The essential mysticism [1918] Cobb, Stanwood Internet Archive

The essential mysticism : Cobb, Stanwood, 1881-1982 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive



Listen



The Essential Mysticism Paperback – December 2, 2019
by Stanwood Cobb (Author)


Kindle
from $5.89Read with Our Free App
Audiobook
$0.00Free with your Audible trial
Hardcover
$13.97
1 New from $13.97
Paperback
from $5.89
3 New from $5.89

=========

Russell Stamets

Author 

80 books

7 followers

Follow

October 29, 2019

As a narrator, I've bee fortunate to be able to follow my interests. This 100 year old texts is one of the most lucid and engaging of the many mysticism and metaphysics titles I have read.

This rare, public domain book shows the impact of oriental mysticism on current thought, discussing Whitman, Emerson, and others.


====106 pages
Language

English
Publication date


Next page


texts
The essential mysticismby Cobb, Stanwood, 1881-1982


Publication date 1918

Topics Mysticism

Publisher Boston : The Four seas company

Collection cornell; americana

=====

Full text of "The essential mysticism"

http://archive.org/details/cu31924029354390 

THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

By STANWOOD COBB 

Boston 

The Four Seas Company 

Copyright 1918, by 

The Four Seas Company 

Boston, Mass., U. S. A. 

===========

To THE Teachers of the past: who lived that we 

MIGHT DIE, AND WHO DIED THAT WE MIGHT LIVE. 

=====

PREFACE 

THE chief purpose of "The Essential" 

Mysticism" is to make clear to the lay- 

mind some of the spiritual problems 

of humanity — to interpret to Americans the 

real value of that Oriental mysticism which 

has been so much despised — to set forth the 

mystery of the soul of man in terms not of 

psychology but of the daily life. 

There are many books on religion and 

mysticism. Their names are legion. And 

yet I wonder if there is one of them 

which in completely simple, modern terms 

makes clear the value and importance of 

spirituality in the daily life of man? 

For it seems so plain, so self evident a 

fact, that spirituality works, that it is 

not a thing apart from life but life itself and 

the only clue to this existence; — that could 

this idea be conveyed to the American busi- 

ness man, so searching for efficiency in life, 

he would never rest until he had acquired 

spirituality. 7 

8 PREFACE 

It were too bold, too ambitious an aim, to 

expect to accomplish so much of good in this 

modest volume. fBut may the writer dare to 

hope that it will set on fire in the minds of 

some of its readers a few trails of spiritual 

gunpowder, which may, ultimately, cause 

explosions within the domain of their inner 

self resulting in a larger, freer, more far- 

seeing life? 

To the writer, the spiritual life seems the 

only sane, reasonable development of man, 

the only life which expresses man's whole 

nature. That it may seem so to some who 

have never seen it so before, is the greatest 

wish and errand of this book."J 

S. C. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Chapter 

Page 

I. 

Introductory .... 

13 

II. 

The Essential Mysticism . 

22 

III. 

"The Way" .... 

46 

IV. 

The Overcoming of Desire 

61 

V. 

Destiny and the Soul 

75 

VI. 

Renunciation . . . . 

85 

VII. 

A World of Matter and a World oj 

Faith ..... 

95 

VIII. 

The Doctrine of Love 

"3 

IX. 

Nirvana ..... 

127 

X. 

The Need of a Universal Religion 

139 

THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY 

WHITMAN in his wonderful "Pass- 

age to India" proved himself indeed 

a seer. With his broad vision of 

things he saw that the Suez canal meant 

not only the commercial union of the East 

and West but an interchange of thought, 

customs, and civilization. 

Time was when East and West were not 

so far apart. Caravans from India brought 

the Oriental products overland to Constan- 

tinople and Alexandria, where they were 

shipped to Genoa, Florence, or Venice, and 

distributed over Europe. 

The Florentine painters of the Quatro 

Cento owe much of the brilliant pageantry 

of their paintings to this oriental splendor 

which passed by their doors. 

But when the Turks possessed themselves 

of Asia Minor and later of Constantinople, 

the overland trade routes to India were 

broken and a toilsome dangerous sea-voyage 

13 

14 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

of many months became necessary. It was to 

shorten this sea-route that Columbus sailed 

out upon that great quest which was des- 

tined to add to the world a new continent 

and to bring into being a new race, — a race 

of pioneers composed of the most fearless, 

the most venturesome of all nations. Thus 

to the Turks do we owe our national ex- 

istence. 

During four centuries merchants plied 

their weary way by sea to India, braving 

the Cape of Good Hope which in travesty to 

its very name proved ruin of many enter- 

prises and the loss of countless lives. Then 

came that cutting of the desert, that sub- 

duing of the earth to the will of man which 

shortened by some seven thousand miles the 

route to India. It was to be, so Whitman 

saw, a wonderful link in the chain of world 

unity. 

Trade with the East made great an Em- 

pire which in its tiny isle would have lan- 

guished feebly but for that. But England 

could not long monopolize the world's trade. 

Commerce was not destined to seek only the 

rising sun. 

INTRODUCTION 15 

To America has been given the destiny 

of completing the circle, not by sailing east- 

ward but by sailing westward. The dream 

of Columbus was at last fulfilled. Take it 

as a mighty symbol, if you will, — that the 

farthest west becomes east. The wonder of 

the Suez canal pales into insignificance be- 

fore the possibilities of Panama. Here is 

the final link, the final cutting which en- 

circles the earth with a ribbon of water as 

a girdle of its maturity. 

u-For consider, was this planet worthy to 

be called mature while half of it was yet un- 

known? Or while the East stayed East and 

West stayed West? Only when the two 

commingle — when East meets West — can 

its civilization be said to approach perfec- 

tion. ^ 

Since fifty years or more the East and 

West have been flowing together marvelous- 

ly. Were Americans to realize how deeply 

their thought life has become permeated with 

Eastern wisdom they would, if of the unco 

plus type described by Vedder*, become 

*"The blood of the unco pius it would surely freeze. 

To know that God in China speaks Chinese." 

i6 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

horrified; but/jf they were of those who 

dream of universal brotherhood they would 

rejoice at this tremendous progress toward 

an understanding of the East^f 

Emerson was one of the first in this coun- 

try to delve in Oriental literature. The sa- 

cred books of India and Persia became for 

him a mine of thought. Indeed, he may be 

fairly said to owe most of his philosophy to 

the East. In his beautiful and mystic writ- 

ings he translated for the American mind 

the wisdom that had reposed for ages in the 

East. 

The effect of Emerson on American 

thought has been momentous. Not that his 

devotees are conspicuous for their numbers; 

but they are leaders in initiating and mould- 

ing public opinion. His influence, spreading 

to Europe, inspired a Maeterlinck, while in 

this country scores follow in his trail. 

The next definite movement for the intro- 

duction of Oriental thought was Theosophy. 

Brought over into this country in 1873 by 

Madame Blavatsky, it had a rapid growth, 

until the American Branch became as im- 

INTRODUCTION 17 

portant as that in England, the land of its 

birth. 

Theosophy, like Emersonianism, has had 

an influence enormously disproportionate to 

its mere numbers. The actual membership 

of the society has always been small and of 

an abnormal character, unfortunately such 

as to bring the movement into poor repute; 

but its ideas have permeated every depart- 

ment of our modern thought. Owing to its 

opportune extension of the doctrine of evolu- 

tion — which in itself had proved the greatest 

stretcher of men's thoughts since the world 

began — Theosophy has tinged the minds of 

many thinkers with its teachings. From the 

pulpit, the lecture-platform, from books and 

from the editorial pages of our great dailies, 

it has and still is sending forth its message 

of the cosmic law. And Theosophy, as all 

must know, is but a rehabiliment of Hindu 

thought. 

Theosophy has been followed by several 

lesser movements of a similar kind, — the 

Vedanta Society, the Mazdasnians, and the 

private cults of Hindu "swamis" and "gurus" 

who have never failed to find some entour- 

i8 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

age in this country. Many of these teachers 

are influenced by unworthy motives, com- 

mercially exchanging as it were their wares 

of ancient wisdom for food and shelter and 

fawning adulation of wealthy American 

women. Yet among them have been humble 

men, true teachers; men who gave more 

than they received and asked for nothing ex- 

cept the opportunity to give. It is the fakirs 

that have brought disrepute upon the whole 

tribe of Oriental missionaries. But there is 

as much difference here as between those of 

our missionaries who go to India because it 

is the easiest way in which an inefficient 

man can make a living, and those earnest 

Christians who go there because they yearn 

to give their all for truth. 

The greatest movement of Oriental mysti- 

cism in this country, however, few suspect. 

Christian Science is metaphysically almost 

an exact replica of the Vedanta idealism as 

taught by Cankara in India in the ninth cen- 

tury. One can trace the resemblance point 

by point. That this has not been previously 

recognized may be due to the fact that no 

real student of Christian Science has studied 

INTRODUCTION 19 

the Vedanta; while our scholars of com- 

parative religion who know of the Vedanta 

teaching have not cared to spend much time 

on Mrs. Eddy's teaching. Nothing is more 

logical, more impregnable, than the essential 

points of Christian Science. Because its 

teachings are clothed in emotional and mys- 

tial language, scholars have failed to grasp 

it just as they have failed to grasp the mean- 

ing of Hindu mysticism or of Laotze; 

for the American scholar, too generally 

materialistic in his trend of thought, passes 

over pearls of wisdom with the insouciance 

which Christ attributed to certain domestic 

animals. 

The contention of Christian Science is as 

follows: — that matter does not exist; that 

the cause of matter's seeming to exist is 

"mortal mind"; that mortal mind in itself 

has no reality and disappears before the 

light of truth. 

Let us look at Cankara. He too declares 

that matter does not exist; that the cause of 

matter's seeming to exist is Avidya or Igno- 

rance ; that this Avidya has no real existence 

20 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

but disappears before the light of know- 

ledge, which is Vidya. 

Many have made fun of Christian Science, 

thinking they punctured its logic when they 

asked what "mortal mind" was. Had they 

lived nine hundred years ago, they would 

have found a worthy polemist. Cankara, on 

being asked what Avidya was, replied: "He 

who would seek to know what Avidya is, is 

like one who, in order to know what darkness 

is, should light a torch. For when one lights 

a torch, darkness disappears. So when one 

acquires Vidya, Avidya disappears." 

Substitute for "Mortal Mind" Avidya, and 

for "Truth" Vidya and you have converted 

Christian Science into Vedanta^the purest 

and most incontrovertible form of idealism 

ever invented by the mind of man. ; 

<A Vedanta teacher was once instructing 

his pupils in the midst of a jungle. There 

suddenly crashed through the bushes a mad 

elephant — the most dangerous of tropic 

beasts. The pupils, disregarding their 

philosophy, took to the trees. When the 

animal had passed, they found their guru 

INTRODUCTION 21 

descending unabashed from a stout upas tree. 

"Why," asked one heretical youth, "did 

you climb a tree, if according to your teach- 

ing matter has no existence?" 

To this smart inquirer, worthy to adorn 

the impudent ranks of American youths, he 

answered calmly: 

"There was no elephant. There was no 

tree. I did not climb up a tree." 

Such extreme form of idealism, whether 

phrased by an Oriental, or by a Chris- 

tian Scientist, may appear nonsense. But 

the marvelous thing about Christian Science 

is that it is demonstrating, palpably and 

to the American sense, the existence of 

something other than matter. The typical 

American has two very good eyes, a physi- 

cally analytical mind, and a total ineptness 

for real thought. Hence he could never 

arrive, of himself and unaided, at the con- 

clusion that anything but matter exists. 

But when his wife or favorite daughter, dis- 

carded by all the learned physicians, is healed 

by Christian Science, a little light permeates 

his brain. He does not know much about 

Christian Science, but he does know that she 

22 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

who was condemned to die by consultation 

of the greatest specialists is alive again. He 

begins to attend a Christian Science church. 

And being a true Amerian, ardent and child- 

hearted, he goes the whole length. He has 

become an idealist without knowing or 

understanding what he believes. 

View it unprejudicially ! It is one of the 

most marvelous spiritual movements at pre- 

sent working in America. Its truths are 

stated in childlike terms, perhaps, but it has 

truths. 

From Christian Science branched out in 

1891 the New Thought movement, which, 

more indefinite than Christian Science, has 

a correspondingly larger following. New 

Thought, in some phase or other, is familiar 

to every person 'who reads or thinks. To it 

is largely due that doctrine of conscious 

optimism and good cheer which is so pop- 

ular at present. That one can thus regulate 

one's thoughts and feelings is to Americans a 

stupendous discovery. The Oriental has 

known it for ages. It is needless to say that 

New Thought is very old thought invading 

a new and youthful race.~{ 

INTRODUCTION 23 

The latest expression of Eastern spiritual 

thinking to reach these shores is the Bahai 

movement — a universal religion named after 

Baha UUah, its founder. Three years ago 

Abdul Baha, the son of the founder, and the 

present leader of the movement, visited this 

country and spoke from many pulpits and 

lecture platforms. The Bahai teaching is 

eminently sane, reasonable, and progres- 

sive. Its influence is plainly to develop a 

sort of practical everyday mysticism in its 

Western followers, and a wide-awake 

modern efficiency in its Eastern followers. 

From this, and from its definite teaching of 

fworld brotherhood, it is one of the greatest 

and most important movements for uniting 

the East and WesLj A most remarkable 

occasion was that witnessed by the writer, 

when Abdul Baha clad in his turban and his 

Oriental garments, conducted the Sunday 

service from a Christian pulpit — prayer, 

sermon and all. 

An event very significant of the rapidly 

growing Orientalism in the West was the 

conferring of the Nobel prize on Rabindra- 

nath Tagore, with the subsequent popularity 

24 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

of his work in Europe and America. He is 

a pure mystic, singing the songs of Oriental 

mysticism; yet his poems, published by a 

leading house, have in two years reached 

twelve editions, and his writings are eagerly 

looked forward to from year to year by a 

large reading public. This is an astounding 

fact. The West is growing tolerant! 

The East does not need a growth in reli- 

gious tolerance, for it has always been more 

tolerant than the West. It does not claim 

uniqueness for its religions, nor for its foun- 

ders of religion. 

But the East does need, and sorely need, 

a greater material efficiency. Far ahead in 

spiritual wisdom, it is far behind in the outer 

aspects of civilization. It has a wonderful 

thought life but a poverty-stricken phys- 

ical life. It has neglected the body and the 

things of the body. It has neglected most 

lamentably the education of the masses. So 

that the Western invasion of the East takes 

the form of schools, hospitals, railroads, 

bridges, science, industry, and all those in- 

ventions which make for sane and comfort- 

able living. 

INTRODUCTION 25 

The ascetic East is seeking after physical 

luxuries, while the materialistic West is 

growing more wise in spiritual ways. Here 

is a fair exchange — a barter which is of great 

profit to both sides. 

It is needless to point out the many ways 

in which the East is turning to the West for 

help. Japan, forced into the current of 

modern progress against its will, has made 

its way to the fore front. China, with its four 

hundred miUion souls, is yearning for the new 

civilization, and is turning to America for 

ideas and for men to carry them out. Turkey, 

forced into a great world war by parliamen- 

tary tricks, is managed by Germany — a sort 

of partnership in which the "terrible Turk" 

becomes more terrible under modern 

methods of efficiency. India, scratched on 

the surface by the English plough, is already 

yielding crops of Occidentalism. Fifty years 

ago Asia wanted nothing of the West, which 

she scorned and despised. Today, like a wo- 

man in despair, she is on her knees before 

her hitherto rejected wooer. The time has 

come for union. 

