Page:From Passion to Peace - Allen - 1910.djvu/21

Rh of the foolish, are instruments of preservation in the hands of the wise. When curbed and concentrated and beneficently directed, they represent working energy. Passion is the flaming sword which guards the gates of Paradise. It shuts out and destroys the foolish; it admits and preserves the wise.

He is the foolish man who does not know the extent of his own ignorance; who is the slave of thoughts of self; who obeys the impulses of passion. He is the wise man who knows his own ignorance; who understands the emptiness of selfish thoughts; who masters the impulses of passion.

The fool descends into deeper and deeper ignorance; the wise man ascends into higher and higher knowledge. The fool desires, and suffers, and dies. The wise man aspires, and rejoices, and lives.

With mind intent on wisdom, and mental gaze raised upward, the spiritual warrior perceives the upward way, and fixes his attention upon the heights of Peace.