Here is an excerpt from the first pages of "The Laws of Life"
PREFACE
century. His brilliant writings display a depth of understanding unmatched by any other modern health teacher. The following is a chapter entitled "Living To Live," from his book, "Getting Well," which was published in 1946 and recently appeared in the November/December 1984 issue of "Vegetarian Health Science."
ABOUT THE LAWS OF LIFE
'In those ancient Hebrew writings that are collectively known to us as the Old Testament there is expressed a conception of the way in which punishment for "sin" is brought about, that I think we would do well to understand. This punishment is described as "even the fruit of their own thoughts."
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Every act and every emotion has its consequence. The act and the consequence are inseparable - as inseparable as light and shadow. It is, therefore, not possible to do a thing without setting in motion the necessary train of consequences - of reactions.
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Every act and every emotion has its consequence. The act and the consequence are inseparable - as inseparable as light and shadow. It is, therefore, not possible to do a thing without setting in motion the necessary train of consequences - of reactions.
There is no "beyond good and evil." Evil is that which has harmful consequences. Good is that which has helpful consequences. Evil is that which detracts from the powers of life and tends towards death. Good is that which enhances the powers of life and avails towards greater life. Here is the measure of right and wrong. Here is the criterion by which any mode of living is to be judged.
That is right living which produces and maintains health and happiness and increases life. That is wrong living, which impairs health, produces misery and decreases life.
To be more specific, right living is that living which conforms in all of its details with the laws of life; wrong living is that living, that in part or much of its details is in conflict with these laws.
The laws of life are not something imposed upon the organization of man. They are imbedded in the very structure of our being, in our tissues, our nerve and muscle cells, our bloodstream, into the total organism. They are the way we are constituted to live. If we live according to them, we live; if we do not live according to them, we don't truly live. Since these laws are fundamental parts of us, we cannot revolt against them without revolting against ourselves. They are the fountain of life and when we flout them we cease to drink at that fountain.
Natural law represents the way things are made to work. If you try to work some other way, you work your own ruin. Wrong living is an effort to live against the very nature of things; it is an endeavor to flout the very constitution of being, to divorce oneself from that fundament upon which life rests, and it ends only in destruction. The wrong liver renders himself unfit to survive. He breaks down, disintegrates, perishes. He refuses to observe the laws of life, so he rots and is no more.
We cannot run away from the laws of being without running away from ourselves. There simply is no escape, except in death.
The sum-total of the modern revolt against nature is this: We who have decided we cannot and will not live with nature soon come to find that we cannot live with ourselves. The man who flouts the laws of nature is not merely a problem to those around him -- he is a problem to himself."
That is right living which produces and maintains health and happiness and increases life. That is wrong living, which impairs health, produces misery and decreases life.
To be more specific, right living is that living which conforms in all of its details with the laws of life; wrong living is that living, that in part or much of its details is in conflict with these laws.
The laws of life are not something imposed upon the organization of man. They are imbedded in the very structure of our being, in our tissues, our nerve and muscle cells, our bloodstream, into the total organism. They are the way we are constituted to live. If we live according to them, we live; if we do not live according to them, we don't truly live. Since these laws are fundamental parts of us, we cannot revolt against them without revolting against ourselves. They are the fountain of life and when we flout them we cease to drink at that fountain.
Natural law represents the way things are made to work. If you try to work some other way, you work your own ruin. Wrong living is an effort to live against the very nature of things; it is an endeavor to flout the very constitution of being, to divorce oneself from that fundament upon which life rests, and it ends only in destruction. The wrong liver renders himself unfit to survive. He breaks down, disintegrates, perishes. He refuses to observe the laws of life, so he rots and is no more.
We cannot run away from the laws of being without running away from ourselves. There simply is no escape, except in death.
The sum-total of the modern revolt against nature is this: We who have decided we cannot and will not live with nature soon come to find that we cannot live with ourselves. The man who flouts the laws of nature is not merely a problem to those around him -- he is a problem to himself."