Every Human Being is a son or daughter of God.  Every human being is of a divine origin, personally created by God, with innate rights and privileges. Lovingly serve your brothers and sisters – regardless of race, nationality, class or religion – even as every healthy cell serves for the benefit of the entire body.

Science and Human Evolution are Divine Designs.  Physical evolution and scientific laws are a part of God’s plan and creation. Science eliminates superstition, philosophy enlightens the mind, and spiritual experience grows the soul. God wants us to lovingly discover Him for ourselves, to individually desire to become perfect as He is perfect, and then to collectively establish the brotherhood and sisterhood of all humanity on earth.

God Does not Do all That is Done.  God does not do all that is done, and is not responsible for natural disasters or accidents. You are the master of your own destiny in a free will world. The measure of your hunger for truth and righteousness will determine the measure of your access to spiritual wisdom, divine protection, and guidance on any path you choose. The desire to seek the truth above all else, and to grow in character day by day, is infinitely more important than what we are today.

God is Never Angry or Wrathful.  Men fear God, but those who know Him fear only themselves. God is never angry or wrathful. A true, loving Father is always merciful, never punishes but always guides and corrects his children. Refuse to believe that our Father in heaven loves us less than our father on earth. Have faith in an everlasting life for the children of light, and a heavenly destiny for those who have embraced God’s divine presence within their minds, and enthroned Him in their hearts.

God Wants Unity, not Uniformity.  True character is revealed by an individual’s intentions, not by their mere beliefs. God’s infinitely diverse creation is brought together by the power of love and the common goal of a united world living in peace and prosperity, not by fear or compulsion. It’s about the unity of humankind for the common good, not about uniformity of beliefs, perspectives or lifestyles. Have faith in a friendly universe that progressively leads the righteous to eternal life, while allowing evil to self-destruct.

Humans are Evolving, Not Sinful or Cursed.  Humans were created as evolving and incomplete beings, not as cursed and sinful creatures. By learning to maintain a loving connection to God through unselfish service, our lower animal nature eventually submits to our higher spiritual nature. Spiritual evolution may be a choice for us as individuals, but it is inevitable for humanity. What’s old but true should be kept; what’s new and false should be rejected; but what’s new and true must be accepted.

Selfish Ambition Cannot Exist in a Functional Family. As God nourishes, protects and enlightens His children, preparing them for life here and their future life in eternity, our highest satisfaction and greatest strength – individually and as a society – will come through the stability of the home, marriage, and the raising of responsible and loving children, dedicated to doing God’s will and serving all the members of His family.

Learn to learn: Learn through experience that life is a school. Recognize that the existence of error and evil push you towards the love of truth; pain and suffering make you search for the secret of happiness; social inequality drives you to altruism; hardship and disappointments teach you about courage; insecurities and uncertainties urge you to hope; the ego and its follies pull you towards unselfishness. You could not dynamically choose the divine life if there were no self-life to forsake. Have faith that the entire universe is friendly to you in spite of all appearances to the contrary.

Be strong: Allow the pressures of life to develop your character. You cannot perceive spiritual truth until you feelingly experience it, and many truths are not really felt except in adversity. Human beings only learn wisdom by experiencing tribulation. Practice to more faithfully give God your sincere co-operation, more cheerfully endure the tasks of his emplacement, more faithfully carry out the program of his arrangement, more patiently go through the trials of his selection, more persistently and cheerfully tread the path of his choosing, and more humbly receive credit that may accrue as a result of his ceaseless endeavors. The disappointments hardest to bear are those which never come.

Love the truth above all else: That which is old and also true must stay. Likewise, that which is new but false must be rejected. But that which is new and also true, have the faith and courage to accept. It is not the purpose of true religion merely to bring peace but rather to insure progress. And there can be no peace in the heart or progress in the mind unless you fall wholeheartedly in love with truth, the ideals of eternal realities. The more truth you know, the more truth you are, the more of the past you can understand and of the future you can comprehend.

