The Theosophical Society,
The Writings of W Q Judge
W Q Judge 1851 – 96
The
By
William Q. Judge
First published 1893
Español:- El Oceano de la Teosofía
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1--
THEOSOPHY AND THE MASTERS
Chapter 2--
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Chapter 3--
THE EARTH CHAIN
Chapter 4--
SEPTENARY CONSTITUTION OF MAN
Chapter 5--
BODY AND ASTRAL BODY
Chapter 6--
KAMA -- DESIRE
Chapter 7--
MANAS
Chapter 8--
OF REINCARNATION
Chapter 9--
REINCARNATION CONTINUED
Chapter
10-ARGUMENTS SUPPORTING REINCARNATION
Chapter
11-KARMA
Chapter
12-KAMA LOKA
Chapter
13-DEVACHAN
Chapter
14-CYCLES
Chapter
15-DIFFERENTIATION OF SPECIES -- MISSING LINKS
Chapter
16-PSYCHIC LAWS, FORCES, AND PHENOMENA
Chapter
17-PSYCHIC PHENOMENA AND SPIRITUALISM
PREFACE
An attempt is made in the pages of this book to write of
theosophy in such a
manner as to be understood by the ordinary reader. Bold
statements are made in
it upon the knowledge of the writer, but at the same time it is
distinctly to be
understood that he alone is responsible for what is therein
written: the Theosophical Society is not involved in nor bound by anything said
in the book,
nor are any of its members any the less good Theosophists because
they may not accept what I have set down. The tone of settled conviction which
may be thought to pervade the chapters is not the result of dogmatism or
conceit, but flows from knowledge based upon evidence and experience.
Members of the Theosophical Society will notice that certain
theories or
doctrines have not been gone into. That is because they could not
be treated
without unduly extending the book and arousing needless
controversy.
The subject of the Will has received no treatment, inasmuch as
that power or
faculty is hidden, subtle, undiscoverable as to essence, and only
visible in
effect. As it is absolutely colourless
and varies in moral quality in accordance
with the desire behind it, as also it acts frequently without our
knowledge, and
as it operates in all the kingdoms below man, there could be
nothing gained by
attempting to enquire into it apart from the Spirit and the
desire.
I claim no originality for this book. I invented none of it,
discovered none of
it, but have simply written that which I have been taught and
which has been
proved to me. It therefore is only a handing on of what has been
known before.
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
New York, May, 1893.
CHAPTER
1
Theosophy and the
Masters
Theosophy
is that ocean of knowledge which spreads from shore to shore of the evolution
of sentient beings; unfathomable in its deepest parts, it gives the
greatest
minds their fullest scope, yet, shallow enough at its shores, it will
not
overwhelm the understanding of a child. It is wisdom about God for those who
believe that he is all things and in all, and wisdom about nature for the man
who
accepts the statement found in the Christian Bible that God cannot be
measured
or discovered, and that darkness is around his pavilion. Although it
contains
by derivation the name God and thus may seem at first sight toembrace
religion alone, it does not neglect science, for it is the science ofsciences and therefore has been called the wisdom
religion. For no science is complete which leaves out any department of nature,
whether visible or invisible, and that religion which, depending solely on an
assumed revelation, turns away from things and the laws which govern them is
nothing but a delusion, a foe to progress, an obstacle in the way of man's
advancement toward happiness. Embracing both the scientific and the religious,
Theosophy is a scientific religion and a religious science.
It
is not a belief or dogma formulated or invented by man, but is a knowledge of
the
laws which govern the evolution of the physical, astral, psychical, and
intellectual
constituents of nature and of man. The religion of the day is but a
series
of dogmas man-made and with no scientific foundation for promulgated
ethics;
while our science as yet ignores the unseen, and failing to admit the
existence
of a complete set of inner faculties of perception in man, it is cut
off
from the immense and real field of experience which lies within the visible
and
tangible worlds. But Theosophy knows that the whole is constituted of the
visible
and the invisible, and perceiving outer things and objects to be but
transitory
it grasps the facts of nature, both without and within. It is therefore
complete in itself and sees no unsolvable mystery anywhere; it throws the word
coincidence out of its vocabulary and hails the reign of law in everything and
every circumstance.
That
man possesses an immortal soul is the common belief of humanity; to this
Theosophy
adds that he is a soul; and further that all nature is sentient, that
the
vast array of objects and men are not mere collections of atoms fortuitously
thrown
together and thus without law evolving law, but down to the smallest atom all
is soul and spirit ever evolving under the rule of law which is inherent in
the
whole. And just as the ancients taught, so does Theosophy; that the course
of
evolution is the drama of the soul and that nature exists for no other purpose
than the soul's experience. The Theosophist agrees with Prof. Huxley in the
assertion that there must be beings in the universe whose intelligence is as
much beyond ours as ours exceeds that of the black beetle, and who take an
active part in the government of the natural order of things. Pushing further
on by the light of the confidence had in his teachers, the Theosophist adds
that such intelligences were once human and came like all of us from other and
previous worlds, where as varied experience had been gained as is possible on
this one.
We
are therefore not appearing for the first time when we come upon this planet,
but have pursued a long, an immeasurable course of activity and intelligent
perception on other systems of globes, some of which were destroyed ages before
the solar system condensed. This immense reach of the evolutionary
system
means, then, that this planet on which we now are is the result of the
activity
and the evolution of some other one that died long ago, leaving its
energy
to be used in the bringing into existence of the earth, and that the
inhabitants
of the latter in their turn came from some older world to proceed
here
with the destined work in matter. And the brighter planets, such as Venus,
are
the habitation of still more progressed entities, once as low as ourselves,
but
now raised up to a pitch of glory incomprehensible for our intellects.
The
most intelligent being in the universe, man, has never, then, been without a
friend,
but has a line of elder brothers who continually watch over the progress
of
the less progressed, preserve the knowledge gained through aeons
of trial and
experience,
and continually seek for opportunities of drawing the developing
intelligence
of the race on this or other globes to consider the great truths
concerning
the destiny of the soul. These elder brothers also keep theknowledge
they have gained of the laws of nature in all departments, and are ready when
cyclic law permits to use it for the benefit of mankind. They have always
existed as a body, all knowing each other, no matter in what part of the world
they may be, and all working for the race in many different ways. In some
periods they are well known to the people and move among ordinary men whenever
the social organization, the virtue, and the development of the nations permit
it. For if they were to come out openly and be heard of everywhere, they would
be worshipped as gods by some and hunted as devils by others. In those periods
when
they do come out some of their number are rulers of men, some teachers, a few
great philosophers, while others remain still unknown except to the most
advanced
of the body.
It
would be subversive of the ends they have in view were they to make
themselves
public in the present civilization, which is based almost wholly on
money,
fame, glory, and personality. For this age, as one of them has already
said,
"is an age of transition," when every system of thought, science,
religion, government, and society is changing, and men's minds are only
preparing for an alteration into that state which will permit the race to
advance to the point suitable for these elder brothers to introduce their
actual presence to our sight. They may be truly called the bearers of the torch
of truth across the ages; they investigate all things and beings; they know
what man is in his innermost nature and what his powers and destiny, his state
before birth and the states into which he goes after the death of his body;
they have stood by the cradle of nations and seen the vast achievements of the
ancients, watched sadly the decay of those who had no power to resist the
cyclic law of rise and fall; and while cataclysms seemed to show a universal
destruction of art, architecture, religion, and philosophy, they have preserved
the records of it all in places secure from the ravages of either men or time;
they have made minute observations, through trained psychics among their own
order, into the unseen realms of nature and of mind, recorded the observations
and preserved the record; they have mastered the mysteries of sound and color
through which alone the elemental beings behind the veil of matter can be
communicated with, and thus can tell why the rain falls and what it falls for,
whether the earth is hollow or not, what makes the wind to blow and light to shine,
and greater feat than all -- one which implies a knowledge of the very
foundations of nature -- they know what the ultimate divisions of time are and
what are the meaning and the times of the cycles.
But,
asks the busy man of the nineteenth century who reads the newspapers and
believes
in "modern progress," if these elder brothers are all you claim them
to
be,
why have they left no mark on history nor gathered men around them? Their
own
reply, published some time ago by Mr. A. P. Sinnett,
is better than any I
could
write.
"We
will first discuss, if you please, the one relating to the presumed failure
of
the 'Fraternity' to leave any mark upon the history of the world. They ought,
you
think, to have been able, with their extraordinary advantages, to have
gathered
into their schools a considerable portion of the more enlightened minds
of
every race. How do you know they have made no such mark? Are you acquainted
with their efforts, successes, and failures? Have you any dock upon which to
arraign them? How could your world collect proofs of the doings of men who have
sedulously kept closed every possible door of approach by which the inquisitive
could spy upon them? The precise condition of their success was that they
should never be surprised or obstructed. What they have done they know; all
that those outside their circle could perceive was the results, the causes of
which were masked from view.
To
account for these results, many have in different ages invented theories of the
interposition of gods, special providences, fates, the benign or hostile
influences of the stars. There never was a time within or before the so-called
historical period when our predecessors were not moulding
events and 'making history,' the facts of which were subsequently and
invariably distorted by historians to suit contemporary prejudices. Are you
quite sure that the visible heroic figures in the successive dramas were not
often but their puppets? We never pretended to be able to draw nations in the
mass to this or that crisis in spite of the general drift of the world's cosmic
relations.
The
cycles must run their rounds. Periods of mental and moral light and darkness
succeed each other as day does night. The major and minor yugas
must be accomplished according to the established order of things. And we,
borne along the mighty tide, can only modify and direct some of its minor
currents."
It
is under cyclic law, during a dark period in the history of mind, that the
true
philosophy disappears for a time, but the same law causes it to reappear as
surely
as the sun rises and the human mind is present to see it. But some works
can
only be performed by the Master, while other works require the assistance of the
companions. It is the Master's work to preserve the true philosophy, but the
help of the companions is needed to rediscover and promulgate it. Once more the
elder brothers have indicated where the truth -- Theosophy -- could be found,
and the companions all over the world are engaged in bringing it forth for
wider currency and propagation.
The
Elder Brothers of Humanity are men who were perfected in former periods of
evolution. These periods of manifestation are unknown to modern evolutionists
so far as their number are concerned, though long ago understood by not only
the older Hindus, but also by those great minds and men who instituted and
carried on the first pure and undebased form of the
Mysteries of Greece. The periods, when out of the Great Unknown there come
forth the visible universes, are eternal in their coming and going, alternating
with equal periods of silence and rest again in the Unknown. The object of
these mighty waves is the production of perfect man, the evolution of soul, and
they always witness the increase of the number of Elder Brothers; the life of
the least of men pictures them in day and night, waking and sleeping, birth and
death, "for these two, light and dark, day and night, are the world's
eternal ways."
In
every age and complete national history these men of power and compassion are
given different designations. They have been called Initiates, Adepts, Magi,
Hierophants,
Kings of the East, Wise Men, Brothers, and what not. But in the
Sanskrit
language there is a word which, being applied to them, at once
thoroughly
identifies them with humanity. It is Mahatma. This is composed of
Maha great, and Atma soul; so it means great soul,
and as all men are souls the
distinction
of the Mahatma lies in greatness. The term Mahatma has come into
wide
use through the Theosophical Society, as Mme. H. P. Blavatsky constantly
referred
to them as her Masters who gave her the knowledge she possessed.
They
were at first known only as the Brothers, but afterwards, when many Hindus flocked
to the Theosophical movement, the name Mahatma was brought into use, inasmuch
as it has behind it an immense body of Indian tradition and literature.
At
different times unscrupulous enemies of the Theosophical Society have said
that
even this name had been invented and that such beings are not known of
among
the Indians or in their literature. But these assertions are made only to
discredit
if possible a philosophical movement that threatens to completely
upset
prevailing erroneous theological dogmas. For all through Hindu literature
Mahatmas
are often spoken of, and in parts of the north of that country the term
is
common. In the very old poem the Bhagavad-Gita, revered by all Hindu sects
and
admitted by the western critics to be noble as well as beautiful, there is a
verse
reading, "Such a Mahatma is difficult to find."
But
irrespective of all disputes as to specific names, there is sufficient argument
and proof to show that a body of men having the wonderfulknowledge
described above has always existed and probably exists today. The older
mysteries continually refer to them. Ancient Egypt had them in her great
king-Initiates, sons of the sun and friends of great gods. There is a habit of
belittling the ideas of the ancients which is in itself belittling to the
people of today. Even the Christian who reverently speaks of Abraham as
"the friend of God," will scornfully laugh at the idea of the claims
of Egyptian rulers to the same friendship being other than childish assumption
of dignity and title. But the truth is, these great Egyptians were Initiates,
members of the one great lodge which includes all others of whatever degree or
operation. The later and declining Egyptians, of course, must have imitated
their predecessors, but that was when the true doctrine was beginning once more
to be obscured upon the rise
of
dogma and priesthood.
The
story of Apollonius of Tyana is about a member of one
of the same ancient
orders
appearing among men at a descending cycle, and only for the purpose of
keeping
a witness upon the scene for future generations.
Abraham
and Moses of the Jews are two other Initiates, Adepts who had their work to do
with a certain people; and in the history of Abraham we meet with
Melchizedek,
who was so much beyond Abraham that he had the right to confer upon the latter
a dignity, a privilege, or a blessing. The same chapter of human
history
which contains the names of Moses and Abraham is illuminated also by
that
of Solomon. And thus these three make a great Triad of Adepts, the record
of
whose deeds can not be brushed aside as folly and devoid of basis.
Moses
was educated by the Egyptians and in Midian, from
both of which he gained much occult knowledge, and any clear-seeing student of
the great Universal Masonry can perceive all through his books the hand, the
plan, and the work of a master. Abraham again knew all the arts and much of the
power in psychical realms that were cultivated in his day, or else he could not
have consorted with kings nor have been "the friend of God"; and the
reference to his conversations with the Almighty in respect to the destruction
of cities alone shows him to have been an Adept who had long ago passed beyond
the need of ceremonial or other adventitious aids. Solomon completes this triad
and stands out in characters of fire. Around him is clustered such a mass of
legend and story about his dealings with the elemental powers and of his magic
possessions that one must condemn the whole ancient world as a collection of
fools who made lies for amusement if a denial is made of his being a great
character, a wonderful example of the incarnation among men of a powerful
Adept. We do not have to accept the name Solomon nor the pretence that he
reigned over the Jews, but we must admit the fact that somewhere in the misty
time to which the Jewish records refer there lived and moved among the people
of the earth one who was an Adept and given that name afterwards. Peripatetic
and microscopic critics may affect to see in the prevalence of universal tradition
naught but evidence of the gullibility of men and their power to imitate, but
the true student of human nature and life knows that the universal tradition is
true and arises from the facts in the history of man.
