roads not taken, places not visited, jobs not worked, people not met, etc. But, I wouldn’t be where I am right now in this moment, waiting for my daughter to place her hand in mine.

—

And now a long quote, but a profound lesson in balancing faith with the necessity of self-guided action, strong agency, and never being a victim:

Neither philosophy nor religion can give any final satisfactory answer that is capable of logical demonstration, of absolute proof. There is ever, even after the best explanations, a residuum of the unexplained. We must then call back in the eternal arms of faith, and be wise enough to say “I will not be disconcerted by these problems of life, I will not permit them to plunge me into doubt, and to cloud my life with vagueness and uncertainty. Man arrogates much to himself when he demands from the Infinites the full solution of all His mysteries. I will found my life on the impregnable rock of a simple fundamental truth: ‘This glorious creation with its millions of wondrous phenomena pulsing ever in harmony with eternal law must have a Creator, that Creator must be omniscient and omnipotent. But that Creator Himself cannot, in justice, demand of any creature more than the best that the individual can give.’ I will do each day, in every moment, the best I can by the light I have; I will ever seek more light, more perfect illumination of truth, and ever live as best I can in harmony with the truth as I see it. If failure come I will meet it bravely; if my pathway then lie in the shadow of trial, sorrow, and suffering, I shall have the restful peace and the calm strength of one who has done his best, who can look back upon the past with no pang of regret, and who has heroic courage in facing the results, whatever they be, knowing that he could not make them different.’

We have faith in a power greater than us, that somehow created, designed, and now observes the world. Perhaps, this power - God - is waiting for us to reach the top of the mountain and grasp a life of meaning in harmony with the divine. But, we also know that this power expects our best. We need light and illumination every day to know what our best is. What is our best effort, our healthiest body, our clearest mind, our most peaceful soul? These are not simple questions, but we must journey upward in search of their answers. In order to be successful on our journey:

‘The man who is seeking (aiming properly) to do his best is keen, active, wide awake, and aggressive. His standard is not ‘what will the world say’, rather ‘is this worthy of me?’’

‘Create your own meaning by living a life in harmony with the highest ideals.’

‘What you have may depend on others, but who you are rests with you alone.’

Have high standards and be relentless in your pursuit of health and abundance. Do not let the distractions and foibles of the misguided, hedonistic world set you off course. You have decided to shoulder a great burden of responsibility - for yourself, your family, your friends, your community, your peers, and the world.

In every moment of hesitation and temptation - your soul knows the right path. Your inner king is on call to properly govern your orientation in the world so that you may act properly. It is up to you - up to each one of us, to build a life of deep meaning, purpose, and abundance. The world needs it right now.