Speaker 1: Temptation. I know that sorrow follows passion, know that grief
and emptiness and heartache weight upon all earthly joys. So
I am sad. Yet truth must be and being can
be found. And though I am in sorrow this I
know I shall be glad when I have found the truth.
The only external tempters of man are the objects of sensation. These, however,
are powerless in themselves unless they are reflected in his
mind as desirable objects to possess. His only enemy, therefore,
is his coveting of the objects of sensation. By ceasing
to covet objects of sensation, temptation and the painful fighting
against impure desires pass away. This ceasing to covet objects
of sensation is called the relinquishing of desire. It is
the renunciation of the inner defilement, by which a man
ceases to be the slave of outward things and becomes
their master. Temptation is a growth, a process more or
less slow, the duration of which can be measured by
the sage who has gained accurate knowledge of the nature
of his thoughts and acts in the laws governing them,
by virtue of having subjected himself to a long course
of training in mental discipline and self control. It has
five stages which can be clearly defined and their development
traced with precision. But the man who has still immersed
in temptation has as yet little or no knowledge of
the nature of his thoughts and acts in the laws
governing them. He has lived so long in outward things,
in the objects of sensation, and has given so little
time to introspection and the cleansing of his heart, that
he lives in almost total ignorance of the real nature
of his life and acts which he thinks and commits
every day. To him, temptation seems to be instantaneous, and
his powerlessness to combat the sudden and apparently unaccountable onslaught
causes him to regard it as a mystery, and mystery
being the mother of superstition. He may and usually does,
fall back upon some speculative belief to account for his trouble,
such as the belief in an invisible, evil being or
power outside himself who suddenly and without warning attacks and
torments him. Such a superstition renders him more powerless still,
for he has sufficient knowledge to understand that he cannot
hope to successfully cope with a being more powerful than himself,
and of whose whereabouts and tactics he is altogether unacquainted.
And so he introduces other beliefs and superstitions which his
dilemma seems to necessitate, until at last, in addition to
all his sins and sufferings, he becomes burdened with a
mass of supernatural beliefs which engross his attention and take
him farther and farther away from the real cause of
his difficulty. Meantime, he continues to be tempted and to fall,
and must do so by self subjugation and self purification,
until he has acquired the ability to trace the relation
between cause and effect in his spiritual nature. When with
purified and enlightened vision, he will see that the moment
of temptation is but the fulfillment of those impure desires
which he secretly harbours in his own heart, and later
with a still purer heart, and when he has gained
sufficient control over his wandering thoughts to be able to
analyze and understand them, he will see that the actual
moment of temptation itself has its inception, its growth, and
its fruition. What then, are the stages in temptation, and
how is the process of temptation born in the mind?
How does it grow and bear its bitter fruit. The
stages are five and are as follows. One perception, two cogitation,
three conception, four attraction, and five desire. The first stage
is that in which objects of sensation are perceived as objects.
This is pure perception and is without sin or defilement.
The second stage is that in which objects of sensation
are considered as objects of personal pleasure. This is a
brooding of the mind upon objects with an undefined groping
for pleasurable sensation, and is the beginning of defilement and sin.
In the third state, objects of sensation are conceived as
objects of pleasure. In this stage, the objects are associated
with certain pleasurable sensations, and these sensations are conceived and
called up vividly in the mind. In the fourth stage,
objects of sensation are perceived as objects of pleasure. At
this stage, the pleasure as connected with the object is
distinctly defined. Yet there is a confusion of pleasure an object,
so that the two appear is one, and a wish
to possess the object arises in the mind. There is
also a going out of the mind towards the object.
The fifth and last stage is an intense desire, a
coveting and lusting to possess the object in order to
experience the pleasure and gratification which it will afford. With
every repetition in the mind of the first four stages,
this desire is added to as fuel is added to fire,
and it increases in intensity and ardor until at last
the whole being is afflamed with a burning passion which
is blind to everything but its own immediate pleasure and gratification.