Turning
to India, so long forgotten and ignored by the lusty and egotistical,
the
fighting and the trading West, we find her full of the lore relating to
these
wonderful men of whom Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Solomon are only examples.
There
the people are fitted by temperament and climate to be the preservers of
the
philosophical, ethical, and psychical jewels that would have been forever
lost
to us had they been left to the ravages of such Goths and Vandals as
western
nations were in the early days of their struggle for education and
civilization.
If the men who wantonly burned up vast masses of historical and
ethnological
treasures found by the minions of the Catholic rulers of Spain, in
Central
and South America, could have known of and put their hands upon the
books
and palm-leaf records of India before the protecting shield of England was
raised against them, they would have destroyed them all as they did for the
Americans,
and as their predecessors attempted to do for the Alexandrian
library.
Fortunately events worked otherwise.
All
along the stream of Indian literature we can find the names by scores of great
adepts who were well known to the people and who all taught the same story --
the great epic of the human soul. Their names are unfamiliar to western ears,
but the records of their thoughts, their work and powers remain. Still more, in
the
quiet unmoveable East there are today by the hundred
persons who know of
their
own knowledge that the Great Lodge still exists and has its Mahatmas,
Adepts,
Initiates, Brothers. And yet further, in that land are such a number of
experts
in the practical application of minor though still very astonishing
power
over nature and her forces, that we have an irresistible mass of human
evidence
to prove the proposition laid down.
And
if Theosophy -- the teaching of this Great Lodge -- is as said, both
scientific
and religious, then from the ethical side we have still more proof. A
mighty
Triad acting on and through ethics is that composed of Buddha, Confucius, and
Jesus. The first, a Hindu, founds a religion which today embraces many more
people than Christianity, teaching centuries before Jesus the ethics which he
taught and which had been given out even centuries before Buddha. Jesus coming
to reform his people repeats these ancient ethics, and Confucius does the same
thing for ancient and honorable China.
The
Theosophist says that all these great names represent members of the one
single
brotherhood, who all have a single doctrine. And the extraordinary
characters
who now and again appear in western civilization, such as St.
Germain, Jacob Boehme,
Cagliostro, Paracelsus, Mesmer,
Count St. Martin, and Madame H. P. Blavatsky, are agents for the doing of the
work of the Great Lodge at the proper time. It is true they are generally
reviled and classed as
impostors
-- though no one can find out why they are when they generally confer
benefits
and lay down propositions or make discoveries of great value to science after
they have died. But Jesus himself would be called an impostor today if he
appeared in some Fifth avenue theatrical church rebuking the professed
Christians. Paracelsus was the originator of valuable methods and treatments in
medicine now universally used. Mesmer taught
hypnotism under another name. Madame Blavatsky brought once more to the
attention of the West the most important system, long known to the Lodge,
respecting man, his nature and destiny. But all are alike called impostors by a
people who have no original philosophy of their own and whose mendicant and
criminal classes exceed in misery and in number those of any civilization on
the earth.
It
will not be unusual for nearly all occidental readers to wonder how men could
possibly
know so much and have such power over the operations of natural law as I have
ascribed to the Initiates, now so commonly spoken of as the Mahatmas. In India,
China, and other Oriental lands no wonder would arise on these heads, because
there, although everything of a material civilization is just now in a backward
state, they have never lost a belief in the inner nature of man and in the
power he may exercise if he will. Consequently living examples of such powers
and capacities have not been absent from those people. But in the West a
materialistic civilization having arisen through a denial of the soul life and
nature
consequent upon a reaction from illogical dogmatism, there has not been
any
investigation of these subjects and, until lately, the general public has
not
believed in the possibility of anyone save a supposed God having such power.
A
Mahatma endowed with power over space, time, mind, and matter, is a
possibility
just because he is a perfected man. Every human being has the germ
of
all the powers attributed to these great Initiates, the difference lying
solely
in the fact that we have in general not developed what we possess the
germ
of, while the Mahatma has gone through the training and experience which
have
caused all the unseen human powers to develop in him, and conferred gifts
that
look god-like to his struggling brother below. Telepathy, mind-reading, and
hypnotism,
all long ago known to Theosophy, show the existence in the human
subject
of planes of consciousness, functions, and faculties hitherto undreamed
of.
Mind-reading and the influencing of the mind of the hypnotized subject at a
distance
prove the existence of a mind which is not wholly dependent upon a
brain,
and that a medium exists through which the influencing thought may be
sent.
It is under this law that the Initiates can communicate with each other at
no
matter what distance. Its rationale, not yet admitted by the schools of the
hypnotizers,
is, that if the two minds vibrate or change into the same state they will think
alike, or, in other words, the one who is to hear at a distance receives the
impression sent by the other. In the same way with all other powers, no matter
how extraordinary. They are all natural, although nowunusual,
just as great musical ability is natural though not usual or common.
If
an Initiate can make a solid object move without contact, it is because he
understands the two laws of attraction and repulsion of which
"gravitation" is but the name for one; if he is able to precipitate
out of the viewless air the carbon which we know is in it, forming the carbon
into sentences upon the paper, it is through his knowledge of the occult higher
chemistry, and the use of a trained and powerful image making faculty which
every man possesses; if he reads your thoughts with ease, that results from the
use of the inner and only real
powers
of sight, which require no retina to see the fine-pictured web which the
vibrating
brain of man weaves about him. All that the Mahatma may do is natural
to
the perfected man; but if those powers are not at once revealed to us it is
because
the race is as yet selfish altogether and still living for the present
and
the transitory.
I
repeat then, that though the true doctrine disappears for a time from among
men
it is bound to reappear, because first, it is impacted in the imperishable
center
of man's nature; and secondly, the Lodge forever preserves it, not only
in
actual objective records, but also in the intelligent and fully self-conscious
men who, having successfully overpassed the many periods
of evolution which preceded the one we are now involved in, cannot lose the
precious possessions they have acquired. And because the elder brothers are the
highest product of evolution through whom alone, in co-operation with the whole
human family, the further regular and workmanlike prosecution of the plans of
the Great Architect of the Universe could be carried on, I have thought it well
to advert to them and their Universal Lodge before going to other parts of the
subject.
CHAPTER
2
General Principles
The
teachings of Theosophy deal for the present chiefly with our earth, although
its
purview extends to all the worlds, since no part of the manifested universe
is
outside the single body of laws which operate upon us. Our globe being one of
the solar system is certainly connected with Venus, Jupiter, and other planets,
but
as the great human family has to remain with its material vehicle -- the earth
-- until all the units of the race which are ready are perfected, the evolution
of that family is of greater importance to the members of it. Some particulars
respecting the other planets may be given later on. First let us take a general
view of the laws governing all.
The
universe evolves from the unknown, into which no man or mind, however high, can
inquire, on seven planes or in seven ways or methods in all worlds, and this
sevenfold differentiation causes all the worlds of the universe and the beings
thereon to have a septenary constitution. As was
taught of old, the little
worlds
and the great are copies of the whole, and the minutest insect as well as
the
most highly developed being are replicas in little or in great of the vast
inclusive
original. Hence sprang the saying, "as above so below" which the
Hermetic
philosophers used.
The
divisions of the sevenfold universe may be laid down roughly as: The
Absolute,
Spirit, Mind, Matter, Will, Akasa or Aether, and
Life. In place of
"the
Absolute" we can use the word Space. For Space is that which ever is, and
in
which all manifestation must take place. The term Akasa, taken from the
Sanskrit, is used in place of Aether, because the
English language has not yet
evolved
a word to properly designate that tenuous state of matter which is now
sometimes
called Ether by modern scientists. As to the Absolute we can do no
more
than say IT IS. None of the great teachers of the School ascribe qualities
to
the Absolute although all the qualities exist in It. Our knowledge begins with
differentiation, and all manifested objects, beings, or powers are only
differentiations of the Great Unknown. The most that can be said is that the
Absolute
periodically differentiates itself, and periodically withdraws the
differentiated
into itself.
The
first differentiation -- speaking metaphysically as to time -- is Spirit,
with
which appears Matter and Mind. Akasa is produced from Matter and Spirit,
Will
is the force of Spirit in action and Life is a resultant of the action of
Akasa,
moved by Spirit, upon Matter.
But
the Matter here spoken of is not that which is vulgarly known as such. It is
the
real Matter which is always invisible, and has sometimes been called Primordial
Matter. In the Brahmanical system it is denominated Mulaprakriti. The
ancient
teaching always held, as is now admitted by Science, that we see or
perceive
only the phenomena but not the essential nature, body or being of
matter.
Mind
is the intelligent part of the Cosmos, and in the collection of seven
differentiations
above roughly sketched, Mind is that in which the plan of the
Cosmos
is fixed or contained. This plan is brought over from a prior period of
manifestation
which added to its ever-increasing perfectness, and
no limit can
be
set to its evolutionary possibilities in perfectness,
because there was never
any
beginning to the periodical manifestations of the Absolute, there never will
be
any end, but forever the going forth and withdrawing into the Unknown will go
on.
Wherever
a world or system of worlds is evolving there the plan has been laid
down
in universal mind, the original force comes from spirit, the basis is matter --
which is in fact invisible -- Life sustains all the forms requiring life, and
Akasa is the connecting link between matter on one side and spirit-mind on the
other.
When
a world or a system comes to the end of certain great cycles men record a
cataclysm
in history or tradition. These traditions abound; among the Jews in
their
flood; with the Babylonians in theirs; in Egyptian papyri; in the Hindu
cosmology;
and none of them as merely confirmatory of the little Jewish
tradition,
but all pointing to early teaching and dim recollection also of the
periodical
destructions and renovations. The Hebraic story is but a poor fragment torn
from the pavement of the Temple of Truth. Just as there are
periodical
minor cataclysms or partial destructions, so, the doctrine holds,
there
is the universal evolution and involution. Forever the Great Breath goes
forth
and returns again. As it proceeds outwards, objects, worlds and men
appear;
as it recedes all disappear into the original source.
This
is the waking and the sleeping of the Great Being; the Day and the Night of
Brahma;
the prototype of our waking days and sleeping nights as men, of our
disappearance
from the scene at the end of one little human life, and our return
again
to take up the unfinished work in another life, in a new day.
The
real age of the world has long been involved in doubt for Western
investigators,
who up to the present have shown a singular unwillingness to take
instruction
from the records of Oriental people much older than the West. Yet
with
the Orientals is the truth about the matter. It is admitted that Egyptian
civilization
flourished many centuries ago, and as there are no living Egyptian
schools
of ancient learning to offend modern pride, and perhaps because the Jews
"came out of Egypt" to fasten the Mosaic misunderstood tradition upon
modern progress, the inscriptions cut in rocks and written on papyri obtain a
little more credit today than the living thought and record of the Hindus. For
the
latter
are still among us, and it would never do to admit that a poor and
conquered
race possesses knowledge respecting the age of man and his world which the
western flower of culture, war, and annexation knows nothing of. Ever since the
ignorant monks and theologians of Asia Minor and Europe succeeded in imposing
the Mosaic account of the genesis of earth and man upon the coming western
evolution, the most learned even of our scientific men have stood in fear of
the years that elapsed since Adam, or have been warped in thought and
perception whenever their eyes turned to any chronology different from that of
a few tribes of the sons of Jacob. Even the noble, aged, and silent pyramid of Gizeh, guarded by Sphinx and Memnon
made of stone, has been degraded by Piazzi Smyth and
others into a proof that the British inch must prevail and that a
"Continental Sunday" controverts the law of the Most High. Yet in the
Mosaic account, where one would expect to find a reference to such a proof as
the pyramid, we can discover not a single hint of it and only a record of the
building by King Solomon of a temple of which there never was a trace.
But
the Theosophist knows why the Hebraic tradition came to be thus an apparent
drag on the mind of the West; he knows the connection between Jew and Egyptian;
what is and is to be the resurrection of the old pyramid builders of the Nile
valley, and where the plans of those ancient master masons have been hidden
from the profane eyes until the cycle should roll round again for their
bringing forth.
The
Jews preserved merely a part of the learning of Egypt hidden under the letter
of the books of Moses, and it is there still to this day in what they call the
cabalistic or hidden meaning of the scriptures. But the Egyptian souls who
helped in planning the pyramid of Gizeh, who took
part in the Egyptian
government,
theology, science, and civilization, departed from their old race,
that
race died out and the former Egyptians took up their work in the oncoming
races
of the West, especially in those which are now repeopling
the American
continents.
When Egypt and India were younger there was a constant intercourse between
them.
They
both, in the opinion of the Theosophist, thought alike, but fate ruled that of
the two the Hindus only should preserve the old ideas among a living people. I
will therefore take from the Brahmanical records of
Hindustan their doctrine about the days, nights, years and life of Brahma, who
represents the universe and the worlds.
The
doctrine at once upsets the interpretation so long given to the Mosaic
tradition,
but fully accords with the evident account in Genesis of other and
former
"creations," with the cabalistic construction of the Old Testament
verse
about
the kings of Edom, who there represent former periods of evolution prior
to
that started with Adam, and also coincides with the belief held by some of
the
early Christian Fathers who told their brethren about wonderful previous
worlds
and creations.
The
Day of Brahma is said to last one thousand years, and his night is of equal
length.
In the Christian Bible is a verse saying that one day is as a thousand
years
to the Lord and a thousand years as one day. This has generally been used
to
magnify the power of Jehovah, but it has a suspicious resemblance to the
older
doctrine of the length of Brahma's day and night. It would be of more value if
construed to be a statement of the periodical coming forth for great days and
nights of equal length of the universe of manifested worlds.
A
day of mortals is reckoned by the sun, and is but twelve hours in length. On
Mercury
it would be different, and on Saturn or Uranus still more so. But a day
of
Brahma is made up of what are called Manvantaras --
or period between two men -- fourteen in number. These include four billion
three hundred and twenty
million
mortal, or earth, years, which is one day of Brahma.
