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Russell Stamets
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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
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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"
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
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