The Bowl of Saki Commentary

This is the besetting sin of life and there is no sin as great as this sin. It is the very source of all sin. And what is sin? It is lack of attention to God. If you study the commandments of Moses and the spiritual commandments of other religions, you will discover that the very central point in all these religions is the worship or love for that Being beyond all limited being. It is only in the sphere of limitation that there is error, that there is deceit, that there is heedlessness, that there is sin.

How then can one escape sin? By rising above this limitation, by ceasing to keep the mind in perpetual motion. When the body overeats, the blood is drawn to the stomach and digestive glands, and the rest of the system is kept poor. This is exploitation. But this is even more the case when the mind is overactive either in retrospection, direct thought, or imagination. Then the blood is drawn to the brain, and the rest of the system is exploited for the apparent benefit of mind. But this is not so and there is no benefit of mind, for you can build a beautiful roof on a house with a poor foundation and that is the most vain and expensive enterprise, for it is totally wasteful. Sooner or later the house will fall and that beautiful roof will only prove vanity.

Now mind is an instrument, an agent, not an actor, and if treated as a servant it can become most powerful. For this the practices of meditation and concentration are necessary, and no mind can become so powerful as that one disciplined by spiritual control.