Searchable Theosophical Texts
Theosophy House
A Textbook of Theosophy
by
C
The Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar
1912, 1914,
1918, 1925,1937
The Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky
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CONTENTS
Chapter
1 What Theosophy Is
2 From the Absolute to
Man
3 The Formation of a
Solar System
4 The Evolution of Life
5 The Constitution of
Man
6 After Death
7 Reincarnation
8 The Purpose of Life
9 The Planetary Chains
10The Result of
Theosophical Study
---------Cardiff Theosophical Society in
Wales---------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-1DL
CHAPTER 1
WHAT THEOSOPHY IS
(Page 1 ) “ There is a school of philosophy still in existence of
which modern
culture has lost sight.” In these words Mr. A. P. Sinnett began
his1881 book,
The Occult World, the first popular exposition of Theosophy,
published thirty
years ago. During the years that have passed since then, many
thousands have
learned wisdom in that school, yet to the majority its teachings
are still
unknown, and they can give only the vaguest of replies to the
query, “What is
Theosophy?”
Two books already exist which answer that question: Mr. Sinnett’s
Esoteric
Buddhism and Mrs. Besant’s The Ancient Wisdom. I have no thought of
entering
into competition with those standard works; what I desire is to
present a
statement, as clear and simple as I can make it, which may be
regarded as
introductory to them.
We often speak of Theosophy as not in itself a religion, but the
truth which
lies behind all religions alike. That is so; yet, from another
point of view, we
may surely say that it is at once a philosophy, because it puts
plainly before
us an explanation of the scheme (Page 2) of evolution of both the
souls and the
bodies contained, in our solar system. It is a religion in so far
as, having
shown us the course of ordinary evolution, it also puts before us
and advises a
method of shortening that course, so that by conscious effort we
may progress
more directly towards the goal. It is a science, because it treats
both these
subjects as matters not of theological belief but of direct
knowledge obtainable
by study and investigation. It asserts that man has no need to
trust to blind
faith, because he has within him latent powers which, when aroused,
enable him
to see and examine for himself, and it proceeds to prove its case
by showing how
those powers may be awakened. It is itself a result of the
awakening of such
powers by men, for the teachings which it puts before us are
founded upon direct
observations made in the past, and rendered possible only by such
development.
As a philosophy, it explains to us that the solar system is a
carefully -
ordered mechanism, a manifestation of a magnificent life, of which
man is but a
small part. Nevertheless, it takes up that small part which
immediately concerns
us, and treats it exhaustively under three heads – present, past
and future.
It deals with the present by describing what man really is, as seen
by means of
developed faculties. It is customary to speak of man as having a
soul.
Theosophy, as the result of direct investigation, reverses that
dictum, and
states that man is a soul, and has a body – in fact several bodies,
which are
his vehicles and instruments in various worlds. These worlds are
(Page 3) not
separate in space; they are simultaneously present with us, here
and now, and
can be examined; they are the divisions of the material side of
Nature –
different degrees of density in the aggregation of matter, as will
presently be
explained in detail. Man has an existence in several of these, but
is normally
conscious only of the lowest, though sometimes in dreams and
trances he has
glimpses of some of the others. What is called death is the laying
aside of the
vehicle belonging to this lowest world, but the soul or real man in
a higher
world is no more changed or affected by this than the physical man
is changed or
affected when he removes his overcoat. All this is a matter, not of
speculation,
but of observation and experiment.
Theosophy has much to tell us of the past history of man – of how
in the course
of evolution he has come to what he now is. This also is a matter
of
observation, because of the fact that there exists an indelible
record of all
that has taken place – a sort of memory of Nature – by examining
which the
scenes of earlier evolution may be made to pass before the eyes of
the
investigator as though they were happening at this moment. By thus studying
the
past we learn that man is divine in origin and that he has a long
evolution
behind him – a double evolution, that of the life or soul within,
and that of
the outer form. We learn, too, that the life of man as a soul is of
what to us
seems enormous length, and that what we have been in the habit of
calling his
life is in reality only one day of his real existence. He has
already lived
through many such days, and has many more of them yet before him;
and if we wish
to understand the (Page 4 ) real life and its object, we must
consider it in
relation not only to this one day of it, which begins with birth
and ends with
death, but also to the days which have gone before and those which
are yet to
come.
Of those that are yet to come there is also much to be said, and on
this subject
too a great deal of definite information is available. Such
information is
obtainable, first, from men who have already passed much further
along the road
of evolution than we, and have consequently direct experience of
it; and,
secondly, from inferences drawn from the obvious direction of the
steps which we
seem to have been previously taken. The goal of this particular
cycle, is in
sight, though still far above us but it would seem that, even when
that has been
attained, an infinity of progress still lies before everyone who is
willing to
undertake it.
One of the most striking advantages of Theosophy is that the light
which it
brings to us at once solves many of our problems, clears away many
difficulties,
accounts for the apparent injustices of life, and in all directions
brings order
out of seeming chaos. Thus while some of its teaching is based upon
the
observation of forces whose direct working is somewhat beyond the
ken of the
ordinary man of the world, if the latter will accept it as a
hypothesis he will
very soon come to see that it must be a correct one, because it,
and it alone,
furnishes a coherent and reasonable explanation of the drama of
life which is
being played before him.
The existence of Perfected Men, and the possibility of coming into
touch with
Them and being taught by
(Page 5) Them, are prominent among the great new
truths which Theosophy brings to the Western World. Another of them
is the
stupendous fact that the world is not drifting blindly into
anarchy, but that
its progress is under the control of a perfectly organized
Hierarchy, so that
final failure even for the tiniest of its units is of all
impossibilities the
most impossible. A glimpse of the working of that Hierarchy
inevitably engenders
the desire to co-operate with it, to serve under it, in however
humble a
capacity, and some time in the far-distant future to be worthy to
join the outer
fringes of its ranks.
This brings us to that aspect of Theosophy which we have called
religious. Those
who come to know and to understand these things are dissatisfied
with the slow
aeons of evolution; they yearn to become more immediately useful,
and so they
demand and obtain knowledge of the shorter but steeper Path. There
is no
possibility of escaping the amount of work that has to be done. It
is like
carrying a load up a mountain; whether one carries it straight up a
steep path
or more gradually by a road of gentle slope, precisely the same
number of
foot-pounds must be exerted. Therefore to do the same work in a
small fraction
of the time means determined effort. It can be done, however, for
it has been
done; and those who have done it agree that it far more than repays
the trouble.
The limitations of the various vehicles are thereby gradually
transcended, and
the liberated man becomes an intelligent co-worker in the mighty
plan for the
evolution of all beings.
In its capacity as a religion, too, Theosophy gives (Page 6) its
followers a
rule of life, based not on alleged commands delivered at some
remote period of
the past, but on plain common sense as indicated by observed facts.
The attitude
of the student of Theosophy towards the rules which it prescribes
resembles
rather that which we adopt to hygienic regulations than obedience
to religious
commandments. We may say, if we wish, that this thing or that is in
accordance
with the divine Will, for the divine Will is expressed in what we
know as the
laws of nature. Because that Will wisely ordereth all things, to
infringe its
laws means to disturb the smooth working of the scheme, to hold
back for a
moment that fragment or tiny part of evolution, and consequently to
bring
discomfort upon ourselves and others. It is for that reason that
the wise man
avoids infringing them – not to escape the imaginary wrath of some
offended
deity.
But if from a certain point of view we may think of Theosophy as a
religion, we
must note two great points of difference between it and what is
ordinarily
called religion in the West. First, it neither demands belief from
its
followers, nor does it even speak of belief in the sense in which
that word is
usually employed. The student of occult science either knows a
thing or suspends
his judgment about it; there is no place in his scheme for blind
faith.
Naturally, beginners in the study cannot yet know for themselves,
so they are
asked to read the results of the various observations and to deal
with them as
probable hypothesis – provisionally to accept and act upon them,
until such time
as they can prove for themselves.
Secondly, Theosophy never endeavours to convert (Page 7) any man
from whatever
religion he already holds. On the contrary, it explains his
religion to him, and
enables him to see in it deeper meanings than he has ever known
before. It
teaches him to understand it and live it better than he did, and in
many cases
it gives back to him, on a higher and more intelligent level, the
faith in it
which he had previously all but lost.
Theosophy has its aspect as a science also; it is in very truth a
science of
life, a science of the soul. It applies to everything the
scientific method of
oft-repeated, painstaking observation, and then tabulates the
results and makes
deductions from them. In this way it has investigated the various
planes of
nature, the conditions of man’s consciousness during life and after
what is
commonly called death. It cannot be too often repeated that its
statements on
all these matters are not vague guesses or tenets of faith, but are
based upon
direct and oft-repeated observation of what happens. Its
investigators have
dealt also to a certain extent with subjects more in the range of
ordinary
science, as may be seen by those who read the recently issued book
on Occult
Chemistry.
Thus we see that Theosophy combines within itself some of the
characteristics of
philosophy, religion and science. What, it might be asked, is its
gospel for
this weary world? What are the main points which emerge from its
investigations?
What are the great facts which it has to lay before humanity?
They have been well summed up under three main heads.
“There are three truths which are absolute, and (Page 8) which
cannot be lost,
but yet may remain silent for lack of speech.
“The soul of man is immortal, and its future is the future of a
thing whose
growth and splendour has no limit.
“The principle which gives life dwells in us and without us, is
undying and
eternally beneficent, is not heard or seen or smelt, but is
perceived by the man
who desires perception
“Each man is his own absolute lawgiver; the dispenser of glory or
gloom to
himself; the decreer of his life, his reward, his punishment.
“These truths, which are as great as is life itself, are as simple
as the
simplest mind of man”.
Put shortly, and in the language of the man of the street, this
means that God
is good, that man is immortal, and that as we sow so we must reap.
There is a
definite scheme of things; it is under intelligent direction and
works under
immutable laws. Man has his place in this scheme and is living
under these laws.
If he understands them and
co-operates with them, he will advance rapidly and
will be happy; if he does not understand them – if wittingly or unwittingly,
he
breaks them, he will delay his progress and be miserable. These are
not
theories, but proved facts. Let him who doubts read on, and he will
see. (Page
9)
---------Cardiff
Theosophical Society in Wales----------
206 Newport
Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-1DL
CHAPTER II
FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO MAN
Of the Absolute, the Infinite, the All-embracing, we can at our
present stage
know nothing, except that It is; we can say nothing that is not a
limitation,
and therefore inaccurate.
In It are innumerable universes; in each universe countless solar
systems. Each
solar system is the expression of a mighty Being, whom we call the
Logos, the
Word of God, the Solar Deity. He is to it all that men mean by God.
He permeates
it; there is nothing in it which is not He; it is the manifestation
of Him in
such matter as we can see. Yet He exists above it and outside it,
living a
stupendous life of His own among His Peers. As is said in Eastern
Scripture:
“Having permeated this whole universe with one fragment of Myself,
I remain”.
Of this higher life of His we can know nothing. But of the fragment
of His life
which energizes His system we may know something in the lower
levels of its
manifestation. We may not see Him, but we may see His power at
work. No one who
is clairvoyant can be atheistic; the evidence is too tremendous.
Out of Himself He has called this mighty system into being. We who
are in it are
evolving fragments of His life, Sparks of His divine Fire; from Him
we all have
come; into Him we shall all return.
Many have asked why He as done this; why He (Page 10) has emanated
from Himself
all this system; why He has sent us forth to face the storms of
life. We cannot
know, nor is the question practical; suffice it that we are here,
and we must do
our best. Yet many philosophers have speculated on this point and
many
suggestions have been made. The most beautiful that I know is that of
a Gnostic
philosopher:
“God is Love, but Love itself cannot be perfect unless it has those
upon whom it
can be lavished and by whom it can be returned. Therefore He put
forth of
Himself into matter, and He limited His glory, in order that
through this
natural and slow process of evolution we might come into being; and
we in turn
according to His will are to develop until we reach even His own
level, and then
the very love of God itself will become more perfect, because it
will then be
lavished on those, His own children, who will fully understand and
return it,
and so His great scheme will be realized and His Will be done”.
At what stupendous elevation His consciousness abides we know not,
nor can we
know its true nature as it shows itself there. But when He puts
Himself down
into such conditions as are within our reach, His manifestation is
ever
threefold, and so all religions have imaged Him as a Trinity.
Three, yet
fundamentally One; Three Persons (for person means a mask) yet one
God, showing
Himself in those Three Aspects. Three to us, looking at Them from
below, because
Their functions are different; one to Him, because He knows Them to
be but
facets of Himself.
All three of these Aspects are concerned in the evolution of the
solar System;
all Three are also concerned (Page 11) in the evolution of man.
This evolution
is His will; the method of it is His plan.
Next below this Solar Deity, yet also in some mysterious manner
part of Him,
come His seven Ministers, sometimes called the Planetary Spirits.
Using an
analogy drawn from the physiology of our own body, Their relation
to Him is like
that of the ganglia or the nerve centers of the brain. All
evolution which comes
forth from Him comes through one or other of Them.
Under Them in turn come vast hosts or order of spiritual beings,
whom we call
angels or devas. We do not yet know all the functions which They
fulfill in
different parts of this wonderful scheme, but we find some of them
intimately
connected with the building of the system and the unfolding of life
within it.
Here in our world there is a great Official who represents the
Solar Deity, and
is in absolute control of all the evolution that takes place upon
this planet.
We may image Him as the true King of this world, and under Him are
ministers in
charge of different departments. One of these departments is
concerned with the
evolution of the different races of humanity, so that for each
great race there
is a Head who founds it, differentiates it from all others, and
watches over its
development. Another department is that of religion and education,
and it is
from this that all the
greatest teachers of history have come – that all
religions have been sent forth. The great Official at the head of
this
department either comes Himself or sends one of His pupils to found
a new
religion when He decides that one is needed.
Therefore all religions, at the time of their first (Page 12)
presentation to
the world, have contained a definite statement of the Truth, and in
its
fundamentals this Truth has been always the same. The presentations
of it have
varied because of differences in the races to who it was offered.
The condition
of civilization and the
degree of evolution obtained by various races have made
it desirable to present this one Truth in divers forms. But the
inner Truth is
always the same, and the source from which it comes is the same,
even though the
external phases may appear to be different and even contradictory.
It is foolish
for men to wrangle over the question of the superiority of one
teacher or one
form of teaching to another, for the teacher is always one sent by
the Great
Brotherhood of Adepts, and in all its important points, in its
ethical and moral
principles, the teaching has always been the same.
There is in the world a body of Truth which lies at the back of all
these
religions, and represents the facts of nature as far as they are at
present
known to man. In the outer world, because of their ignorance of
this, people are
always disputing and arguing about whether there is a God; whether
man survives
death; whether definite progress is possible for him, and what is
his relation
to the universe. These questions are ever present in the mind of man
as soon as
intelligence is awakened. They are not unanswerable, as is
frequently supposed;
the answers to them are within the reach of anyone who will make
proper efforts
to find them. The truth is obtainable, and the conditions of its
attainment are
possible of achievement by anyone who will make the effort. (Page
13)
In the earlier stages of the development of humanity, the great
Officials of the
Hierarchy are provided from outside, from other and more highly
evolved parts of
the system, but as soon as men can be trained to the necessary
level of power
and wisdom these offices are held by them. In order to be fit to
hold such an
office a man must raise himself to a very high level, and must
become what is
called an adept – a being of goodness, power and wisdom so great
that He towers
above the rest of humanity, for He has already attained the summit
of ordinary
human evolution; He has achieved what the plan of the Deity marked
out for Him
to achieve during this age or dispensation. But His evolution later
on continues
beyond that level – continues to divinity.
A large number of men have attained the Adept level – men not of
one nation, but
of all the leading nations of the world – rare souls who with
indomitable
courage have stormed the fortresses of nature, and captured her
innermost
secrets, and so have truly earned the right to be called Adepts.
Among Them
there are many degrees and many lines of activity; but always some
of Them
remain within touch of our earth as members of this Hierarchy which
has in
charge the administration of the affairs of our world and of the
spiritual
evolution of our humanity.
This august body is often called the Great White Brotherhood, but
its members
are not a community all living together. Each of Them, to a large
extent, draws
Himself apart from the world, and They are in constant
communication with one
another and with Their Head; but Their knowledge of higher forces
(Page 14 ) is
so great that this is achieved without any necessity for meeting in
the physical
world. In many cases They continue to live each in His own country,
and Their
power remains unsuspected among those who live near Them. Any man
who will may
attract their attention, but he can do it only by showing himself
worthy of
Their notice. None need fear that his efforts will pass unnoticed;
such
oversight is impossible, for the man who is devoting himself to
service such as
this, stands out from the rest of humanity like a great flame in a
dark night. A
few of these great Adepts, who are thus working for the good of the
world, are
willing to take on apprentices those who have resolved to devote
themselves
utterly to the services of mankind; such Adepts are called Masters.
One of these apprentices was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky – a great
soul who was
sent out to offer knowledge to the world some forty years ago
[1875]. With
Colonel Henry Steele Olcott she founded the Theosophical Society
for the spread
of this knowledge which she had to give. Among those who came into
contact with
her in those early days was Mr. A. P. Sinnett, the editor of The
Pioneer, and
his keen intellect at once grasped the magnitude and the importance
of the
teaching which she put before him. Although Madame Blavatsky
herself had
previously written Isis Unveiled, it had attracted but little
attention, and it
was Mr. Sinnett who first made the teaching really available for
western readers
in his two books, The Occult World and Esoteric Buddhism.
It was through these works that I myself first came to know their
author, and
afterwards Madame Blavatsky (Page 15) herself; from both of them I
learned much.
When I asked Madame Blavatsky how one could learn still more, how
one could make
definite progress along the Path which she pointed out to us, she
told me of the
possibility that other students might be accepted as apprentices by
the great
Masters, even as she herself had been accepted, and that the only
way to gain
such acceptance was to show oneself worthy of it by earnest and
altruistic work.
She told me that to reach that goal a man must be absolutely
one-pointed in his
determination; that no one who tried to serve both God and Mammon
could ever
hope to succeed. One of these Masters Himself has said: “In order
to succeed, a
pupil must leave his own world and come into ours”.
This means that he must cease to be one of the majority who live
for wealth and
power, and must join the tiny majority who care nothing for such
things, but
live only in order to devote themselves selflessly to the good of
the world. She
warned us clearly that the way was difficult to tread, that we
should be
misunderstood and reviled by those who still lived in the world,
and that we had
nothing to look forward to but the hardest of hard work; and though
the result
was sure, no one could foretell how long it would take to arrive at
it. Some of
us accepted these conditions joyfully, and we have never for a
moment regretted
the decision.
After some years of work I had the privilege of coming into contact
with these
great Masters of the Wisdom; from Them I learnt many things – among
others, how
to verify for myself at first hand most (Page 16) of the teachings
which They
had given. So that, in this matter, I write of what I know, and
what I have seen
for myself. Certain points are mentioned in the teaching, for the
verification
of which powers are required far beyond anything which I have
gained so far. Of
them, I can only say that they are consistent with what I do know,
and in many
cases are necessary as hypotheses to account for what I have seen.
They came to
me along with the rest of the theosophical system upon the
authority of these
mighty Teachers. Since then I have learned to examine for myself by
far the
greater part of what I was told, and I have found the information
given to me to
be correct in every particular; therefore I am justified in
assuming the
probability that that other part, which as yet I cannot verify,
will also prove
to be correct when I arrive at its level.
To attain the honour of being accepted as an apprentice of one of
the Masters of
the Wisdom is the object set before himself by every earnest
Theosophical
student. But it means a determined effort. There have always been
men who were
willing to make the necessary effort, and therefore there have
always been men
who knew. The knowledge is so transcendent that when a man grasps
it fully he
becomes more than man, and he passes beyond our ken.
But there are stages in the acquirement of this knowledge, and we may
learn
much, if we will, from those who themselves are still in process of
learning;
for all human beings stand on one or other of the rungs of the
ladder of
evolution. The primitive stand at its foot; we who are civilized
beings have
already (Page 17) climbed part of the way. But though we can look
back and see
rungs of the ladder below us which we have already passed, we may
also look up
and see many rungs above us to which we have not yet attained. Just
as men are
standing even now on each of the rungs below us, so that we can see
the stages
by which man has mounted, so also are there men standing on each of
the rungs
above us, so that from studying them we may see how man shall mount
in the
future. Precisely because we see men on every step of this ladder,
which leads
up to a glory which as yet we have no words to express, we know
that the ascent
to that glory is possible for us. Those who stand high above us, so
high that
They seem to us as gods in Their marvellous knowledge and power, tell
us that
They stood not long since where we are standing now, and They
indicate to us
clearly the steps which lie between, which we also must tread if we
would be as
They. (Page 18)
---------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales----------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-1DL
CHAPTER III
THE FORMATION OF A SOLAR SYSTEM
The beginning of the universe (if ever it had a beginning) is
beyond our ken. At
the earliest point of history that we can reach, the two great
opposites of
Spirit and matter, of life and form, are already in full activity.
We find that
the ordinary conception of matter needs a revision, for what are
commonly called
force and matter are in reality only two varieties of Spirit at
different stages
in evolution, and the real matter or basis of everything lies in
the background
unperceived. A French scientist has recently said: “There is no
matter; there is
nothing but holes in the aether”.
This also agrees with the celebrated theory of Professor Osborne
Reynolds.
Occult investigation shows this to be the correct view, and in that
way explains
what Oriental sacred books mean when they say that matter is an
illusion.
The ultimate root-matter as seen at our level is what scientists
call the aether
of space. ( This has been described in Occult Chemistry under the
name of
koilon) To every physical sense the space occupied by it appears
empty, yet in
reality this aether is far denser than anything of which we can
conceive. Its
density is defined by Professor Reynolds as being ten thousand
(Page 19) times
greater than that of water, and it means pressure as seven hundred
and fifty
thousand tons to the square inch.
