The need of a book of this character was constantly brought home to me by the flood of letters received from readers of my other books, who wished for further explanations of points raised therein, or who met with difficulties to practice meditation and sought to have their problems solved.

The Secret Path was admittedly a literary bow drawn at a venture, as I announced in its Preface, but the arrow hit the mark, and its success might have caused any other writer to expand on such a theme. I again hesitated to write, however, for I not only feared, but definitely knew this time, that a further work would set me up still more firmly in the popular mind as a spiritual teacher, a label which would probably stick to me for ever, and which I disliked to wear so much that a chill would creep over me at the thought.

I wished to emphasize what I had already stated elsewhere—that I did not seek to teach people, but rather to show them how to direct their thinking inwards, and so doing, to build up an inner life which would enable them to live in constant communication with the spiritual realm whilst pursuing their normal activity in the market-places and on the busy thoroughfares of the external world. I did not desire disciples, because I wished rather to lead men to the discovery of the Teacher and Guide within themselves (italics ours), the all-powerful Overself, and so make them the disciples, not of any person or object outside, but of the True Supernal Spirit which resides in their own hearts.

“If ye tread the Secret Path, ye shall find the shortest way,” says the Hymn of Yogic Precepts, contained in the Jetsun Kahbum, or Biographical History of Milarepa, the most famed of medieval Tibetan yogis.

And from an untranslated Tamil volume, The Tamil Sacred Scriptures, written by Tirumoolar, a seer who flourished many hundred years ago. It runs: “Those who study this Secret Path realize that the individual soul is the Divine Self and nothing else.”

When peace of mind and concentration of thought have been gained, then only will one be fit and ready to embark on the quest of Ultimate Truth. We are still in the process of unveiling a subtle and startling wisdom which not one person in a million has yet grasped, and a codified scientific teaching whose irrefragable certitudes have yet to be developed for all time.

Archaeologists excavating in Egypt have discovered a leaf of a papyrus book—that of Oxyrhynchus—containing eight sayings of Jesus. The discoverers assigned the probable date of their papyrus as about A. D. 200. Among these sayings there exists a sentence of striking force, whose remarkable similarity to the constantly repeated message of the philosophers of antiquity is noteworthy.

Jesus said: “And the Kingdom of Heaven is within you; and whomsoever shall know himself shall find it.”

Sir James Jeans in his Presidential Address before an annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science said: “Science has given man control over Nature before he has gained control over himself. Thus, in respect of knowledge, each generation stands on the shoulders of its predecessors; but in respect of himself, both stand on the same ground. These are hard facts which we cannot alter. If there is an avenue of escape, it does not lie in the direction of less science, but of more science.—Psychology holds out a hope that for the first time in his long history man may be enabled to obey the command, Know Thyself!”

That method is the Path of Introspective Self-Enquiry. It allies the rationality of analysis with the power of meditation. It peels off the constituents of human personality, like the outer skins of an onion, until its true lineament is revealed. It is an ever-open path which leads to the centre of man, and therefore anyone may travel it. The writer has himself practised it and learnt its basis in the mystic East, where he now opens these lines.

So long as one wrongly identifies himself with the physical body, so long as he even still wrongly identifies himself with the mentality and the ego-memories, so long will he necessarily exist as a creature of time, a captive of past memories, present happenings and future hopes and fears. So soon as, by right introspection and accurate analysis the truth about time is perceived and held, with attention confined to time’s source in oneself, so soon shall one enter and remain in the realization that the unknown content of one’s inmost self transcends time, is eternal and care-free. Its parentage lies with the angels, for it is divine. That self can never be affected by whatever belongs to time, even though the ego may continue to function within it.

That is the self we have sought in these pages and to which the writer has made repeated references in his previous books as the Overself; the word does not yet occur in any dictionary of the English language, and was indeed coined by him to express something that borders upon the inexpressible—the Real Man.

Educated Western man will be unable to cross the frontier of time—leaving the realm of mortal darkness for that of mental light—unless he is prepared to understand ideas and take up practices such as those which are being revealed to him here, and for lack of which most conventional thinking remains ineffectual to conduct the thinker into the hidden truth.

