The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE itself; and this is will’s one fatal flaw. It will however be un- derstood that aspiration constantly changes and develops with progress. The beginner can only see a certain distance. Just so with our first telescopes we discovered many new stars, and with each improvement in the instrument we have discovered more. The second and more obvious meaning in the verse preaches the practice of Yama, Niyama, before serious practice is started, and this in actual life means, map out your career as well as you can. Decide to do so many hours’ work a day in such conditions as may be possible. It does not mean that you should set up neuroses and hysteria by suppressing your natural instincts, which are perfectly right on their own plane, and only wrong when they invade other planes, and set up alien tyrannies. 61. Kill thy desires, Lanoo, make thy vices impotent, ere the first step is taken on the solemn journey. By “desires” and “vices” are meant those things which you yourself think to be inimical to the work; for each man they will be quite different, and any attempt to lay down a general rule leads to worse than confusion. 62. Strangle thy sins and make them dumb for ever, be- fore thou dost lift one foot to mount the ladder. This is merely a repetition of verse 61 in different lan- guage. But remember: “The word of Sin is Restriction.” “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” 63. Silence thy thoughts and fix thy whole attention on thy Master, whom yet thou dost not see, but whom thou feelest. 31