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ZEN BUDDHISM
so be considerable. It is like heaving oneself out of the mud to stand on a rock to touch the sky. The "squulch" of the extraction is almost audible. Thereafter all processes proceed together, the height, duration and control of the Satori experience depending, of course, on the aspirant.
Is all this difficult? Of course; what worth the doing is not? But as the Master K. H. said to his pupil, A. P. Sinnett, "We have one word for all aspirants—TRY."'1
The rewards, as already described, are commensurate. Satori, at any level, brings serenity. Above the tension of the opposites, above the turmoil of emotion which, creating nothing, clouds the mirror of the mind; beyond, if not desire, at least the more personal desires, even the lower levels of satori give "Such a peace I did not hope to find this side of heaven”.
Satori brings certainty. Where there are no opposites there is no need to choose between them. The captain on the bridge, now more or less captain of his soul, is no longer at the orders of his servant bodies; even the intellect is now an instrument. There is an understanding that all is somehow "right", a sense of flowing with the rhythm of things. Patience comes of itself when time is seen as a convenient illusion in which all things moving on the Wheel of birth, growth, decay and death, are alike illusion, and tolerance comes with an understanding of the innumerable paths by which men climb (albeit bumping into each other on the way) to the mountain top. And as every "thing” is right and my own action (so long as "I" do not interfere with it) is also right, my part in the general rightness of things is a vision of actuality and not a mere sentimental dream. This
1 Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (second edition), p. 247.