When
this day opens, cosmic evolution, so far as relates to this solar system,
begins
and occupies between one and two billions of years in evolving the very
ethereal
first matter before the astral kingdoms of mineral, vegetable, animal
and
men are possible. This second step takes some three hundred millions of
years,
and then still more material processes go forward for the production of
the
tangible kingdoms of nature, including man. This covers over one and
one-half
billions of years. And the number of solar years included in the
present
"human" period is over eighteen millions of years.
This
is exactly what Herbert Spencer designates as the gradual coming forth of
the
known and heterogeneous from the unknown and homogeneous. For the ancient
Egyptian and Hindu Theosophists never admitted a creation out of nothing, but
ever strenuously insisted upon evolution, by gradual stages, of the
heterogeneous
and differentiated from the homogeneous and undifferentiated.
No
mind can comprehend the infinite and absolute unknown, which is, has no
beginning
and shall have no end; which is both last and first, because, whether
differentiated
or withdrawn into itself, it ever is. This is the God spoken of
in
the Christian Bible as the one around whose pavilion there is darkness.
This
cosmic and human chronology of the Hindus is laughed at by western
Orientalists, yet they can furnish
nothing better and are continually disagreeing with each other on the same
subject. In Wilson's translation of Vishnu Purana he
calls it all fiction based on nothing, and childish boasting.
But
the Free Masons, who remain inactive hereupon, ought to know better. They
could
find in the story of the building of Solomon's temple from the
heterogeneous
materials brought from everywhere, and its erection without the
noise
of a tool being heard, the agreement with these ideas of their Egyptian
and
Hindu brothers. For Solomon's Temple means man whose frame is built up,
finished
and decorated without the least noise. But the materials had to be
found,
gathered together and fashioned in other and distant places.
These
are in the periods above spoken of, very distant and very silent. Man
could
not have his bodily temple to live in until all the matter in and about
his
world had been found by the Master, who is the inner man, when found the
plans
for working it required to be detailed. They then had to be carried out in
different
detail until all the parts should be perfectly ready and fit for
placing
in the final structure. So in the vast stretch of time which began after
the
first almost intangible matter had been gathered and kneaded, the material
and
vegetable kingdoms had sole possession here with the Master -- man -- who
was
hidden from sight within carrying forward the plans for the foundations of
the
human temple. All of this requires many, many ages, since we know that
nature
never leaps. And when the rough work was completed, when the human temple was
erected, many more ages would be required for all the servants, the priests,
and the counsellors to learn their parts properly so
that man, the Master, might be able to use the temple for its best and highest
purposes.
The
ancient doctrine is far nobler than the Christian religious one or that of
the
purely scientific school. The religious gives a theory which conflicts with
reason
and fact, while science can give for the facts which it observes no
reason
which is in any way noble or elevating. Theosophy alone, inclusive of all
systems
and every experience, gives the key, the plan, the doctrine, the truth.
The
real age of the world is asserted by Theosophy to be almost incalculable,
and
that of man as he is now formed is over eighteen millions of years. What has
become
at last man is of vastly greater age, for before the present two sexes
appeared
the human creature was sometimes of one shape and sometimes of another, until
the whole plan had been fully worked out into our present form, function, and
capacity. This is found to be referred to in the ancient books written for the
profane where man is said to have been at one time globular in shape. This was
at a time when the conditions flavoured such a form
and of course it was longer ago than eighteen millions of years. And when this
globular form was the rule the sexes as we know them had not differentiated and
hence there was but one sex, or if you like, no sex at all.
During
all these ages before our man came into being, evolution was carrying on
the
work of perfecting various powers which are now our possession. This was
accomplished
by the Ego or real man going through experience in countless
conditions
of matter all different one from the other, and the same plan in general was and
is pursued as prevails in respect to the general evolution of the universe to
which I have before adverted. That is, details were first worked out in spheres
of being very ethereal, metaphysical in fact.
Then
the next step brought the same details to be worked out on a plane of matter a
little more dense, until at last it could be done on our present plane of what
we miscall gross matter. In these anterior states the senses existed in germ,
as it were, or in idea, until the astral plane which is next to this one was
arrived at, and then they were concentrated so as to be the actual senses we
now use through the agency of the different outer organs. These outer organs of
sight, touch and hearing, and tasting, are often mistaken by the unlearned or
the thoughtless for the real organs and senses, but he who stops to think must
see that the senses are interior and that their outer organs are but mediators
between the visible
universe
and the real perceiver within. And all these various powers and potentialities
being well worked out in this slow but sure process, at last man
is
put upon the scene a sevenfold being just as the universe and earth itself
are
sevenfold. Each of his seven principles is derived from one of the great
first
seven divisions, and each relates to a planet or scene of evolution, and
to
a race in which that evolution was carried out. So the first sevenfold
differentiation
is important to be borne in mind, since it is the basis of all
that
follows; just as the universal evolution is septenary
so the evolution of
humanity,
sevenfold in its constitution, is carried on upon a septenary
Earth.
This
is spoken of in Theosophical literature as the Sevenfold Planetary Chain,
and
is intimately connected with Man's special evolution.
CHAPTER
3
The Earth Chain
Coming
now to our Earth the view put forward by Theosophy regarding its genesis, its
evolution and the evolution of the Human, Animal and other Monads, is quite
different from modern ideas, and in some things contrary to accepted theories.
But
the theories of today are not stable. They change with each century, while
the
Theosophical one never alters because, in the opinion of those Elder Brothers
who have caused its repromulgation and pointed to its
confirmation in
ancient
books, it is but a statement of facts in nature. The modern theory is,
on
the contrary, always speculative, changeable, and continually altered.
Following
the general plan outlined in preceding pages, the Earth is sevenfold.
It
is an entity and not a mere lump of gross matter. And being thus an entity of
a
septenary nature there must be six other globes which
roll with it in space.
This
company of seven globes has been called the "Earth Chain," the
"Planetary
Chain."
In Esoteric Buddhism this is clearly stated, but there a rather hard and
fast
materialistic view of it is given and the reader led to believe that the
doctrine speaks of seven distinct globes, all separated from though connected
with each other. One is forced to conclude that the author meant to say that
the globe Earth is as distinct from the other six as Venus is from Mars.
This
is not the doctrine. The earth is one of seven globes, in respect to man's
consciousness
only, because when he functions on one of the seven he perceives it as a
distinct globe and does not see the other six. This is in perfect
correspondence
with man himself who has six other constituents of which only the gross body is
visible to him because he is now functioning on the Earth -- or
the
fourth globe -- and his body represents the Earth. The whole seven
"globes"
constitute
one single mass or great globe and they all interpenetrate each
other.
But we have to say "globe," because the ultimate shape is globular or
spherical.
If one relies too closely on the explanation made by Mr. Sinnett
it
might
be supposed that the globes did not interpenetrate each other but were
connected
by currents or lines of magnetic force. And if too close attention is
paid
to the diagrams used in the Secret Doctrine to illustrate the scheme,
without
paying due regard to the explanations and cautions given by H. P.
Blavatsky,
the same error may be made. But both she and her Adept teachers say, that the
seven globes of our chain are in "coadunition
with each other but not in consubstantiality." (Secret Doctrine, Vol. I,
p. 166, first edition.) This is
further
enforced by cautions not to rely on statistics or plane surface diagrams, but
to look at the metaphysical and spiritual aspect of the theory as
stated
in English. Thus from the very source of Mr. Sinnett's
book we have the
statement,
that these globes are united in one mass though differing from each
other
in substance, and that this difference of substance is due to change of
center
of consciousness.
The
Earth Chain of seven globes as thus defined is the direct reincarnation of a
former
chain of seven globes, and that former family of seven was the moon
chain,
the moon itself being the visible representative of the fourth globe of
the
old chain. When that former vast entity composed of the Moon and six others,
all united in one mass, reached its limit of life it died just as any being
dies.
Each one of the seven sent its energies into space and gave similar life
or
vibration to cosmic dust -- matter, -- and the total cohesive force of the
whole
kept the seven energies together. This resulted in the evolving of the
present
Earth Chain of seven centers of energy or evolution combined in one
mass.
As the Moon was the fourth of the old series it is on the same plane of
perception
as the Earth, and as we are now confined in our consciousness largely to Earth
we are able only to see one of the old seven -- to wit: our Moon.
When
we are functioning on any of the other seven we will perceive in our sky the
corresponding old corpse which will then be a Moon, and we will not see the
present
Moon. Venus, Mars, Mercury and other visible planets are all
fourth-plane
globes of distinct planetary masses and for that reason are visible
to
us, their companion six centers of energy and consciousness being invisible.
All
diagrams on plane surfaces will only becloud the theory because a diagram
necessitates
linear divisions.
The
stream or mass of Egos which evolves on the seven globes of our chain is
limited
in number, yet the actual quantity is enormous. For though the universe
is
limitless and infinite, yet in any particular portion of Cosmos in which
manifestation
and evolution have begun there is a limit to the extent of
manifestation
and to the number of Egos engaged therein. And the whole number of Monads now
going through evolution on our Earth Chain came over from the old seven planets
or globes which I have described. Esoteric Buddhism calls this mass of Egos a
"life wave," meaning the stream of Monads. It reached this planetary
mass, represented to our consciousness by the central point our Earth, and
began on Globe A or No. I, coming like an army or river. The first portion
began on Globe A and went through a long evolution there in bodies suited to
such a state of matter, and then passed on to B, and so on through the whole
seven greater states of consciousness which have been called globes.
When
the first portion left A others streamed in and pursued the same course, the
whole army proceeding with regularity round the septenary
route.
This
journey went on for four circlings round the whole,
and then the whole
stream
or army of Egos from the old Moon Chain had arrived, and being complete, no more
entered after the middle of the Fourth Round. The same circling process of
these differently arrived classes goes on for seven complete Rounds of the
whole seven planetary centers of consciousness, and when the seven are ended as
much perfection as is possible in the immense period occupied will have been
attained, and then this chain or mass of "globes" will die in its
turn to give birth to still another series.
Each
one of the globes is used by evolutionary law for the development of seven
races,
and of senses, faculties and powers appropriate to that state of matter:
the
experience of the whole seven globes being needed to make a perfect
development.
Hence we have the Rounds and Races. The Round is a circling of the seven
centers of planetary consciousness; the Race the racial development on one of
those seven.
There
are seven races for each globe, but the total of forty-nine races only makes up
seven great races, the special septennate of races on
each globe or planetary center composing in reality one race of seven
constituents or special peculiarities of function and power.
And
as no complete race could be evolved in a moment on any globe, the slow,
orderly
processes of nature, which allow no jumps, must proceed by appropriate means. Hence
sub-races have to be evolved one after the other before the perfect root race
is formed, and then the root race sends off its offshoots while it is declining
and preparing for the advent of the next great race.
As
illustrating this, it is distinctly taught that on the Americas is to be
evolved the new -- sixth -- race; and here all the races of the earth are now
engaged in a great amalgamation from which will result a very highly developed
sub-race, after which others will be evolved by similar processes until the new
one is completed.
Between
the end of any great race and the beginning of another there is a period
of
rest, so far as the globe is concerned, for then the stream of human Egos
leaves
it for another one of the chain in order to go on with further evolution
of
powers and faculties there. But when the last, the seventh, race has appeared
and
fully perfected itself, a great dissolution comes on, similar to that which
I
briefly described as preceding the birth of the earth's chain, and then the
world disappears as a tangible thing, and so far as the human ear is concerned
there is silence. This, it is said, is the root of the belief so general that
the world will come to an end, that there will be a judgment-day, or that there
have been universal floods or fires.
Taking
up evolution on the Earth, it is stated that the stream of Monads begins
first
to work up the mass of matter in what are called elemental conditions when
all
is gaseous or fiery. For the ancient and true theory is that no evolution is
possible
without the Monad as vivifying agent. In this first stage there is no
animal
or vegetable. Next comes the mineral when the whole mass hardens, the
Monads
being all imprisoned within. Then the first Monads emerge into vegetable forms
which they construct themselves, and no animals yet appear.
Next
the first class of Monads emerges from the vegetable and produces the animal,
then the human astral and shadowy model, and we have minerals, vegetables,
animals and future men, for the second and later classes are still evolving in
the lower kingdoms. When the middle of the Fourth Round is reached no more
Monads emerge into the human stage and will not until a new planetary mass,
reincarnated from ours, is made. This is the whole process roughly given, but
with many details left out, for in one of the rounds man appears before the
animals. But this detail need lead to no confusion.
And
to state it in another way. The plan comes first in the universal mind,
after
which the astral model or basis is made, and when that astral model is
completed,
the whole process is gone over so as to condense the matter, up to
the
middle of the Fourth Round. Subsequent to that, which is our future, the
whole
mass is spiritualized with full consciousness and the entire body of
globes
raised up to a higher plane of development. In the process of condensing
above
referred to there is an alteration in respect to the time of the
appearance
of man on the planet. But as to these details the teachers have only
said,
"that at the Second Round the plan varies, but the variation will not be
given
to this generation." Hence it is impossible for me to give it. But there
is
no vagueness on the point that seven great races have to evolve here on this
planet,
and that the entire collection of races has to go seven times round the
whole
series of seven globes.
Human
beings did not appear here in two sexes first. The first were of no sex,
then
they altered into hermaphrodite, and lastly separated into male and female.
And
this separation into male and female for human beings was over 18,000,000
years
ago. For that reason is it said, in these ancient schools, that our
humanity
is 18,000,000 years old and a little over.
CHAPTER
4
Septenary Constitution of Man
Respecting
the nature of man there are two ideas current in the religious
circles
of Christendom. One is the teaching and the other the common acceptation of it;
the first is not secret, to be sure, in the Church, but it is so seldom dwelt
upon in the hearing of the laity as to be almost arcane for the ordinary
person. Nearly everyone says he has a soul and a body, and there it ends.
What
the soul is, and whether it is the real person or whether it has any powers of
its own, are not inquired into, the preachers usually confining themselves to
its
salvation or damnation. And by thus talking of it as something different from
oneself, the people have acquired an underlying notion that they are not souls
because the soul may be lost by them. From this has come about a tendency to
materialism causing men to pay more attention to the body than to the soul, the
latter being left to the tender mercies of the priest of the Roman Catholics,
and among dissenters the care of it is most frequently put off to the dying
day. But when the true teaching is known it will be seen that the care of the
soul, which is the Self, is a vital matter requiring attention every day, and
not to be deferred without grievous injury resulting to the whole man, both
soul and body.
