From Ardour to Peace By James Allen
Foreword
THE FIRST THREE PARTS of this e-book, Ardour, Aspiration, and Temptation, signify the widespread human life, with its ardour, pathos, and tragedy. The final three components, Transcendence, Beatitude, and Peace, represents the Divine Life—calm, clever and delightful—of the sage and Savior. The center half, Transmutation, is the transitional stage between the 2; it’s the alchemic course of linking the divine with the human life. Self-discipline, denial, and renunciation don’t represent the Divine State; they’re solely the means by which it’s attained. The Divine Life is established in that Good Information which bestows Good Peace.
James Allen
Amid the din and strife of males,
The Name Divine I hear once more;
Its telling is of issues aside;
Above the tumult of the center.
Excessive o’er the place sin’s darkish pathways wind
Waits the clever keen of the thoughts;
Past sturdy Ardour’s guarded Gates,
There Peace awaits—there Peace awaits.
1. Ardour
THE PATHWAY OF THE SAINTS and sages, the street of the clever and the pure; the freeway alongside which the Saviors have trod, and which all Saviors to come back may also stroll—such is the topic of this e-book; such is the excessive and holy theme which the creator briefly expounds in these pages.
Ardour is the bottom stage of human life. None can descend decrease. In its chilling swamps and concealing darkness creep and crawl the creatures of the sunless world. Lust, hatred, anger, covetousness, delight, vainness, greed, revenge, envy, back-biting, mendacity, theft, deceit, treachery, cruelty, suspicion, jealousy—such are the brute forces and blind, unreasoning impulses that inhabit the underworld of ardour, and roam, devouring and devoured, within the rank primeval jungles of the human thoughts.
There additionally dwell the darkish shapes of regret, ache, and struggling, and the drooping types of grief, sorrow, and lamentation.
On this darkish world the unwise stay and die, not realizing the peace of purity, nor the enjoyment of that Divine Gentle which without end shines above them, and for them, But, it shines in useless as long as it falls on unseeing eyes which look not up, however are ever bent earthward—fleshward.
However the clever lookup. They aren’t glad with this passion-world. They bend their steps in direction of the higher world of peace, the sunshine and the glory of which they behold, at first far off, however nearer and with ever growing splendor as they ascend.
None can fall decrease than ardour, however all can rise increased. In that lowest place the place additional descent is inconceivable, all who transfer ahead should ascend. The ascending pathway is all the time at hand, close to, and simply accessible. It’s the means of self-conquest. He has already entered it who has begun to say “nay” to his selfishness, who has begun to self-discipline his wishes, and to regulate and command the unruly parts of his thoughts.
Ardour is the archenemy of mankind, the slayer of happiness, the other and enemy of peace. From it proceeds all that defiles and destroys. It’s the supply of distress, and the promulgator of mischief and catastrophe.
The interior world of selfishness is rooted in ignorance—ignorance of Divine Regulation, of Divine Goodness; ignorance of the Pure Approach and the Peaceable Path. Ardour is darkish, and it thrives and thrives in religious darkness. It can not enter the areas of religious gentle. Within the enlightened thoughts the darkness of ignorance is destroyed; within the pure coronary heart there isn’t a place for ardour.
Ardour in all its types is a psychological thirst, a fever, a torturing unrest. As a fireplace consumes an impressive constructing, lowering it to a heap of unpleasant ashes, so are males consumed by the flames of passions, and their deeds and works fall and perish.
If one would discover peace, he should come out of ardour. The clever man subdues his passions, the silly man is subdued by them. The seeker for knowledge begins by turning his again on folly. The lover of peace enters the way in which which leads thereto, and with each step he takes he leaves additional under and behind him the darkish dwellingplace of ardour and despair.
Step one in direction of the heights of knowledge and peace is to grasp the darkness and distress of selfishness, and when that’s understood, the overcoming of it—the approaching out of it—will observe.
Selfishness, or ardour, not solely subsists within the gross types of greed and obviously ungoverned circumstances of thoughts; it informs additionally each hidden thought which is subtly linked with the belief and glorification of 1’s self. It’s most deceiving and delicate when it prompts one to dwell upon the selfishness in others, to accuse them of it and to speak about it. The person who frequently dwells upon the selfishness in others won’t thus overcome his personal selfishness. Not by accusing others will we come out of selfishness, however by purifying ourselves.
The best way from ardour to peace shouldn’t be by hurling painful expenses towards others, however by overcoming one’s self. By eagerly striving to subdue the selfishness of others, we stay passion-bound. By patiently overcoming our personal selfishness, we ascend into freedom. Solely he who has conquered himself can subdue others; and he subdues them, not by ardour, however by love.
The silly man accuses others and justifies himself; however he who’s turning into clever justifies others and accuses himself. The best way from ardour to peace shouldn’t be within the outer world of individuals; it’s within the interior world of ideas; it doesn’t consist in altering the deeds of others, it consists in perfecting one’s personal deeds.
