1
These glimpses come at the most unexpected of times
and in the most unexpected places. It is not possible to be dogmatic about their
appearance and be correct at the same time. Reports have been received which
reveal that they may come abruptly during the strain and pressure of business or
professional activity, as well as during the relaxation of leisure hours, at the
beginning, the middle, and the end of the day, during pleasurable periods or
amid great suffering.
2
The Overself's take-over is not always the same but
changes with the time and the occasion, the person and the place. It may be
gentle, quiet, almost unmarked at first, or it may be like a tremendous force,
commanding and irresistible.
3
The experience may come on gently in moods of
relaxation or flash abruptly after a period of emotional or intellectual
tension.
4
Sometimes he will definitely feel that he is being
led into an experience, a mood, or an idea. At other times he may feel himself
being drawn inward quite deeply as if the very roots of his egoic being were
penetrated; more rarely as if he has been drawn beyond the ego itself.
5
When this consciousness takes hold of a man, it
takes him by surprise. Infinity is so utterly different from what he was
experiencing a few minutes earlier that its wonder, its truth, its beauty, its
love fill him abruptly, as if in descent from the skies.
6
The element of surprise and the delight of novelty
are present and give the Glimpse its rapturous turn.
7
The glimpse may come to him with a suddenness which
makes the surrounding circumstances quite incongruous.
8
The glimpse takes you unawares.
9
When the humour of a particular situation or scene,
happening or idea strikes a person he may burst out into sudden laughter.
It is not long-forming but explosive, not built-up like a wall brick-by-brick
but flashed across the darkness like lightning. His mind has this possibility of
an abrupt move, an unexpected leap. Just so does it still possess this same
possibility with regard to the discovery of truth.
10
Enlightenment is always "sudden" in the sense that
during meditation or reverie or relaxation the preliminary thought-concentrating
gestatory period usually moves through consciousness quite slowly until, at some
unexpected moment, there is an abrupt deepening, followed by a slipping into
another dimension, a finding oneself alive in a new atmosphere.
11
A passing sign of progress in arousing latent
forces and a physical indication that he is on the eve of noteworthy mystical
experience may be a sudden unexpected vibratory movement in the region of the
abdomen, in the solar plexus. It usually comes when he has been relaxed for a
short time from the daily cares, or after retiring to bed for the night. The
diaphragmatic muscle will appear to tremble violently and something will seem to
surge to and fro like a snake behind the solar plexus. This bodily agitation
will soon subside and be followed by a pleasant calm and out of this calm there
will presently arise a sense of unusual power, of heightened control over the
animal nature and human self. With this there may also come a clear intuition
about some truth needed at the time and a revelatory expansion of consciousness
into supersensual reality.(P)
12
These moods descend without invitation and depart
without permission.
13
This is the crucial point when ordinary compulsive
mental activity fades away and stillness supervenes, perhaps very briefly,
perhaps for some minutes.
14
For some time he is tense with the feeling of
being about to receive a new revelation.
15
Each glimpse is not just a repeat performance; it
is a fresh new experience.
16
Each time the glimpse comes, it is as if it had
never come before, so fresh, so sparkling is its never-failing wonder.
17
The higher awareness comes on imperceptibly and
little by little. But as it silently gathers itself, like a cloud, it also
breaks like a renovating cloud - vehement, sparkling, and splashing.
18
The belief, which prevails in Japan, China, and
other lands, in a sudden abrupt enlightenment when one thinks quietly or says
aloud, "Ah! so this is IT," has a factual basis. This satori, as the
Japanese call it, may be either a temporary or a permanent glimpse.
19
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, "The most beautiful
adventures are not those we go to seek." Such is the coming of a glimpse - at
the moment of arrival, unsought.
20
Although such glimpses come mostly when a man is
alone, come in quiet solitude, they need not do so. They have sometimes come to
him in a crowded street or on a well-filled ship.
21
The signs of this visitation are not always the
same. It may delicately brush him with the feeling of its presence or forcefully
stimulate him with the strength of its being.
22
The beginner usually has to go through an
emotional experience in order to receive a mystical experience, but the
proficient is under no necessity to do so.
23
It comes into the orb of his awareness as an
unstruggled and unsensational happening, so easily, so smoothly, that there is
no dramatic emotion.
24
The sensitive informed and experienced person may
get intimations, may feel the glimpse coming even before the actual joyous
event.
25
In that moment he feels on the very verge of
eternity, about to lose himself in its impersonal depths.
26
When the opportunity to gain a glimpse of his
Overself draws near, it will be foreshadowed by certain happenings, either of an
inward or an outward nature, or both.
27
The glimpse often comes unexpectedly and suddenly.
If it comes while he is outdoors and walking a city street, he will
automatically and unconsciously slow his pace and sometimes even come to a
complete standstill.
28
They may come quite abruptly, those intensely
lived moments of true vision, those spasmodic glimpses of a beauty and truth
above the best which earthly life offers. The mind then rests and there is a gap
in its usual activities, a Void out of which these heavenly experiences come to
life as they overcome our ordinary feelings.
29
In those earlier days when I was struggling to get
established, the glimpse would come upon me in the most incongruous as well as
the most likely occasions. One of these frequent but strange times was when I
bent down to tie or untie the laces of my shoes.
30
The Overself takes over his identity not by
obliterating it but by including it through its surrender.
31
The glimpse state may come on in different ways.
Sometimes it disinclines the man from moving. But if he must attend to some
matter which requires him to go across a room or out of the house, his feet will
seem to move of themselves, but very, very slowly.
32
Before the glimpse can occur, the aspirant may
have to pass through a major crisis of his inner life, sometimes of his outer
life too. The mental pressure and emotional strain may leave him feeling utterly
confused, perhaps even utterly forlorn. But its sudden culmination in the
glimpse will replace darkness by light, chaos by direction, and blindness by
sight.
33
It comes unexpectedly in relaxed moments, when
enhanced physical or mental ease suspends the ego's activity.
34
Caught by the grace, and drawn into its stillness,
he may find the physical body reproducing the same conditions by becoming quite
immobile.
35
It may give him a catch of the breath, if not of
the heart, when the stillness is first felt if it comes unexpectedly and
abruptly.
36
The Divine Power is without shape, is pure Spirit;
so the worshipper who accepts or creates any concept of it, or who sees it in
spectral celestial vision, himself furnishes a vehicle for it. In the case of
the concept, it arises from association of ideas: in the case of the vision, by
expectancy or familiarity. In both cases, mind speaks whatever language, assumes
whatever aspect appeals to the man thinking about God!
37
The idea, ideal person, inspired prophet, or human
redeemer whose image is best established in a person's mind by custom and
familiarity is in most cases the channel used by the Overself when bestowing the
glimpse.
38
Little by little the stress dissolves, the clamant
duties to do this or that fall away as the recognition that this is a
benedictory visitation comes closer.
39
The glimpse may move so gently into awareness that
the beginning is hardly noticed. Or it may move in with a rush that overwhelms
him. With it, knowledge, understanding, meaning, nobility, and divinity fill the
aura around him at the moment.
40
It is the awareness of a Presence, a felt but
hushed benignity, which signals this kind of entry, this glimpse; but there are
other kinds, more forceful yet not more superior.
41
If the glimpse comes unexpectedly in most cases,
it comes unaccountedly in others.
42
It is the beginning of what he really wants to
happen, this feeling of an inward-drawing presence. This awareness is a new
experience so it flickers on and off, unadjusted.
43
Who knows? It may come to you so quietly, so
devoid of sounds and expectations, that so many smile at what begins to happen
to you. But then it may come like a cloudburst.