Each hemisphere has its final part to play 

26 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

in the great world civilization which is at 

hand. The Orient is the germinating place 

for the soul. It is there that religions are 

engendered. The Occident, on the contrary, 

is the place of expansion; it gives physical 

form and shape to the ideals of the East. 

Nineteen hundred years ago there spread 

from the Orient a religion whose spiritual 

principles have enveloped one half the world 

— a religion which the West has expanded 

in a great civilization. But the beautiful 

breath of mysticism which stirred hearts of 

old at the name of the Christ has died out 

from His Church, leaving it formal and cold. 

Shall it be that a new breeze will blow from 

the Orient, arousing again the hearts of men 

to heroism, nursing into flower the buds of 

faith atrophied under a long winter? If the 

time has come for a great renaissance of reli- 

gion, shall the presaging star not rise again 

upon the eastern horizon? 

Whatever favors as to mystic wisdom Des- 

tiny has granted to the East, yet she has re- 

served for the new and virile West the priv- 

ilege of applying spiritual principles to life, 

rendering efficient the glory of the mystic's 

INTRODUCTION 27 

dream. Let no one suppose that the East is 

to be exalted above the West. Each has its 

place in the regard of Destiny; each is be- 

loved of God; each is playing its great role 

in the cosmic evolution. 

Might one venture here a symbol of sex? 

Does it not seem that the soul of the Orient 

is feminine, while the soul of the Occident 

is masculine, in its qualities? The Orient is 

dreamy, mystical, poetic; the West is bold, 

aggressive and unintuitive. The union of 

these two temperaments will constitute the 

greatest incentive and stimulus to humanity 

since the days of Ancient Wisdom. For^irom 

it will be born a new race — tender, imagina- 

tive, mystic, — yet efficient to the highest de- 

gree, heroic in action as in thought, bold to 

pentrate the secrets of Nature and to subdue 

her to its will. Thus will arrive a new civili- 

zation, splendid in beauty and in force, sur- 

passing even the hopes of Utopian dreamers 

in the achievements of its mighty androgy- 

nous genius. / 

And this country — eldest child of the New 

World — is it to be favored by Destiny as the 

means and place of Union? Shall the fur- 

28 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

thest West become East? For further West 

one cannot go without surprising the dwel- 

ling of Phoebus as he springs up from the 

Eastern ocean, ruddy and golden for his 

journey across the sky's empyrean. And sa 

here must be the final link of the chain that 

is to girdle the earth. 

And Destiny, wishing it so, has prepared 

many a soul for such an enterprise. In this 

country, engrossed as it is in material things, 

mad after wealth and uncivilized to the point 

of rudeness, here Destiny has nevertheless 

planted souls most etherial and mystical, — 

oriental souls, one would say to meet them. 

And they reside not only in the physical 

bodies of fair women, of writers and thinkers 

and dreamers; but also in those of business 

men and people of affairs. Were one to ga 

through the land with seeing eyes one could 

trace a potential trail of fire where these 

sparks lie, — smouldering until they burst 

forth in the Great Conflagration. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

THERE are two reasons why one can- 

not see to the bottom of a well: it 

may be very deep, or it may be 

muddy. Most people, consoling themselves 

for a spiritual myopia, prefer to think that 

super-sensuous experiences are abnormal 

and unworthy the consideration of a healthy 

mind. Thus they dispose very easily of mys- 

ticism by calling it muddiness, and of spirit- 

uality by terming it neurasthenia. It is well 

that some are ignorant of the enormity of 

their ignorance. 

Mysticism is defined as "obscurity of doc- 

trine"; the mystic as "one who professes to 

have direct intercourse with the Divine"; 

and mystical as something "sacredly ob- 

scure or secret; remote from human compre- 

hension." These three definitions by Web- 

ster are entirely satisfactory and sum up in 

a few words the whole matter. The mystic 

claims to have direct intercourse with the di- 

29 

30 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

vine. How such a thing is possible is indeed 

"remote from human comprehension." 

And since most people find it comforting 

to pooh-hoo that which they cannot under- 

stand, they relegate all things mystical to 

the limbo of the unclear, vague, misty, dis- 

torted, and worthless, — a sort of clutter- 

room to which it pleases them to consign all 

data and experiences which would disturb 

the neat and ordinary routine of their daily 

lives. 

Hence it is that mysticism is in poor re- 

pute, and mystic is a term of derogation. 

Let us acknowledge that the mystic lives 

in a world all his own — it may not be any the 

less real. That his experiences are not the 

experiences of common men may or may not 

indicate that they are false. 

Conceive a Fiji Islander who had been 

brought to New York, upon his return try- 

ing to describe his experiences. That he 

had ridden in horseless vehicles directed by 

a magic bar of iron in the driver's hand; that 

he had seen man-birds fly over the city; that 

he had heard people talk three thousand 

miles away; that he had seen a prize-fight on 

THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 31 

a magic curtain a week after it had occurred ; 

that he had seen water become hard enough 

to walk on, — all such reports would properly 

be met with a condescending incredulity. 

The wise-acres and sceptics of his home 

town, knowing that such things were im- 

possible, would enjoy the traveller's vivid 

tales and honor him as the chief prevaricator 

of the village. 

j^M^ny things become possible that have 

been hitherto impossible ; and to the philos- 

opher who analyses existence the impossi- 

bility appears often to reside in the limita- 

tions of the human mind, rather than in the 

nature of things themselves. J 

Either, then, there is a whole new world 

into which the mystic is a pioneer; or else 

the mystic is a conscious or unconscious liar. 

That the analysis of spiritual experiences 

should fall to the province of the material- 

istic laboratory psychologist is a misfortune 

to the lay public; because such spiritual ex- 

periences, being foreign to the nature of the 

psychological dogmatist, find little chance 

of either a sympathetic or an accurate inter- 

pretation. 

32 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

That these psychologists are endeavoring 

to pigeon-hole God and X-ray the Divine, 

does not, I imagine, greatly alter the nature 

of that Divine, nor alarm that Creative 

Power in which all things, even psycholo- 

gists, subsist. 

i If there is any God, then the reaching out 

for union with Him is the only possible reli- 

gion. To posit a divine being is not religion. 

To believe that a god once created the uni- 

verse is not spirituality. If there is a Spir- 

itual Essence back of the seen and felt and 

heard, then that Essence is the abiding pres- 

ence in which man discovers his reality. "In 

Him we live and move and have our being," 

said one of the greatest mystics^ 

f^ The true mystic, however, not content 

with being an unconscious unit of existence, 

seeks consciously a closer union with the 

whole — strives to mingle his soul with the All 

Soul, and to be penetrated daily with the very 

Breath of LifeJ He believes in taking spir- 

itual exercise in order to make his soul grow, 

much as the athlete works his muscles in 

order to build up his body. 

This exercise of the mystic differs widely 

THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 33 

in different countries and religions, but es- 

sentially it is the same, — prayer and medita- 

tion. The East has practised these things for 

thousands of years. The Brahman priest, in 

the early days of India, held his power be- 

cause he was the "prayer maker." 

Prayer in our day has fallen into dis- 

repute. It, together with epileptic fits and 

hysteria, is patiently analysed by the abnor- 

mal psychologist. Not that he has any pre- 

judices against it or would condemn it, for 

he conceives it to be entirely harmless. 

If there is no divine, nothing spiritual, no- 

thing higher than the mind of man, then of 

course prayer is a psychological illusion, a 

subjective necessity at times, comforting in 

sorrow, but needless to sturdy men. 

If, however, there is a super-sensuous ex- 

istence, if there is anything superior to the 

mind of a modern psychologist, then prayer 

is the natural means of communion with such 

a world, — a sort of telepathic message which 

miraculously bridges the gulf between mat- 

ter and Spirit, between the created and the 

Creative, between the limited and the Limit- 

less. And no one who has not experimented 

34 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

and through prayer, uttered or unvoiced, 

sought this union, can be deemed worthy to 

make authoritative statements either about 

prayer or about God. 

iThe two great quests of humanity — the 

quest for happiness, and the quest for 

power — find in mysticism their highest ex- 

pression. 

That man lives for happiness is a truism. 

It is the great dominant motive in Hfe, to 

such an extent that even religions can pros- 

per only when they offer happiness, — hap- 

piness more abundant than falls naturally to 

the lot of manj 

The true martyr goes to the stake or the 

arena chanting hymns of joy. This joy may 

be in the terms of psychopathology a form of 

hysteria; or it may be something else beyond 

the power of materialistic analysis. But it 

is a joy real enough to the religionist to 

cause him to give up for it possessions and 

home and friends, — yea, wife and children. 

The search for happiness has led mankind 

through strange adventures. The sense 

THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 35 

world contains an immediate appeal, the il- 

lusion of which only infinite experience of 

suffering and disappointment can offset. 

Primitive races have found in the delirium 

of drink and of sex the acme of sense satis- 

faction. These pleasures indeed have proved 

so ecstatic as to appear to the naive mind 

to be a part of religion. Soma, an alcoholic 

drink, figured largely in the religious cult of 

the ancient Hindus; while the juice of the 

grape, in the Greek festivals, acquired the 

dignity of godhead. Sex orgies figured so 

largely in certain Greek religious rites, in- 

fluenced from more eastern cults, that the 

mystic brotherhood of the early Christian 

Church fell under like suspicion. In India 

sex has been and still is the largest element 

in the religious rites of the lower classes, 

and in certain sects the practises are so un- 

usual as to forbid description. 

The point to notice is this, that in the aban- 

don of intoxication, either of alcohol or of 

sex, unthinking man finds a spiritual quality. 

That there is, in spite of Puritanic concep- 

tions to the contrary, a certain spiritual qual- 

ity in joy, may be true. 

36 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

\,-But the sense-world disappoints, — not 

by its failure to give pleasure, but by its fail- 

ure to give sustained pleasure, and by reason 

of the depths of misery into which the sensu- 

alist is plunged between his periods of exalta- 

tion. If a way could be discovered to make 

these sense satisfactions lasting, doubtless 

the majority of mankind would be quite con- 

tent to linger in this valley. The fact that 

sense happiness is so fleeting, so ephemeral, 

may indicate to the inspective mind that 

Nature did not intend the senses to enthrall. 

It is only when satiety, disgust, misery inter- 

vene, that the seeker of the senses betrays 

his loyalty to flesh and seeks elsewhere for 

joy. 

Moderation, then, becomes the foundation 

for a higher, more delicate civilization, — per- 

mitting the innate forces of the self to ex- 

pand in creations of art and philosophy and 

refinement of living. The savage reaches a 

fierce maturity at adolescence. The races of 

civilization, conserving more carefully their 

emotional and sex force, prolong youth 

through a period which sees the rise of a 

creative will. Ambition, love of the beauti- 

THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 37 

ful, unknown aspirations, stir the soul of 

civilized youthjjwhile the savage is content 

to complete at puberty his cycle of existence, 

henceforth living but to feed and spawn. 

Yet even in the mental world, the world 

of art and thought and dreams, one finds a 

disappointment. The most intellectual of 

men are not always the happiest. The artist 

is a slave to his temperament, which leads 

him onto mountain peaks, only to cast him 

next moment into valleys of despair. Again 

joy is found transient, a will o' the wisp; and 

the determined man, never relinquishing his 

quest, strikes out into unknown fields, an 

adventurer after happiness, a pioneer, a 

mystic. 

(^ecause the pioneer in the land of spirit 

cannot state in terms of evident proof, to 

the sensualist and to the man of material- 

istic culture, the marvels of his dream world, 

he is set apart as strange, as unveracious, as 

psychopathic. It is easier so. One does not 

then have to give up one's superb faith in 

matter. For when one begins to let go of 

solid earth, one fears the outcome.^! 

So, in the day when old men dream 

38 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

dreams and young men see visions, the 

materialist strengthens his grip upon things 

earthly, and denies the soul with scalpel and 

X-ray. 

[^ Not only does the materialist have a vague 

and inchoate fear of losing his grip upon the 

solid flesh; but he also, humanwise, dislikes 

to believe that others can have found some- 

thing of which he is deprived. And so when 

the visionary has sold all his possessions and 

acquired the pearl of great price, the mater- 

ialist laughs at him and rejoices to think 

the jewel false. So, also, the materialist, to 

be logical, laughs at Christ and pities Him 

for his hallucinations; so he rejoices at find- 

ing Mohammed an epileptic and St. Frkncis 

of Assisi psychopathic. So hog-like, with 

snout in the trough, he sniffs defiance at the 

fairest blossoms of the world above him. 

Were God to appear to him in flesh, yet 

would he not believe. 

Christ was a mystic, as are all the Found- 

ers of Religions. Christ's teachings were 

essentially mystic; yet out of the Christian- 

ity of today has been taken all that mys- 

ticism which is the very breath of religion, — 

THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 39 

and there is left to the world only an empty 

shell which is no-religion. 

* * « 

That the mystic finds the highest joy, the 

niost supreme joy, the most lasting joy, that 

mortals know, — many have proven from 

their inner experience. To others, we trust 

that our book as a whole may convey a dem- 

onstration of this truth. And now we pass 

to the next point, which is that the mystic 

also solves the quest for power^i 

Happiness would very soon pall, were 

there nothing for man to work at, nothing 

for him to achieve, no destiny for him to 

carve out of the resisting material about 

him. The will to create is as innate in man 

as the desire for happiness; for as much as 

he partakes of the divine, in so far is he 

impelled to create. 

In its lowest phases this thirst for creative 

power takes the form of a desire to dominate 

over others. He who can inspire the highest 

degree of fear, respect, and obedience from 

those about him is the greatest among them. 

Not at this point in human evolution does 

humility appear desirable, nor that mystic 

40 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM^ 

phrase comprehensible that "he who is least 

among them is the greatest." 

This exercise of power, though selfish, ac- 

complishes certain cosmic ends, hence is per- 

mitted for the nonce by Destiny. By it are 

developed organization, social and political 

groups, and that fierce competition in which 

the fit survive and the weak go to the wall. 

Power is necessary to growth and progress, 

and the only rewards which Nature offers 

the weak are suffering and extinction. 

There comes a time, however, in the Spir- 

itual evolution of man, when the selfish are 

deprived of power. Cruel, despotic, master- 

ful as man can be, he cannot cope with the 

forces of Destiny; he cannot long oppose 

the Universal Law and prosper. 

In a certain stage of evolution it is the 

physically fit who survive; when the powers 

of the human mind have developed, mani- 

festing themselves in various power-pro- 

ducing inventions, it is not the physically but 

the mentally strong who survive; but in an 

age in which man has so matured as to con- 

sciously draw power from the Source of 

Power, it is not the mentally or the physi- 

THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 41 

cally fit, but the spiritually fit who become 

the masters of men. (And inasmuch as spir- 

itual man is a mystic, it is the mystic, in a 

spiritual age, who manifests the greatest 

power. / 

This^fact is not hard to see in the realm of 

art creation. The artist, drawing his inspir- 

ation from a higher Source, creates forms 

of beauty for the world. The greater his in- 

spiration, the more selfless he is, the nearer 

to the Creative Source, — by so much the 

greater is his creative work. Egoism, con- 

ceit, self-consciousness, desire for the mere 

outer manifestations of power, — these things 

eat like hidden cankers at the creative heart 

of the artist, until the whole world cannot 

fail to notice a diminution in his power. 

The true artist knows that he is inspired — 

knows that the fairy forms of beauty that 

haunt his dreams are not the children of his 

brain, but visions from another world. He 

knows that he is but a channel, pouring forth 

cheer and inspiration to the world in propor- 

tion as he is freed from obstructions of self. 