Continuously, the person of ardour is most keen to place others proper; however the man of knowledge places himself proper. If one is anxious to reform the world, let him start by reforming himself. The reformation of self doesn’t finish with the elimination of the sensual parts solely; that’s its starting. It ends solely when each useless thought and egocentric goal is overcome. In need of excellent purity and knowledge, there may be nonetheless some type of self-slavery or folly which must be conquered.
Ardour is on the base of the construction of life; peace is at its crown and summit. With out ardour to start with, there could be no energy to work with, and no achievement to finish with. Ardour represents energy, however energy misdirected, energy producing damage as a substitute of happiness. Its forces, whereas devices of destruction within the palms of the silly, are devices of preservation within the palms of the clever. When curbed and concentrated and beneficially directed, they signify working vitality. Ardour is the flaming sword which guards the gates of Paradise. It shuts out and destroys the silly; it admits and preserves the clever.
He’s the silly man who doesn’t know the extent of his personal ignorance; who’s the slave of ideas of self; who obeys the impulses of ardour. He’s the clever man who is aware of his personal ignorance; who understands the vacancy of egocentric ideas; who masters the impulses of ardour.
The idiot descends into deeper and deeper ignorance; the clever man ascends into increased and better information. The idiot wishes, suffers, and dies. The clever man aspires, rejoices, and lives.
With thoughts intent on knowledge and psychological gaze raised upward, the religious warrior perceives the upward means, and fixes his consideration upon the heights of Peace.
2. Aspiration
WITH THE CLEAR PERCEPTION of 1’s personal ignorance comes the will for enlightenment, and thus within the coronary heart is born Aspiration, the rapture of the saints.
On the wings of aspiration man rises from earth to heaven, from ignorance to information, from the beneath darkness to the higher gentle. With out it he stays a groveling animal, earthly, sensual, unenlightened, and uninspired.
Aspiration is the eager for heavenly issues—for righteousness, compassion, purity, love—as distinguished from need, which is the eager for earthly issues—for egocentric possessions, private dominance, low pleasures, and sensual gratifications.
As a chicken disadvantaged of its wings can not soar, so a person with out aspiration can not rise above his environment and change into grasp of his animal inclinations. He’s the slave of passions, is topic to others, and is carried hither and thither by the altering present of occasions.
For one to start to aspire means that he’s dissatisfied together with his low standing, and is aiming at a better situation. It’s a positive signal that he’s aroused out of his torpid sleep of animality, and has change into acutely aware of nobler attainments and a fuller life.
Aspiration makes all issues potential. It opens the way in which to development. Even the best state of perfection conceivable it brings close to and makes actual and potential; for that which could be conceived could be achieved.
Aspiration is the dual angel to inspiration. It unlocks the gates of pleasure. Singing accompanies hovering. Music, poetry, prophecy, and all excessive and holy devices are finally positioned within the palms of these whose aspirations flag not, whose spirit doesn’t fail.
As long as animal circumstances style candy to a person, he can not aspire; he’s already glad. However when their sweetness turns to bitterness, then in his sorrow he thinks of nobler issues. When he’s disadvantaged of earthly pleasure, he aspires to the enjoyment which is heavenly. It’s when impurity turns to struggling that purity is sought. Actually aspiration rises, phoenix-like, from the lifeless ashes of repentance, however on its highly effective pinions man can attain the heaven of heavens.
The person of aspiration has entered the way in which which ends in peace, and absolutely he’ll attain that finish if he neither stays nor turns again. If he consistently renews his thoughts with glimpses of the heavenly imaginative and prescient, he’ll attain the heavenly state.
Man attains within the measure that he aspires. His longing to be is the gauge of what he could be. To repair the thoughts is to foreordain the achievement. As man can expertise and know all low issues, so he can expertise and know all excessive issues. As he has change into human, so can he change into divine. The turning of the thoughts in excessive and divine instructions is the only real and needful activity.
What’s impurity however the impure ideas of the thinker? What’s purity however the pure ideas of the thinker? One man doesn’t do the considering of one other. Every man is pure or impure of himself alone.
If a person thinks, “It’s by others, or circumstances, or heredity that I’m impure,” how can he hope to beat his errors? Such a thought will test all holy aspirations and bind him to the slavery of ardour.
When a person totally perceives that his errors and impurities are his personal, that they’re generated and fostered by himself, that he alone is liable for them, then he’ll aspire to beat them. The best way of attainment shall be opened as much as him, and he’ll see from the place and to what vacation spot he’s touring.
The person of ardour sees no straight path earlier than him, and behind him is all fog and gloom. He seizes the pleasure of the second and doesn’t attempt for understanding or consider knowledge. His means is confused, turbulent, and troubled, and his coronary heart is way from peace.
The person of aspiration sees earlier than him the pathway up the heavenly heights, and behind him are the circuitous routes of ardour up which he has hitherto blindly groped. Striving for understanding, and his thoughts set on knowledge, his means is obvious, and his coronary heart already experiences a foretaste of the ultimate peace.
Males of ardour attempt mightily to realize little issues—issues which speedily perish, and, within the place the place they have been, go away nothing to be remembered.