44
The glimpse may come in the depth of meditation
where expectancy places it. But it may also come at unexpected moments.
45
Either gently and slowly the ego is taken over or
violently and quickly the "I" is seized. This may happen during meditation or at
any time when he is somewhat relaxed, out of it.
46
And then the long looked-for event will happen. A
presence, nay a power, will suddenly make itself felt and control him out of
himself by an irresistible impetus moving like a tidal wave.
47
It will come to him as quietly as the moon comes
into the sky.
48
The glimpses are not controllable. They come or go
without consulting us.
49
The glimpse may come only once or twice in a
lifetime to one quester yet repeat itself twentyfold to another person.
50
There are scattered moments of inner rapture
underived from earthly things, although they may be started off by earthly
things.
51
The beauty of these glimpses is heightened by the
delight of their unexpectedness.
52
Bartolommeo della Gatta, fifteenth-century
painter, who was himself a monk, made a picture (for a Confraternity in
Castel-Fiorentino) of Saint Francis in which the latter appears half-standing,
half-squatting, caught in mystical rapturous adoration.
53
The coming of a glimpse is not predictable,
although it may be encouraged by contact with Nature, appreciation of art, or
practice of meditation. It is less predictable than the clearing of haze which
so often hovers over the nearby Swiss lake. "The wind bloweth where it listeth,"
said Jesus in this connection.
54
There are moments when all his acutest
thought-movement is stilled and he finds himself bereft of power, forced into
utter submission to the divine Overself.
55
If it starts with a faint awareness of being
caught in a still moment, it ends in a full experience.
56
The glimpse shows up something of his higher
identity. What is interesting also is that its advent is unpredictable, its form
changeable: but it is always fascinating.
57
I do not know the name of the ancient Chinese poet
who wrote these lines but they refer to the glimpse:
58
They come in their own mysterious seasons, stay
with us in all their brief beauty, and depart as mysteriously and as elusively
as they came.
59
The glimpse is what the name purports to be and
should not be regarded as something more, as the fullest opening of the mind to
divine truth. But naturally, because there are different capacities and
temperaments in different persons, one glimpse may be wider than another, or
take a less similar form.
60
The Glimpses are not completely uniform in their
details. In each one there is different emphasis on a particular aspect, such as
its Beauty, Power, Impersonality, or Emptiness.
61
Since no two human beings are exactly alike,
whether in body or mind, the kind of glimpse which each one gets, the way in
which he or she feels and finds the Overself's pressure, is entirely according
to personal needs and not according to a fixed stereotyped pattern for all.
62
All men who win through to the world of their
higher self, enter the same world. If their reports differ, as they do, that is
not because the experiences differ but because the men themselves differ.
Nevertheless a comparative examination of all available reports will show that
there is still a golden thread of similarity running through them, a highest
common factor of perception.
63
The first occasion when this happens brings a
thrill of wonder. This is of course due in part to the tremendous nature of the
Overself's discovery, but it is also due to its novelty, to the fact that it was
never previously experienced. Hence the thrill cannot come again, cannot be
repeated even though the experience itself may be repeated several times; but
the wonder will always remain.
64
There is the deepest feeling in the glimpse, but
this does not at all mean it is hysterical. It may be extremely quiet. It may be
strongly passionate, in which case it will be completely under control - not by
the ego but by the higher power.
65
When he begins to know himself as he really is,
when he experiences this wondrous touch of the Untouch, he feels truly alive.
66
The amazing clearness of the whole revelation and
the certainty beyond all possible doubt which accompanies it are only two of its
features. An extraordinary inspired elation - emotional, intellectual, and
intuitive - is a third feature, with a diffused sense of well-being as its
consequence or its corollary.
67
The points of this experience are the difficulty
of describing it precisely, the joy it yields and the peace it brings, the
feeling of a finer self and the sense of a higher presence, the appraisal of its
preciousness and the fading away of worldly desires.
68
In that blessed moment he finds himself
free in a way never before felt. For he finds himself without the
perplexities of the intellect and without the schemings of the ego.
69
When the two are one, when ego and Overself no
longer remain at a distance from one another, man experiences his first
illumination. What will happen thereafter is wrapped in mystery.
70
In this brief interval when he feels himself to be
in the presence of the Overself, when goodwill, peace, and wisdom become living
eternal realities rather than mere mocking words, the littleness vanishes from
life and a sacred grandeur replaces it.
71
In extreme cases, he may even feel as if this is
the first time in human history that anyone has had such a glowing experience.
72
The tremulous happiness of these contemplative
moments attains its zenith with an inarticulate breathless stillness.
73
He feels elated, lifted up beyond his normal self,
intensely happy without having any particular physical cause to account for his
happiness. He feels too that there is goodness at the heart of things and an
urge to share this goodness with all others. And lastly, the burden of past sins
and ancient errors falls from his shoulders. He has become cleansed, purified,
made whole.
74
These splendid moments, so filled with flashes of
beauty and goodness, so tremendous in meaning and perspective, are like peeps
into Paradise.
75
All through his spiritual career he has dreamt of
this first blissful and unique moment when he would enter the Overself's
awareness.
76
In these blessed moments he loves God and knows
that he is loved by God.
77
The experience is feeling blent with knowing, but
the feeling is as delicious as peach-blossom and the knowing is as certain as
sunrise.
78
In finding the godlike within himself, he finds
also the Good. And from that stems forth goodwill toward all. It is really love
active on a higher plane, love purified of self and cleansed of grossness.
79
Glimpses vary much in their nature. Some are soft,
mild and delicate, quiet and restrained; others are ecstatic, rapturous, and
excited. All give some sort of uplift, exaltation, enlightenment, or revelation
and also to varying degrees.(P)
80
I remember the first time I had this astonishing
experience. I was fond of disappearing from London whenever the weather allowed
and wandering alongside the river Thames in its more picturesque country parts.
If the day was sunny I would stretch my feet out, lie down in the grass, pull
out notebook and pen from my pocket - knowing that thoughts would eventually
arise that would have for me an instructive or even revelatory nature, apart
from those ordinary ones which were merely expressive. One day, while I was
waiting for these thoughts to arise, I lost the feeling that I was there at all.
I seemed to dissolve and vanish from that place, but not from consciousness.
Something was there, a presence, certainly not me, but I was fully aware of it.
It seemed to be something of the highest importance, the only thing that
mattered. After a few minutes I came back, discovered myself in time and space
again; but a great peace had touched me and a very benevolent feeling was still
with me. I looked at the trees, the shrubs, the flowers, and the grass and felt
a tremendous sympathy with them and then when I thought of other persons a
tremendous benevolence towards them.(P)
81
In this mysterious moment the two are one. He no
longer abides with the mere images of reality. He is now in the authentic world
of reality itself.(P)
82
There are three stages in each glimpse. The
initial one brings a soft feeling of its gentle approach. The second carries the
man to its peak of upliftment, enlightenment, and peace. The final one draws him
down again into a fading glow which occupies the mind's background and later
survives only in memory.(P)
83
It is a state of exquisite tenderness, of love
welling up from an inner centre and radiating outward in all directions. If
other human beings or animal creatures come within his contact at the time, they
become recipients of this love without exception. For then no enemies are
recognized, none are disliked, and it is not possible to regard anyone as
repulsive.(P)
84
The mood is exhilarative without being excitable,
centered in reality without losing touch with this pseudo-real world.
85
He may find himself lost at times in short periods
of absent-mindedness. It may be in the sound of a bubbling brook or some lovely
music or some striking lines of memorable prose. With that he forgets cares and
peace wells up within him. Such an experience comes close to the mystical
glimpse, only the mystic's consciousness moves on a higher level. He seeks a
diviner life, a finer soul, inner peace.
