THE EQUINOX
from your Will as being what they are. They will no longer
appear pleasant and attractive, but as bonds, as shames.
And when you have attained this point, know that you have
passed the Middle Gate of this Path. For you will have uni-
fied your Will.
Even thus, were a man sitting in a theatre where the play
wearies him, he would welcome every distraction, and find
amusement in any accident: but if he were intent upon the
play, every such incident would annoy him. His attitude
to these is then an indication of his attitude towards the play
itself.
At first the habit of attention is hard to acquire. Perse-
vere, and you will have spasms of revulsion periodically.
Reason itself will attack you, saying: how can so strict a
bondage be the Path of Freedom?
Persevere. You have never yet known Liberty. When
the temptations are overcome, the voice of Reason silenced,
then will your soul bound forward unhampered upon its
chosen course, and for the first time will you experience the
extreme delight of being Master of Yourself, and therefore
of the Universe.
When this is fully attained, when you sit securely in the
saddle, then you may enjoy also all those distractions which
first pleased you and then angered you. Now they will do
neither any more: for they are your slaves and toys.
Until you have reached this point, you are not wholly free.
You must kill out desire, and kill out fear. The end of all is
the power to live according to your own nature, without
danger that one part may develop to the detriment of the
whole, or concern lest that danger should arise.
The sot drinks, and is drunken: the coward drinks not, and
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