The first
thing to do is to gain the power to stand firm, to remain still, to have confidence
The first thing which it is necessary for the soul
of man to do in order to engage in this great endeavor of discovering true life
is the same thing that the child first does in its desire for activity in the
body, — he must be able to stand. It is clear that the power of standing, of
equilibrium, of concentration, of uprightness, in the soul, is a quality of a
marked character. The word that presents itself most readily as descriptive of
this quality is "confidence."
To
remain still amid life and its changes, and stand firmly on the chosen spot, is
a feat which can only be accomplished by the man who has confidence in himself
and in his destiny.
Otherwise the hurrying forms of life, the rushing
tide of men, the great floods of thought, must inevitably carry him with them,
and then he will lose that place of consciousness whence it was possible to
start on the great enterprise. For it must be done knowingly, and
without pressure from without, — this act of the new-born man. All the great
ones of the earth have possessed this confidence, and have stood firmly on that
place which was to them the one solid spot in the universe. To each man this
place is of necessity different. Each
man must find his own earth and his own heaven.
If we try to
remove the effects of pain and not the
causes, we simply alleviate it or drive it to less visible planes.
We have the instinctive desire to relieve pain, but
we work in externals in this as in everything else. We simply alleviate it; and
if we do more, and drive it from its first chosen stronghold, it reappears in
some other place with reinforced vigor. If it is eventually driven off the
physical plane by persistent and successful effort, it reappears on the mental
or emotional planes where no man can touch it. That this is so is easily seen
by those who connect the various planes of sensation, and who observe life with
that additional illumination.
The different
sensations are only different sides of the center of the personality
Men habitually regard these different forms of
feeling as actually separate, whereas in fact they are evidently only different
sides of one center, — the point of personality. If that which arises in the
center, the fount of life, demands some hindered action, and consequently
causes pain, the force thus created being driven from one stronghold must find
another; it cannot be driven out.
Pleasure and
pain both have their purposes in the human function; it is by merging them
together that peace is obtained.
And all the blendings of human life which cause
emotion and distress exist for its use and purposes as well as for those of
pleasure. Both have their home in man; both demand their expression of right.
The marvelously delicate mechanism of the human frame is constructed to answer
to their lightest touch; the extraordinary intricacies of human relations
evolve themselves, as it were, for the satisfaction of these two great
opposites of the soul.
Pain and
pleasure stand apart and separate, as do the two sexes; and it is in the
merging, the making the two into one, that joy and deep sensation and profound
peace are obtained.
Where
there is neither male nor female, neither pain nor pleasure, there is the god
in man dominant, and then is life real.
To prove the
existence of the Gates of Gold means to search for reality, which is man’s
greatest need.
To state the matter in this way may savor too much
of the dogmatist who utters his assertions uncontradicted from a safe pulpit;
but it is dogmatism only as a scientist's record of effort in a new direction
is dogmatism. Unless the existence of the Gates of Gold can be proved to be
real, and not the mere phantasmagoria of fanciful visionaries, then they are
not worth talking about at all. In the nineteenth century hard facts or
legitimate arguments alone appeal to men's minds; and so much the better. For unless the life we advance towards is
increasingly real and actual, it is worthless, and time is wasted in going
after it. Reality is man's greatest need, and he demands to have it at all
hazards, at any price. Be it so. No one doubts he is right. Let us then go
in search of reality.
Stand in the place where you live
Now face north
Think about direction
Wonder why you haven’t before
Now stand in the place where you work
Now face west
Think about the place where you live
Wonder why you haven’t before
If you are confused, check with the sun
Carry a compass to help you along
Your feet are going to be on the ground
Your head is there to move you around
Now face north
Think about direction
Wonder why you haven’t before
Now stand in the place where you work
Now face west
Think about the place where you live
Wonder why you haven’t before
If you are confused, check with the sun
Carry a compass to help you along
Your feet are going to be on the ground
Your head is there to move you around
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