or universal.

This power is not comparable with what Occidental Psychism knows as
"clairvoyance," or "spirit communication."

The state of consciousness is wholly unlike anything which modern
spiritualism reports in its phenomena. Far from being in any degree a
suspension of consciousness as is what is known as mediumship, this power
partakes of the quality of omniscience. It harmonizes with and blends into
all the various degrees and qualities of consciousness in the cosmos, and
becomes "at-one" with the universal heart-throb.

A Zen student priest was once discovered lying face downward on the grass
of the hill outside the temple; his limbs were rigid, and not a pulse
throbbed in his tense and immovable form. He was allowed to remain
undisturbed as long as he wished. When at length he stood up, his face wore
an expression of terrible anguish. It seemed to have grown old. His _guru_
stood beside him and gently asked: "What did you, my son?"

"O, my Master," cried out the youth, "I have heard and felt all the burdens
of the world. I know how the mother feels when she looks upon her starving
babe. I have heard the cry of the hunted things in the woods; I have felt
the horror of fear; I have borne the lashes and the stripes of the convict;
I have entered the heart of the outcast and the shame-stricken; I have been
old and unloved and I have sought refuge in self-destruction; I have lived
a thousand lives of sorrow and strife and of fear, and O, my Master, I
would that I could efface this anguish from the heart of the world."

The _guru_ looked in wonder upon the young priest and he said, "It is well,
my son. Soon thou shalt know that the burden is lifted."

Great compassion, the attribute of the Lord Buddha, was the key which
opened to this young student priest, the door of _mukti_, and although his
compassion was not less, after he had entered into that blissful
realization, yet so filled did he become with a sense of bliss and
inexpressible realization of eternal love, that all consciousness of sorrow
was soon wiped out.

This condition of effacement of all identity, as it were, with sorrow, sin,
and death, seems inseparable from the attainment of liberation, and has
been testified to by all who have recorded their emotions in reaching this
state of consciousness. In other respects, the acquisition of this
supra-consciousness varies greatly with the initiate.

In all instances, there is also an overwhelming con