... The time comes in the progress of spiritual aspiration when the
generative impulse begins to manifest within rather than without.
Firmly and gently the thoughts are turned to the Image within or above;
the tendencies for outward manifestation slowly but surely give way....
This work sometimes goes on rapidly. A hundred times a day the thoughts
of earthy attraction are finished with a soul conception, where
formerly the mere physical presence sufficed.
Nothing answers thought more swiftly, but in this passage of mastery,
if a single desire eludes from the aspirant, he must meet it later
in a tearing and cumulative call. Surely at length the mind rises to
rule. One's conception changes from the fear, the torment and the red
haze, to gentleness and calm, a readiness to know _all_ the mysteries
of life--to care for and respect all functions as one only can who has
mastered himself.
To cast them out in hatred is failure. That means the hardening. It
blights the beauty of the vales and all magic.
When one begins to unfold the wonders of the kingdom within, as one is
called to do in the higher and contemplative spheres of the artistic
life, there is an increasing joy that makes it easy, more and more, to
lift the power of life from the torment and unrest of the generative
seas.
One finds his dream of the beloved changed and infinitively endeared to
him. Patience, reverence, tenderness comes to the love that once knew
only the single passion of a male for the mammal. Even that, in memory,
becomes beautiful to eyes of wisdom and calm--all God's plan. One is
sensitive all through his breast for the unfathomable sweetness of life
and love. He sees the child and the immortal in the mate. He finds that
the body is truly sacred because he sees it with love and not with
desire. These are good tidings. They make one happy to write them.
There are seven centres of ecstasy in the body. Through the mastery
of will and love and action, the life-force is lifted to dwell with
and awaken these centres. With each awakening, a new power comes--a
new joy--a new hill-range crossed toward the Father's House; with each
awakening, the beloved within is quickened in consciousness, and the
beloved without is held more dear. The wondrous story of regeneration
goes on and on, to the love that seeks to give itself utterly. To
love--that is all the Soul asks.
Momentary passion swiftly passes in the increase of spiritual
aspiration. Its force is not killed, but used for awakening the higher
and immortal principles where real love abides. The hand of the loved
one becomes sacred unto tears, and the joy of life is to serve.
The whole body is presently repolarised--the fire sparking upward--the
apex of the triangle turned upward--desire of soul instead of desire
of the body.... The mating of the mind and the soul is the larger, the
cosmic consciousness, awaited so long. This means that the Lord has
come into His Temple--the body made ready. It means that the mind and
soul are one, the house no longer divided against itself. The lover
is ready for the approach of his mate. Each has been cleansed at the
fountains apart....
One must be utterly weary of the old. This repolarisation of the
generative force cannot come until one has heard with furious passion,
in the depths of pain, the call to the higher life, the new quest. Not
repression then, but transmutation. One changes gently, often under a
mystic administry, but always with growing love for the body and for
the world, using the life forces for healing and concentration and
the power to listen to the Lord within--the Voice of the Silence....
Upon the illumination of the seven centres by the life force, another
mystery takes place. The levitation of the spiritual life overpowers
to a considerable extent the natural gravitation of the flesh--the
down-pull of years. The result, of course, is the restoration of health
to all tissues of the body--the Fountain of Youth starts singing
again.... To you.
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