We may welcome and appreciate the radiant ecstasy of the mystic's triumph, but we ought not to appraise it at other than its proper worth. If we become so completely satisfied with it that we seek no higher goal, then our very satisfaction closes the door to the possibility of realizing the Overself. Only the sage--that is, the master of philosophy, to which metaphysics is but a necessary stage--can appreciate the calm which comes with mystical bliss. The peace which mysticism yields is genuine, but fitful, for it can only thrive in an atmosphere of constant exaltation. And when each exaltation intermittently passes--as it must--our mystic is left very flat. It is philosophy alone that exists in the very antithesis of such an atmosphere of comings and goings; therefore, it alone yields permanent peace. The yogi may shut his eyes and pass his time in pleasant meditations, but for large chunks of his day he will be forced to open them again and attend to physical matters. Then the world will confront him, pressing for a place in his scheme of things, and demand rational interpretation. He has got to explain this antithesis between self and not-self, between "I" and the world.
-- Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 4 : Its Realization Beyond Ecstasy > # 126
