Book 4 (Part I)

I9 perhaps it would be better to say nothing; perhaps only an unbalanced mind would wish to alter anything or believe in the possibilityof altering anything?,־but there are those who think existenceeven in heaven intoler- able so long as there is one single being who does not share that joy. There are some who may wish to travel back from the very threshold of the bridal chamber to assist belated guests. Such at least was the attitude which Gotama Buddha adopted. Nor shall he be alone. Again it may be pointed out that the contemplative life is generally opposed to the active life, and it must require an extremely careful bal- ance to prevent the one absorbing the other. As it will be seen later, the “vision of God,” or “ Union with God,” or “ Samadhi,” or whateverwe may agree to call it, has many kinds and many degrees, although there is an impassable abyss between the least of them and the greatest of all the phenomena of normal consciousness. To sum ”!?, we assert a secret source of energy which ex- plains the phenomenon of Genius.1 We do not believe in any supernatural explanations, but insist that this source may be reached by the following out of definite rules, the 1 We have dealt in this preliminary sketch only with examples of religious genius. Other kinds are subject to the same remarks, but the limits of our space forbid discus- sion of these.