Hey I came across this today and thought 
you might like it....I'm not 
exactly sure who worte it but it is full 
of "absolute truths" (heh.. imo anyway)

POSTINVENTIONAL
OPEN INSTRUCTION ON ASPIRATION AND ATTAINMENT

   The most striking fact in the history of 
Nature is its upward movement. 
After the nebula comes the orb, after the orb 
the mineral, after the mineral 
the plant, after the plant the animal, and 
after the animal the man. The 
evolution of Nature is followed by the progress 
of Humanity.

   Man has not always and everywhere progressed. 
In the eighteenth century 
Turkestan was less civilized than it had been 
in the twelfth, and Greece 
less civilized than it had been two thousand 
years before. The region 
watered by the Lower Euphrates is less 
civilized today than it was five 
thousand years ago. All human progress 
whether individual or collective has 
been achieved by effort, and all effort has 
been inspired by aspiration. 
Aspiration is the manifestation in the human 
heart of the same impulse 
towards enlargement and beautification and 
perfection that has been the 
mainspring of all evolution and progress, 
the fundamental law and force of 
all human and natural history. Wherever 
among men aspiration dies out and 
effort relaxes, Progress blackens, ceases, 
and is followed by retrogression.

   As it is in the race, so it is in the 
Individual. Aspiration and the 
resulting action are the essential 
conditions of attainment. And to the 
highest, most real, most worthy and most 
satisfying attainment it is 
necessary that the aspiration and action 
be right and rightly directed. 
Therefore what every man needs above all 
else to know is in what manner and 
towards what objects he should aspire, and 
what kind and degree of effort 
and action are requisite for the attainment 
of those objects.

   There are certain objects of 
aspiration appropriate to certain 
persons and conditions and times and places; 
but there are other ends towards which 
all men must aspire, and for the attainment 
of which they must labour, under 
pain of making their lives barren and 
useless. If some of these universal 
ends are pursued to the exclusion of 
others then the life is one-sided and 
more or less completely unsatisfactory 
according to the dignity of the aims 
that have been lost sight of or ignored. 
In such a case the life may be a 
success in certain respects, on certain 
planes, or under certain aspects, 
but in other respects or planes or aspects 
it is a failure.

   There is no human life so hedged in, 
so lowly, so overshadowed by the 
clouds of ill-fortune, that there is 
no place in it for right and hopeful 
aspiration and no opportunity for a 
real and manifold success. On the other 
hand there is no human life so rich in 
content, so abounding in 
opportunities and facilities, so full 
of cherished duties and noble 
pleasures that there is no need for 
considering whether or not the most is 
being made of it that it is possible to 
make of it, whether or not all its 
normal objects, without exception, are 
fully perceived and being steadfastly 
aspired towards and laboured for.

   Am I making of myself all that I can 
and should make of myself? Am I 
gaining all that I should gain on every 
plane? Am I really and fully happy 
or on the road to real and perfect 
happiness? Am I obtaining from the world 
all that it is capable of giving me? And 
am I giving to it all that I am 
capable of giving to it or that it has 
a right to expect of me? Am I doing 
my full share towards the uplifting and 
beautifying and blessing of the 
earth and its inhabitants? Do I know all 
that it is necessary for me to know 
in order to determine what are the 
highest objects of aspiration and 
endeavour, or those to which I 
personally, in view of all the 
circumstances and conditions of my 
existence, can rightly 
and reasonably aspire, and how 
most surely and abundantly to attain 
to them? 
Such are the questions which 
every human being should ask himself, 
and which he should ask those who know 
the answer, should he be so happy as 
to find his way to them.

   He who imagines that too little is 
known regarding the system of the 
universe, or its fundamental realities, 
or its origin, or its cause, or its 
reason, or its destiny, or the part 
which man is called upon to play in its 
history, or any one to be able to 
ascertain with certainty what objects 
if right aspiration exist, or what are 
most worthy of the aspiration and effort 
of the race at large or of any of its 
individual members in particular, is 
grievously deceived. In the field of 
that which it is most necessary to 
human happiness and attainment to 
know and do there are no problems that 
are unsolvable or unsolved, no riddles 
that cannot be, and are not, rightly 
read, no difficulties that are 
insurmountable or unsurmounted.

   The darker life looks to any man 
the more eagerly should he turn towards 
the window through which the Light 
Ineffable that bathes the universe 
can be seen. The more filled with 
misery it appears to him the more ready 
an ear should he lend to the voice that 
proclaims the Reign of Joy.

   And the brighter and more filled with 
happiness life appears to any man 
the more keenly he should realize that 
in so glorious a universe there must 
be heights of possible illumination and 
bliss, of knowledge and wisdom and 
goodness and power and beauty, that he 
has never yet glimpsed and that are 
worthy of his most zealous aspiration, 
his most tireless effort and his most 
patient endeavour.

   He who seems to himself to be and 
possess least should feel that the 
degrees in which he falls behind others 
is the measure of the unrealized 
possibilities of his own life: and 
should long to learn how both to become 
and gain more in and for himself and to 
assist others, with whom he can 
fully sympathize because he has shared 
in their disabilities, to rise with 
him to a larger life and a richer 
possession.

   He who seems to himself to be and 
possess most should realize that what 
he is and has makes possible to him, 
in a peculiar degree, the attainment of 
the very highest things for himself, 
including the joy and greatness and 
glory of having been an important 
factor in the progress of mankind, an 
integer and not a cipher in human 
history. Alexander the Great wept 
because there were no more worlds to 
conquer -but this was only because, 
with all his greatness, he was too 
little either to control his own 
bodily appetites or to realize that 
there is always, in some 
sense, more beyond. He who, 
either in youth or in maturity, feels 
that there are no more worlds for him 
to conquer is always self-deceived. The 
worlds are there; it rests with him, 
and with him alone, whether he is to 
conquer them like a hero or sit down 
and weep before them like a drunken fool.

   All cannot be universal monarchs or 
possess vast power of any kind, but 
they can be rulers of themselves and 
in some sense of the world, and can 
take part in the building up of the 
Planetary Commonwealth. All cannot be 
money-kings; but they can assist in 
exemplifying and propagating the 
principles that govern the right 
acquisition and use of wealth. All 
cannot be world-renowned physicians, 
but they can increase or preserve the 
spiritual, mental and bodily soundness 
and efficiency of themselves and 
others. All cannot be famous 
philosophers or scholars or scientists, 
but they can know and make known the 
great fundamental truths a knowledge 
of which is essential to human welfare. 
All cannot dazzle the continents with 
their own beauty, or that of the 
masterpieces of their art; but they can 
successfully cultivate beauty of body 
and soul and spirit, and give beauty 
to their surroundings. All cannot 
leave to future generations a memory 
honoured for heroic deeds, unique 
self-sacrifice, or radiant virtues; 
but they can make their lives shining 
jewels of goodness in the diadem of human 
experience. All cannot be famous 
statesmen or inventors; but they can 
wisely administer their whole lives and 
all the functions that are entrusted to 
them by circumstances or by their 
fellowman.  All cannot be wonderful 
benefactors, ministers of joy to 
millions or to successive ages; 
but they can be happy and give 
happiness to all who come in contact 
with them. All cannot gain the 
affectionate devotion of whole 
armies or peoples but they 
can experience the full blessedness of 
unselfish loving and can make 
themselves beloved by those around them.

   And he who has achieved most on any 
plane or in any sphere would have 
achieved more had his aspiration been more 
enlightened his effort more 
sagacious and his action more intelligent.

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