Chapter 4: The Culture of Eternal Life The Method of Lust The phenomenon of lust characterizes the self-possessed
illusions of both oriental and occidental men. It is simply
that the lust is turned in a different direction in each of
the two cases. The occidental man (both male and female) is
characteristically moved by lust for what is below the
heart-for food, and sex, and vital possessions. The oriental man (both male and female) is
characteristically moved by lust for what is above the
heart-for visions and flights to realms of mind. In the present epoch, East and West are in confrontation,
and, although a true marriage has not yet taken place, each
is involved in a process of sharing and duplicating the
qualities of the other. Therefore, the East is adapting to a new “worldliness,”
through various kinds of political, social, and
technological change. And the West is adapting to a new
“other-worldliness,” through fascination with the
possibilities of mind, and the deep psyche, and the higher
nervous system. Experimenters in the East and the West are thus sharing
in each others ancient lusts, and great technological
efforts are everywhere being made to exploit both the inner
and the outer Man. But lust yet characterizes the seeking of mankind.
Objects of every kind are sought for their distracting
power, to save us from the torment of mortal fear, boredom,
and unlove-all the symptoms of depressed Life. The machines of State are overwhelming in their drive
toward power and material complexity. Just so, the
laboratories of scientific or technological research into
the psyche strive to “take Heaven by storm.” We are lusting for what will change us. We are lusting
for every alternative to the frozen moment of the threatened
present. But we must understand and transcend our lust, our
self-division, our deluded fascination with the things of
body and of mind. We must awaken to Life, and we must be
free of the reactive recoil from Life that moves us to
exploit mind and body by every means. Man can take natural pleasure in his truly creative and
self-transcending adaptation to the evolutionary
possibilities that are structured into every individual. But
the heart, or the radical intuition and ecstatic love of the
Transcendental Life-Principle, must precede and inform and
even heal all the motives of Man. Lust is destructive of self and other. Lust is
self-possessed and incapable of true Ecstasy and true
Wisdom. When lust is transformed by the love of Life, then
we are awakened to Wisdom in relation to mind, and body, and
all relations. The Truth is not any political system, nor
any technological strategy, nor any chemical that can change
the mind. Truth is the self-transcending love that is
identical to the Radiance of Life itself. We evolve only
through adaptation in love. And experience, without the
spiritual discipline of total psycho-physical Love-Communion
with the Life-Principle, is, at best, only satisfaction-but
it is merely a temporary release from the awful distress of
unillumined mortality.
Scientific Proof – Table of
Contents