Page:The Pathway of Roses, Larson (1913) image of page 355.jpg

Rh of man. When we partake of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we fall from the cosmic world, and we have to leave paradise. We cannot live in the garden of bliss, in the joys of cosmic consciousness, so long as we know evil as well as good; but when we become unconscious of evil, with the eye single upon His supreme goodness alone, then the gates of paradise shall open for us once more. Then we shall forget everything but that which is good and beautiful and true; we shall enter the new heaven and the new earth, the new heaven in the within, and the new earth in the without, and while still in personal form we shall live in the cosmic world.

To rise daily into a higher and better understanding of the reality of the cosmic state of existence is to become conscious, more and more, of the real sweetness of existence. Life becomes so rich and so beautiful that to live is in itself absolutely sufficient. In the cosmic state every moment seems to be an eternity of bliss, and every movement of consciousness produces a million pleasures. In comparison, the joys of sense have no significance whatever. Therefore, when the mere living of life gives all the joy that heart and soul may desire, it is evidence conclusive that the cosmic state has been reached; and the joys that are to follow, the soul on the heights alone can know.

The cosmic world is that highly refined, spiritualized world all about us, permeating