✶Gnosis
← Contents
Theme
01 / 12

Listen

Dhammapada · narration sample

A one-minute narration sample. Every book in the library is narrated end to end — hear the rest in the app.

In Tune with the Infinite · 1 of 12

Prelude

The optimist is right. The pessimist is right. The one differs from the other as the light from the dark. Yet both are right. Each is right from his own particular point of view, and this point of view is the determining factor in the life of each. It determines as to whether it is a life of power or of impotence, of peace or of pain, of success or of failure.

The optimist has the power of seeing things in their entirety and in their right relations. The pessimist looks from a limited and a one-sided point of view. The one has his understanding illumined by wisdom, the understanding of the other is darkened by ignorance. Each is building his world from within, and the result of the building is determined by the point of view of each. The optimist, by his superior wisdom and insight, is making his own heaven, and in the degree that he makes his own heaven is he helping to make one for all the world beside. The pessimist, by virtue of his limitations, is making his own hell, and in the degree that he makes his own hell is he helping to make one for all mankind.

You and I have the predominating characteristics of an optimist or the predominating characteristics of a pessimist. We then are making, hour by hour, our own heaven or our own hell; and in the degree that we are making the one or the other for ourselves are we helping make it for all the world beside.

The word heaven means harmony. The word hell is from the old English hell, meaning to build a wall around, to separate; to be helled was to be shut off from. Now if there is such a thing as harmony there must be that something one can be in right relations with; for to be in right relations with anything is to be in harmony with it. Again, if there is such a thing as being helled, shut off, separated from, there must be that something from which one is held, shut off, or separated.

Asked of Guide

If both optimist and pessimist are "right," why does the chapter favor optimism?

Trine says both are “right” because each builds a world from his own point of view, but the optimist sees “things in their entirety and in their right relations,” which produces harmony, power, peace, and success. The chapter ties heaven to harmony and hell to being “shut off,” arguing that optimism aligns you with the Something you can be in right relations with.

Because optimism crafts a world that includes others—“in the degree that he makes his own heaven is he helping to make one for all the world beside”—it contributes to collective harmony. This idea echoes William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience on belief shaping experience, where conviction changes how one lives and what one brings into being.

Guide is the guide inside the Gnosis app, where every book on these shelves is free to read. Guide is the part you pay for — your guide has read all of them, and answers about the passage you’re actually on. Ask your guide your own question.