Males of aspiration attempt with equal may to realize nice issues—issues of advantage, of information, of knowledge, which don’t perish, however stand as monuments of inspiration for the uplifting of humankind.
Because the service provider achieves worldly success by persistent exertion, so the saint achieves religious success by aspiration and endeavor. One turns into a service provider, the opposite a saint, by the actual course by which his psychological vitality is guided.
When the rapture of aspiration touches the thoughts, it without delay refines it, and the dross of its impurities begins to fall away. Whereas aspiration holds the thoughts, no impurity can enter it, for the impure and the pure can not on the identical second occupy the thought. However the effort of aspiration is at first spasmatic and short-lived. The thoughts falls again into its routine error, and should be consistently renewed.
The lover of the pure life renews his thoughts every day with the invigorating glow of aspiration. He rises early, and fortifies his thoughts with sturdy ideas and strenuous endeavor. He is aware of that the thoughts is of such a nature that it can not stay for a second unoccupied, and that if it isn’t held and guided by excessive ideas and pure aspirations, it can assuredly he enslaved and misguided by low ideas and base wishes.
Aspiration could be fed, fostered, and strengthened by every day behavior, simply as is need. It may be sought, and admitted into the thoughts as a divine information, or it may be uncared for and shut out. To retire for a short while every day to some quiet spot, ideally within the open air, and there name up the energies of the thoughts in surging waves of holy rapture, is to arrange the thoughts for nice religious victories and destinies of divine import. For such a rapture is the preparation for knowledge and the prelude to peace.
Earlier than the thoughts can ponder pure issues it should be lifted as much as them, it should rise above impure issues; and aspiration is the instrument by which that is achieved. By its assist the thoughts soars swiftly and absolutely into heavenly locations, and begins to expertise divine issues. It begins to build up knowledge, and to be taught to information itself by an ever-increasing measure of the divine gentle of pure information.
To thirst for righteousness; to starvation for the pure life; to rise in holy rapture on the wings of angelic aspiration—that is the correct street to knowledge. That is the correct striving for peace. That is the correct starting of the way in which divine.
3. Temptation
ASPIRATION CAN CARRY a person into heaven, however to stay there, he should be taught to adapt his whole thoughts to the heavenly circumstances. To this finish temptation works.
Temptation is the reversion, in thought, from purity to ardour. It’s going again from aspiration to need. It threatens aspiration till the purpose is reached the place need is quenched within the waters of pure information and calm thought.
Within the early phases of aspiration, temptation is delicate and highly effective, and is considered an enemy; however it is just an enemy within the sense that the one tempted is his personal enemy. Within the sense that it’s the revealer of weak spot and impurity, it’s a good friend, a crucial consider religious coaching. It’s, certainly, an accompaniment of the hassle to beat evil and apprehend good. To be efficiently conquered, the evil in a person should come to the floor and current itself, and it’s in temptation that the evil hidden within the coronary heart stands revealed and uncovered.
That which temptation appeals to and arouses is unconquered need, and temptation will repeatedly assail a person till he has lifted himself above the lusting impulses. Temptation is an enchantment to the impure. That which is pure can’t be topic to temptation.
Temptation waylays the person of aspiration till he touches the area of the divine consciousness, and past that border temptation can not observe him. It’s when a person begins to aspire that he begins to be tempted. Aspiration rouses up all of the latent good and evil, so that the person could also be totally revealed to himself, for a person can not overcome himself until he totally is aware of himself.
It will probably scarcely be mentioned of the merely animal man that he’s tempted, for the very presence of temptation means that there’s a striving for a purer state. Animal need and gratification is the traditional situation of the person who has not but risen into aspiration. He needs for nothing extra, nothing higher, than his sensual enjoyments, and is, for the current, glad. Such a person can’t be tempted to fall, for he has not but risen.
The presence of aspiration signifies {that a} man has taken one step, not less than, upward, and is due to this fact able to being drawn again. This backward attraction known as temptation. The allurements of temptation subsist within the impure ideas and downward wishes of the center. The item of temptation is powerless to draw when the center not lusts for it. The stronghold of temptation is inside a person, not with out; and till a person realizes this, the interval of temptation shall be extended.
Whereas a person continues to run away from outward objects, beneath the delusion that temptation subsists solely in them, and doesn’t assault and purge away his impure imaginings, his temptations will enhance, and his falls shall be many and grievous. When a person clearly perceives that the evil is inside and never with out, then his progress shall be fast, his temptations will lower, and the ultimate overcoming of all temptation shall be properly inside the vary of his religious imaginative and prescient.
Temptation is torment. It’s not an abiding situation, however is a passage from a decrease situation to a better. The fullness and perfection of life is bliss, not torment. Temptation accompanies weak spot and defeat, however a person is destined for energy and victory. The presence of torment is the sign to rise and conquer. The person of persistent and ever renewed aspiration doesn’t enable himself to suppose that temptation can’t be overcome. He’s decided to be grasp of himself. Resignation to evil is an acknowledgment of defeat. It signifies that the battle towards self is deserted; that good is denied; that evil is made supreme.