Learn to love: Learn to love your fellow human beings by getting to know their motives and sentiments. If you can only comprehend the motives and sentiments of your associates, how much better you will understand them. If you can only know your fellow human beings, you will eventually fall in love with them. To become acquainted with one’s brothers and sisters, to know their problems and to learn to love them, is the supreme experience of living. Learn to love even your enemies. Devote your life to proving that love is the greatest thing in the world for love is the ancestor of all spiritual goodness, the essence of the true and the beautiful.

Love like a father: As a father, a real father, a true father, loves his children, so the Universal Father loves and forever seeks the welfare of his created sons and daughters. Begin to look upon people as God looks upon his creatures so that you can love human beings as God loves them. Show mercy, promote peace, endure persecutions, and throughout all of these trying situations love even unlovely mankind with a fatherly love. But the love of God is an intelligent and farseeing parental affection – farseeing fathers also make provision for the necessary discipline, guidance, correction, and sometimes restraint of their young and immature offspring.

Develop your sense of humor: One of the functions of humor is to help all of us take ourselves less seriously. Humor is the divine antidote for exaltation of ego. When you are tempted to magnify your self-importance, stop to contemplate the infinity of the greatness and grandeur of your Maker. Upon doing so, your own self-glorification becomes sublimely ridiculous, even verging on the humorous.

Remember to rest and play: Life should be equally divided between work and play. Work should alternate with play; religion should be balanced by humor. Profound philosophy should be relieved by rhythmic poetry.You must learn the value of rest and the efficacy of relaxation. You must realize that the best method of solving some entangled problems is to forsake them for a time. Then when you go back fresh from your rest or worship, you are able to attack your troubles with a clearer head and a steadier hand, not to mention a more resolute heart.

Be patient: Truth cannot be defined with words, only by living — it must be personally experienced. Those who are not interested in discovering the truth must be allowed time so that the trials and difficulties of life create an appetite for wisdom and higher learning. You cannot reveal God to those who do not seek for him; you cannot lead unwilling souls into the joys of enlightenment – the spirit concept cannot be mechanically forced into the mind. Human beings must become hungry for truth as a result of the experiences of living, or they must desire to know God as the result of contact with the lives of those who are acquainted with the Creator. Always remember: the argumentative defense of any proposition is inversely proportional to the truth contained.

Be tolerant: Until the human race progresses to the level of a higher and more general recognition of the realities of spiritual experience, many will continue to show a personal preference for traditional religions which require only submission, in contrast to the religion of the spirit, which entails active participation of mind and soul – personal experience. There are no religions on earth that could not profitably study and assimilate the best of the truths contained in every other faith, for all contain truth. You would do better to borrow the best in your neighbors’ living spiritual faith rather than to denounce the worst in their lingering superstitions and outworn rituals. Refrain from all efforts to take something out of the hearts of those who seek salvation; instead, labor only to put something into these hungry souls.

Find solitude and commune with God: Go apart by yourself to engage in periods of solitude to survey the problems of living and seek for wisdom and energy to meet the demands of life; to quicken and deepen the supreme purpose of living by contacting with divinity. The strain of living–the time tension of personality–should be relaxed by the restfulness of worship. Learn how to step aside from the rush of life—escape the harassments of material existence—while you refresh the soul, inspire the mind, and renew the spirit by worshipful communion.

Fear not: Do not make the mistake of fighting your enemy with its own weapons. Fear and anger weaken character and destroy happiness. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. Be not overcome by evil but rather overcome evil with good. The measure of the strength of your character is the ability to resist the holding of grudges and your capacity to withstand brooding in the face of deep sorrow. Impatience is a spirit poison; anger is like a stone hurled into a hornet’s nest. Fear none, in heaven or on earth. In liaison with God, nothing — absolutely nothing — is impossible.

