Wisdom Vault — onlinknow.co.za

vine life, the midway region of Transmu- tation is the Country of Sacrifice, it is the Plain of Renunciation. Old passions, old desires, old ambitions and thoughts, are cast [26] jTrom Ipassion to peace away and abandoned, but only to reappear in some more beautiful, more permanent, more internally satisfying form.

As valuable jewels, long guarded and cherished, are thrown tearfully into the melting-pot, yet are remoulded into new and more perfeft adornments, so the spiritual alchemist, at first loth to part company with long-cher- ished thoughts and habits, at last gives them up, to discover, a little later, to his joy, that they have come back to him in the form of new faculties, rarer powers, and purer joys, — spiritual jewels newly bur- nished, beautiful and resplendent.

In transmuting his mind from evil to good, a man comes to distinguish more and more clearly between error and Truth, and so distinguishing, he ceases to be swayed and prompted by outward things, and by the adlions and attitudes of others; he ads from his knowledge of truth.

First acknowledging his errors, and then con- fronting them with a searching mind and a [27] jTrom passion to Peace humble heart, he subdues, conquers, and transmutes them. The early stage of transmutation is pain- ful but brief, for the pain is soon trans- formed into pure spiritual joy, the brevity of the pain being measured by the intelli- gence and energy with which the process is pursued.

While a man thinks that the cause of his pain is in the attitude of others, he will not pass beyond it, but when he perceives that its cause is in himself, then he will pass be- yond it into joy. The unenlightened man allows himself to be disturbed, wounded, and overthrown by what he regards as the wrong attitude of others towards him ; this is because the same wrong attitude is in himself.

He, in- deed, metes out to them, in return, the same aftions, regarding as right in himself that which is wrong in others. Slander is given for slander, hatred for hatred, anger for anger. This is the adion and readtion [ 28 ] jFrom Passion to peace of evil; it is the clash of selfishness with selfishness.

It is only the self, or selfish elements, within a man that can be aroused by the evil in another; the Truth, or di- vine charafteristics, in a man cannot be approached by that evil, much less can it be disturbed and overthrown by it.

It is the conversion, or complete reversal, of this self into Truth that constitutes Transmutation. The enlightened man has abandoned the delusion that the evil in others has power to hurt and subdue him, and he has grasped the profound truth that he is only overthrown by the evil in him- self.

He therefore ceases to blame others for his sins and sufferings, and applies him- self to purifying his own heart. In this re- versal of his mental attitude, he transmutes the lower selfish forces into the higher moral attributes.

The base ore of error is cast into the fire of sacrifice, and there comes forth the pure gold of Truth. Such a man stands firm and unmoved [ 29] jTrom Passion to IPeace when assailed by outward things. He is self's master, not its slave.