86
For a fraction of the hour, time suddenly and
uniquely steps aside, Isis is unveiled and the real beauty of Being exhibits
itself: All is suspended in this glimpse, all is stillness and grace.
87
The memory of a first glimpse is imperishable. It
is a love-experience along with a birth of knowledge, all under an enchanter's
spell.
88
When the highly personal egocentric attitude is
first displaced by the Overself, there is a sense of sharp liberation and utter
relief.
89
In those glorious experiences, he seems to live a
charmed existence, above all that distressed him before, beyond all the hideous
negatives which the world obtrudes on his notice, secure in a spiritual ivory
tower shimmering with inner light all around.
90
It is an experience which happens deep inside the
heart.
91
The glimpse is fresh and direct, it is both a
vision and an experience and above all it is spontaneous, for it comes by
itself.
92
There is the peace which comes from having a
well-filled stomach. There is the peace of the graveyard. But a glimpse gives us
the highest peace, the Shanti of Indian sages, that which passeth
understanding of the New Testament.
93
The world's dirt seems so remote from these moods
of complete goodness as to seem non-existent, or a mere vaporous mist at most.
94
With the glimpse a feeling overspreads his heart
of benevolence towards all living creatures - not only human but also animal and
not only animal but even plant. He would not, could not knowingly harm a single
one. The Christians call this love, the Buddhists compassion, the Hindus
oneness. My own term is goodwill, but all are right. These are different facets,
as seen from different points.
95
In this wonderful state he becomes keenly aware of
the love that is at the core of the universe, and therefore at his own core too.
But he not only absorbs it, he also radiates it. It is not something to be held
selfishly, like a material possession. As it is received, so is it given.
96
There is no possibility here of feeling stagnant,
mediocre, ordinary. It is their very contraries that he feels.
97
There are exquisite moments when all existence
seems elevated to a higher plane, when one's individual being is absorbed in a
harmony with all things.
98
The feeling which comes over him at this stage is
indescribably delightful. He recognizes its divine quality and rightly
attributes it to a transcendental source. No vision accompanies it. Yet the
certitude and reality seem greater than if one did.
99
The common youthful experience of falling in love
bears some of the leading characteristics of this uncommon mystical experience
of awakening to the divine reality. But of course it bears them in a grosser and
smaller way. Some of them are: a feeling of "walking on air," a frequent
recollection of the beloved at unexpected moments, a glowing sense of
deliverance from burdens, a cheerful attitude towards everything and everyone,
intense satisfaction with life, rosy expectations about the future, expanded
sympathies, dreamy absent-minded lapses from attention to the prosaic everyday
round, and new appreciation of poetry, music, or Nature's beauty.
100
There is a self which he feels within him yet it
is not himself. Something unknown yet joy-giving.
101
Some dynamic force streams though the blood in
his veins, the feeling in his heart, and the will in his innermost being. It is
no ordinary force, for he knows that never or rarely has he experienced its like
before. There is magic in its movement, enchantment in its effect.
102
The things of the world fall far away from you
and a great spell will seemingly be put upon the leaping mind till you remember
little of name, or kin, or country, and care less. You lie in the lap of a
shining mood, granted respite from heavy cares and given relaxation from
corrosive thoughts. You become aware of the secret undercurrent of holy peace
which flows silently beneath the heart.
103
Although his general experience of it will be of
its gentleness, there will be times when he will feel only an authoritative and
commanding force in it, when tremendous power will manifest and rule in some
episode or event.
104
He may have a vague feeling of some immaterial
presence around or within himself, a presence uplifting, ennobling, unworldly.
105
Not only is the kingdom of heaven within us but
we are ourselves within the kingdom. We may discover this as a psychic and
visual experience, as some do, or simply as a feeling-and-knowing experience
that All is God.
106
It is a transparence because he feels open,
letting in a rare mood. It is also a transcendence, because he feels lifted out
of his ordinary "I" and put down again on a higher level.
107
Reverence for the divine presence filled my
heart, awe at the divine wonder permeated my mind.
108
He will feel spontaneous peace that comes from
he knows not where, intellectual conviction that the right path has been found,
mysterious detachment that takes hold of him during worldly temptations and
worldly tribulations alike.
109
When you are in this wider consciousness you are
at home. Outwardly you may be without a roof to shelter your head but still you
will feel protected, secure, and provided for. Your feeling and your trust are
not groundless. For the outward manifestation of this inward care will follow.
110
You will comprehend that while the Overself thus
enfolds you, you can never again feel lonely, never again find the sky turned
black because some human love has been denied or been withdrawn from you.
111
It is there, in the deep centre of himself, that
he finds holiness and liberation.
112
From the physical standpoint, the ego first
becomes aware of the Overself as being located in the heart. But in higher
mystical experience, this awareness is free from any bodily relationship.
113
A feeling of lightness and freedom, of songlike
well-being and perfect harmony, comes with this disidentification from the body.
115
He feels a rightness about the world-plan and a
loveliness in some deeper part of himself. It may remain for a little while only
but its memory will remain for long years.
116
In this lofty mood, bringing so much goodwill
and insight with it, as it does, he is inclined to ignore misunderstanding and
hostility from any quarter which caused him resentment or even suffering in the
past.
117
The illumination falls into the mind suddenly
and I neither will it nor expect it. There is nothing of the "me" in it. That
falls off my shoulders as if it were an extremely heavy and uncomfortable
garment.
118
In that great light all his ego's affairs and
concerns seem of small dimension; beside that ethereal beneficence all the
world's evil and madness seems like a quickly receding nightmare.
119
This is his first thrilling discovery of the
Overself's existence, his first incontestable evidence of its power. No later
experience can equal it in emotional feeling. It is one of the really momentous
points of his life.
120
It is a glimpse of heaven, lifting the mind out
of this world and liberating the heart from all that ties it down.
121
With the Glimpse comes a trailing glory of
loveliness and enchantment, and a vast freedom.
122
This it is to be "born again," to transcend
ordinary experience and become aware of a layer of being within the self which
is neither sensual nor rational. Nor is it even emotional in the narrow sense
except that egocentric feeling is quite definitely and quite richly present. But
it is calm, quiet, deep, detached, and elevated.
123
It is an ennobling experience, shaking out for a
few minutes or hours all that is base in a man, all that is mean, small-hearted,
and narrow-minded. But perhaps even more marvellous than that is the enormous
contentment with which it fills him. Desires dissolve, and with them the
frustration, the anxiety, the hopelessness, and the expectancy that accompany
them when they remain unfulfilled.
124
For a short time he loses himself in this
beautiful consciousness and lets go of the continual routine which makes up his
usual day. He gains a healing rest in nerve, mind, feeling, and even body. Such
a glimpse comes of itself - "The wind bloweth where it listeth," declared Jesus.
125
These glimpses are encounters with divinity.
There is a quality about them which separates them from all the other contacts
and encounters of life.
126
This Stillness is called, in the New Testament,
"the peace which passeth understanding." It is perhaps the chief feature of the
glimpse.
127
That memorable moment when he first opens the
door of Consciousness will clear doubt, sanctify feeling, and balance the entire
life.
128
This new sense of being liberated from the
confining measurements of his own ego, unimpeded by attachments and
embroilments, carried beyond the vicious passions to inward equipoise, is
unimaginably satisfying.
129
In those moments of inward glory all his life
expands. His intelligence advances and his goodness perceives new vistas of
growth. Heaven opens out for a while in his emotional world.
130
When he steps forth from the ego's timed life
into the Overself's liberating timelessness, the feeling of confinement falls
away like a heavy cloak. He enjoys an unimagined exhilaration.