The
Christian teaching, supported by
Christianity
rests, is that man is composed of body, soul, and spirit. This is the threefold
constitution of man, believed by the theologians but kept in the background
because its examination might result in the readoption
of views once
orthodox
but now heretical. For when we thus place soul between spirit and body, we come
very close to the necessity for looking into the question of the soul's
responsibility -- since mere body can have no responsibility. And in order to
make the soul responsible for the acts performed, we must assume that it has
powers
and functions. From this it is easy to take the position that the soul
may
be rational or irrational, as the Greeks sometimes thought, and then there is
but a step to further Theosophical propositions. This threefold scheme of the
nature
of man contains, in fact, the Theosophical teaching of his sevenfold
constitution,
because the four other divisions missing from the category can be
found
in the powers and functions of body and soul, as I shall attempt to show
later
on. This conviction that man is a septenary and not
merely a duad, was
held
long ago and very plainly taught to every one with accompanying
demonstrations,
but like other philosophical tenets it disappeared from sight,
because
gradually withdrawn at the time when in the east of Europe morals were
degenerating
and before materialism had gained full sway in company with
scepticism, its twin. Upon its withdrawal the
present dogma of body, soul,
spirit,
was left to Christendom. The reason for that concealment and its
rejuvenescence in this century is well
put by Mme. H. P. Blavatsky in the Secret
Doctrine.
In answer to the statement, "we cannot understand how any danger could
arise from the revelation of such a purely philosophical doctrine as the
evolution
of the planetary chain," she says:
The
danger was this: Doctrines such as the Planetary chain or the seven races
at
once give a clue to the sevenfold nature of man, for each principle is
correlated
to a plane, a planet, and a race; and the human principles are, on
every
plane, correlated to the sevenfold occult forces -- those of the higher
planes
being of tremendous occult power, the abuse of which would cause
incalculable
evil to humanity. A clue which is, perhaps, no clue to the present generation
-- especially the Westerns -- protected as they are by their very blindness and
ignorant materialistic disbelief in the occult; but a clue which would,
nevertheless, be very real in the early centuries of the Christian era, to
people fully convinced of the reality of occultism and entering a cycle of
degradation which made them ripe for abuse of occult powers and sorcery of the
worst description.
Mr.
A. P. Sinnett, at one time an official in the
Government of India, first
outlined
in this century the real nature of man in his book Esoteric Buddhism,
which
was made up from information conveyed to him by H. P. Blavatsky directly from
the Great Lodge of Initiates to which reference has been made. And in thus
placing the old doctrine before western civilization he conferred a great
benefit on his generation and helped considerably the cause of Theosophy. His
classification was:
1 The
Body Rupa.
2 Vitality
Prana-Jiva.
3 Astral
Body Linga- Sarira.
4 Animal
Soul Kama-Rupa
5 Human
SoulManas.
6
Spiritual SoulBuddhi.
7
Spirit Atma
The
words in italics being equivalents in the Sanskrit language adopted by him
for
the English terms. This classification stands to this day for all practical
purposes,
but it is capable of modification and extension. For instance, a later
arrangement
which places Astral body second instead of third in the category
does
not substantially alter it. It at once gives an idea of what man is, very
different
from the vague description by the words "body and soul," and also
boldly
challenges the materialistic conception that mind is the product of
brain,
a portion of the body. No claim is made that these principles were
hitherto
unknown, for they were all understood in various ways not only by the
Hindus
but by many Europeans. Yet the compact presentation of the sevenfold
constitution
of man in intimate connection with the septenary
constitution of a
chain
of globes through which the being evolves, had not been given out. The
French
Abbe, Eliphas Levi, wrote
about the astral realm and the astral body, but
evidently
had no knowledge of the remainder of the doctrine, and while the Hindus
possessed the other terms in their language and philosophy, they did not
use
a septenary classification, but depended chiefly on a
fourfold one and
certainly
concealed (if they knew of it) the doctrine of a chain of seven globes
including
our earth. Indeed, a learned Hindu, Subba Row, now
deceased, asserted that they knew of a sevenfold classification, but that it
had not been and would not be given out.
Considering
these constituents in another manner, we would say that the lower
man
is a composite being, but in his real nature is a unity, or immortal being,
comprising
a trinity of Spirit, Discernment, and Mind which requires four lower
mortal
instruments or vehicles through which to work in matter and obtain
experience
from Nature. This trinity is that called Atma-Buddhi-Manas in
Sanskrit,
difficult terms to render in English. Atma is Spirit, Buddhi is the
highest
power of intellection, that which discerns and judges, and Manas is
Mind.
This threefold collection is the real man; and beyond doubt the doctrine
is
the origin of the theological one of the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost.
The four lower instruments or vehicles are shown in this table:
1REAL
MANATMA
2BUDDHI
3MANAS
4LOWER
VEHICLESTHE PASSIONS and DESIRES
5LIFE
PRINCIPLE
6ASTRAL
BODY
7PHYSICAL
BODY
These
four lower material constituents are transitory and subject to
disintegration
in themselves as well as to separation from each other. When the
hour
arrives for their separation to begin, the combination can no longer be
kept
up, the physical body dies, the atoms of which each of the four is composed
begin to separate from each other, and the whole collection being disjointed is
no longer fit for one as an instrument for the real man. This is what is called
"death" among us mortals, but it is not death for the real man
because he is deathless, persistent, immortal. He is therefore called the
Triad, or
indestructible
trinity, while they are known as the Quaternary or mortal four.
This
quaternary or lower man is a product of cosmic or physical laws and
substance.
It has been evolved during a lapse of ages, like any other physical
thing,
from cosmic substance, and is therefore subject to physical,
physiological,
and psychical laws which govern the race of man as a whole.
Hence
its period of possible continuance can be calculated just as the limit of
tensile
strain among the metals used in bridge building can be deduced by the
engineer.
Any one collection in the form of man made up of these constituents is
therefore
limited in duration by the laws of the evolutionary period in which it
exists.
Just now, that is generally seventy to one hundred years, but its
possible
duration is longer. Thus there are in history instances where ordinary
persons
have lived to be two hundred years of age; and by a knowledge of the
occult
laws of nature the possible limit of duration may be extended nearly to
four
hundred years.
The visible
physical man is: Brain, Nerves, Blood, Bones, Lymph, Muscles, Organs of
Sensation and Action, and Skin.
The unseen
physical man is: Astral Body, Passions and Desires, Life Principle (called
prana or jiva).
It
will be seen that the physical part of our nature is thus extended to a
second
department which, though invisible to the physical eye, is nevertheless
material
and subject to decay. Because people in general have been in the habit
of
admitting to be real only what they can see with the physical eye, they have
at
last come to suppose that the unseen is neither real nor material. But they
forgot
that even on the earth plane noxious gases are invisible though real and
powerfully
material, and that water may exist in the air held suspended and
invisible
until conditions alter and cause its precipitation.
Let
us recapitulate before going into details. The Real Man is the trinity of
Atma-Buddhi-Manas,
or Spirit and Mind, and he uses certain agents and
instruments
to get in touch with nature in order to know himself. These
instruments
and agents are found in the lower Four -- or the Quaternary -- each
principle
in which category is of itself an instrument for the particular
experience
belonging to its own field, the body being the lowest, least
important,
and most transitory of the whole series. For when we arrive at the
body
on the way down from the Higher Mind, it can be shown that all of its
organs
are in themselves senseless and useless when deprived of the man within.
Sight,
hearing, touch, taste, and smelling do not pertain to the body but to the
second
unseen physical man, the real organs for the exercise of those powers
being
in the Astral Body, and those in the physical body being but the
mechanical
outer instruments for making the co-ordination between nature and the real
organs inside.
CHAPTER
5
Body and Astral Body
The
body, as a mass of flesh, bones, muscles, nerves, brain matter, bile,
mucous,
blood, and skin is an object of exclusive care for too many people, who make it
their god because they have come to identify themselves with it, meaning it
only when they say "I." Left to itself it is devoid of sense, and
acts in
such
a case solely by reflex and automatic action. This we see in sleep, for then
the body assumes attitudes and makes motions which the waking man does not
permit. It is like mother earth in that it is made up of an infinitesimal
number
of
"lives." Each of these lives is a sensitive point. Not only are there
microbes, bacilli, and bacteria, but these are composed of others, and those
others of still more minute lives. These lives are not the cells of the body,
but make up the cells, keeping ever within the limits assigned by evolution to
the cell. They are
forever
whirling and moving together throughout the whole body, being in certain
apparently void spaces as well as where flesh, membrane, bones, and blood are
seen. They extend, too, beyond the actual outer limits of the body to a
measurable distance.
One
of the mysteries of physical life is hidden among these "lives."
Their action, forced forward by the Life energy -- called Prana or Jiva -- will explain active existence and physical death.
They are divided into two classes, one the destroyers, the other the
preservers, and these two war upon each other from birth until the destroyers
win. In this struggle the Life Energy itself ends the contest because it is
life that kills. This may seem heterodox, but in Theosophical philosophy it is
held to be the fact. For, it is said, the infant lives because the combination
of healthy organs is able to absorb the life all around it in space, and is put
to sleep each day by the overpowering strength of the stream of life, since the
preservers among the cells of the youthful body are not yet mastered by the
other class.
These
processes of going to sleep and waking again are simply and solely the
restoring of the equilibrium in sleep and the action produced by disturbing it
when awake. It may be compared with the arc-electric light wherein the
brilliant arc of light at the point of resistance is the symbol of the waking
active man. So in sleep we are again absorbing and not resisting the Life
Energy; when we wake we are throwing it off. But as it exists around us like an
ocean in which we swim, our power to throw it off is necessarily limited. Just
when we wake we are in equilibrium as to our organs and life; when we fall
asleep we are yet more full of life than in the morning; it has exhausted us;
it finally kills the body. Such a contest could not be waged forever, since the
whole solar system's weight of life is pitted against the power to resist focussed in one small human frame.
The
body is considered by the Masters of Wisdom to be the most transitory,
impermanent,
and illusionary of the whole series of constituents in man. Not for
a
moment is it the same. Ever changing, in motion in every part, it is in fact
never complete or finished though tangible. The ancients clearly perceived
this, for they elaborated a doctrine called Naimittika
[the correct Sanskrit term is Nitya] Pralaya, or the continual change in material things, the
continual destruction. This is known now to science in the doctrine that the
body undergoes a complete alteration and renovation every seven years. At the
end of the first seven years it is not the same body it was in the beginning.
At the end of our days it has changed seven times, perhaps more. And yet it
presents the same general appearance from maturity until death; and it is a
human form from birth to maturity. This is a mystery science explains not; it
is a question pertaining to the cell and to the means whereby the general human
shape is preserved.
The
"cell" is an illusion. It is merely a word. It has no existence as a
material thing, for any cell is composed of other cells. What, then, is a cell?
It is the ideal form within which the actual physical atoms -- made up of the
"lives" -- arrange themselves. As it is admitted that the physical
molecules are forever rushing away from the body, they must be leaving the
cells each moment.
Hence
there is no physical cell, but the privative limits of one, the ideal walls and
general shape. The molecules assume position within the ideal shape according
to the laws of nature, and leave it again almost at once to give place to other
atoms. And as it is thus with the body, so is it with the earth and with the
solar system. Thus also is it, though in slower measure, with all material
objects. They are all in constant motion and change. This is modern and also
ancient wisdom. This is the physical explanation of clairvoyance,
clairaudience, telepathy, and mind-reading. It helps to show us what a deluding
and unsatisfactory thing our body is.
Although,
strictly speaking, the second constituent of man is the Astral Body --
called
in Sanskrit Linga Sarira --
we will consider Life Energy -- or Prana and
Jiva in Sanskrit -- together, because to our
observation the phenomenon of life
is
more plainly exhibited in connection with the body.
Life
is not the result of the operation of the organs, nor is it gone when the
body
dissolves. It is a universally pervasive principle. It is the ocean in
which
the earth floats; it permeates the globe and every being and object on it.
It
works unceasingly on and around us, pulsating against and through us forever.
When
we occupy a body we merely use a more specialized instrument than any other for
dealing with both Prana and Jiva. Strictly speaking,
Prana is breath; and as breath is necessary for continuance of life in the
human machine, that is the
better
word. Jiva means "life," and also is
applied to the living soul, for the
life
in general is derived from the Supreme Life itself. Jiva
is therefore
capable
of general application, whereas Prana is more particular. It cannot be
said
that one has a definite amount of this Life Energy which will fly back to
its
source should the body be burned, but rather that it works with whatever be
the
mass of matter in it. We, as it were, secrete or use it as we live. For
whether
we are alive or dead, life-energy is still there; in life among our
organs
sustaining them, in death among the innumerable creatures that arise from
our
destruction. We can no more do away with this life than we can erase the air
in
which the bird floats, and like the air it fills all the spaces on the
planet,
so that nowhere can we lose the benefit of it nor escape its final
crushing
power. But in working upon the physical body this life -- Prana --
needs
a vehicle, means, or guide, and this vehicle is the astral body.
There
are many names for the Astral Body. Here are a few: Linga
Sarira,
Sanskrit,
meaning design body, and the best one of all; ethereal double;
phantom;
wraith; apparition; doppelganger; personal man; perisprit;
irrational
soul;
animal soul; Bhuta; elementary; spook; devil; demon.
Some of these apply
only
to the astral body when devoid of the corpus after death. Bhuta,
devil, and
elementary
are nearly synonymous; the first Sanskrit, the other English. With
the
Hindus the Bhuta is the Astral Body when it is by
death released from the
body
and the mind; and being thus separated from conscience, is a devil in their
estimation.
They are not far wrong, if we abolish the old notion that a devil is
an
angel fallen from heaven, for this bodily devil is something which rises from
the
earth.