Even the greatest of men said, "Call me 

not good. Of myself I do none of these 

42 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

things." And if the greatest make no claim 

to personal power, shall the least among us 

strut and crow with human vanity, because 

it has been vouchsafed us to create ? 

In even more practical ways man recog- 

nizes the value and the mystic wonder of an 

inspiration. The great inventors tell us that 

after they have set all their superb powers of 

intellect to work upon a given problem, the 

final solution comes to them suddenly, un- 

consciously, inspirationally, as a gift from 

the blue. And so come to earth all the mar- 

vels of modern science, — the telephone, the 

telegraph, and mighty machinery that obeys 

like a huge hapless slave the slightest will of 

man. 

If inspiration helps the scientist, it can 

help the business man. True, the human 

brain can of itself accomplish marvels of or- 

ganization and production: but greater 

marvels can be accomplished by those who 

know how to grasp Ideas; who, not content 

with imitating, would create new fields of 

human endeavor. For the business man is 

also a creator. 

We half expect the artist to be a mystic; 

THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 43 

we can even understand how an inventor 

can be a little queer in this direction; but 

it is a new and almost inconceivable thing to 

imagine the business man as intuitive, spirit- 

ual, and truly creative. Yet there are those 

who have applied the principles of mysticism 

to their business, realizing from prayer, faith, 

and concentration a degree of power and ex- 

ternal success corroborative of the value of 

their efforts. 

It is unfortunate that mysticism in the past 

has been almost universally correlated with 

asceticism, irresponsibility, withdrawal from 

the world, — resulting in a total unproduc- 

tiveness on the plane of the visible. The 

ordinary mortal has no means of judging 

the value of dreams, save as they result in 

action and achievement; and quite rightly 

does he measure his neighbor by results, by 

work accomplished, rather than by rapt 

visions and ideals. 

On the other hand, a mysticism that would 

produce a greater power and efficiency of 

achievement would commend itself even to 

the practical American. Can mysticism be- 

come efficient? That is its greatest problem. 

44 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

In the East it has been inefficient. Yet in 

the nature of things there is no law which 

compels it to remain so. 

It is not without reason that Destiny has 

fostered in the West a race disdainful of 

mere dreams and visions, a race hardy to 

create and achieve, a race which stands 

solidly for material efficiency. Material 

efficiency without the spiritual vision is no 

more accusable than a mysticism which ac- 

complishes nothing. If we are to blame the 

West we must also blame the East. Destiny 

is tolerant of faults, and we may better spend 

our effort, not in regret for a one-sided 

development in either hemisphere, but in 

working for a union of these two attitudes 

toward life so vividly expressed in the Occi- 

dental and Oriental civilizations. 

XX-et mysticism become efficient, and let 

efficiency become spiritual. The perfect man 

must manifest on the material plane the 

power which he draws from spiritual sources. 

The ecstacy of vision must be wrought out 

in the sweat and toil of achievement. The 

man who creates is really spiritual, whether 

he know it or not. But the greatest inspira- 

THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 45 

tions come to those who know consciously 

where to seek Power. 

And so, I say, the mystic solves the prob- 

lem of power, as he solves that of joy; and he 

unites in his being the song with the crea- 

tion ; rejoicing in ever new unf oldment of his 

powers, in ever new accomplishment, work- 

ing joyously by the side of the Friend. / 

CHAPTER III. 

"THE WAY" 

THIS doctrine of "The Way" appeals 

but little to Americans, who, both 

in theory and practice, raise the 

ideal of strenuosity to its apotheosis. To 

smash one's way through all opposition, to 

fight against the heaviest obstacles, to en- 

gage in increasing activity in order to bring 

about desired ends, — this is the American 

ideal. At the other pole of thought is the 

calmness and conservatism of the Oriental, 

who takes the line of least resistance and 

shrinks from brutally contesting the field 

of victory. 

Each is a matter of temperament and cli- 

mate, of racial heredity and social example. 

That the Oriental may have something of 

truth in his point of view is the thought 

needed to be brought home to the strenuous 

American, who in action — restless and too 

often undefined — prematurely exhausts the 

very springs of action within him. 

46 

"THE WAY" 47 

Of what use is it to do three men's work at 

thirty if one must die as the result at forty? 

Or to crowd five years activity into one, if 

that one year of effort is to bankrupt the 

store of power meant to last a Hfetime? 

Haste! Yes, in our age of timetables and 

alarm clocks, haste is our god! But haste 

makes waste, and America needs a move- 

ment to conserve, not only her physical but 

also her human and spiritual resources. 

Are we Americans the masters of our fate, 

as Henley sang? Or but the slaves of Des- 

tiny, — who utilizes our ill-governed energies 

to exploit a marvelous new hemisphere? We 

have worked hard at the task — none harder. 

But is it not time now to sit down and take 

account? The forests are all cleared. The 

wolves are fled before the ax of the pioneer. 

The Indian has subsided to a harmless ward. 

The winds and waves are harnessed to our 

will. And the earth contributes of her treas- 

ures for the comfort of humanity more gen- 

erously and more amazingly than in any pre- 

vious age or country of the world. Let us 

take breath and look about us. Are there 

not other things in life than dollars and div- 

48 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

idends? Are there not other forms of 

achievement than that of developing earth's 

resources? Are there not other ideals than 

mere physical wealth and domination? 

As one w^ho struggles in the thick of the 

fight loses his perspective of the battle, so 

perhaps the American who is working him- 

self to death — he knows not why — may 

miss somewhat of true vision, may waste 

his efforts because his efforts are unguided. 

Not mere activity, but well directed activity 

is regarded by the wise, 

"r If one hour spent in calm meditation will 

clear up a difficult problem, inspire a new 

method, or yield a new ideal of achievement, 

is that hour not worth days of mere work? 

The plan must precede the action, not the 

action the plan; and Americans rush often 

too hot-headedly into action without taking 

time to plan. The Great War illustrates how 

careful planning may defeat with ease the 

savage activity of unorganized and ill-equip- 

ped hordes. We make a god of quantity- — 

but quality is more important. Not how 

much we do, but how much we do of value, 

is what counts. ; 

"THE WAY" 49 

It would not seem to the strenuous Oc- 

cidental that a model school could be con- 

ducted by a principal who spent several 

hours a day on the roof of his house in 

dreamy meditation. Our ideal of a head 

master is one who is rushing here and there, 

dictating countless letters, meeting people, 

giving speeches, taking violent exercise, and 

living twenty-five hours a day. Yet Rabin- 

dranath Tagore has made his school success- 

ful, from every point of view; and he has 

built up his unique institution along those 

Oriental lines of calm poise and spiritual 

insight. 

What man would value the month's work 

of a day-laborer with the hour's achievement 

of a genius, who in that period of time dashes 

of¥ an immortal poem or a melody destined 

to enchant the world? 

Democracy gives a false impression of 

average values, enviously attempting" to ob- 

literate all distinctions of superiority in 

brain, temperament, and insight. Hence the 

tendency in a new, raw, and crude social or- 

ganism such as ours, to measure a man by 

so THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

the amount of work he does instead of by the 

quahty of his achievements. 

The man of dreams, of meditations, of 

visions, is ill-appreciated in a race of work- 

ers who conceive not the power his dreams 

may exert over their activities. 

It was dreams before action that produced 

the French Revolution, — a faineant Rous- 

seau who set the spark to one of the greatest 

of social and political conflagrations. 

And where, pray, are born those ideas 

which are the seed of all action, save in the 

lonely struggle of the Self with the prob- 

lems of the Universe? j The world's great 

creators are ever lonely men, — men who 

must, at times, retire from the throng in 

order to get a clear vision of the right. They 

— the poets, the painters, the composers — re- 

ceive their greatest inspirations in moments 

of peace and tranquility. From the flowers of 

spiritual calm they distill that perfume 

which sweetens the harshness of ourdaily lifej 

But were poets alone to appreciate the 

value of meditation, of calm, and of non-ac- 

tivity, what a minuscule proportion of hu- 

manity would profit by these things! It is 

"THE WAV 51 

not to the dreamer, already meditative by 

nature, that one wishes to appeal, but to the 

practical business man and to the world's 

o'er-weary workers. 

Can this habit of in-drawing, of cessation 

from activity, be applied to business? It 

would seem impossible. Yet I know a man 

with the smooth, boyish face of a dreamer, 

whose business, because he took time to 

think and be original, in a period of real de- 

pression increased above that of any pre- 

vious year. He is one who has the daring to 

free himself from routine and to rid himself 

of all petty details. He may come to his office 

and work hard all day, he may come for 

only an hour, or he may not come at all. And 

following thus the guidance of his inner per- 

sonality, he conceives ideas which are con- 

vertible into money. Here is success, meas- 

ured even from the most materialistic stand- 

point, for in our country money is the final 

test of accomplishment. 

Many a business man is beginning to real- 

ize that a mind fresh, healthy, calm, is able 

to achieve more in an hour than a mind 

52 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

fatigued and too harnessed to its task can 

do in days. 

Once convince the financier that ideas are 

worth ten times their measure of mere work, 

and you have him playing at golf, riding 

horse-back, daring to be at ease wJrere others 

are making themselves idealess by over- 

work. It is a new doctrine, but one already 

gaining many adherents. 

The greater ability a business man has, 

the less hours he spends in his office; and 

decisions which involve millions are made 

in a quiet discussion of half an hour. 

It is the man of small conceptions and 

petty caliber who is always working, a slave 

to his task. Beads of perspiration stand out 

upon his unthinking brow, and worry and 

anxiety reign turbulent over a mind that has 

never learned how to create. 

For the subordinate in business to rise 

above the tyranny of routine is difficult, so 

long as his employer demands from him 

mere work. Yet independence, originality, 

rebellion against the slavery of petty tasks, 

will in time raise clerks to managers and 

make creators out of mechanicians. Cour- 

"THE WAY" 53 

age, boldness, and assertion are the qualities 

that make for success against obstacles. 

!'i I would that all men of affairs were mys- 

tic, in the true sense of the word. Mater- 

ialism has had its day. Many are coming 

to realize the existence of forces other than, 

and superior to, themselves, — forces that 

make for progress and success. 

To rely upon one's self, upon one's inner 

powers of accomplishment, is a rare gift; 

but to rely upon a higher Power which con- 

trols the movements of Destiny and holds 

in its grasp every entity in the universe, that 

is still a rarer gift, — and' that is to be a 

mystic. 

To the materialist this is babbling non- 

sense, for he believes in no power higher than 

himself; and before an audience of such, 

mysticism had best hold its tongue. But 

fortunately there is a spiritual breeze stir- 

ring, gently making itself felt, moving the 

stagnant pools of scepticism and heralding 

the hope of a new dayf/ 

Are there not already a host of business 

men who in times of stress look above and 

bevond themselves for aid? who turn to 

54 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

prayer in the midst of trouble and have 

learned how to place their hands in the 

hands of the Friend, that they may find 

guidance? 

Call it what you will. Call it Christian 

Science, New Thought, or call it simply 

Christianity, — there are more men who can 

give testimony of these things than the 

world dreams. People are shy of speaking 

of such experiences. Your very neighbor 

who walks so placidly to business in a 

week of downward drift and frequent bank- 

ruptcies, may be gathering, in prayer and 

inward mediations, the power and the 

guidance which is carrying him success- 

fully through great and anxious issues. 

He does not claim to be a mystic — would be 

ashamed to confess to that appelation — but 

such he is in the truest meaning of the word. 

And where, pray, is mysticism of more 

value than in business? No department of 

life so sternly tests one's powers, or brings 

such an immediate and emphatic response 

to able efifort. Meditation which revolves 

about itself in endless cobwebs is of no value 

to the world. More and more as I grow 

"THE WAY" 55 

older, meditative by temperament, do I ad- 

mire the powers of the business man to 

achieve. There is the test ! Dreaming with- 

out achievement is a sorry return to make 

the universe for shelter and life. Rightly do 

men measure ability by its success in wrest- 

ing a living from the world. I have no ulti- 

mate quarrel with those who admire incomes. 

There are other kinds of success — but in nine 

cases out of ten one's earning capacity is the 

correct measure of one's powers. 

The greatest achievement of this century 

will be found, I believe, in the application of 

mysticism to business, — in the miracle of 

Spirit breaking forth into natural increase, 

making fat the land with corn and wine and 

prospering all who trust its guidance. That 

spirituality is the greatest source of power, 

is the truth now crying to be heard. 

"Nature strives not, and therefore she 

accomplishes everything." The Oriental 

thinkers have in the course of ages drawn 

many lessons from Nature^ — but none more 

deep, or more pregnant for humanity than 

this great doctrine of Laotze's. It is not 

difficult to see what it means. Everything 

56 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

in nature is content to fullfil its inner des- 

tiny, not in ways of strife and strain, but in 

peaceful, harmonious, gradual unfolding of 

that which is within. The seed sends forth 

a shoot, the shoot becomes a shrub, the shrub 

becomes a mighty oak. But where in this 

process can one observe anxiety, strain, or 

undue haste ? A raindrop falling on the moun- 

tain-side joins company with other rain- 

drops; and the tiny streamlet trickling down 

meets with other streamlets and becomes a 

dashing brook, meets with other brooks and 

forms a river. And here, where power is 

greatest and achievement at a maximum, is 

observed the greatest tranquility and poise. 

The little mountain brook is dashing and 

strenuous; but the river is mighty, majestic, 

and calm. 

How impressive to watch the current 

sweep over a large dam. Dark masses of 

water approach with a slow power the ob- 

stacle over which they are to pass, — but 

there is no fretting or straining. Each drop 

holds its place, and is swept over the dam by 

a destiny mightier than itself. When the 

current is too low or too feeble to flow over. 

"THE WAY" 57 

it calmly bides its time gathering power for 

the onward drive. This is what Laotze 

meant when he said, "Nature never strives." 

But is Nature for this reason a helpless 

faineant? Can it be said that in this seeming 

inactivity she accomplishes nothing? Step 

by step, almost imperceptible to the ob- 

servation of man, Nature in her calm way 

has formed our globe, has prepared it for 

living forms, and has developed all of life 

which we see about us here today. 

The sun, that mighty symbol of unstriv- 

ing power, has by its gentle radiative force 

nursed into being every form of activity 

which characterizes our globe. Lightning 

and thunder pay tribute to its majesty. Cy- 

clones and whirlwinds wear themselves out 

beneath its gaze. But it shines on, — never 

dimmed, never exhausted, calm and serene in 

an eternal influence which outlasts every 

form of cataclysmic might. 

There are in Nature, as well as among 

men, to be found busy-bodies, — strenuous 

little currents of activity which have their 

place in the stupendous whole; but they are 

only the servants of those more regal forces 

58 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

whose action is harmonious, tranquil, and 

unstriving. 

^^When will mankind learn that harmony, 

not violence, is the keynote of the universe? 

When will they learn to trust themselves, 

childlike, to the mighty movements of that 

Law which has called them into being; and 

which will, in its own time, unfold to each 

one his or her true destiny? J 

"Every thing which is in due time for thee, 

is in due time for me, O Universe, " is the 

lesson which life taught a pagan sage. 

There are times in which to act — and times 

in which not to act. But worry never yet 

has accomplished anything of worth. 

The strenuous American, confiding only 

in the strength of his right hand, seeks to 

batter down the walls that obstruct his 

path. Gallant but futile effort! When, if 

one were to go his way patient in his trust 

and effort, who knows but somewhere Des- 

tiny would open to him the gate through 

which she has meant from the beginning 

that he should pass? 

