THE TWO PATHS
be ranked among the herd that are in subjection to fate.”
Even if the will be not free, it must be considered as free,
or the word loses its meaning. There is, however, a much
deeper teaching in this matter.
80. That Secret Path leads the Arhan to mental woe un-
speakable; woe for the living Dead, and helpless pity for the
men of Karmic sorrow; the fruit of Karma Sages dare not
still,
Mental woe unspeakable—Rats! If we were to take all
this au grand sérieux, we should have to class H. P. B. with
Sacher-Masoch. She does not seem to have any idea of
what an Arhan is, as soon as she plunges into one of these
orgies of moral flagellation! Long before one becomes an
Arhan, one has completely cured the mind. One knows that
it is contradiction and illusion. One has passed by the
Abyss, and reached Reality. Now, although one is flung
forth again across the Abyss, as explained in Liber
CDXVIIL., and undergoes quite normal mental experiences,
yet they are no longer taken seriously, for they have not the
power to delude.
There is no question of Sages daring to still the fruit of
Karma. I do not quite know how one would set about still-
ing a fruit, by the way. But the more sage one is, the less
one wants to interfere with law. There is a special comment
upon this point in Liber Aleph. Most of the pleasures in
life, and most of the education in life, are given by superable
obstacles. Sport, including love, depends on the overcoming
of artificial or imaginary resistances. Golf has been defined
as trying to knock a little ball into a hole with a set of in-
struments very ill-adapted for the purpose. In Chess one is
71