The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE EQUINOX 6. Perhaps as a result of the intense control, a nervous storm breaks. This we call Dhyana. Its character is probably not determined by the antecedents in consciousness. Its essential characteristic being the unity of Subject and Object, a new world is revealed. Samadhi is but an expansion of this, so far as I can see. The slaying of any of these thoughts often leaves their echoes gradually dying away. Now that we have come to the end of this long chapter, let us turn back on the upward slope and survey the road which winds beneath us, and lose not heart when but little of it can be seen, for the mountain’s side is steep, and the dis- tance from our last halting-place seems so short, not on account of our idleness, but because of the many twists and turnings that the road has taken since we left our last camp below, when the sun was rising and all was golden with the joy of great expectations. For, in truth, we have progressed many a weary league, and from this high spot are apt to mis- judge our journey, and belittle our labours, as we gaze down the precipitous slope which sweeps away at our feet. In the last two years and a half P. had journeyed far, further than he at this time was aware of; and yet the goal of his journey seemed still so distant that only with difficulty could he bring himself to believe that he had progressed at all. Indeed, it must have been discouraging to him to think that on the 6th of May igor he, in a meditation of thirty-two minutes had only experienced ten breaks, whilst during a meditation of similar length, on the 13th of July 1903, the number of breaks had been three times as many. But like most statistics, such a comparison is misleading: for the beginner, almost invariably, so clumsy is his will, catches 184