Is there a guidance that seeks to lead us 

to success? Of this one can speak but veil- 

/7 

"THE WAY" 59 

edly.rThe greatest truths are wasted upon 

unbelievers. Though a hundred Christs 

and Buddhas and Laotzes were to bring 

their message to the world pointing the way 

to new and more glorious triumphs for hu- 

manity, — yet would mankind, through its 

terrible inertia of scepticism, being for the , 

most part of little minds, lack the courage .Al^ jS^ 

and the will to achieve that new success'^ yjr 

Of what avail to offer what few prize? 

Or what advantage, to speak of laws which 

as yet humanity has not evolved enough to 

use? 

Yet here and there are men who dare to 

trust these laws, — pioneers, who hesitate to 

claim an understanding of that which is so 

new and strange and epochal; that guidance 

which, from sources one knows not of, like 

mysterious currents of the ocean sweeps 

one's life on to success. 

A power more unknown than gravity, 

stranger than electricity, seeks to rule our 

lives. We may not analyze it — yet we may 

use it when we know its ways. By yielding 

to it we can command it. By confessing 

ourselves inferior to it, it becomes our ser- 

60 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

vant. By claiming that we are nothing, 

through its aid we become great and wise. 

By listening to its voice of warning, we in- 

stinctively avoid the hundred little pitfalls 

of the world. By following its guidance, we 

achieve mighty works without anxiety or 

strain. For we are working as Nature works, 

— and when at last we strive to do nothing, 

we accomplish everything.'^ 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE OVERCOMING OF DESIRE 

EACH great religion has contributed 

something to the world's thought. 

The unique contribution of Buddhism 

is its doctrine of non-desire. 

Buddha, beginning life with every advan- 

tage of birth and position, surrounded with 

all the pleasures that wealth can bestow up- 

on the senses, discovered that life's joy lies 

not in such. 

Seven weary years in quest of joy he wan- 

dered, seeking it through torture and nega- 

tion of the body. Not here, however, the 

source of joy, as his discerning heart dis- 

covered. 

Then came the illumination — simple 

enough, as all great truths are simple. He 

discovered that the cause of sorrow is desire; 

that the cure for sorrow is the overcoming 

of desire. When this light dawned upon 

him, he went forth among his fellow-men 

with shining face and woke into life a spark 

6i 

62 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

in others which made their faces also shine. 

A truth which makes people's faces shine 

is a sublime truth. Not often does it come 

to earth. Yet when it comes, it is as natural 

as love, cheering as rays of sunshine, and as 

powerful as the Creative word. Nothing can 

prevent its spreading through the hearts of 

men till ultimately it becomes imbedded in 

the thought-structure of humanity. We 

cannot now doubt that Love is the key to 

life, or that Non-Desire is the door which 

leads to happiness. 

Those truths which the Great Ones have 

wrought out in the loneliness of their spirit- 

ual strivings, we lesser creatures prove cor- 

rect by the experience of years. 

It is hard for the young person to realize 

what Non-Desire means, or what its value. 

Each earth-bound soul is born a bundle of 

desires, and it is part of the process of 

growth to develop these desires. Hence to 

say to the young, "Desire nothing," is to 

talk to them in a strange language. That 

keen ambition of youth; that thirst for plea- 

sure, for knowledge, for experience ; that rest- 

less spirit of enterprise which would try all 

THE OVERCOMING OF DESIRE 63 

things and yet not be content; that intense 

desire for fame, for glory, for self-exalta- 

tion; and that impelling power of sex which 

adolescence sets in motion, — all these brook 

ill the spiritual command, "Cease to desire!" 

But some learn lessons more quickly than 

others. It is as if, made wise by the ex- 

perience of many lives, they understood 

even from childhood that which Destiny is 

aiming at. It is not necessary for them to 

suffer so many misfortunes as others in 

order to hear the Truths that are knocking 

at their door. A few bitter experiences, a 

few sense-pleasures turned to ashes, suffice 

to teach them that the road to happiness lies 

not in the valley of desire. 

To the meditative mind life gradually 

makes clear the truth, that all material 

things are perishable; nay, must in the very 

nature of their being pass away. 

Wealth brings a multitude of possessions. 

But wealth is precarious, and even when its 

massive proportions seem to assure a per- 

manence, the soul may turn in loathing 

from the very things which once allured. 

To the lover in the ecstasy of passion 

64 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

love seems immortal, a possession of the 

soul superior to time and change, a power 

beyond the possibility of loss or hazard. 

Yet passion wanes as it arises, and the red 

rose which to-day entices the nightingale 

to-morrow is withered away. Even that 

love which has in it some element of the 

divine is ever haunted by the fear of separa- 

tion. For we live in a world of change; and 

Destiny has never assured us that the souls 

of those we love should stay always in 

earth-bodies. Death, or even distance, may 

plunge the heart in gloom. In an existence 

phased in matter, a few miles of land or sea 

may frustrate the dearest longings of the 

soul. 

And so the philosopher consoles himself 

with not loving much. He seeks to dis- 

engage himself from the net of circum- 

stance, and to become unattached to the 

things of earth. With stoic heart he sees 

quite placidly his friends and loved ones 

pass away, his possessions disappear, his 

cherished ambitions fail. Why, he says, 

should one set one's heart on the possession 

of a trinket which may so easily be lost or 

THE OVERCOMING OF DESIRE 65 

taken from one; or which may cease, upon 

possession, to attract? And by analogy he 

applies this reasoning to life itself, and 

ceases to desire. 

No one has so well expressed or so well 

lived the stoic life as that great Emperor 

who, having all, sacrificed in spirit all that 

he had; and by the power of philosophy and 

faith severed his soul from every earthly 

tie. 

Yet the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, 

the Stoic, is not the deepest nor the truest 

interpretation of the doctrine of non-desire. 

; We should not strive to love less, but to 

love more. We should not seek to starve 

our hearts, but to enlarge them to embrace 

the universe. 

Renunciation is not mere negation. We 

gain little by cutting things off from us, or 

by cutting ourselves from the world. 

Neither asceticism nor stoicism solve life vf 

nor satisfy the soul of man, which is des- 

tined to own all things, not to discard them. 

If by desire we mean attachment to 

things external to the self, then it may be 

said that spiritual evolution is measured by 

66 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

'i 

the extent to which one has overcome de- 

sire. If by desire, however, we mean a 

reaching out for progress, for evolution, for 

cosmic growth, then the status of a race or 

of an individual may be measured by the 

amount of this desire it or he possesses. 

In other words, there are two kinds of 

desire which must be clearly differentiated, 

— one a desire for externals, and the other, 

a desire for self-developmenfTl In ordinary 

life the two are so closely mingled that it is 

difficult for the uninitiated to conceive of 

them as separate. Hence, when one says, 

"Overcome desire," the average person 

points the finger of scorn at those races 

which have most followed this doctrine, 

conspicuous for their cultural stagnation; 

and then points proudly to the races of the 

Occident, which by the very burning flame 

of their desire have forged new links of 

progress on the chain of life. He, then, 

who would teach the doctrine of Non- 

Desire to the West, must needs make his 

doctrine clear. 

Whatever tends to self-development is a 

desire not by any means to be condemned. 

THE OVERCOMING OF DESIRE 67 

The youth who, oppressed by poverty, 

yearns so greatly for a college education 

that he is willing to toil and endure hard- 

ship for his degree, is surely not to be 

despised. The person of curious turn of 

mind who longs to travel, is not to be con- 

demned if by might and main he forces his 

way about the world. The artist who feels 

an impelling desire to create is obeying a 

heaven-sent impulse when he subordinates 

everything else in life to his creation. And 

is this not desire? 

But there are other directions in which 

the soul of man destined to send out 

spiritual raySjto radiate itself, so to speak, Jv 

in creative activity neglectful of this des- 

tiny spends its efforts in the mere endeavor 

to acquire, to heap up things external to 

itself, — such as house and lands and lux- 

uries and wealth and fame and immortal 

descendants. It is this desire which Buddha 

would condemn. Not only because it leads 

to selfish action toward others, but chiefly 

because it leads to unhappiness and 

frustrates the soul's growth. 

\He who desires strongly material pos- 

68 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

sessions is tempted to acquire them at the 

expense of others. That is the substance 

of the spiritual message of a Christ or 

Buddha. fJOesire leads to injustice, to 

cruel competition, to brute selfishness. And 

selfishness separates the soul from God. 

Desire lies at the very root of the competi- 

tive system w^hich the Leaders of Humanity 

have tried to displace by the system of co- 

operation. 

In his vision of the Kingdom, Christ 

portrayed a life on earth freed from aggres- 

sion, from selfishness, from the mad clutch 

after wealth and position. Such an ideal is 

chimerical, Utopian, and impossible of 

achievement, say the devotees of the com- 

petitive system, w^hose conception of life 

is to w^rest as much as possible from the 

world about them. That humanity can 

live and let live, is to them incredible. If 

they are to succeed, it is because they hope 

to cut off their competitors from profit. 

Yet there are some, even now, who con- 

ceive that a true bargain is one in which 

both sides find profit; who dare to believe 

that the earth holds enough for all; and who 

THE OVERCOMING OF DESIRE 69 

maintain that complete civilization means a 

point reached in human progress where the 

welfare of society is put before the welfare 

of the individual. 

No amount of legislation, of doctrinaire, 

or of socialistic effort, will establish co- 

operation upon earth until men have 

remitted somewhat their intensity of desire 

after things external. So long as men 

desire wealth above the ability to produce 

wealth; so long as they strive for success 

rather than to make themselves worthy of 

success ; so long as worldly position means 

more to them than personality; so long 

will the world remain a jungle in which the 

strong prey upon the weak, only themselves 

to fall a prey to others stronger. 

Will humanity not learn at last that 

Destiny prefers proficiency to scheming, 

ability to dollars, greatness of soul to social 

sanctions? Will men not learn to trust 

themselves to God, who desires nothing 

more than to discover those worthy of 

success? / 

When Christ said, "Take no thought for 

70 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

the morrow" — "Seek ye first the kingdom 

of heaven and all these things shall be 

added unto you," — he was trying to teach 

humanity that faith in Destiny which will 

one day change the world from a contagion 

of cruelty to a heaven of peace and love; 

from a muddle of brute competition to a 

mysterious provision which feeds all who 

trust themselves to universal currents. 

It takes faith! It takes discernment! 

It takes courage! The coward fears, and 

seizes from his neighbor's wealth enough to 

bulwark him against distress. The spiritual 

man comprehends that he whose attitude is 

one of bestowal becomes the special favorite 

of Fortune, the recipient of all worldly and 

spiritual necessities, — which he gets with- 

out desire, without struggle, without com- 

petition. Because he gives all, he receives 

all. Because he alienates himself from the 

world of the brute, he is initiated into the 

city of Celestial Splendors, — into which are 

being gathered, slowly, sparsely, those of 

humanity who perceive the Shining Ray. 

Verily this is a mystery! And none can 

THE OVERCOMING OF DESIRE 71 

comprehend it, save those whose hearts are 

aflame with the love of the Kingdom. 

* * ^f 

The danger in desire lies in desiring con- 

trary to the Universal plan. Such desires 

must in their very nature fail and leave 

their possessor plunged in sorrow. But 

there is no law against desiring the things 

of the spirit. Patience, gentleness, love, 

purity, knowledge, wisdom, creative power, 

— he who desires these things and sets his 

heart upon them, has all the aid of the 

heavenly powers toward their attainment. 

For the spiritual resources are infinite; 

and he who gains more love robs no one of 

that gift, but adds to the store of universal 

love. This is what the sage calls creation; 

for it adds to, and detracts not from, the 

Treasuries of Destiny. 

And the way of such desire is the way of 

peace. Here there is no conflict, no com- 

petition, no brutal selfish struggle for exist- 

ence. To the man who has gained this 

^2. THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

haven, it is like running from a tempest- 

tossed sea into a harbor tranquil and safe. It 

is the same life, lived amid the same 

surroundings, — yet so different. Others 

around him are still fighting, still fearing, 

still apprehensive of failure and extinction, 

while he alone travels securely the way of 

Peace. 

"Take no thought for the morrow!" 

This ye cannot believe, ye of little faith, — 

but must plan and fight and worry, striving 

to attain that which Destiny does not desire 

ye to attain, expecting vainly those things 

that never come. For Destiny has its own 

plans for you. Yea, even for thee, my friend, 

and would not leave thee without guidance. 

Yet how can it guide thee, who knowest not 

how to follow guidance ! 

This is the Tragedy of life, — that 

humanity should plunge its way self-willed, 

blindly, through brambles and briars and 

morasses of fear, when the Path lies so clear 

and bright for those who see. 

And how for this have the Leaders of 

Humanity wept, yea, bewailed the world's 

needless sufferings. Standing on the 

THE OVERCOMING OF DESIRE 73 

heights they would point the road to 

happiness. Yet few, so few, have dared 

to follow. And They must then return in 

martyrdom to the Heaven of Significances 

and report that man is not spiritually 

mature; that like a brute he must needs 

still fight and struggle for existence, 

because he will not see that he is expending 

his efforts over things of little import while 

the great world-tasks remam undone. 

Shall it be that, adolescent, as it were, we 

humans shall suddenly develop into man- 

hood? Are we near the epoch of maturity? 

Is the dawning of the promised day of peace 

and love and worship near at hand? 

We know not what the Great Ones plan. 

Yet many souls, incarnated in this age, burn 

to teach humanity new truths; and in the 

Realm of Causation mighty forces are work- 

ing to hasten evolution. A spirit is brood- 

ing over the deep, as in the first days of 

creation; brooding to bring forth, not sea 

and sky and land, nor fish, nor fowl, nor 

crawling things on earth, but to bring forth 

light and truth and grace, and the knowl- 

edge of God. 

74 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

In the throes of this New Age it were well 

that no person desire aught for himself. 

But to be on fire with the love of God; to 

possess insatiable yearning for the King- 

dom; to strive night and day for spiritual 

wisdom; — this is the true desire. 

CHAPTER V. 

DESTINY AND THE SOUL 

IN the Orient men still believe in an 

over-ruling God. Here such beUef has 

gone out of fashion. Ideas of a 

beneficent Providence once had a place in 

our philosophy of life. Now they are held 

only by the ignorant; for educated people 

know too much to-day to believe in any 

power greater than themselves. 

But the Orientals are childHke. They 

have a sublime faith in the Universe which 

makes them oblivious to the petty cares of 

life. They do not worry about trifles, 

because they think that what is to happen 

will happen anyway, and the best course is 

to bear disappointment and sorrow with 

resignation. 

The Mohammedans are extreme fatalists, 

believing that every event in their lives is 

determined before birth, written in their 

book of life, and cannot be avoided. This 

fatalism rules their every act. In business 

75 

76 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

they do not strive for customers as do their 

Christian competitors. If Allah is to send 

them customers, those customers will come 

without being dragged in by the button- 

hole. Hence the Turkish merchant has a 

dignified and calm tranquility which raises 

him above the pettiness of ordinary retail 

business. He is the master of life and not 

the slave of it. 

The same calmness characterizes his atti- 

tude toward death, either of himself or of 

his friends. Since that supreme event of 

life cannot be avoided or delayed, it is met 

wth simple resignation and without display 

of grief. 

Even in his every-day acts the Moham- 

medan shows that naive piety of which the 

word "Inshallah" (God willing) is symbolic. 

