BOOK 2  45-55

The Book of the Spiritual Man  1-11   12-22   22-33   34- 44   45-55

45. Soul-vision is perfected through perfect obedience to the Master.

The sorrow and darkness of life come of the erring personal will
which sets itself against the will of the Soul, the one great Life. The
error of the personal will is inevitable, since each will must be free to
choose, to try and fail, and so to find the path. And sorrow and
darkness are inevitable, until the path be found, and the personal will
made once more one with the greater Will, wherein it finds rest and
power, without losing freedom. In His will is our peace. And with that
peace comes light. Soul-vision is perfected through obedience.

46. Right poise must be firm and without strain. Here we approach a
section of the teaching which has manifestly a two-fold meaning. The
first is physical, and concerns the bodily position of the student, and
the regulation of breathing. These things have their direct influence
upon soul-life, the life of the spiritual man, since it is always and
everywhere true that our study demands a sound mind in a sound
body. The present sentence declares that, for work and for meditation,
the position of the body must be steady and without strain, in order
that the finer currents of life may run their course.

It applies further to the poise of the soul, that fine balance and stability
which nothing can shake, where the consciousness rests on the firm
foundation of spiritual being. This is indeed the house set upon a rock,
which the winds and waves beat upon in vain.

47. Right poise is to be gained by steady and temperate effort, and by
setting the heart upon the everlasting.

Here again, there is the two-fold meaning, for physical poise is to be
gained by steady effort of the muscles, by gradual and wise training,
linked with a right understanding of, and relation with, the universal
force of gravity. Uprightness of body demands that both these
conditions shall be fulfilled.

In like manner the firm and upright poise of the spiritual man is to be
gained by steady and continued effort, always guided by wisdom, and
by setting the heart on the Eternal, filling the soul with the atmosphere
of the spiritual world. Neither is effective without the other.
Aspiration without effort brings weakness; effort without aspiration
brings a false strength, not resting on enduring things. The two
together make for the right poise which sets the spiritual man firmly
and steadfastly on his feet.

48 The fruit of right poise is the strength to resist the shocks of
infatuation or sorrow.

In the simpler physical sense, which is also coveted by the wording of
the original, this sentence means that wise effort establishes such
bodily poise that the accidents of life cannot disturb it, as the captain
remains steady, though disaster overtake his ship.

But the deeper sense is far more important. The spiritual man, too,
must learn to withstand all shocks, to remain steadfast through the
perturbations of external things and the storms and whirlwinds of the
psychical world. This is the power which is gained by wise,
continuous effort, and by filling the spirit with the atmosphere of the
Eternal.

49. When this is gained, there follows the right guidance of the
life-currents, the control of the incoming and outgoing breath.

It is well understood to-day that most of our maladies come from
impure conditions of the blood. It is coming to be understood that
right breathing, right oxygenation, will do very much to keep the
blood clean and pure. Therefore a right knowledge of breathing is a
part of the science of life.

But the deeper meaning is, that the spiritual man, when he has gained
poise through right effort and aspiration, can stand firm, and guide the
currents of his life, both the incoming current of events, and the
outgoing current of his acts.

Exactly the same symbolism is used in the saying: Not that which
goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the
mouth, this defileth a man.... Those things which proceed out of the
mouth come forth from the heart . . out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, murders, uncleanness, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
Therefore the first step in purification is to keep the Commandments.

50. The life-current is either outward, or inward, or balanced; it ;is
regulated according to place, time, number; it is prolonged and subtle.
The technical, physical side of this has its value. In the breath, there
should be right inbreathing, followed by the period of pause, when the
air comes into contact with the blood, and this again followed by right
outbreathing, even, steady, silent. Further, the lungs should be evenly
filled; many maladies may arise from the neglect and consequent
weakening of some region of the lungs. And the number of breaths is
so important, so closely related to health, that every nurse's chart
records it.

But the deeper meaning is concerned with the currents of life; with
that which goeth into and cometh out of the heart.

51. The fourth degree transcends external and internal objects.

The inner meaning seems to be that, in addition to the three degrees
of control already described, control, that is, over the incoming
current of life, over the outgoing current, and over the condition of
pause or quiesence, there is a fourth degree of control, which holds in
complete mastery both the outer passage of events and the inner
currents of thoughts and emotions; a condition of perfect poise and
stability in the midst of the flux of things outward and inward.

52. Thereby is worn away the veil which covers up the light.

The veil is the psychic nature, the web of emotions, desires,
argumentative trains of thought, which cover up and obscure the truth
by absorbing the entire attention and keeping the consciousness in the
psychic realm. When hopes and fears are reckoned at their true worth,
in comparison with lasting possessions of the Soul; when the outer
reflections of things have ceased to distract us from inner realities;
when argumentative - thought no longer entangles us, but yields its
place to flashing intuition, the certainty which springs from within;
then is the veil worn away, the consciousness is drawn from the
psychical to the spiritual, from the temporal to the Eternal. Then is the
light unveiled.

53. Thence comes the mind's power to hold itself in the light.

It has been well said, that what we most need is the faculty of spiritual
attention; and in the same direction of thought it has been eloquently
declared that prayer does not consist in our catching God's attention,
but rather in our allowing God to hold our attention.

The vital matter is, that we need to disentangle our consciousness
from the noisy and perturbed thraldom of the psychical, and to come
to consciousness as the spiritual man. This we must do, first, by
purification, through the Commandments and the Rules; and, second,
through the faculty of spiritual attention, by steadily heeding endless
fine intimations of the spiritual power within us, and by intending our
consciousness thereto; thus by degrees transferring the centre of
consciousness from the psychical to the spiritual. It is a question, first,
of love, and then of attention.

54. The right Withdrawal is the disengaging of the powers from
entanglement in outer things, as the psychic nature has been
withdrawn and stilled.

To understand this, let us reverse the process, and think of the one
consciousness, centred in the Soul, gradually expanding and taking on
the form of the different perceptive powers; the one will, at the same
time, differentiating itself into the varied powers of action.

Now let us imagine this to be reversed, so that the spiritual force,
which has gone into the differentiated powers, is once more gathered
together into the inner power of intuition and spiritual will, taking on
that unity which is the hall- mark of spiritual things, as diversity is the
seal of material things.

It is all a matter of love for the quality of spiritual consciousness, as
against psychical consciousness, of love and attention. For where the
heart is, there will the treasure be also; where the consciousness is,
there will the vesture with its powers be developed.

55. Thereupon follows perfect mastery over the powers.

When the spiritual condition which we have described is reached, with
its purity, poise, and illuminated vision, the spiritual man is coming
into his inheritance, and gaining complete mastery of his powers.

Indeed, much of the struggle to keep the Commandments and the
Rules has been paving the way for this mastery; through this very
struggle and sacrifice the mastery has become possible; just as, to use
St. Paul's simile, the athlete gains the mastery in the contest and the
race through the sacrifice of his long and arduous training. Thus he
gains the crown.

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