It has been shown how the mind’s incessant movement creates the time-sense and retards one’s entry into the timeless Absolute.

Then, by overcoming this motion one should be able to overcome the tyranny of time.

The reverse of movement is stillness. The reverse of time is eternity.

One must seek therefore to cultivate the state of stillness, mental no less than physical, if one would conquer time. Consciousness as mentalized movement—time; consciousness abiding in itself in a repose as deep as that of a deep sea free from waves—eternity.

If one were to stop the wheeling revolutions of intellect and reduce all thoughts to the primal one, the “I”-thought, and then melt this into mental stillness, one would be immediately liberated from temporal captivity. An aroma of immortality would then cling around one’s whole being.

If one were to turn the intellect’s search and observation inwards upon itself and trace it to its own point of origin, the ego-thought, one would lapse into the resultant stillness and thus achieve this object.

We have found the clue. Out of the stillness whence thought arises, there emerges the first mental notion—“I.” We must follow up this clue as a dog follows its far-off master by his scent and unfailingly discovers him. We must now summon all our attention and concentrate upon this ego-sense, this notion of “I,” resolutely rejecting the overtures of all other thoughts and of all memories whatever. If we could do this aright, the trial should eventually lead us back to the stillness and there we should discover the elusive mysterious Overself.

The very effort to subdue the thoughts implies that there is someone who subdues them, and hence that one is not the intellect itself. The “I” is thus clearly placed at a level deeper than thinking. . . .

Out of the great stillness and blankness at the back of the mind, that thought “I” is the first arising of the personal ego within consciousness. Out of it has sprung the whole accumulation of other thoughts, which have created the notion of a personal being existing independently by itself. The entire personality has sprung up around this single thought-root. Uprooting this primal thought, nothing but Impersonal Life will be left.

If one persists and applies oneself to frequent meditation on this topic, the effort will turn logic to its loftiest creative use and one will ultimately track this thought to its origin, self to its lair, and consciousness to its primal partless state.

At the end of this mental analysis, therefore, the mind must be stilled, so far as possible, and a devotional semi-prayerful mood must be superimposed. That stillness out of which the “I” has sprung should become the object of this devotion. The “I” itself is pinned down and rendered inert. All one’s attention should be focussed upon the mysterious blankness behind it.

God dwells forever in the changeless, ever-calm Eternal.

Hence the mastery of oneself through stillness will lead him into the realm of eternity with God; one shall then partake of His eternal time-proof life.

Next, we may glance into the New Testament, where the tenth book of “Revelation” reaches its higher flights, when the mighty Angel who came down from heaven declares therein:

“There should be time no longer.”

What can be the state implied in that phrase but that of awareness of everlasting being?

“Now is the day of salvation,” urged the messenger Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians. He knew that one need not wait till death for eternal existence.

We may read also the words of Jesus himself.

He announced to the Jews who proudly boasted that they were the descendants of the Patriarch Abraham: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Then said the Jews unto him: Thou art not fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?

Jesus said unto them: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS, I AM.” He did not say “I was,” but “I AM.” “I was,” relates to time, but “I AM,” represents unchanging reality.

Deep meditation upon Jesus’ meaning is essential. The method, therefore, would be to consider deeply that meaning, to try to grasp how and what part of Jesus could be before Abraham was, and to trace out the nature and origin of what constitutes selfhood; analyse the totality of components which one generally considers to be one’s own individual being; examine, one by one, each separate phase of the body, the emotions and the thoughts respectively; and through all these search for that which can truly be said to be the self, the eternal self of which Jesus spoke.

The brain is but the seat of reflected consciousness, a reflection which has been derived from the true centre—the Heart. Intellectual light is but borrowed light, like that of the moon. Intellectual consciousness is secondary. Heart consciousness is primary, and is the sun which imparts its own light to the moon of intellect.

Just as, in the final philosophical analysis, the reality of the material world is only one’s mental perception of it, so is the reality of the intellect no other than its secret source, its ultimate backing, in the Heart. The Infinite Being—source of all undying life and intelligence—specializes its entry into man through the heart, not the head.