He never plans for the future without modi- 

fying his statements by this "Inshallah," 

signifying his resignation to God's will 

above and beyond his own needs and plans. 

The phrase "Deo Volente" used by our 

ancestors is now obsolete, it being con- 

sidered absurd to take into account at all 

the will of God in making plans. We 

DESTINY AND THE SOUL 77 

moderns are a bold and boisterous race; 

and what we plan and determine upon we 

are going to carry through, strenuously 

and gloriously, whether God wills it or not. 

We will carry it through, or die in the 

attempt. Of course we have not become 

quite such masters of Life as to have mas- 

tered Death. There we succumb, crying 

in the face of such a destiny that we are 

"masters of our fate," meaning, I suppose, 

that though we are mastered at the end by 

Death, we refuse to acknowledge the fact. 

Yes, the Oriental is a fatalist — deeply and 

consistently so. From the Golden Horn to 

the Peak of Fujiyama the belief in destiny 

is so strong as to tinge the whole Oriental 

philosophy of life, producing not neces- 

sarily stagnation though such is the current 

criticism of it. Japanese fatalism in her 

war with China produced such a heroism in 

the face of death, such a spirit of self- 

sacrifice, that it proved to be a quality both 

efficient and triumphant. 

Fatalism in China, while it is open to 

criticism as to its results to-day, when con- 

sidered in the light of history must be 

78 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

credited with a large share of the stability 

of that ancient race, which has endured the 

shocks of destiny for ten times the number 

of centuries that this New World has been 

known. And China still exists — amorphous, 

it is true — weak, helpless, it may seem, — yet 

as I believe, destined to play still a mighty 

part in the world's progress. 

The Chinese belief in destiny is less child- 

like and naive than that of the Mohamme- 

dans. In a logical analysis of the theory of 

destiny, there appears that contradiction 

which is so inherent in any thought of a 

divine control. If all of our actions are 

directed by some high Destiny, where then 

is our free will, our sense of personality? 

And what the need of exerting oneself at all? 

The Turks, being simple-minded and 

unmetaphysical, accept the doctrine of 

fatalism without seeing its inevitable con- 

tradictoriness. Our ancestors, in their 

theology, found this the greatest stumbling 

block, — a paradox, which as Milton tells us, 

kept the fallen angels in a rapt discussion 

from sunrise until sunset. 

No human mind has as yet solved this 

DESTINY AND THE SOUL 79 

puzzle, or so explained the theory of destiny 

as to unite harmoniously its apparent 

opposites. Hence the childlike mind of the 

Turk accepts absolutely the belief in a 

predetermined life without free-will; and 

the childlike mind of the American accepts 

as absolutely the belief in utter freedom of 

the will without an over-ruling Providence. 

Is it to be expected that the riddles of 

the universe may be made apparent to 

the unthinking mind? In our desire to have 

everything clear and simple in our theory 

of life, do we not do an injustice to the 

universe by denying the possibility of all 

things which do not fit into our simple 

scheme, — rejecting those ideas for which we 

have no mental pigeon-hole? 

We have for several centuries, in the 

Occident, been trying to analyze the 

Universe; and several schemes have been 

suggested whereby man and the universe, 

either with or without God, find their 

solution. Yet one may be pardoned for 

thinking at times that the universe is be- 

yond our power of analysis — at least by 

ordinary methods of cerebration. 

8o THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

Let us make, then, the unbelievable 

assumption, that two contradictories may- 

be at the same time true. Let us assume 

that there is a Destiny which guides our 

lives, while at the same time we are free to 

act ; and for the moment pleading guilty tx> 

the illogical, see how this belief works out. 

The ancient Chinese had a saying, 

"Heaven appoints a man's destiny, but he 

himself must fulfill it." Our primitive 

ancestors the Anglo-Saxons, great believers 

in Destiny, reflect their theory as to Fate 

in "Beowulf," where it is said that "the 

Wierd (Fate) oft saveth a man, if daughty 

his valor." 

This, then, is the conception which I 

would have the reader consider for a 

moment. Destiny is conditional — not 

absolute; and the condition necessary for 

its outcome is one's own power of will and 

of achievement. Success or failure is not 

thrust upon us by some arbitrary power, 

but the possibility of success along certain 

lines is offered us by Destiny, — conditional, 

first, upon our ability to perceive this offer; 

DESTINY AND THE SOUL 8i 

secondly, upon our willingness to co-operate 

with Destiny in working things out. 

It is as if a king should offer to some 

favorite a post of honor and high privilege, 

an opportunity which the courtier might 

or might not rise to fulfill; or as if a father 

should destine for his son a partnership in 

his business, yet should say not a word of 

this to the lad, until he proved himself by 

effort and accomplishment worthy of this 

high place. 

In such a view of Destiny there is no 

abnegation of free will. Rather does 

the outcome depend upon naught else but 

the sheer power of will in the individual to 

carve through opposition to success. 

Never are the weak of will advanced by 

Destiny — nor does she pour success into the 

laps of mortals with blind favoritism. 

But while achievement must depend upon 

man's own exertions, opportunities present 

themselves to one beloved of Destiny in 

ways marvelous to see. No man, in one 

sense, can be said to make his opportunities. 

They are the favors of Fortune, brought to 

his door that he may fulfill her scheme for 

82 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

him. Yet in another sense those very 

opportunities are drawn to one by one's 

capacity and growth. Great opportunities 

are never sent to pigmy men. 

Not only must one have reached a certain 

capacity in order to attract large opportun- 

ities, but one must have also the perception 

to realize these opportunities when they 

come. Many men of large powers are, 

through their own conceit and hardness, 

unperceptive of the larger opportunities 

that pass their door, — and so fail to achieve 

that success which Destiny would offer 

them. 

By cultivating perception, open-minded- 

ness, adaptability, and a certain facile 

quality of soul, one favored by Fortune can 

be guided, as a ship by favoring winds, into 

the very haven of success. Since man has 

not that range of vision nor that power of 

foreseeing which is possessed by Destiny, 

his plans for himself must ever fall short of 

Destiny's plans for him. Hence the neces- 

sity for overcoming desire, for freeing one's 

life from any fixed scheme or plan. Free- 

dom is desired of Destiny, freedom from all 

DESTINY AND THE SOUL 83 

human ties which would prevent her Hero 

from following her standard. Shall one 

from siren's song be deaf to Fortune's call? 

Shall one through the fascination of earthly- 

faces be blind to Fortune's beauty? Shall 

one by human, self-made plans, be so im- 

prisoned that one cannot take the open road 

when Fortune points the way? Not of 

such does Destiny appoint her workmen; 

only from the free of heart and soul, the 

unconfined, the severed. 

It may be said, then, that the ordinary 

individual has no destiny and receives no 

guidance. He forms a unit undistinguished 

from the mass, merely because he fails to 

distinguish himself. Destiny does not see 

him. She has no particular plans for him, 

save as he forms a part of her larger schemes 

for racial and planetary evolution. 

For as there is a destiny for individuals, 

so there is a destiny for nations, for races, 

and for humanity itself, — a destiny which 

may be achieved or failed of, according to 

the powers of achievement, the faith, and 

the perseverance of said race, or nation, or 

planetary mass. 

84 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

In epochs when the human race is 

spiritual, perceptive, pure, devoted to ideals, 

faithful and amenable to guidance, Destiny 

can achieve more for the world in a single 

century than elsewise in milleniums. 

Were humanity to-day to become aware 

of the glorious favors destined for it — were 

it to grow worthy of the honors with 

which God would crown all mortals — this 

Twentieth Century might then become the 

greatest epoch of the whole world's history, 

before or after; for those who know whisper 

that this is to be the Century of Divine 

Gifts. 

CHAPTER VI. 

RENUNCIATION 

TO most people personality, the 

feeling of a separate existence, is 

the most eternal reality; but to the 

Oriental it is an illusion, such as the sun 

would make reflected from a broken prism. 

There are not many rays of light, but only 

One which fills the universeTj But through 

the error of man's eyes, which fail to focus 

on reality, the universe seems broken up into 

innumerable entities, each trying to absorb, 

to crush, to dominate the rest J 

Every man of genius whose early efforts 

have been inspired by the desire to excel, to 

shine above all others, has later in his 

development found himself at a point where 

desire for mere glory was an obstacle to 

work; and if he has persisted in thus child- 

like trying to grasp a moth, he has dis- 

covered to his dismay, and the world 

discovers too, that he has lost his genius. 

For Destiny, which lends us playthings in 

85 

86 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

our childhood in order to awaken sensibility, 

wishes us to throw aside these toys when we 

reach man's estate; and him who persists in 

playing. Destiny deprives of the abihty to 

work. 

Ambition as a desire for self-unfoldment 

Nature smiles upon; but that ambition 

which seeks to exalt the personality to a 

position of ostentatious tyranny must ever 

meet the fate of Wolsey, who cried : 

"Had I but served my God with half the 

zeal I served my king, he would not in mine 

age have left me naked to mine enemies." 

Pride is the food of personality. The 

ego feeds upon it and spawns from it a 

loathsome brood of unlovely qualities. Pride 

is hostile to the purposes of the Universe; 

and pride, unless it is mercifully crushed by 

sorrow, may in time cause the destruction 

of the soul which fosters it. For Destiny 

does not tolerate long that which balks its 

progress. If one looks at the history of 

men and nations, one finds ample evidence 

of this truth, that the gods inflame with 

pride those whom they wish to destroy. 

Pride is the most dangerous enemy which 

RENUNCIATION 87 

besieges the gates of the soul. It is ever 

active in temptation. It flies the white flag 

of truce, only to fall upon the self in new 

and subtler attacks. 

\Not great armor and weapons of massive 

size, but the lowliness of humility and the 

sense of universal love, overcome pride and 

sever one from personality. He who loves 

self loses that very self which he loves. He 

who loses self rises sublime into that 

inheritance of glory which awaits true 

Manhood-/ 

Personality is not the soul's maturity. 

It is the seed out of which by transub- 

stantiation may spring the full and ripened 

ear. But the seed which wishes to remain 

a seed, by that very wish cuts itself from 

life and from the great transforming pro- 

cesses of Nature; and, as nothing in the 

universe stands still, since it will not grow 

it is condemned ultimately to decay. 

Life retreats from him who pursues it, 

as a fascinating girl eludes her lover; but 

to him who has learned the secret of 

renunciation, life comes bearing gifts of 

love, fulfilling all things, devoting herself to 

88 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

Man, her master. The most active courting 

cannot awaken in a woman's heart that love 

which she bestows voluntarily upon him 

who is strong enough to command her soul. 

And ISO in the events of Fortune, that man 

achieves most who is seemingly indifferent 

to success; who calmly goes his way, intent 

upon the deed rather than upon its result; 

self-controlled, patient, waiting as only 

Nature can teach us how to wait, for the 

seed to grow to blossom and the blossom to 

bear fruit. Upon such a man Destiny 

showers her greatest favors. Because he is 

free from desire, all things are bestowed 

upon him. Fortune pledges him her troth 

and remains faithful to him so long as he 

is spiritual enough not to be made dizzy by 

her charms. 

Such is the nature of Renunciation,; a 

doctrine little understood by Occidentals. 

The secret of renunciation belongs to age 

rather than to youth. The ancient races of 

the East, having striven hotly for the things 

of their desire only to see desire fail, awoke 

centuries, yea, millenniums ago to the folly 

of setting the heart upon those things which 

RENUNCIATION 89 

are but the floating jetsam of life's tides. 

Solomon, having tried all, cried, "All is 

vanity"; and the w^ise men of the East, 

discovering these truths, evolved the doc- 

trine of renunciation which is in a way the 

keystone of Oriental thought. 

"Submission to Allah" is the meaning of 

the word "Islam," a submission so inter- 

penetrating the daily life of Moslems that 

their very forms of prayer are expressions 

of the soul's submission to its Maker. QBut 

submission is not renunciation. The one is 

passive; while the other is an active, virile 

quality of the spirit without gaining which 

no proselyte can walk far along the path of 

mysticism, j 

How fofeign such a quality to our Viking 

race ! A young race, lusty, ferocious, grasp- 

ing at all things, trying the world and in 

the first flush of manhood finding it fair! 

To the inheritors of this Berseker rage for 

living, not renunciation but the apotheosis 

of the strenuous appeals. 

A great musical genius of this race, as 

great in philosophic thought as in the 

melodies which thronged his brain, Wagner, 

90 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

in his "Tristan and Isolde" harmonized the 

two ideals of the East and West, — glorious 

red blood's rage and striving after joy with 

as glorious ideal of renunciation. This 

opera was written while he was in love 

himself with one who inspired all his work, 

yet denied him that which his love craved; 

denied him because duty to another bade 

her renounce the earthly form and expres- 

sion of the soul's striving after comradeship. 

Into "Tristan and Isolde" Wagner poured 

forth his heart's anguish; and into its final 

motifs wove a single golden theme. 

Renunciation, which he had gleaned from 

Eastern reading. 

\jrrue renunciation ever comes thus after 

striving. It lies at the end of the hot 

pursuit of life. It is earned only by pain 

and anguish — not an easy gift poured into 

waiting hands. Think not that renuncia- 

tion is a passive quality, a thing for children 

to play with. Think not that it is loss, or 

narrowing of life's horizon. Only when the 

soul renounces, is it free. Only when it 

realizes that it is no longer the slave of 

objectivity, does it perceive the infinite 

RENUNCIATION 91 

richness of its nature. To let go, to bravely 

hoist the tiding anchor and set sail; then 

free, joyous, to breast life's sea with the 

infinite eternal horizon ever unfolding as 

the soul progresses, such is renunciation"^ 

Do we think w^e can escape sacrifice ? As 

easily escape breathing! It is the law of 

life. It is the necessity of choosing. To 

angels there is no such law, as there is no 

free will. I But to man is given freedom, a 

soul resolute, daring, created for but one 

effort, the effort of will. We are always 

choosing. And every time we choose one 

of two alternatives, we sacrifice the second. 

There is no other way. 

In choosing mundane things we sacrifice 

the spiritual. Very well, if this gives us 

perfect satisfaction, let us forget the soul 

exists, let us surround ourselves with 

objectivity, let us chase illusions. Destiny 

would deprive none of happiness. But when 

the things about us fail to satisfy, and we 

begin to choose the higher spiritual things, 

is it any sorrow to give up the lower? If it 

were, then were the Universe unjust, then 

were God and Man irreconcilable? Herein 

92 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

lies the secret of renunciation, that it gives 

perfect joy. When we choose the things of 

the spirit and sacrifice the things of the 

flesh, it is without one pang of regret or else 

our sacrifice is vain. 

Those who feel that in such sacrifice they 

are losing a possibility of pleasure are not 

ready for this step. For renunciation is not 

sorrowful but joyous. 

The time must come in the growth of the 

soul when all desires are renounced. A 

distinct limit marks the boundaries of 

individualism. So far can its power go, and 

no farther. The greatest genius and the 

most powerful personal will can mould 

events, can apparently dictate the world's 

destiny, for a time. Then the crash comes. 

Let but Jove nod and the proud accomplish- 

ments of years tumble down ineffective. 

Humanity should now have reached the 

point of learning that power cannot long 

be employed personally against the supreme 

Universal Will. The greatest characters 

are those who have learned how to sub- 

merge themselves in God, how to make 

their wills but channels of the Divine Will. 

RENUNCIATION 93 

Then there is no limit, save infinity, to their 

power of accompUshment and their power 

of growth.^ 

This earth is about to become again a 

battle-ground between the Divine Forces 

and those who would use their wills for 

personal ends. Men have suddenly awak- 

ened to the marvelous powers of the will 

and they amuse themselves like children in 

playing with these powers, — hypnotizing 

others, forcing others to their desires, sug- 

gesting subtly their wishes upon others. 

