There is no law governing the mystic's life other than this law, the law of conscience, a constant striving which makes him struggle joyfully against influences that pull him down and keep him beneath his ideal. No doubt once a man takes this path it means that he chooses a path of continual suffering, because everything in the world is pulling him down from that ideal; there is nothing whatever to help him. Therefore to raise oneself above the threads that pull from every side and try to drag one down to the lowest level is a struggle against the whole of life.