ives in the body, even though it be for the very
reason that its own nature is spiritual. For the spirit manifests in
material things, and the ego is enjoying nothing less than spirit when it
surrenders itself to that element in the sense-world which is irradiated
by the light of the spirit. Moreover, it will continue to enjoy this light
even when the senses are no longer the medium through which the spiritual
rays pass. But there is no fulfillment possible in the spiritual world for
desires in which the spirit is not living even in the world of the senses.

When death takes place, the possibility of gratifying desires of this
description is cut off. Pleasure in good things to eat can be induced only
by the presence of the physical organs required for their consumption,--the
palate, tongue, and so forth; but when man has laid aside his physical
body he no longer possesses these organs. If, however, the ego still
craves that kind of pleasure the craving must remain unsatisfied. As long
as this pleasure corresponds to the spiritual need, it is caused only by
the presence of the physical organs; but should it happen that the ego has
created the desire without serving the spirit in so doing, it retains it
after death in the form of a craving which thirsts in vain for
gratification. We can form an idea of what man then experiences only by
imagining some one suffering from burning thirst in a region where, far
and wide, there is no water to be found. This is the predicament of the
ego after death, as long as it retains ungratified desires for the
pleasures of the outer world, and has no organs by means of which to
satisfy them. Of course the burning thirst, serving as a comparison for
the condition of the ego after death, must be thought of as enormously
increased, and it must be imagined as extending to all desires still
existing, for which all possibility of gratification is lacking.

The next condition of the ego consists in freeing itself from this bond of
attraction to the outer world. With regard to this world, it has to attain
purification and liberation. It must be cleansed of all wishes which it
has created while in the body, and which have no native rights in the
spiritual world. As an object is caught and burned up by fire, so is the
world of desire, described above, broken up and destroyed after death. A
vista is then opened into that world which occult science calls the
"consuming fire" of the spirit. This fire se