Finally, there is the fifth aspect of our physical existence. There are two things: sensation and exaltation. Through sensation one experiences pleasure; through exaltation one experiences joy. There is a difference between joy and pleasure. What man is accustomed to experience by the medium of his physical body is pleasure: the pleasure of eating, the pleasure of drinking, the pleasure of looking at beautiful things. Therefore everything comforting he knows is that which is experienced by the physical senses. But besides that there is a joy which does not depend upon the senses, which only depends upon exaltation; and that exaltation is also achieved by the medium of the body.

How is this achieved? There is action and its result, and there is repose and its result. It is the result of action which is called sensation, and it is the result of repose which is called exaltation.

In the Masnavi of Rumi, the most wonderful poet of Persia, we read about the blessing of sleep, where he says, "O sleep, there is no greater bliss to be compared with you; in sleep the prisoners are free from their prison, and the kings do not possess throne and crown. The suffering patients lose their pain or worries, and sorrows are forgotten."

This shows that sleep is a form of repose, automatically brought about, which lifts us up from anxieties, worries, and discomforts, from sorrows and troubles. When this condition of repose can be brought about at will, one will have an experience of mastery, for then one is not dependent upon an automatic condition. If this condition which raises us above our worries, troubles, sorrows, anxieties, pains, and suffering can be produced within ourselves, a great thing is accomplished. And the way of accomplishing it is by the practice of repose.

The first thing an adept does in life is to master the five different aspects which I have mentioned, and having mastered them he is ready for the next step in the path of spiritual attainment.