NooSchool Blog – Charles Winborne

A touch of this freedom from the limitations of pain and sorrow can be found among the more advanced sons of men on Earth, who know the ecstasy of the mystic, the exaltation of the initiate, and the exquisite agony of sacrifice or of any feeling which is carried forward to the point of sublimation.

When this point has been reached, the mechanism of suffering and the ability to register sensuous perception is transcended, and momentarily the man escapes on to the plane of unity. Here there is no pain, no sorrow, no rebellion and no suffering. When the living, vibrating antahkarana or bridge is built, this “way of escape” becomes the normal path of life. Escape from pain is then automatic, for the center of consciousness is elsewhere.

In the cases mentioned above, and where the antahkarana is not a consummated, established fact, the tiny thread of the partially constructed “way of escape”, under tremendous pressure and excitation, shoots forward like a quivering band of light, and momentarily touches the light that is the Self. Hence ecstasy and exaltation. But it does not last, and cannot be consciously recovered until the third initiation has been taken. After that the “way of escape” becomes the “way of daily livingness” (to translate inadequately the occult and ancient phrase). Then pain is steadily transcended, and the pairs of opposites – pleasure and pain – have no longer any hold over the disciple.

All this constitutes the theme of esoteric psychology and, when rightly understood, will explain

• The Saturnian influence in human life.
• The cessation of rebellion, of the ending of the Martian influence.
• The building of the antahkarana, which releases the man from the control of personality life.
• The evocation of the group consciousness.
• The consequent negation of pain and sorrow.
• Entrance into Nirvana, and the beginning of the real Way.