The spiritual life

62 The SpiritualLife.

witness,dwellstheTrueSelf,theSpiritualEgo

ofman. Belowtheremaybestorm,butabove

thereiscalm,and thereisthe Placeof Peace.

For that Self iseternal,andwhattoitarethe

thingsoftime,saveastheybringexperience,the

knowledgeofgoodandevil? Sooften,dwelhng

initshouseofclay,ithasknownbirthanddeath,

gainsand losses,joysand griefs,pleasures and

pams,thatitseesthemall passbyasa moving

phantasmagoria,andnoripplerufflesitspassion-

lessserenity. Does agonyaffect its outercase,

itisbutanoticethatharmonyhasbeenbroken,

and the pain is welcome as pointing to the

failureandasbearingthelessonofavoidanceof

thatwhenceitsprang. FortheTrue Selfhas

to conquer the material plane, to purify and

sublimateit,and only bysuffering can itlearn

howtoperformitswork.

Now the secret of reaching that Place of

Peace liesin our learning to identifyour con-

sciousness with the True, instead of with the

apparent. Self. Weidentifyourselveswithour

minds, our brain minds, active in our bodies.

We identify ourselves with our passions and

desires, and say we hope or we fear. We

identify ourselves with our bodies, the mere

machinery wherewith we affect the material

world. Andso, when all these parts of our