The seekers of the modern era still gaze backward into the past, mesmerized by its revelations and fascinated by its records. In doing this they are still antique or medieval and as out-of-date as a bullock-cart on a transcontinental journey. The wisest among them, however, will refuse to sell their birthright as twentieth-century individuals. They cannot regard the ancient methods of devotional or introspectional patterns as ones to be undeviatingly followed. It is true that all the forms and techniques which they have at their disposal are not necessarily superior to those which the ancients had. But the task of bringing both up-to-date has become historically necessary. Therefore, contemporary living needs must dictate the pattern under which to absorb them. Of course, the reference here is not to the essential truths of the mystical life; its needs of sinking intellect in intuition, ego in soul, and desire in serenity are unshakeable by time. They will never change by one iota.
-- Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 1 : Mystical Life in The Modern World > # 29