Because the energetic man of enterprise shouldn’t be daunted by difficulties however research learn how to overcome them, so the person of ceaseless aspiration shouldn’t be crushed into submission by temptations, however meditates how he could fortify his thoughts. For the tempter is sort of a coward: he solely creeps in at weak and unguarded factors.
The tempted one ought to research thoughtfully the character and which means of temptation, for till it’s recognized it can’t be overcome. A clever normal, earlier than attacking the opposing pressure, research the ways of his enemy. Likewise, he who’s to beat temptation should perceive the way it arises in his personal darkness and error, and should research, by introspection and meditation, learn how to disperse the darkness and supplant error by reality.
The stronger a person’s passions, the fiercer shall be his temptations; the deeper his selfishness, the extra delicate his temptations; the extra pronounced his vainness, the extra flattering and misleading his temptations.
A person should know himself if he’s to know the reality. He should not shrink from any revelation which is able to expose his error. Quite the opposite, he should welcome such revelations as aids to that self-knowledge which is the handmaid of self-conquest.
The person who can not endure to have his errors and shortcomings dropped at the floor and made recognized, however tries to cover them, is unfit to stroll the freeway of reality. He’s not correctly geared up to battle with and overcome temptation. He who can not fearlessly face his decrease nature, can not climb the rugged heights of renunciation.
Let the tempted one know this: that he himself is each tempter and tempted; that each one his enemies are inside; that the flatterers which seduce, the taunts which stab, and the flames which burn, all spring from that interior area of ignorance and error by which he has hitherto lived. Figuring out this, let him be assured of full victory over evil. When he’s sorely tempted, let him not mourn, due to this fact, however let him rejoice in that his energy is tried and his weaknesses uncovered. For he who really is aware of and humbly acknowledges his weak spot won’t be gradual in setting concerning the acquisition of energy.
Silly males blame others for his or her lapses and sins, however let the truth-lover blame solely himself. Let him acknowledge his full accountability for his personal conduct and never say, when he falls, this factor, or such and such a circumstance, or that man was accountable. For essentially the most which others can do is to afford a possibility for our personal good or evil to present itself. They can’t make us good or evil.
Temptation is at first sore, grievous, and laborious to be borne, and delicate and protracted is the assailant. But when the tempted one is agency and brave, and doesn’t give means, he’ll steadily subdue his religious enemy, and can lastly triumph within the information of excellent.
The adversarial one is compounded of a person’s personal lust, selfishness, and delight. When these are put away, evil is seen to be naught, and good is revealed in all-victorious splendor.
4. Transmutation
MIDWAY BETWEEN the hell of Ardour and the heaven of Peace is the purgatory of Transmutation—not a speculative purgatory past the grave, however an actual purgatory within the human coronary heart. In its separating and purifying hearth the bottom metallic of error is sifted away, and solely the clarified gold of reality stays.
When temptation has culminated in sorrow and deep perplexity, then the tempted one, strenuously striving for deliverance, finds that his ethical servitude is solely from himself. As a substitute of combating towards outer circumstances, he should alter interior circumstances. The battle towards outer issues is critical initially. It’s the solely course which could be adopted on the first, due to the prevailing ignorance of psychological causation. But it surely by no means, of itself, brings about emancipation. What it does result in is the information of the psychological reason behind temptation. This information of the psychological reason behind temptation results in the transmutation of thought, and the transmutation of thought results in deliverance from the bondage of error.
The preliminary combating is a crucial stage in religious improvement, simply because the crying and kicking of a helpless babe is critical to its development. However because the crying and kicking shouldn’t be wanted past the toddler stage, so the fierce combating, and falling beneath, temptation ends when the information of psychological transmutation is acquired.
The really clever man, he who’s enlightened regarding the supply and reason behind temptation, doesn’t battle towards outward allurements—he abandons all need for them. Thus, they stop to be allurements, and the ability of temptation is destroyed at its supply. However this abandonment of unholy need shouldn’t be a ultimate course of. It’s the starting of a regenerative and remodeling energy which, when patiently employed, results in the clear and cloudless heights of religious enlightenment.
Non secular transmutation consists of a whole reversal of the peculiar self-seeking angle of thoughts towards individuals and issues, and this reversal brings about a wholly new set of experiences. Thus the will for a sure pleasure is deserted, lower off at its supply, and never allowed to have anywhere within the consciousness. However the psychological pressure which that need represented shouldn’t be annihilated, it’s transferred to a better area of thought, transmuted right into a purer type of vitality. The legislation of conservation of vitality prevails universally within the thoughts because it does in matter, and the pressure shut off in decrease instructions is liberated in increased realms of religious exercise.
Alongside the Saintly Approach in direction of the divine life, the halfway area of Transmutation is the Nation of Sacrifice, the Plain of Renunciation. Previous passions, previous ambitions and ideas, are solid away and deserted, however solely to reappear in some extra lovely, extra everlasting, extra eternally satisfying type.
