There is no spirituality devoid of ascetic elements: even simple mental concentration implies sacrifice. When the concentration is continuous, it is the narrow path: the soul itself, this living substance full of images and desires, is sacrificed.

The negation of pleasure, of the world, of manifestation is equivalent to an implicit affirmation of the Principle, which in relation to the world is “void” (shûnya in Sanskrit).

 

Suffering transposes the problem to the plane of what is most intimately human; it is for man like a fissure in his existential illusion.

 

There is no spirituality that is not founded, in one of its constituent elements, on the negation of this dream; there is no spirituality devoid of ascetic elements: even simple mental concentration implies sacrifice.

 

When the concentration is continuous, it is the narrow path, the dark night: the soul itself, this living substance full of images and desires, is sacrificed.

 

Distress affirms the Principle by denying manifestation; but noble enjoyment affirms the Principle by direct analogy and becomes in this way a possible channel for intellection. The question of opportuneness arises only on the level of individual applications.

 

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Frithjof Schuon

Done