This is the great crime of the Twentieth 

Century. Not physical molestation but 

psychical brutality. Let those who would 

thus assert their personal wills, know that 

the punishment for such a sin equals its 

enormity. God will not tolerate the selfish 

expression of personality. Destruction is 

the karma of all who oppose their wills to 

His. 

^ut in the New Age who will rule? 

Those who are pure channels of the Divine. 

Those who have submerged their will in the 

One and only Will. Those who have no 

selfish aims and who seek not to attach their 

94 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

fellows as slaves to their own personal 

desires. 

Renunciation brings power, but power 

must not be the motive of renunciatiof 

)^ 

CHAPTER VII. 

A WORLD OF MATTER AND A WORLD 

OF FAITH 

THIS is a world of matter. That such 

is the fact, few would dispute. It 

is the report which all our senses 

bring us, the undeniable truth which forces 

itself upon us in the many catastrophes and 

suffering of life — for all our sorrows are 

caused by this, that the soul has desires to 

which the material world opposes obstacles. 

Aristotle, milleniums ago, resolved life 

into terms of matter and of spirit; and saw 

that all the problems of earthly existence 

arose from the obstinacy, the obdurance, 

and the resisting quality of matter to the 

will of spirit. 

Reflect how matter hems us in on every 

side; how the soul, struggHng to express 

itself, fails because it must express itself 

through a medium which resists, often 

perversely it would seem, the effort to 

95 

96 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

organize it into tei-ms harmonious with 

spirit. 

The artist has a vision, — but with paints 

and brushes, with fingers too stiff for the 

task, upon a cold and unresponsive canvass, 

can but poorly reproduce the glory which 

he saw and would make manifest. 

Upon the inner eye of a sculptor is born 

a dazzling dream of beauty, which he can 

show the world, — how? Only by handling 

for hours and days a form of matter 

which represents the most material part of 

the earth, its earthy substance. This clay 

he moulds, as well as he may, into a form 

corresponding to his vision. But what a 

poor resemblance! Can clay express the 

soul's fair dreams? 

And even yet his task is not accomplished, 

for in order to express himself in matter he 

has been obliged to use a form of matter 

which, though somewhat fluent and obedient 

to his creative will, is unenduring. Now 

that this task is finished he must begin 

another task, — that of chiselling in marble, 

which is durable, a form similar to that in 

clay. Here he will have achieved something 

A WORLD OF MATTER AND FAITH 97 

that will last and that in a measure 

expresses his ideal. But against what 

difficulties ! 

The sculptor, perspiring at the gigantic 

task of carving huge blocks of marble into 

forms of spiritual conception, well sym- 

bolizes the task the soul confronts when it 

would mould matter to its will. 

The very categories of space and time, 

without which existence here were impos- 

sible, are obstacles to the desires of man. 

We long to be with a friend a thousand 

miles away. If our will is strong enough 

we can accomplish our desire — but at the 

expense of money (which means labor), of 

time, and of annoyance. 

We long to see the world, to explore our 

terrestrial habitation, — but we are confined 

by birth and circumstances to a little 

country town whose mental vision is no 

broader than its tiny hill-girt horizon. 

Here genius without will would perish like 

a wild beast in a trap. Fortunate that 

genius is synonomous with will, and finds a 

way, sooner or later, to express itself — 

98 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

though often at the cost of health, reason, 

and perhaps Ufe! 

Even the petty annoyances of Hfe, which 

Hke the swarming of mosquitoes make 

miserable our daily round, are seen to rise 

from the perversity of matter. A draft 

upon our backs, a vile smell across the 

street, mud in our path, hateful persons 

thrown across our way, bacteriologic guests 

whose presence, uninvited, causes us fever 

and debility and irenders useless the body — 

the only means Destiny has given the soul 

to express itself with, — all these difficulties 

come from living in a world of matter. 

A Carlyle suffering from dyspepsia; a 

Nietzsche gone mad; a Napoleon pacing out 

his grim despair on St. Helena; a Mac- 

Donald dying of starvation because his 

music was too late appreciated; a Hamlet 

placed in the dilemma of perpetual shame 

or of doing that most criminal of human 

acts, a murder, — are not these, at the 

bottom, material tragedies, tragedies which 

would never have existed in a world more 

fluent to the touch of spirit? 

One can conceive of another plane of 

A WORLD OF MATTER AND FAITH 99 

existence, phased in far subtler forms of 

matter quickly responsive to the will, where 

the soul could live in joy and peace, sur- 

rovmding itself with all that it desires; 

happy in the midst of love and perfect 

beauty; and creating, by the mere effort of 

the subjective will, entourage and exterior 

expression. Such, the mystic claims, is the 

nature of the world of spirit. 

Why, then, this disparity? .Why has the 

soul of man been exiled here, in an environ- 

ment hostile to his inner being, in a material 

world which resists his every effort to 

progress. 

There can be but one answer. It is to 

develop the soul's creative will that it was 

submerged in matter. As the mystic views 

this worldly life it is a vast school, whose 

tasks have but one aim; to strengthen and 

increase the will of man. Every obstacle 

surmounted, every difficulty overcome, 

every ingenious device by which man mas- 

ters his environment, — magnify within 

him the confidence and power and creative 

greatness of his soul, rendering it akin to 

loo THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

the Divine in its ability to mould matter to 

its will. 

For matter is not really the harsh, 

impossible medium that it would seem. 

Handled by the Divinity itself, it is easily 

fluent to His will, harmonious, obedient, 

joyously evolving into more and more mag- 

nificent forms of usefulness and beauty. 

Matter has no terrors for Spirit — because 

Spirit is causal and matter is but its creation 

and its servant. 

As man, then, develops gradually into the 

enjoyment of his spiritual birthright, more 

and more will he too be able to control 

matter, to employ it, to dictate to it, and to 

mould it harmoniously to his will. 

First, in his intellectual awakening, by 

means of science and sheer logic, man has 

grappled with Nature and harnessed her in 

a small way to his desires. Modern man 

needs not to be told the marvels of science — 

for he deifies it, worships it, exalts it to a 

place in his heart which God alone should 

hold. But what modern man needs is to be 

told that material science is not all — that as 

an expression and development of the mere 

A WORLD OF MATTER AND FAITH loi 

brain of man, it can never equal the divine 

science of the soul, which has a capacity to 

create to a degree infinitely beyond the 

capacity of reason. 

Let those who doubt this statement file it 

away and hold it in abeyance until some 

strange, inner experience confirms its truth. 

For the spiritual truths are always here, 

but are perceived only by those who see. 

That which causes the greatest confusion 

of the soul towards materialism is the fact 

that the soul is here incarnated, lodged in a 

physical body, surrounded immediately by 

flesh, through whose mediation only does it 

at first become aware of existence. Hence 

the tendency to confuse Being itself with 

matter, and Spirit with flesh. 

There are many, especially in Western 

countries, who cannot conceive of them- 

selves save in terms of flesh and blood. 

The solidity of limbs and muscles, the 

adaptability of the physical structure to the 

demands of the will, produce in them the 

feeling that the outer garment is the Self. 

They say. "I am weak," "I am sick," 

"I have failed," — when thev mean this of 

102 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

their body. Nowhere is this confusion 

between body and soul so great, or materi- 

ahsm so apparent, as in the phenomenon 

of death. When those who are beloved die, 

to the materialist they seem to perish 

utterly and be compounded with the soil 

from which they sprung. And in reflecting, 

themselves, upon death, it is the destruction 

of the body that appals them. I know a 

woman whom reflection upon the dread 

decay that Death might cause her fair 

young body drove into despondency and 

neurasthenia. 

The Orient has very little of such materi- 

alism, save where European philosophy 

has introduced it. The Arab, Turk, Persian, 

Hindu, do not conceive themselves as 

merely flesh, — nor is Death feared among 

them — Death, the Cup-bearer of the 

Spheres, as he is poetically called. 

The practice of meditation, in a formal 

or casual way, is a great means of awaken- 

ing the soul to a sense of its separateness 

from flesh. The Hindu includes meditation 

among his religious practices — as do also all 

mystic orders among Mohammedans — a 

A \AORLD OF MATTER AXD FAITH 103 

continuous spiritual concentration which 

lasts from one to three hours at a time. In 

this state the Self is felt to exist apart from 

body. Looking down at one's limbs, one is 

aware of them only by the sense of sight, 

for all other sensation has been merged into 

the mystic "Halet" which is the goal of 

dervish and of yogi; and the sight, report- 

ing the existence of this flesh, reports it as 

something separate from the individual 

personality, — an instrument which is now 

asleep but which can be awakened by the 

very will which sent it to sleep, and can be 

made to serve the needs and purposes of the 

personality to which it is attached. 

A more unstudied and less conscious 

form of meditation is instinctively prac- 

tised by those whose lives are led in open 

spaces — as they gaze across the vastnesses 

of deserts, or the limitless expanse of ocean, 

or looking up at night lose themselves in 

reverie upon the stars and constellations 

studding the midnight sky. Those who live 

close to nature are never intrinsically 

materialistic. 

In Christianity there has been no formal 

104 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

practice of meditation, save in monasticism 

and the mysticism of the Catholic Church. 

When this practice was abandoned by the 

Protestant Church, with it was lost much 

spiritual knowledge and faith; and the seeds 

were sown of that materialism which, 

sweeping over cultured Europe, has pro- 

duced a Nietzsche and a war in which the 

soul of man seems for the time to be sub- 

merged in animality and blood-lust. 

In Protestanism the nearest we have 

come to the practice of meditation is in the 

thoughtful, concentrated, meditative reading 

of the Bible or of deeply spiritual writings; 

and in prayer. Either of these two prac- 

tices will develop in the soul a knowledge 

of its real aloofness from the flesh that 

holds it — a knowledge that matter is not 

master, even here. But without meditation 

in one form or other, I see no possibility of 

gaining the mystic realization. A world 

that is too busy hunting for material com- 

forts to sit down and think, will remain 

enmeshed in the material net, — conscious of 

nothing save matter expressed in terms of 

beauty, of power, of ugliness, of crime, or of 

A WORLD OF MATTER AND FAITH 105 

death. Life is for such a people a kalei- 

doscopic spectacle which changes by the 

whims of Destiny into strange and un- 

foreseen patterns; and life's sole aim must 

be to exhaust the pleasure of the present 

moment, if pleasure there be in it. For 

never again will this exact pattern be 

repeated; and some day upon the screen will 

fall, instead of brilliant hues of fairest gems 

serene, the dark sombreness of Death and 

Nothingness. 

There are two movements which have 

arisen within the last generation that have 

greatly awakened the American mind to 

some sense of its separateness from matter. 

These are Hypnotism and Christian 

Science (with its allied and inherited New 

Thought) ; and strangely enough these 

were at their beginning correlated, — for 

Quimby, through whom Mrs. Eddy derived 

her first ideas of the power of Spirit over 

matter, was himself a delver in hypnotism; 

and it was through the strange phenomena 

of this weird practice rather than from any 

intellectual or spiritual analysis of life that 

Quimby, an uneducated clock-maker, acci- 

io6 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

dentally stumbled upon the most pregnant 

and far-reaching spiritual truth yet dis- 

covered in the West — that man's will has 

actual control over his body, for good or 

evil; and that as man thinks, so is he. Of 

course Christ taught this. But for centuries 

no one believed it, until Christian Science 

demonstrated visibly to incredulous Occi- 

dentals the validity of the truth known for 

millenniums to the East, — that spirit is 

causal, and that matter is obedient to the 

Spirit's creative will when scientifically 

asserted. For the knowledge how to rule 

the body by the soul is a science, and 

requires deep and concentrated study. 

Orientals have developed this science by 

practices of which I have already spoken. 

During the Japanese War an American 

surgeon operating upon a wounded Jap- 

anese general was astounded when the 

patient, refusing to take ether, submitted to 

amputation of a limb without the slightest 

sign of pain. He had, by practices of which 

he was aware, induced self-hypnotism and 

cut off from that limb all sensation while 

A WORLD OF MATTER AND FAITH 107 

retaining consciousness in his higher 

centers. 

The medical profession is now making a 

large and considerable use of suggestion 

but only when forced to do so by its success 

as practised amateurly in cults which this 

same profession derides yet imitates. That 

medicine itself is largely only a form of 

suggestion, Homoeopathy has for some time 

claimed; and the entering wedge of spirit- 

ualism in the gross materialism of physio- 

logical psychology and medicine will one 

day cause a split, a cleavage so great 

between the materialist and the mystic in 

these professions that the common name of 

"Doctor" can no longer hold them together. 

It seems nothing less than a cosmic 

destiny that has caused so many movements 

toward a spiritual interpretation of matter 

to spring up in America within this last gen- 

eration. Such influences are bound to bring 

about in time a very dififerent attitude 

toward life than that now current; and to 

make possible a closer "rapprochement" 

between the East and West. 

The East in general cares little for 

loS THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

material things — not enough to strive for 

them; while the West supposes its whole 

salvation to lie in matter. A harmony be- 

tween these two extremes would constitute 

the attitude of the ideal world citizen. 

We are placed in a material environment 

for a purpose — that we may learn how to 

overcome it and adjust it to our spiritual 

needs. At the same time, no amount of 

material progress can bring the world to 

such a state of perfection that the soul of 

man will feel at home in an existence so 

foreign to its nature. It is not the wish of 

Destiny that man should be so absorbed, so 

willingly lost in his material environment, 

as he now is in Occidental lands. The 

intellectual will can not avail to transform 

the earth into a paradise — for the simple 

reason that happiness is really a state of 

mind, a condition of the soul in perfect 

harmony with God, and material progress 

of itself can never bring this to pass. 

The true reform should be from within 

outwards, and not the reverse. When the 

soul of man reaches a station of creative 

positiveness, of polar insularity from mat- 

A WORLD OF MATTER AND FAITH 109 

ter, it can assert a new environment more 

harmonious, more peaceful, and more 

adapted to its spiritual needs; and not until 

man has reached this station of the creator 

can he be called truly Man. 

It is the part of the beast to partake of the 

qualities of his environment. It is the part 

of Man to make environment partake of his 

qualities. 

When Abdul Baha w^as in this country he 

stopped in New York at a hotel where the 

employees were distempered and on the 

verge of a strike, and the guests querulous 

and ill at ease. The spiritual power of his 

mere presence there was so great that 

within a few days harmony and peace 

reigned where altercation had prevailed 

before. This change was so noticeably due 

to Abdul Baha's presence that the man- 

ager of the hotel urged him to make it his 

headquarters whenever he was in New 

York. 

Discord cannot exist long within the 

neighborhood of one spiritually adept, — for 

harmony is the power which he radiates; 

and like light scattering the sullen darkness 

no THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

before it, harmony sent out with the power 

of creative love puts to flight the ineffectual 

rebellious foes of wilfulness and hate. 

When Buddha returned to the world of 

man from his mighty struggle in the Spirit, 

his face shone so that people inquired as to 

the cause; and when he bestowed the power 

of his new-found truth upon his followers, 

they too went forth with a light upon their 

faces which amazed all men. So the 

majesty of truth spreads, as a glorious light 

sent back from a thousand mirrors, until all 

around shares in the golden sheen. 