Useful jewels, lengthy guarded and cherished, when thrown tearfully into the meltingpot, are remolded into new and extra excellent adornments. Likewise, the religious alchemist, at first reluctant to half firm with long-cherished ideas and habits, finally offers them as much as uncover, a bit later, to his pleasure, that they arrive again to him within the type of new amenities, rarer powers and purer joys—religious jewels newly polished, lovely, and resplendent.
In transmuting his thoughts from evil to good, a person comes to differentiate increasingly clearly between error and Reality, and so distinguishing, he ceases to be swayed and prompted by outward issues and by the actions and attitudes of others. As a substitute, he acts from his information of reality. First acknowledging his errors, after which confronting them with a looking thoughts and a humble coronary heart, he subdues, conquers, and transmutes them.
The early stage of transmutation is painful however transient, for the ache is quickly reworked into pure religious pleasure, the brevity of the ache being measured by the intelligence and vitality with which the method is pursued.
Whereas a person thinks that the reason for his ache is within the angle of others, he won’t go past it. However when he perceives that its trigger is in himself, then he’ll go past it into pleasure.
The unenlightened man permits himself to be disturbed, wounded, and overthrown by what he regards because the unsuitable angle of others in direction of him. It is because the identical unsuitable angle is in himself. He, certainly, doles out to them, in return, the identical actions, concerning as proper in himself that which is unsuitable in others. Slander is given for slander, hatred for hatred, anger for anger. That is the motion and response of evil. It’s the conflict of selfishness with selfishness. It is just the self, or egocentric parts, inside a person that may be aroused by the evil in one other. The Reality, or divine traits, in a person can’t be approached by that evil, a lot much less can it’s disturbed and overthrown by it.
It’s the conversion, or full reversal of this self or selfishness into Reality that constitutes Transmutation. The enlightened man has deserted the delusion that the evil in others has energy to harm and subdue him, and he has grasped the profound reality that he’s solely overthrown by the evil in himself. He due to this fact ceases accountable others for his sins and sufferings, and applies himself to purifying his personal coronary heart. On this reversal of his psychological angle, he transmutes the decrease egocentric forces into the upper ethical attributes. The bottom ore of error is solid into the hearth of sacrifice, and there comes forth the pure gold of Reality.
Such a person stands agency and unmoved when assailed by outward issues. He’s self’s grasp, not its slave. He has ceased to establish himself with the impulses of ardour, and has recognized himself with Reality. He has overcome evil, and has change into merged in Good. He is aware of each error and Reality, and has deserted error and introduced himself into concord with Reality. He returns good for evil. The extra he’s assailed by evil from with out, the higher is his alternative of manifesting the nice from inside.
That which supremely differentiates the idiot from the clever man is that this—that the idiot meets ardour with ardour, hatred with hatred, and returns evil for evil; whereas the clever man meets ardour with peace, hatred with love, and returns good for evil.
Males inflict struggling upon themselves by the energetic instrumentality of their very own unpurified nature. They rise into excellent peace within the measure that they purify their hearts. The psychological vitality which males waste in pursuing darkish passions is all-sufficient to allow them to achieve the best knowledge when it’s turned in the correct course.
As water, when transmuted into steam, turns into a brand new, extra particular and widereaching energy, so ardour, when transmuted into mental and ethical pressure, turns into a brand new life, a brand new energy for the accomplishment of excessive and unfailing functions.
Psychological forces, like molecular, have their reverse poles or modes of motion. The place the unfavorable pole is, there is also the optimistic. The place ignorance is, knowledge is feasible. The place ardour abounds, peace awaits. The place there may be a lot struggling, a lot bliss is close to. Sorrow is the negation of pleasure; sin is the other of purity; evil is the denial of excellent. The place there may be an reverse, there may be that which is opposed. The adversarial evil, in its denial of the nice, testifies to its presence. The one factor needful, due to this fact, is the turning round from the unfavorable to the optimistic; the conversion of the center from impure wishes to pure aspirations; the transmutation of passional forces into ethical powers.
The clever purify their ideas. They flip from unhealthy deeds and do good deeds. They put error behind them and strategy Reality. Thus do they rise above the allurements of sin, above the torments of temptation, above the darkish world of sorrow, and enter the Divine Consciousness, the Transcendent Life.
5. Transcendence
WHEN A MAN PASSES from the darkish stage of temptation to the extra enlightened stage of transmutation, he has change into a saint. A saint is one who perceives the necessity for self-purification, who understands the way in which of self-purification, and who has entered that means and is engaged in perfecting himself.
However there comes a time within the means of transmutation when, with the lower of evil and the buildup of excellent, there dawns within the thoughts a brand new imaginative and prescient, a brand new consciousness, a brand new man. When that is reached, the saint has change into a sage; he has handed from the human life to the divine life. He’s “born once more,” and there begins for him a brand new spherical of experiences. He wields a brand new energy; a brand new universe opens out earlier than his religious gaze. That is the stage of transcendence. This I name the Transcendent Life.
