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ABOVE
LIFE'S TURMOIL
by James Allen
The Uses of Temptation
The soul, in its journey
towards perfection, passes through three distinct stages. The
first is the animal stage, in which the man is content
to live, in the gratification of his senses, unawakened to the
knowledge of sin, or of his divine inheritance, and altogether
unconscious of the spiritual possibilities within himself.
The second is the dual
stage, in which the mind is continually oscillating between
its animal and divine tendencies having become awakened to the
consciousness of both. It is during this stage that temptation
plays its part in the progress of the soul. It is a stage of
continual fighting, of falling and rising, of sinning and
repenting, for the man, still loving, and reluctant to leave,
the gratifications in which he has so long lived, yet also
aspires to the purity and excellence of the spiritual state,
and he is continually mortified by an undecided choice.
Urged on by the divine life
within him, this stage becomes at last one of deep anguish and
suffering, and then the soul is ushered into the third stage,
that of knowledge , in which the man rises above both
sin and temptation, and enters into peace.
Temptation, like contentment in
sin, is not a lasting condition,as the majority of people
suppose; it is a passing phase, an experience through which
the soul must pass; but as to whether a man will pass through
that condition in this present life, and realise holiness and
heavenly rest here and now, will depend entirely upon the
strength of his intellectual and spiritual exertions, and upon
the intensity and ardour with which he searches for Truth.
Temptation, with all its
attendant torments can be overcome here and now, but it can
only be overcome by knowledge. It is a condition of darkness
or of semi-darkness. The fully enlightened soul is proof
against all temptation. When a man fully understands the
source, nature, and meaning of temptation, in that hour he
will conquer it, and will rest from his long travail; but
whilst he remains in ignorance, attention to religious
observances, and much praying and reading of Scripture will
fail to bring him peace.
If a man goes out to conquer an
enemy, knowing nothing of his enemy's strength, tactics, or
place of ambush, he will not only ignominiously fail, but will
speedily fall into the hands of the enemy. He who would
overcome his enemy the tempter, must discover his stronghold
and place of concealment, and must also find out the unguarded
gates in his own fortress where his enemy effects so easy an
entrance. This necessitates continual meditation, ceaseless
watchfulness, and constant and rigid introspection which lays
bare, before the spiritual eyes of the tempted one, the vain
and selfish motives of his soul. This is the holy warfare of
the saints; it is the fight upon which every soul enters when
it awakens out of its long sleep of animal indulgence.
Men fail to conquer, and the
fight is indefinitely prolonged, because they labour, almost
universally, under two delusions: first, that all temptations
come from without; and second, that they are tempted because
of their goodness. Whilst a man is held in bondage by these
two delusions, he will make no progress; when he has shaken
them off, he will pass on rapidly from victory to victory, and
will taste of spiritual joy and rest.
Two searching truths must take
the place of these two delusions, and those truths are: first,
that all temptation comes from within; and second, that
a man is tempted because of the evil that is within him.
The idea that God, a devil, evil spirits, or outward
objects are the source of temptation must be dispelled.
The source and cause of all
temptation is in the inward desire; that being purified
or eliminated, outward objects and extraneous powers are
utterly powerless to move the soul to sin or to temptation.
The outward object is merely the occasion of the
temptation, never the cause; this is in the desire of
the one tempted. If the cause existed in the object, all men
would be tempted alike, temptation could never be overcome,
and men would be hopelessly doomed to endless torment; but
seated, as it is, in his own desires, he has the remedy in his
own hands, and can become victorious over all temptation by
purifying those desires. A man is tempted because there are
within him certain desires or states of mind which he has come
to regard as unholy. Thes desires may lie asleep for a long
time, and the man may think that he has got rid of them, when
suddenly, on the presentation of an outward object, the
sleeping desire wakes up and thirsts of immediate
gratification; and this is the state of temptation.
The good in a man is never
tempted. Goodness destroys temptation. It is the evil in a man
that is aroused and tempted. The measure of a man's
temptations is the exact register of his own unholiness. As a
man purifies his heart, temptation ceases, for when a certain
unlawful desire has been taken out of the heart, the object
which formerly appealed to it can no longer do so, but becomes
dead and powerless, for there is nothing left in the heart
that can respond to it.The honest man cannot be tempted to
steal, let the occasion be ever so opportune; the man of
purified appeties cannot be tempted to gluttony and
drunkenness, though the viands and wines be the most luscious;
he of an enlightened understanding, whose mind is calm in the
strength of inward virtue, can never be tempted to anger,
irritability or revenge, and the wiles and charms of the
wanton fall upon the purified heart as empty meaningless
shadows.
Temptation shows a man just
where he is sinful and ignorant, and is a means of urging him
on to higher altitudes of knowledge and purity. Without
temptation the soul cannot grow and become strong, there could
be no wisdom, no real virtue; and though there would be
lethargy and death, there could be no peace and no fulness of
life. When temptation is understood and conquered, perfection
is assured, and such perfection may bcome any man's who is
willing to cast every selfish and impure desire by which he is
possessed, into the sacrificial fire of knowledge. Let men,
therefore, search diligently for Truth, realising that whilst
they are subject to temptation, they have not comprehended
Truth, and have much to learn.
Ye who are tempted know, then,
that ye are tempted of yourselves. "For every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lusts," says the Apostle
James. You are tempted because you are clinging to the animal
within you and are unwilling to let go; because you are living
in the false mortal self which is ever devoid of all true
knowledge, knowing nothing, seeking nothing, but its own
immediate gratification, ignorant of every Truth, and of every
divine Principle. Clinging to that self, you continually
suffer the pains of three separate torments; the torment of
desire, the torment of repletion, and the torment of remorse.
"So flameth Trishna, lust
and thirst of things.
Eager, ye cleave to shadows, dote on dreams;
A false self in the midst ye plant, and make
A World around which seems;
Blind to the height beyond; deaf to the sound
Of sweet airs breathed from far past Indra's sky;
Dumb to the summons of the true life kept
For him who false puts by,
So grow the strifes and lusts which make earth's war,
So grieve poor cheated hearts and flow salt tears;
So wax the passions, envies, angers, hates;
So years chase blood-stained years
With wild red feet."
In that false self lies the
germ of every suffering, the blight of every hope, the
substance of every grief. When you are ready to give it up;
when you are willing to have laid bare before you all its
selfishness, impurity, and ignorance, and to confess its
darkness to the uttermost, then will you enter upon the life
of self-knowledge and self-mastery; you will become conscious
of the god within you, of that divine nature which, seeking no
gratification, abides in a region of perpetual joy and peace
where suffering cannot come and where temptation can find no
foothold. Establishing yourself, day by day, more and more
firmly in that inward Divinity, the time will at last come
when you will be able to say with Him whom millions worship,
few understand and fewer still follow, - "The Prince of this
world cometh and hath nothing in me."
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