The law
of love, the law of violence. Leo Tolstoy. Short book.
From the book Martin Luther King jr. Read in crosier Seminary, the law of love, the law of violence. Leo Tolstoy. Short book that he rushed to write before he died. Free download at this link. Chapter 18 - 19 chapters. Book Tolstoy said he had to write two years before his death near 100. Tolstoy was the Catalyst for Gandhi and Martin Luther King jr. How can you not read this deeply? The following is from the final two chapters that he ever wrote, 18 and 19. And if you read this book as you should and his others you will see that it is a Clarity, a simplification, not even found in the earlier chapters, and in the earlier books. It is as though it took even Tolstoy 100 years to rip out the cultural programming that had prevented him from seeing what is naturally inside us all.
"... Understand then, all of you, that you were born neither slaves nor masters, that you are all free; but you are so only when you have observed the supreme law of life, and this law has been revealed to you. It will be sufficient for you to renounce the lies that hide it from you for you to see at once in what it consists and where your happiness lies. This law is in love, and happiness is found in its observance..... Understand that, and you will become really free; you will acquire everything that to-day you are vainly seeking to obtain by the complicated means suggested to you by corrupted men. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
(Matthew, xi, 28-32.)
... You will be preserved from evil and you will acquire the real good, not by looking after your interest, not by envy, hatred, anger, ambition; not even by a sense of justice, or above all by the care of organizing the life of others; but, strange as it may seem, only by the work of your own soul, not following any outside interests, and not trying to reason with its dictates.
... Understand then, all of you, especially the young, that to want to impose an imaginary state of government on others by violence is not only a vulgar superstition, but even a criminal work. Understand that this work, far from assuring the good of men, is hypocricy, and is only a lie, a more or less unconscious always hiding the lowest passions....
.... Understand it, you, men of to-morrow, and stop looking for an illusionary happiness by participating in the administration of the state, by judicial institutions, by instruction, by all kinds of parties who have the good of the masses as an aim. Pay attention to only one thing, that which you need the most, that is the most accessible, which gives the most happiness to us and to every one: the increase of love in us by the suppression of vices and passions that keep it from manifesting itself [ and more importantly by empowering that love by carefully monitoring yourself and putting it in charge. James] ....
... Remember it, consecrate your life to this joyous work; just begin it, and you will see that it is the true work in life, and it alone determines the amelioration of the condition of everybody an end that you follow blindly by false methods. Do becoming as inevitable for us as is the
not forget that the common bond is in the union of men, and that this union can never be attained by means of violence. It is enough that every one should observe the law of life, and this union will be realized without the need of seeking for it.
This supreme law, alone, is the same for all of us and unites us all....
.... We possess a single infallible guide and this is the Universal Spirit that lives in men as a whole, and in each one of us, which makes us aspire to what we should aspire; it is the spirit that commands the tree to grow towards the sun, the flower to throw off its seed in autumn, us to reach out towards God, and by so doing become united to each other....
.... No matter how obscured your brain may be by your authority, your wealth, no matter how badly treated you may be and how irritated by misery and humiliations, you possess and you manifest like all of us, the divine spirit, which asks you clearly to-day: Why do you martyrize yourself and make all those about you unhappy? Understand who you are, just how insignificant and infallible is that which you call "you" having understood it, your spiritual self and commence to live entirely for the accomplishment of the superior mission of your life which has been revealed to you by universal wisdom, by the doctrine of Christ, and by your own conscience.....
... Put the good of your life in the progressive freedom of your mind, freedom from all the illusions of the flesh, and in the improvement of your love for your fellow man which is, after all, the same thing. As soon as you will have begun to live thus, you will be aware of a joyous sensation full of liberty and happiness. You will be surprised to see that the same external conditions, with which you were so concerned, and which were far from realization, will not prevent the coming of the greatest possible happiness....
.... And if you are unhappy I know that you are reflect upon what has been proposed to you here, and which I have not imagined, but is the result of the thoughts and feelings of the best minds and human hearts, and which is the only way to deliver you from your unhappiness, to acquire the greatest good that you can get in this life. That is what I have wanted to say to before dying.