When there isn’t a extra consciousness of sin; when anxiousness and doubt, and grief and sorrow, are ended; when lust and animosity, and anger and envy, no extra possess the ideas; when there stays within the thoughts no vestige of blame in direction of others for one’s personal situation, and when all circumstances are seen to be good as a result of they’re the results of causes, in order that no occasion can afflict the thoughts, then Transcendence is attained. Then the restricted character is outgrown, and the divine life is understood; evil is transcended, and Good is all-in-all.
The divine consciousness shouldn’t be an intensification of the human; it’s a new type of consciousness. It springs from the previous, however it isn’t a continuance of it. Born of the decrease lifetime of sin and sorrow, after a interval of painful torment, it but transcends that life and has no half in it, simply as the proper flower transcends the seed from which it sprang.
As ardour is the keynote of the self-life, so serenity is the keynote of the transcendent life. Rising into it, man is lifted above disharmony and disturbance. When Good Good is realized and recognized, not as an opinion or an thought, however as an expertise or a possession, then calm imaginative and prescient is acquired, and tranquil pleasure abides by all hardships.
The Transcendent Life is dominated, not by passions, however by ideas. It’s based not upon fleeting impulses, however upon abiding legal guidelines. In its clear ambiance the orderly sequence of all issues is revealed, so that there’s seen to be no room for sorrow, anxiousness, or remorse.
Whereas males are concerned within the passions of self, they burden themselves with cares, and hassle themselves over many issues. Above all else, they hassle over their very own little, burdened, pain-stricken character, being anxious for its fleeting pleasures, for its safety and preservation, and for its everlasting security and continuance. Now within the life that’s clever and good all that is transcended. Private pursuits are changed by common functions, and all cares, troubles, and anxieties regarding the pleasure and the destiny of the character are dispelled just like the feverish goals of an evening.
Ardour is blind and ignorant. It sees and is aware of solely its personal gratification. Self acknowledges no legislation; its object is to get and to get pleasure from. The getting is a graduated scale various from sensual greed, by many delicate vanities, as much as the will for a private heaven or private immortality, however it’s self nonetheless. It’s the previous sensual craving popping out in a extra delicate and misleading type. It’s eager for some private delight, together with its accompanying concern that delight must be misplaced without end.
Within the transcendent state, need and dread are ended, and the thirst for acquire and the concern of loss are issues which might be no extra. For the place the common order is seen, and the place perennial pleasure in that good is a standard situation, what’s there left to need? What stays to be feared?
He who has introduced his whole nature into conformity and concord with the legislation of righteousness, who has made his ideas pure and his deeds innocent, has entered liberty. He has transcended darkness and mortality, and has handed into gentle and immortality. For the transcendent state is at first a better order of morality, then a brand new type of notion, and finally a complete understanding of the common ethical causation. And this morality, this imaginative and prescient, and this understanding represent the brand new consciousness, the divine life.
The transcendent man is he who’s above and past the dominion of self. He has transcended evil and lives within the follow and information of excellent. He is sort of a man who, having lengthy appeared upon the world with darkened eyes, is now restored to sight, and sees issues as they’re.
Evil is an expertise, and never an influence. If it have been an unbiased energy within the universe, it couldn’t be transcended by any being. However although not actual as an influence, it’s actual as a situation and an expertise, for all expertise is of the character of actuality. It’s a state of ignorance, of undevelopment and as such it recedes and disappears earlier than the sunshine of information, because the mental ignorance of a kid vanishes earlier than the steadily accumulating studying, or as darkness dissolves earlier than the rising gentle.
The painful experiences of evil go away as the brand new experiences of excellent enter into and possess the sphere of consciousness. And what are the brand new experiences of excellent? They’re many and delightful—such because the joyful information of the liberty from sin. They’re the absence of regret and deliverance from all torments of temptation. They’re ineffable pleasure in circumstances and circumstances which previously precipitated deep affliction, and imperviousness to be damage by the actions of others. They’re nice endurance and sweetness of character; serenity of thoughts beneath all circumstances; and emancipation from doubt, concern, and anxiousness. They’re freedom from all dislike, envy, and animosity, with the ability to really feel and act kindly in direction of those that see match to represent themselves as one’s enemies or opponents. They’re the divine energy to provide blessings for curses, and to return good for evil; a deep information of the human coronary heart, with a notion of its elementary goodness; and perception into the legislation of ethical causation and the psychological evolution of beings, with a prophetic foresight of the elegant good that awaits humanity. Above all, they’re a glad rejoicing within the limitation and impotency of evil, and within the everlasting supremacy and energy of excellent.
All these, and the calm, sturdy, far-reaching life that these suggest and comprise, are the wealthy experiences of the transcendent man, together with all the brand new and diverse sources, the huge powers, the quickened skills, and enlarged capacities that spring to life within the new consciousness.
Transcendence is surpassing advantage. Evil and good can not dwell collectively. Evil should be deserted, left behind and transcended earlier than good is grasped and recognized. When good is practiced and totally comprehended, then all of the afflictions of the thoughts are at an finish. For that which is accompanied with ache and sorrow within the consciousness of evil shouldn’t be so accompanied within the consciousness of excellent.