This substance is perceptible only to highly developed clairvoyant
power. We
must assume a time (though we have no direct knowledge on this
point) when this
substance filled all space. We must also suppose that some great
Being (not the
Deity of a solar system, but some Being almost infinitely higher
than that)
changed this condition of rest by pouring out His spirit or force
into a certain
section of this matter, a section of the size of a whole universe.
The effect of
the introduction of this force is at that of the blowing of a
mighty breath; it
has formed within this aether an incalculable number of tiny
spherical bubbles
(The bubbles are spoken of in The Secret Doctrine as the holes
which Fohat digs
in space), and these bubbles are the ultimate atoms of which what
we call matter
is composed. They are not the atoms of the chemist, nor even the ultimate
atoms
of the physical world. They stand at a far higher level, and what
are usually
called atoms are composed of vast aggregations of these bubbles, as
will be seen
later.
When the Solar Deity begins to make His system, He finds ready to
His hand this
material – this infinite mass of tiny bubbles which can be built up
into various
kinds of matter as we know it. He commences by defining the limit
of His field
of activity, a vast sphere whose circumference is far larger than
the orbit of
the outermost of His future planets. Within the limit of that
sphere He sets up
a kind of (Page 20) gigantic vortex – a motion which sweeps
together all the
bubbles into a vast central mass, the material of the nebula that
is to be.
Into this vast revolving sphere He sends forth successive impulses
of force,
gathering together the bubbles into ever more and more complex
aggregations, and
producing in this way seven gigantic interpenetrating worlds of
matter of
different degrees of density, all concentric and all occupying the
same space.
Acting through His Third Aspect, He sends forth into this
stupendous sphere the
first of these impulses. It sets up all through the sphere a vast
number of tiny
vortices, each of which draws into itself forty-nine bubbles and
arranges them
in a certain shape. These little groupings of bubbles so formed are
the atoms of
the second of the interpenetrating worlds. The whole number of the
bubbles is
not used in this way, sufficient being left in the dissociated
state to act as
atoms for the first and highest of these worlds. In due time comes
the second
impulse, which seizes upon nearly all these forty nine bubble atoms
(leaving
only enough to provide atoms for the second world), draws them back
into itself
and then, throwing them out again, sets up among them vortices,
each of which
holds within itself 2,401 bubbles (49 2). These form the atoms of
the third
world. Again after a time comes a third impulse, which in the same
way seizes
upon nearly all these 2,401 bubble atoms, draws them back again
into their
original form, and again throws them outward once more as the atoms
of the
fourth world – (Page 21) each atom containing this time 49 3
bubbles. This
process is repeated until the sixth of these successive impulses
has built the
atom of the seventh or lowest world – that atom containing 49 6 of
the original
bubbles.
This atom of the seventh world is the ultimate atom of the physical
world – not
any of the atoms of which chemists speak, but that ultimate out of
which all
their atoms are made. We have at this stage arrived at that
condition of affairs
in which the vast whirling sphere contains within itself seven
types of matter,
all one in essence, because all built of the same kind of bubbles,
but differing
in their degree of density. All these types are freely
intermingled, so that
specimens of each type would be found in a small portion of the
sphere taken at
random in any part of it, with, however, a general tendency of the heavier
atoms
to gravitate more and more towards the center.
The seventh impulse sent out from the Third Aspect of the Deity
does not, as
before, draw back the physical atoms which were last made into the
original
dissociated bubbles, but draws them together into certain
aggregations, thus
making a number of different kinds of what may be called
proto-elements, and
these again are joined together into the various forms which are
known to
science as chemical elements. The making of these extends over a
period of ages,
and they are made in a certain definite order by the interaction of
several
forces, as is correctly indicated in Sir William Crookes’ paper on
The Genesis
of the Elements. Indeed the process of their making it is not even
(Page 22) now
concluded; uranium is the latest and heaviest element so far as we
know, but
others still more complicated may perhaps be produced in the
future.
As ages roll on the condensation increased, and presently the stage
of a vast
glowing nebula was reached. As it cooled, still rapidly rotating,
it flattened
into a huge disc and gradually broke up into rings surrounding a
central body –
an arrangement not unlike that which Saturn exhibits at the present
day, though
on a far larger scale. As the time drew near when the planets would
be required
for the purposes of evolution, the Deity set up somewhere in the
thickness of
each ring a subsidiary vortex, into which a great deal of the
matter of the ring
was by degrees collected. The collisions of the gathered fragments
caused a
revival of the heat, and the resulting planet was for a long time a
mass of
glowing gas. Little by little it cooled once more, until it became
fit to be the
theatre of life such as ours. Thus were all the planets formed.
Almost all the matter of those interpenetrating worlds was by this
time
concentrated into the newly formed planets. Each of them was and is
composed of
all those different kinds of matter. The earth upon which we are
now living is
not merely a great ball of physical matter, built of the atoms of
that lowest
world, but has also attached to it an abundant supply of matter of
the sixth,
the fifth, the fourth and other worlds. It is well known to all
students of
science that particles of matter never actually touch one another,
even in the
hardest of substances. The spaces between (Page 23) them are always
far greater
in proportion than their own size – enormously greater. So there is
ample room
for all the other kinds of atoms of all those other worlds, not
only to lie
between the atoms of the denser matter, but to move quite freely
among them and
around them. Consequently this globe upon which we live is not one
world, but
seven interpenetrating worlds, all occupying the same space, except
that the
finer types of matter extend further from the center than does the
denser
matter.
We have given names to these interpenetrating worlds for
convenience in speaking
of them. No name is needed for the first, as man is not yet in
direct connection
with it; but when it is necessary to mention it, it may be called
the divine
world. The second is described as the monadic, because in it exist
those Sparks
of the divine Life which we call the human Monads; but neither of
these can be
touched by the highest clairvoyant investigations at present
possible for us.
The third sphere, whose atoms contain 2,401 bubbles, is called the
spiritual
world, because in it functions the highest Spirit in man as now
constituted. The
fourth is the intuitional world (Previously called in theosophical
literature
the buddhic plane) because from it come the highest intuitions. The
fifth is the
mental world, because of its matter is built the mind of man. The
sixth is
called the emotional or astral world, because the emotions of man
cause
undulations in its matter. (The name astral was given to it by
mediaeval
alchemists, because its matter is starry or shining as (Page 24)
compared to
that of the denser world). The seventh world, composed of the type
of matter
which we see all around us, is called the physical.
The matter of which all these interpenetrating worlds are built is
essentially
the same matter, but differently arranged and of different degrees
of density.
Therefore the rates at which these various types of matter normally
vibrate
differ also. They may be considered as a vast gamut of undulations
consisting of
many octaves. The physical matter uses a certain number of the
lowest of these
octaves, the astral matter another group of octaves just above
that, the mental
matter a still further group, and so on.
Not only has each of these worlds its own type of matter; it has
also its own
set of aggregations of that matter – its own substances. In each
world we
arrange these substances in seven classes according to the rate at
which their
molecules vibrate. Usually, but not invariably, the slower
oscillation involves
also a larger molecule – a molecule, that is built up by a special
arrangement
of the smaller molecules of the next higher subdivision. The
application of heat
increases the size of the molecules and also quickens and amplifies
their
undulation, so that they cover more ground, and the object as a
whole expands,
until the point is reached where the aggregation of molecules
breaks up, and the
latter passes from one condition to that next above it. In the
matter of the
physical world the seven subdivisions are represented by seven
degrees of
density of matter, to which, beginning from below upwards, we give
the names
solid liquid, gaseous, etheric, super-etheric, subatomic and
atomic.(Page 25)
The atomic subdivision is one in which all forms are built by the
compression
into certain shapes of the physical atoms, without any previous
collection of
these atoms into blocks or molecules. Typifying the physical
ultimate atom for
the moment by a brick, any form in the atomic subdivision would be
made by
gathering together some of the bricks, and building them into a
certain shape.
In order to make matter for the next lower subdivision, a certain
number of the
bricks (atoms) would be first gathered together and cemented into
small blocks
of say four bricks each, five bricks each, six bricks or seven
bricks; and then
these blocks so made would be used as building-stones. For the next
subdivision
several of the blocks of the second subdivision cemented together
in certain
shapes would form building-stones, and so on to the lowest.
To transfer any substance from the solid condition to the liquid
(that is to
say, to melt it) is to increase the vibration of its compound
molecules until at
last they are shaken apart into the simpler molecules of which they
were built.
This process can in all cases be repeated again and again until
finally any and
every physical substance can be reduced to the ultimate atoms of
the physical
world.
Each of these worlds has its inhabitants, whose senses are normally
capable of
responding to the undulations of their own world only. A man living
(as we are
all doing) in the physical world sees, hears, feels, by vibrations
connected
with the physical matter around him. He is equally surrounded by
the astral and
mental and other worlds which are interpenetrating his own denser
world, but of
them he is normally (Page 26) unconscious, because his senses
cannot respond to
the oscillations of their matter, just as our physical eyes cannot
see by the
vibrations of ultraviolet light, although scientific experiments
show that they
exist and there are other consciousnesses with differently-formed
organs who can
see by them. A being living in the astral world might be occupying
the very same
space as a being living in the physical world, yet each would be
entirely
unconscious of the other and would in no way impede the free
movement of the
other. The same is true of all the other worlds. We are at this
moment
surrounded by these worlds of finer matter, as close to us as the
world we see,
and their inhabitants are passing through us and about us, but we
are entirely
unconscious of them.
Since our evolution is centered at present upon this globe which we
call the
earth, it is in connection with it only that we shall be speaking
of these
higher worlds, so in future when I use the term “astral world” I
shall mean by
it the astral part of our own globe only, and not (as heretofore)
the astral
part of the whole solar system. This astral part of our own world
is also a
globe, but of astral matter. It occupies the same place as the
globe which we
see, but its matter (being so much lighter) extends out into space
on all sides
of us further than does the atmosphere of the earth – a great deal
further. It
stretches to a little less than the mean distance of the moon, so
that though
the two physical globes, the earth and the moon, are nearly 240,000
miles apart,
the astral globes of these two bodies touch one another when the
moon is in
perigee, but not when she is in apogee. I shall apply (Page 27) the
term “mental
world” to the still larger globe of mental matter in the midst of
which our
physical earth exists. When we come to the still higher globes we
have spheres
large enough to touch the corresponding spheres of other planets in
the system,
though their matter also is just as much about us here on the
surface of the
solid earth as that of the others. All these globes of finer matter
are a part
of us, and are all revolving round the sun with their visible part.
The student
will do well to accustom himself to think of our earth as the whole
of this mass
of interpenetrating worlds – not only the comparatively small
physical ball in
the center of it. (Page 28)
---------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales----------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-1DL
CHAPTER IV
THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE
All the impulses of life which I have described as building the
interpenetrating
worlds came forth from the Third Aspect of the Deity. Hence in the
Christian
scheme that Aspect is called “the Giver of Life”, the Spirit who
brooded over
the face of the waters of space. In theosophical literature these
impulses are
usually taken as a whole, and called the first outpouring.
When the worlds had been prepared to this extent, and most of the
chemical
elements already existed, the second outpouring of life took place,
and this
came from the Second Aspect of the Deity. It brought with it the
power of
combination. In all the worlds it found existing what may be
thought of as
elements corresponding to those worlds. It proceeded to combine
those elements
into organisms which it then ensouled, and in this way it built up
the seven
kingdoms of nature.
Theosophy recognizes seven kingdoms, because it regards man
as separate from the animal kingdom, and it takes into account
several stages of
evolution which are unseen by the physical eye, and gives to them
the mediaeval
name of “elemental kingdoms”.
The divine Life pours itself into matter from above, and its whole
course may be
thought of in two stages (Page 29 ) – the gradual assumption of
grosser and
grosser matter, and then the gradual casting off again of the
vehicles which
have been assumed. The earliest level upon which its vehicles can
be
scientifically observed is the mental – the fifth counting from the
finer to the
grosser, the first on which there are separated globes. In
practical study it is
found convenient to divide this mental world into two parts, which
we call the
higher and lower according to the degree of density of their
matter. The higher
consists of the three finer subdivisions of mental matter; the
lower part of the
other four.
When the outpouring reaches the higher mental world it draws
together the
ethereal elements there, combines them into what at the level
correspond to
substances, and of these substances builds forms which it inhabits.
We call this
the first elemental kingdom.
After a long period of evolution, through different forms at that
level, the
wave of life, which is all the time pressing steadily downwards,
learns to
identify itself so fully with those forms that, instead of
occupying them and
withdrawing from them periodically, it is able to hold them
permanently and make
them part of itself, so that now from that level it can proceed to
the temporary
occupation of forms at a still lower level. When it reaches this
stage we call
it the second elemental kingdom, the ensouling life of which
resides upon the
higher mental levels, while the vehicles through which it manifests
are on the
lower.
After another vast period of similar length, it is found that the
downward
pressure has caused this (Page 30 ) process to repeat itself; once
more the life
has identified itself with its forms, and has taken up its
residence upon the
lower mental levels, so that it is capable of ensouling bodies in the
astral
world. At this stage we call it the third elemental kingdom.
We speak of all these forms as finer or grosser relatively to one
another, but
all of them are almost infinitely finer than any with which we are
acquainted in
the physical world. Each of these three is a kingdom of nature, as
varied in the
manifestations of its different forms of life as in the animal or
vegetable
kingdom which we know. After a long period spent in ensouling the
forms of the
third of these elemental kingdoms it identifies itself with them in
turn, and so
is able to ensoul the etheric part of the mineral kingdom, and
becomes the life
which vivifies that – for there is a life in the mineral kingdom
just as much as
in the vegetable or the animal, although it is in conditions where
it cannot
manifest so freely. In the course of the mineral evolution the
downward pressure
causes it to identify itself in the same way with the etheric
matter of the
physical world, and from that to ensoul the denser matter of such
minerals as
are perceptible to our senses.
In the mineral kingdom we include not only what are usually called
minerals, but
also liquids, gases and many etheric substances the existence of
which is
unknown to western science. All the matter of which we know
anything is living
matter, and the life which it contains is always evolving. When it
has reached
the central point of the mineral stage the downward (Page 31)
pressure ceases,
and is replaced by an upward tendency; the outbreathing has ceased
and the
indrawing has begun.
When mineral evolution is completed, the life has withdrawn itself
again into
the astral world, but bearing with it all the results obtained
through its
experiences in the physical. At this stage it ensouls vegetable
forms, and
begins to show itself much more clearly as what we commonly call
life – plant
life of all kinds; and at a yet later stage of its development it
leaves the
vegetable kingdom and ensouls the animal kingdom. The attainment of
this level
is the sign that it has withdrawn itself still further, and is now
working from
the lower mental world. In order to work in physical matter from
that mental
world it must operate through the intervening astral matter; and
that astral
matter is now no longer part of the garment of the group soul as a
whole, but is
the individual astral body of the animal concerned, as will be
later explained.
In each of these kingdoms it not only passes a period of time which
is to our
ideas almost incredibly long, but it also goes through a definite
course of
evolution, beginning from the lower manifestations of that kingdom
and ending
with the highest. In the vegetable kingdom, for example, the
life-force might
commence its career by occupying grasses or mosses and end it by
ensouling
magnificent forest trees. In the animal kingdom it might commence
with the
mosquitoes or with animalculae, and might end with the finest
specimens of the
mammals. (Page 32)
The whole process is one of steady evolution from lower forms to
higher, from
the simpler to the more complex. But what is evolving is not
primarily the form,
but the life within it. The forms also evolve and grow better as
time passes;
but this is in order that they may be appropriate vehicles for more
and more
advanced waves of life. When the life has reached the highest level
possible in
the animal kingdom, it may then pass on into the human kingdom,
under conditions
which will presently be explained.
The outpouring leaves one kingdom and passes to another, so that if
we had to
deal with only one wave of this outpouring we could have in
existence only one
kingdom at a time. But the Deity sends out a constant succession of
these waves,
so that at any given time we find a number of them simultaneously
in operation.
We ourselves represent one such wave; but we find evolving
alongside us another
wave which ensouls the animal kingdom – a wave which came out from
the Deity one
stage later than we did. We find also the vegetable kingdom, which
represents a
third wave, and the mineral kingdom, which represents a fourth; and
occultists
know the existence all round us of three elemental kingdoms, which
represent the
fifth, sixth and seventh waves. All these, however, are successive
ripples of
the same great outpouring from the Second Aspect of the Deity.
We have here, then, a scheme of evolution in which the divine Life
involves
itself more and more deeply in matter, in order that through that
matter it may
receive vibrations which could not otherwise affect it (Page 33) –
impacts from
without, which by degrees arouse within it rates of undulation
corresponding to
their own, so that it learns to respond to them. Later on it learns
of itself to
generate these rates of undulation, and so becomes a being
possessed of
spiritual powers.
We may presume that when this outpouring of life originally came
forth from the
Deity, at some level altogether beyond our power of cognition, it
may perhaps
have been homogeneous; but when it first comes within practical
cognizance, when
it is itself in the intuitional world, but is ensouling bodies made
of the
matter of the higher mental world, it is already not one huge
world-soul, but
many souls. Let us suppose a homogeneous outpouring, which may be
considered as
one vast soul at one end of the scale; at the other, when humanity
is reached,
we find that one vast soul broken up into millions of the
comparatively little
souls of individual men. At any stage between these two extremes we
find an
intermediate condition, the immense world-soul already subdivided,
but not to
the utmost limit of possible subdivision.
Each man is a soul, but not each animal or each plant. Man, as a
soul, can
manifest through only one body at a time in the physical world,
whereas one
animal soul manifests simultaneously through a number of animal
bodies, one
plant-soul through, a number of separate plants. A lion, for
example, is not a
permanently separate entity in the same way as a man is. When the
man dies –
that is, when he as a soul lays aside his physical body – he
remains himself
exactly as he was before, an entity separate from (Page 34) all
other entities.
When the lion dies, that which has been the separate soul of him is
poured back
into the mass from which it came – a mass which is at the same time
providing
the souls for many other lions. To such a mass we give the name of
“group-soul”.
To such a group-soul is attached a considerable number of lion
bodies – let us
say a hundred. Each of those bodies while it lives has its
hundredth part of the
group-soul attached to it, and for the time being this is
apparently quite
separate, so that the lion is as much an individual during his
physical life as
the man; but he is not a permanent individual. When he dies the
soul of him
flows back into the group-soul to which it belongs, and that
identical soul-lion
cannot be separated from the group.
A useful analogy may help comprehension. Imagine the group-soul to
be
represented by the water in a bucket, and the hundred lion bodies
by a hundred
tumblers. As each tumbler is dipped into the bucket it takes out
from it a
tumblerful of water (the separate soul). That water for the time
being takes the
shape of the vehicle which it fills, and is temporarily separate
from the water
which remains in the bucket, and from the water in the other
tumblers.
Now put into each of the hundred tumblers some kind of coloring
matter or some
kind of flavoring. That will represent the qualities developed by
its
experiences in the separate soul of the lion during its lifetime.
Pour back the
water from the tumbler into the bucket; that represents the death
of the lion.
The coloring matter or the flavoring will be distributed (Page 35)
through the
whole of the water in the bucket, but will be a much fainter
coloring, a much
less pronounced flavor when thus distributed than it was when
confined in one
tumbler. The qualities developed by the experience of one lion
attached to that
group-soul are therefore shared by the entire group-soul but in a
much lower
degree.
We may take out another tumblerful of water from that bucket, but
we can never
again get exactly the same tumblerful after it has once been
mingled with the
rest. Every tumblerful taken from that bucket in the future will
contain some
traces of the coloring or flavoring put into each tumbler whose
contents have
been returned to the bucket. Just so the qualities developed by the
experience
of a single lion will become the common property of all lions who
are in the
future to be born from that group-soul, though in a lesser degree
than that in
which they existed in the individual lion who developed them.
That is the explanation of inherited instincts; that is why the duckling
which
has been hatched by a hen takes to the water instantly without
needing to be
shown, how to swim; why the chicken just out of its shell will
cower at the
shadow of a hawk; why a bird which has been artificially hatched,
and has never
seen a nest, nevertheless knows how to make one, and makes it
according to the
traditions of its kind.
Lower down the scale of animal life enormous numbers of bodies are
attached to a
single group-soul – countless millions, for example, in the case of
some of the
smaller insects; but as we rise in the animal kingdom (Page 36) the
number of
bodies attached to a single group-soul becomes smaller and smaller,
and
therefore the differences between individuals become greater.
Thus the group-souls, gradually break up. Returning to the symbol
of the bucket,
as tumbler after tumbler of water is withdrawn from it, tinted with
some sort of
coloring matter and returned to it, the whole bucketful of water
gradually
becomes richer in color. Suppose that by imperceptible degrees a
kind of
vertical film forms itself across the center of the bucket, and
gradually
solidifies itself into a division, so that we have now a right half
and a left
half to the bucket, and each tumblerful of water which is taken out
is returned
always to the same half from which it came.
Then presently a difference will be set up, and the liquid in one
half of the
bucket will no longer be the same as that in the other. We have
then practically
two buckets, and when this stage is reached in a group-soul it
splits into two,
as a cell separates by fission. In this way, as the experience
grows ever
richer, the group-souls grow smaller but more numerous, until at
the highest
point we arrive at man with his single individual soul, which no
longer returns
into a group but remains always separate.
One of the life-waves is vivifying the whole of a kingdom; but not
every
group-soul in that life-wave will pass through the whole of that
kingdom from
the bottom to the top. If in the vegetable kingdom a certain
group-soul has
ensouled forest trees, when it passes on into the animal kingdom it
will omit
all (Page 37) the lower stages – that is, it will never inhabit
insects or
reptiles, but will begin at once at the level of the lower mammals.
The insects
and reptiles will be vivified by group-souls which have for some
reason left the
vegetable kingdom at a much lower level than the forest tree. In
the same way
the group-soul which has reached the highest levels of the animal
kingdom, will
not individualize into primitive savages but into men of somewhat
higher type,
the primitive savage being recruited from group-souls which have
left the animal
kingdom at a lower level.