131
Just as a blind person suddenly recovering his
sight is carried away by a rush of joy, so the mystical neophyte suddenly
recovering his spiritual consciousness is carried away by emotional ecstasy. But
just as in the course of time the former will become accustomed to the use of
his sight and his joy will subside, so the latter will find his ecstasies
subside and pass away. His endeavours to recapture them prove fruitless because
it is in the nature of emotion that it should suffer a fall after it enjoys a
rise.
132
This wonderful and exquisite feeling is really
within himself, only he transfers it unconsciously to the scenes and persons
outside himself and thus perceives goodness and beauty everywhere.
133
If it begins quietly and unassumingly, it ends
deeply - with the sensation of having entered briefly and memorably a higher
world of being.
134
If the intercourse of man and woman is the most
intimate act in the lives of both, the conscious contact of a human being with
the Overself is even more intimate still.
135
His consciousness is lifted up into another
world of being; his little self is in communication with the Overself; his
perception of truth is instantly translated into power to live that truth.
136
It is as if one climbed to a high observation
post and from there saw what was before utterly unexpected and incredible.
137
The peace of these moments, whether achieved by
meditation or received by grace, yields a rich satisfying happiness. Why?
Because all those thoughts, desires, attachments, and aversions which compose
the ego fade away and leave consciousness free.
138
In this experience he loses consciousness of his
own personal identity, a state which begins with a kind of daze but passes into
a kind of ecstasy.
139
These first experiences of feeling raised to
transfiguring peaks should not be expected to reproduce themselves often. They
are necessarily rare sensations. Nor, when they do repeat themselves, can they
come in precisely the same form and with the same initial intensity.
140
Something of the rapturous emotional reaction is
lost by repetition of this experience, but nothing of the wonder and awe is ever
lost.
141
At such moments he is filled with a flowing
inspiration, a splendid hope, a vivid understanding.
142
With both the brief Glimpse and the lasting
Fulfilment comes a strong feeling of release. This refers to release from all
the various kinds of limitation and restriction which have hemmed and oppressed
him heretofore.
143
Like a prisoner emerging from a gloomy cell
after many years or an invalid liberated from long confinement in a hospital
bed, he will feel an overwhelming sense of relief as the glimpse deepens and all
cares, all burdens, fade away.
144
There is an air of effectiveness in the
experience which accompanies the glimpse, a feeling that here is real power
ready for use and easy to use, in the way that the Overself directs, of course.
145
It is like the feeling of returning to a
well-beloved home after long absence, a joy whose arisal is spontaneous and
unavoidable.
146
When the glimpse is at its most, he hears within
him the harmony of things like a joyous song.
147
The Stillness made him feel as religious and
reverential as could be, yet he remained unpraying, even unthinking.
148
The base, the mean, the unworthy, and the low
seem alien and far from him: the noble, the high, the true, and the ideal seem
to become his own very nature. From this rare contact he draws an unspeakable
peace, a divine upliftment.
149
Too many lives have a hard grey colour about
them. The glimpse changes this, for an hour or a day, and puts a delicate pastel
beauty in its place.
150
All that is negative in his character fades away
for the time of this glimpse, as if it had never existed. For he feels that
there is pure harmony at the heart of things, within the universe's Mind, and
that he has momentarily touched it.
151
In these enchanted moments, all life takes on
the shadowlike quality of a dream.
152
The gulf between the impersonal calm of his
present state and the egotistical emotion of his earlier one, is immense.
153
The sudden Olympian elation which the glimpse
gives, the unfamiliar feeling that it is like looking through a window on an
entirely different and wholly glorious world of being, the inner knowing that
this is reality - these things make it a benediction.
154
When he is in that consciousness, there is
nothing either in place or time which he wants. For his mind is in peace.
155
It is a strange paradox that in this experience
although a man becomes infinitely humbler - for he has to be passive to
surrender, if it is to happen at all - he finds at the same time an immense
dignity within himself.
156
In these glorious moments the awareness of evil
in the world fades out; by contrast the continuity of original goodness stays
unbroken.
157
The sense of well-being which comes with a
glimpse spreads into the body, lights up the mind, glows in the emotions.
158
In its enfolding peace, he will lose his earthly
burdens for a time; by its brooding wisdom, he will comprehend the necessity of
renunciation; through its mysterious spell, he will confer grace on suffering
men.
159
As its beauty seeps into him and affects his
entire feeling-nature, all his grievances against other men, against life
itself, dissolve.
160
All regrets for the past, complaints about the
present, and grumbles over the future, pass away. Even more, all contempt or
hatred for other men passes too.
161
The glimpse brings a feeling of enchantment. It
is the opening of a secret door. The effect is a magical release from burdens
and a flooding by hope.
162
With the discovery of this higher self, there
comes a conviction of truth gained, a sense of perfect assurance, and a feeling
of happy calmness.
163
The glimpse will affect each individual in a
different way, although the feeling of stepping out of darkness into light will
be common to all.
164
It is not merely feeling to which he gives
himself up, but being into which he settles.
165
The conception alone of a peace which is out of
this world is simply daring: its realization is utterly gorgeous in beauty and
joyous in remembrance.
166
Mostly as a result of meditation, but sometimes
during an unexpected glimpse, a mystical experience of an unusual kind may
develop. He feels transparent to the Overself; its light passes into and through
him. He then finds that his ordinary condition was as if a thick wall surrounded
him, devoid of windows and topped by a thick roof, a condition of imprisonment
in limitation and ordinariness. But now the walls turn to glass, their density
is miraculously gone, he is not only open to the light streaming in but lets it
pass on, irradiating the world around.
167
Those mysterious divine moments are as the
sudden arisal of a bridge flung from time into eternity.
168
He feels the presence within him of the
mysterious entity which is his soul.
169
This wonderful experience bathes him in wonder,
penetrates him with deliciousness, and swings him out into infinity.
170
In those moods he will journey far from bodily
conditions and environmental influences, far from human sins and social strife,
to a place of sanctuary, peace, blessing, and love.
171
He touches the Permanent, feels that his true
self is part of eternity and this other self is a foolish thing he is glad to be
rid of.
172
It is an ecstasy which takes complete possession
of him for the time; even after it leaves him, there is a kind of twilight glow.
173
There is a presence at such times which lovingly
holds the heart and serenely rests the mind. In human relations its effect is
towards harmony with others, and in moral relations towards selflessness. If he
will only respond to it, even a bad man will feel its goodness and be good
accordingly while the spell lasts.
174
There are several causes of this joyful feeling,
but the primary one is that the prodigal son has returned to his father. Each is
exceedingly happy to see the other again.
175
Something of the quiet joy with which one greets
the first faint swelling of green buds on bare trees, comes into the heart with
these moods.
176
There is something in man which does not belong
to this world, something mysterious, holy, and serene. It is this that touches
and holds him at certain unforgettable moments.
177
The inner glow is unique, the emotional
transport sublime, the intellectual enlightenment exceptional.
178
Such exalted moments give a man the feeling of
his ever-latent greatness.
179
There is no experience in ordinary life equal to
it, no joy so perfect.
180
Such are the sweeter moments which come as the
"herald of a higher Beauty which is advancing upon man!"
181
A full glimpse gives a self-free experience and
a stilled mind.
182
Such is the overpowering effect of its beauty
that, when we are admitted to its presence, every egoistic thought is dropped -
even the search for truth, since that too is self-centered.
183
The sense of ever-continuing being into which he
has been drawn and with which he is now identified overwhelms him.
184
The glimpse is an experience in fascination. The
man's mind is allured, his attention firmly fastened, his feelings captivated.