It
may be objected that the term Astral Body is not the right one for this
purpose. The objection is one which arises from the nature and genesis of the
English
language, for as that has grown up in a struggle with nature and among a
commercial
people it has not as yet coined the words needed for designating the
great
range of faculties and organs of the unseen man. And as its philosophers
have
not admitted the existence of these inner organs, the right terms do not
exist
in the language. So in looking for words to describe the inner body the
only
ones found in English were the "astral body." This term comes near to
the
real
fact, since the substance of this form is derived from cosmic matter or
star
matter, roughly speaking. But the old Sanskrit word describes it exactly --
Linga Sarira, the design
body -- because it is the design or model for the
physical
body. This is better than "ethereal body," as the latter might be
said
to
be subsequent to the physical, whereas in fact the astral body precedes the
material
one.
The
astral body is made of matter of very fine texture as compared with the
visible
body, and has a great tensile strength, so that it changes but little
during
a lifetime, while the physical alters every moment. And not only has it
this
immense strength, but at the same time possesses an elasticity permitting
its
extension to a considerable distance. It is flexible, plastic, extensible,
and
strong. The matter of which it is composed is electrical and magnetic in its
essence,
and is just what the whole world was composed of in the dim past when the
processes of evolution had not yet arrived at the point of producing the
material body for man. But it is not raw or crude matter. Having been through a
vast period of evolution and undergone purifying processes of an incalculable
number, its nature has been refined to a degree far beyond the gross physical
elements we see and touch with the physical eye and hand.
The
astral body is the guiding model for the physical one, and all the other
kingdoms
have the same astral model. Vegetables, minerals, and animals have the ethereal
double, and this theory is the only one which will answer the question how it
is that the seed produces its own kind and all sentient beings bring forth
their like. Biologists can only say that the facts are as we know them,
but
can give no reason why the acorn will never grow anything but an oak except
that
no man ever knew it to be otherwise. But in the old schools of the past the
true
doctrine was known, and it has been once again brought out in the West
through
the efforts of H. P. Blavatsky and those who have found inspiration in
her
works.
This
doctrine is, that in early times of the evolution of this globe the various
kingdoms
of nature are outlined in plan or ideal form first, and then the astral
matter
begins to work on this plan with the aid of the Life principle, until
after
long ages the astral human form is evolved and perfected. This is, then,
the
first form that the human race had, and corresponds in a way with the
allegory
of man's state in the garden of Eden. After another long period, during
which
the cycle of further descent into matter is rolling forward, the astral
form
at last clothes itself with a "coat of skin," and the present
physical form
is
on the scene. This is the explanation of the verse of the book of Genesis
which
describes the giving of coats of skin to Adam and Eve. It is the final
fall
into matter, for from that point on the man within strives to raise the
whole
mass of physical substance up to a higher level, and to inform it all with
a
larger measure of spiritual influence, so that it may be ready to go still
further
on during the next great period of evolution after the present one is
ended.
So at the present time the model for the growing child in the womb is the
astral
body already perfect in shape before the child is born. It is on this the
molecules
arrange themselves until the child is complete, and the presence of
the
ethereal design-body will explain how the form grows into shape, how the
eyes
push themselves out from within to the surface of the face, and many other
mysterious
matters in embryology which are passed over by medical men with a
description
but with no explanation. This will also explain, as nothing else
can,
the cases of marking of the child in the womb sometimes denied by
physicians
but well-known by those who care to watch, to be a fact of frequent
occurrence.
The
growing physical form is subject to the astral model; it is connected with the
imagination of the mother by physical and psychical organs; the mother makes a
strong picture from horror, fear, or otherwise, and the astral model is then
similarly affected. In the case of marking by being born legless, the ideas and
strong imagination of the mother act so as to cut off or shrivel up the astral
leg, and the result is that the molecules, having no model of leg to work on,
make no physical leg whatever; and similarly in all such cases. But where we
find a man who still feels the leg which the surgeon has cut off, or perceives
the fingers that were amputated, then the astral member has not been interfered
with, and hence the man feels as if it were still on his person. For knife or
acid will not injure the astral model, but in the first stages of its growth
ideas and imagination have the power of acid and sharpened steel.
In
the ordinary man who has not been trained in practical occultism or who has
not
the faculty by birth, the astral body cannot go more than a few feet from
the
physical one. It is a part of that physical, it sustains it and is
incorporated
in it just as the fibres of the mango are all through
that fruit.
But
there are those who, by reason of practices pursued in former lives on the
earth,
have a power born with them of unconsciously sending out the astral body.
These
are mediums, some seers, and many hysterical, cataleptic, and scrofulous
people.
Those who have trained themselves by a long course of excessively hard
discipline which reaches to the moral and mental nature and quite beyond the
power of the average man of the day, can use the astral form at will, for they
have
gotten completely over the delusion that the physical body is a permanent
part
of them, and, besides, they have learned the chemical and electrical laws
governing
in this matter. In their case they act with knowledge and consciously;
in
the other cases the act is done without power to prevent it, or to bring it
about
at will, or to avoid the risks attendant on such use of potencies in
nature
of a high character.
The
astral body has in it the real organs of the outer sense organs. In it are
the
sight, hearing, power to smell, and the sense of touch. It has a complete
system
of nerves and arteries of its own for the conveyance of the astral fluid
which
is to that body as our blood is to the physical. It is the real personal
man.
There are located the subconscious perception and the latent memory, which the
hypnotizers of the day are dealing with and being baffled by.
So
when the body dies the astral man is released, and as at death the immortal man
-- the Triad -- flies away to another state, the astral becomes a shell of the
once living man and requires time to dissipate. It retains all the memories of
the
life
lived by the man, and thus reflexly and automatically
can repeat what the
dead
man knew, said, thought, and saw. It remains near the deserted physical
body
nearly all the time until that is completely dissipated, for it has to go
through
its own process of dying. It may become visible under certain conditions. It is
the spook of the spiritualistic seance-rooms, and is there
made
to masquerade as the real spirit of this or that individual. Attracted by
the
thoughts of the medium and the sitters, it vaguely flutters where they are,
and
then is galvanized into a factitious life by a whole host of elemental forces
and by the active astral body of the medium who is holding the seance or of any other medium in the audience. From it (as
from a photograph) are then reflected into the medium's brain all the boasted
evidences which spiritualists claim go to prove identity of deceased friend or
relative.
These
evidences are accepted as proof that the spirit of the deceased is present,
because neither mediums nor sitters are acquainted with the laws governing
their own nature, nor with the constitution, power, and function of astral
matter and astral man.
The
Theosophical philosophy does not deny the facts proven in spiritualistic
seances, but it gives an explanation of them
wholly opposed to that of the
spiritualists.
And surely the utter absence of any logical scientific explanation by these
so-called spirits of the phenomena they are said to produce supports the
contention that they have no knowledge to impart. They can merely cause certain
phenomena; the examination of those and deductions therefrom
can only be properly carried on by a trained brain guided by a living trinity
of spirit, soul, and mind. And here another class of spiritualistic phenomena
requires brief notice. That is the appearance of what is called a
"materialized spirit."
Three
explanations are offered: First, that the astral body of the living medium
detaches
itself from its corpus and assumes the appearance of the so-called
spirit;
for one of the properties of the astral matter is capacity to reflect an
image
existing unseen in ether. Second, the actual astral shell of the deceased
--
wholly devoid of his or her spirit and conscience -- becomes visible and
tangible
when the condition of air and ether is such as to so alter the vibration of the
molecules of the astral shell that it may become visible. The phenomena of
density and apparent weight are explained by other laws. Third, an unseen mass
of electrical and magnetic matter is collected, and upon it is reflected out of
the astral light a picture of any desired person either dead or living. This is
taken to be the "spirit" of such persons, but it is not, and has been
justly called by H. P. Blavatsky a "psychological fraud," because it
pretends to be what it is not. And, strange to say, this very explanation of
materializations has been given by a "spirit" at a regular seance, but has never been accepted by the spiritualists
just because it upsets their notion of the return of the spirits of deceased
persons.
Finally,
the astral body will explain nearly all the strange psychical things
happening
in daily life and in dealings with genuine mediums; it shows what an
apparition
may be and the possibility of such being seen, and thus prevents the
scientific
doubter from violating good sense by asserting you did not see what
you
know you have seen; it removes superstition by showing the real nature of
these
phenomena, and destroys the unreasonable fear of the unknown which makes a man
afraid to see a "ghost." By it also we can explain the apportation of
objects
without physical contact, for the astral hand may be extruded and made
to
take hold of an object, drawing it in toward the body. When this is shown to
be
possible, then travelers will not be laughed at who tell of seeing the Hindu
yogi
make coffee cups fly through the air and distant objects approach
apparently
of their own accord untouched by him or anyone else. All the
instances
of clairvoyance and clairaudience are to be explained also by the astral body
and astral light. The astral -- which are the real -- organs do the seeing and
the hearing, and as all material objects are constantly in motion among their
own atoms the astral sight and hearing are not impeded, but work at a distance
as great as the extension of the astral light or matter around and about the
earth. Thus it was that the great seer Swedenborg saw houses burning in the
city of
CHAPTER
6
The
author of Esoteric Buddhism -- which book ought to be consulted by all
students of Theosophy, since it was made from
suggestions given by some of the Adepts themselves -- gave the name
I
shall call it by the English equivalent -- passions and desires -- because
those
terms
exactly express its nature. And I do this also in order to make the sharp
issue
which actually exists between the psychology and mental philosophy of the
west
and those of the east. The west divides man into intellect, will, and
feeling,
but it is not understood whether the passions and desires constitute a
principle
in themselves or are due entirely to the body. Indeed, most people
consider
them as being the result of the influence of the flesh, for they are
designated
often by the terms "desires of the flesh" and "fleshly
appetites."
The
ancients, however, and the Theosophists know them to be a principle in
themselves
and not merely the impulses from the body. There is no help to be had in this
matter from the western psychology, now in its infancy and wholly devoid of
knowledge about the inner, which is the psychical, nature of man, and from this
point there is the greatest divergence between it and Theosophy.
The
passions and desires are not produced by the body, but, on the contrary, the
body is caused to be by the former. It is desire and passion which caused us to
be born, and will bring us to birth again and again in this body or in some
other.*
It is by passion and desire we are made to evolve through the mansions
of
death called lives on earth. It was by the arising of desire in the unknown
first
cause, the one absolute existence, that the whole collection of worlds was
manifested,
and by means of the influence of desire in the now manifested world
is
the latter kept in existence.
NOTE
[*Mr. Judge, in The
Theosophical Forum, June, 1894, page 12, corrected this to: "in some body
on this earth or another globe."]
This
fourth principle is the balance principle of the whole seven. It stands in
the
middle, and from it the ways go up or down. It is the basis of action and
the
mover of the will. As the old Hermetists say:
"Behind will stands desire."
For
whether we wish to do well or ill we have to first arouse within us the
desire
for either course. The good man who at last becomes even a sage had at
one
time in his many lives to arouse the desire for the company of holy men and
to
keep his desire for progress alive in order to continue on his way. Even a
Buddha
or a Jesus had first to make a vow, which is a desire, in some life, that
he
would save the world or some part of it, and to persevere with the desire
alive
in his heart through countless lives. And equally so, on the other hand,
the
bad man life after life took unto himself low, selfish, wicked desires, thus
debasing
instead of purifying this principle. On the material and scientific side of
occultism, the use of the inner hidden powers of our nature, if this principle
of desire be not strong the master power of imagination cannot do its work,
because though it makes a mould or matrix the will cannot act unless it is
moved, directed, and kept up to pitch by desire.
The
desires and passions, therefore, have two aspects, the one being low and the
other high. The low is that shown by the constant placing of the consciousness
entirely below in the body and the astral body; the high comes from the
influence of and aspiration to the trinity above, of Mind, Buddhi, and Spirit.
This fourth principle is like the sign Libra in the path of the Sun through the
Zodiac; when the Sun (who is the real man) reaches that sign he trembles in the
balance. Should he go back the worlds would be destroyed; he goes
onward,
and the whole human race is lifted up to perfection.
During
life the emplacement of the desires and passions is, as obtains with the
astral
body, throughout the entire lower man, and like that ethereal counterpart
of
our physical person it may be added to or diminished, made weak or increased in
strength, debased or purified.
At
death it informs the astral body, which then becomes a mere shell; for when a
man
dies his astral body and principle of passion and desire leave the physical
in
company and coalesce. It is then that the term Kamarupa
may be applied, as
Kamarupa is really made of astral body and
These
conditions are furnished by the medium of the spiritualists, and in every
seance room the astral shells of deceased persons are
always present to delude
the
sitters, whose powers of discrimination have been destroyed by wonderment.
It
is the "devil" of the Hindus, and a worse enemy the poor medium could
not
have.
For the astral spook -- or Kamarupa -- is but the
mass of the desires and
passions
abandoned by the real person who has fled to "heaven" and has no
concern
with the people left behind, least of all with seances
and mediums.
Hence,
being devoid of the nobler soul, these desires and passions work only on
the
very lowest part of the medium's nature and stir up no good elements, but
always
the lower leanings of the being. Therefore it is that even the
spiritualists
themselves admit that in the ranks of the mediums there is much
fraud,
and mediums have often confessed, "the spirits did tempt me and I
committed
fraud at their wish."
This
Kamarupa spook is also the enemy of our civilization,
which permits us to
execute
men for crimes committed and thus throw out into the ether the mass of
passion
and desire free from the weight of the body and liable at any moment to
be
attracted to any sensitive person. Being thus attracted, the deplorable images
of crimes committed and also the picture of the execution and all the
accompanying curses and wishes for revenge are implanted in living persons,
who, not seeing the evil, are unable to throw it off. Thus crimes and new ideas
of crimes are wilfully propagated every day by those
countries where capital
punishment
prevails.
The
astral shells together with the still living astral body of the medium,
helped
by certain forces of nature which the Theosophists call "elementals,"
produce
nearly all the phenomena of non-fraudulent spiritualism. The medium's
astral
body having the power of extension and extrusion forms the framework for what
are called "materialized spirits," makes objects move without
physical
contact,
gives reports from deceased relatives, none of them anything more than
recollections
and pictures from the astral light, and in all this using and being used by the
shells of suicides, executed murderers, and all such spooks as
are
naturally near to this plane of life. The number of cases in which any
communication
comes from an actual spirit out of the body is so small as to be
countable
almost on one hand. But the spirits of living men sometimes, while
their
bodies are asleep, come to seances and take part
therein. But they cannot
recollect
it, do not know how they do it, and are not distinguished by mediums
from
the mass of astral corpses. The fact that such things can be done by the
inner
man and not be recollected proves nothing against these theories, for the
child
can see without knowing how the eye acts, and the savage who has no
knowledge
of the complex machinery working in his body still carries on the
process
of digestion perfectly. And that the latter is unconscious with him is
exactly
in line with the theory, for these acts and doings of the inner man are
the
unconscious actions of the subconscious mind.