Group-souls at any level or at all levels arrange themselves into
seven great
types, according to the Minister of the Deity through whom their life has
poured forth. These types are clearly distinguishable in all the
kingdoms, and
the successive forms taken by any one of them form a connected
series, so that
animals, vegetables, minerals and the varieties of the elemental
creatures may
all be arranged into seven groups, and the life coming along one of
those lines
will not diverge into any of the others.
No detailed list has yet been made of the animals, plants or
minerals from this
point of view; but it is certain that the life which is found
ensouling a
mineral of a particular type will never vivify a mineral of any
other type than
its own, though within that type it may vary. When it passes on to
the vegetable
and animal kingdoms it will inhabit vegetables and animals of that
type and of
no other, and when it eventually reaches humanity it will
individualize into men
of that type and of no other.(Page 38)
The method of individualization is the raising of the soul of a
particular
animal to a level so much higher than that attained by its
group-soul that it
can no longer return to the latter. This cannot be done with any
animal, but
only with those whose brain is developed to a certain level, and
the method
usually adopted to acquire such mental development is to bring the
animal into
close contact with man. Individualization, therefore, is possible
only for
domestic animals, and only for certain kinds even of those. At the
head of each
of the seven types stands one kind of domestic animal – the dog for
one, the cat
for another, the elephant for a third, the monkey for a fourth, and
so on. The
wild animals can all be arranged on seven lines leading up to the
domestic
animals; for example, the fox and the wolf are obviously on the
same line with
the dog, while the lion, the tiger and the leopard equally
obviously lead up to
the domestic cat; so that the group-soul animating a hundred lions
mentioned
some time ago might at a later stage of its evolution have divided
into, let us
say, five group-souls each animating twenty cats.
The life-wave spends a long period of time in each kingdom; we are
now only a
little past the middle of such an aeon, and consequently the
conditions are not
favourable for the achievement of that individualization which
normally comes
only at the end of a period. Rare instances of such attainment may
occasionally
be observed on the part of some animal much in advance of the
average. Close
association with man is necessary to produce this result. The
animal if (Page
39) kindly treated develops devoted affection for his human friend,
and also
unfolds his intellectual powers in trying to understand that friend
and to
anticipate his wishes. In addition to this, the emotions and the
thoughts of man
act constantly upon those of the animal, and tend to raise him to a
higher level
both emotionally and intellectually. Under favourable circumstances
this
development may proceed so far as to raise the animal altogether
out of touch
with the group to which he belongs, so that his fragment of a
group-soul becomes
capable of responding to the outpouring which comes from the First
Aspect of the
Deity.
For this final outpouring is not like the others, a mighty outrush
affecting
thousands or millions simultaneously; it comes to each one
individually as that
one is ready to receive it. This outpouring has already descended
as far as the
intuitional world; but it comes no farther than that until this
upward leap is
made by the soul of the animal from below; but when that happens
this Third
Outpouring leaps down to meet it, and in the higher mental world is
formed an
ego, a permanent individuality – permanent, that is, until, far
later in his
evolution, the man transcends it and reaches back to the divine
unity from which
he came. To make this ego, the fragment of the group-soul (which
has hitherto
played the part always of ensouling force) becomes in its turn a
vehicle, and is
itself ensouled by that divine Spark which has fallen into it from
on high. That
Spark may be said to have been hovering in the monadic world over
the group-soul
(Page 40) through the whole of its previous evolution, unable to
effect a
junction with it until its corresponding fragment in the group-soul
had
developed sufficiently to permit it. It is this breaking away from
the rest of
the group-soul and developing a separate ego which marks the
distinction between
the highest animal and the lowest man. (Page 41)
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CHAPTER V
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN
Man is therefore in essence a Spark of the divine Fire, belonging
to the monadic
world. (The President has now decided upon a set of names for the
planes, so for
the future these will be used instead of those previously employed.
A table of
them is given below for reference) To that Spark, dwelling all the
time in that
world, we give the name “Monad”. For the purpose of human evolution
Monad
manifests itself in lower worlds. When it descends one stage and
enters the
spiritual world, it shows itself there as the triple Spirit, having
itself three
aspects (just as in worlds infinitely higher the Deity has His
three Aspects.)
Of those three - one remains always in that world, and we call that
the Spirit
in man. The second aspect manifests itself in the intuitional
world, and we
speak of it as the Intuition in man. The third shows itself in the
higher mental
world, and we call it the Intelligence in man. These three aspects
taken
together constitute the ego which ensouls the fragment from the
group-soul. Thus
man as we know him, though in (Page 42)
New Names Old Names
1Divine World Âdi Plane
2Monadic World
Anupâdaka
3Spiritual World Âtmic
or Nirvânic Plane
4Intuitional World
Buddhic Plane
5Mental World Mental
Plane
6Emotional or Astral
World Astral Plane
7Physical World
Physical Plane
These will supersede
the names given in Vol. -II- of The Inner Life.
reality a Monad residing in the monadic world, shows himself as an
ego in the
higher mental world, manifesting these three aspects of himself
(Spirit,
Intuition and Intelligence) through that vehicle of higher mental
matter which
we name the casual body.
This ego is the man during the human stage of evolution; he is the
nearest
correspondence, in fact, to the ordinary unscientific conception of
the soul. He
lives unchanged (except for his growth) from the moment of
individualization
until humanity is transcended and merged into divinity. He is in no
way affected
by what we call birth and death; what we commonly consider as his
life is only a
day in his life. The body which we can see, the body which is born
and dies, is
a garment which he puts on for the purposes of a certain part of
his evolution.
Nor is it the only body which he assumes. Before he, the ego in the
higher
mental world, can take a vehicle belonging to the physical world,
he must make a
connection with it through the lower mental and astral worlds. When
he wishes to
descend he draws around himself a veil of the matter of the lower
mental world,
which we call his mental body. This is the instrument by means of
which he
thinks all his concrete thoughts – abstract thought being a power
of the ego
himself in the higher mental world.
Next he draws round himself a veil of astral matter, which we call
his astral
body; and that is the instrument of his passions and emotions, and
also (in
conjunction with the lower part of his mental body) (Page 43) the
instrument of
all such thought as is tinged by selfishness and personal feeling.
Only after
having assumed these intermediate vehicles can he come into touch
with a baby
physical body, and be born into the world which we know. He lives
through what
we call his life, gaining certain qualities as the result of its
experiences;
and at its end, when the physical body is worn out, he reverses the
process of
descent and lays aside one by one the temporary vehicles which he
has assumed.
The first to go is the physical body, and when that is dropped, his
life is
centered in the astral world and he lives in his astral body.
The length of his stay in that world depends upon the amount of
passion and
emotion which he has developed within himself in his physical life.
If there is
much of these the astral body is strongly vitalized, and will
persist for a long
time; if there is but little, the astral body has less vitality,
and he will
soon be able to cast that vehicle aside in turn. When that is done
he finds
himself living in his mental body. The strength of that depends
upon the nature
of the thoughts to which he had habituated himself, and usually his
stay at this
level is a long one. At last it comes to an end, he casts aside the
mental body
in turn, and is once more the ego in his own world.
Owing to lack of development, he is as yet but partially conscious
in that
world; the vibrations of its matter are too rapid to make any
impression upon
him, just as the ultraviolet rays are too rapid to make any
impression upon our
eyes. After a rest there, he feels the desire to descend to a level
where the
undulations (Page 44) are perceptible to him, in order that he may
feel himself
to be fully alive; so he repeats the process of descent into denser
matter, and
assumes once more a mental, an astral and a physical body. As his
previous
bodies have all disintegrated, each in its turn, these new vehicles
are entirely
distinct from them, and thus it happens that in his physical life
he has no
recollection whatever of other similar lives which have preceded
it.
When functioning in this physical world he remembers by means of
his mental
body; but since that is a new one, assumed only for this birth, it
naturally
cannot contain the memory of previous births in which it had no
part. The man
himself, the ego, does remember them all when in his own world, and
occasionally
some partial recollection of them or influence from them filters
through into
his lower vehicles. He does not usually, in his physical life,
remember the
experiences of earlier lives, but he does manifest in physical life
the
qualities which those experiences have developed in him. Each man
is therefore
exactly what he has made himself during those past lives; if he has
in them
developed good qualities in himself, he possesses the good qualities
now; if he
neglected to train himself, and consequently left himself weak and
of evil
disposition, he finds himself precisely in that condition now. The
qualities,
good or evil, with which he is born are those which he has made for
himself.
This development of the ego is the object of the whole process of
materialization; he assumes
those veils of matter precisely because through
them he is able (Page 45) to receive vibrations to which he can
respond, so that
his latent faculties may thereby be unfolded. Though man descends
from on high
into these lower worlds, it is only through that descent that a
full cognizance
of the higher worlds is developed in him. Full consciousness in any
given world
involves the power to perceive and respond to all the undulations
of that world;
therefore the ordinary man has not yet perfect consciousness at any
level – not
even in this physical world which he thinks he knows. It is
possible for him to
unfold his percipience in all these worlds, and it is by means of
such developed
consciousness that we observe all these facts which I am now
describing.
The causal body is the permanent vehicle of the ego in the higher
mental world.
It consists of matter of the first, second and third subdivisions
of that world.
In ordinary people it is not yet fully active, only that matter
which belongs to
the third subdivision being vivified. As the ego unfolds his latent
possibilities through the long course of his evolution, the higher
matter is
gradually brought into action, but it is only in the perfected man
whom we call
the Adept that it is developed to its fullest extent. Such matter
can be
discerned by clairvoyant sight, but only by a seer who knows how to
use the
sight of the ego.
It is difficult to describe a causal body fully, because the senses
belonging to
its world are altogether different from and higher than ours at
this level. Such
memory of the appearance of a causal body as it is possible for a
clairvoyant to
bring into his physical brain represents it as ovoid, and as
surrounding the
(Page 46) physical body of the man, extending to a distance of
about eighteen
inches from the normal surface of that body. In the case of
primitive man it
resembles a bubble, and gives the impression of being empty. It is
in reality
filled with higher mental matter, but as this is not yet brought
into activity
it remains colorless and transparent. As advancement continues it
is gradually
stirred into alertness by vibrations which reach it from the lower
bodies. This
comes but slowly, because the activities of man in the earlier
stages of his
evolution are not of a character to obtain expression in matter so
fine as that
of the higher mental body; but when a man reaches the stage where
he is capable
either of abstract thought or of unselfish emotion the matter of
the causal body
is aroused into response.
When these rates of undulation are awakened within him they show
themselves in
his causal body as colors, so that instead of being a mere
transparent bubble it
gradually becomes a sphere filled with matter of the most lovely
and delicate
hues – an object beautiful beyond all conception. It is found by
experience that
these colors are significant. The vibration which denotes the power
of unselfish
affection shows itself as a pale rose-color; that which indicates
high
intellectual power is yellow; that which expresses sympathy is
green, while blue
betokens devotional feeling, and a luminous lilac-blue typifies the
higher
spirituality. The same scheme of color significance applies to the
bodies which
are built of denser matter, but as we approach the physical world
the hues are
in every case by comparison grosser – not only less delicate but
also less
living.(Page 47)
In the course of evolution in the lower worlds man often introduces
into his
vehicles qualities which are undesirable and entirely inappropriate
for his life
as an ego – such, for example, as pride, irritability, sensuality.
These, like
the rest, are reducible to vibrations, but they are in all cases
vibrations of
the lower subdivisions of their respective worlds, and therefore
they cannot
reproduce themselves in the casual body, which is built exclusively
of the
matter of the three higher subdivisions of its world. For each
section of the
astral body acts strongly upon the corresponding section of the
mental body, but
only upon the corresponding section; it cannot influence any other
part. So the
casual body can be affected only by the three higher portions of
the astral
body; and the oscillations of those represent only good qualities.
The practical effect of this is that the man can build into the ego
(that is,
into his true self) nothing but good qualities; the evil qualities
which he
develops are in their nature transitory and must be thrown aside as
he advances,
because he has no longer within him matter which can express them.
The
difference between the causal bodies of the savage and the saint is
that the
first is empty and colorless, while the second is full of brilliant
coruscating
tints. As the man passes beyond even sainthood and becomes a great
spiritual
power, his causal body increases in size, because it has so much
more to
express, and it also begins to pour out from itself in all
directions powerful
rays of living light. In one who has attained Adeptship this body
is of enormous
dimensions.
The mental body is built of matter of the four lower (Page 48)
subdivisions of
the mental world, and expresses the concrete thoughts of the man.
Here also we
find the same color scheme as in the casual body. The hues are
somewhat less
delicate, and we notice one or two additions. For example, a
thought of pride
shows itself as orange, while irritability is manifested by a brilliant
scarlet.
We may see here sometimes the bright brown of avarice, the
grey-brown of
selfishness, and grey-green of deceit. Here also we perceive the
possibility of
a mixture of colors; the affection, the intellect, the devotion may
be tinged by
selfishness, and in that case their distinctive colors are mingled
with the
brown of selfishness, and so we have an impure and muddy
appearance. Although
its particles are always in intensely rapid motion among
themselves, this body
has at the same time a kind of loose organization.
The size and shape of the mental body are determined by those of
the causal
vehicle. There are in it certain striations which divide it more or
less
irregularly into segments, each of these corresponding to a certain
department
of the physical brain, so that every type of thought should
function through its
duly assigned portion. The mental body is as yet so imperfectly
developed in
ordinary men that there are many in whom a great number of special
departments
are not yet in activity, and any attempt at thought belonging to
those
departments has to travel round through some inappropriate channel
which happens
to be fully open. The result is that thought on those subjects is
for those
people clumsy and uncomprehending. (Page 49) This is why some
people have a head
for mathematics and others are unable to add correctly – why some
people
instinctively understand, appreciate and enjoy music, while others
do not know
one tune from another.
All the matter of the mental body should be circulating freely, but
sometimes a
man allows his thought upon
a certain subject to set and solidify, and then the
circulation is impeded, and there is congestion which presently
hardens into a
kind of wart on the mental body. Such a wart appears to us down
here as a
prejudice; and until it is absorbed and free circulation restored,
it is
impossible for man to think truly or to see clearly with regard to
that
particular department of his mind, as the congestion checks the
free passage of
undulations both outward and inward.
When a man uses any part of his mental body it not only vibrates
for the time
more rapidly, but it also temporarily swells out and increases in
size. If there
is prolonged thought upon a subject this increase becomes
permanent, and it is
thus open to any man to increase the size of his mental body either
along
desirable or undesirable lines.
Good thoughts produce vibrations of the finer matter of the body,
which by its
specific gravity tends to float in the upper part of the ovoid;
whereas bad
thoughts, such as selfishness and avarice, are always oscillations
of the
grosser matter, which tends to gravitate towards the lower part of
the ovoid.
Consequently the ordinary man, who yields himself not infrequently
to selfish
thoughts to various kinds, usually (Page 50) expands the lower part
of his
mental body, and presents roughly the appearance of an egg with its
larger end
downwards. The man who has repressed those lower thoughts, and
devoted himself
to higher ones, tends to expand the upper part of his mental body
and therefore
presents the appearance of an egg standing on its smaller end. From
a study of
the colors and striations of a man’s mental body the clairvoyant
can perceive
his character and the progress he has made in his present life.
From similar
features of the causal body he can see what progress the ego has
made since its
original formation, when the man left the animal kingdom.
When a man thinks of any concrete object – a book, a house, a
landscape – he
builds a tiny image of the object in the matter of his mental body.
This image
floats in the upper part of that body, usually in front of the face
of the man
and at about the level of the eyes. It remains there as long as the
man is
contemplating the object, and usually for a little time afterwards,
the length
of time depending upon the intensity and the clearness of the
thought. This form
is quite objective, and can be seen by another person, if that
other has
developed the sight of his own mental body. If a man thinks of
another, he
creates a tiny portrait in just the same way. If his thought is
merely
contemplative and involves no feeling (such as affection or
dislike) or desires
(such as a wish to see the person) the thought does not usually
perceptibly
affect the man of whom he thinks.
If coupled with the thought of the person there is a (Page 51)
feeling, as for
example of affection, another phenomenon occurs besides the forming
of the
image. The thought of affection takes a definite form, which it
builds out of
the matter of the thinker’s mental body. Because of the emotion
involved, it
draws round it also matter of his astral body, and thus we have an
astro-mental
form which leaps out of the body in which it has been generated,
and moves
through space towards the object of the feeling of affection. If
the thought is
sufficiently strong, distance makes absolutely no difference to it;
but the
thought of an ordinary person is usually weak and diffused, and is
therefore not
effective outside a limited area.
When this thought-form reaches its object it discharges itself into
his astral
and mental bodies, communicating to them its own rate of vibration.
Putting this
in another way, a thought of love sent from one person to another
involves the
actual transference of a certain amount both of force and of matter
from the
sender to the recipient, and its effect upon the recipient is to
arouse the
feeling of affection in him, and slightly but permanently to
increase his power
of loving. But such a thought also strengthens the power of
affection in the
thinker, and therefore it does good simultaneously to both.
Every thought builds a form; if the thought be directed to another
person it
travels to him; if it be distinctly selfish it remains in the
immediate
neighbourhood of the thinker; if it belongs to neither of these
categories it
floats for awhile in space and then slowly disintegrates. Every man
therefore is
leaving behind (Page 52) him wherever he goes a trail of
thought-forms; as we go
along the street we are walking all the same amidst a sea of other
men’s
thoughts. If a man leaves his mind blank for a time, these residual
thoughts of
others drifts through it, making in most cases but little
impression upon him.
Sometimes one arrives which attracts his attention, so that his
mind seizes upon
it and makes it its own, strengthens it by the addition of its
force, and then
casts it out again to affect somebody else. A man, therefore, is
not responsible
for a thought which floats into his mind, because it may be not
his, but someone
else’s, but he is responsible if he takes it up, dwells upon it and
then sends
it out strengthened.
Self-centered thought of any kind hangs about the thinker, and most
men surround
their mental bodies with a shell of such thoughts. Such a shell
obscures the
mental vision and facilitates the formation of prejudice.
Each thought-form is a temporary entity. It resembles a charged
battery,
awaiting an opportunity to discharge itself. Its tendency is always
to reproduce
its own rate of vibration in the mental body upon which it fastens
itself, and
so to arouse in it a like thought. If the person at whom it is aimed
happens to
be busy, or already engaged in some definite train of thought, the
particles of
his mental body are already swinging at a certain determinate rate,
and cannot
for the moment be affected from without. In that case the
thought-form bides its
time, hanging about its object until he is sufficiently at rest to
permit its
entrance; (Page 53) then it discharges itself upon him, and in the
act ceases to
exist.
The self-centered thought behaves in exactly the same way with
regard to its
generator, and discharges itself upon him when opportunity offers.
If it be an
evil thought he generally regards it as the suggestion of a
tempting demon,
whereas in truth he tempts himself. Usually each definite thought
creates a new
thought-form; but if a thought-form of the same nature is already
hovering round
the thinker, under certain circumstances a new thought on the same
subject,
instead of creating a new form, coalesces with and strengthens the
old one, so
that by long brooding over the same subject a man may sometimes
create a
thought-form of tremendous power. If the thought be a wicked one,
such a
thought-form may become a veritable evil influence, lasting perhaps
for many
years, and having for a time all the appearance and powers of a real
living
entity.
All these which have been described are the ordinary unpremeditated
thoughts of
man. A man can make a thought-form intentionally, and aim it at
another with the
object of helping him. This is one of the lines of activity adopted
by those who
desire to serve humanity. A steady stream of powerful thought
directed
intelligently upon another person may be of the greatest assistance
to him. A
strong thought-form may be a real guardian angel, and protect its
object from
impurity, from irritability or from fear.
An interesting branch of the subject is the study of the various
shapes and
colors taken by thought-forms (Page 54) of different kinds. The
colors indicate
the nature of the thought, and are in agreement with those which we
have already
described as existing in the bodies. The shapes are of infinite
variety, but are
often in some way typical of the kind of thought which they
express.
Every thought of definite character, such as a thought of affection
or hatred,
of devotion or suspicion, of anger or fear, of pride or jealousy,
not only
creates a form but also radiates an undulation. The fact that each
one of these
thoughts is expressed by a certain color indicates that the thought
expresses
itself as an oscillation of the matter of a certain part of the
mental body.
This rate of oscillation communicates itself to the surrounding
mental matter
precisely in the same way as the vibration of a bell communicates
itself to the
surrounding air.
This radiation travels out in all directions, and whenever it
impinges upon
another mental body in a passive or receptive condition it
communicates to it
something of its own vibration. This does not convey a definite
complete idea,
as does the thought-form, but it tends to produce a thought of the
same
character as itself. For example, if the thought be devotional its
undulations
will excite devotion, but the object of worship may be different in
the case of
each person upon whose mental body they impinge. The thought-form, on
the other
hand, can reach only one person, but will convey to that person (if
receptive)
not only a general devotional feeling, but also a precise image of
the Being for
whom the adoration was originally felt.(Page 55)
Any person who habitually thinks pure, good and strong thoughts is
utilizing for
that purpose the higher part of his mental body – a part which is
not used at
all by the ordinary man, and is entirely undeveloped in him. Such
an one is
therefore a power for good in the world, and is being of great use
to all those
of his neighbours who are capable of any sort of response. For the
vibration
which he sends out tends to arouse a new and higher part of their
mental bodies,
and consequently to open before them altogether new fields of thought.
It may not be exactly the same thought as that sent out, but it is
of the same
nature. The undulations generated by a man thinking of Theosophy do
not
necessarily communicate theosophical ideas to all those around him;
but they do
awaken in them more liberal and higher thought than that to which
they have
before been accustomed. On the other hand, the thought-forms
generated under
such circumstances, though more limited in their action than the
radiation, are
also more precise; they can affect only those who are to some
extent open to
them, but to them they will convey definite Theosophical ideas.
The colors of the astral body bear the same meaning as those of the
higher
vehicles, but are several octaves of color below them, and much
more nearly
approaching to such hues as we see in the physical world. It is the
vehicle of
passion and emotion and consequently it may exhibit additional
colors,
expressing man’s less desirable feelings, which cannot show
themselves at higher
levels; for example, a lurid brownish red indicates the presence of
sensuality,
while black (Page 56) clouds show malice and hatred. A curious
livid grey
betokens the presence of fear, and a much darker grey, usually
arranged in heavy
rings around the ovoid, indicates a condition of depression.
