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Man is a point of divine light, hidden within a number of enveloping sheaths, as a light is hidden within a lantern. This lantern may be either closed and dark, or open and radiant. It may be either a light shining before men's eyes, or a hidden thing and, therefore, of no use to others. We are assured in that basic text book on meditation, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, of which an English paraphrase and commentary is furnished in my book The Light of the Soul, that through right discipline and [77] meditation

"that which obscures the light is gradually removed," and that "when the spiritual intelligence... reflects itself in the mind-stuff then comes awareness of the Self."
- Bailey, Alice, The Light of the Soul, II, 52.

At one point in the history of every human being there comes a momentous crisis when the light must be sensed, through a rightly used intelligence, and the Divine inevitably contacted. This Patanjali emphasizes when he says:

"The transfer of the consciousness from a lower vehicle into a higher is part of the creative and evolutionary process."
- Bailey Alice, The Light of the Soul, IV, 2.

Slowly and gradually the work of direct knowledge becomes possible, and the glory which is hidden behind every form can stand revealed. The secret is to know when that time has come and to seize the moment of opportunity. Meister Eckhart says:

"If the soul were stripped of all her sheaths, God would be discovered all naked to her view and would give himself to her, withholding nothing. As long as the soul has not thrown off all her veils, however thin, she is unable to see God."
- Pfeiffer, Franz, Meister Eckhart, page 114.