What is Ecstasy

And what is Ecstasy? It has been well described by one known to us as Frater Perdurabo, and I shall quote his own words:

"There is a land of pure delight, Where saints immortal reign." "So used some of us to sing in childhood, and we used to think of that land as far away, farther even than death that in those days seemed so far.

"But I know this now: that land is not so far as my flesh is from my bones! it is Here and Now.

"If there is one cloud in this tranquil azure, it is this thought: that conscious beings exist who are not thus infinitely happy, masters of ecstasy.

"What is the path to this immortal land? To the Oriental, medita- tion offers the best path. To the Western, there is no road better than ceremonial. For ecstasy is caused by the sudden combination of two ideas, just as oxygen and hydrogen unite explosively.

"But this religious ecstasy takes place in the highest centres of the human organism; it is the soul itself that is united to its God; and for this reason the rapture is more overpowering, the joy more lasting, and the resultant energy more pure and splendid than in aught earthly.

"In ritual therefore, we seek continually to unite the mind to some pure idea by an act of will. This we do again and again, more and more passionately, with more and more determination, until at last the mind accepts the domination of the will, and rushes of its own accord toward the desired object. This surrender of the mind to its Lord gives the holy ecstasy we seek."

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