IMPURITY III
A third cause of impurity has its source in the understanding itself and consists
in an improper action of the will
to know. That will is proper to the understanding, but here again choice and unequal reaching after knowledge clog
and distort. They lead to a partiality and attachment which makes the intellect cling to certain ideas and opinions
with a more or less obstinate will to ignore the truth in other ideas and opinions, cling to certain fragments
of a truth and shy against the admission of other parts which are yet necessary to its fullness, cling to certain
predilections of knowledge and repel all knowledge that does not agree with the personal temperament of thought
which has been acquired by the past of the thinker. The remedy lies in a perfect equality of the mind, in the cultivation
of an entire intellectual rectitude and in the perfection of mental disinterestedness. The purified understanding
as it will not lend itself to any desire or craving, so will not lend itself either to any predilection or distaste
for any particular idea or truth, and will refuse to be attached even to those ideas of which it is the most certain
or to lay on them such an undue stress as is likely to disturb the balance of truth and depreciate the values of
other elements of a complete and perfect knowledge.
A finer consciousness with happier lines,
It has a tact our touch cannot attain,
A purity of sense we never feel;
Its intercession with the eternal Ray
Inspires our transient earth’s brief-lived attempts
At beauty and the perfect shape of things.