As skill and power are acquired in meditation, the fifth and last stage is reached, where the perfect insight of the seer and the sage is evolved, so that the facts of life are grasped, and the laws and principles of things stand revealed. Here the man is altogether regenerated, is purified and perfected ; all human passions are conquered, and human sorrows transcended. Here things are seen as they are ; all the intricacies of life stand out naked in the light of Truth, and there is no more doubt and perplexity, no more sin and anguish ; for he whose pure and enlightened eyes perceive the hidden causes and effects which operate infallibly in human life?he who knows how the bitter fruits of passion ripen, and where the dark waters of sorrow spring?he it is who no more sins and no more sorrows. Lo ! he has come to peace.
The five stages so passed through may be thus presented:
Ignorance? Sin ; Suffering.
1. Reflection. Deep and earnest thought on the nature and meaning of life.
2. Introspection. Looking inwardly, for the causes and effects which operate in life.
3. Self-analysis. Searching the springs of thought and purifying the motives in order to find the truth of life.
4. Meditation. Pure and discriminative thought on the facts and principles of life.
5. Pure Perception. Insight. Direct knowledge of the laws of life.
Enlightenment? Purity ; Peace.
The whole process of regeneration may be likened to the growth of a plant. At first the small seed of reflection is cast into the dark soil of ignorance ; then the little rootlets come forth and grope about for light and sustenance (introspection); next the strenuous self-examination is as the plant reaching upwards toward the light; and then the development of the bud and opening flower of meditation, ending at last in that pure and wise insight which is the spiritual glory of the sage, the perfect flower of enlightenment.
Thus beginning in sin and suffering, and passing through thoughtfulness, self-searching, self-
purification, meditation, and insight, the seeker after the pure life and the divine wisdom reaches at last the undented habitation of a spotless life, and so passes beyond the dark halls of suffering, knowing the perfect Law.
4. Actions and motives
Obey the Right,
And wrong shall ne?er again assail thy peace,
Nor error hurt thee more: attune thy heart
To Purity, and thou shalt reach the
Place Where sorrow is not, and all evil ends.
It has been said that " the way to hell is paved with good intentions," and one frequently hears sin excused on the ground that it was done with a "good motive."
There are actions which are bad-in-themselves, and there are actions which are good-in-themselves, and good intentions cannot make the former good? selfish intentions cannot make the latter bad.
Foremost among actions which are bad-in- themselves are those which are classified as "criminal" by all civilised communities. Thus murder, theft, adultery, libel, etc, are always bad, and it is not necessary to inquire into the motive which prompts them. Black and white remain black and white to all eternity, and are not altered by specious argumentations. A lie is eternally a lie, and no number of good intentions can turn it into a truth. If a man tell a lie with a good intention, he has none the less uttered a lie ; if a man speak the truth with a selfish intention, he has none the less spoken the truth.
Beside those actions above mentioned, there are others which, while not classified by the law of the land as criminal, are yet recognised as wrong by nearly all intelligent people-actions pertaining to social and family life, and to our everyday relations with our fellowmen. Thus when a child wilfully violates its duty to its parents, the father does not stop to inquire into the motives of the child, but metes out the due correction, because the act of disobedience is wrong-in-itself.