A Carpenter two thousand years ago sent 

forth such influence that even now, when 

nations war, the world asks in alarm — "Is 

this the will of Christ?" Note that they do 

not ask— "Would Aristotle like this?" So 

great is the power of the spiritual will that 

it affects not only its own times, but the 

times to come; and creates a new environ- 

ment, not for itself alone, but for the whole 

human race. 

Thus the great teachers of humanity 

come to earth from a more glorious exist- 

ence, to teach us how to mould this world 

A WORLD OF MATTER AND FAITH iii 

into a likeness to the spiritual kingdom. 

It is to be achieved through and by matter 

rendered obedient to the will of the man. 

Hence the value, in a way, of the material- 

ism of the Occident in asserting and main- 

taining the importance of material things in 

life. The Oriental mystic would scatter to 

the winds the bonds of flesh that bind him, 

and "freely on the air of heaven ride" — 

paying no attention to the very tasks and 

lessons for which his soul was incarnated; 

while the Occident, with a more solid sense 

of things, expends his efforts in an endeavor 

to re-form the matter in the midst of which 

he exists. 

We cannot neglect matter and condemn 

it thus to oblivion. It will up and at us in 

spite of a too idealistic denial of its exist- 

ence. India may assert the illusion of 

sense — but it perishes physically, neverthe- 

less, to the number of millions yearly from 

the .attack of that very matter which it 

denies and which becomes more foul and 

hostile from such denial and neglect. 

The West has not so far to go as one 

might think to attain perfection. It need 

112 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

not undo its achievements of the past. It 

is not required of the West to raze its 

material structures to the ground and begin 

again at the bare level of material discom- 

fort in which the Orient exists. All has its 

place. The function of the Occident has 

been to blaze new trails by means of science 

toward that Promised Land of which all 

dream, — the Kingdom of God on earth, or 

in other words a condition of existence 

staged in this inferior plane of matter 

which shall nevertheless reflect somewhat 

of the happiness and the glory of the 

Supreme Concourse. 

I do not condemn the West. It has 

achieved much. But not until it goes at its 

task with more enlightenment and with 

the perception that spiritual means alone 

suffice to "remould the world to its desire," 

shall we attain the Golden Age in which 

a world of matter has become a world of 

faith. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DOCTRINE OF LOVE 

NO religion can be universal, and 

no character approximate perfec- 

tion, save w^here love rules. There 

are many spiritual qualities, but love binds 

them all together; and writh love absent the 

proudest edifices of the soul's building fall 

into disintegration. 

The negative of love is selfishness, and 

selfishness is at enmity with God — the only 

evil in the universe, the devil w^hich lurks 

within each one of us, seeking to destroy. 

Not all of the great world reHgions 

equally emphasize the necessity of love. Of 

them all, the Krishna sect of Brahmanism, 

Buddhisrii, and Christianity have most 

exalted love. Hindu theology, in its symbol 

of the cosmic germ "tapas," expresses the 

mystic doctrine that God loved the world 

into being. Or again "Purusha," the Man- 

God, gave his body for a sacrifice of love 

"3 

114 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

that out of it the universe with all its 

inhabitants might be formed. 

The overwhelming force of love, its burn- 

ing fire, its power to create, make it the 

most divine gift bestowed on man. Primitive 

races feel this truth and make a sacrament 

of sex. Herein lies a glory, a mystery 

which they would deify. Is it a low ideal? 

Only to those who conceive it so. Better 

such a star to guide — near to passion 

though it be — than the cold etherial depths 

of darkness out from which burst forth the 

golden egg, existence. 

God created man and placed in him the 

wondrous spark of life; and, marvel of all 

marvels, gave him too the power of creating 

life. Shall not the heart sing in ecstacy at 

this power of creation? 

But so long as man perceives in himself 

only the forces of physical propulsion, 

forces destined by the Divine to populate 

the earth, — so long is he a 'mere slave to 

nature, exploited by her for far-reaching 

ends, himself an infinitesimal unit in the 

mass of being. Not until a new perception 

THE DOCTRINE OF LOVE 115 

and a new meaning of Love dawns upon 

him, does he attain his spiritual estate. 

The lotus of love, though its roots lie in 

the mire of passion, lifts its blossoms to the 

face of heaven. This is the love which 

Krishna, which Buddha, which Christ 

taught the world. Not the love that poets 

sing of, glorious though that be. 

Listen! Buddha said, "As a mother at 

the risk of her life watches over her child, 

her only child, turn thou with compas- 

sionate heart toward all mankind." 

This is a higher thing than sex-love, — 

though the Teacher, trying to explain it, 

was obliged to draw his figure from the 

sex-life. Mother love, initiated by the sex 

act, but at the Mount of Transfiguration 

uplifted from the earth, — this love, most 

selfless of all earthly loves, would Buddha 

have us give to all mankind. 

Here is a task fit for Man to cope with — 

a task which only spiritually regenerate 

man can achieve. How is it possible to 

bestow upon all our fellow beings the burn- 

ing love which in the mother springs from 

the creative act? 

ii6 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

It is only possible as we become creators, 

not in clay, but in infinite compassion. 

Think you that those waves of love, surging 

from a Buddha's bosom, die ineffective? 

Ah! could one but have the spiritual vision 

to trace those waves of love; to see them 

spread out upon the ocean of existence; to 

see them flood every human bay and inlet 

with their tidal force, — then would one 

realize what a power is love ! 

"As a mother loves her child, her only 

child" ; or as Christ puts it, "Turn thy heart 

to God, and with that love with which He 

endows thee, turn a brimful heart to every 

neighbor." 

This is no meek, mild trifle such as pious 

men are wont to impugn to the Christ. 

Lamb of God, yes! But Lion of God, too! 

"And the lamb shall lie down with the 

lion." Twain and inseparable, these quali- 

ties in the truly spiritual man, love- 

endowed, heart-bursting, partner with God 

in creating cosmos out of chaos. 

How were it possible for the Divine to 

trust mankind with such creative power, 

save by attaching it to love? Were one 

THE DOCTRINE OF LOVE 117 

able to create by any other power, — -man, 

prone to selfishness as the bat to darkness, 

would use his powers for separative aims, 

and like Lucifer, Sun of the Morning, deem 

himself equal with God! 

But love seeks no equality — vaunts not 

itself — craves nothing but in union to lose 

selfhood! It is the undying impulse in man 

to die unto himself. Between these two 

forces, the centripetal desire to live, and the 

centrifugal desire to, in love, expire, spins 

the universe upon its spiritual course. 

There is no thought of self in love ! There 

is no seeking to acquire! Only the great 

longing to give out, the bursting of a heart 

that is full, as the golden Egg of the Vedas 

burst forth into the radiance of stars and 

solar systems. 

Selfishness cannot create. Its only aim 

is to absorb, — as the sponge would fill itself 

with water; as the octopus, thousand- 

tentacled, would draw all to it. But from 

the depths of such sea-dankness, lift thine 

eyes unto the sun! Ever-conveying, pro- 

pelling by some strange inner power its 

fire-rays out into space, that where they 

ii8 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

strike inert matter, light and heat and 

life spring up, — of such is the nature of true 

love and such its power to create. 

Love is the golden thread that joins the 

heart of man to God. Else were religion a 

thing of mere form and of no consequence! 

Religion which is without love is no reli- 

gion and souls that hide themselves from 

these rays cease to grow. 

Similarly love unites man with man. 

The same love which one feels toward the 

Divine, one can divinely feel toward fellow 

men. And this is the only way in which 

one can love all creatures. For some men, 

nay, most of men, are unlovable, and can- 

not in themselves awake in us the spark of 

love. It is rather for us to bestow, "nostri 

voluntatis," upon all we meet, agreeable or 

disagreeable, somewhat of that warmth of 

love which God has planted in us. To bear 

with all people, even when they are unbear- 

able, is the gift and power only of the 

spiritual love. This is a compassion which 

a Christ must die to show the world — else 

the world had known it not. 

Folly of the philosophers, to claim that 

THE DOCTRINE OF LOVE 119 

ideals are self -evolved ! Never, in centuries 

or in millenniums, w^ould humanity of its 

own inherent nature have evolved the con- 

cept of divine, forgiving love. It is human 

to love all who are lovable and to hate all 

who are unlovable, — and this is as far as 

humanity, unaided, could ever have trav- 

eled. The love that pardons all, nay, that 

would even lose itself to save a world in 

sin, this is not the love of man but the love 

of God. And the mystery of all religion, 

the secret of spiritual evolution, is that man 

may receive and cultivate the divine love. 

And the glory and the beauty of the law of 

love is that from the human, selfish love 

may blossom love divme. 

Is it wrong humanly to love all who are 

lovable? Nay, it is the beginning of the 

path that leads to God. Not to destroy, not 

to annihilate the human love, but to trans- 

form it into the greater power: that is the 

way the mystic walks. 

Asceticism is false doctrine. It is not the 

way of life. Not emptiness of life but more 

abundance is what the Great Ones come to 

teach us. Not to love less, but to love 

I20 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

more; not to starve the affections but to 

direct them; not to stultify one's sex but to 

command its powers so as to transcend the 

lower needs, — this is the way of wisdom; 

and every other way leads but to starvation 

and decay. 

See how nature grows and expands, 

normally, joyously, by means of love! And 

the same laws which guide the material 

world correspondingly guide the world of 

spirit. It is just as glorious and joyous a 

process to grow spiritually as to grow 

physically, just as normal, just as happy a 

partaking of the treasuries of life. 

Beware of any teaching which imposes 

limitation, deprivation, denial of the wealth 

of life; for it is a teaching that leads to 

pride and selfishness, strange though this 

statement may appear. It is the way of 

magic and delusion, — a will-o'-the-wisp 

that, beckoning to Power, brings in the end 

Annihilation. 

Of all the mystic doctrines to which the 

Orient has given birth, none is more 

beautiful or more true than the doctrine 

of Sufiism, — that the soul, through earthly 

THE DOCTRINE OF LOVE 121 

loves, learns how to find the love divine. 

Born in Persia, a strange by-product of 

Islam, it has deeply permeated India, 

reflecting itself even to this day in the song- 

offerings of Tagore. 

Not to condemn sex love, but to expand 

it and transmute it, till it is naught but 

pure star-dust and God-heat! God loved 

the w^orlds into being. The warmth of 

sacrifice, the ruddy power of creative love, 

in man is associated with sex. Starve the 

sex and you starve love itself. Shut the soul 

off from sex and you shut it off from life 

and growth. To remove sex would solve 

every problem of life — yes ! by bringing 

death! To give sex to man is to bestow a 

gift so potential, so dangerous, that only 

a God dare do it; but it is the gift of life 

itself, and not to bestow it were to refrain 

from creation. 

Not, then, how can we conquer sex, but 

how can we use it; not to obliterate but to 

employ greatly; not to despise but to 

reverence; not to fear but heroically to 

master the one power in us that makes us 

122 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

partners in creation, — this is the truth the 

mystic knows. 

All religions teach Divine Love, but none 

to-day practise it so extensively as Chris- 

tianity. True, Buddhism in its prime had 

hospitals and widespread charity; was kind 

to animals; and under its first king Asoka, 

refrained, in the name of God, from war — 

a development of international ethics to 

which Christianity itself has not yet 

reached. It is further true that China, 

partly through the influence of Buddhism, 

has been one of the most peaceful nations 

known to history. Yet China itself is 

guilty to-day of the most fiendish practices 

of cruelty toward criminals or toward 

political offenders. To inflict mere death 

upon the victim is of no satisfaction to 

Oriental malignity. Tortures worse than 

the Inquisition have been invented by the 

subtle Chinese mind to prolong the agony 

of death. This same barbaric cruelty is 

practised from the waters of the Pacific to 

the Golden Horn, throughout the vast 

extent of Asia, and wherever Orientalism 

holds sway. 

THE DOCTRINE OF LOVE 123 

In more passive forms Oriental cruelty- 

shows itself in the stoicism with which one 

can die or watch others die. Famine and 

pestilence sweep away their millions — while 

the survivors go about their daily life with 

an apathy impossible to Western people. 

This indifference to death and to physical 

suffering is in part due to the philosophy of 

the Far East as regards existence — that it 

is a continuous round, the soul being born 

and reborn till it is purged of evil. Suffering 

is the result of sin, either in this or in past 

lives; and only by suffering can the sin be 

expiated. Since it is useless to interfere 

in the destiny of others, why concern our- 

selves with the suffering of those about us 

who through suffering are mounting the 

path towards God? Infinite bliss, infinite 

joy, comes not in this life, but lies at the 

end of existence itself, in Nirvana, the goal 

towards which all Being tends. 

Orientalism, plunged into the pessimism 

of a sad old age, conceives this world as 

essentially one of tears and sadness. Only 

through knowledge of life's illusion can 

one escape life and reach Nirvana. Only 

124 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

through suffering can one acquire knowl- 

edge. Therefore die or let die — it matters 

not. 

Into this fog of apathetic pessimism 

Christianity, essentially the religion of 

young, exuberant races, blows a fresh 

breath of hope and love and service. True, 

this is a world of tears — but it is our duty, 

in Christ, to make it less so. Not only of 

Heaven as an infinitely distant goal does the 

Christian dream — but of a finite tiny replica 

of Heaven established here below, the King- 

dom of God on earth. This is the healthiest, 

the sanest, and the most virile note that 

religion has yet struck. Something to work 

for here and now. Something to inspire 

service. Some hope of progress toward 

infinite improvement in the art of living. 

Some vision of a Golden Age, not past but 

coming to the world. 

And the means of this achievement lie in 

Love. Brotherly love, connubial love, 

parental love, neighborly love, social love, 

inter-racial love, and the love of God, — all 

combine to form a chord the richness of 

which, rising in crescendo, outvies the songs 

THE DOCTRINE OF LOVE 125 

of angels and the music of the spheres. 

For in human love lies the power of crea- 

tion, denied even to angels and the rulers of 

the stars. 

Not that other religions have not taught 

Love: but Christianity practises it as never 

it w^as practised before. To the power of 

the lowly Nazarene how many hospitals and 

asylums, how many schools and colleges, 

how many institutions for the happiness and 

betterment of mankind bear witness! 

Let the East copy! Not elsewise can 

it achieve true civilization. If we have 

much to learn from the East she has still 

this to learn from us, — the power of love. 

Without it all other gifts are vain, are 

tinkling cymbals, as Paul said. For other 

spiritual qualities, gained through wise 

effort of the will, without love lead to pride 

and the death of the soul. The young Occi- 

dent, naive and simple-minded, humbly 

expressing the love taught by Christ in 

social service, has forged ahead of the East, 

old in wisdom, where the fallen are left by 

the roadside and the path of spiritual knowl- 

edge has become the path of pride. 

126 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

Of even further reaches of the Love Divine, 

the mystic dare not speak except in symbols. 

That union w^ith the Universal which is the 

very essence of mysticism, is expressed in 

terms suggestive of sex love merely because 

sex love is the highest, deepest, most ex- 

static, and most satisfying love known to 

man. Were man's experience along the 

spiritual path greater, he would not need 

to be taught these truths in such a falter- 

ing, unclear language. For no words at 

man's disposal can express how infinitely 

the love of the Divine transcends the high- 

est love that flesh is heir to. 

CHAPTER IX. 

NIRVANA 

SALVATION is the goal of most reli- 

gions; but just what is understood by- 

such a term depends upon the theo- 

logical concepts of the time and place. 

