I have returned from the tropics to the northern hemisphere not merely for another visit but, at the bidding of health, for a permanent settlement. This is of no importance to anyone except myself. What is important, however, is that I have returned from the East not merely physically but also spiritually. It may be that the striking coincidence of the two necessities was predetermined by the wise operations of fate. I do not know.
My modest attempts to explain the importance and point out the merits of Oriental mysticism were quite proper in their place and time. But I consider that the interpretative phase of my work has come to an end. In the prefaces to The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga and The Wisdom of the Overself, I hinted that wider experience and deeper knowledge, sharper reflection and significant episodes were forcing me out of the narrow groove of being an uncritical enthusiast for Indian yoga as it exists today. That movement continued to its inevitable end. This is why I consider my return to the West as being not just a further phase of my varied bodily travels but a grand climax to my equally varied spiritual seeking.
-- Notebooks Category 12: Reflections > Chapter 4 : Reflections On Truth > # 174
