ere is a royal song of triumph in my heart {410}
because the Lord is there. My days succeed each other; yesterday a
blue sky; to day a clouded sun; a night filled with strange dreams; but
as soon as the eyes open, and I regain consciousness and seem to begin
life again, it is always the same figure before me, always the same
presence filling my heart.... Formerly the day was dulled by the
absence of the Lord. I used to wake invaded by all sorts of sad
impressions, and I did not find him on my path. To-day he is with me;
and the light cloudiness which covers things is not an obstacle to my
communion with him. I feel the pressure of his hand, I feel something
else which fills me with a serene joy; shall I dare to speak it out?
Yes, for it is the true expression of what I experience. The Holy
Spirit is not merely making me a visit; it is no mere dazzling
apparition which may from one moment to another spread its wings and
leave me in my night, it is a permanent habitation. He can depart only
if he takes me with him. More than that; he is not other than myself:
he is one with me. It is not a juxtaposition, it is a penetration, a
profound modification of my nature, a new manner of my being." Quoted
from the MS. of an old man by Wilfred Monod: II Vit: six meditations
sur le mystere chretien, pp. 280-283.

This overcoming of all the usual barriers between the individual and
the Absolute is the great mystic achievement. In mystic states we both
become one with the Absolute and we become aware of our oneness. This
is the everlasting and triumphant mystical tradition, hardly altered by
differences of clime or creed. In Hinduism, in Neoplatonism, in
Sufism, in Christian mysticism, in Whitmanism, we find the same
recurring note, so that there is about mystical utterances an eternal
unanimity which ought to make a critic stop and think, and which brings
it about that the mystical classics have, as has been said, neither
birthday nor native land. Perpetually telling of the unity of man with
God, their speech antedates languages, and they do not grow old.[271]

[271] Compare M. Maeterlinck: L'Ornement des Noces spirituelles de
Ruysbroeck, Bruxelles, 1891, Introduction, p. xix.

"That art Thou!" say the Upanishads, and the Vedantists add: "Not a
part, not a mode of That, but identically That, that absolute Spirit of
the World." "As pure water poured into pure water remains the same,
thus, O Gautama, is the Self