By any means occurs to the nice man can not trigger him perplexity or sorrow, for he is aware of its trigger and subject, is aware of the nice which it’s ordained to perform in himself, and so his thoughts stays completely happy and serene. Although the physique of the nice man could also be sure, his thoughts is free. Although it’s wounded and in ache, pleasure and peace abide inside his coronary heart.
A religious trainer had a pupil who was apt and earnest. After a number of years of studying and follow, the pupil at some point supplied a query for dialogue which his grasp couldn’t reply. After days of deep meditation, the grasp mentioned to his pupil, “I can not reply the query which you might have requested. Have you ever any answer to supply?” Whereupon the pupil formulated a reply to the query which he had propounded. The grasp then mentioned to him: “You’ve answered that which I couldn’t, and henceforth neither I nor any man can instruct you, for now you’re certainly instructed by reality. You’ve soared, just like the kingly eagle, the place no man can observe. Your work is now to instruct others. You might be not the pupil, you might have change into the grasp.”
In wanting again on the self-life which he has transcended, the divinely enlightened man sees all of the afflictions of that life as if his schoolmasters have been educating and main him upward. And within the measure that he penetrated their which means and lifted himself above them, they departed from him. Their mission to show him having ended, they left him the triumphant grasp of the sphere. For the decrease can not educate the upper; ignorance can not instruct knowledge; evil can not enlighten good; nor can the pupil set classes for the grasp. That which is transcended can not attain as much as that which transcends. Evil can solely educate in its personal sphere, the place it’s considered grasp. Within the sphere of excellent it has no place and no authority.
The sturdy traveler on the freeway of reality is aware of no such factor as resignation to evil; he is aware of solely obedience to good. He who submits to evil, saying, “Sin can’t be overcome, and evil should be borne,” thereby acknowledges that evil is his grasp. It’s not his grasp to instruct him, however to bind and oppress him. The lover of excellent can not even be a lover of evil, nor can he, for one second, admit its ascendancy. He elevates and glorifies good, not evil. He loves gentle, not darkness.
When a person makes reality his grasp, he abandons error. As he transcends error, he turns into extra like his grasp, till finally he turns into one with reality, educating it, as a grasp, by his actions, and reflecting it in his life.
Transcendence shouldn’t be an irregular situation; it belongs to the orderly means of evolution. Although, as but, few have reached it, all will come into it in the middle of the ages. And he who ascends into it sins no extra, sorrows no extra, and is not any extra troubled. Good are his ideas, good are his actions, and the nice is the tranquil tenor of his means. He has conquered self, and has submitted to reality. He has mastered evil, and has comprehended good. Henceforth neither males nor books can instruct him, for he’s instructed by the Supreme Good, the spirit of reality.
6. Beatitude
WHEN DIVINE GOOD is practiced, life is bliss. Bliss is the traditional situation of the nice man. These outer assaults, harassments, and persecutions which carry such sufferings to others, solely serve to intensify his happiness, for they trigger the deep fountain of excellent inside him to properly up hello higher abundance.
To have transcendent advantage is to get pleasure from transcendent happiness. The beatific blessedness which Jesus holds out is promised to these having the heavenly virtues— to the merciful, the pure in coronary heart, the peacemakers, and so forth. The upper advantage doesn’t merely and solely result in happiness; it’s happiness. It’s inconceivable for a person of transcendent advantage to be sad. The reason for unhappiness should be sought and located within the self-loving parts, and never within the self-sacrificing qualities. A person could have advantage, and be sad, however not so if he has divine advantage.
Human advantage is mingled with self, and due to this fact, with sorrow. However from divine advantage each taint of self has been purged away, and with it each vestige of distress. One comparability will suffice as an instance this: a person could have the braveness of a lion in assault and self-defense (such braveness being a human advantage), however he won’t thereby be rendered supremely completely happy.
Nevertheless, he whose braveness is that of the divine variety which allows him to transcend each assault and protection, and to stay gentle, serene, and lovable beneath assault, such a person will thereby be rendered supremely completely happy. Furthermore, his assailant shall be rendered extra completely happy, in {that a} extra highly effective good will overcome and solid out the fierce and sad evil of the opposite.
The acquisition of human advantage is a good step in direction of reality. However the divine means transcends it—reality lies upward and past.
Doing good so as to acquire a private heaven or private immortality is human advantage, however it isn’t unmixed with self, and never emancipated from sorrow. Within the transcendent virtues all is sweet, and good is all, and there’s no private or ulterior goal. Human advantage is imperfect; it’s combined with the baser, egocentric parts, and must be transmuted. Divine advantage is unblemished and pure; it’s full and excellent in itself.
And what are the transcendent virtues that embody all happiness and pleasure? They’re:
Impartiality; the seeing so deeply into the human coronary heart, and into human actions, that it turns into inconceivable to take sides with one man or one occasion towards the opposite, and due to this fact the ability to be completely simply.
