FROM THE OLD COMMENTARY
"The assuaging waters cool. They slowly bring relief, abstracting form from all
that can be touched. The quivering [678] fever heat of long repressed desire yields to the
cooling draught. Water and pain negate each other. Long is the process of the cooling
draught.
"The burning fire releases all that blocks the way of life. Bliss comes and
follows after fire, as fire upon the waters. Water and fire together blend and cause the
great Illusion. Fog is the product of mist and steam and noise, veiling the Light, hiding
the Truth and shutting out the Sun.
"The fire burns fiercely. Pain and the waters disappear. Cold, heat, the light of
day, the radiance of the rising sun and perfect knowledge of the Truth appear.
"This is the path for all who seek the Light. First form, and all its longing.
Then pain. Then the assuaging waters and the appearance of a little fire. The fire grows,
and heat is then active within the tiny sphere and does its fiery work. Moisture likewise
is seen; dense fog, and to the pain is added sad bewilderment, for they who use the fire
of mind during the early stage are lost within a light illusory.
"Fierce grows the heat; next comes the loss of power to suffer. When this stage
has been outgrown, there comes the shining of the unobstructed Sun and the clear bright
light of Truth. This is the path back to the hidden center.
"Use pain. Call for the fire, O Pilgrim, in a strange and foreign land. The waters
wash away the mud and slime of nature's growth. The fires burn the hindering forms which
seek to hold the pilgrim back and so bring release. The living waters, as a river, sweep
the pilgrim to the Father's Heart. The fires destroy the veil, hiding the Father's
Face."
