A MASTER OF THE TEMPLE
so that of your daily pleasures you may construct a symbol of that Unchang-
ing Joy that IS.
These instructions were accompanied by a letter from which I quote the fol-
lowing: “The enclosed exercises perform regularly, say to yourself: ‘I will
do these for three months; even if I get no benefit from them, yet I am deter-
mined to do them.’ Write to me whenever you like, but don’t consider any result
that you may get as worth much; for these little exercises are only to produce
an equilibrium which is essential before really setting out. If you add any exer-
cise of your own then do it at a definite hour daily and do it continuously; to
take up an exercise and then drop it is worse than useless, for it is unbalancing.”
Now, as any Probationer knows, as soon as one sets out to
do the simplest task regularly and with magical intent, that
task becomes not only difficult, but well nigh impossible of
performance. This is just what V.I.O. found, and no sooner
had his task been set than all kinds of difficulties presented
themselves, like the dog-faced demons mentioned by Zoro-
aster, to prevent its fulfilment. He tried, but at the end of
January he writes: “I cannot get on under these conditions.
Had plenty of time to do exercises this morning, but was con-
tinually interrupted. Did not robe myself as I have no place
fit to call a temple.” How little did he know at that time
how well off he really was in the latter respect! He was liv-
ing in comfort ina Kensington Flat with every convenience
of civilization; a few years later he was glad to do Asana
and perform his meditations out in the rain, clad in pyjamas,
because his tiny tent in British Columbia was too small to
allow of work inside. But we digress. At this point his
record breaks off abruptly. He remained in London until
May of 1910, when circumstances arose which made it pos-
sible for him to visit British Columbia.
Armed then with his instruction paper, THe Egurnox,and
133