185
The glimpse puts him for a while - a moment or a
day - beyond melancholy, misery, fear, and the other negative emotions.
186
There are certain intervals when the mind drifts
into a kind of half-reverie, its attention diverted to some high theme, its most
delicate feelings gently engaged in it. The common world is then far away. An
ethereal rarefied atmosphere has taken its place.
187
Life is halted, time is stopped, mind is
stilled, imagination is caught and held.
188
Time is absolutely still. Mind is absolutely at
peace. He feels in the midst of a miracle, one which embraces the whole world.
189
The discovery of timelessness, of its reality
and factuality, is both a thing to wonder at and a joyful experience.
190
To call it an eternal moment may loosely
describe it, but to call it timelessness does so more accurately.
191
It is in these moments when the glimpse happens
that we find new strength, new inspiration, and are able to put our weaknesses,
for the moment, at least at a distance.
192
The glimpse gives a person, for the short period
while it exists, a different way of thought, a different attitude towards
others, and a different measure for what the world cherishes or despises.
193
As his inner self is illumined he feels the
nearness of God, experiences a loving relationship with God, knows the
deathlessness of his own being, and accepts the rightness of all that is
throughout the universe.
194
One feels gathered into the depths of the
silence, enfolded by it and then, hidden within it, intuits the mysterious
inexplicable invisible and higher power which must remain forever nameless.
195
Its coming is an emotional, intuitive,
non-physical, intellectual, and spiritual event. It happens, this experience of
a transcendental Presence, here, in the place that Jesus mentioned - the Heart.
196
It is an experience of complete security - so
rarely found among people in the world today.
197
As he sinks inside himself, his inner being
seems to open out into ever-receding depths.
198
When the impeccable peace of the Overself
inundates a man's heart, he finds that it is no negative thing. It must not be
confused with the sinister calm of a graveyard or with the mocking immobility of
a paralytic. It is a strong positive and enduring quality which is definitely
enjoyable. We actually get a momentary and much-diluted sample of it at such
times as when a hated object is suddenly removed from our path, when a
powerful ancient ambition is suddenly realized, or when we meet a greatly
beloved person after long absence. Why? Because at such moments we are freed
from the infatuation with the hatred, the ambition, or the love simply because
they have achieved their object and the desire-thoughts become still. The
freedom passes almost in a flash, however, because some other infatuation
replaces it in the heart within a few moments and thoughts begin their movement
again.
199
Whatever negative ideas and destructive
feelings, whatever harassing doubts and muggy confusions he may have had before
the Glimpse comes, disappear in its great joyous peace and vast buoyant
certitude.
200
It is not a merely abstract concept in the brain
but a piercing experience in the heart.
201
When these rare moments come quietly upon him,
he feels himself humbled and subdued.
202
In these moments the air seems warm and
pleasant, the universe charged with friendliness.
203
These moments of divine glorification exalt us
like moments of hearing fine music. They come with the force of revelations for
which we have been waiting. They hold us with the spell of enchantment made by a
wizard's hand. Their magical influence and mystical beauty pass all too soon,
but the memory of them never does.
204
The ecstasy of that state is rare, the abundant
happiness it yields is unforgettable.
205
Those who have lifted themselves up at times
into the higher Mind know the paradox of the air in which it dwells. For if
beneficent gentle peace is there, so too is invigorating immeasurable strength.
206
The Glimpse comes as a benediction and as a
grace. The heart should be grateful, immensely grateful for its visitation. It
possesses a beauty which is not of this world, which gives joy to the heart.
207
Psalms 16:11 "In Thy presence is fulness of
joy."
208
It is a feeling of unearthly and unlimited
peace.
209
The world stands still, the sense of time
passing and events happening is suspended. Nothing exists but this Oneness.
210
Some are ready to enter the light and when -
through the mediumship of Nature or Art, a man or a book - that happens, the
experience is as enjoyable as entering an orchard of ripened apricots.
211
The joy comes upon him out of the unknown,
gently, mysteriously, and sunnily.
212
As this wonderful feeling steals over him, there
is a clear and unmistakable sense that the Overself is displacing the ego.
Hitherto he has obeyed the rule of the flesh and the brain and consequently has
shared their pitiful limitations. Now he becomes acutely aware that a new
sovereign is taking his place on the throne.
213
As he approaches nearer to awareness of the
Overself, he approaches nearer to a cloistral inward stillness.
214
He feels that he has reached the very edge of
another self, another world of being.
215
In its newly discovered presence, we are
relieved of cares, immune to anxieties about the future, and liberated from
regrets about the past.
216
It is not the unspeech of morbid taciturnity but
a mysterious hush which falls on the soul.
217
If he or she is fortunate there may come to the
waiting seeker a sense of uplift, an exalted mood, a feeling of support from a
vast mysterious source.
218
There is a unique bliss in this new-found
freedom of the second self, a sublime peace in this dissolution of old
restraints.
219
He feels something of that sacred presence
within him and around him. Its effect upon the mind is to leave a glow of benign
goodwill to all beings.
220
It hovers on the edge of indefinable awareness.
221
What is the mystery of that state when the body
sits, stands, or reclines without moving, when the thoughts come to rest and the
feelings enter an exquisite calm? It has been given a variety of names, for it
takes a man out of this familiar common world and puts him into a most
mysterious one.
222
The ego slides from off his shoulders like a
heavy overcoat and he feels delightfully free.
223
At the ordinary level he has the ordinary
outlook, the habitual desires; but there are times when he finds himself at
another and higher level where he is unsympathetic to both.
224
No theological difficulties can trouble this
happy state, no religious doubts can enter into it.
225
The glimpse is like a first airplane ride.
Looking down at the earthly scene far below, with its patch-like landscape
dotted with black specks called houses and autos, and thinking of those millions
of living creatures who live in one and drive in the other, one is overcome with
humility.
226
It is the glorious moment when Adam re-enters
Eden, even though he is only a visiting guest and not a permanent dweller
therein.
227
The Glimpse operates to cast an actual spell
over him. He is enchanted not merely poetically but literally.
228
Hours that are so far from the common ones, so
timeless in their quality, make him feel like an ageless Sphinx.
229
Time itself is suspended, and with it go the
fears and worries, the unhappiness, which beset living in this world at this
hour of its history.
230
It is a feeling of being right with the
universe, with Life itself.
231
It is as if years spent living in a dark cellar
are abruptly ended by moving to a bright sunny apartment.
232
In this beautiful mood he becomes possessed of
perfect leisure. He has all the time now that he needs. There is no need ever
for hurry, strain, anxiety.
233
For a moment or a morning, a day or a week, the
confusions of life vanish.
234
During these wonderful glimpses ordinary
existence seems suspended.
235
He finds a new joy deep within himself, a new
and higher meaning deep within life.
236
Whether he thinks that he has strayed by chance
into this starry world or believes that God's grace has fallen upon him, he
feels its beauty and peace.
237
The encounter with the Overself may be hushed
and gentle or thrilling and dramatic. But it will certainly be absorbing.
238
In that beautiful mood, he is wafted upward
because his mind turns away from the earth, its interests and desires which
ordinarily hold him down.
239
The glimpse is unquestionably a sort of spell
put upon the mind and encircling the self, benign and healing and protective. It
imparts a feeling of well-being.
240
How inadequate are constructed sentences to tell
anyone the total wonder of a glimpse, of the I's departure and the Overself's
arrival!
241
The peace descends, the cares are gone, the
fears are shed, the avid desires enfeebled.
242
The experience of liberation yields a peace
which lifts him into a detachment from the world never felt before, untouched by
sights, persons, incidents, which hitherto produced repulsions, irritations, or
rage.
