42b | CR Book XII, Chapter 3

out of the habit of sheltering behind objects, a habit
which indefinitely postpones its decay. One leaves
the self no choice but to face the anxiety which lies
on the road to its final extinction. One systematically
deprives it of all external support, of all 'human con-
solations', of all escapes. Occasionally one may imagine
that one is quite alone be oneself in the world, with
nothing to hold on to, with a margin of abyss and dread
at one's side, thereby calling out the hidden horror
we feel at being there. For whole periods one methodi-
cally increases anxiety by increasing the stimuli that
create it, and reducing its reliefs. Forced to stand
by itself, the self collapses from its own inanity.
Neither heaven nor earth are my shelter. I am glad
to know that all things are void, - myself and the
world. Respect to the sword, 3 feet long, wielded by the
Yüan swordsman. It cuts through the spring breeze
like a lightning flash.'

In the next (5th) stage, the disciple understands that
all conditioned things deserve nothing but disgust.
Only a mind purified by the experience of completed
anxiety can feel towards this world disgust universal,
and yet discriminating. It becomes universal in that
it rejects not only that which displeases, anyway, but
also, and particularly so, that which tends to attract,
because it fails to fulfill the chief purpose we in-
tend it for, - to relieve and destroy the original
anxiety of a cut-off being. One also learns to dis-
criminate exactly what is to be rejected, - everything
that is conditioned by self-deception by the very
fact that it is so conditioned. Unintelligent dis-
gust would just go on wishing that the evils of this
world should go, while the remainder stays. Rejecting,
however, this entire world, the disciple then (6th) des-
ires to be released from all that is conditioned. But
how? He now realises that he is in bondage to nothing
but his own perverted views. The overcoming of these
views is therefore the only instrument that can bring
about his release. In the next stage, he therefore
'reviews', in a kind of 'analysis', everything as imperm-
anent, suffering, unsavoury, not-self and empty, and he
persists in doing so until all inner and outer data
have become so weak that they no longer even present
themselves as permanent, ease-giving, attractive and
owned. In that way, he learns to view everything with
equal detachment, putting away both fear and delight.
deliverance and 'emergence' have then been attained.

It is clear that to 'agitate' oneself by contemplat-