Benjamin Teixeira de Aguiar by the Spirit Anacleto
Dear friend:
There can be no happiness without discipline. Imagine what would be of an elevator without control, falling free, pulled down by gravity. Try to conceive, on the other hand, the effect of a waterfall without the river bed, or canals, to receive it, leading its waters towards the sea or hydroelectric power plants and water treatment stations, for subsequent human consumption. Think of what would be of a child without the guidance of parents or guardians, staying in front of the TV and playing, as it is natural for their age, without the necessary commitment to school.
There is an unfortunate trend these days, of associating happiness to freedom, and freedom to a superficial and limited concept of doing what one wants, the way one wants and at the very moment one wants. Those aware enough to make good use of their free will can be completely free. It is for no other reason that prisons and police forces are on Earth. Happiness is not just about having rights and defending them, but, mainly, noticing and intuiting responsibilities, and following them strictly. Human beings have a profound and unquenchable need to be useful, to serve, to excel, to seek transcendence and to find the wholeness of being by means of cultivating the transpersonal.
Stop for a moment to see where you have been negligent. Relaxation is only constructive when it allows one to regain strength. Effort is part of all evolutionary movement of creation. You are a being under construction. To assume you are complete would be of the utmost presumption and folly. And, if you agree with me that there is something more to do and improve in yourself, you cannot avoid discipline in all areas of your life, starting with your mental house.
Of course we are not proposing the inflexibility of those without creativity and intuitive vision, the puritanism of castrating moralists or the anachronism of those who intend to stop the march of time with club strokes. We actually postulate that you become the helmsman of the ship of your consciousness, rather than surrender to the currents of the moment, being dragged to terrible storms in the open sea of existential crises, through life, aimlessly, with no remission, with no way out.
(Message received on November 20, 2000.)
(Translated by Paulo Andrade – Revised by Marcone Vieira)