The true object of all genuine spiritual practices is to persuade the personal mind to turn inwards away from the material universe, and through such abstraction in meditation or prayer slowly to retrace its steps upon the path of descent to the Heart. Then, and then only, when the mind has ceased its usurpation and withdrawn into its rightful place, and become dutifully resigned and obedient to the dulcess Overself, will it enable man to become clearly conscious of what he really is. This is the spiritual goal set before him by life, by God—and no other really exists!

Anyone who pursues these practices for a sufficient length of time will not be able to escape from the interference of a strange calm monitor, an inner voice, which will arise inside him in moments when the lack of self-control rises highest. When he is in the grip of undesirable emotions, such as anger, hatred, jealousy and fear, this silent voice will come up out of the inner depths and rebuke him for his feelings. He will never be able to destroy its existence. Again and again, whenever he fails to exhibit proper self-control in his emotional life, it will manifest and endeavour to call him to regain his balance; for indeed it is an inevitable result of these practices that they should bring a man face to face with himself and always at appropriate moments.

The true selfhood is never dismayed by the most awful circumstances. It confers authority over existence as soon as one changes his thinking from the purely personal standpoint and apprehends a higher view. Every man may see in the mirror the face of him who may be his best friend or worst enemy. For every man owns the title deed of his mind and is alone responsible for the thoughts he generates. An affirmative state of mind can be acquired by habit, just as most people have acquired their negative states by foolish habit also.

The divine intelligence within man can deal with all his problems, for it is wiser than he. When despair taps relentlessly at the doors of a man’s heart, the time has arrived to hand over his affairs to the Overself. He may do this by redirecting his mind as quickly as possible inwards, and by keeping on with this redirection in the face of all opposition until he reaches the central core of quietness, where mysterious help awaits him. He should become so absorbed in that quietness that the painful problem which was his starting-point should be forgotten for a few moments or minutes, or even longer. Such forgetfulness always supervenes when the personal ego is captured and gripped by the Overself. Even two seconds of it will suffice to bring remarkable results.

The man who follows this Quest is like the ray which is returning to its source. When he follows the “I AM” in him to its hidden root, when the intellectual process of his enquiry gradually develops into a subtle inner movement, he will sooner or later enter—intermittently at first—a condition of impersonal freedom and utter peace. When the mind’s depth is plumbed he will arrive at a point where both the thinking intellect and personal self seem almost to become re-absorbed by the hidden element which created them. That element is none other than the Absolute Being, the One Overself, the Supreme Reality and Underlying Spirit, which subsists eternally amid the births and deaths of mortal men and material worlds. This august revelation awaits him even at the beginning of his first fumbling steps on the quest.

Would-be occultists forget or do not know that the supreme power which supports all occult powers is the Overself’s own power. All lesser forces take their rise therein. It is safer and saner to go direct to the source than to court the acquisition of fugitive faculties and dangerous gifts. Man easily loses his way in the tinsel empire of occultism, and has to retrace his route with some suffering. Nor are these supernormal powers less costly to gain than the higher fruits of Overself-finding.

Initiation into the Overself is often confused with psycho-sensational experiences. Such initiation is an inward and ineffable experience which no verbal claptrap, no ceremonial theatricals and no occult miracle-mongering can confer. It is enormous and extraordinary, sacred and beautiful, and no gold can ever buy it. It alone ordains men to become true apostles and priests.

When studies of the psychic and occult are thus decried, this is not to say that they are without worth. They help to satisfy scientific curiosity and popular wonderment; they may even break the back of crude materialism. But they only deserve investigation by trained researchers; they certainly do not deserve our lives.

Jesus told the plain truth when he said that all these things would be added unto us if we seek the kingdom of heaven first. Whoever discovers the divine kingdom discovers also that extraordinary miracles begin to happen, and that unexpected wonders mark themselves upon the calendar of his life. But in that case they come unsought, entirely of their own accord, direct from the Overself’s mysterious and silent activity. He has not striven for them and thus they come rightly, easily, without harm to himself or to others. Just as a fine flower is not conscious of the beauty it reveals or the fragrance it emanates, so a truly spiritual man is seldom personally conscious of the magic he works, any more than of the good he does or help he gives.