In like manner, as it behoves thee to maintain the said relation continually, so it is of the first importance to develop the quality thereof by detaching thyself from mundane relations and by emancipating thyself from attention to contingent forms; and this is possible only through hard striving and earnest endeavour to expel vain thoughts and imaginations from thy mind; the more these thoughts are cast out and these suggestions checked, the stronger and closer this relation becomes. It is, then, necessary to use every endeavour to force these thoughts to encamp outside the enclosure of thy breast, and that the “Truth” most glorious may cast His beams into thy heart, and deliver thee from thyself, and save thee from the trouble of entertaining His rivals in thy heart. Then there will abide with thee neither consciousness of thyself, nor even consciousness of such absence of consciousness* —nay, there will abide nothing save the one God alone.

From my brute nature,* Lord, deliver me,
And from this life of evil set me free;
Purge me of my own sense and ignorance,
And make me lose my very self in Thee.

When poor indeed and dead to self thou'lt need
No visions, knowledge, certitude, or creed;
When self has perished naught but God remains,
For “Perfect poverty is God indeed”.*