Speaker 1: Passion, the pathway of the saints and sages, the road
of the wise and the pure, the highway along which
the saviors have trod, and which all saviors to come
will walk. Such is the subject of this book. Such
is the high and holy theme which the author briefly
expounds in these pages. Passion is the lowest level of
human life. None can descend lower. In its chilling swamps
and concealing darkness, creep and crawl the creatures of the
sunless world lust, hatred, anger, covetuousness, pride, vanity, greed, revenge, envy, backbiting, lying, theft, deceit, treachery, cruelty, suspicion, jealousy.
Such are the brute forces, in blind, unreasoning impulses that
inhabit the underworld of passion and rome, devouring and devoured.
In the rank, primeval jungles of the human mind, there
also dwell the dark shapes of remorse, pain and suffering,
and the drooping forms of grief, sorrow, and lamentation. In
this dark world, the unwise live and die, not knowing
the peace of purity, nor the joy of that divine
light which forever shines above them and for them. Yet
it shines in vain so long as it falls on
the unseeing eyes, which look not up, but are ever
bent earthward. Flesh word, but the wise look up. They
are not satisfied with this passion world. They bend their
steps towards the upper world of peace, the light and
the glory of which they behold, at first far off,
but nearer, and with ever increasing splendor. As they ascend.
None can fall lower than passion, but all can rise higher.
In that lowest place where further descent is impossible, All
who move forward must ascend. The ascending pathway is always
at hand, near and easily accessible. It is the way
of self conquest. He has already entered into it, who
has begun to say nay to his selfishness, Who has
begun to discipline his desires, and to control and command
the unruly elements of his mind. Passion is the arc
enemy of mankind, the slayer of happiness, the opposite and
enemy of peace. From it precedes all that defiles and destroys.
It is the source of misery and the promulgator of
mischief and disaster. The inner world of selfishness is rooted
in ignorance. Ignorance of divine law, of divine goodness, ignorance
of the pure way and the peaceful path. Passion is dark,
and it thrives and flourishes and spiritual darkness. It cannot
enter the regions of spiritual light in the enlightened mind.
The darkness of ignorance is destroyed. In the pure heart,
there is no place for passion. Passion in all its forms,
is a mental thirst, a fever, a torturing unrest. As
a fire consumes a magnificent building, reducing it to a
heap of unsightly ashes. So are men consumed by the
flames of passions, and their deeds and works fall and perish.
If one would find peace, he must come out of passion.
The wise man subdues his passions. The foolish man is
subdued by them. The seeker for wisdom begins by turning
his back on folly. The lover of peace enters the
way which leads there too, And with every step he takes,
he leaves further below and behind him the dark dwelling
place of passion and despair. The first step towards the
heights of wisdom and peace is to understand the darkness
and misery of selfishness, and when that is understood, the
overcoming of it, the coming out of it will follow.
Selfishness or passion not only subsists in the gross forms
of greed and glaringly ungoverned conditions of the mind. It
informs also every hidden thought which is subtly connected with
the assumption and glorification of one's self. It is most
deceiving and subtle when it prompts one to dwell upon
the selfishness in others, to accuse them of it, and
to talk about it. The man who continually dwells upon
the selfishness and others will not thus overcome his own selfishness.
Not by accusing others do we come out of selfishness,
but by purifying ourselves. The way from passion to peace
is not by hurling painful charges against others, but by
overcoming one's self. By eagerly striving to subdue the selfishness
of others, we remain passion bound. By patiently overcoming our
own selfishness, we ascend to freedom. Only he who has
conquered himself can subdue others, And he subdues them not
by passion but by love. The foolish man accuses others
and justifies himself, but he who is becoming wise justifies
others and accuses himself. The way from passion to peace
is not in the outer world of people. It is
in the inner world of thoughts. It does not consist
in altering the deeds of others. It consists in perfecting
one's own deeds. Frequently, the man of passion is most
eager to put others right, but the man of wisdom
puts himself right. If one is anxious to reform the world,
let him begin by reforming himself. The reformation of self
does not end with the elimination of the sensual elements.
Only that is its beginning. It ends only when every
vain thought and selfish aim is overcome. Short of perfect
purity and wisdom, there is still some form of self
slavery or folly which needs to be conquered. Passion is
at the base of the structure of life. Peace is
at its crown and summit. Without passion to begin with,
there would be no power to work with and no
achievement to end with. Passion represents power, but power misdirected,
power producing hurt instead of happiness. Its forces. While instruments
of destruction in the hands of the foolish, are instruments
of preservation in the hands of the wise. When curbed
and concentrated and beneficially directed, they represent working energy. Passion
is the flaming sword which guards the gates of paradise.
It shuts out and destroys the foolish, it admits and
preserves the wise. He is the foolish man who does
not know the extent of his own ignorance, who is
the slave of thoughts of self, who obeys the impulses
of passion. He is the wise man, who knows his
own ignorance, who understands the emptiness of selfish thoughts, who
masters the impulses of passion. The fool descends into deeper
and deeper ignorance. The wise man ascends into higher and
higher knowledge. The fool desires, suffers, and dies. The wise
man aspires, rejoices, and lives with mind intent on wisdom
and mental gaze raised upward. The spiritual warrior p re
sieves the upward way and fixes his attention upon the
heights of peace.