Irritability is
shown by the presence of a number of small scarlet flecks in the
astral body,
each representing a small angry impulse. Jealousy is shown by a
peculiar
brownish-green, generally studded with the same scarlet flecks. The
astral body
is in size and shape like those just described, and in the ordinary
man its
outline is usually clearly marked; but in the case of primitive man
it is often
exceedingly irregular, and resembles a rolling cloud composed of
all the more
unpleasant colors.
When the astral body is comparatively quiet (it is never actually
at rest) the
colors which are to be seen in it indicate those emotions to which
the man is
most in the habit of yielding himself. When the man experiences a
rush of any
particular feeling, the rate of vibration which expresses that
feeling dominates
for a time the entire astral body. If, for example, it be devotion,
the whole of
his astral body is flushed with blue, and while the emotion remains
at its
strongest the normal colors do little more than modify the blue, or
appear
faintly through a veil of it; but presently the vehemence of the
sentiment dies
away, and the normal colors reassert themselves. But because of
that spasm of
emotion the part of the astral body which is normally blue has been
increased in
size. Thus a man who frequently feels high devotion soon comes to
have a large
area of blue permanently existing in his astral body.(Page 57)
When the rush of devotional feeling comes over him it is usually
accompanied by
thoughts of devotion. Although primarily formed in the mental body,
these draw
round themselves a large amount of astral matter as well, so that
their action
is in both worlds. In both worlds also is the radiation which was
previously
described, so that devotional man is a center of devotion, and will
influence
other people to share both his thoughts and his feelings. The same
is true in
the case of affection, anger, depression – and, indeed, of all
other feelings.
The flood of emotion does not itself greatly affect the mental
body, although
for a time it may render it almost impossible for any activity from
that mental
body to come through into the physical brain. That is not because
that body
itself is affected, but because the astral body, which acts as a
bridge between
it and the physical brain, is vibrating so entirely at one rate as
to be
incapable of conveying any undulation which is not in harmony with
that.
The permanent colors of the astral body reacts upon the mental.
They produce in
it their correspondences, several octaves higher, in the same
manner as a
musical note produces overtones. The mental body in its turn reacts
upon the
causal in the same way, and thus all the good qualities expressed
in the lower
vehicles by degrees establish themselves permanently in the ego.
The evil
qualities cannot do so, as the rates of vibration which express
them are
impossible for the higher mental matter of which the causal body is
constructed.(Page 58)
So far, we have described vehicles which are the expression of the
ego in their
respective worlds – vehicles which he provides for himself; in the
physical
world we come to a vehicle which is provided for him by nature
under laws which
will be explained later – which , though also in some sense an
expression of
him, is by no means a perfect manifestation. In ordinary life we
see only a
small part of this physical body – only that which is built of the
solid and
liquid subdivisions of physical matter. The body contains matter of
all the
seven subdivisions, and all of them play their part in its life and
are of equal
importance to it.
We usually speak of the invisible part of the physical body as the
etheric
double; “double” because it exactly reproduces the size and shape
of the part of
the body that we can see, and “etheric” because it is built of that
finer kind
of matter by the vibrations of which light is conveyed to the
retina of the eye.
(This must not be confused with the true aether of space – that of
which matter
is the negation.) This invisible part of the physical body is of
great
importance to us, since it is the vehicle through which flow the
streams of
vitality which keeps the body alive, and without it, as a bridge to
convey
undulations of thought and feeling from the astral to the visible
denser
physical matter, the ego could make no use of the cells of his
brain.
The life of a physical body is one of perpetual change and in order
that it
shall live, it needs constantly to be supplied from three distinct
sources. It
must have food for its digestion, air for its breathing, (Page 59)
and vitality
for its absorption. This vitality is essentially a force, but when
clothed in
matter it appears to us a definite element, which exists in all the
worlds of
which we have spoken. At the moment we are concerned with that
manifestation of
it which we find in the highest subdivision of the physical world.
Just as the
blood circulates through the veins, so does the vitality circulate
along the
nerves; and precisely as any abnormality in the flow of the blood
at once
affects the physical body so does the slightest irregularity in the
absorption
or flow of the vitality affect this higher part of the physical
body.
Vitality is a force which comes originally from the sun. When an
ultimate
physical atom is charged with it, it draws round itself six other
atoms and
makes itself into an etheric element. The original force of
vitality is then
subdivided into seven, each of the atoms carrying a separate
charge. The element
thus made is absorbed into the human body through the etheric part
of the
spleen. It is there split up into its component parts, which at
once flow to the
various parts of the body assigned to them. The spleen is one of
the seven
force-centers in the etheric part of the physical body. In each of
our vehicles
seven such centers should be in activity, and when they are thus
active they are
visible to clairvoyant sight. They appear usually as shallow
vortices, for they
are the points at which the force from the higher bodies enters the
lower. In
the physical body these centers are: (1) at the base of the spine,
(2) at the
solar plexus, (3) at the spleen, (4) over the heart, (5) at the
throat, (Page 60
) (6) between the eyebrows, and (7) at the top of the head. There
are other
dormant centers, but their awakening is undesirable.
The shape of all the higher bodies as seen by the clairvoyant is
ovoid, but the
matter composing them is not equally distributed throughout the
egg. In the
midst of this ovoid is the physical body. The physical body
strongly attracts
astral matter, and in its turn the astral matter strongly attracts
mental
matter. Therefore by far the greater part of the matter of the
astral body is
gathered within the physical frame; and the same is true of the
mental vehicle.
If we see the astral body of a man in its own world, apart from the
physical
body, we shall still perceive the astral matter aggregated in
exactly the shape
of the physical, although, as the matter is more fluidic in its
nature, what we
see is a body built of dense mist, in the midst of an ovoid of much
finer mist.
The same is true for the mental body. Therefore, if in the astral
or the mental
world we should meet an acquaintance, we should recognize him by
his appearance
just as instantly as in the physical world.
This, then, is the true constitution of man. In the first place he
is a Monad, a
Spark of the Divine. Of that Monad the ego is a partial expression,
formed in
order that he may enter evolution, and may return to the Monad with
joy,
bringing his sheaves with him in the shape of qualities developed
by garnered
experience. The ego in his turn puts down part of himself for the
same purpose
into lower worlds, and we call that part a personality, because the
Latin word
persona (Page 61) means a mask, and this personality is the mask
which the ego
puts upon himself when he manifests in worlds lower than his own.
Just as the
ego is a small part and an imperfect expression of the Monad, so is
the
personality a small part and an imperfect expression of the ego; so
that what we
usually think of as the man is only in truth a fragment of a
fragment.
The personality wears three bodies or vehicles, the mental, the
astral and the
physical. While the man is what we call alive and awake on the
physical earth he
is limited by his physical body, for he uses the astral and mental
bodies only
as bridges to connect himself with his lowest vehicle. One of the
limitations of
the physical body is that it quickly becomes fatigued and needs
periodical rest.
Each night the man leaves it to sleep, and withdraws into his
astral vehicle,
which does not become fatigued, and therefore needs no sleep.
During this sleep
of the physical body the man is free to move about the astral
world; but the
extent to which he does this depends upon his development. The
primitive savage
usually does not move more than a few miles away from his sleeping
physical form
– often not as much as that; and he has only the vaguest
consciousness.
The educated man is generally able to travel in his astral vehicle
wherever he
will, and has much more consciousness in the astral world, though
he has not
often the faculty of bringing into his waking life any memory of
what he has
seen and done while his physical body was asleep. Sometimes he does
remember
some incident which he has seen, some experience (Page 62) which he
has had, and
then he calls it a vivid dream. More often his recollections are
hopelessly
entangled with vague memories of waking life, and with impressions
made from
without upon the etheric part of his brain. Thus we arrive at the
confused and
often absurd dreams of ordinary life. The developed man becomes as
fully
conscious and active in the astral world as in the physical, and
brings through
into the latter full remembrance of what he has been doing in the
former – that
is, he has a continuous life without any loss of consciousness
throughout the
whole twenty-four hours, and thus throughout the whole of his
physical life, and
even through death itself.(Page 63)
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CHAPTER VI
AFTER DEATH
Death is the laying aside of the physical body; but it makes no
more difference
to the ego than does the laying aside of an overcoat to the
physical man. Having
put off his physical body, the ego continues to live in his astral
body until
the force has become exhausted which has been generated by such
emotions and
passions as he has allowed himself to feel during earth life. When
that has
happened, the second death takes place; the astral body also falls
away from
him, and he finds himself living in the mental body and in the
lower mental
world. In that condition he remains until the thought forces
generated during
his physical and astral lives have worn themselves out; then he
drops the third
vehicle in its turn and remains once more an ego in his own world,
inhabiting
his causal body.
There is, then, no such thing as death as it is ordinarily
understood. There is
only a succession of stages in a continuous life – stages lived in the
three
worlds one after another. The apportionment of time between these
three worlds
varies much as man advances. The primitive man lives almost
exclusively in the
physical world, spending only a few years in the astral at the end
of each of
his physical lives. As he develops, the astral life becomes longer,
and as
intellect (Page 64) unfolds in him, and he becomes able to think,
he begins to
spend a little time in the mental world as well. The ordinary man
of civilized
races remains longer in the mental world than in the physical and
astral;
indeed, the more a man evolves the longer becomes his mental life
and the
shorter his life in the astral world.
The astral life is the result of all feelings which have in them
the element of
self. If they have been directly selfish, they bring him into
conditions of
great unpleasantness in the astral world; if, though tinged with
thoughts of
self, they have been good and kindly they bring him a comparatively
pleasant
though still limited astral life. Such of his thoughts and feelings
as have been
entirely unselfish produce their result in his life in the mental
world;
therefore that life in the mental world cannot be other than
blissful. The
astral life, which the man has made for himself either miserable or
comparatively joyous, corresponds to what Christians call
purgatory; the lower
mental life, which is always entirely happy, is what is called
heaven.
Man makes for himself his own purgatory and heaven, and these are
not planes,
but states of consciousness. Hell does not exist; it is only a
figment of the
theological imagination; but a man who lives foolishly may make for
himself a
very unpleasant and long-enduring purgatory. Neither purgatory nor
heaven can
ever be eternal, for a finite cause cannot produce an infinite
result. The
variations in individual cases are so wide that to give actual
figures is
somewhat misleading. If we take the average man of (Page 65) what
is called the
lower middle class, the typical specimen of which would be a small
shopkeeper or
shop-assistant, his average life in the astral world would be
perhaps about
forty years, and the life in the mental world about two hundred.
The man of
spirituality and culture, on the other hand, may have perhaps
twenty years of
life in the astral world and a thousand in the heaven life. One who
is specially
developed may reduce the astral life to a few days or hours and
spend fifteen
hundred years in heaven.
Not only does the length of these periods vary greatly, but the
conditions in
both worlds also differ widely. The matter of which all these
bodies are built
is not dead matter but living, and that fact has to be taken into
consideration.
The physical body is built up of cells, each of which is a tiny
separate life
animated by the Second Outpouring, which comes forth from the
Second Aspect of
the Deity. These cells are of varying kinds and fulfill various
functions, and
all these facts must be taken into account if the man wishes to
understand the
work of his physical body and to live a healthy life in it.
The same thing applies to the astral and mental bodies. In the cell
life which
permeates them there is as yet nothing in the way of intelligence,
but there is
a strong instinct always pressing in the direction of what is for
its
development. The life animating the matter of which such bodies are
built is
upon the outward arc of evolution, moving downwards or outwards
into matter, so
that progress for it means to descend into denser forms of matter,
and to learn
to express itself (Page 66) through them. Unfoldment for the man is
just the
opposite of this; he has already sunk deeply into matter and is now
rising out
of that towards his source. There is consequently a constant
conflict of
interests between the man within and the life inhabiting the matter
of his
vehicles, inasmuch as its tendency is downward, while his is
upward.
The matter of the astral body (or rather the life animating its
molecules)
desires for its evolution such undulations as it can get, of as
many different
kinds as possible, and as coarse as possible. The next step in its
evolution
will be to ensoul physical matter and become used to its still
slower
oscillations; and as a step on the way to that, it desires the
grossest of the
astral vibrations. It has not the intelligence definitely to plan
for these; but
its instinct helps it to discover how most easily to procure them.
The molecules of the astral body are constantly changing, as are
those of the
physical body, but nevertheless the life in the mass of those
astral molecules
has a sense, though a very vague sense, of itself as a whole – as a
kind of
temporary entity. It does not know that it is part of a man’s
astral body; it is
quite capable of understanding what a man is; but it realizes in a
blind way
that under its present conditions it receives many more waves, and
much stronger
ones, than it would receive if floating at large in the atmosphere.
It would
then only occasionally catch, as from a distance, the radiation of
man’s
passions and emotions; now it is in the very heart of them, it can
miss none,
and it gets them at their strongest. Therefore it (Page 67) feels
itself in a
good position, and it makes an effort to retain that position. It
finds itself
in contact with something finer than itself – the matter of the
man’s mental
body; and it comes to feel that if it can contrive to involve that
finer
something in its own undulations, they will be greatly intensified
and
prolonged.
Since astral matter is the vehicle of desire and mental matter is
the vehicle of
thought, this instinct, when translated into our language, means
that if the
astral body can induce us to think that we want what it wants, it
is much more
likely to get it. Thus it exercises a slow steady pressure upon the
man – a kind
of hunger on its side, but for him a temptation to what is coarse
and
undesirable. If he be a passionate man there is a gentle but
ceaseless pressure
in the direction of irritability; if he be a sensual man, an
equally steady
pressure in the direction of impurity.
A man who does not understand this usually makes one of two
mistakes with regard
to it: either he supposes it to be the prompting of his own nature,
and
therefore regards that nature as inherently evil; or he thinks of
the pressure
as coming from outside – as temptation of an imaginary devil. The
truth lies
between the two. The pressure is natural, not to the man but to the
vehicle
which he is using; its desire is natural and right for it, but
harmful to the
man, and therefore it is necessary that he should resist it. If he
does so
resist, if he declines to yield himself to the feelings suggested
to him, the
particles within him which need those vibrations become apathetic
for lack of
nourishment, and eventually atrophy and fall out (Page 68) from his
astral body,
and are replaced by other particles, whose natural wave rate is
more nearly in
accordance with that which the man habitually permits within his
astral body.
This gives the reason for what are called promptings of the lower
nature during
life. If the man yields himself to them, such promptings grow
stronger and
stronger until at least he feels as though he could not resist
them, and
identifies himself with them – which is exactly what this curious
half-life in
the particles of the astral body wants him to do.
At the death of the physical body this vague astral consciousness
is alarmed. It
realizes that its existence as a separated mass is menaced, and it
takes
instinctive steps to defend itself and to maintain its position as
long as
possible. The matter of the astral body is far more fluidic than
that of the
physical, and this consciousness seizes upon its particles and
disposes them so
as to resist encroachment. It puts the grossest and densest upon
the outside as
a kind of shell, and arranges the others in concentric layers, so
that the body
as a whole may become as resistant to friction as its constitution
permits, and
may therefore retain its shape as long as possible.
For the man this produces various unpleasant effects. The
physiology of the
astral body is quite different from that of the physical; the
latter acquires
its information from without by means of certain organs which are
specialized as
the instruments of its senses, but the astral body has no separated
senses in
our meaning of the word. That which for the astral body (Page 69)
corresponds to
sight is the power of its molecules to respond to impacts from without,
which
come to them by means of similar molecules. For example, a man has
within his
astral body matter belonging to all the subdivisions of the astral
world, and it
is because of that that he is capable of “seeing” objects built of
the matter of
any of these subdivisions.
Supposing an astral object to be made of the matter of the second
and third
subdivisions mixed, a man living in the astral world could perceive
that object
only if on the surface of his astral body there were particles
belonging to the
second and third subdivisions of that world which were capable of
receiving and
recording the vibrations which that object set up. A man who from
the
arrangement of his body by the vague consciousness of which we have
spoken, had
on the outside of that vehicle only the denser matter of the lowest
subdivision,
could no more be conscious of the object which we have mentioned
than we are
ourselves conscious in the physical body of the gases which move
about us in the
atmosphere or of objects built exclusively of etheric matter.
During physical life the matter of the man’s astral body is in
constant motion,
and its particles pass among one another much as do those of
boiling water.
Consequently at any given moment it is practically certain that
particles of all
varieties will be represented on the surface of his astral body,
and that
therefore when he is using his astral body during sleep he will be
able to “see”
by its means any astral object which approaches him.(Page 70)
After death, if he has allowed the rearrangement to be made (as
from ignorance,
all ordinary persons do) his condition in this respect will be
different. Having
on the surface of his astral body only the lowest and grossest
particles, he can
receive impressions only from corresponding particles outside; so
that instead
of seeing the whole of the astral world about him, he will see only
one-seventh
of it, and that the densest and most impure. The vibrations of this
heavier
matter are the expressions only of objectionable feelings and
emotions, and of
the least refined class of astral entities. Therefore it emerges
that a man in
this condition can see only the undesirable inhabitants of the
astral world, and
can feel only its most unpleasant and vulgar influences.
He is surrounded by other men, whose astral bodies are probably of
quite
ordinary character; but since he can see and feel only what is
lowest and
coarsest in them, they appear to him to be monsters of vice with no
redeeming
features. Even his friends seem not at all what they used to be,
because he is
now incapable of appreciating any of their better qualities. Under
these
circumstances it is little wonder that he considers the astral
world a hell; yet
the fault is in no way with the astral world, but with himself –
first, for
allowing himself so much of that ruder type of matter, and
secondly, for letting
that vague astral consciousness dominate him and dispose it in that
particular
way.
The man who has studied these matters declines absolutely to yield
to the
pressure during life or to permit the rearrangement after death,
and
consequently he retains his power of seeing the astral world as a
(Page 71)
whole, and not merely the cruder and baser part of it.
The astral world has many points in common with the physical; just
like the
physical, it presents different appearances to different people,
and even to the
same person at different periods of his career. It is the home of
emotion and of
lower thoughts; and emotions are much stronger in that world than
in this. When
a person is awake we cannot see that larger part of his emotion at
all; its
strength goes in setting in motion the gross physical matter of the
brain. So if
we see a man show affection here, what we can see is not the whole
of his
affection, but only such part of it as is left after all this other
work has
been done. Emotions therefore bulk far more largely in the astral
life than in
the physical. They in no way exclude higher thought if they are
controlled, so
in the astral world as in the physical a man may devote himself to
study and to
helping his fellows, or he may waste his time and drift about
aimlessly.
The astral world extends nearly to the mean distance of the orbit
of the moon;
but though the whole of this realm is open to any of its
inhabitants who have
not permitted the redistribution of their matter, the great
majority remain much
nearer to the surface of the earth. The matter of the different
subdivisions of
that world interpenetrates with perfect freedom, but there is on
the whole a
general tendency for the denser matter to settle towards the
center. The
conditions are much like
those which obtain in a bucket of water which contains
in suspension a number of kinds of matter of different degrees of
density. Since
the water is kept in perpetual motion, the different kinds of
matter (Page 72)
are diffused through it; but in spite of that, the densest matter
is found in
greatest quantity nearest to the bottom. So that though we must not
at all think
of the various subdivisions of the astral world as lying above one
another as do
the coats of an onion, it is nevertheless true that the average
arrangement of
the matter of those subdivisions partakes somewhat of that general
character.
Astral matter interpenetrates physical matter precisely as though
it were not
there, but each subdivision of physical matter has a strong
attraction for
astral matter of the corresponding subdivision. Hence it arises
that every
physical body has its astral counterpart. If I have a glass of
water standing
upon a table, the glass and the table, being of physical matter in
the solid
state, are interpenetrated by astral matter of the lowest
subdivision. The water
in the glass, being liquid, is interpenetrated by astral matter of
the sixth
subdivision; whereas the air surrounding both, being physical matter in the
gaseous condition, is entirely interpenetrated by astral gaseous
matter – that
is, astral matter of the fifth subdivision.
But just as air, water, glass and table are alike interpenetrated
all the time
by the finer physical matter which we have called etheric, so are
all the astral
counterparts interpenetrated by the finer astral matter of the
higher
subdivisions which correspond to the etheric. But even the astral
solid is less
dense than the finest of the physical ethers.
The man who finds himself in the astral world after (Page 73)
death, if he has
not submitted to the rearrangement of the matter of his body, will
notice but
little difference from physical life. He can float about in any
direction at
will, but in actual fact he usually stays in the neighbourhood to
which he is
accustomed. He is still able to perceive his house, his room, his
furniture, his
relations, his friends. The living, when ignorant of the higher
worlds, suppose
themselves to have “lost” those who have laid aside their physical
bodies; but
the dead are never for a moment under the impression that they have
lost the
living.
Functioning as they are in the astral body, the dead can no longer
see the
physical bodies of those whom they have left behind; but they do
see their
astral bodies, and as those are exactly the same in outline as the
physical,
they are perfectly aware of the presence of their friends. They see
each one
surrounded by a faint ovoid of luminous mist, and if they happen to
be
observant, they may notice various other small changes in the
surroundings; but
it is at least quite clear to them that they have not gone away to
some distant
heaven or hell, but still remain in touch with the world which they
know,
although they see it at a somewhat different angle.
The dead man has the astral body of his living friends obviously
before him, so
he cannot think of him as lost; but while the friend is awake, the
dead man will
not be able to make any impression upon him, for the consciousness
of the friend
is then in the physical world, and his astral body is being used
only as a
bridge. The dead man cannot therefore communicate (Page 74) with
his friend, nor
can he read his friend’s higher thoughts; but he will see by the
change in color
in the astral body any emotion which that friend may feel, and with
a little
practice and observation he may easily learn to read all those
thoughts of his
friend which have in them anything of self or of desire.
