the necessity that new powers entail new responsibilities, and that the
capacity of increased pleasure entails the capacity of increased
sensibility to pain. To this, the only answer that can be given is
two-fold: (1st) the consciousness of Power is itself the most exquisite
of pleasures, and is unceasingly gratified in the progress onwards with
new means for its exercise and (2ndly) as has been already said--THIS is
the only road by which there is the faintest scientific likelihood that
"Death" can be avoided, perpetual memory secured, infinite wisdom
attained, and hence an immense helping of mankind made possible, once
that the adept has safely crossed the turning-point. Physical as well
as metaphysical logic requires and endorses the fact that only by
gradual absorption into infinity can the Part become acquainted with the
Whole, and that that which is now something can only feel, know, and
enjoy EVERYTHING when lost in Absolute Totality in the vortex of that
Unalterable Circle wherein our Knowledge becomes Ignorance, and the
Everything itself is identified with the NOTHING.




Is the Desire to "Live" Selfish?


The passage "to live, to live, to live must be the unswerving resolve,"
occurring in the article on the Elixir of Life, is often quoted by
superficial and unsympathetic readers as an argument that the teachings
of occultism are the most concentrated form of selfishness. In order to
determine whether the critics are right or wrong, the meaning of the
word "selfishness" must first be ascertained.