The Book of Life

A person is what his life is. That which continues beyond death is life. This is the meaning of the book of life that opens with death.

When this subject matter is contemplated from a strictly psychological point of view, indeed, a routine day of our life is just a small replica of the totality of our life.

Therefore, as an outcome of all of this, we can infer the following: If a human being does not work on himself today, he will never change.

When it is stated that we want to work on ourselves, and we do not work on ourselves today, postponing it for tomorrow, such affirmation will be a simple project and nothing more, because today is the replica of our entire life.

There is a common saying out there that says: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what can be done today.”

If a human being says I will work on myself tomorrow, then he will never work on himself, because there will always be a tomorrow.

This is very similar to a certain notice, announcement or sign that some merchants put in their stores: “TODAY I DON’T SELL ON CREDIT, I WILL TOMORROW”.

When any penniless person arrives asking for credit, he comes upon this terrible sign and if he returns the next day, once more he finds this wretched notice or poster. *

This is what in psychology is called the “sickness of tomorrow.” As long as a person says “tomorrow,” he will never change.

We need, with maximum urgency, to work on ourselves and not dream lazily of a future or any extraordinary opportunity; Those who say: “I will first do this or that and then work” will never work on themselves. They are the dwellers of the earth mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, (Jeremiah 51:48).

I knew a powerful landlord that used to say: “First of all, I need to be well-off, then I will work on myself.”

When I visited him on his deathbed, I then asked him the following question: “Do you still want to be well-off?”

He answered me: “I truly lament having wasted my time.” He died some days later, after having acknowledged his mistake.

That man had many lands; however, he wanted to own the neighboring properties so that he could become “well-off,” so that his estate would be bordered exactly by four roads.

The Great Kabir Jesus said: “Each day has enough trouble of its own.” MATTHEW 6:34

Let us observe ourselves today, in whatever concerns the ever-recurring day, which is a miniature of our entire life.

When a human being begins to work on his own self, here and now, today, when he observes his displeasure and pain, he then walks upon the path of success.

It is impossible to eliminate what we do not know. Therefore, we must first observe our own errors.

We need not only to observe our day, but also our relationship to it. A certain ordinary day that each person experiences directly exists, with the exception of unusual and uncommon incidents.

So, it is interesting to observe daily recurrence, the repetition of words and events towards each person, etc.

That repetition or recurrence of events and words deserves to be studied; it leads us to self-knowledge.

Samael Aun Weor

*This refers to a cultural and sociological custom from Latin-American countries where the cost of living has forced citizens to go about asking for credit in mini markets across their towns in order to provide bread to their tables in a daily basis.

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