A star fades out and by its going announces the coming of a new dawn: beholding that transition we feel the majesty of an eternal evolution. A daisy opens its heart to the Sun: mysteries are hidden in that act. We are thrilled by the first smile of a baby, and a world of wonders is revealed to us — if we have eyes to see.
There are so many of these simple things all around us — gates opening towards temples of deep wisdom. We often talk and explain too much. Thousands of events, even in our common daily lives, go far beyond the comprehending faculty of our brains. The meaning is grasped only in the silence by an intuition that makes no use of words.
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A poet prayed to the gods: "Give me strength and a brighter vision that I may sing of your virtue in my poems."
There came no inspiration. Instead, it was as if he were thrown into the depths of hell. He met trials of all kinds that seemed to tear his soul to pieces — trials that he could hardly bear. After a long while his pain stopped suddenly and, in a flash, he felt that his misery had been but a reflection of the great misery in the world, and of the sufferings of all human beings. Compassion entered his soul. In that moment a song arose in his heart, a melody of such beauty that it must have touched the gods — but it was never written down in words.
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An author on his 60th birthday said to me: "Every time this day has returned during recent years it has seemed just as if I were wandering back to my youth. There are many things I see with entirely fresh eyes. It gives me every now and then a feeling of approaching a rebirth in this life."
His words had no relation to his body, which was weak and had gone through many illnesses. Besides that he had met a tremendous number of difficulties in his life, both material and spiritual, and he was still surrounded by problems of many kinds. How could he feel younger under these circumstances?
There are men and women who, in advancing years, learn to distil an elixir from life that brings about a rejuvenation of their souls. What, then, is their secret? May it not be that they have learned to clear out the storehouse of their consciousness? Unlike so many who, between childhood and old age, fill their minds with odds and ends that they allow to moulder and grow dusty, these individuals clear out all their obsolete thoughts, prejudices and rusted opinions, thus giving opportunity to that essence of their inner being, which knows no age, to make itself manifest. It enables them to see things with the fresh eyes of a child, and through intuition to surpass all that one can reach with words alone, or even with the mind.
(From Sunrise magazine, August 1953; copyright © 1953 Theosophical University Press)