4. THE INNER DOCTRINE OF THE PATH

	(1) It is understood now that the ineffable union which is the
end of mystic life is the integration of the self-knowing spirit of
man in the eternally Self-Knowing God, knowing and being known
therein.
	(2) This is the attainment of God, and it is the great work of
our manifest life, for those who are called thereto, but it is not
completed here.
	(3) We can attain here and now (a) union of will, (b) union of
motive; and these can become permanent. They are the state of
sanctity. There are various degrees in the sense of conscious union,
which can be attained also here by the following of the inward life;
but the records tell us that in the fulness of its highest experience
it is possible for brief periods only. So far as it is possible to
discern, the absolute union of our higher consciousness with God would
involve ceasing from manifestation.
	(4) The Diviue Union in its plenary sense is all-inclusive; it
is union with whatsoever abides in union.
	(5) We possess all things in God which have their part in God.
	(6) Raymond Lully said long ago: Dominus non pars est sed
totum; and that which is left out is nothing; it is the nothingness of
sense and illusion, of the lesser and fluidic personality.
	(7) When the consciousness is directed to the universal and
essential instead of to particulars and externals, it is in that state
which may be called the threshold of union.
	(8) The Path of Contemplation- as set forth- has its term in
this state, and it is therefore a Path of Freedom. It is wholly a work
in consciousness.
	(9) Let us remember at this point that our true self is a
mirror which contains all things: that the mirror of the universe is
for this reason within; and that if this mirror of consciousness does
not reflect God, it reflects that which tends toward illusion.
	(10) The reflection of God therein is in virtue of some
high-uplifted summit of our nature, a Mountain of the Lord on which
the Lord abides: were it otherwise, we could not conceive of the union.
It follows that the Path of Contemplation may be described as the Path
of Ascent into our higher being, and this is an ascent in love, for it
is only in the tongue of symbolism that we can speak as if spatial
distance intervened between the states.
	(11) The normal personality does not cognise this supernal
part of being, but we must not be deceived by the idea that their
separation is on account of a distance intervening in space: it is
because of the restriction on sell-knowledge in the normal state.
	(12) The essential mystical nearness will be understood if we
pay attention to the word consciousness- of which we have no ground
for supposing that there is more than one kind in the universe, though
the modes are not one mode.
	(13) The Path of Contemplation is for the opening of a gate in
consciousness, and it must be realised that it is a holy gate.
	(14) It is therefore a Path of the experience of sanctity,
beginning in purification and working for the expulsion of the evil
power from the world that is within us.
	(15) It can never be an easy Path, as I have indicated
otherwise- for not in an hour or a day does a man attain union with
God, or love encompass its object. At the same time some of its stages
are easy to some aspirants.
	(16) Let us realise that it is useless to think of God as
without: God is within. There is no part of our experience in God, man
or the universe which arises outside of consciousness.
	(17) If we say that there is something which is, as it were,
ineffable in the world above, we need not think it unattainable in
respect of ourselves: it may be an untrodden field of our
consciousness. The universe itself is that which bears witness to us
and does to us manifest. If in the sense that has been explained
already we are a mirror which reflects Nature, there is another sense
in which Nature is itself a mirror, wherein we behold ourselves.
	(18) Let us seek on the threshold of the Path to open the
first Gate by long contemplation of eternal things. Let us unfold in
particular the deep sense of God realised in the heart.
	(19) It is good at this stage to repeat inwardly: May Thy
Kingdom Come; then adding: The Kingdom of Heaven is within; and then,
with a deep assurance: Thy Kingdom has come within.
	(20) If we can formulate this, realising that there is nothing
so much that is to be desired in the whole world, the moment will
arrive when we shall know that the Kingdom indeed comes and the grace
thereof.
	(21) If we be faithful to the aspiration, the realisation will
be true to us.
	(22) It may come like a thief in the night, at a point where
we least expect it; the Gate of Glory opens and we see that God has
His Throne in the highest part of our nature.