, In India it is salvation from rebirth that 

is sought. In this world of sorrow life is not 

a boon, but a sad necessity to which our 

ignorance and illusions compel us. Wis- 

dom and enlightenment give release not only 

from sorrow but from the wheel of life 

itself, around which turn in continual 

bondage the souls of those who are not 

saved. Freedom from existence means en- 

trance to Nirvana; and Nirvana means not 

eictinction, as many Western critics claim, 

but infinite bliss. In Nirvana the Brahman 

has a lofty conception, not of mere negation 

but: of spiritual perfection. 

; For the Occidental, who is not as capable 

oi grasping metaphysical abstractions as is 

the Hindu, some simpler conception must 

127 

128 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

suffice. Heaven, then, as a concrete 

locality of joy and bliss, is the goal 

toward which he aims; and the loss of 

Heaven is that from which he seeks salva- 

tion. How can he assure himself of an 

eternal destiny of spiritual joy and prog- 

ress? This is the aim of the Christian, 

and all the practices of his religion have 

been mainly toward this end. 

As to by what methods one can be saved, 

whether by baptism, confession of faith, 

good acts, total immersion, acceptance of 

the sacrificial atonement of a Christ, — these 

things are all a matter of creed and rite, not 

of metaphysics; and it is not our purpose 

here to try to reconcile the irreconcilable, or 

to harmonize the outward and so varying 

forms of world religions. 

But what is its esoteric meaning? Does the 

word "salvation," so distasteful to educated 

and eclectic ears, contain a germ of spiritual 

reality? It would indeed seem that a con- 

cept of such influence and inspiration in the 

spiritual life of millions upon millions 

throughout centuries of thought, must 

stand for some reality. 

NIRVANA 129 

From what, then, are we to be saved, be it 

not from the domination of Nature into 

which we are born as incarnated earthly 

bodies? And to what does salvation initiate 

us, unless it be to that state of spiritual 

existence which constitutes a round of evo- 

lution altogether distinct and separate from 

the evolution of the flesh? 

The mystic knows that even in the midst 

of the material world another world exists 

where all is fair and beautiful; that into 

this strange, unseen world only those may 

enter of pure hearts and God-like spirits; 

that once born into this world, growth goes 

on as in the world of matter and the spirit 

progresses according to eternal Laws 6f 

Destiny which know no favorites and which 

condemn none who condemn not them- 

selves. 

•But how can one discover this undiscov- 

erable abode of bliss? How penetrate the 

arcana of the spirit? The way is not 

apparent to the eye of flesh; neither can 

carnate feet advance upon the path. To 

enter here, to become an inhabitant of this 

130 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

super-world, is and has been the goal of 

mysticism since the human race began. 

To the mystic nothing else seems of im- 

portance. Dearly as he values life, he 

esteems it to be of little worth compared to 

this. Possessions, emoluments, office, — 

those are playthings which amuse child- 

man; they are not necessary appurtenances 

of the soul. 

To discover this world of spirit is to 

achieve the utmost which life can offer. 

Beside such success all other successes pale 

to insignificance. He who knew the privi- 

lege of living in this Kingdom, Christ has 

told us, would sell all his possessions for it — 

and he would search as one searched for 

life itself, to discover the secret portals. 

So highly does Destiny desire for us this 

success, that to train tis for it she would 

sacrifice upon her altar all our earthly 

happiness, our material possessions, nay, 

the lives of friends, kindred, and the most 

dearly beloved of earthly beings. From 

those whose time has come for spiritual 

awakening all earthly treasures flee, every 

seeming garment vanishes, until the soul is 

NIRVANA 131 

left naked before its maker as in the day of 

Creation. 

Then Destiny brings out new and glorious 

raiment, fit for the soul's initiation into 

bliss. And garbed in purity and light, up- 

held on either side by angels of lowliness 

and love, the spirit of man enters into 

Salvation and dwells forever after in eter- 

nity, though it live as yet in earthly body. 

Think not that Immortality comes after 

living, or that death is sufficient to usher 

one into its abodes. Eternity does not \r 

begin where earthly life leaves ofT, for 

eternity is infinity itself and neither begins 

nor ends. It is a state of being; and he who 

has not perceived its values while still 

illusioned in earth-senses, will not be born in 

spirit-land with a capacity to see. 

That is why it is so vitally important to 

achieve salvation here and now. That is 

why the earnest Christian would sacrifice 

life itself to save a soul. It is the quintes- 

sence of religion, the one good fortune that 

can befall man. The mystic, only, sees it as 

such. That is why he longs unspeakably to 

open people's eyes, to tear the veils asunder, 

132 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

to awaken men to the glories that he before 

them. But human language does not suf- 

fice, nor finite thoughts capacitate, to unfold 

this mystery. Each must tread the path 

himself. Each must face the weary round 

of life, until from very weariness one gives 

up the quest for joy in terms of matter. To 

him for whom the physical is all-glorious 

the mystic can say nothing. Christ himself 

could never heal of this myopia, until men 

craved for healing. 

Since we are all possessors of free will, 

partners with the Divine in this respect. 

Destiny must take its course; and each soul 

must work out in fear and trembling its 

individual salvation. 

Both in Christian and in Brahmin the- 

ology the term "twice-born" is used to 

denote those who not only share in common 

with others, the exoteric rites of their reli- 

gion; but who, by some inner spiritual 

processes, are born again, so to speak, — born 

this time into a spiritual kingdom. 

In India there is current the symbol of a 

bird's evolution from the egg. Once it is 

born as the egg leaves the mother; yet what 

NIRVANA 133 

a feeble, cribbed existence is that which 

the destined soarer-into-heaven's-blue leads 

within its shell! Not until a further 

development goes on and the birdling, 

arriving at the full potentiality of hfe, 

breaks through the shell to its real freedom, 

can it be said to live at all, — to be really 

that for which nature destined it. 

So with man. "Verily, man is not called 

man, until he hath put on the attributes of 

God. He is not worthy of the name Man 

merely because of wealth, adornment, learn- 

ing or refinement." That is to say, un- 

spiritual man, as yet confined within the 

prison walls of self, is as unfree and as little 

conscious of his real being as the unhatched 

bird is in its thin shell. Only when he bursts 

through sense-illusion and is born again, 

this time into light and life, can he be said to 

be partaker of reality. 

Either the mystic's claim is true, or it is 

not. Either the founders of religion are try- 

ing to describe to us an actual state of being 

— the only, to them, essential state of being; 

or they are self-deluded, psycopathic 

dreamers, whose teachings deserve to be 

134 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

ridiculed. There is no half-way ground. 

For the whole tenor and portent of a 

prophet's teaching lies in this very point, — 

the mystery of soul in matter, and the 

possibility of the incarnated soul rising 

superior to matter. 

The glory of man lies in his potentiality 

of becoming; in his hope of attaining to 

God-consciousness. Otherwise he is but a 

higher type of animal, subject to nature's 

laws and a slave to his environment. Men 

X differ from animals not in intelligence — for 

animals too have that — but in spiritual 

capacity, in the possibility of rebirth, of 

entering the Kingdom. 

It follows also from these premises, that 

intelligence can not suffice to lead the soul 

to heaven. To the intellect there are dis- 

tinct bounds and limits. It will carry man 

to the height of refinement, of quickness of 

physical and mental perception; but it will 

never of itself convey those spiritual truths 

and kindle that inner flame which is to light 

the soul on its way through the darkness of 

materialism. 

Mere intellect without spirituality breeds 

NIRVANA 135 

pride, and pride is the greatest deceiver of 

man. He who surrounds himself with an 

edifice of pride dwells therein safely, for a 

time, ensconced from the storms of doubt; 

until some day a terrible cataclysm of the 

soul rends the walls, and they fall, like the 

House of Usher, into the dark tarn of 

ignorance from which they rose. For pride 

ever builds upon ignorance and hides itself 

from the highways of the soul. 

The greatest scholar may be further off 

from God than the meanest peasant. Christ 

has said so, and history has proved it. It 

matters not to me that in this age of materi- 

alistic knowledge thinkers scoff at mysti- 

cism; it matters not that behind their 

barricades of doubt they would prevent the 

spiritual cohorts from advancing to the City 

of God. They shall in due time know their 

weakness; and they shall inevitably suc- 

cumb. For the soul that opposes the Divine 

has as little chance of succeeding in rebellion 

as an infant in its mother's arms. 

It is not without reason that the Saviours 

of the world teach men they must become 

again as children. In the realms of spirit 

> 

136 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

there is no place for the rebellious soul, for 

the proud or haughty, the unbending, the 

self-conceited, the overbearing. The quali- 

ties of a child — its sweetness of submission; 

its happy faith and dependence on a parent's 

care; its naive trust in things, based not 

upon knowledge but upon spiritual percep- 

tion, — these are also the qualities of the 

spiritual initiate. 

And as the infant owes its birth to love, 

so spiritual man owes his new birth to the 

dawn of a new love, — a flame consuming his 

very being until it leaves naught there but 

God. "To love the Lord thy God with all 

thy heart and with all thy soul and with all 

thy mind," — this is the inevitable condition. 

But how can man love God, whom he has 

never seen? How can love, which feeds 

upon concretion, exist for that which is 

abstract and distant? How can the finite 

be attached to Infinity, or the creature reach 

union with the Creator? 

Herein lies the deepest, the most sacred 

mystery of life. Religion can explain it but 

dimly. The mind conceives it not, but the 

j^ heart knows. This is the wings with which 

NIRVANA 137 

the Brahmin flies, the hymn the Christian 

sings, the golden Hght of "Bhakti" which 

has infused every great reHgion. Not adher- 

ence to ethical abstractions, not acceptance 

of metaphysical dogmas, — but devotion to a 

Living Personality; yes, worship of a Love 

gloriously impersonal, this is the road to 

Salvation. 

"Bhakti," or religion of personal devotion, 

is repulsive to the intellect of man, offends 

his pride, casts down his vanity, vitiates his 

eclecticism, and deprives him apparently of 

that freedom of will with which Destiny, in 

giving him reason, has endowed him. But 

so, and only so, love must come. What 

room is there for reason in the heart that 

bursts with love? The lover who loves so 

coldly as to analyze is lost. Love asks for 

no reasons; like beauty it is content to be. 

In its very ecstasy lies a sufficiency of logic. 

For reason has never impelled man as love 

has; and knowledge has never looked with 

so fair a face upon the world as looks the 

blood-hued rose unfolding by the roadside. 

So the truly spiritual man, whose heart 

sings as sings the heart of a woman who has 

138 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

put her house in order and awaits her dear 

lord, walks daily in company with the 

Friend; and climbs the heights to Union 

undazzled, unafraid, sublimely unconscious 

of his greatness in being near to God. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE NEED OF A UNIVERSAL RELIGION 

THOUGH commerce and cultural ex- 

change should bring the ends of 

the world together,, East will not 

meet West in love and confidence till they 

are joined by the ties of a common religion. 

For it is in and by means of these spiritual 

ties, so deep seated in a race or an indi- 

vidual, that real union takes place. With 

everything else in common, diversity of reli- 

gion opposes an insurmountable barrier to 

mutual confidence. 

It would seem that the time were near for 

a world religion, uniting all races and creeds 

in a common worship. Though the out- 

ward forms of religion dififer as widely as 

the minds and temperaments of men, yet 

the inner spiritual truths are the same for 

all ages, for all races, and for all persons. 

There is but one commandment necessary 

for the world, "Love the Lord thy God with 

139 

I40 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

all thy soul and with all thy mind; and love 

thy neighbor as thyself." 

It makes no difference by what name the 

Creator passes', whether He is called Allah, 

or Buddha, or Jehovah. His essence does not 

change, — and love for Him is one and the 

same, whether it be born in Christian heart, 

or in Mohammedan or Buddhist breast. 

Does not the world's gold pass as equal 

currency no matter what the name stamped 

on it? It is the smallness of men's minds, 

not the nature of spirituality, that causes 

religion to be divided into separate and 

hostile formulas. At the bottom, religion is 

one and the same thing for Jew and Chris- 

tian, Brahmin, Moslem and Confucianist. 

The writings of the mystics reveal this 

unity. In the tender rhapsodies of a Kabir 

are to be found the same searchings after 

God as in the joyous utterances of St. 

Francis, or the deep spiritual love of the 

Sufi mystics. Watered on different soils the 

rose-bush bears a different tinted blossom, 

but its perfume and its heart are ever one. 

\ As men in different climes and races 

reach more deeply into Ufe and find that 

NEED OF A UNIVERSAL RELIGION 141 

nearness to God which is the quintes- 

sence of religion, they become too universal 

to be contented with man-made creeds or 

dogmas. The mystic is an antinomian, be- 

cause he permits no man to make laws for 

him, or to regulate his approach to the 

Divine. These mystics, of whatever race or 

whatever religion, are brothers and recog- 

nize the family relationship. For do not 

their features conform more and more, 

daily, to the Divine Image and Ideal? 

The nearer man gets to God, the better 

he can dispense with benefit of clergy^ 

Does he need to be exhorted, whose heart is 

already aflame with the celestial fire? Or 

can he be taught of man, who is led by the 

Spirit? If the mystic conforms to outer 

religion it is from courtesy and kindness, 

and as a sign of outward reverence, so to 

speak, to the Great Being before whom he 

daily and hourly bows in the sanctified 

chapel of his own heart. 

The only possible universal religian, then, 

miist needs be a religion of the inner life; 

a religion comprising te essential truths of 

all the world's spiritual teaching; a religion 

142 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

of work and efficiency; a religion of prayer 

and mysticisrnj 

The qualities of spiritual man I have tried 

to outline in the preceding chapters. One 

who lived a life embodying these truths 

would soon cease to care whether he were 

called Christian or Hebrew or Mohamme- 

dan. To him all sacred books would fur- 

nish food of the spirit, and his prayers 

y would ascend to God in loving unison with 

the prayers of all who loved God. 

The time will come, and now is, when all 

who worship God must worship him in 

spirit and in truth; when the world will be 

divided, not into hostile groups of nominal 

Christians and Buddhists and Moslems, but 

into the two great and unapproachable 

divisions of those who love God and those 

who do not. 

How blinded are men's eyes, that they 

look so hostilely at other worshipers of God ! 

Did they but have the Divine Ray within 

their hearts, they would perceive their 

brothers in God, out of whatsoever faces 

that Ray shone. 

There must be, and there will be, brother- 

NEED OF A UNIVERSAL RELIGION 143 

hood among all who turn to God. But there 

can never be a bond of union between those 

who love God and those who hate Him, for 

all who are not with Him are against Him. 

.^ We need again rough fiery prophets to 

preach retribution and destruction to man 

in order to do away with the supercilious 

eclecticism which characterizes this age — 

the cultured tolerance and resolute indiffer- 

ence to what concerns man's ultimate happi- 

ness. It is no concern to you that your 

neighbor loves not God? Will you go and 

sojourn in a land of evil, and try to conform 

to its usages? You who bear the name of 

Christ-man and deny Christ daily, — know 

you not that Earth hates you? and that 

Destiny, patient to the last, has at last be- 

come impatient of you? 

A thousand trumpet calls are heard, en- 

listing the cohorts of Truth against the 

cohorts of Falsehood, of Evil, and of Car- 

nality. Choose your ranks well and quickly, 

for the day is not far off when the evil- 

minded shall no longer dwell at peace and 

ease in God's world. How will ye be found 

when the Master of the Vineyard comes? 

-X 

144 THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM 

Look round about you, people of percep- 

tion, and withdraw your garments from 

contact with those who deny God. There 

can be but one Religion on earth, and that 

reHgion none may share who know not God. 

SELAH ! 

Cornell University Library 

BV5082 .C65 

Essential.mvsJicjsnj,,,>«..S«anwood,Coi.b. 

3 1924 029 354 390 

olin