And when this painful fruition of thought is reached, a
man is said to be tempted. There is still a
further stage of action, which is merely the doing of
the thing desired, The outworking of the sin already committed
in the mind. From desire to action is but a
short step. The following table will better enable the mind
of the reader to grasp the process and principle involved.
One perception objects of sensation perceived as such, two cogitation
objects of sensation considered as a source of pleasure. Three
conception objects of sensation received as a fording pleasure. Four
attraction objects of sensation perceived as pleasurable in possession five
desire objects of sensation coveted as such desired for personal
delight and pleasure. Every time a man is tempted, he
passes from inaction through all the five stages in succession,
and his fall is passing on into action. The process
varies greatly in duration according to the nature of the
temptation and the character of the tempted, But after much
yielding in many falls, the mind becomes so familiar with
the transition that it passes through all the stages with
such rapidity as to make the temptation appear as an instantaneous,
indivisible experience. The sage, however, never loses sight of the
duration of time occupied in the process of temptation, but
watches its growth in transition. And just as the scientist
can measure the time occupied in the transition of sensation
from the brain to the bodily extremities, or from the
extremities to the brain, which ordinarily appears not to occupy duration,
so the sage measures, though by a different method, the
passage from pure perception to inflame desire in a sudden
experience of temptation. The knowledge of the nature of temptation
destroys its power, or rather its apparent power, for power
exists in holiness only. Ignorance is at the root of
all sin, and it fades away when knowledge is admitted
into the mind. Just as darkness and the effects of
darkness disappear when light is introduced, so sin in its
effects are dispersed when knowledge of one's spiritual nature is
acquired and embraced. How then does the sage avoid sin
and remain in peace? Knowing the nature of sinful acts,
how they are the result of temptation, Knowing also the
nature of temptation, how it is the end and fruition
of a particular train of thought, he cuts off that
train of thought at its commencement, not allowing his mind
to go out into the world of sensation, which is
the world of pain and sorrow. He stands over his
mind eternally vigilant, and does not allow his thoughts to
pass beyond the safe gates of pure perception. To him,
all things are pure, because his mind is pure. He
sees all objects, whether material or mental, as they are,
and not as the pleasure seek or sees them as
objects of personal enjoyment, nor as the tempted one sees
them as sources of evil and pain. His normal sphere, however,
is that of in action, which is perfect, holiness and rest.
This is a position of entire indifference to considerations of
pleasure and pain, regarding all things from the standpoint of right,
and not from that of enjoyment. Is then the sage,
the sinless one, deprived of all enjoyment, is his life
a dead monotony of inaction inertia. Truly, he is delivered
from all those sensory excitements which the world calls pleasure,
but which conceals as a mask the drawn features of pain,
and being released from the bondage of cravings and pleasures,
he lives without ceasing in the divine abiding joy, which
the pleasure seeker and the wanderer in sin can neither
know nor understand. But in action in this particular means
in action as regards sin, in action in the lower
animal activities, which, being cut off their energy, is transferred
to the higher intellectual and moral activities, releasing their power
and giving them untrammeled scope and freedom. Thus the sage
avoids sin by extracting its root from himself, not allowing
it to grow into attraction, to blossom into desire, and
to bear the bitter fruits of sinful actions. The unwise man, however,
allows the thought of pleasure to take root in his mind,
where its growth evokes sensations which are pleasant to him.
And on these sensations he dwells with enjoyment, thinking in
his heart, so long as I do not commit the
sinful act, I am free from sin. He does not
know that his thoughts are causes the effects of which
are actions, and there is no escape from sinful acts
for him who dwells in sinful thoughts. And so the
process develops in his mind and blossoms into desire, And
in the final moment of temptation, which is but the
moment of opportunity, brought into prominence by that desire, with
the coveted object at his unreserved command, the fall of
the man into sinful action is swift and certain,