Speaker 1: Regeneration. Submit to naught but nobleness. Rejoice like a strong
athlete straining for the prize when thy full strength is tried.
Be not the slave of lusts and cravings, and indulgences,
of disappointments, miseries and griefs, fears, doubts and lamentations. But
control thyself with calmness, master that in THEE which masters others,
and which heretofore has mastered THEE. Let not thy passions rule,
but rule thy passions. Subjugate thyself till passion is transmuted
into peace and wisdom crown THEE. So shalt thou action attain,
and by attaining no Having considered and examined the nature
of temptation in its five interdependent stages, let us now
turn to the process of regeneration and also consider its nature,
so that the reader, who has all already receives some
measure of enlightenment, may be still further guided in his
strenuous climbing towards the perfect life. The five stages in
regeneration already enumerated are one reflection, two introspection, three self analysis,
four meditation, and five pure perception. The first stage in
a pure and true life is that of thoughtfulness. The
thoughtless cannot enter the right way of life. Only the
reflective mind can acquire wisdom. When a man, ceasing to
go after enjoyment, brings himself to a standstill in order
to examine his position and to reflect upon the condition
of the world and the meaning of life, then he
has entered upon the first stage of regeneration. When a
man begins to think seriously and with a deep and
noble purpose in view, stepped out of the broad way
where the thoughtless and the frivolous clutch at the bubbles
of pleasure, and has entered the narrow way, where the
thoughtful and the wise comprehend eternal verities. Such a man's
liberation from sin and suffering is already assured, for though
he is as yet surrounded by much uncertainty, he is
already releasing a foretaste of the peace which awaits him.
His passions, though still strong, are quieter, his mind is
calmer and clearer, his intercourse with others is purer and graver,
And in his moments of deepest thought, he sees as
in a vision, the strength and calmness and wisdom which
he knows will one day be his well earned possessions.
Thus he passes on to the second stage, Reflecting day
by day with ever increasing earnestness upon life in all
its phases. He comes to perceive the passions and desires
in which men are involved, and realizes the sorrows which
are connected with their strangely ephemeral existence. He sees the
burning fevers of lusts and ambitions and cravings for pleasure,
and the chilling egg us of anxieties and fears, and
the uncertainty of slowly approaching death, and he aspires to
know the meaning of it all. Is eager to find
the source and cause of that which seems so sorrowful
and inexplicable. Recognizing himself as a unit in humanity, as
one involved in like passions and sorrows with all other men,
he vaguely understands that somehow the secret of all life
is inevitably bound up with the neophyte, the mind purified, calmed,
and his own existence. And so unsatisfied with the surface
theories which are based on observation only, and which still
leave him subject to passions and sorrows and the prey
of anxieties and fears, he turns his thoughts inwardly upon
his own mind, thinking perchance that the wish for revelation
of wisdom and peace awaits him there. Thus he becomes introspective,
and so he passes on to the third stage. When
the introspective habit is fully ripened and acquired, there is
called upon in the mind a subtle process of inductive thought,
by the aid of which the innermost recesses of the
man's nature, and therefore of all humanity, begin to unveil
themselves and yield up their secrets to the penetrating insight
of the patient's searcher, who, unraveling now the tangled threads
of thought, and tracing out the warp and wolf of
the web of life as it is woven in the
mental processes, and by the swift flying shuttle of thought,
begins for the first time to somewhat clearly comprehend the
inner causes of human deeds and the meaning and purpose
of existence. As this purpose of thought is preceded with
the desires and passions are purified away from the mind,
the calmness necessary to a right perception of truth is acquired,
and gradually the fixed principles of things are presented to
the comprehension, and the eternal laws of life are coherently
grasped by the understanding, and now quietly and almost as
imperceptibly as the soft light of dawn, stealing upon the
sleeping world. Controlled passes into the fourth stage and opens
his long sleeping eyes upon the rising light of truth.
He becomes habitually meditative, and in meditation he finds the
master key, which unlocks the door of knowledge. It is
at this advanced stage in the process of regeneration that
the sinner becomes the saint and the pupil is transformed
into the master. For here the process of transmutation, too
slow and painful, is greatly accelerated, so that the spiritual
forces formerly spent in pleasures, gratifications, passions, and afflictions are
now conserved, controlled, and turned into channels of productive and
reproductive thought. And so wisdom is born in the mind
and bliss and peace as skill and power are acquired
in meditation, the fifth and last stage is reached, where
the perfect insight of the seer in the sage is evolved,
so that the facts of life are grasp and the
laws and principles of things stand revealed. Here the man
is altogether regenerated, is purified and perfected. All human passions
are conquered, and human sorrows are transcended. Here things are
seen as they are. All the intricacies of life stand
out naked in the light of truth. And there is
no more doubt and perplexity, no more sin and anguish.
For he whose pure and enlightened eyes perceive the hidden
causes and effects which operate infallibly in human life, He
who knows how the bitter fruits of passion ripen, and
where the dark waters of sorrow spring. He it is
who no more sins and no more sorrows. Lo he
has come to peace. The five stages so passed through
may be thus presented. One reflection, deep and earnest thought
on the nature and meaning of life. Two introspection looking
inwardly for the causes and effects which operate in life.
Three self analysis, searching the springs of thought and purifying
the motives in order to find the truth of life.
Four meditation, pure and discriminative thought on the facts and
principles of life. Five pure perception insight direct knowledge of
the laws of life. The whole process of regeneration may
be likened to the growth of a plant. At first
the small seed of reflection is cast into the dark
soil of ignorance. Then the little rootlets come forth and
grope about for light and sustenance introspection, Next the strenuous
self examination as the plant, reaching upwards toward the light.
And then the development of the bud and opening flower
of meditation, ending at last in that pure and wise insight,
which is the spiritual glory of the Sage, the perfect
flower of enlightenment. Thus beginning in sin and suffering, and
passing through thoughtfulness, self searching, self purification, meditation and insight,
the seeker, after the pure life in the divine wisdom,
reaches at last the undented habitation of a spotless life,
and so passes beyond the dark halls of suffering, knowing
the perfect law