These
words "conscious" and "subconscious" are of course used
relatively, the unconsciousness being that of the brain only. And hypnotic
experiments have conclusively proved all these theories, as on one day not far
away will be fully admitted. Besides this, the astral shells of suicides and
executed criminals are the most coherent, longest lived, and nearest to us of
all the shades of hades, and hence must, out of the
necessity of the case, be the real "controls" of the seance room.
Passion
and desire together with astral model-body are common to men and
animals,
as also to the vegetable kingdom, though in the last but faintly developed. And
at one period in evolution no further material principles had
been
developed, and all the three higher, of Mind, Soul, and Spirit, were but
latent.
Up to this point man and animal were equal, for the brute in us is made
of
the passions and the astral body. The development of the germs of Mind made man
because it constituted the great differentiation. The God within begins with
Manas or mind, and it is the struggle between this God and the brute below
which Theosophy speaks of and warns about. The lower principle is called bad
because by comparison with the higher it is so, but still it is the basis of
action.
We
cannot rise unless self first asserts itself in the desire to do better. In
this
aspect
it is called rajas or the active and bad quality, as distinguished from
tamas, or the quality of darkness and indifference.
Rising is not possible unless rajas is present to give the impulse, and by the
use of this principle of passion all the higher qualities are brought to at
last so refine and elevate our desires that they may be continually placed upon
truth and spirit. By this Theosophy does not teach that the passions are to be
pandered to or satiated, for a more pernicious doctrine was never taught, but
the injunction is to make use of the activity given by the fourth principle so
as to ever rise and not to fall under the dominion of the dark quality that
ends with annihilation, after having begun in selfishness and indifference.
Having
thus gone over the field and shown what are the lower principles, we find
Theosophy
teaching that at the present point of man's evolution he is a fully
developed
quaternary with the higher principles partly developed. Hence it is
taught
that today man shows himself to be moved by passion and desire. This is
proved
by a glance at the civilizations of the earth, for they are all moved by
this
principle, and in countries like France, England, and America a
glorification
of it is exhibited in the attention to display, to sensuous art,
to
struggle for power and place, and in all the habits and modes of living where
the
gratification of the senses is sometimes esteemed the highest good. But as
Mind
is being evolved more and more as we proceed in our course along the line
of
the race development, there can be perceived underneath in all countries the
beginning
of the transition from the animal possessed of the germ of real mind
to
the man of mind complete. This day is therefore known to the Masters, who
have
given out some of the old truths, as the "transition period." Proud
science
and
prouder religion do not admit this, but think we are as we always will be.
But
believing in his teacher, the theosophist sees all around him the evidence
that
the race mind is changing by enlargement, that the old days of dogmatism
are
gone and the "age of inquiry" has come, that the inquiries will grow
louder
year
by year and the answers be required to satisfy the mind as it grows more
and
more, until at last, all dogmatism being ended, the race will be ready to face
all problems, each man for himself, all working for the good of the whole, and
that the end will be the perfecting of those who struggle to overcome the
brute. For these reasons the old doctrines are given out again, and Theosophy
asks every one to reflect whether to give way to the animal below or look up to
and be governed by the God within.
A
fuller treatment of the fourth principle of our constitution would compel us
to
consider all such questions as those presented by the wonder workers of the
east,
by spiritualistic phenomena, hypnotism, apparitions, insanity, and the
like,
but they must be reserved for separate handling.
CHAPTER
7
Manas
In
our analysis of man's nature we have so far considered only the perishable
elements
which make up the lower man, and have arrived at the fourth principle
or
plane -- that of desire -- without having touched upon the question of Mind.
But
even so far as we have gone it must be evident that there is a wide difference between
the ordinary ideas about Mind and those found in Theosophy.
Ordinarily
the Mind is thought to be immaterial, or to be merely the name for
the
action of the brain in evolving thought, a process wholly unknown other than
by
inference, or that if there be no brain there can be no mind. A good deal of
attention
has been paid to cataloguing some mental functions and attributes, but
the
terms are altogether absent from the language to describe actual metaphysical
and spiritual facts about man. This confusion and poverty of words for these
uses are due almost entirely, first, to dogmatic religion, which has asserted
and enforced for many centuries dogmas and doctrines which reason could not
accept, and secondly to the natural war which grew up between science and
religion
just as soon as the fetters placed by religion upon science were
removed
and the latter was permitted to deal with facts in nature. The reaction
against
religion naturally prevented science from taking any but a materialistic
view
of man and nature. So from neither of these two have we yet gained the
words
needed for describing the fifth, sixth, and seventh principles, those
which
make up the Trinity, the real man, the immortal pilgrim.
The
fifth principle is Manas, in the classification adopted by Mr. Sinnett, and
is
usually translated Mind. Other names have been given to it, but it is the
knower,
the perceiver, the thinker. The sixth is Buddhi, or spiritual discernment; the
seventh is Atma, or Spirit, the ray from the Absolute Being.
The
English language will suffice to describe in part what Manas is, but not
Buddhi,
or Atma, and will leave many things relating to Manas undescribed.
The
course of evolution developed the lower principles and produced at last the
form
of man with a brain of better and deeper capacity than that of any other
animal.
But this man in form was not man in mind, and needed the fifth
principle,
the thinking, perceiving one, to differentiate him from the animal
kingdom
and to confer the power of becoming self-conscious. The monad was
imprisoned
in these forms, and that monad is composed of Atma and Buddhi; for without the
presence of the monad evolution could not go forward. Going back for a moment
to the time when the races were devoid of mind, the question arises, "who
gave the mind, where did it come from, and what is it?" It is the link
between
the Spirit of God above and the personal below; it was given to the
mindless
monads by others who had gone all through this process ages upon ages before in
other worlds and systems of worlds, and it therefore came from other
evolutionary periods which were carried out and completed long before the solar
system had begun. This is the theory, strange and unacceptable today, but which
must be stated if we are to tell the truth about theosophy; and this is only
handing on what others have said before.
The
manner in which this light of mind was given to the Mindless Men can be
understood
from the illustration of one candle lighting many. Given one lighted
candle
and numerous unlighted ones, it follows that from one light the others
may
also be set aflame. So in the case of Manas. It is the candle of flame. The
mindless
men having four elementary principles of Body, Astral Body, Life and
Desire,
are the unlighted candles that cannot light themselves. The Sons of
Wisdom,
who are the Elder Brothers of every family of men on any globe, have the light,
derived by them from others who reach back, and yet farther back, in
endless
procession with no beginning or end. They set fire to the combined lower
principles and the Monad, thus lighting up Manas in the new men and preparing
another great race for final initiation.
This
lighting up of the fire of Manas is symbolized in all great religions and
Freemasonry. In the east one priest appears holding a candle lighted at the
altar, and thousands of others light their candles from this one. The Parsees
also have their sacred fire which is lighted from some other sacred flame.
Manas,
or the Thinker, is the reincarnating being, the immortal who carries the
results
and values of all the different lives lived on earth or elsewhere. Its nature
becomes dual as soon as it is attached to a body. For the human brain is a
superior organism and Manas uses it to reason from premises to conclusions.
This
also differentiates man from animal, for the animal acts from automatic and
so-called
instinctual impulses, whereas the man can use reason. This is the lower aspect
of the Thinker or Manas, and not, as some have supposed, the highest and best
gift belonging to man. Its other, and in theosophy higher, aspect is the
intuitional, which knows, and does not depend on reason. The lower, and purely
intellectual, is nearest to the principle of Desire, and is thus distinguished
from its other side which has affinity for the spiritual principles above. If
the Thinker, then, becomes wholly intellectual, the entire nature begins to
tend downward; for intellect alone is cold, heartless, selfish, because it is
not lighted up by the two other principles of Buddhi and Atma.
In
Manas the thoughts of all lives are stored. That is to say: in any one life,
the
sum total of thoughts underlying all the acts of the lifetime will be of one
character
in general, but may be placed in one or more classes. That is, the
business
man of today is a single type; his entire life thoughts represent but
one
single thread of thought. The artist is another. The man who has engaged in
business,
but also thought much upon fame and power which he never attained, is still
another. The great mass of self-sacrificing, courageous, and strong poor
people
who have but little time to think, constitute another distinct class. In
all
these the total quantity of life thoughts makes up the stream or thread of a
life's
meditation -- "that upon which the heart was set" -- and is stored in
Manas,
to be brought out again at any time in whatever life the brain and bodily
environments
are similar to those used in engendering that class of thoughts. It
is
Manas which sees the objects presented to it by the bodily organs and the
actual
organs within. When the open eye receives a picture on the retina, the
whole
scene is turned into vibrations in the optic nerves which disappear into
the
brain, where Manas is enabled to perceive them as idea. And so with every
other
organ or sense. If the connection between Manas and the brain be broken,
intelligence
will not be manifested unless Manas has by training found out how
to
project the astral body from the physical and thereby keep up communication
with
fellowmen. That the organs and senses do not cognize objects, hypnotism,
mesmerism,
and spiritualism have now proved. For, as we see in mesmeric and
hypnotic
experiments, the object seen or felt, and from which all the effects of
solid
objects may be sensed, is often only an idea existing in the operator's
brain.
In the same way Manas, using the astral body, has only to impress an idea
upon
the other person to make the latter see the idea and translate it into a
visible
body from which the usual effects of density and weight seem to follow.
And
in hypnotism there are many experiments, all of which go to show that so
called
matter is not per se solid or dense; that sight does not always depend on
the
eye and rays of light proceeding from an object; that the intangible for one
normal
brain and organs may be perfectly tangible for another; and that physical
effects
in the body may be produced from an idea solely.
The
well-known experiments of producing a blister by a simple piece of paper, or
preventing a real blistering plaster from making a blister, by force of the
idea conveyed to a subject, either that there was to be or not to be a blister,
conclusively
prove the power of effecting an impulse on matter by the use of that which is
called Manas. But all these phenomena are the exhibition of the powers of lower
Manas acting in the astral Body and the fourth principle -- Desire, using the
physical body as the field for the exhibition of the forces.
It
is this lower Manas which retains all the impressions of a lifetime and
sometimes
strangely exhibits them in trances or dreams, delirium, induced
states,
here and there in normal conditions, and very often at the time of physical
death. But it is so occupied with the brain, with memory and with sensation,
that it usually presents but few recollections out of the mass of events that
years have brought before it. It interferes with the action of Higher Manas
because just at the present point of evolution, Desire and all corresponding
powers, faculties, and senses are the most highly developed, thus obscuring, as
it were, the white light of the spiritual side of Manas. It is tinted by each
object presented to it, whether it be a thought-object or a material one. That
is to say, Lower Manas operating through the brain is at once altered into the
shape and other characteristics of any object, mental or otherwise. This causes
it to have four peculiarities.
First, to
naturally fly off from any point, object, or subject;
second, to
fly to some pleasant idea;
third, to
fly to an unpleasant idea;
fourth, to
remain passive and considering naught.
The
first is due to memory and the natural motion of Manas; the second and third
are due to memory alone; the fourth signifies sleep when not abnormal, and when
abnormal is going toward insanity. These mental characteristics all belonging
to Lower Manas, are those which the Higher Manas, aided by Buddhi and Atma, has
to fight and conquer. Higher Manas, if able to act, becomes what we sometimes
call Genius; if completely master, then one may become a god.
But
memory continually presents pictures to Lower Manas, and the result is that the
Higher is obscured. Sometimes, however, along the pathway of life we do see
here and there men who are geniuses or great seers and prophets. In these the
Higher powers of Manas are active and the person illuminated. Such were the
great Sages of the past, men like Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, Zoroaster, and
others.
Poets, too, such as Tennyson, Longfellow, and others, are men in whom Higher
Manas now and then sheds a bright ray on the man below, to be soon obscured,
however, by the effect of dogmatic religious education which has given memory
certain pictures that always prevent Manas from gaining full activity.
In
this higher Trinity, we have the God above each one; this is Atma, and may be
called the Higher Self.
Next
is the spiritual part of the soul called Buddhi; when thoroughly united
with
Manas this may be called the Divine Ego.
The
inner Ego, who reincarnates, taking on body after body, storing up the
impressions
of life after life, gaining experience and adding it to the divine
Ego,
suffering and enjoying through an immense period of years, is the fifth
principle
-- Manas -- not united to Buddhi. This is the permanent individuality
which
gives to every man the feeling of being himself and not some other; that
which
through all the changes of the days and nights from youth to the end of
life
makes us feel one identity through all the period; it bridges the gap made
by
sleep; in like manner it bridges the gap made by the sleep of death. It is
this,
and not our brain, that lifts us above the animal. The depth and variety of the
brain convolutions in man are caused by the presence of Manas, and are
not
the cause of mind. And when we either wholly or now and then become
consciously
united with Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul, we behold God, as it were.
This
is what the ancients all desired to see, but what the moderns do not believe
in, the latter preferring rather to throw away their own right to be great in
nature, and to worship an imaginary god made up solely of their own fancies and
not very different from weak human nature.
This
permanent individuality in the present race has therefore been through
every
sort of experience, for Theosophy insists on its permanence and in the
necessity
for its continuing to take part in evolution. It has a duty to perform,
consisting in raising up to a higher state all the matter concerned in the
chain of globes to which the earth belongs. We have all lived and taken part in
civilization after civilization, race after race, on earth, and will so
continue throughout all the rounds and races until the seventh is complete.
At
the same time it should be remembered that the matter of this globe and that
connected
with it has also been through every kind of form, with possibly some
exceptions
in very low planes of mineral formation. But in general all the matter visible,
or held in space still unprecipitated, has been moulded at one time or another into forms of all varieties,
many of these being such as we now have no idea of.
The
processes of evolution, therefore, in some departments, now go forward with
greater rapidity than in former ages because both Manas and matter have
acquired facility of action. Especially is this so in regard to man, who is the
farthest ahead of all things or beings in this evolution. He is now incarnated
and projected into life more quickly than in earlier periods when it consumed
many years to obtain a "coat of skin." This coming into life over and
over again cannot be avoided by the ordinary man because Lower Manas is still
bound by Desire, which is the preponderating principle at the present period.
Being
so influenced by Desire Manas is continually deluded while in the body,
and
being thus deluded is unable to prevent the action upon it of the forces set
up
in the life time. These forces are generated by Manas, that is, by the thinking
of the life time. Each thought makes a physical as well as mental link with the
desire in which it is rooted. All life is filled with such thoughts, and when
the period of rest after death is ended Manas is bound by innumerable
electrical magnetic threads to earth by reason of the thoughts of the last
life, and therefore by desire, for it was desire that caused so many thoughts
and ignorance of the true nature of things. An understanding of this doctrine
of man being really a thinker and made of thought will make clear all the rest
in relation to incarnation and reincarnation. The body of the inner man is made
of thought, and this being so it must follow that if the thoughts have more
affinity for earth-life than for life elsewhere a return to life here is
inevitable. At the present day Manas is not fully active in the race, as Desire
still is uppermost. In the next cycle of the human period Manas will be fully
active and developed in the entire race. Hence the people of the earth have not
yet come to the point of making a conscious choice as to the path they will
take; but when in the cycle referred to, Manas is active, all will then be
compelled to consciously make the choice to right or left, the one leading to
complete and conscious union with Atma, the other to the annihilation of those
beings who prefer that path.
CHAPTER
8
Of Reincarnation
How
man has come to be the complex being that he is and why, are questions that
neither Science nor Religion makes conclusive answer to. This immortal thinker
having such vast powers and possibilities, all his because of his intimate
connection
with every secret part of Nature from which he has been built up,
stands
at the top of an immense and silent evolution. He asks why Nature exists,
what
the drama of life has for its aim, how that aim may be attained. But Science
and Religion both fail to give a reasonable reply. Science does not pretend to
be able to give the solution, saying that the examination of things as they are
is enough of a task; religion offers an explanation both illogical and
unmeaning and acceptable but to the bigot, as it requires us to consider the
whole of Nature as a mystery and to seek for the meaning and purpose of life
with all its sorrow in the pleasure of a God who cannot be found out. The
educated and enquiring mind knows that dogmatic religion can only give an
answer invented by man while it pretends to be from God.
What
then is the universe for, and for what final purpose is man the immortal
thinker
here in evolution? It is all for the experience and emancipation of the
soul,
for the purpose of raising the entire mass of manifested matter up to the
stature,
nature, and dignity of conscious god-hood. The great aim is to reach
self-consciousness;
not through a race or a tribe or some flavoured
nation, but
by
and through the perfecting, after transformation, of the whole mass of matter
as
well as what we now call soul. Nothing is or is to be left out. The aim for
present
man is his initiation into complete knowledge, and for the other
kingdoms
below him that they may be raised up gradually from stage to stage to
be
in time initiated also. This is evolution carried to its highest power; it is
a
magnificent prospect; it makes of man a god, and gives to every part of nature
the
possibility of being one day the same; there is strength and nobility in it,
for
by this no man is dwarfed and belittled, for no one is so originally sinful
that
he cannot rise above all sin. Treated from the materialistic position of
Science,
evolution takes in but half of life; while the religious conception of
it
is a mixture of nonsense and fear. Present religions keep the element of
fear,
and at the same time imagine that an Almighty being can think of no other
earth
but this and has to govern this one very imperfectly. But the old
theosophical
view makes the universe a vast, complete, and perfect whole.
Now
the moment we postulate a double evolution, physical and spiritual, we have at
the same time to admit that it can only be carried on by reincarnation. This
is, in fact, demonstrated by science. It is shown that the matter of the earth
and
of all things physical upon it was at one time either gaseous or molten;
that
it cooled; that it altered; that from its alterations and evolutions at last
were produced all the great variety of things and beings. This, on the physical
plane, is transformation or change from one form to another. The total mass of
matter is about the same as in the beginning of this globe, with a very minute
allowance for some star dust. Hence it must have been changed over and over
again, and thus been physically reformed and reimbodied.
Of course, to be strictly accurate, we cannot use the word reincarnation,
because "incarnate" refers to flesh. Let us say "reimbodied," and then we see that both for matter and
for man there has been a constant change of form and this is, broadly speaking,
"reincarnation." As to the whole mass of matter, the doctrine is that
it will all be raised to man's estate when man has gone further on himself.
There
is no residuum left after man's final salvation which in a mysterious way
is
to be disposed of or done away with in some remote dust-heap of nature. The
true
doctrine allows for nothing like that, and at the same time is not afraid to
give the true disposition of what would seem to be a residuum. It is all worked
up into other states, for as the philosophy declares there is no inorganic
matter whatever but that every atom is alive and has the germ of
self-consciousness, it must follow that one day it will all have been changed.
Thus
what is now called human flesh is so much matter that one day was wholly
mineral,
later on vegetable, and now refined into human atoms. At a point of
time
very far from now the present vegetable matter will have been raised to the
animal
stage and what we now use as our organic or fleshy matter will have
changed
by transformation through evolution into self-conscious thinkers, and so on up
the whole scale until the time shall come when what is now known as
mineral
matter will have passed on to the human stage and out into that of thinker.
Then at the coming on of another great period of evolution the mineral
matter
of that time will be some which is now passing through its lower
transformations
on other planets and in other systems of worlds. This is perhaps
a
"fanciful" scheme for the men of the present day, who are so
accustomed to
being
called bad, sinful, weak, and utterly foolish from their birth that they fear
to believe the truth about themselves, but for the disciples of the ancient
theosophists
it is not impossible or fanciful, but is logical and vast. And no doubt it will
one day be admitted by everyone when the mind of the western race
has
broken away from Mosaic chronology and Mosaic ideas of men and nature.
Therefore
as to reincarnation and metempsychosis we say that they are first to
be
applied to the whole cosmos and not alone to man. But as man is the most
interesting
object to himself, we will consider in detail its application to
him.
This
is the most ancient of doctrines and is believed in now by more human minds
than the number of those who do not hold it. The millions in the East almost
all accept it; it was taught by the Greeks; a large number of the Chinese now
believe it as their forefathers did before them; the Jews thought it was true,
and
it has not disappeared from their religion; and Jesus, who is called the
founder
of Christianity, also believed and taught it. In the early Christian
church
it was known and taught, and the very best of the fathers of the church
believed
and promulgated it.
Christians
should remember that Jesus was a Jew who thought his mission was to Jews, for
he says in St. Matthew, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the
house of
believed in reincarnation. For them Moses, Adam,
Noah, Seth, and others had
returned
to earth, and at the time of Jesus it was currently believed that the
old
prophet Elias was yet to return. So we find, first, that Jesus never denied
the
doctrine, and on various occasions assented to it, as when he said that John
the
Baptist was actually the Elias of old whom the people were expecting. All
this
can be seen by consulting St. Matthew in chapters xvii, xi, and others.
In
these it is very clear that Jesus is shown as approving the doctrine of
reincarnation.
And following Jesus we find
Esau
and Jacob being actually in existence before they were born,
and later such
great
Christian fathers as Origen, Synesius,
and others believing and teaching
the
theory. In Proverbs viii, 22, we have Solomon saying that when the earth was
made
he was present, and that, long before he could have been born as Solomon, his
delights were in the habitable parts of the earth with the sons of men.
doctrine was taught in the church until the
council of
Then
a condemnation was passed upon a phase of the question which has been regarded by
many as against reincarnation, but if that condemnation goes against the words
of Jesus it is of no effect. It does go against him, and thus the church is in
the position of saying in effect that Jesus did not know enough to curse, as it
did, a doctrine known and taught in his day and which was brought to his notice
prominently and never condemned but in fact approved by him.
Christianity
is a Jewish religion, and this doctrine of reincarnation belongs to it
historically by succession from the Jews, and also by reason of its having been
taught by Jesus and the early fathers of the church. If there be any truthful
or logical way for the Christian church to get out of this position --
excluding, of
course,
dogmas of the church -- the theosophist would like to be shown it.
Indeed,
the theosophist holds that whenever a professed Christian denies the
theory
he thereby sets up his judgment against that of Jesus, who must have
known
more about the matter than those who follow him. It is the anathema hurled by
the church council and the absence of the doctrine from the teaching now that
have damaged Christianity and made of all the Christian nations people who
pretend to be followers of Jesus and the law of love, but who really as nations
are followers of the Mosaic law of retaliation. For alone in reincarnation is
the answer to all the problems of life, and in it and Karma is the force that
will
make men pursue in fact the ethics they have in theory. It is the aim of
the
old philosophy to restore this doctrine to whatsoever religion has lost it;
and
hence we call it the "lost chord of Christianity."
But
who or what is it that reincarnates? It is not the body, for that dies and
disintegrates;
and but few of us would like to be chained forever to such bodies
as
we now have, admitted to be infected with disease except in the case of the
savage.
It is not the astral body, for, as shown, that also has its term and must go to
pieces after the physical has gone. Nor is it the passions and desires. They,
to be sure, have a very long term, because they have the power to
reproduce
themselves in each life so long as we do not eradicate them. And
reincarnation
provides for that, since we are given by it many opportunities of
slowly,
one by one, killing off the desires and passions which mar the heavenly
picture
of the spiritual man.
It
has been shown how the passional part of us coalesces
with the astral after
death
and makes a seeming being that has a short life to live while it is
disintegrating.
When the separation is complete between the body that has died,
the
astral body, and the passions and desires -- life having begun to busy
itself
with other forms -- the Higher Triad, Manas, Buddhi, and Atma, who are
the
real man, immediately go into another state, and when that state, which is
called
Devachan, or heaven, is over, they are attracted back to earth for
reincarnation.
They are the immortal part of us; they, in fact, and no other are
we.
This should be firmly grasped by the mind, for upon its clear understanding
depends
the comprehension of the entire doctrine.
What
stands in the way of the modern western man's seeing this clearly is the long
training we have all had in materialistic science and materializing religion,
both of which have made the mere physical body too prominent. The one has
taught of matter alone and the other has preached the resurrection of the body,
a doctrine against common sense, fact, logic, and testimony. But there is no
doubt that the theory of the bodily resurrection has arisen from the corruption
of the older and true teaching. Resurrection is founded on what Job says about
seeing his redeemer in his flesh, and on
Atma-Buddhi-Manas
does not yet fully incarnate in this race. They use
and occupy the body by means of the entrance of Manas, the lowest of the three,
and the other two shine upon it from above, constituting the God in Heaven.
This was symbolized in the old Jewish teaching about the Heavenly Man who
stands with his head in heaven and his feet in hell. That is, the head Atma and
Buddhi are yet in heaven, and the feet, Manas, walk in hell, which is the body
and physical life. For that reason man is not yet fully conscious, and reincarnations
are needed to at last complete the incarnation of the whole trinity in the
body.
When
that has been accomplished the race will have become as gods, and the
godlike
trinity being in full possession the entire mass of matter will be perfected
and raised up for the next step. This is the real meaning of "the word
made flesh." It was so grand a thing in the case of any single person,
such as Jesus or Buddha, as to be looked upon as a divine incarnation. And out
of this, too, comes the idea of the crucifixion, for Manas is thus crucified
for the purpose of raising up the thief to paradise.
It
is because the trinity is not yet incarnate in the race that life has so many
mysteries,
some of which are showing themselves from day to day in all the
various
experiments made on and in man.
The
physician knows not what life is nor why the body moves as it does, because the
spiritual portion is yet enshrouded in the clouds of heaven; the scientist is
wandering in the dark, confounded and confused by all that hypnotism and other
strange things bring before him, because the conscious man is out of sight on
the very top of the divine mountain, thus compelling the learned to speak of
the "subconscious mind," the "latent personality," and the like;
and the priest can give us no light at all because he denies man's god-like
nature, reduces all to the level of original sin, and puts upon our conception
of God the black mark of inability to control or manage the creation without
invention of expedients to cure supposed errors. But this old truth solves the
riddle and paints God and Nature in harmonious colors.
Reincarnation
does not mean that we go into animal forms after death, as is
believed
by some Eastern peoples. "Once a man always a man" is the saying in
the Great Lodge. But it would not be too much punishment for some men were it
possible to condemn them to rebirth in brute bodies; however nature does not go
by sentiment but by law, and we, not being able to see all, cannot say that the
brutal
man is brute all through his nature. And evolution having brought Manas
the
Thinker and Immortal Person on to this plane, cannot send him back to the
brute
which has not Manas.
By
looking into two explanations for the literal acceptation by some people in
the
East of those laws of Manu which seem to teach the transmigrating into
brutes,
insects, and so on, we can see how the true student of this doctrine
will
not fall into the same error.
The
first is, that the various verses and books teaching such transmigration
have
to do with the actual method of reincarnation, that is, with the
explanation
of the actual physical processes which have to be undergone by the
Ego
in passing from the unembodied to the embodied state,
and also with the
roads,
ways, or means of descent from the invisible to the visible plane. This
has
not yet been plainly explained in Theosophical books, because on the one
hand
it is a delicate matter, and on the other the details would not as yet be
received
even by Theosophists with credence, although one day they will be.
And
as these details are not of the greatest importance they are not now expounded.
But
as we know that no human body is formed without the union of the sexes, and
that the germs for such production are locked up in the sexes and must come
from food which is taken into the body, it is obvious that foods have something
to do with the reincarnating of the Ego. Now if the road to reincarnation leads
through certain food and none other, it may be possible that if the Ego gets
entangled in food which will not lead to the germ of physical reproduction, a
punishment is indicated where Manu says that such and such practices will lead
to transmigration, which is then a "hindrance." I throw this out so far
for the benefit of certain theosophists who read these and whose theories on
this subject are now rather vague and in some instances based on quite other
hypotheses.
The
second explanation is, that inasmuch as nature intends us to use the matter
which
comes into our body and astral body for the purpose, among others, of
benefiting
the matter by the impress it gets from association with the human Ego, if we
use it so as to give it only a brutal impression it must fly back to the animal
kingdom to be absorbed there instead of being refined and kept on the human
plane. And as all the matter which the human Ego gathered to it retains the
stamp or photographic impression of the human being, the matter transmigrates
to the lower level when given an animal impress by the Ego. This actual fact in
the great chemical laboratory of nature could easily bemisconstrued
by the ignorant. But the present-day students know that once Manas the Thinker
has arrived on the scene he does not return to baser forms; first, because he
does not wish to, and second, because he cannot. For just as the blood in the
body is prevented by valves from rushing back and engorging the heart, so in
this greater system of universal circulation the door is shut behind the
Thinker and prevents his retrocession. Reincarnation as a doctrine applying to
the real man does not teach transmigration into kingdoms of nature below the
human.
