A Subject for Contemplation

To obtain magical power, one must strengthen the will. Let there be no confusion between will and desire. You cannot will too strongly, so do not attempt to will two things at once, and while willing one thing do not desire others.

Example:

You may at times have passed a person in the street, and as soon as passed may have felt some attraction, and the will to see him again; turning round (you) may have found that he also turned to you.

The will, although untrained, may have alone done this. But if you, untrained, walk out again, and decide to make the experiment of Willing that he who passes you shall turn round, and try it, you will fail. Because the desire of gratifying your curiosity has weakened the force of your will.

Before even strength of will, you will must have purity of body, mind, intellect and of emotion if you hope for magical power.

The spiritual powers will flourish only as you starve the animal soul, and the animal soul is largely dependent on the state and treatment of the animal body. The animal man is to be cared for and protected, kept in health and strength, but not petted.

Be moderate in all things human. Extreme ascetic habits, are to you here, a source of another danger, they may lead only to a contemplation of your own Heroism, in being abstinent. To be truly ascetic is indeed to submit to discipline and to curb unruly emotions, thoughts and actions. But, who is a slave to his animal soul, will practice vice in a Forest; while he who restrains himself among the crowds of a city, and passes through a busy life unpolluted, shows more resistance and suffers severer discipline, and shall obtain greater reward.

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