And this growth begins when man realizes who and what he is, when he allows himself to be affected by the powers of his soul, when he awakens himself and manifests what we call the beauty of the spirit. This is done by focusing all our thoughts on the spiritual splendor within ourselves, in other words by meditation. Like the sunbeams which, touching the unruffled surface of a mountain lake, penetrate to the bottom, the light of the spirit illuminates the mind and heart of the man who sees life from a quiet and reflective standpoint. When the storms of life rouse our emotions, carry us off and get a hold on us, we live helplessly in the shadows of a lightless existence. Then we begin to experience an unassailable peace in ourselves, in spite of the influences that daily life exercises upon us.
People lack love.
It is a spiritual poverty that is worse than material misery. Material poverty is its outcome. There is a spiritual injustice that is worse than any social injustice. Social injustice results from it, it is secondary. Laotse as well as Jesus lived in a time that was as dark as the days in which we are living, and yet at their appearance a spiritual light was diffused in the hearts of men, and their lofty conception of life brought to millions a consolation they badly needed in their worst afflictions.