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Speaker 1: Transmutation. Midway between the hell of passion and the heaven

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of peace is the purgatory of transmutation, not a speculative

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purgatory beyond the grave, but a real purgatory in the

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human heart. In its separating and purifying fire, the base

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metal of air is sifted away, and only the clarified

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gold of truth remains. When temptation has culminated in sorrow,

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in deep perplexity, then the tempted one, strenuously striving for deliverance,

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finds that his moral servitude is entirely from himself. Instead

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of fighting against outer circumstances, he must alter inner conditions.

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The fight against outer things as necessary at the start.

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It is the only course which can be adopted at

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first because of the prevailing ignorance of mental causation. But

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it never of itself brings about emancipation. What it does

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bring about is the knowledge of the mental cause of temptation.

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This knowledge of the mental cause of temptation leads to

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the transmutation of thought, and the transmutation of thought leads

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to the deliverance from the bondage of error. The preliminary

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fighting is a necessary stage in spiritual development, just as

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the crying and kicking of a helpless babe is necessary

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to its growth. But as the crying in kicking is

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not needed beyond the infant stage, so the fear struggling

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with and falling under temptation ends. When the knowledge of

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mental transmutation is acquired. The truly wise man, he who

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is enlightened in concerning the source and cause of temptation,

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does not fight against outward allurements. He abandons all desire

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for them. Thus they cease to be allurements, and the

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power of temptation is destroy at its source. But this

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abandonment of unholy desire is not the final process. It

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is the beginning of a regenerative and transforming power, which,

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when patiently employed, leads to the clear and cloudless heights

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of spiritual enlightenment. Spiritual transmutation consists of an entire reversal

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of the ordinary self seeking attitude of the mind toward

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people and things, and this reversal brings about an entirely

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new set of experiences. Thus, the desire for a certain

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pleasure is abandoned, cut off at its source, and not

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allowed to have any place in the consciousness. But the

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mental force which that desire represented is not annihilated. It

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is transferred to a higher region of thought, transmuted into

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a purer form of energy. The law of conservation of

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energy prevails universally in the mind, as it does in matter,

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and the force cut off in lower directions is liberated

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in higher realms of spiritual activity along the saintly way

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towards the divine life. The midway region of transmutation is

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the country of sacrifice, the plaine of renunciation. Old passions,

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old ambitions, and thoughts are cast away and abandoned, but

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only to reappear in some more beautiful, more permanent, more

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eternally satisfying form. Valuable jewels, long guarded and cherished, when

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thrown tearfully in the melting pot, are remolded into new

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and more perfect adornments. Likewise, the spiritual alchemists, at first

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reluctant to part company with long cherished thoughts and habits,

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at last gives them up to discover a little later,

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to his joy that they come back to him in

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the form of new faculties, rarer powers and purer joys,

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spiritual jewels, newly polished, beautiful and resplendent. In transmuting his

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mind from evil to good. A man comes to distinguish

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more and more clearly between error and truth, and so

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distinguishing he ceases to be swayed and prompted by outward

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things and by the actions and attitudes of others. Instead,

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he acts from his knowledge of truth, first acknowledging his errors,

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and then confronting them with a searching mind and a

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humble heart. He subdues, conquers, and transmutes them. The early

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stage of transmutation is painful, but brief, for the pain

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is soon transformed into pure spiritual joy, the brevity of

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the pain being measured by the intelligence and energy with

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which the process is pursued. While a man thinks that

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the cause of his pain is the attitude of others,

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he will not pass through it. But when he perceives

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that its cause is in himself, then he will soon

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pass beyond it into joy. The unenlightened man allows himself

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to be disturbed, wounded, and overthrown by what he regards

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as the wrong attitude of others towards him. This is

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because the same wrong attitude is in himself. He indeed

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doles out to them in return the same actions, regarding

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as right in himself that which is wrong in others.

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Slander is given for slander, hatred for hatred, anger for anger.

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This is the action and reaction of evil. It is

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the clash of selfishness with selfishness. It is only the

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self or selfish elements within a man that can be

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aroused by the evil in another. The truth or divine

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characteristics in a man cannot be approached by that evil,

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much less can be disturbed and overthrown by it. It

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is the conversation or complete reversal of this self or

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selfishness into truth that constitutes transmutation. The enlightened man has

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abandoned the delusion that evil in others has the power

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to hurt and subdue him, and he has grasped the

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profound truth that he is only overthrown by the evil

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in himself. He therefore ceases to blame others for his

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sins and sufferings, and applies to himself to purifying his

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own heart. In this reversal of his mental attitude, he

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transmutes the lower selfish forces into the higher moral attributes.

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The base ore of error is cast into the fire

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of sacrifice, and there comes forth the pure gold of truth.

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Such a man stands firm and unmoved when assailed by

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outward things. He is self's master, not its slave. He

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has ceased to identify himself with the impulses of passion,

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and has identified himself with truth. He has overcome evil

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and has become merged with good. He knows both error

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and truth, and has abandoned error and brought himself into

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harmony with truth. He returns good for evil. The more

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he is assailed by evil from without, the greater is

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his opportunity of manifesting the good from within, that which

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supremely differentiates the fool from the wise man. As this,

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the fool meets passion with passion, hatred with hatred, and

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returns evil for evil, whereas the wise man meets passion

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with peace, hatred with love, and returns good for evil.

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Men inflicts suffering upon themselves through the active instrumentality of

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their own unpurified nature. They rise into perfect peace in

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the measure that they purify their hearts. The mental energy

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which men waste in pursuing dark passions is all sufficient

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to enable them to reach the highest wisdom when it

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is turned in the right direction. As water when transmuted

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into steam, becomes a new, more definite and wide reaching power.

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So passion, when transmuted into intellectual and moral force, becomes

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a new life, a new power for the accomplishment of

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high and unfailing purposes. Mental forces, like molecular have their

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opposite poles or modes of action. Where the negative pole is,

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there is also the positive. Where ignorance is, wisdom is possible,

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where passion abounds, peace awaits. Where there is much suffering,

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much bliss is near. Sorrow is the negation of joy.

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Sin is the opposite of purity. Evil is the denial

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of good. Where there is an opposite, there is that

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which is opposed the adverse. Evil, in its denial of

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the good, testifies to its presence. The one thing needful, therefore,

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is the turning around from the negative to the positive,

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the conversion of the heart from impure desires to pure aspirations,

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the transmutation of passional forces into moral powers. The wise

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purify their thoughts, They turn from bad deeds and do

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good deeds. They put error behind them and approach truth.

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Thus do they rise above the allurements of sin, above

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the torments of temptation, above the dark world of sorrow,

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and enter the divine consciousness, the transcendent life,