243
Joy glows quietly on the face of one who is
experiencing a glimpse.
244
The experience will flood his whole day with
sun.
245
He will experience a profound sense of release,
a joyous exaltation of feeling, and a lofty soaring of thought.
246
It would not be wrong to use a word from
gustatory experience and describe these moments as delicious.
247
It is almost entirely an intense and internal
experience.
248
The glimpse carries either a quiet intellectual
rapture with it or a seething emotional one.
249
In such a benignant mood, it is easy to forgive
one's enemies their vile conduct or to look at faithless friends in a kindlier
light.
250
It lifts the egoistic out of their egoism for a
while, the fearful out of their fears.
251
When we turn inwards, we turn in the direction
of complete composure.
252
It is the first streak of sunrise on his inner
life.
253
The discovery of the soul's truth carries with
it an excitement which only those who spend their lives seeking it know.
254
The glimpses have various qualities - religious,
aesthetic, perceptive, and so on.
255
In such moments of intimacy with the Overself,
as we let go of our pettiness, we feel enlarged.
256
It gives him, for a short while, an equanimity
which he does not have at other times.
257
His heart is filled with the sense of this
Presence and, for the few or many minutes this lasts, he is a changed person.
258
Some persons get their first glimpse by
surprise, quite unexpectedly, and from then begins their quest. But others get
it during the onward course of their quest, while searching or waiting for it,
and hopefully expectant of it.
259
When the mind moves inward from everyday
consciousness to mystical being, the benedictory change is both ennobling and
sublime.
260
During these short glimpses no anxiety and
uncertainty can affect him.
261
It is but a pause in the constant oscillation of
life, a stilling of the ego's pursuits.
262
Measuring the gulf it stoops and dares the final
bound! But first a hush of peace, a soundless calm descends; The struggle of
distress and fierce impatience ends; Mute music soothes my breast - unuttered
harmony That I could never dream till earth was lost to me. Then dawns the
invisible, the Unseen its truth reveals; My outward sense is gone, my inward
essence feels - Its wings are almost free, its home, its harbour found;
Measuring the gulf it stoops and dares the final bound! - Emily Brontė
263
In these hushed moments a happiness steals over
him, a glory is felt all around him.
264
This is his real being. He sought for it,
prayed to it, and communed with it in the past as if it were something other
than, and apart from, himself. Now he knows that it was himself, that there is
no need for him to do any of these things. All he needs is to recognize
what he is and to realize it at every moment.
265
He enters into a state which is certainly not a
disappearance of the ego, but rather a kind of divine fellowship of the ego with
its source.
266
There is still a centre of consciousness in him,
still a voice which can utter the words or hold the thought "I am I." The ego is
lost in an ocean of being, but the ego's link with God, the Overself, still
remains.
267
He loses his ego in the calm serenity of the
Overself, yet at the same time it is, mysteriously, still with him.
268
With this displacement of ego he enters into the
very presence of divinity.
269
It is neither the ego thinking of the Overself
nor the Overself thinking of itself. All thoughts are absent from this
experience. It is rather that the Overself contemplates and knows itself in the
moment that the ego is withdrawn into it.
270
A point may be reached at rare infrequent
intervals where he retreats so far inwards from the body's senses that he is
wholly severed from them. If this happens he will of course be wholly severed
from the physical world, too. This throws the body into a condition closely
resembling sleep, from the point of view of an outside observer, yet it will not
be sleep as men ordinarily know it. It will either be more graphic and more
vivid than the most memorable of all his dreams or else it will be entirely
without visual incident or pictorial scene. In the first case, it will be
perfectly rational and highly instructive yet unique, strange, mystical. In the
second case, it will be conscious awareness of the Overself alone, with no
personal self for It to inspire.
271
For the brief period in which it prevails, the
glimpse destroys the ego's dominance.
272
His old centre in the ego has mysteriously gone.
His new centre in the Overself has taken its place.
273
It is an experience without any awareness of an
experiencer. There was no one present to note his own reaction to it. It was a
state of non-ego.
274
The consciousness will deepen and, while
vacating the personal ego, will take in the higher ego and feel a unity with it.
275
This is a new dimension of consciousness, where
it is coming to itself, demesmerized from the limitation imposed upon it by the
ego.
276
In that moment man has come to himself. Before
then he has been dwelling in alien things, in his passions, his thoughts, his
emotions, and his desires.
277
In this ecstatic mental silence, the personal
will is given up, the impersonal Overself is given mastery.
278
His personal identity is taken away for a while,
to be replaced by a higher one.
279
To be born again, in the sense that Jesus used
this phrase when speaking to Nicodemus, means to leave the ego's limited and
outward awareness for the Overself's infinite and inward awareness.
280
Within the ego's life there comes to birth
another, utterly dissimilar and outwardly unnoticeable.
281
It is literally a going out of his little self
into the liberating enlightening Overself.
282
The search is at an end. The Overself has come
toward us even as we went blindly toward It.
283
In that blessed moment he sinks his identity
into the Reality which he has reached.
284
This glimpse of a state he has never before seen
is an effective revelation. For he has now understood, felt, and experienced -
lucidly - the exact meaning of that vague word "spiritual."
285
There is no confusion here of many different and
differing cults; the intellect is not presented with contradictory theologies or
rival organizational claims. The stillness lifts him to a stratosphere above all
such nonsensical choices.
286
The glimpse gives a man either a revelation or a
confirmation that something exists which transcends this ordinary life, that it
is holy, beautiful, satisfying, and that he may commune with it.
287
The glimpse is a man's personal revelation of
his divine possibilities. It is breath-taking and beautiful. He eagerly seeks
its repetition.
288
He will see what he really is - the "I" of
everyday experience with the mysterious being behind it.
289
Only when he knows his ego as it is known in the
Overself can a man be truly said to know himself.
290
The Overself's light enters the understanding
and enables him to perceive what men like Jesus really meant when they spoke.
291
The divine self reveals itself for a few
thrilling moments and then draws back into the void where it dwells. But the
glimpse is enough to tell him that a higher kind of life is possible and that
there is a being beyond the ego.
292
The glimpse gives him a slight inkling of what
the term Overself means. It shows him - not as intellectual idea but as realized
fact - something of the ideal toward which he shall strive.
293
It is in these highest moments of indescribable
bliss that a man may know what he truly is and how grand is the relationship
that he bears to the Infinite Being.
294
It is from such paradoxical moments that man
learns both how insignificant he is and how great he is!
295
It is a message of assurance, a communication of
knowledge, and a whisper of trust in the Universal Mind.
296
In these few glorious and luminous moments the
truth reveals itself, not to the intellect, but to the inner being.
297
With this experience of his own divinity, he
discovers a meaning in life. Henceforth, he is able to take part
consciously in the higher evolution which is inherent in it.
298
Life announces its divine intention only in the
deepest, most secret, and most silent part of our being.
299
It is not felt as just another experience only
but also as a truth, so illuminative is it.
300
The Glimpse provides assurance that the Soul
exists, that God is, that the purpose of human life must include spiritual
fulfilment to be complete, and that the Good, the Beautiful, and the True are
more enduring and more rewarding than the Bad, the Ugly, the Lie.
