In cogitating lately I thought of you in respect to some of my own
thoughts. I was reading a book and looking around within myself to see
how I could enlarge my idea of brotherhood. Practice in benevolence
will not give it its full growth. I had to find some means of reaching
further, and struck on this, which is as old as old age.
I am not separate from anything. "I am that which is." That is, I am
Brahma, and Brahma is everything. But being in an illusionary world,
I am surrounded by certain appearances that seem to make me separate.
So I will proceed to mentally state and accept that I am all these
illusions. I am my friends,--and then I went to them in general and in
particular. I am my enemies; then I felt them all. I am the poor and
the wicked; I am the ignorant. Those moments of intellectual gloom are
the moments when I am influenced by those ignorant ones who are myself.
All this in my nation. But there are many nations, and to those I go in
mind; I feel and I am them all, with what they hold of superstition or
of wisdom or evil. All, all is myself. Unwisely, I was then about to
stop, but the whole is Brahma, so I went to the Devas and Asuras;[B]
the elemental world, that too is myself. After pursuing this course
awhile I found it easier to return to a contemplation of all men as
myself. It is a good method and ought to be pursued, for it is a step
toward getting into contemplation of the All. I tried last night to
reach up to Brahma, but darkness is about his pavilion.
Now what does all this insanity sound like? I'll tell you what: if it
were not for this insanity I would go insane. But shall I not take
heart, even when a dear friend deserts me and stabs me deep, when I
know that he is myself?