Limitless Kindness in direction of all males, ladies, and all creatures, whether or not enemies or associates.
Good Endurance always, in all circumstances, and beneath the severest trials.
Profound Humility; the entire give up of self; the judging of 1’s personal actions as if they have been the actions of one other.
Stainless Purity of thoughts and deed. Freedom from all evil ideas and impure imaginings.
Unbroken Calmness of thoughts, even within the midst of outward strife, or surrounded by the turmoil of many hardships and difficulties.
Abiding Goodness of coronary heart; impervious to evil; returning good for evil.
Compassion; deep pity for all creatures and beings of their sufferings. Shielding the weak and helpless; and defending, out of pity, even one’s enemies from damage and slander.
Abounding Love towards all dwelling issues; rejoicing with the completely happy and profitable, and sympathizing with the sorrowing and defeated.
Good Peace towards all issues. Being at peace with all of the world. A profound reconciliation to the Divine Order of the universe.
Such are the virtues that transcend each vice and advantage. They embrace all that advantage embodies, whereas going past it into divine reality. They’re the fruits of innumerable efforts to realize; the wonderful presents of him that overcomes. They represent the tenjeweled crown ready for the calm forehead of him who has conquered himself. With these majestic virtues is the thoughts of the sage adorned. By them he’s eternally shielded from sin and sorrow, from hurt and damage, from hassle and turmoil. In them he abides in happiness, a blessedness, a bliss, so pure and tranquil, so deep and excessive, to date transcending all of the fleeting excitements of self, as to be unknown and incomprehensible to the self-seeking consciousness.
The sage has conquered ardour and has come to lasting peace. Because the mighty mountain stays unmoved by the turbulent ocean that beats at its base, so the thoughts of the sage, towering in lofty advantage, stays unshaken by the tempests of ardour which beat unceasingly upon the shores of life. Good and clever, he’s evermore completely happy and serene. Transcendently virtuous, he lives in beatific bliss.
7. Peace
WHERE PASSION is, peace shouldn’t be; the place peace is, ardour shouldn’t be. To know that is to grasp the primary letter within the divine language of excellent deeds. To know that keenness and peace can not dwell collectively is to be properly ready to surrender the lesser and embrace the higher.
Males pray for peace, but cling to ardour. They foster strife, but pray for heavenly relaxation. That is ignorance, profound religious ignorance. It’s not to know the primary letter within the alphabet of issues divine.
Hatred and love, strife and peace, can not dwell collectively in the identical coronary heart. The place one is admitted as a welcome visitor, the opposite shall be turned away as an unwelcome stranger. He who despises one other shall be despised by others. He who opposes his fellow man will himself be resisted. He shouldn’t be stunned, and mourn, that males are divided. He ought to know that he’s propagating strife. He ought to perceive his lack of peace.
He’s courageous who conquers one other; however he who conquers himself is supremely noble. He who’s victorious over one other could, in flip, be defeated; however he who overcomes himself won’t ever be subdued.
By the way in which of self-conquest is Good Peace achieved. Man can not perceive it, can not strategy it, till he sees the supreme necessity of turning away from the fierce combating of issues with out, and coming into the noble warfare towards evils inside. He who has realized that the enemy of the world is inside, and never with out; that his personal ungoverned ideas are the supply of confusion and strife; that his personal unchastened wishes are the violators of his peace, and of the peace of the world; such a person is already on the Saintly Approach.
If a person has conquered lust and anger, hatred and delight, selfishness and greed, he has conquered the world. He has slain the enemies of peace, and peace stays with him.
Peace doesn’t battle; shouldn’t be partisan; has no blatant voice. The triumph of peace is an unassailable silence.
He who’s overcome by pressure shouldn’t be thereby overcome in his coronary heart; he could also be a higher enemy than earlier than. However he who’s overcome by the spirit of peace is thereby modified at coronary heart. He that was an enemy has change into a good friend. Power and strife work upon the passions and fears, however love and peace attain and reform the center.
The pure-hearted and clever have peace of their hearts. It enters into their actions; they apply it of their lives. It’s extra highly effective than strife; it conquers the place pressure would fail. Its wings defend the righteous. Below its safety, the innocent aren’t harmed. It affords a safe shelter from the warmth of egocentric battle. It’s a refuge for the defeated, a tent for the misplaced, and a temple for the pure.
The place peace is practiced, and possessed, and recognized, then sin and regret, greedy and disappointment, craving and temptation, wanting and grieving—all of the turbulence and torment of the thoughts—are left behind at midnight sphere of the self to which they belong, and past which they can not go.
Past the place these darkish shadows transfer, the radiant Plains of Divine Beatitude indulge in Everlasting Gentle, and to those, the traveler on the Excessive and Holy Approach is available in due time. From the blinding swamps of ardour, by the thorny forests of many vanities, throughout the arid deserts of doubt and despair, he travels on, not turning again nor straying his course. He ever strikes towards his elegant vacation spot, till finally he comes, a humble and lowly, but sturdy and radiant conqueror, to the gorgeous Metropolis of Peace.