the very Essence of Life is in its identity and unity throughout all forms of manifestation.

To allow ourselves, therefore, to remain conscious of separation from the Spirit of the Whole is to accept the idea of Disintegration, which is the very principle of death; and if we thus accept death at the fountainhead, it must necessarily spread through the whole stream of our individual existence and poison the waters. But it is inconceivable that anyone who has once realised the Great Unity should ever again willingly remain in conscious separation from it, and therefore immediate open-hearted approach to the Divine Spirit is the ever-ready remedy as soon as any consciousness of separation makes itself felt.

Voluntary Differentiation

And the symbol includes yet another meaning. If the bathing or total immersion signifies our unity with the Spirit of the Whole, then the washing of the feet must signify the same thing in a lesser degree, and the meaning implied is the ever-present attendance of the Infinite Undifferentiated Spirit ready to be differentiated by us to any daily service, no matter how lowly. Seen in this light, this acted parable is not a mere reminder of our imperfection --- which, unless corrected by a sense of power, could only be a perpetual suggestion of weakness that would incapacitate us from doing anything --- but indicates our continual command over all the resources of the Infinite for every object that all the endless succession of