fully the purpose of life, to realize completely the relationship of
human beings to each other, is to put an end to all suffering, to
escape every ill and evil that afflicts us. Perfect wisdom is
unshadowed joy.

Why do we suffer in life? Because in the scheme of nature we are being
forced forward in evolution and we lack the spiritual illumination
that alone can light the way and enable us to move safely among the
obstacles that lie before us. Usually we do not even see or suspect
the presence of trouble until it suddenly leaps upon us like a
concealed tiger. One day our family circle is complete and happy. A
week later death has come and gone and joy is replaced with agony.
Today we have a friend. Tomorrow he will be an enemy and we do not
know why. A little while ago we had wealth and all material luxuries.
There was a sudden change and now we have only poverty and misery and
yet we seek in vain for a reason why this should be. There was a time
when we had health and strength; but they have both departed and no
trace of a reason appears. Aside from these greater tragedies of life
innumerable things of lesser consequence continually bring to us
little miseries and minor heartaches. We most earnestly desire to
avoid them but we never see them until they strike us, until in the
darkness of our ignorance we blunder upon them. The thing we lack is
the spiritual illumination that will enable us to look far and wide,
finding the hidden causes of human suffering and revealing the method
by which they may be avoided; and if we can but reach illumination the
evolutionary journey can be made both comfortably and swiftly. It is
as though we must pass through a long, dark room filled with furniture
promiscuously scattered about. In the darkness our progress would be
slow and painful and our bruises many. But if we could press a button
that would turn on the electric light we could then make the same