306. Now some people might think that the analyses we are discussing are rather strange, but the answer to this must be that any imagined contrasts to Nature or reality will always seem strange. That such analyses are none the less very necessary here is due to the fact that the majority of people on Earth – although of course unconsciously – actually demand that substances should not follow their eternal purposes, but on the contrary should cease their normal reactions in those situations where they are not of direct advantage for the people in question. This finds expression in any form of criticism which opposes the great cosmic analysis "Everything is very good." Every intolerant criticism of life, of Nature or of Providence is thus expressing a complete lack of knowledge of the immeasurable perfection of the law governing matter. When a person blames Providence – and this includes his fellow beings – for his unhappy fate, his sufferings and difficulties, this is just expressing the peak of naïvety. He does not understand in the least that, in actual fact, he himself has chosen those substances or energies whose collective reactions result in his present situation. The fact that this result did not turn out as the individual in question would have wished, is not a mistake on the part of Nature or of Providence, but on the contrary is entirely due to the individual himself. He has not understood how to choose that combination of energies or substances whose collective reactions would have been just the result and the destiny that he had wanted. But when it is he himself who has chosen incorrect substances, then it cannot be the fault of Nature or Providence that he does not get the required result but instead must experience the kind of reaction which unavoidably must be the consequence of combining incorrect materials. To demand something different, to be indignant or distressed about this experience or fate is really the same as being distressed because the alien or incorrect energies did not give the same reaction and the same result as the ordinary energies. But to require that the impossible be possible is of course abnormal, and does not cease to be so even though the individual is ignorant of the true analysis of his situation. Pepper does not become sugar because one mistakenly puts it into a glass of fruit juice in the belief that it is sugar. The fact that the fruit juice then becomes undrinkable is not the mistake of Providence, but is obviously the mistake of the one who has put together the two kinds of substances – the fruit juice and the pepper. The person who is indignant about the fruit juice being ruined is, in fact, being indignant that the pepper did not immediately become sugar and thus create the desired effect in the fruit juice.
      Although the majority of people can easily see in the previous example that the mistake lies with the individual and not with the nature of the pepper, only very few can understand that, in the same way, the mistake lies with themselves when it comes to shortcomings in their destiny, their daily life and relationships to fellow beings and surroundings. In this case terrestrial man does not understand that "pepper" is "pepper" and "sugar" is "sugar" and that we must not expect these or other substances to suddenly become different in situations where it would be more to our advantage; for this reason it is just as necessary to make use of the absolutely correct materials in the combination of our mental phenomena as it is in physical phenomena.
      If one hears such exclamations as "How dreadful that those people have been so afflicted!" or "How dreadful that he/she should suffer in such a way!" etc., these are opinions which show complete ignorance. They are expressing a direct criticism of Providence, Nature and of the all-embracing intellectual and consequently loving power which is represented by the absolute inexorability of the law governing matter.
      But, at the same time, these expressions do contain a certain gleam of light for they are more or less expressions of compassion for those who suffer and therefore they are fulfilling correspondingly the law of life – "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself".