CHAPTER 1
A common expression on the lips of many is the reiteration that mankind todaywith all its ills and aberrations, flounders blindly in a terrible morass.Death-dealing and with octopus-like tentacles of destruction, this morassclutches him more and more firmly to its breast, albeit with great subtlety andwith stealth. Civilization, curiously enough, modern civilization, is its name.The tentacles which are the unwitting instruments of its catastrophic blowsreach out from the diseased structure, false and loathsome, of the decayingsocial system and the set of values wherein we are involved. And now, the entirefabric of the social world appears in process of disintegration. The structureof national organization would appear to be veering from economic ruin to thatfinal crazy lurch which may see it disappear over the gaping precipice tocomplete destruction. Rooted firmly in the fullness of the individual life, thehitherto stout bulwarks of our life are threatened as never have they beenbefore. More and more impossible does it seem with the setting of each sun foranyone to retain even the slightest portion of his divine heritage,individuality, and to exert that which makes him man. Despite being born in ourage and time, those few individuals who are aware with a certainty in whichthere is no doubt of a destiny propelling them imperiously forward to thefulfilment of their ideal natures, constitute perhaps the sole exceptions.These, the minority, are the born Mystics, the Artists and Poets, those who seebeyond the veil and bring back the light of beyond. Included within the mass,however, is yet another minority who, while not fully conscious of an all-compellingdestiny, nor the nature of its deeper self, aspires to be differentfrom the complacent masses. With an inner anxiety it is restless to obtain anabiding spiritual integrity. It is mercilessly ground underfoot by the socialsystem of which it is a part, and harshly ostracized by the mass of its fellows.The verities and possibilities of a reintegrating contact with reality, onewhich can be instigated here and now, during life and not necessarily upon thedeath of the body, are blindly ignored. The attitude, singularly unwise, adoptedby the greater part of modern "intelligent" European humanity towards thisaspiration constitutes a grave danger to the race. It has permitted itsel onlytoo eagerly to forget that upon which it actually depends, and from which it isconstantly nourished and sustained in both its inward and outward life. Avidlyseizing upon the fluctuating evanescence of the hasty exterior existence, itsnegligence of affairs spiritual, as well as its impatience with the more farseeingof its fellows, is a mark of extreme race-weariness and nostalgia.
It is a well-worn saying but one none the less true and none the less worthy ofrepetition, inasmuch as it expresses peculiarly the situation now widelyprevalent, that "where there is no vision the people perish." Mankind as awhole, or more particularly the Western element, has lost in someincomprehensible way its spiritual vision. An heretical barrier has been erectedseparating itself from that current of life and vitality which even now, despitewilful impediment and obstacle, pulses and vibrates passionately in the blood,pervading the whole of universal form and structure. The anomalies presented todayare due to this rank absurdity. Mankind s slowly accomplishing its ownsuicide. A self-strangulation is being effected through a suppression of allindividuality, in the spiritual sense, and all that made it human. It continuesto withhold the spiritual atmosphere from its lungs, so to speak. And havingsevered itself from the eternal and never-ceasing sources of light and life andinspiration, it has deliberately blinded itself to the fact—than which no othercould compare in importance—that there is a dynamic principle both within andwithout from which it has accomplished a divorce. The result is inner lethargy,chaos, and the disintegration of all that formerly was held to be ideal andsacred.
Laid down centuries ago, the doctrine taught by the Buddha commends itself to meas providing a possible reason for this divorce, chaos and decay. To themajority of people existence is inevitably bound up with suffering and sorrowand pain. Now although Buddha did teach that life was fraught with pain andmisery, I am inclined to believe, when remembering the psychology of Mysticismand of Mystics, whose peer he undoubtedly was, that this viewpoint was adoptedby him only to spur men forward from chaos to the attainment of a superior modeof life. Once the viewpoint of the personal ego, the outcome of ages ofevolution, has been transcended man may see the iron fetters of ignorance rollaway to reveal an untrammelled vision of supreme beauty, the world as a livingthing and a joy for ever and ever. Is there not for all to see the beauty of theSun and the Moon, the pageantry of the changing seasons in the year, the sweetmusic of daybreak, and the spell of nights under the open sky? What of the rainfalling through the leaves of trees towering to the gates of heaven, and the dewin early morning creeping over the grass, tipping it with spear-points ofsilver? Most readers will have heard of the experience of the great GermanMystic, Jacob Boehme, who, after his divine beatific vision, walked into thegreen fields close to his village, beholding the whole of Nature ablaze with soglorious a light that even the tender blades of grass were resplendent with adivine loveliness and beauty that never had he seen before. Great Mystic thatthe Buddha was—beyond perhaps any other within the knowledge of the averagereader—and great his insight into the working of the human mind, it isimpossible to accept on its face value his pronouncement that life and livingare a curse. Rather do I feel that this philosophic attitude was adopted by himin the hope that once again might mankind be induced to seek the inimitablewisdom which it had lost, to restore the inner equilibrium and the harmony ofsoul, thus fulfilling its destiny unrestricted by sense and mind. Preventingthis ecstatic enjoyment of life and all that the sacrament of life can give,there is one root cause of sorrow. In a word, ignorance. Because he is ignorantof what he really is in himself, ignorant of his true way in life, man is, asthe Buddha taught, so beset with sorrow and so sorely afflicted with distress.
According to the traditional philosophy of the Magicians, every man is a uniqueautonomous centre of individual consciousness, energy and will—a soul, in aword. Like a star shining and existing by its own inward light it pursues itsway in the star-spangled heavens, solitary, uninterfered with, except in so faras its heavenly course is gravitationally modified by the presence, near or far,of other stars. Since in the vast stellar spaces seldom are there conflictsbetween the celestial bodies, unless one happens to stray from its appointedcourse—a very rare occurrence—so in the realms of humankind there would be nochaos, little conflict and no mutual disturbance were each individual content tobe grounded in the reality of his own high consciousness, aware of his idealnature and his true purpose in life, and eager to pursue the road which he mustfollow. Because men have strayed from the dynamic sources inhering withinthemselves and the universe, and have forsaken their true spiritual wills,because they have divorced themselves from the celestial essences, betrayed by amess of more sickly pottage than ever Jacob did sell to Esau, the world in thisday presents a people with so hopeless an aspect, and a humanity impressed withso despondent a mien. Ignorance of the course of the celestial orbit, and thesignificance of that orbit inscribed in the skies for ever, is the root which isat the bottom of universal dissatisfaction, unhappiness and race-nostalgia. Andbecause of this the living soul cries for help to the dead, and the creature toa silent God. Of all this crying there comes usually—nothing. The lifting up ofthe hands in supplication brings no inkling of salvation. The frantic gnashingof teeth results but in mute despair and loss of vital energy. Redemption isonly from within and is wrought out by the soul itself with suffering andthrough time, with much endeavour and strain of the spirit.
How, then, may we return to this ecstatic identity with our deeper selves? Inwhat way may this necessary union be accomplished between the individual souland the Essences of universal reality? Where is the road which leads eventuallyto the improvement and betterment of the individual and consequently to thesolution of the perplexing problems in the world of men?
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The appearance of genius, regardless of the several aspects and fields of itsmanifestation, is marked by the occurrence of a curious phenomenon whoseaccompaniment is most always vision and ecstasy supreme. This experience towhich I have reference is indubitably the hall-mark and essential stigmata ofgenuine accomplishment. Not to mediocrity is this apocalyptic experiencevouchsafed. To the commonplace person, burdened as he is with dogma and an outworntradition, there seldom comes that flash of spiritual light making descentin splendid tongues of flame like the Pentecostal Holy Ghost, radiant with joyand the highest wisdom, pregnant with spontaneous inspiration. Thesophisticated, the blasé, the dilettanti—these are debarred by insuperablebarriers from the merits of its benediction. To those having talent alone thisrevelation does not come, although talent may be the stepping stone to genius.Genius is not, nor has it ever been in years gone by, the result of merelyinfinite care and patience. But little importance I think need be attached tothe oft-iterated definition concerning a certain very high percentage ofperspiration plus a very small remainder of inspiration. No matter how great thevalue of perspiration, it cannot produce the magnificent effects of genius. Inevery field of endeavour in daily life, on every side do we see performed a vastamount of excellent work, indispensable for what it is, and the sheddingliterally of quarts of perspiration without in fact the evocation of afractional part of a creative idea or exaltation. These outward expressions ingenius—care, patience, perspiration —are simply the manifestations of asuperabundance of energy proceeding from a hidden centre of consciousness. Theyare but the media by which the genius distinguishes itself, striving to makeknown those ideas and thoughts which have been hurtled into the consciousnessand penetrated that border-line which successfully marks off and divides theprofane from that which is divine. Genius in itself is caused by or proceedsconcomitantly with a spiritual experience of the highest intuitional order. Itis an experience which, thundering from the empyrean like a fiery bolt fromJove's seat, carries with it an instantaneous inspiration and an enduringuprightness, with a fulfilment of all the yearnings of the mind and theemotional make-up.
Into the primary cause of this experience, familiar to those rare individualswhose lives have thus been blessed from early childhood even to their lattermostdays, I do not wish to enquire. Such an enquiry would take me too far afield,leading as it would into the realm of metaphysic and philosophicimpalpabilities, into which I am for the moment unwilling to enter. Reflectionhowever does yield one very significant fact. Those individuals who havereceived the title of "genius" and named by mankind as of the greatest, havebeen the recipients of some such inimitable experience as I have mentioned. Ageneralization it may well be, but it is one which nevertheless carries with itthe seal of truth. Many another lesser person whose life has been gladdened andbrightened in a similar manner has been enabled thereby to accomplish a certainlife work, artistic or secular, which otherwise had been impossible.
Now it is a more or less logical postulate, one which follows as a directconsequence of the preceding premise, that were it possible by a species ofpsychological and spiritual training to induce this experience within theconsciousness of various men and women of to-day, humanity as a whole could beexalted even beyond the highest conceptions, and there would arise a mighty newrace of supermen. In reality it is that goal whither evolution tends and whichis envisaged by all the kingdoms of Nature. From the beginnings of time whenintelligent man first appeared on the scene of evolution, there have existedtechnical methods of spiritual attainment by means of which might be ascertainedthe true nature of man, and by which, moreover, genius of the highest orderdeveloped. The latter, I might add, was conceived to be but the by-product andterrestrial efflorescence of the discovery of the orbit of the starry Self, andat no time, by the authorities of this Great Work, was in itself considered tobe a worthy object of aspiration. "Know thyself" was the supreme injunctiongiving impetus to their high endeavour. If the creativity of genius followed asa result of the discovery of the innermost self and the tapping of the sourcesof universal energy, if inspiration by the Muses ensued or a stimulus in thedirection of some art or philosophy or lay occupation, so much the better. Atthe outset of training, however, these Mystics—for so these authorities came tobe known—were completely indifferent to any result other than a spiritual one.Self-knowledge and self-discovery—the word "self" being used in a lofty, noeticand transcendental sense—were the primary objectives.
If the arts have their origin in the expression of the Soul that listens andsees where for the outer mind are silence and the dark, then evidently Mysticismis one and perhaps the greatest of the arts, the apotheosis of artisticexpression and endeavour. Mysticism by some sweet ordinance of Nature has beenalways and at all times the most sacred of the arts. The Mystic indeed bearswithin his bosom that tranquillity which oft-times is registered on the quietface of the priest uplifted to the altar. He is a recognized intermediary andmouthpiece, the dual keys being laid in his hands. He is, both the ages and hisfellows in the other arts admit, more directly admitted to the Sanctuary withinand more immediately controlled by the psyche. It is for this reason that hissuccesses are a success for all men at all times. But bitterly reprobated, asalmost a new ruin of Lucifer, are his quite frequent failures. A bad poet or abad musician is but a reproach to his particular art, and his name soon perishesfrom the memory of his people. A charlatan or an imposter-magician, however,imperils the whole world, casting a heavy veil over the translucent light of thespirit which it was his principal duty to bring to the sons of men. It is forthis reason also that he is only for the very few in every age; but likewise heis for all the few in all ages. Glorified with the beatitudes of all the artistsand prophets of all the ages, he suffers ignominiously with their vilification,for they like himself are Mystics. He is lonely. He has drawn away into thesubjective solitudes. Where he is gone —whither few can follow him unless theytoo have the keys—he is eulogiously acclaimed with song and dithyramb.
Not a theoretical knowledge of the Self is it that the Mystic seeks, a purelyintellectual philosophy of the Universe—although that too has its place. TheMystic seeks a deeper level of acquaintance. Despite their rhetoric as to theabsoluteness of reason, the logicians and philosophers of all time were inwardlyconvinced of the fundamental inadequacy and impotency of the ratiocinativefaculty. Within it, they believed, was an element of self-contradiction whichnullified its use in the quest for supreme reality. In proof of this the wholehistory of philosophy stands as eloquent witness. It was the belief of those whowere Mystics, and experience repeatedly gave confirmation thereto, that it wasonly by transcending the mind, or that into the mind emptied of all content andmade calm like a lagoon of still blue water, could a glimpse of Eternity bemirrored. When the modifications of the thinking principle had been stilled ortranscended, when the constant whirling which is a characteristic of the normalmind has been quelled, and a serene tranquillity substituted, only then couldthere occur that vision of spirituality, that lofty experience of the agesilluminating the whole being with warmth of inspiration and profundity and adepth of imaginings of the highest and all-embracing kind.