301
Yes it is a wonderful feeling, this which
accompanies a glimpse of the higher self; but when it is also merged with a
knowing, a positive perception beyond the need of discussion, interpretation,
formulation, or judgement, it gives the philosophical seeker a certitude which
is like a benediction.(P)
302
Every man who passes through this experience and
holds its memory, verifies for himself that there is an Infinite Life-Power
pervading the entire universe - also that it is ever present, perfectly wise,
and all-knowing. Its point of contact with him is his Overself.(P)
303
In that sudden moment of spiritual awareness, or
that longer period of spiritual ecstasy, he identifies himself no more with the
projection from Mind but with pure Mind itself. In that severance from its
projection, the shadow becomes the sun.(P)
304
During such unforgettable moments the Soul will
speak plainly, if silently, to him. It may tell him about his true relationship
to the universe and to his fellow creatures. It will certainly tell him about
Itself. It may separate him from his body and let him gaze down upon it as from
a height, long enough to permit him to comprehend that the flesh is quite the
poorest and least significant part of him. And perhaps best of all it will
certainly fill him with the assurance that after his return to the world of
lonely struggle and quick forgetfulness, It will still remain beside and behind
him.(P)
305
A glimpse may exalt the man and give him
inspiration, but above everything else it attests for him the fact that he is
fundamentally Spirit. This is the commonest kind of Glimpse but there is another
kind which, in addition to doing these things, opens mysterious doors and
provides inlooks to the working of secret laws and occult processes in Nature,
the world and the life of man. This kind of glimpse may fitly be termed "a
revelation."(P)
306
He sees the universe as he might see a great
mosaic picture opening before him.
307
This knowledge best comes to a man by interior
revelation rather than by exterior instructions.
308
Thus the existence of a higher possibility for
man, which our ethical sense demands and to which our metaphysical reasoning
points, is confirmed at last by our best experience.
309
All that he now experiences will be seen by the
glow of its better light, while the memory of all that he experienced in the
past, however distressing or vile, will be transmuted into effective educational
forms.
310
The light of truth removes the falsities in his
world view, and diminishes the feebleness in his character. It brings him a new
strength.
311
He knows that he has a place in the cosmos, that
he is part of the World-Idea.
312
In this mood there is knowledge without
thoughts, understanding without words.
313
What goes on within his ego could be better
seen, and judged, if he could climb above it for a short time. This is just what
the glimpse enables him to do. It clears the sight.
314
In some way that he cannot tell, or technically
define, by pure intuitive feeling authoritatively transcending the intellect's
action, he knows.
315
The experience explains a man to himself for the
first time, lights up the fact that he lives in two planes at one and the same
time. It reveals his ego as the illusion which envelops his consciousness and
his Overself as the reality behind his consciousness.
316
The Real was not only always present but always
known, but unconsciously. It was the "I-myself," the little ego, the separate
person that he thought himself to be and ignorantly superimposed on the Real.
All this he comprehends quite plainly now.
317
This world is the unreal dream,
that is the real and substantial one. So the glimpse teaches him. He
views this world temporarily as if he stands behind a theatrical stage and
watches actors perform set roles in a play and sees properties which are merely
painted representations. He is conscious how utterly illusory it all is and, in
dramatic contrast, how the awareness by which he knew this was alone real.
318
The experience will either confirm what he has
already vaguely felt or else it will contradict what he has wrongly believed.
319
Whatever religious belief it is made use of to
confirm, it can only validate those beliefs which are universally held by
everyone who is at all religious, not those which are found only in sectarian
theology. The attempt to put into it previously held dogmas should be regarded
as suspect. It can confirm the existence of a Higher Power, the fact of the
soul, and the possibility of communion with it.
320
These glimpses are moments of truth in a life
founded on a conception which is so narrow as to be actually misleading, or even
false.
321
These are the only moments in life when we catch
hold almost at once of truth as it is, unspoiled by implantations from the ego.
322
It is in those uplifted moments that one has the
possibility of coming near to confirm the Pythagorean belief that the human soul
is an emanation of the Universal Divine Mind.
323
He will understand the meaning of this beatific
experience without need of formulating it into thoughts. There is no necessity
for him to tell it to himself in words.
324
These short glimpses do not belong to ordinary
life; indeed, they glaringly show up its pitiful meanness and confusion, its
miserable aimlessness and unsatisfaction.
325
He needs no religious authority to interfere
with, or interrupt this glorious glimpse, no theologian to bring it down to the
intellectual level and probably lose it for him.
326
If he will compare those rapturous and illumined
moments with his prosaic ordinary days, he will have an excellent clue to what
his life's goal should be, what his true self really is, as well as how and
where he should look for both.
327
There are some who, while reading inspired
pages, may suddenly find that for a few brief instants the veil will fall from
their eyes and the ideas which had formerly seemed so remote or so impossible
will come alive with actuality.
328
As the light shines, showing the glory of the
Overself, it also shows the inadequacies of the ego.
329
It tells him quite directly, quite intuitively,
without the interference of logical thinking, what life is for and what man is
here for.
330
He feels that he is absorbing the entire meaning
of all human lives, all the world's operations, in one crystal-clear insight.
331
He feels that this is the fore-ordained moment
of revelation, which is implied by the mystery of the quest, and must eventually
be fulfilled.
332
When he reaches this high level, he feels that
he is an integral part of the cosmos, rooted in and supported by the illimitable
Reality. But the glimpse is only momentary for he is forced by some powerful
attraction to return to his body and with it to his ordinary self.
333
He has come-to-life, an experience which
reconciles all the contradictions of thought and faith and which explains some
of the most puzzling enigmas of human destiny.
334
The Glimpse provides overwhelming confirmation
of the belief in a divine principle, positive certainty that it rules the world,
and renewed assurance that one day all men will obey its benign prompting
towards goodness and wisdom.
335
These moments of spiritual insight give him more
than much study could give him.
336
He learns then that there is another part of
himself not the ego which has hitherto dominated his thoughts and days - a
delightful beautiful unpressured part. He knows then what peace of mind really
means. He sees that he has lived only as a fraction of himself, and even that
has been made miserable by inner or outer friction.
337
It is a mysterious condition of the mind, when
the normal doubts and hesitations vanish, when certitude is complete and
understanding direct, when he knows that truth has visited him and feels that
peace has held him.
338
He perceives that this is a new kind of
experience, a new way of knowing, a new level of happiness, a new quality of
life.
339
The proper use of mystic experience is as a
counter to the merely intellectual and theoretical stages which usually come
before such experience.
340
With the coming of this climax he may experience
a profound sense of liberation, which later justifies itself, as the problems
which had beset his mind slowly begin to dissolve and vanish under its wise
tuition. He may think of Keats' joyful lines: "Then I felt like some watcher of
the skies when a new planet swims into his ken." For there will be present all
the magnificent exhilaration, the intellectual intoxication which is born when
the mind alights upon new-found truth guidance or inspiration.
341
He who has tasted the immeasurable joy of the
Overself's peace will not care to shrink back again into the little self's
confines. For he will know then that the Infinite, the Void, the Transcendent -
call what he will the loss of his ego - is not a loss of happiness but an
unlimited magnification of it.
342
Each glimpse generates afresh confidence in the
existence and wisdom of the World-Mind.
343
He has now a revelation which throws its vivid
light on humans, their lives, characters, and histories. There is now a spacious
meaning in existence.
344
The Glimpse may be different from any experience
he has known, as well as overwhelming in its several implications. But if he has
been exposed to the full power, he will trust it, and can hardly do otherwise.
345
It is as if his inner being clears up, becomes
transparent, and obscurities covering his essence roll away.
346
It is like light being enkindled in the mind.
347
It is the will to believe and the determination
that backs up its belief. We need a vision of the things to be to light up the
rough pathway of the things that are. Without it no great work would be done.
348
If the glimpse is accompanied by a revelation,
then he will understand more on the particular subject or subjects it concerns
than he has ever understood before.
349
Each glimpse brings a grace. It may be a message
or an awakening, a revelation or a warning, a reconciliation or a confirmation,
a strengthening or a mellowing.
