Contemplation alone stands untouched by magic; no man self-gathered falls to a spell; for he is one, and that unity is all he perceives, so that his reason is not beguiled but holds the due course, fashioning its own career and accomplishing its task. In the other way of life, it is not the essential man that gives the impulse; it is not the reason; the unreasoning also acts as a principle, and this is the first condition of the misfortune. Caring for children, planning marriage- everything that works as bait, taking value by dint of desire- these all tug obviously: so it is with our action, sometimes stirred, not reasonably, by a certain spirited temperament, sometimes as foolishly by greed; political interests, the siege of office, all betray a forth-summoning lust of power; action for security springs from fear; action for gain, from desire; action undertaken for the sake of sheer necessities- that is, for supplying the insufficiency of nature- indicates, manifestly, the cajoling force of nature to the safeguarding of life. We may be told that no such magic underlies good action, since, at that, Contemplation itself, certainly a good action, implies a magic attraction. The answer is that there is no magic when actions recognized as good are performed upon sheer necessity with the recollection that the veritable good is elsewhere; this is simply knowledge of need; it is not a bewitchment binding the life to this sphere or to any thing alien; all is permissible under duress of human nature, and in the spirit of adaptation to the needs of existence in general- or even to the needs of the individual existence, since it certainly seems reasonable to fit oneself into life rather than to withdraw from it. When, on the contrary, the agent falls in love with what is good in those actions, and, cheated by the mere track and trace of the Authentic Good makes them his own, then, in his pursuit of a lower good, he is the victim of magic. For all dalliance with what wears the mask of the authentic, all attraction towards that mere semblance, tells of a mind misled by the spell of forces pulling towards unreality. The sorcery of Nature is at work in this; to pursue the non-good as a good, drawn in unreasoning impulse by its specious appearance: it is to be led unknowing down paths unchosen; and what can we call that but magic. Alone in immunity from magic is he who, though drawn by the alien parts of his total being, withholds his assent to their standards of worth, recognizing the good only where his authentic self sees and knows it, neither drawn nor pursuing, but tranquilly possessing and so never charmed away.

Fixating contemplation is indispensable, it ensures the strengthening of illumination. Only one must not stay sitting rigidly if worldly thoughts...

For an there be a man or a woman in any company of this world, what company soever it be, religious or seculars—I out‑take none—the which man or woman...

For why? Memory or thinking of any creature that ever God made, or of any of their deeds either, it is a manner of ghostly light: for the eye of thy s...

It is one of the most promising doctrines of certain schools of occult philosophy that the power of expelling thoughts, or if need be, killing them...

If thou canst God conceive, thou shalt conceive the Beautiful and Good, transcending Light, made lighter than the Light by God. That Beauty is beyond...

When the perceiving consciousness in this meditative is wholly given to illuminating the essential meaning of the object contemplated, and is freed...

The gradual conquest of the mind’s tendency to flit from one object to another, and the power of one-pointedness, make the development of...

The man whose mind is not under his control has no Self-knowledge and no contemplation either. Without contemplation he can have no peace; and...

Or meditative brooding on what is dearest to the heart.

It is, then, possible to frame in one's mind good contemplations from everything, and to depict, from things material, the aforesaid dissimilar...

After the exercise of the will has stilled the psychic activities, meditation rests only on the fruit of former meditations.

Therefore if a man is inconsiderate, even if he possesses much learning, people say of him, he is nothing, whatever he may know; for, if he were learn...

The Master hinted at this secretly when he said: At the beginning of the work one must sit in a quiet room, the body like dry wood, the heart like...

The powers, then, of which we have spoken hold out beautiful sights, and honours, and adulteries, and pleasures, and such like alluring phantasies bef...

The lower part of active life standeth in good and honest bodily works of mercy and of charity. The higher part of active life and the lower part of...

Even though thou dost not experience pleasure, or pain, but only indifference, keep thine intellect in the undistracted state of the [meditation upon...

All holy men have bequeathed this to one another: nothing is possible without contemplation (fan ckao, reflection). When Confucius says: Knowing...

And thus the Attracting fills the Will with the Things which the Will desires; and although it be pure, and desires nothing but the Light, yet there i...

The meaning of this section (18) is to call attention to the wrong paths of meditation so that one can enter the place of power instead of the cave...