Be Ambitious: Some people’s lives are too great and noble to descend to the low level of being merely successful. You have begun an endless unfolding of an almost infinite panorama, a limitless expanding of never-ending, ever-widening spheres of opportunity for exhilarating service, matchless adventure, sublime uncertainty, and boundless attainment. Be humble as you seek for goals of spiritual wealth—for God – and you will not have to wait for rewards in a distant future; you are rewarded now. Find the kingdom of heaven within your own heart, and you will experience happiness now. When you search for God, you are searching for everything. When you find god, you will have found everything. God is the greatest experience in human existence.

Remain positive: Bear your responsibilities well and carry on in the face of disappointment. Bear up bravely when your plans are thwarted and your purposes temporarily defeated. Religion does not remove or destroy human troubles, but it does dissolve, absorb, illuminate, and transcend them. Remember that your most disappointing disappointments often become your greatest blessings, just as the planting of a seed necessitates its death so that it can be reborn to bear the fruit of new life and new opportunity. If you fail, rise indomitably to try anew. If you succeed, maintain a well-balanced poise–a stabilized and spiritualized attitude. Effort does not always produce joy, but there is no happiness without intelligent effort.

Stay vigilant: Idealism can never survive on an evolving planet if the idealists in each generation permit themselves to be exterminated by the baser orders of humanity. In all attacks which might be made upon your person, try first to determine whether or not the aggressor possesses moral judgment and spiritual reason – if not, you are to unhesitatingly defend yourself to the full capacity of your powers of resistance, regardless of consequences to the attacker. Shrewd, wicked, and designing men are not to be permitted to organize themselves for the exploitation and oppression of those who, because of their idealism, are not disposed to resort to force for self-protection or for the furtherance of their worthwhile life projects.

Work as a team: It is difficult for religion to survive as the private practice of isolated individuals. This has ever been the error of the religious leaders: Seeing the evils of institutionalized religion, they seek to destroy the technique of group functioning. There is a real purpose in the socialization of religion. It is the purpose of group religious activities to dramatize the loyalties of religion; to magnify the lures of truth, beauty, and goodness; to foster the attractions of supreme values; to enhance the service of unselfish fellowship; to glorify the potentials of family life; to promote religious education; to provide wise counsel and spiritual guidance; and to encourage group worship. The weak indulge in resolutions, but the strong act. Life is but a day’s work—do it well. The act is ours; the consequences God’s.

Remain humble: Realize that you increase your burdens and decrease the likelihood of success by taking yourself too seriously. When you feel important, you lose energy to the wear and tear of ego dignity so that there is little energy left to do the work. You can do important work if you do not become self-important; you can do several things as easily as one if you leave yourself out. Those who aspire to greatness must learn to humble themselves.

Fight against prejudice and ignorance: Prejudice is inseparably linked to selfishness. Abandon prejudice, it blinds the soul to the recognition of truth. Prejudice can be eliminated only by the abandonment of self to the satisfaction of service to a cause that is not only greater than self, but even greater than all humanity, that being the search for God and the progress toward perfection. Strive to let go of long-cherished conceit, envy, and deep-seated prejudices. Ignorance breeds suspicion, and suspicion is incompatible with the essential attitude of sympathy and love. Grudges and vengefulness are held in direct proportion to ignorance of the inner nature and true longings of your fellow beings.

Pray effectively: There is but one form of prayer which is appropriate for all God’s children, and that is: “nevertheless, your will be done.” Pray for values, not things; for growth, not for gratification. Do not be so slothful as to ask God to solve your difficulties, but never hesitate to ask him for wisdom and spiritual strength to guide and sustain you while you yourself resolutely and courageously attack the problems at hand. When you pray, go off by yourself amidst the quiet surroundings of nature or go in a room and shut the door; refrain from vain repetitions and meaningless phrases and speak from the heart. Pray honestly, unselfishly, with fairness, and without doubting. And you must have faith — living faith.