the object we have in view.

Next comes meat-eating, and for the very same reason, in a minor degree.
It increases the rapidity of life, the energy of action, the violence of
passions. It may be good for a hero who has to fight and die, but not
for a would-be sage who has to exist and....

Next in order come the sexual desires; for these, in addition to the
great diversion of energy (vital force) into other channels, in many
different ways, beyond the primary one (as, for instance, the waste of
energy in expectation, jealousy, &c.), are direct attractions to a
certain gross quality of the original matter of the Universe, simply
because the most pleasurable physical sensations are only possible at
that stage of density. Alongside with and extending beyond all these
and other gratifications of the senses (which include not only those
things usually known as "vicious," but all those which, though
ordinarily regarded as "innocent," have yet the disqualification of
ministering to the pleasures of the body--the most harmless to others
and the least "gross" being the criterion for those to be last abandoned
in each case)--must be carried on the moral purification.

Nor must it be imagined that "austerities" as commonly understood can,
in the majority of cases, avail much to hasten the "etherealizing"
process. That is the rock on which many of the Eastern esoteric sects
have foundered, and the reason why they have degenerated into degrading
superstitions. The Western monks and the Eastern Yogees, who think they
will reach the apex of powers by concentrating their thought on their
navel, or by standing on one leg, are practicing exercises which serve
no other purpose than to strengthen the willpower, which is sometimes
applied to the basest purposes. These are examples of this one-sided