The Equinox (Volume I, Number II)

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH experiment) and without thinking of anything whatever, killing the thoughts as they rise with a single smack, like a child killing flies. The difficulty is of course to kill them without thinking of the killing, which thought is naturally just as bad as any other thought. I never got any good out of this method myself. It may, I believe, happen with fair frequency that in the course of any advanced meditation or invocation this particular type of spiritual experience may suddenly arise without apparent cause. Anyway, let us hope so! As a matter of practical politics, I think that a judicious mixture of the methods of East and West is likely to give the best results. Let the young Adept, for example, master thoroughly the groundwork of the Hindu system. Let him master Asana, posture, so that he can sit motionless for hours without any message from his body reaching and so disturbing his brain. Let him include in his accomplish- ments Pranayama, control of the breath and of the vital nervous currents which react in sympathy with it. Let him then exalt to the utmost his soul by the appro- priate ritual of ceremonial magic; and when by this means he has most thoroughly identified himself with the Supreme, let him, as that Supreme One, continue to meditate with intense force upon Himself, until his sphere is entirely filled with the single Thought. Lastly, if this, the male energy, suffice not, let him trans- form it into a pure and perfect emptiness and passivity, as of one waiting for the Beloved One, with intense longing rendered passionless by the certainty that He will come. 83