The notion that a man who marries, has children, lives across the same road, and catches the commuter's train is unfit to receive the grace of God, whereas a man who wears a priest's dress or a monk's robe is alone fit, is one of those ideas sedulously fostered by priests and monks themselves. The fact is that grace is no respecter of clothes, status, or social activities; that it happens to alight on those whose hearts and minds seek it most, and in the right way; that today Christ is militant, is working inside man wherever he may be and whatever garments he wears and however he chooses to pay his debt to society; and that His true followers are not easily distinguishable by any outer labels, but are easily measurable by their own conscience, in their degree of consciousness. They are not professional exhibitionists eager to display their spirituality, to talk about it and impress others with it. They may be passive in a monastery or active in an office--that is not the point. What is going on inside them?
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 3 : Independent Path > # 221
