Status Updates From The Devils of Loudun

"The heavenly kingdom can be made to come on earth; it cannot be made to come in our imagination or in our discursive reasonings. And it cannot come even on earth, so long as we persist in living, not on the earth as it is actually given, but as it appears to an ego obsessed by an idea of separateness, by cravings and abhorrences, by compensatory phantasics and by ready-made propositions..." 330

'But it is only through the datum of nature that we can hope to receive the donum of Grace. It is only by accepting the gift, as it is given, that we may qualify for the Gift. It is only through the facts that we can come to the primordial Fact. "Do not hunt after the truth," advises one of the Zen masters, "only to cease to cherish opinions."' 330

"No man can concentrate his attention upon evil, or even upon the idea of evil, and remain unaffected. To be more against the devil than for God is exceedingly dangerous. Every crusader is apt to go mad. He is haunted by the wickedness which he attributes to his enemies" 274