When the friend falls asleep the whole position is changed. He is
then also
conscious in the astral world side by side with the dead man, and
they can
communicate in every respect as freely as they could during
physical life. The
emotions felt by the living react strongly upon the dead who love
them. If the
former give way to grief, the latter cannot but suffer severely.
The conditions of life after death are almost infinite in their
variety, but
they can be calculated without difficulty by any one who will take
the trouble
to understand the astral world and to consider the character of the
person
concerned. That character is not in the slightest degree changed by
death; the
man’s thoughts, emotions and desires are exactly the same as
before. He is in
every way the same man, minus his physical body, and his happiness
or misery
depends upon the extent to which this loss of the physical body
affects him.
If his longings have been such as need a physical body for their
gratification,
he is likely to suffer considerably. Such a craving manifests
itself as a
vibration in the astral body, and while we are still in this world
most of its
strength is employed in setting in motion the heavy physical
particles. Desire
is therefore (Page 75) a far greater force in the astral life than
in the
physical, and if the man has not been in the habit of controlling
it, and if in
this new life it cannot be satisfied, it may cause him great and
long-continued
trouble.
Take as an illustration the extreme case of a drunkard or a
sensualist. Here we
have a lust which has been strong enough during physical life to
overpower
reason, common-sense and all the feelings of decency and of family
affection.
After death the man finds himself in the astral world feeling the
appetite
perhaps a hundred times more strongly, yet absolutely unable to
satisfy it
because he has lost the physical body. Such a life is a very real
hell – the
only hell there is; yet no one is punishing him; he is reaping the
perfectly
natural result of his own action. Gradually as time passes this
force of desire
wears out, but only at the cost of terrible suffering for the man,
because to
him every day seems as a thousand years. He has no measure of time
such as we
have in the physical world. He can measure it only by his
sensations. From a
distortion of this fact has come the blasphemous idea of eternal
damnation.
Many other cases less extreme than this will readily suggest
themselves, in
which a hankering which cannot be fulfilled may prove itself a
torture. A more
ordinary case is that of a man who has no particular vices, such as
drink or
sensuality, but yet has been attached entirely to things of the
physical world,
and has lived a life devoted to business or to aimless social
functions. For him
the astral world is a place of (Page 76) weariness; the only things
for which he
craves are no longer possible for him, for in the astral world
there is no
business to be done, and, though he may have as much companionship
as he wishes,
society is now for him a very different matter, because all the
pretences upon
which it is usually based in this world are no longer possible.
These cases, however, are only the few, and for most people the
state after
death is much happier than life upon earth. The first feeling of
which the dead
man is usually conscious is one of the most wonderful and
delightful freedom. He
has absolutely nothing to worry about, and no duties rest upon him,
except those
which he chooses to impose upon himself. For all but a very small
minority,
physical life is spent in doing what the man would much rather not
do; but he
has to do it in order to support himself or his wife and family. In
the astral
world no support is necessary; food is no longer needed, shelter is
not
required, since he is entirely unaffected by heat or cold; and each
man by the
mere exercise of his thought clothes himself as he wishes. For the
first time
since early childhood the man is entirely free to spend the whole
of his time in
doing exactly just what he likes.
His capacity for every kind of enjoyment is greatly enhanced, if
only that
enjoyment does not need a physical body for expression. If he loves
the beauties
of Nature, it is now within his power to travel with great rapidity
and without
fatigue over the whole world, to contemplate all its loveliest
spots, and to
explore its most secret recesses. If he delights in art, (Page 77)
all the
world’s masterpieces are at his disposal. If he loves music, he can
go where he
will to hear it, and it will now mean much more to him than it has
ever meant
before; for though he can no longer hear the physical sounds, he
can receive the
whole effect of the music into himself in far fuller measure than
in this lower
world. If he is a student of science, he not only can visit the
great scientific
men of the world, and catch from them such thoughts and ideas as
may be within
his comprehension, but also he can undertake the researches of his
own into the
science of this higher world, seeing much more of what he is doing
than has ever
before been possible to him. Best of all, he whose great delight in
this world
has been to help his fellow men will still find ample scope for his
philanthropic efforts.
Men are no longer hungry, cold, or suffering from disease in this
astral world;
but there are vast numbers who, being ignorant, desire knowledge –
who, being
still in the grip of desire for earthly things, need the
explanation which will
turn their thought to higher levels – who have entangled themselves
in a web of
their own imaginings, and can be set free only by one who
understands these new
surroundings and can help them distinguish the facts of the world
from their own
ignorant misrepresentation of them. All these can be helped by the
man of
intelligence and of kindly heart. Many men arrive in the astral
world in utter
ignorance of its conditions, not realizing at first that they are
dead, and when
they do realize it fearing the fate that may be in store for them,
because of
false (Page 78) and wicked theological teaching. All of these need
the cheer and
comfort which can only be given to them by a man of common sense
who possesses
some knowledge of the facts of nature.
There is thus no lack of the most profitable occupation for any man
whose
interests during his physical life have been rational; nor is there
any lack of
companionship. Men whose tastes and pursuits are similar drift
naturally
together there just as they do here; and many realms of Nature,
which during our
physical life are concealed by the dense veil of matter, now lie
open for the
detailed study of those who care to examine them.
To a large extent people make their own surroundings. We have
already referred
to the seven subdivisions of this astral world. Numbering these
from the highest
and least material downwards, we find that they fall naturally into
three
classes – division one, two and three forming one such class, and
four, five and
six another; while the seventh and lowest of all stands alone. As I
have said,
although they all interpenetrate, their substance has a general
tendency to
arrange itself according to its specific gravity, so that most of
the matter
belonging to the higher subdivisions is found at a greater
elevation above the
surface of the earth than the bulk of the matter of the lower
portions.
Hence, although any person inhabiting the astral world can move
into any part of
it, his natural tendency is to float at the level which corresponds
with the
specific gravity of the heaviest matter in his astral (Page 79)
body. The man
who has not permitted the rearrangement of the matter of his astral
body after
death is entirely free of the whole astral world; but the majority,
who do
permit it, are not equally free – not because there is anything to
prevent them
from rising to the highest level or sinking to the lowest, but
because they are
able to sense clearly only a certain part of that world.
I have described something of the fate of a man who is on the
lowest level, shut
in by a strong shell of coarse matter. Because of the extreme
comparative
density of that matter he is conscious of less outside of his own
subdivision
than a man at any other level. The general specific gravity of his
own astral
body tends to make him float below the surface of the earth. The
physical matter
of the earth is absolutely non-existent to his astral senses, and
his natural
attraction is to that least delicate form of astral matter which is
the
counterpart of that solid earth. A man who has confined himself to
that lowest
subdivision will therefore usually find himself floating in
darkness and cut off
to a great extent from others of the dead, whose lives have been
such as to keep
them on a higher level.
Divisions four, and six of the astral world (to which most people
are attracted)
have for their background the astral counterpart of the physical
world in which
we live, and all its familiar accessories. Life in the sixth
subdivision is
simply like our ordinary life on this earth minus the physical body
and its
necessities while as it ascends through the fifth and (Page 80)
fourth divisions
it becomes less and less material and is more and more withdrawn
from our lower
world and its interests.
The first, second and third sections, though occupying the same
space, yet give
the impression of being much further removed from the physical, and
correspondingly less material. Men who inhabit these levels lose
sight of the
earth and its belongings; they are usually deeply self-absorbed,
and to a large
extent create their own surroundings, though these are sufficiently
objective to
be perceptible to other men of their level, and also to clairvoyant
vision.
This region is the summerland of which we hear in spiritualistic
circles – the
world in which, by the exercise of their thought, the dead call
into temporary
existence their houses and schools and cities. These surroundings,
though
fanciful from our point of view, are to the dead as real as houses,
temples or
churches built of stone are to us, and many people live very
contentedly there
for a number of years in the midst of all these thought creations.
Some of the scenery thus produced is very beautiful; it includes
lovely lakes,
magnificent mountains, pleasant gardens, decidedly superior to
anything in the
physical world; though on the other hand it also contains much
which to the
trained clairvoyant (who has learned to see things as they are)
appears
ridiculous – as, for example, the endeavors of the unlearned to
make a thought
form of some of the curious symbolic descriptions contained in
their various
scriptures. An ignorant peasant’s thought image of a beast full of
(Page 81)
eyes within, or of a sea of glass mingled with fire, is naturally
often
grotesque, although to its maker it is perfectly satisfactory. This
astral world
is full of thought-created figures and landscapes. Men of all
religions image
here their deities and their respective conceptions of paradise, and
enjoy
themselves greatly among these dream forms until they pass into the
mental world
and come into touch with something nearer to reality.
Every one after death – any ordinary person, that is, in whose case
the
rearrangement of the matter of the astral body has been made – has
to pass
through all these subdivisions in turn. It does not follow that
every one is
conscious in all of them. The ordinary decent person has in his
astral body but
little of the matter of its lowest portion – by no means enough to
construct a
heavy shell. The redistribution puts on the outside of the body its
densest
matter; in the ordinary man this is usually matter of the sixth
subdivision,
mixed with a little of the seventh, and so he finds himself viewing
the
counterpart of the physical world.
The ego is steadily withdrawing into himself, and as he withdraws
he leaves
behind him level after level of this astral matter. So the length
of the man’s
detention in any section of the astral world is precisely in
proportion to the
amount of its matter which is found in his astral body, and that in
turn depends
upon the life he has lived, the desires he has indulged, and the
class of matter
which by so doing he has attracted towards him and built into
himself. Finding
(Page 82) himself then in the sixth section, still hovering about
the places and
persons with which he was most closely connected while on earth,
the average man
as time passes on finds the earthly surroundings gradually growing
dimmer and
becoming of less and less importance to him, and he tends more and
more to mould
his entourage into agreement with the more persistent of his
thoughts. By the
time that he reaches the third level he finds that this
characteristic has
entirely superseded the vision of the realities of the astral
world.
The second subdivision is a shade less material than the third, for
if the
latter is the summerland of the spiritualists, the former is the
material heaven
of the more ignorant orthodox; while the first or highest level
appears to be
the special home of those who during life have devoted themselves
to
materialistic but intellectual pursuits, following them not for the
sake of
benefiting their fellow men, but either from motives of selfish
ambition or
simply for the sake of intellectual exercise. All these people are
perfectly
happy. Later on they will reach a stage when they can appreciate
something much
higher, and when that stage comes they will find the higher ready
for them.
In this astral life people of the same nation and of the same
interests tend to
keep together, precisely as they do here. The religious people, for
example, who
imagine for themselves a material heaven, do not at all interfere with
men of
other faiths whose ideas of celestial joy are different. There is
nothing to
prevent a Christian from drifting into the heaven of the Hindu
(Page 83) or the
Mohammedan, but he is little likely to do so, because his interests
and
attractions are all in the heaven of his own faith, along with
friends who have
shared that faith with him. This is by no means the true heaven
described by any
of the religions, but only a gross and material misrepresentation
of it; the
real thing will be found when we come to consider the mental world.
The dead man who has not permitted the rearrangement of the matter
of his astral
body is free of the entire world, and can wander all over it at
will, seeing the
whole of whatever he examines, instead of only a part of it as the
others do. He
does not find it inconveniently crowded, for the astral world is
much larger
than the surface of the physical earth, while its population is
somewhat
smaller, because the average life of humanity in the astral world
is shorter
than the average of the physical.
Not only the dead, however, are the inhabitants of this astral
world, but always
about one third of the living as well, who have temporarily left
their physical
bodies behind them in sleep. The astral world has also a great
number of
non-human inhabitants, some of them far below the level of man, and
some
considerably above him. The nature spirits form an enormous
kingdom, some of
whose members exist in the astral world, and make a large part of
its
population. This vast kingdom exists in the physical world also,
for many of its
orders wear etheric bodies, and are only just beyond the range of
ordinary
physical sight. Indeed, circumstances not infrequently occur under
(Page 84)
which they can be seen, and in many lonely mountain districts these
appearances
are traditional among the peasants, by whom they are commonly
spoken of as
fairies, good people, pixies or brownies.
They are protéan, but usually prefer to wear a miniature human
form. Since they
are not yet individualized, they may be thought of almost as
etheric and astral
animals; yet many of them are intellectually quite equal to average
humanity.
They have their nations and types just as we have, and they are
often grouped
into four great classes, and called the spirits of earth, water,
fire and air.
Only the members of the last of these four divisions normally
reside in the
astral world, but their numbers as so prodigious that they are
everywhere
present in it.
Another great kingdom has its representatives here – the kingdom of
the angels
(called in India the devas). This is a body of beings who stand far
higher in
evolution than man, and only the lowest fringe of their hosts
touches the astral
world – a fringe whose constituent members are perhaps at about the
level of
development of what we should call a distinctly good man.
We are neither the only nor even the principal inhabitants of our
solar system;
there are other lines of evolution running parallel with our own
which do not
pass through humanity at all, though they must all pass through a
level
corresponding to that of humanity. On one of these other lines of
evolution are
the nature spirits above described, and at a higher level of that
line comes
this great kingdom of the angels.(Page 85 ) At our present level of
evolution
they come into obvious contact with us only very rarely, but as we
develop we
shall be likely to see more of them - especially as the cyclic
progress of the
world is now bringing it more and more under the influence of the
Seventh Ray.
This Seventh Ray has ceremonial for one of its characteristics, and
it is
through ceremonial such as that of the Church or of Free-masonry
that we come
most easily into touch with the angelic kingdom.
When all the man’s lower emotions have worn themselves out – all
emotions, I
mean, which have in them any thought of self – his life in the
astral world is
over, and the ego passes on into the mental world. This is not in
any sense a
movement in space; it is simply that the steady process of
withdrawal has now
passed beyond even the finest kind of astral matter; so that the
man’s
consciousness is focused in the mental world. His astral body has
not entirely
disintegrated, though it is in process of doing so, and he leaves
behind him an
astral corpse, just as at a previous stage of the withdrawal he
left behind him
a physical corpse. There is a certain difference between the two
which should be
noticed, because of the consequences which ensue from it.
When the man leaves his physical body his separation from it should
be complete,
and generally is so; but this is not the case with the much finer
matter of the
astral body. In the course of his physical life the ordinary man
usually
entangles himself so much in astral matter (which, from another
point of view,
means that he identifies himself so closely with his lower desires)
that the
indrawing force of the ego cannot entirely separate him from it
again.
Consequently, when he finally breaks away from the astral body and
transfers his
activities to the mental, he loses a little of himself, he leaves
some of
himself behind imprisoned in the matter of the astral body. Page
86)
( This gives a certain remnant of vitality to the astral corpse, so
that it
still moves freely in the astral world, and may easily be mistaken
by the
ignorant for the man himself – the more so as such fragmentary
consciousness as
still remains to it is part of the man, and therefore it naturally
regards
itself and speaks of itself as the man. It retains his memories but
is only a
partial and unsatisfactory representation of him. Sometimes in
spiritualistic
séances one comes into contact with an entity of this description,
and wonders
how it is that one’s friend has deteriorated so much since his
death. To this
fragmentary entity we give the name “shade”.
At a later stage even this fragment of consciousness dies out of
the astral
body, but does not return to the ego to whom it originally
belonged. Even then
the astral corpse still remains, but when it is quite without any
trace of its
former life we call it a “shell”. Of itself a shell cannot
communicate at a
séance, or take any action of any sort; but such shells are
frequently seized
upon by sportive nature spirits and used as temporary habitations.
A shell so
occupied can communicate at a séance and masquerade as its original
owner, since
some of his characteristics and certain portions of his memory can
be evoked by
the nature spirit from his astral corpse.
When a man falls asleep, he withdraws in his astral body, leaving
the whole of
the physical vehicle behind him. When he dies, he draws out with
him the etheric
part of the physical body, and consequently has usually at least a
moment of
unconsciousness (Page 87) while he is freeing himself from it. The
etheric
double is not a vehicle, and cannot be used as such; so when the
man is
surrounded by it, he is for the moment able to function neither in
the physical
world nor the astral. Some men succeed in shaking themselves free
of this
etheric envelope in a few minutes; other rest within it for hours,
days or even
weeks.
Nor is it certain that, when the man is free from this, he will at
once become
conscious of the astral world. For there is in him a good deal of
the lowest
kind of astral matter, so that a shell of this may be made around
him. But he
may be quite unable to use that matter. If he had lived a
reasonably decent life
he is little in the habit of employing it or responding to its
vibrations, and
he cannot instantly acquire this habit. For that reason, he may
remain
unconscious until that matter gradually wears away, and some matter
which he is
in the habit of using comes on the surface. Such an occlusion,
however, is
scarcely ever complete, for even in the most carefully made shell
some particles
of the finer matter occasionally find their way to the surface and
give him
fleeting glimpses of his surroundings.
There are some men who cling so desperately to their physical
vehicles that they
will not relax their hold upon the etheric double, but strive with
all their
might to retain it. They may be successful in doing so for a
considerable time,
but only at the cost of great discomfort to themselves. They are
shut out from
both worlds, to find themselves surrounded by a dense grey mist,
through which
they see very (Page 88) dimly the things of the physical world, but
with all the
color gone from them. It is a terrible struggle to them to maintain
their
position in this miserable condition, and yet they will not relax
their hold
upon the etheric double, feeling that that is at least some sort of
link with
the only world that they know. Thus they drift about in a condition
of
loneliness and misery until from sheer fatigue their hold fails
them, and they
slip into the comparative happiness of astral life. Sometimes in
their
desperation they grasp blindly at other bodies, and try to enter
into them, and
occasionally they are successful in such an attempt. They may seize
upon a baby
body, ousting the feeble personality for whom it was intended, or
sometimes they
grasp even the body of an animal. All this trouble arises entirely
from
ignorance, and it can never happen to anyone who understands the
laws of life
and death.
When the astral life is over, the man dies to that world in turn,
and awakens in
the mental world. With him it is not at all what it is to the
trained
clairvoyant, who ranges through it and lives amidst the
surroundings which he
finds there, precisely as he would in the physical or astral
worlds. The
ordinary man has all through his life been encompassing himself
with a mass of
thought-forms. Some which are transitory, to which he pays little
attention,
have fallen away from his long ago, but those which represent the
main interests
of his life are always with him, and grow ever stronger and
stronger. If some of
these have been selfish, their force pours down into astral matter,
and he has
exhausted (Page 89) them during his life in the astral world. But
those which
are entirely unselfish belong purely to his mental body, and so
when he finds
himself in the mental world it is through these special thoughts
that he is able
to appreciate it.
His mental body is by no means fully developed; only those parts of
it are
really in action to their fullest extent which he has used in this
altruistic
manner. When he awakens again after the second death his first
sense is one of
indescribable bliss and vitality – a feeling of such utter joy in
living that he
needs for the time nothing but just to live. Such bliss is of the
essence of
life in all the higher worlds of the system. Even astral life has
possibilities
of happiness far greater than anything that we can know in the
dense body; but
the heaven life in the mental world is out of all proportions more
blissful than
the astral. In each higher world the same experience is repeated.
Merely to live
in any one them seems the uttermost conceivable bliss; and yet,
when the next
one is reached, it is seen that it far surpasses the last.
Just as the bliss increases, so does the wisdom and the breadth of
view. A man
fusses about in the physical world and thinks himself so busy and
so wise; but
when he touches even the astral, he realizes at once that he has
been all the
time only a caterpillar crawling about and seeing nothing but his
own leaf,
whereas now he has spread his wings like the butterfly and flown
away into the
sunshine of a wider world. Yet, impossible as it may seem, the same
experience
is repeated when he passes into the (Page 90) mental world, for
this life is in
turn so much fuller and wider and more intense than the astral that
once more no
comparison is possible. And yet beyond all these there is still
another life,
that of the intuitional world, unto which even this is but as
moonlight unto
sunlight.
The man’s position in the mental world differs widely from that in
the astral.
There he was using a body to which he was thoroughly accustomed, a
body which he
had been in the habit of employing every night during sleep. Here
he finds
himself living in a vehicle which he has never used before – a
vehicle
furthermore which is very far from being fully developed – a
vehicle which shuts
him out to a great extent from the world about him, instead of
enabling him to
see it. The lower part of his nature burnt itself away during his
purgatorial
life, and now there remains to him only his higher and more refined
thoughts,
the noble and unselfish aspirations which he poured out during
earth life. These
cluster round him, and make a sort of shell about him, through the
medium of
which he is able to respond to certain types of vibrations in this
refined
matter.
These thoughts which surround him are the powers by which he draws
upon the
wealth of the heaven-world, and he finds it to be a storehouse of
infinite
extent, upon which he is able to draw just according to the power
of those
thoughts and aspirations; for in this world is existing the
infinite fullness of
the Divine Mind, open in all its limitless affluence to every soul,
just in
proportion as that soul has qualified itself to receive. A man who
has already
completed (Page 91) his human evolution, who has fully realized and
unfolded the
divinity whose germ is within him, finds the whole of this glory
within his
reach; but since none of us has yet done that, since we are only
gradually
rising toward that splendid consummation, it follows that none of
us as yet can
grasp that entirety.
But each draws from it and cognizes so much of it as he has by
previous effort
prepared himself to take. Different individuals bring different
capacities; they
tell us in the East that each man brings his own cup, and some of
the cups are
large and some are small, but small or large every cup is filled to
its utmost
capacity; the sea of bliss holds far more than enough for all.
A man can look out upon this glory and beauty only through the windows
which he
himself has made. Every one of these thought-forms is such a
window, through
which response may come to him from the forces without. If during
his earth life
he has chiefly regarded physical things, then he has made for
himself but few
windows through which this higher glory can shine in upon him. Yet
every man who
is above the lowest savage must have had some touch of pure
unselfish feeling,
even if it were but once in all his life, and that will be a window
for him now.
The ordinary man is not capable of any great activity in this
mental world; his
condition is chiefly receptive, and his vision of anything outside
his own shell
of thought is of the most limited character. He is surrounded by
living forces,
mighty angelic inhabitants of this glorious world, and many of
their (Page 92)
orders are very sensitive to certain aspirations of man and readily
respond to
them. But a man can take advantage of these only in so far as he
has already
prepared himself to profit by them, for his thoughts and
aspirations are only
along certain lines, and he cannot suddenly form new lines. There
are many
directions which the higher thought may take – some of them
personal and some
impersonal. Among the latter are art, music and philosophy; and a
man whose
interest lay along any one of these lines finds both measureless
enjoyment and
unlimited instruction waiting for him – that is, the amount of
enjoyment and
instruction is limited only by his power of perception.
We find a large number of people whose only higher thoughts are
those connected
with affection and devotion. If a man loves another deeply or if he
feels strong
devotion to a personal deity, he makes a strong mental image of
that friend or
the deity, and the object of his feeling is often present in his
mind.
Inevitably he takes that mental image into the heaven world with
him, because it
is to that level of matter that it naturally belongs.
Take first the feeling of affection. The love which forms and
retains such an
image is very powerful force – a force which is strong enough to
reach and to
act upon the ego of his friend in the higher part of the mental
world. It is
that ego that is the real man whom he loves – not the physical body
which is so
partial a representation of him. The ego of the friend, feeling
this vibration,
at once and eagerly responds to it, and pours himself into the
thought (Page 93)
form which has been made for him; so that the man’s friend is truly
present with
him more vividly than ever before. To this result it makes no
difference
whatever whether the friend is what we call living or dead; the
appeal is made
not to the fragment of the friend which is sometimes imprisoned in
a physical
body, but to the man himself on his own true level; and he always
responds. A
man who has a hundred friends can simultaneously and fully respond
to the
affection of every one of them, for no number of representations on
a lower
level can exhaust the infinity of the ego.
Thus every man in his heaven life has around him all the friends
for whose
company he wishes, and they are for him always at their best,
because he himself
makes for them in the thought-form through which they manifest to
him. In our
limited physical world we are so accustomed to thinking of our
friend as only
the limited manifestation which we know in the physical world, that
it is at
first difficult for us to realize the grandeur of the conception;
when we can
realize it, we shall see how much nearer we are in truth to our
friends in the
heaven life than we ever were on earth. The same is true in the
case of
devotion. The man in the heaven world is two great stages nearer to
the object
of his devotion than he was during physical life, and so his experiences
are of
a far more transcendent character.
In this mental world, as in the astral, there are seven
subdivisions. The first,
second and third are the habitat of the ego in his causal body, so
the mental
body contains matter of the remaining four only, (Page 94) and it
is in those
sections that his heaven life is passed. Man does not, however,
pass from one to
the other of these, as in the case in the astral world, for there
is nothing in
this life corresponding to the rearrangement. Rather is the man
drawn to the
level which best corresponds to the degree of his development, and
on that level
he spends the whole of his life in the mental body. Each man makes
his own
conditions, so that the number of varieties is infinite.
Speaking broadly, we may say that the dominant characteristic
observed in the
lowest portion is unselfish family affection. Unselfish it must be,
or it would
find no place here; all selfish tinges, if there were any, worked
out their
results in the astral world. The dominant characteristic of the
sixth level may
be said to be anthropomorphical religious devotion; whilst that of
the fifth
section is devotion expressing itself in active work of some sort.
All these –
the fifth, sixth and seventh subdivisions – are concerned with the
working out
of devotion to personalities (either to one’s family and friends or
to a
personal deity) rather than the wider devotion to humanity for its
own sake,
which finds its expression in the next section. The activities of
this fourth
stage are varied. They can best be arranged in four main divisions:
unselfish
pursuit of spiritual knowledge; high philosophy or scientific
thought; literary
or artistic ability exercised for unselfish purposes; and service
for the sake
of service.
Even to this glorious heaven life there comes an (Page 95) end, and
then the
mental body in its turn drops away as the others have done, and the
man’s life
in his causal body begins. Here the man needs no windows, for this
is his true
home and all his walls have fallen away. The majority of men have
as yet but
very little consciousness at such a height as this; they rest
dreamily
unobservant and scarcely awake, but such vision as they have is
true, however
limited it may be by their lack of development. Still, every time
they return,
these limitations will be smaller, and they themselves will be
greater; so that
this truest life will be wider and fuller for them.
As this improvement continues, this casual life grows longer and
longer,
assuming an ever larger proportion as compared to the existence at
lower levels.
And as he grows, the man becomes capable not only of receiving but
also of
giving. Then indeed is his triumph approaching, for he is learning
the lesson of
the Christ, learning the crowning glory of sacrifice, the supreme
delight of
pouring out all his life for the helping of his fellow-men, the
devotion of the
self to the all, of celestial strength to human service, of all
those splendid
heavenly forces to the aid of the struggling sons of earth. That is
part of the
life that lies before us; these are some of the steps which even we
who are
still so near the bottom of the golden ladder may see rising above
us, so that
we may report them to those who have not seen as yet, in order that
they too may
open their eyes to the unimaginable splendor which surrounds them
here and now
in this dull daily life. This is a part of the (Page 96) gospel of
Theosophy –
the certainty of this sublime future for all. It is certain because
it is here
already; because to inherit it we have only to fit ourselves for
it. (Page
97)
---------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales----------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-1DL
CHAPTER VII
REINCARNATION
This life of the ego in his own world, which is so glorious and so
fully
satisfying for the developed man, plays but a very small part in
the life of the
ordinary person, for in his case the ego has not yet reached a
sufficient stage
of development to be awake in his causal body. In obedience to the
law of nature
he has withdrawn into it, but in doing so he has lost the sensation
of vivid
life, and restless desire to feel this once more pushes him in the
direction of
another descent into matter.
This is the scheme of evolution appointed for man at the present
stage – that he
shall develop by descending into grosser matter, and then ascend to
carry back
into himself the result of the experiences so obtained. His real
life,
therefore, covers millions of years, and what we are in the habit
of calling a
life is only one day of this greater existence. Indeed, it is in
reality only a
small part of one day; for a life of seventy years in the physical
world is
often succeeded by a period of twenty times that length spent in
higher spheres.
Every one of us has a long line of these physical lives behind him,
and the
ordinary man has a fairly long line still in front of him. Each of
such lives is
a day at school. The ego puts upon himself his garment of flesh and
goes forth
into the school of (Page 98) the physical world to learn certain
lessons. He
learns them, or does not learn them, or partially learns them, as
the case may
be, during his school day of earth life; then he lays aside the
vesture of the
flesh and returns home to his own level for rest and refreshment.
In the morning
of each new life he takes up again his lesson at the point where he
left it the
night before. Some lessons he may be able to learn in one day,
while others may
take him many days.
If he is an apt pupil and learns quickly what is needed, if he
obtains an
intelligent grasp of the rules of the school, and takes the trouble
to adapt his
conduct to them, his school life is comparatively short, and when
it is over he
goes forth fully equipped into the real life of the higher worlds
for which all
this is only a preparation. Other egos are duller boys who do not
learn so
quickly; some of them do not understand the rules of the school,
and through
that ignorance are constantly breaking them; others are wayward,
and even when
they see the rules they cannot at once bring themselves to act in
harmony with
them. All of these have a longer school life, and by their own actions
they
delay their entry upon the real life of the higher worlds.
For this is a school in which no pupil ever fails; every one must
go on to the
end. He has no choice as to that; but the length of time which he
will take in
qualifying himself for the higher examinations is left entirely to
his own
discretion. The wise pupil, seeing that school life is not a thing
in itself,
but (Page 99) only a preparation for a more glorious and far wider
life,
endeavors to comprehend as fully as possible the rules of his
school, and shapes
his life in accordance with them as closely as he can, so that no
time may be
lost in the learning of whatever lessons are necessary. He
co-operates
intelligently with the Teachers, and sets himself to do the maximum
of work
which is possible for him, in order that as soon as he can he may
come of age
and enter into his kingdom as a glorified ego.
Theosophy explains to us the laws under which this school life must
be lived,
and in that way gives a great advantage to its students. The first
great law is
that of evolution. Every man has to become a perfect man, to unfold
to the
fullest degree the divine possibilities which lie latent within
him, for that
unfoldment is the object of the entire scheme so far as he is
concerned. This
law of evolution steadily presses him onward to higher and higher
achievements.
The wise man tries to anticipate its demands – to run ahead of the
necessary
curriculum, for in that way he not only avoids all collision with
it, but he
obtains the maximum of assistance from its action. The man who lags
behind in
the race of life finds its steady pressure constantly constraining
him – a
pressure which, if resisted, rapidly becomes painful. Thus the
laggard on the
path of evolution has always the sense of being hunted and driven
by fate, while
the man who intelligently co-operates is left perfectly free to
choose the
direction in which he shall move, so long as it is onward and
upward. (Page 100)
The second great law under which this evolution is taking place is
the law of
cause and effect. There can be no effect without its cause, and
every cause must
produce its effect. They are in fact not two but one, for the
effect is really
part of the cause, and he who sets one in motion sets the other also. There is
in Nature no such idea as that of reward or punishment, but only of
cause and
effect. Any one can see this in connection with mechanics or
chemistry; the
clairvoyant sees it equally clearly with regard to the problems of
evolution.
The same law obtains in the higher as in the lower worlds; there,
as here, the
angle of reflection is always equal to the angle of incidence. It
is a law of
mechanics that action and reaction are equal and opposite. In the
almost
infinitely finer matter of the higher worlds the reaction is by no
means always
instantaneous; it may sometimes be spread over long periods of
time, but it
returns inevitably and exactly.
Just as certain in its working as the mechanical law in the
physical world is
the higher law, according to which the man who sends out a good
thought or does
a good action receives good in return, while the man who sends out
an evil
thought or does an evil action receives evil in return with equal
accuracy –
once more, not in the least as a reward or punishment administered
by some
external will, but simply as the definite and mechanical result of
his own
activity. Man has learnt to appreciate a mechanical result in the
physical
world, because the reaction is usually almost immediate and can be
seen by him.
(Page101) He does not invariably understand the reaction in the
higher worlds
because that takes a wider sweep, and often returns not in this
physical life,
but in some future one.
The action of this law affords the explanation of a number of the
problems of
ordinary life. It accounts for the different destinies imposed upon
people, and
also for the differences in the people themselves. If one man is
clever in a
certain direction and another is stupid, it is because in a
previous life the
clever man has devoted much effort to practice in that particular
direction,
while the stupid man is trying it for the first time. The genius
and the
precocious child are examples not of the favoritism of some deity
but of the
result produced by previous lives of application. All the varied
circumstances
which surround us are the result of our own actions in the past,
precisely as
are the qualities of which we find ourselves in possession. We are
what we have
made ourselves, and our circumstances are such as we have deserved.
There is, however, a certain adjustment or apportionment of these
effects.
Though the law is a natural law and mechanical in its operation,
there are
nevertheless certain great Angels who are concerned with its
administration.
They cannot change by one feather weight the amount of the result
which follows
upon any given thought or act, but they can within certain limits
expedite or
delay its action, and decide what form it shall take.
If this were not done there would be at least a (Page 102)
possibility that in
his earlier stages the man might blunder so seriously that the
results of his
blundering might be more than he could bear. The plan of the Deity
is to give
man a limited amount of freewill; if he uses that small amount
well, he earns
the right to a little more next time; if he used it badly,
suffering comes upon
him as the result of such evil use, and he finds himself restrained
by the
result of his previous actions. As the man learns how to use his
free will, more
and more of it is entrusted to him, so that he can acquire for
himself
practically unbounded freedom in the direction of good, but his
power to do
wrong is strictly restricted. He can progress as rapidly as he
will, but he
cannot wreck his life in his ignorance. In the earlier stages of
the savage life
of primitive man it is natural that there should be on the whole
more of evil
than of good, and if the entire result of his actions came at once
upon a man as
yet so little developed, it might well crush the newly evolved
powers which are
still so feeble.
Besides this, the effects of his actions are varied in character.
While some of
them produce immediate results, others need much more time for
their action, and
so it comes to pass that as the man develops he has above him a
hovering cloud
of undischarged results, some of them good, some of them bad. Out
of this mass
(which we may regard for the purposes of analogy much as though it
were a debt
owing to the powers of nature) a certain amount falls due in each
of his
successive births; and that amount, so (Page 103) assigned, may be
thought of as
the man’s destiny for that particular life.
All that it means is that a certain amount of joy and a certain
amount of
suffering are due to him, and will unavoidably happen to him; how
he will meet
this destiny and what use he will make of it, that is left entirely
to his own
option. It is a certain amount of force which has to work itself
out. Nothing
can prevent the action of that force, but its action may always be
modified by
the application of a new force in another direction, just as is the
case in
mechanics. The result of past evil is like any other debt; it may
be paid in one
large check upon the bank of life – by some one supreme
catastrophe; or it may
be paid in a number of smaller notes, in minor troubles and
worries; in some
cases it may even be paid in the small change of a vast number of
petty
annoyances. But one thing is quite certain – that, in some form or
other, paid
it will have to be.
The conditions of our present life, then, are absolutely the result
of our own
action in the past; and the other side of that statement is that
our actions in
this life are building up conditions for the next one. A man who
finds himself
limited either in powers or in outer circumstances may not always
be able to
make himself or his conditions all that he would wish in this life;
but he can
certainly secure for the next one whatever he chooses.
Man’s every action ends not with himself, but invariably affects
others around
him. In some cases this effect may be comparatively trivial, while
in (Page 104)
others it may be of the most serious character. The trivial
results, whether
good or bad are simply small debits or credits in our account with
Nature; but
the greater effects, whether good or bad, make a personal account
which is to be
settled with the individual concerned.
A man who gives a meal to a hungry beggar, or cheers him by a
kindly word, will
receive the result of his good action as part of a kind of general
fund of
Nature’s benefits; but one who by some good action changes the
whole current of
another man’s life will assuredly have to meet that same man again
in a future
life, in order that he who has been benefited may have the
opportunity of
repaying the kindness that has been done to him. One who causes
annoyance to
another will suffer proportionately for it somewhere, somehow, in
the future,
though he may never meet again the man whom he has troubled; but
one who does
serious harm to another, one who wrecks his life or retards his
evolution, must
certainly meet his victim again at some later point in the course
of their
lives, so that he may have the opportunity, by kindly and
self-sacrificing
service, of counterbalancing the wrong which he has done. In short,
large debts
must be paid personally, but small ones go into the general fund.
These then are the principal factors which determine the next birth
of the man.
First acts the great law of evolution, and its tendency is to press
the man into
that position in which he can most easily develop the qualities
which he most
needs. For the purposes of the general scheme, humanity is divided
(Page 105)
into great races, called root-races, which rule and occupy the
world
successively. The great Aryan or Indo-Caucasian race, which at the
present
moment includes the most advanced ofEearth’s inhabitants, is one of
these. That
which came before it in the order of evolution was the Mongolian
race, usually
called in Theosophical books Atlantean, because the continent from
which it
ruled the world lay where now roll the waters of the Atlantic
ocean. Before that
came the Negroid race, some of whose descendants still exist,
though by this
time much mingled with offshoots of later races. From each of these
great
root-races there are many offshoots which we call sub-races – such,
for example,
as the Romance races or the Teutonic; and each of these sub-races
in turn
divides itself into branch races, such as the French and the
Italians, the
English and the Germans.
These arrangements are made in order that for each ego there may be
a wide
choice of varying conditions and surroundings. Each race is
especially adapted
to develop within its people one or other of the qualities which
are needed in
the course of evolution. In every nation there exist an almost
infinite number
of diverse conditions, riches and poverty, a wide field of
opportunities or a
total lack of them, facilities for development or conditions under
which
development is difficult or well-nigh impossible. Amidst all these
infinite
possibilities the pressure of the law of evolution tends to guide
the man to
precisely those which best suit his needs at the stage at which he
happens to
be.
But the action of this law is limited by that other (Page 106) law
of which we
spoke, the law of cause and effect. The man’s actions in the past
may not have
been such as to deserve (if we may put it so) the best possible
opportunities;
he may have set in motion in his past certain forces the inevitable
result of
which will be to produce limitations; and these limitations may
operate to
prevent his receiving that best possible of opportunities, and so
as the result
of his own actions in the past he may have to put up with the
second-best. So we
may say that the action of the law of evolution, which if left to
itself would
do the very best possible for every man, is restrained by the man’s
own previous
actions.
An important feature in that limitation – one which may act most
powerfully for
good or for evil – is the influence of the group of egos with which
the man has
made definite links in the past – those with whom he has formed
strong ties of
love or hate, of helping or of injury – those souls whom he must
meet again
because of connections made with them in days of long ago. His
relation with
them is a factor which must be taken into consideration before it
can be
determined where and how he shall be reborn.
The will of the Deity is man’s evolution. The effort of that nature
which is an
expression of the Deity is to give the man whatever is most
suitable for that
evolution; but this is conditioned by the man’s deserts in the past
and by the
links which he has already formed. It may be assumed that a man
descending into
incarnation could learn the lessons necessary for that life in any
one of a
hundred positions. (Page 107) From half of these or more than half
he may be
debarred by the consequences of some of his many and varied actions
in the past.
Among the few possibilities which remain open to him, the choice of
one
possibility in particular may be determined by the presence in that
family or in
that neighborhood of other egos upon whom he has a claim for
services rendered,
or to whom he in his turn owes a debt of love.(Page 108)
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CHAPTER VIII
THE PURPOSE OF LIFE
To fulfill our duty in the divine scheme we must try to understand
not only that
scheme as a whole, but the special part that man is intended to
play in it. The
divine outbreathing reaches its deepest immersion in matter in the
mineral
kingdom, but it reaches its ultimate point of differentiation not
at the lowest
level of materiality, but at the entrance into the human kingdom on
the upward
arc of evolution. We have thus to realize three stages in the
course of this
evolution:
(a) The downward arc in
which the tendency is toward differentiation and also
toward greater materiality. In this stage spirit is involving
itself in matter,
in order that it may learn to receive impressions through it.
(b) The earlier part of
the upward arc, in which the tendency is still toward
greater differentiation, but at the same time toward spiritualization
and escape
from materiality. In this stage the spirit is learning to dominate
matter and to
see it as an expression of itself.
(c) The later part of the
upward arc, when differentiation has been finally
accomplished, and the tendency is toward unity as well as toward
greater
spirituality. In this stage the spirit, having learnt (Page109)
perfectly how to
receive impressions through matter and how to express itself
through it, and
having awakened its dormant powers, learns to use these powers
rightly in the
service of the Deity.
The object of the whole previous evolution has been to produce the
ego as a
manifestation of the Monad. Then the ego in its turn evolves by
putting itself
down into a succession of personalities. Men who do not understand
this look
upon the personality as the self, and consequently live for it
alone, and try to
regulate their lives for what appears to be its temporary
advantage. The man who
understands realizes that the only important thing is the life of
the ego, and
that its progress is the object for which the temporary personality
must be
used. Therefore when he has to decide between two possible courses
he thinks
not, as the ordinary man might: “Which will bring the greater
pleasure and
profit to me as a personality?” but “Which will bring greater
progress to me as
an ego?” Experience soon teaches him that nothing can ever be
really good for
him, or for any one, which is not good for all, and so presently he
learns to
forget himself altogether, and to ask only what will be best for
humanity as a
whole.
Clearly then at this stage of evolution whatever tends to unity,
whatever tends
to spirituality, is in accord with the plan of the Deity for us,
and is
therefore right for us, while whatever tends to separateness or to
materiality
is certainly equally wrong for us. There are thoughts and emotions
which tend to
unity, such as love, sympathy, reverence, benevolence; (Page 110)
there are
others which tend to disunion, such as hatred, jealousy, envy,
pride, cruelty,
fear. Obviously the former group are for us the right, the latter
group are for
us the wrong.
In all these thoughts and feelings which are clearly wrong, we
recognize one
dominant note, the thought of self; while in all those which are
clearly right
we recognize that the thought is turned toward others, and that the
personal
self is forgotten. Wherefore we see that selfishness is the one
great wrong, and
that perfect unselfishness is the crown of all virtue. This gives
us at once a
rule of life. The man who wishes intelligently to co-operate with
the Divine
Will must lay aside all thought of the advantage or pleasure of the
personal
self, and must devote himself exclusively to carrying out that Will
by working
for the welfare and happiness of others.
This is a high ideal, and difficult of attainment, because there
lies behind us
such a long history of selfishness. Most of us are as yet far from
the purely
altruistic attitude; how are we to go to work to attain it, lacking
as we do the
necessary intensity in so many of the good qualities, and
possessing so many
which are undesirable?
Here comes into operation the great law of cause and effect to
which I have
already referred. Just as we can confidently appeal to the laws of
nature in the
physical world, so may we also appeal to these laws of the higher
world. If we
find evil qualities within us, they have grown up by slow degrees
through
ignorance and through self-indulgence. Now (Page 111) that the
ignorance is
dispelled by knowledge, now that in consequence we recognize the
quality as an
evil, the method of getting rid of it lies obviously before us.
For each of these vices there is a contrary virtue; if we find one
of them
rearing its head within us, let us immediately determine
deliberately to develop
within ourselves the contrary virtue. If a man realizes that in the
past he has
been selfish, that means that he has set up within himself the
habit of thinking
of himself first and pleasing himself, of consulting his own
convenience or his
pleasure without due thought of the effect upon others; let him set
to work
purposefully to form the exactly opposite habit, to make a practice
before doing
anything of thinking how it will affect all those around him; let
him set
himself habitually to please others, even though it be at the cost
of trouble or
privation for himself. This also in time will become a habit, and
by developing
it he will have killed out the other.
If a man finds himself full of suspicion, ready always to assign
evil motives to
the actions of those about him, let him set himself steadily to
cultivate trust
in his fellows, to give them credit always for the highest possible
motives. It
may be said that a man who does this will lay himself open to be
deceived, and
that in many cases his confidence will be misplaced. That is a
small matter; it
is far better for him that he should sometimes be deceived as a
result of his
trust in his fellows than that he should save himself from such
deception by
maintaining a (Page 112) constant attitude of suspicion. Besides,
confidence
begets faithfulness. A man who is trusted will generally prove
himself worthy of
the trust, whereas a man who is suspected is likely presently to
justify that
suspicion.
If a man finds in himself the tendency toward avarice, let him go
out of his way
to be especially generous; if he finds himself irritable, let him
definitely
train himself in calmness; if he finds himself devoured by
curiosity, let him
deliberately refuse again and again to gratify that curiosity; if
he is liable
to fits of depression, let him persistently cultivate cheerfulness,
even under
the most adverse circumstances.
In every case the existence of an evil quality in the personality
means a lack
of the corresponding good quality in the ego. The shortest way to
get rid of
that evil and to prevent its reappearance is to fill the gap in the
ego, and the
good quality which is thus developed will show itself as an
integral part of the
man’s character through all his future lives. An ego cannot be
evil, but he can
be imperfect. The qualities which he develops cannot be other than
good
qualities, and when they are well defined they show themselves in
each of all
his numerous personalities, and consequently those personalities
can never be
guilty of the vices opposite to these qualities; but where there is
a gap in the
ego, where there is a quality undeveloped, there is nothing
inherent in the
personality to check the growth of the opposite vice; and since
others in the
world about him already possess (Page 113) that vice, and man is an
imitative
animal, it is quite probable that it will speedily manifest itself
in him. This
vice, however, belongs to the vehicles only and not to the man
inside. In these
vehicles its repetition may set up a momentum which is hard to
conquer; but if
the ego bestirs himself to create in himself the opposite virtue,
the vice is
cut off at its root, and can no longer exist – neither in this life
nor in all
the lives that are to come.
A man who is trying to evolve these qualities in himself will find
certain
obstacles in his way – obstacles which he must learn to surmount.
One of these
is the critical spirit of the age – the disposition to find fault
with a thing,
to belittle everything, to look for faults in everything, and in
everyone. The
exact opposite of this is what is needed for progress. He who
wishes to move
rapidly along the path of evolution must learn to see good in
everything – to
see the latent Deity in everything and in every one. Only so can he
help those
other people – only so can he get the best out of those other
things.
Another obstacle is the lack of perseverance. We tend in these days
to be
impatient; if we try any plan we expect immediate results from it,
and if we do
not get them, we give up that plan and try something else. That is
not the way
to make progress in occultism. The effort which we are making is to
compress
into one or two lives the evolution which would naturally take
perhaps a hundred
lives. That is not the sort of undertaking in which immediate
results are to be
expected. We attempt to uproot an (Page114) evil habit, and we find
it hard
work; why? Because we have indulged in that practice for, perhaps,
twenty
thousand years; one cannot shake off the custom of twenty thousand
years in a
day or two. We have allowed that habit to gain an enormous momentum,
and before
we can set up a force in the opposite direction we have to overcome
that
momentum. That cannot be done in a moment, but it is absolutely
certain that it
will be done eventually, if we persevere, because the momentum,
however strong
it may be, is a finite quality, whereas the power that we can bring
to bear
against it is the infinite power of the human will, which can make
renewed
efforts day after day, year after year, even life after life if
necessary.
Another great difficulty in our way is the lack of clearness in our
thought.
People in the West are little used to clear thought with regard to
religious
matters. Everything is vague and nebulous. For occult development
vagueness and
nebulosity will not do. Our conceptions must be clear cut and our
thought images
definite. Other necessary characteristics are calmness and
cheerfulness; these
are rare in modern life, but are absolute essentials for the work
which we are
here undertaking.
The process of building a character is as scientific as that of
developing one’s
muscles. Many a man, finding himself with certain muscles flabby
and powerless
takes that as his natural condition, and regards their weakness as
a kind of
destiny imposed upon him; but anyone who understands a little of
the human body
is aware that by continued exercise (Page 115) those muscles can be
brought into
a state of health and the whole body eventually put in order. In
exactly the
same way, many a man finds himself possessed of a bad tamper or a tendency
to
avarice or suspicion or self-indulgence, and when in consequence of
any of these
vices he commits some great mistake or does some great harm he
offers it as an
excuse that he is a hasty-tempered man, or that he possesses this
or that
quality by nature – implying that therefore he cannot help it.
In this case just as in the other the remedy is in his own hands.
Regular
exercise of the right kind will develop a certain muscle, and
regular mental
exercise of the right kind will develop a missing quality in a
man’s character.
The ordinary man does not realize that he can do this, and even if
he sees that
he can do it, he does not see why he should, for it means much
effort and much
self-repression. He knows of no adequate motive for undertaking a
task so
laborious and painful.
The motive is supplied by the knowledge of the truth. One who gains
an
intelligent comprehension of the direction of evolution feels it
not only his
interest but his privilege and his delight to co-operate with it. One
who wills
the end wills also the means; in order to be able to do good work
for the world
he must develop within himself the necessary strength and the
necessary
qualities. Therefore he who wishes to reform the world must first
of all reform
himself. He must learn to give up altogether the attitude of
insisting upon
rights, and must devote himself utterly (Page 116) to the most
earnest
performance of his duties. He must learn to regard every connection
with his
fellowman as an opportunity to help that fellowman, or in some way
to do him
good.
One who studies these subjects intelligently cannot but realize the
tremendous
power of thought, and the necessity for its efficient control. All
action
springs from thought, for even when it is done (as we say) without
thought, it
is the instinctive expression of the thoughts, desires and feelings
which the
man has allowed to grow luxuriantly within himself in earlier days.
The wise man, therefore, will watch his thought with the greatest
of care, for
in it he possesses a powerful instrument, for the right use of
which he is
responsible. It is his duty to govern his thought, lest it should
be allowed to
run riot and to do evil to himself and to others; it is his duty
also to develop
his thought power, because by means of it a vast amount of actual
and active
good can be done. Thus controlling his thought and his action, thus
eliminating
from himself all evil and unfolding in himself all good qualities,
the man
presently raises himself far above the level of his fellows, and
stands out
conspicuously among them as one who is working on the side of good
as against
evil, of evolution as against stagnation.
The members of the great Hierarchy in whose hands is the evolution
of the world
are watching always for such men in order that They may train them
to help in
the greater work. Such a man inevitably attracts Their attention
and They begin
to (Page 117) use him as an instrument in Their work. If he proves
himself a
good and efficient instrument, presently They will offer him
definite training
as an apprentice, that by helping Them in the world-business which
They have to
do he may some day become even as They are, and join the might
Brotherhood to
which They belong.
But for an honor so great as this mere ordinary goodness will not
suffice. True,
a man must be good first of all, or it would be hopeless to think
of using him,
but in addition to being good he must be wise and strong. What is
needed is not
merely a good man, but a great spiritual power. Not only must the
candidate have
cast aside all ordinary weaknesses but he must have acquired strong
positive
qualities before he can offer himself to Them with any hope that he
will be
accepted. He must live no longer as a blundering and selfish personality,
but as
an intelligent ego who comprehends the part which he has to play in
the great
scheme of the universe. He must have forgotten himself utterly; he
must have
resigned all thought of worldly profit or pleasure or advancement;
he must be
willing to sacrifice everything, and himself first of all, for the
sake of the
work that has to be done. He may be in the world, but he must not
be of the
world. He must be careless utterly of its opinion. For the sake of
helping man
he must make himself something more than man. Radiant, rejoicing,
strong, he
must live but for the sake of others and to be an expression of the
love of God
in the world. A high ideal, yet not too high; possible, because
there are men
who have achieved it.(Page 118)
When a man has succeeded in unfolding his latent possibilities so
far that he
attracts the attention of the Masters of the Wisdom, one of Them
will probably
receive him as an apprentice upon probation. The period of
probation is usually
seven years, but may be either shortened or lengthened at the
discretion of the
Master. At the end of that time, if his work has been satisfactory,
he becomes
what is commonly called the accepted pupil. This brings him into
close relations
with his Master, so that the vibrations of the latter constantly
play upon him,
and he gradually learns to look at everything as the Master looks
at it. After
yet another interval, if he proves himself entirely worthy, he may
be drawn into
a still closer relationship, when he is called the son of the
Master.
These three stages mark his relationship to his own Master only,
not to the
Brotherhood as a whole. The Brotherhood admits a man to its ranks
only when he
has fitted himself to pass the first of the great Initiations.
This entry into the Brotherhood of Those who rule the world may be
thought of as
the third of the great critical points in man’s evolution. The
first of these is
when he becomes man – when he individualizes out of the animal
kingdom and
obtains a causal body. The second is what is called by the
Christian
“conversion”, and by the Hindu “the acquirement of discrimination”,
and by the
Buddhist “the opening of the doors of the mind”. That is the point
at which he
realizes the great facts of life, and turns away from the pursuit
of selfish
ends in order to move intentionally (Page 119) along with the great
current of
evolution in obedience to the divine Will. The third point is the
most important
of all, for the Initiation which admits him to the ranks of the
Brotherhood also
insures him against the possibility of failure to fulfill the
divine purpose in
the time appointed for it. Hence those who have reached this point
are called in
the Christian system the “elect”, the “saved” or the “safe,” and in
the Buddhist
scheme “those who have entered on the stream.”For those who have
reached this
point have made themselves absolutely certain of reaching a further
point also –
that of Adeptship, at which they pass into a type of evolution
which is
definitely superhuman.
The man who has become an Adept has fulfilled the divine Will so
far as this
chain of worlds is concerned. He has reached, even already the
midmost point of
the aeon of evolution, the stage prescribed for man’s attainment at
the end of
it. Therefore he is at liberty to spend the remainder of that time
either in
helping his fellow-men or in even more splendid work in connection
with other
and higher evolutions. He who has not yet been initiated is still
in danger of
being left behind by our present wave of evolution, and dropping
into the next
one – the “aeonian condemnation” of which the Christ spoke, which
has been
mistranslated “eternal damnation”. It is from this fate of possible
aeonian
failure – that is, failure for this age, or dispensation, or
life-wave – that
the man who attains Initiation is “safe”. He has “entered upon the stream"
which now must bear him on to Adeptship in this present (Page 120)
age, though
it is still possible for him by his actions to hasten or delay his
progress
along the Path which he is treading.
That first Initiation corresponds to the matriculation which admits
a man to a
University, and the attainment of Adeptship to the taking of a
degree at the end
of the course. Continuing the simile, there are three intermediate
examinations,
which are usually spoken of as the second, third and fourth
Initiations,
Adeptship being the fifth. A general idea of the line of this
higher evolution
may be obtained by studying the list of what are called in Buddhist
books “the
fetters” which must be cast off – the qualities of which a man must
rid himself
as he treads this Path. These are: the delusion of separateness;
doubt or
uncertainty; superstition; attachment to enjoyment; the possibility
of hatred;
desire for life, either in this or the higher worlds; pride;
agitation or
irritability; and ignorance. The man who reaches the Adept level
has exhausted
all the possibilities of moral development, and so the future
evolution which
still lies before him can only mean still wider knowledge and still
more
wonderful spiritual powers. (Page 121)
---------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales----------
206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24-1DL
CHAPTER IX
THE PLANETARY CHAINS
The scheme of evolution of which our Earth forms a part is not the
only one in
our solar system, for ten separate chains of globes exist in that
system which
are all of them theatres of somewhat similar progress. Each of
these schemes of
evolution is taking place upon a chain of globes, and in the course
of each
scheme its chain of globes goes through seven incarnations. The
plan, alike of
each scheme as a whole and of the successive incarnations of its
chain of
globes, is to dip step by step more deeply into matter, and then to
rise step by
step out of it again.
Each chain consists of seven globes, and both globes and chains
observe the rule
of descending into matter and then rising out of it again. In order
to make this
comprehensible let us take as an example the chain to which our
Earth belongs.
At the present time it is in its fourth or most material
incarnation, and
therefore three of its globes belong to the physical world, two to
the astral
world and two to the lower part of the mental world. The wave of
Divine Life
passes in succession from globe to globe of this chain, beginning
with one of
the highest, descending gradually to the lowest and then climbing
again to the
same level as that at which it began.
Let us for convenience of reference label the seven (Page 122)
globes by the
earlier letters of the alphabet, and number the incarnations in
order. Thus, as
this is the fourth incarnation of our chain, the first globe in
this incarnation
will be 4A, the second 4B, the third 4C, the fourth (which is our
Earth) 4D, and
so on.
These globes are not all composed of physical matter. 4A contains
no matter
lower than that of the mental world; it has its counterpart in all
the worlds
higher than that, but nothing below it. 4B exists in the astral
world; but 4C is
a physical globe, visible to our telescope, and is in fact the
planet which we
know as Mars. Globe 4D is our own Earth, on which the life-wave of
the chain is
at present in action. Globe 4E is the planet which we call Mercury
– also in the
physical world. Globe 4F is in the astral world, corresponding on
the ascending
arc to globe 4B in the descent; while globe 4G corresponds to globe
4A in having
its lowest manifestation in the lower part of the mental world.
Thus it will be
seen that we have a scheme of globes starting in the lower mental
world, dipping
through the astral into the physical and then rising into the lower
mental
through the astral again.
Just as the succession of the globes in a chain constitutes a
descent into
matter and an ascent from it again, so do the successive
incarnations of a
chain. We have described the condition of affairs in the fourth
incarnation;
looking back at the third, we find that that commences not on the
lower level of
the mental world but on the higher. Globes 3A and 3G, then, are
both of higher
mental matter, while globes (Page123) 3B and 3F are at the lower
mental level.
Globes 3C and 3E belong to the astral world, and only globe 3D is
visible in the
physical world. Although this third incarnation of our chain is
long past, the
corpse of this physical globe 3D is still visible to us in the
shape of that
dead planet the Moon, whence that third incarnation is usually
called the lunar
chain.
The fifth incarnation of our chain, which still lies very far in
the future,
will correspond to the third. In that, globes 5A and 5G will be
built of higher
mental matter, globes 5B and 5F of lower mental matter, globes 5C
and 5E of
astral matter, and only globe 5D will be in the physical world.
This planet 5D
is of course not yet in existence.
The other incarnations of the chain follow the same general rule of
gradually
decreasing materiality; 2A, 2G, 6A and 6G are all in the intuitional
world; 2B,
2F, 6B and 6F are all in the higher part of the mental world; 2C,
2E, 6C and 6E
are in the lower part of the mental world; 2D and 6D are in the
astral world. In
the same way 1A, 1G, 7A and 7G belong to the spiritual world; 1B,
1F, 7B and 7F
are in the intuitional world; 1C, 1E, 7C and 7E are in the higher
part of the
mental world; 1D and 7D are in the lower part of the mental world.
Thus it will be seen that not only does the life-wave in passing
through one
chain of globes dip down into matter and rise out of it again, but
the chain
itself in its successive incarnations does exactly the same thing.
There are ten schemes of evolution at present existing in our solar
system, but
only seven of them (Page 124) are at the stage where they have
planets in the
physical world. These are: (1) that of an unrecognized planet
Vulcan, very near
the sun, about which we have very little definite information. It
was seen by
the astronomer Hersche, but is now said to have disappeared. We at first
understood that it was in its third incarnation; but it is now
regarded as
possible that it has recently passed from its fifth to its sixth
chain, which
would account for its alleged disappearance; (2) that of Venus,
which is in its
fifth incarnation, and also therefore has only one visible globe;
(3) that of
the Earth, Mars and Mercury, which has three visible planets
because it is in
its fourth incarnation; (4) that of Jupiter, (5) that of Saturn,
(6) that of
Uranus, all in their third incarnations; and (7) that of Neptune
and the two
unnamed planets beyond his orbit, which is in its fourth
incarnation, and
therefore has three physical planets as we have.
In each incarnation of a chain (commonly called a chain-period) the
wave of
Divine Life moves seven times round the chain of seven planets, and
each such
movement is spoken of as a round. The time that the life-wave stays
upon each
planet, is known as a world-period, and in the course of a
world-period there
are seven great root-races. As has been previously explained, these
are
subdivided into sub-races, and those again into branch races. For
convenience of
reference we may state this in tabular form: (Page 125)
Make
7Branch-Races1-
Sub-Race
7Sub-Races1-Root-Race
7Root-Races1-World-Period
7World-Periods1-Round
7Rounds1-Chain-Period
7Chain-Periods1-Scheme
of Evolution
10Schemes of
EvolutionOur System Evolution
It is clear that the fourth root-race of the fourth globe of the
fourth round of
a fourth chain-period would be the central point of a whole scheme
of evolution,
and we find ourselves at the present moment only a little past the
point. The
Aryan race, to which we belong, is the fifth root-race of the
fourth globe, so
that the actual middle point fell in the time of the last great
root-race, the
Atlantean. Consequently the human race as a whole is very little
more than
halfway through its evolution, and those few souls who are already
nearing
Adeptship, which is the end and crown of this evolution, are very
far in advance
of their fellows.
How do they come to be so far in advance? Partly and in some cases
because they
have worked harder, but usually because they are older egos –
because they were
individualized out of the animal kingdom at an earlier date, and so
have had
more time for the human part of their evolution.
Any given wave of life sent forth from the Deity usually spends a
chain-period
in each of the great kingdoms of nature. That which in our first
chain was
ensouling the first elemental kingdom must have ensouled in the
second of those
kingdoms in the second chain, the third of them in the Moon-chain,
and is now in
the mineral kingdom in the fourth chain. In the future fifth chain
it will
ensoul the vegetable kingdom, in the sixth the animal, and in the
seventh it
will attain humanity.
From this it follows that we ourselves represented the mineral
kingdom on the
first chain, the vegetable on the second, and the animal on the
lunar chain.
(Page 126) There some of us attained our individualization, and so
we were
enabled to enter this Earth-chain as men. Others who were a little
more backward
did not succeed in attaining it, and so had to be born into this
chain as
animals for a while before they could reach humanity.
Not all of mankind, however, entered this chain together. When the
lunar chain
came to its end the humanity upon it stood at various levels. Not
Adeptship, but
what is now for us the fourth step on the Path, was the goal
appointed for that
chain. Those who had attained it (commonly called in theosophical
literature the
Lords of the Moon) had, as is usual, seven choices before them as
to the way in
which they would serve. Only one of those choices brought them, or
rather a few
of them, over into this Earth-chain, to act as guides and teachers
to the
earlier races. A considerable proportion – a vast proportion,
indeed – of the
Moon-men had not attained that level, and consequently had to
appear in this
Earth-chain as humanity. Besides this, a great mass of the animal
kingdom of the
Moon-chain was surging up to the level of individualization, and
some of its
members had already reached it, while many others had not. These
latter needed
further animal incarnations upon the Earth-chain, and for the
moment may be put
aside.
There were many classes even among humanity, and the manner in
which these
distributed themselves over the Earth-chain needs some explanation.
It is the
general rule that those who have attained the highest possible in
any chain, on
any globe, in (Page 127) any root-race, are not born into the
beginning of the
next chain, globe or race, respectively. The earlier stages are
always for the
backward entities, and only when they have already passed through a
good deal of
evolution and are beginning to approach the level of those others
who had done
better, do the latter descend into incarnation and join them once
more. That is
to say, almost the earlier half of any period of evolution, whether
it be a
race, a globe or a chain, seems to be devoted to bringing the
backward people up
to nearly the level of those who have got on better; then these
latter also
(who, in the meantime, have been resting in great enjoyment in the
mental world)
descend into incarnation along with the others, and they press on
together until
the end of the period.
Thus the first of the egos from the Moon who entered the
Earth-chain were by no
means the most advanced. Indeed they may be described as the least
advanced of
those who had succeeded in attaining humanity – the animal-men.
Coming as they
did into a chain of new globes, freshly aggregated, they had to
establish the
forms in all the different kingdoms of Nature. This needs to be
done at the
beginning of the first round in a new chain, but never after that;
for though
the life-wave is centered only upon one of the seven globes of a
chain at any
given time, yet life has not entirely departed from the other
globes. At the
present moment, for example, the life-wave of our chain is centered
in this
Earth, but on the other two physical globes of our chain, Mars and
Mercury, life
still exists. There is still a (Page128) population, human, animal
and
vegetable, and consequently when the life-wave goes round again to
either of
those planets there will be no necessity for the creation of new
forms. The old
types are already there, and all that will happen will be a sudden marvellous
fecundity, so that the various kingdoms will quickly increase and
multiply, and
make a rapidly increasing population instead of a stationary one.
It was, then, the animal-men, the lowest class of human beings of
the
Moon-chain, who established the forms in the first round of the
Earth-chain.
Pressing closely after them were the highest of the lunar animal
kingdom, who
were soon ready to occupy the forms which had just been made. In
the second
journey round the seven globes of the Earth-chain, the animal-men
who had been
the most backward of the lunar humanity were leaders of this
terrene humanity,
the highest of the moon-animals making its less developed grades.
The same thing
went on in the third round of the Earth-chain, more and more of the
lunar
animals attaining individualization and joining the human ranks,
until in the
middle of that round on this very globe D which we call the Earth,
a higher
class of human beings – the Second Order of moon-men – descended
into
incarnation and at once took the lead.
When we come to the fourth, our present round, we find the First
Order of the
moon-men pouring in upon us – all the highest and the best of the
lunar humanity
who had only just fallen short of success. (Page 129) Some of those
who had
already, even on the Moon, entered upon the Path soon attained its
end, became
Adepts and passed away from the Earth. Some few others who had not
been quite so
far advanced have attained Adeptship only comparatively recently –
that is,
within the last few thousand years, and these are the Adepts of the
present day.
We, who find ourselves in the higher races of humanity now, were
several stages
behind Them, but the opportunity lies before us of following in
Their steps if
we will.
The evolution of which we have been speaking is that of the ego
himself, of what
might be called the soul of man; but at the same time there has
been also an
evolution of the body. The forms built in the first round were very
different
from any of which we know anything now. Properly speaking, those which
were made
on our physical earth can scarcely be called forms at all, for they
were
constructed of etheric matter only, and resembled vague, drifting
and almost
shapeless clouds. In the second round they were definitely
physical, but still
shapeless and light enough to float about in currents of wind.
Only in the third round did they begin to bear any kind of
resemblance to man as
we know him today. The very methods of reproduction of those
primitive forms
differed from those of humanity today, and far more resembled those
which we now
find only in very much lower types of life. Man in those early days
was
androgynous, and a definite separation into the sexes took place
only about the
middle of (Page 130) the third round. From that time onward until
now the shape
of man has been steadily evolving along definitely human lines,
becoming smaller
and more compact than it was, learning to stand upright instead of
stooping and
crawling, and generally differentiating itself from the animal
forms out of
which it had been evolved.
One curious break in the regularity of this evolution deserves
mention. On this
globe, in this fourth round, there was a departure from the
straightforward
scheme of evolution. This being the middle globe of a middle round,
the midmost
point of evolution upon it marked the last movement at which it was
possible for
members of what had been the lunar animal kingdom to attain
individualization.
Consequently a sort of strong effort was made – a special scheme
was arranged to
give a final chance to as many as possible. The conditions of the
first and
second rounds were specially reproduced in place of the first and
second races –
conditions of which in the earlier rounds these backward egos had
not been able
fully to take advantage. Now, with the additional evolution which
they had
undergone during the third round, some of them were able to take
such advantage,
and so they rushed in at the very last moment before the door was
shut, and
became just human. Naturally they will not reach any high level of
human
development, but at least when they try again in some future chain
it will be
some advantage to them to have had even this slight experience of
human life.
Our terrestrial evolution received a most valuable (Page 131)
stimulus from the
assistance given to us by our sister globe, Venus. Venus is at
present in the
fifth incarnation of its chain, and in the seventh round of that
incarnation, so
that its inhabitants are a whole chain and a half in front of us in
evolution.
Since, therefore, its people are so much more developed than ours,
it was
thought desirable that certain Adepts from the Venus evolution
should be
transferred to our Earth in order to assist in the specially busy
time just
before the closing of the door, in the middle of the fourth
root-race.
These august Beings have been called the Lords of the Flame and the
Children of
the Fire-mist, and They have produced a wonderful effect upon our evolution.
The
intellect of which we are so proud is almost entirely due to Their
presence, for
in the natural course of events the next round, the fifth, should
be that of
intellectual advancement, and in this our present fourth round we
should be
devoting ourselves chiefly to the cultivation of the emotions. We
are therefore
in reality a long way in advance of the program marked out for us;
and such
advance is entirely due to the assistance given by these great
Lords of the
Flame. Most of Them stayed with us only through that critical
period of our
history; a few still remain to hold the highest offices of the
Great White
Brotherhood until the time when men of our own evolution shall have
risen to
such a height as to be capable of relieving their august Visitors.
The evolution lying before us in both of the life (Page 132) and of
the form;
for in future rounds, while the egos will be steadily growing in
power, wisdom
and love, the physical forms also will be more beautiful and more
perfect than
they have ever yet been. We have in this world at the present time
men at widely
differing stages of evolution, and it is clear that there are vast
hosts of
savages who are far behind the great civilized races of the world –
so far
behind that it is quite impossible that they can overtake them.
Later on in the
course of our evolution a point will be reached at which it is no
longer
possible for those undeveloped souls to advance side by side with
the others, so
that it will be necessary that a division should be made.
The proceeding is exactly analogous to the sorting out by a
schoolmaster of the
boys in his class. During the school year he has to prepare his
boys for a
certain examination, and by perhaps the middle of that school year
he knows
quite well which of them will pass it. If he should have in his
class some who
are hopelessly behind the rest, he might reasonably say to them
when the middle
period was reached:
“It is quite useless for you to continue with your fellows, for the
more
difficult lessons which I shall now have to give will be entirely
unintelligible
to you. It is impossible that you can learn enough in the time to
pass the
examination, so that the effort would only be a useless strain for
you, and
meantime you would be a hindrance to the rest of the class. It is
therefore far
better for you to give up striving after the impossible, and to
take up again
(Page 133) the work of the lower class which you did not do
perfectly, and then
to offer yourselves for this examination along with next year’s
class, for what
is now impossible for you will then be easy”.
This is in effect exactly what is said at a certain stage in our
future
evolution, to the most backward egos. They drop out of this year’s
class and
come along with the next one. This is the “aeonian condemnation” to
which
reference was made a little while ago. It is computed that about
two fifths of
humanity will drop out of the class in this way, leaving the
remaining three
fifths to go on with far greater rapidity to the glorious destinies
which lie
before them. (Page 134)
---------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales----------
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CHAPTER X
THE RESULT OF THEOSOPHICAL STUDY
“Members of the Theosophical Society study these truths and
Theosophists
endeavor to live them”. What manner of men then is the true
Theosophist in
consequence of his knowledge? What is the result in his daily life
of all this
study?
Finding that there is a Supreme Power who is directing the course
of evolution,
and that He is all-wise and all-loving, the Theosophist sees that
everything
which exists within this scheme must be intended to further its
progress. He
realizes that the scripture which tells us that all things are
working together
for good, is not indulging in a flight of poetic fancy or voicing a
pious hope,
but stating a scientific fact. The final attainment of unspeakable
glory is an
absolute certainty for every son of man, whatever may be his
present condition;
but that is by no means all. Here and at this present moment he is
on his way
toward the glory; and all the circumstances surrounding him are
intended to help
and not to hinder him, if only they are rightly understood. It is
sadly true
that in the world there is much of evil and of sorrow and of
suffering; yet from
the higher point of view the Theosophist sees that, terrible though
this be, it
is only temporary and superficial, and is all being utilized as a
factor in the
progress.(Page 135)
When in the days of his ignorance he looked at it from its own
level it was
almost impossible to see this; while he looked from beneath at the
under side of
life, with his eyes fixed all the time upon some apparent evil, he
could never
gain a true grasp of its meaning. Now he raises himself above it to
the higher
levels of thought and consciousness, and looks down upon it with
the eye of the
spirit and understands it in its entirety, so he can see that in
very truth all
is well – not that all will be well at some remote period, but that
even now at
this moment, in the midst of incessant striving and apparent evil,
the mighty
current of evolution is still flowing, and so all is well because
all is moving
on in perfect order toward the final goal.
Raising his consciousness thus above the storm and stress of
worldly life, he
recognizes what used to seem to be evil, and notes how it is
apparently pressing
backwards against the great stream of progress; but he also sees
that the onward
sweep of the divine law of evolution bears the same relation to
this superficial
evil as does the tremendous torrent of Niagara to the fleckings of
foam upon its
surface. So while he sympathizes deeply with all who suffer, he yet
realizes
what will be the end of that suffering, and so for him despair or
hopelessness
is impossible. He applies this consideration to his own sorrows and
troubles, as
well as to those of the world, and therefore one great result of
his Theosophy
is a perfect serenity – even more than that, a perpetual
cheerfulness and joy.
For him there is an utter absence of worry, because (Page 136) in
truth there is
nothing left to worry about, since he knows that all must be well.
His higher
Science makes him a confirmed optimist, for it shows him that whatever
of evil
there may be in any person or in any movement, it is of necessity
temporary,
because it is opposed to the resistless stream of evolution;
whereas whatever is
good in any person or in any movement must necessarily be
persistent and useful,
because it has behind it the omnipotence of that current, and
therefore it must
abide and it must prevail.
Yet it must not for a moment be supposed that because he is so
fully assured of
the final triumph of good he remains careless or unmoved by the
evils which
exist in the world around him. He knows that it is his duty to
combat these to
the utmost of his power, because in doing this he is working upon
the side of
the great evolutionary force, and is bringing nearer the time of
its ultimate
victory. None will be more active than he in labouring for the
good, even though
he is absolutely free from the feeling of helplessness and
hopelessness which so
often oppresses those who are striving to help their fellowmen.
Another most valuable result of his theosophical study is the
absence of fear.
Many people are constantly anxious or worried about something or
other; they are
fearing lest this or that should happen to them, lest this or that
combination
may fail, and so all the while they are in a condition of unrest;
and most
serious of all for many is the fear of death. For the Theosophist
the whole of
this feeling is entirely (Page 137) swept away. He realizes that
great truth of
reincarnation. He knows that he has often before laid aside physical
bodies, and
so he sees that death is no more than sleep – that just as sleep
comes in
between our days of work and gives us rest and refreshment, so
between these
days of labor here on earth, which we call lives, there comes a
long night of
astral and heavenly life to give us rest and refreshment and to
help us on our
way.
To the Theosophist death is simply the laying aside for a time of
this robe of
flesh. He knows that it is his duty to preserve the bodily vesture
as long as
possible, and gain through it all the experience he can; but when
the time comes
for him to lay it down he will do so thankfully, because he knows
that the next
stage will be a much pleasanter one than this. Thus he will have no
fear of
death, although he realizes that he must live his life to the
appointed end,
because he is here for the purpose of progress, and that progress
is the one
truly momentous matter. His whole conception of life is different;
the object is
not to earn so much money, not to obtain such and such a position;
the one
important thing is to carry out the Divine Plan. He knows that for
this he is
here, and that everything else must give way to it.
Utterly free also is he from any religious fears or worries or troubles.
All
such things are swept aside for him, because he sees clearly that
progress
toward the highest is the Divine Will for us, that we cannot escape
from that
progress, and that whatever comes in our way and whatever happens
to us is (Page
138) meant to help us along that line; that we ourselves are
absolutely the only
people who can delay our advance. No longer does he trouble and
fear about
himself. He simply goes on and does the duty which comes nearest in
the best way
that he can, confident that if he does this all will be well for
him without his
perpetual worrying. He is satisfied quietly to do his work and to
try to help
his fellows in the race, knowing that the great divine Power behind
will press
him onward slowly and steadily, and do for him all that can be
done, so long as
his face is set steadfastly in the right direction, so long as he
does all he
reasonably can.
Since he knows that we are all part of one great evolution and all
literally the
children of one father, he sees that the universal brotherhood of
humanity is no
mere poetical conception, but a definite fact; not a dream of
something which is
to be in the dim distance of Utopia, but a condition existing here
and now. The
certainty of this all-embracing fraternity gives him a wider
outlook upon life
and a broad impersonal point of view from which to regard
everything. He
realizes that the true interests of all are in fact identical, and
that no man
can ever make real gain for himself at the cost of loss or
suffering to some one
else. This is not to him an article of religious belief, but a
scientific fact
proved to him by his study. He sees that since humanity is
literally a whole,
nothing which injures one man can ever be really for the good of
any other, for
the harm done influences not only the doer but also those who are
about
him.(Page 139)
He knows that the only true advantage for him is that benefit which
he shares
with all. He sees that any advance which he is able to make in the
way of
spiritual progress or development is something secured not for
himself alone but
for others. If he gains knowledge or self-control, he assuredly
acquires much
for himself, yet he takes nothing away from any one else, but on
the contrary he
helps and strengthen others. Cognizant as he is of the absolute
spiritual unity
of humanity, he knows that, even in this lower world, no true
profit can be made
by one man which is not made in the name of and for the sake of
humanity; that
one man’s progress must be a lifting of the burden of all others;
that one man’s
advance in spiritual things means a very slight yet not
imperceptible advance to
humanity as a whole; that every one who bears suffering and sorrow
nobly in his
struggle toward the light is lifting a little of the heavy load of
the sorrow
and suffering of his brothers as well.
Because he recognizes this brotherhood not merely as a hope
cherished by
despairing men, but as a definite fact following in scientific
series from all
other facts; because he sees this as an absolute certainty, his
attitude towards
all those around him changes radically. It becomes a posture ever
of
helpfulness, ever of the deepest sympathy, for he sees that nothing
which
clashes with their higher interests can be the right thing for him
to do, or can
be good for him in any way.
It naturally follows that he becomes filled with the widest
possible tolerance
and charity. He cannot but (Page 140) be always tolerant, because
his philosophy
shows him that it matters little what man believes, so long as he
is a good man
and true. Charitable also he must be, because his wider knowledge
enables him to
make allowances for many things which the ordinary man does not
understand. The
standard of the Theosophist as to right and wrong is always higher
than that of
the less instructed man, yet he is far gentler than the latter in
his feeling
towards the sinner, because he comprehends more of human nature. He
realizes how
the sin appeared to the sinner at the moment of its commission, and
so he makes
more allowance than is ever made by the man who is ignorant of all
this.
He goes further than tolerance, charity, sympathy; he feels
positive love
towards mankind, and that leads him to adopt a position of watchful
helpfulness. He feels that every contact with others is for him an
opportunity,
and the additional knowledge which his study has brought to him
enables him to
give advice or help in almost any case which comes before him. Not
that he is
perpetually thrusting his opinions upon other people. On the
contrary, he
observes that to do this is one of the commonest mistakes made by
the
uninstructed. He knows that argument is foolish waste of energy,
and therefore
he declines to argue. If anyone desires from him explanation or
advice he is
more than willing to give it, yet he has no sort of wish to convert
anyone else
to his own way of thinking.
In every relation of life this idea of helpfulness comes into play,
not only
with regard to his fellowmen (Page 141) but also in connection with
the vast
animal kingdom which surrounds him. Units of this kingdom are often
brought into
close relation with man, and this is for him an opportunity of
doing something
for them. The Theosophist recognizes that these are also his
brothers, even
though they may be younger brothers, and that he owes a fraternal
duty to them
also – so to act and so to think that his relation with them shall
be always for
their good and never for their harm.
Pre-eminently and above all, this Theosophy is to him a doctrine of
common
sense. It puts before him, as far as he can at present know them,
the facts
about God and man and the relations between them; then he proceeds
to take these
facts into account and to act in relation to them with ordinary
reason and
common sense. He regulates his life according to the laws of
evolution which it
has taught him, and this gives him a totally different standpoint,
and a
touchstone by which to try everything – his own thoughts and
feelings, and his
own actions first of all, and then those things which come before
him in the
world outside himself.
Always he applies this criterion: Is the thing right or wrong, does
it help
evolution or does it hinder it? If a thought or a feeling arises
within himself,
he sees at once by this test whether it is one he ought to
encourage. If it be
for the greatest good of the greatest number then all is well; if
it may hinder
or cause harm to any being in its progress, then it is evil and to
be avoided.
Exactly the same reason holds good if he is called upon to decide
(Page 142)
with regard to anything outside himself. If from that point of view
a thing be a
good thing, then he can consciously support it; if not, then it is
not for him.
For him the question of personal interest does not come into the
case at all. He
thinks simply of the good of evolution as a whole. This gives him a
definite
foothold and clear criterion, and removes from him altogether the
pain of
indecision and hesitation. The Will of the Deity is man’s
evolution; whatever
therefore helps on that evolution must be good; whatever stands in
the way of it
and delays it, that thing must be wrong, even though it may have on
its side all
the weight of public opinion and immemorial tradition.
Knowing that the true man is the ego and not the body, he sees that
it is the
life of the ego only which is really of moment, and that everything
connected
with the body must unhesitatingly be subordinated to those higher
interests. He
recognizes that this earth life is given to him for the purpose of
progress, and
that that progress is the one important thing. The real purpose of
his life is
the unfoldment of his powers as an ego, the development of his
character. He
knows that there must be evolvement not only of the physical body
but also of
the mental nature, of the mind, and of the spiritual perceptions.
He sees that
nothing short of absolute perfection is expected of him in
connection with this
development; that all power with regard to it is in his own hands;
that he has
everlasting time before him in which to attain (Page 143) this
perfection, but
the sooner it is gained the happier and more useful will he be.
He recognizes his life as nothing but a day at school, and his
physical body as
a temporary vesture assumed for the purpose of learning through it.
He knows at
once that this purpose of learning lessons is the only one of any
real
importance, and that the man who allows himself to be diverted from
that purpose
by any consideration whatever is acting with inconceivable
stupidity. To him the
life devoted exclusively to physical objects, to the acquisition of
wealth or
fame, appears the merest child’s play – a senseless sacrifice of
all that is
really worth having for the sake of a few moment’s gratification of
the lower
part of his nature. He “sets his affection on things above and not
on things of
the earth”, not only because he sees this to be the right course of
action, but
because he realizes so clearly the valuelessness of these things of
earth. He
always tries to take the higher point of view, for he knows that
the lower is
utterly unreliable – that the lower desires and feelings gather
round him like a
dense fog, and make it impossible for him to see anything clearly
from that
level.
Whenever he finds a struggle going on within him he remembers that
he himself is
the higher, and that this which is the lower is not the real self,
but merely an
uncontrolled part of one of its vehicles. He knows that though he
may fall a
thousand times on the way toward his goal, his reason for trying to
reach it
remains just as strong after the thousandth fall (Page 144) as it
was in the
beginning, so that it would not only be useless but unwise and
wrong to give way
to despondency and hopelessness.
He begins his journey upon the road of progress at once – not only
because he
knows that it is far easier for him now than it will be if he
leaves the effort
until later, but chiefly because if he makes the endeavor now and
succeeds in
achieving some progress, if he rises thereby to some higher level,
he is in a
position to hold out a helping hand to those who have not yet
reached even that
step on the ladder which he has gained. In that way he takes part,
however
humble it may be, in the great divine work of evolution.
He knows that he has arrived at his present position only by a slow
process of
growth, and so he does not expect instantaneous attainments of
perfection. He
sees how inevitable is the great law of cause and effect, and that
when he once
grasps the working of that law he can use it intelligently, in
regard to mental
and moral development, just as in the physical world we can employ
for our own
assistance those laws of nature the action of which we have learnt
to
understand.
Understanding what death is, he knows that there can be no need to
fear it or to
mourn over it, whether it comes to himself or to those whom he
loves. It has
come to them all often before, so there is nothing unfamiliar about
it. He sees
death simply as a promotion from a life which is more than half
physical to one
which is wholly superior, so for himself he unfeignedly welcomes
it; and even
when it comes (Page 145) to those whom he loves, he recognizes at
once the
advantage for them, even though he cannot but feel a pang of regret
that he
should be temporarily separated from them so far as the physical
world is
concerned. But he knows that the so-called dead are near him still,
and that he
has only to cast off for a time his physical body in sleep in order
to stand
side by side with them as before.
He sees clearly that the world is one, and that the same divine
laws rule the
whole of it, whether it be visible or invisible to physical sight.
So he has no
feeling of nervousness or strangeness in passing from one part of
it to another,
and no feeling of uncertainty as to what he will find on the other
side of the
veil. He knows that in that higher life there opens before him a
splendid vista
of opportunities both for acquiring fresh knowledge and for doing
useful work;
that life away from this dense body has a vividness and a
brilliancy to which
all earthly enjoyment is as nothing; and so through his clear
knowledge and calm
confidence the power of the endless life shines out upon all those
around him.
Doubt as to his future is for him impossible, for just as by
looking back on the
savage he realizes that which he was in the past, so by looking to
the greatest
and wisest of mankind he knows what he will be in the future. He
sees an
unbroken chain of development, a ladder of perfection rising
steadily before
him, yet with human beings upon every step of it, so that he knows
that those
steps are possible for him to climb. It is just because of the
unchangeableness
of the great law of cause and effect that (Page 146) he finds
himself able to
climb that ladder, because, since the law works always in the same
way, he can
depend upon it and he can use it, just as he uses the laws of
Nature in the
physical worlds. His knowledge of this law brings to him a sense of
perspective,
and shows him that if something comes to him, it comes because he
has deserved
it as a consequence of action which he has committed, of words
which he has
spoken, of thought to which he has given harbor in previous days or
in earlier
lives. He comprehends that all affliction is of the nature of the
payment of a
debt, and therefore when he has to meet with the troubles of life
he takes them
and uses them as a lesson, because he understands why they have
come and is glad
of the opportunity which they give him to pay off something of his
obligations.
Again, and yet another way, does he take them as an opportunity,
for he sees
that there is another side to them if he meets them in the right
way. He spends
no time in bearing prospective burdens. When trouble comes to him
he does not
aggravate it by foolish repining but sets himself to endure so much
of it as is
inevitable, with patience and fortitude. Not that he submits
himself to it as a
fatalist might, for he takes adverse circumstances as an incentive
to such
development as may enable him to transcend them, and thus out of
long-past evil
he brings forth a seed of future growth. For in the very act of
paying the
outstanding debt he develops qualities of courage and resolution
that will stand
him in good stead through all the ages that are to come.
He is distinguishable from the rest of the world (Page 147) by his
perennial
cheerfulness, his undaunted courage under difficulties, and his
ready sympathy
and helpfulness; yet he is at the same time emphatically a man who
takes life
seriously, who recognizes that there is much for everyone to do in
the world,
and that there is no time to waste. He knows with utter certainty
that he not
only makes his own destiny but also gravely affects that of others
around him,
and thus he perceives how weighty a responsibility attends the use
of his power.
He knows that thoughts are things and that it is easily possible to
do great
harm or great good by their means. He knows that no man liveth to
himself, for
his every thought acts upon others as well; that the vibrations
which he sends
forth from his mind and from his mental nature are reproducing
themselves in the
minds and the mental natures of other men, so that he is a source
either of
mental health or of mental ill to all with whom he comes in
contact.
This at once imposes upon him a far higher code of social ethics
than that which
is known to the outer world, for he knows that he must control not
only his acts
and his words, but also his thoughts, since they may produce
effects more
serious and more far-reaching than their outward expression in the
physical
world. He knows that even when a man is not in the least thinking
of others, he
yet inevitably affects them for good or evil. In addition to this
unconscious
action of his thought upon others he also employs it consciously
for good. He
sets currents in motion to carry mental help and comfort to many a
(Page 148)
friend, and in this way he finds a whole new world of usefulness
opening before
him.
He ranges himself ever on the side of the higher rather than the
lower thought,
the nobler rather than the baser. He deliberately takes the
optimistic rather
than the pessimistic view of everything, the helpful rather than
the cynical,
because he knows that to be fundamentally the true view. By looking
continually
for the good in everything that he may endeavour to strengthen it,
by striving
always to help and never to hinder, he becomes ever of greater use
to his
fellow-men, and is thus in his small way a co-worker with the
splendid scheme of
evolution. He forgets himself utterly and lives but for the sake of
others,
realizing himself as a part of that scheme; he also realizes the
God within him,
and learns to become ever a truer expression of Him, and thus in
fulfilling
God’s will he is not only blessed himself, but becomes a blessing
to all.
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