350
Sometimes the mind slips into a dazed beatitude
as Jacob Boehme's did in those famous fifteen minutes of mystical enlightenment.
351
Here in the heart is He who witnesses to your
divine identity, and in the head comes the confirmation.
352
Such mystical experiences will open to him the
true meaning of his humanhood.
353
In these brief but glorious moments we discover
that we are divine beings. If most of us are worse than the front we present to
our neighbours, all of us are better than they think through our
affiliation with divinity.
354
In these hallowed moments he learns his
essential oneness with the Universal Mind.
355
The experience is neither an abstract
supposition nor an intellectual series of thoughts. It is felt in a quite
intimate and very personal way. It is immeasurably more convincing than any
thought-series could be, however plausible and logical they were.
356
He knows of what divine stuff he is inwardly
made, in what starry direction he is daily going, and on what self-transforming
task he is constantly working.
357
It can only reveal to him one or two facets of
its nature at each glimpse. The power can touch his will, and the grace can move
his heart, but that is all.
358
Men are so wrapt up in themselves that even when
the glimpse happens, they look at the experience as their own, in origin
occurrence and result. They seldom look at it from the other side. For it is
also an attempt by the Overself first to reveal Itself, second to communicate
with them.
359
His outlook becomes more spacious, his
understanding more lucid, his intuition more immediate.
360
In those revelatory moments the "I," the essence
of personality, is found to be only the thought of itself.
361
It is the difference between trying to know and
actually knowing.
362
To see this truth for the first time is to
experience something which will be long remembered. To find some higher meaning
in his personal existence is to fortify his will and to buttress his ideals; to
ascertain the fact that there is a link between this universe of time and space
with a Mind which is above both, is to experience an indefinable satisfaction.
363
With the glimpse there comes a curious feeling
of absolute certitude, happy certitude, utter doubtlessness. The truth is
there plainly before him and deeply sensed within him.
364
This experience of the ultimate oneness of all
things and of one's own part in that oneness is, of course, well known in
mystical experience - especially in nature mysticism but also in some kinds of
religious mysticism, and certainly in philosophic mysticism. The first effect is
to make one feel that one is not alone, that the universe is behind one and that
one does not need to be crushed by anxieties, worries, and fears - all
pertaining to the little self. Such an experience is indeed an excellent counter
to them.
365
The fact is that all actual enlightenment is
self-enlightenment; it is given to a man by himself, that is, by his own best
self. It is generally brief, but enough to provide a glimpse of that self and a
touch of its revelatory energy.
366
They are "glimpses of the eternal" and "peeps
into timelessness," a development which we could not get as animals but only as
humans. It is then only that man, interwoven with the World-Mind, deep in holy
happy adoration, is sure.
367
A glimmering of what it means to see with the
intelligence that there is a Higher Power and that it plays a role in human
affairs not less than in the universe's, comes to him.
368
We read in the Bhagavad Gita of Arjuna's
cosmic vision. He was given a glimpse of a part of the universal order, the
World-Design, the World-Idea. Others who have had this glimpse saw other parts
of it, such as the evolution of the centre of consciousness through the animal
into the human kingdom, an evolution which is recapitulated in a very brief form
by an embryo in the womb. Consciousness may expand into infinity or contract
into a point. Some have had this experience through mystical meditation and
others through physical chemical drugs, but the point is that they are temporary
experiences of the fact that we live in a mind-made world, that the time orders
and space dimensions are mental constructs and are alterable, that consciousness
is the basic reality, that it can assume many different forms, and that
ordinary, average human consciousness is merely one of those forms. This tells
us why the insights of the seers like Buddha differed so greatly from those of
ordinary human beings.
369
With a glimpse comes revelation. He feels that
he belongs to an immortal race, that there is an inner Reality behind all
things, and that the ultimate source is a beneficent one.
370
By means of this light in his mind, he will
begin to understand scriptures, all the world's scriptures, with a new ease.
371
With this awakening he begins to relate his own
purposes in life to the universal purpose.
372
Like the falling of a bandage from the eyes of a
blindfolded man, there will come plainly into his understanding the recognition
of his past misdeeds, foolhardiness, and failings - all of them the consequences
of his ignorant clinging to the ego. This is the vision which may come to him
before he begins to purify himself.
373
A vivid, intense, and self-critical revelation
of how "sinful" he has been may precede, accompany, or follow the glimpse. It
may shake him to his core. But it cannot be said that he feels he has betrayed
his best and higher being any more than it can be said a child has betrayed the
adult it has not yet grown into. He understands this at the same time and so
forgives himself.
374
That glorious glimpse wherein the All becomes
bathed in the light of meaning, when the reality behind comes through and leaves
him enriched: it is as if a web of illusion spun around the mind falls away.
375
From that time he will look out on the world
with clearer eyes.
376
In the mystical happening of the Glimpse, the
man gets the intuition that this is what he belongs to; here he can find
rest.
377
In the sunlit tranquillity of such moments, he
recognizes his true stature.
378
In short, he possesses a kind of double entity,
harbouring at times within his breast a life and consciousness that seem higher
than what was originally and still is normally his own.
379
In this moment of illumination he is able to
look into the image of his own self, to see what is best and highest in it and
accept that as his goal and ideal henceforth.
380
He will know only that he stands in the presence
of authority and love, truth and power, wisdom and beauty.
381
The experience tells him vividly, luminously,
and memorably that there is an existence beyond the physical one and a
consciousness beyond the personal one.
382
Another reason why glimpses are given to man is
to show him - as in a magic mirror - that there is such a thing as the Overself.
383
These brief enlightenments give us clues to both
the true way and the true goal. They point within.
384
As the picture of the True comes forth, it
obliterates the picture of the False which held him so long.
385
The glimpse gives him an untrammelled
consciousness of this freer and higher self.
386
Disjointed fragments of comprehension may be
picked up now and then, when the world-scene is lighted up by some grace.
387
The passing from hope to certainty comes with
the glimpse.
388
As the glimpse lengthens, it draws the man to
look into himself.
389
It is showing him what he is deep down - a vivid
and personal demonstration!
390
From that time life is susceptible of a higher
interpretation, and its situations of a psychological meaning.
391
The mind is irradiated with the light of a new
understanding. The heart is lifted up into the joy of a new experience.
392
What he now knows, he knows outside all
doubting, immovably and unshakeably.
393
He is now sure that there is a higher power
behind this world.
394
When this felicitous glimpse comes to a man it
brings him certitude. He knows now that God IS and where he is.
395
The glimpse not only throws a fresh impersonal
light on all the episodes of his personal history that went before, but also on
those which are happening now.
396
He who penetrates to this inner citadel
discovers what Saint Augustine called "the eternal truth of the soul."
397
The glimpse confirms existing religious faith
and so strengthens it.
398
At such times he feels the world mystery, for
now that he knows so much esoteric truth he knows so little of THAT which is
behind it all.
399
The rapture of finding truth comes because it
is truth.
400
The revelation wells up slowly, quietly, deeply;
it is unfaltering and continues so long as he does not interrupt or interfere
with it by his own thoughts. It is really his own innermost guide and guru, his
higher self.
401
It is in such moments of enlightenment that he
comes to see that all these evils may be there, but they will go.
402
"Seeing the point" which solves the problem of
existence, suddenly getting the glimpse of what all this means, and noting how
it was there all the time staring him in the face, may cause a man to break out
abruptly into laughter at himself.
403
He knows from this experience that he is
incipient with a love that the world does not ordinarily know, with a goodness
that it seldom sees in action, and with an understanding that lights up dark
places in the course of life.