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Now although Buddha did teach that life was fraught with pain and misery, I am inclined to believe, when remembering the psychology of Mysticism and of Mystics, whose peer he undoubtedly was, that this viewpoint was adopted by him only to spur men forward from chaos to the attainment of a superior mode of life.  Once the viewpoint of the personal ego, the outcome of ages of evolution, has been transcended man may see the iron fetters of ignorance roll away to reveal an untrammelled vision of supreme beauty, the world is a living thing and joy for ever and ever.  Is there not for all to see the beauty of the Sun and the Moon, the pageantry of the changing seasons in the year, the sweet music of daybreak, and the spell of nights under the open sky?  What of the rain falling through the leaves of trees towering to the gates of heaven, and the dew in early morning creeping over the grass, tipping it with spear-points of silver?

Most readers will have heard of the experience of the great German Mystic, Jacob Boehme, who, after his divine beatific vision, walked into the green fields close to his village, beholding the whole of Nature ablaze with so glorious a light that even the tender blades of grass were resplendent with a divine loveliness and beauty that never had he seen before.  Great Mystic that the Buddha was--beyond perhaps any other within the knowledge of the average reader--and great his insight into the working of the human mind, it is impossible to accept on its face value his pronouncement that life and living are a curse.  Rather do I feel that this philosophic attitude was adopted by him in the hope that once again might mankind be induced to seek the inimitable wisdom which it had lost, to restore the inner equilibrium and the harmony of soul, thus fulfilling its destiny unrestricted by sense and mind.

Preventing this ecstatic enjoyment of life and all that the sacrament of life can give, there is one root cause of sorrow.  In a word, ignorance.  Because he is ignorant of what he really is in himself, ignorant of his true way in life, man is, the Buddha taught, so beset with sorrow and so sorely afflicted with distress.

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