CHAPTER
9
Reincarnation Continued
In
the West, where the object of life is commercial, financial, social, or
scientific
success, that is, personal profit, aggrandizement, and power, the
real
life of man receives but little attention, and we, unlike the Orientals,
give
scant prominence to the doctrine of pre-existence and reincarnation. That
the
church denies it is enough for many, with whom no argument is of any use.
Relying
on the church, they do not wish to disturb the serenity of their faith in
dogmas that may be illogical; and as they have been taught that the church can
bind them in hell, a blind fear of the anathema hurled at reincarnation in the
If
there were no retribution at all this would be a good objection, but as Nature
has also a Nemesis for every evil doer, and as each, under the law of Karma --
which is that of cause and effect and perfect justice -- must receive the exact
consequences
himself in every life for what good or bad deeds and thoughts he
did
and had in other lives, the basis for moral conduct is secure. It is safe under
this system, since no man can by any possibility, or favor, or edict, or belief
escape the consequences, and each one who grasps this doctrine will be moved by
conscience and the whole power of nature to do well in order that he may
receive good and become happy.
It
is maintained that the idea of rebirth is uncongenial and unpleasant because
on
the one hand it is cold, allowing no sentiment to interfere, prohibiting us
from renouncing at will a life which we have found to be sorrowful; and on the
other, that there appears to be no chance under it for us to see our loved ones
who have passed away before us. But whether we like it or not Nature's laws go
forward
unerringly, and sentiment or feeling can in no way avert the consequence that
must follow a cause. If we eat bad food bad results must come. The glutton
would have Nature permit him to gorge himself without the indigestion which
will come, but Nature's laws are not to be thus put aside.
Now,
the objection to reincarnation that we will not see our loved ones in heaven as
promised in dogmatic religion, presupposes a complete stoppage of the evolution
and development of those who leave earth before ourselves, and also assumes
that recognition is dependent on physical appearance. But as we progress in
this life, so also must we progress upon leaving it, and it would be unfair to
compel the others to await our arrival in order that we may recognize them. And
if one reflects on the natural consequences of arising to heaven where all
trammels are cast off, it must be apparent that those who have been there, say,
twenty of mortal years before us must, in the nature of things mental and
spiritual, have made a progress equal to many hundreds of years here under
varied and very favourable circumstances. How then
could we, arriving later and still imperfect, be able to recognize those who
had been perfecting themselves in heaven with such advantages? And as we know
that the body is left behind to disintegrate, so, it is evident, recognition
cannot depend, in the spiritual and mental life, on physical appearance. For
not only is this thus plain, but since we are aware that an unhandsome or
deformed body often enshrines a glorious mind and pure soul, and that a
beautifully formed exterior -- such as in the case of the Borgias
-- may hide an incarnate devil in character, the physical form gives no
guarantee of recognition in that world where the body is absent. And the mother
who has lost a child who had grown to maturity must know that she loved the
child when a baby as much as afterwards when the great alteration to later life
had completely swept away the form and features of early youth.
The
Theosophists see that this objection can have no existence in the face of the
eternal and pure life of the soul. And Theosophy also teaches that those who
are like unto each other and love each other will be reincarnated together
whenever the conditions permit. Whenever one of us has gone farther on the road
to
perfection,
he will always be moved to help and comfort those who belong to the same
family. But when one has become gross and selfish and wicked, no one would want
his companionship in any life. Recognition depends on the inner sight and not
on outward appearance; hence there is no force in this objection. And the other
phase of it relating to loss of parent, child, or relative is based on the
erroneous notion that as the parents give the child its body so also is given
its
soul. But soul is immortal and parentless; hence this objection is without a
root.
Some
urge that Heredity invalidates Reincarnation. We urge it as proof. Heredity
in
giving us a body in any family provides the appropriate environment for the
Ego.
The Ego only goes into the family which either completely answers to its
whole
nature, or which gives an opportunity for the working out of its evolution, and
which is also connected with it by reason of past incarnations or causes
mutually set up. Thus the evil child may come to the presently good family
because parents and child are indissolubly connected by past actions. It is a
chance for redemption to the child and the occasion of punishment to the
parents.
This points to bodily heredity as a natural rule governing the bodies
we
must inhabit, just as the houses in a city will show the mind of the builders.
And
as we as well as our parents were the makers and influencers of bodies, took part
in and are responsible for states of society in which the development of
physical body and brain was either retarded or helped on, debased or the
contrary, so we are in this life responsible for the civilization in which we
now appear. But when we look at the characters in human bodies, great inherent
differences are seen. This is due to the soul inside, who is suffering or
enjoying in the family, nation, and race his own thoughts and acts in the past
lives have made it inevitable he should incarnate with.
Heredity
provides the tenement and also imposes those limitations of capacity of
brain
or body which are often a punishment and sometimes a help, but it does not
affect the real Ego. The transmission of traits is a physical matter, and
nothing
more than the coming out into a nation of the consequences of the prior
lives
of all Egos who are to be in that race. The limitations imposed on the Ego
by
any family heredity are exact consequences of that Ego's prior lives. The
fact
that such physical traits and mental peculiarities are transmitted does not
confute
reincarnation, since we know that the guiding mind and real character of
each
are not the result of a body and brain but are peculiar to the Ego in its
essential
life. Transmission of trait and tendency by means of parent and body
is
exactly the mode selected by nature for providing the incarnating Ego with
the
proper tenement in which to carry on its work. Another mode would be
impossible
and subversive of order.
Again,
those who dwell on the objection from heredity forget that they are
accentuating
similarities and overlooking divergencies. For while
investigations
on
the line of heredity have recorded many transmitted traits, they have not done
so in respect to divergencies from heredity vastly
greater in number. Every
mother
knows that the children of a family are as different in character as the
fingers
on one hand -- they are all from the same parents, but all vary in
character
and capacity.
But
heredity as the great rule and as a complete explanation is absolutely
overthrown
by history, which shows no constant transmission of learning, power, and
capacity. For instance, in the case of the ancient Egyptians long gone and
their line of transmission shattered, we have no transmission to their
descendants.
If
physical heredity settles the question of character, how has the great Egyptian
character been lost? The same question holds in respect to other ancient and
extinct nations. And taking an individual illustration we have the great
musician Bach, whose direct descendants showed a decrease in musical ability
leading to its final disappearance from the family stock. But Theosophy teaches
that in both of these instances -- as in all like them -- the real capacity and
ability have only disappeared from a family and national body, but are retained
in the Egos who once exhibited them, being now incarnated in some other nation
and family of the present time.
Suffering
comes to nearly all men, and a great many live lives of sorrow from
the
cradle to the grave, so it is objected that reincarnation is unjust because
we
suffer for the wrong done by some other person in another life. This
objection
is based on the false notion that the person in the other life was
some
one else. But in every life it is the same person. When we come again we do not
take up the body of some one else, nor another's deeds, but are like an
actor
who plays many parts, the same actor inside though the costumes and the
lines
recited differ in each new play. Shakespeare was right in saying that life
is
a play, for the great life of the soul is a drama, and each new life and
rebirth
another act in which we assume another part and put on a new dress, but
all
through it we are the selfsame person. So instead of its being unjust, it is
perfect
justice, and in no other manner could justice be preserved.
But,
it is said, if we reincarnate how is it that we do not remember the other
life;
and further, as we cannot remember the deeds for which we suffer is it not
unjust
for that reason? Those who ask this always ignore the fact that they also
have
enjoyment and reward in life and are content to accept them without
question.
For if it is unjust to be punished for deeds we do not remember, then
it
is also inequitable to be rewarded for other acts which have been forgotten.
Mere
entry into life is no fit foundation for any reward or punishment. Reward
and
punishment must be the just desert for prior conduct. Nature's law of
justice
is not imperfect, and it is only the imperfection of human justice that
requires
the offender to know and remember in this life a deed to which a
penalty
is annexed. In the prior life the doer was then quite aware of what he
did,
and nature affixes consequences to his acts, being thus just. We well know
that
she will make the effect follow the cause whatever we wish and whether we
remember
or forget what we did. If a baby is hurt in its first years by the
nurse
so as to lay the ground for a crippling disease in after life, as is often
the
case, the crippling disease will come although the child neither brought on
the
present cause nor remembered aught about it. But reincarnation, with its
companion
doctrine of Karma, rightly understood, shows how perfectly just the
whole
scheme of nature is.
Memory
of a prior life is not needed to prove that we passed through that
existence,
nor is the fact of not remembering a good objection. We forget the
greater
part of the occurrences of the years and days of this life, but no one
would
say for that reason we did not go through these years. They were lived,
and
we retain but little of the details in the brain, but the entire effect of
them
on the character is kept and made a part of ourselves. The whole mass of
detail
of a life is preserved in the inner man to be one day fully brought back
to
the conscious memory in some other life when we are perfected. And even now,
imperfect as we are and little as we know, the experiments in hypnotism show
that all the smallest details are registered in what is for the present known
as the subconscious mind. The theosophical doctrine is that not a single one of
these
happenings is forgotten in fact, and at the end of life when the eyes are
closed
and those about say we are dead every thought and circumstance of life
flash
vividly into and across the mind.
Many
persons do, however, remember that they have lived before. Poets have sung of
this, children know it well, until the constant living in an atmosphere of
unbelief
drives the recollection from their minds for the present, but all are
subject
to the limitations imposed upon the Ego by the new brain in each life.
This
is why we are not able to keep the pictures of the past, whether of this
life
or the preceding ones. The brain is the instrument for the memory of the
soul,
and, being new in each life with but a certain capacity, the Ego is only
able
to use it for the new life up to its capacity. That capacity will be fully
availed
of or the contrary, just according to the Ego's own desire and prior
conduct,
because such past living will have increased or diminished its power to
overcome
the forces of material existence.
By
living according to the dictates of the soul the brain may at least be made
porous
to the soul's recollections; if the contrary sort of a life is led, then
more
and more will clouds obscure that reminiscence. But as the brain had no
part
in the life last lived, it is in general unable to remember. And this is a
wise
law, for we should be very miserable if the deeds and scenes of our former
lives
were not hidden from our view until by discipline we become able to bear a
knowledge
of them.
Another
objection brought up is that under the doctrine of reincarnation it is
not
possible to account for the increase of the world's population. This assumes
that
we know surely that its population has increased and are keeping informed
of
its fluctuations. But it is not certain that the inhabitants of the globe
have
increased, and, further, vast numbers of people are annually destroyed of
whom
we know nothing. In
Statistics
of famine have not been made. We do not know by how many thousands the deaths
in
assumes that there are fewer Egos out of
incarnation and waiting to come in than
the
number of those inhabiting bodies, and this is incorrect. Annie Besant has
put
this well in her "Reincarnation" by saying that the inhabited globe
resembles a hall in a town which is filled from the much greater population of
the town outside; the number in the hall may vary, but there is a constant
source of supply from the town. It is true that so far as concerns this globe
the number of Egos belonging to it is definite; but no one knows what that quantity
is nor what is the total capacity of the earth for sustaining them.
The
statisticians of the day are chiefly in the West, and their tables embrace but
a small section of the history of man. They cannot say how many persons were
incarnated
on the earth at any prior date when the globe was full in all parts,
hence
the quantity of egos willing or waiting to be reborn is unknown to the men
of
today. The Masters of theosophical knowledge say that the total number of
such
egos is vast, and for that reason the supply of those for the occupation of
bodies
to be born over and above the number that die is sufficient. Then too it
must
be borne in mind that each ego for itself varies the length of stay in the
post-mortem
states. They do not reincarnate at the same interval, but come out
of
the state after death at different rates, and whenever there occurs a great
number
of deaths by war, pestilence, or famine, there is at once a rush of souls
to
incarnation, either in the same place or in some other place or race. The
earth
is so small a globe in the vast assemblage of inhabitable planets there is
a
sufficient supply of Egos for incarnation here. But with due respect to those
who
put this objection, I do not see that it has the slightest force or any
relation
to the truth of the doctrine of reincarnation.
CHAPTER
10
Arguments Supporting
Reincarnation
Unless
we deny the immortality of man and the existence of soul, there are no
sound
arguments against the doctrine of pre-existence and rebirth save such as
rest
on the dictum of the church that each soul is a new creation. This dictum
can
be supported only by blind dogmatism, for given a soul we must sooner or
later
arrive at the theory of rebirth, because even if each soul is new on this
earth
it must keep on living somewhere after passing away, and in view of the
known
order of nature will have other bodies in other planets or spheres.
Theosophy
applies to the self -- the thinker -- the same laws which are seen
everywhere
in operation throughout nature, and those are all varieties of the
great
law that effects follow causes and no effect is without a cause.
The
soul's immortality -- believed in by the mass of humanity -- demands embodiment
here or elsewhere, and to be embodied means reincarnation. If we come to this
earth for but a few years and then go to some other, the soul must be reimbodied there as well as here, and if we have travelled from some other world we must have had there too
our proper vesture. The powers of mind and the laws governing its motion, its
attachment, and its detachment as given in theosophical philosophy show that
its reimbodiment must be here, where it moved and
worked, until such time as the mind is able to overcome the forces which chain
it to this globe. To permit the involved entity to transfer itself to another
scene of action before it had overcome all the causes drawing it here and
without its having worked out its responsibilities to other entities in the
same stream of evolution would be unjust and contrary to the powerful occult
laws and forces which continually operate upon it. The early Christian Fathers
saw this, and taught that the soul had fallen into matter and was obliged by
the law of its nature to toil upward again to the place from which it came.
They used an old
Greek
hymn which ran:
Eternal Mind, thy seedling spark,
Through this thin vase of clay,
Athwart the waves of chaos dark
Emits a timorous ray.
This mind enfolding soul is sown,
Incarnate germ in earth:
In pity, blessed Lord, then own
What claims in Thee its birth.
Far forth from Thee, thou central fire,
To earth's sad bondage cast,
Let not the trembling spark expire;
Absorb thine own at
last!
Each
human being has a definite character different from every other human
being,
and masses of beings aggregated into nations show as wholes that the
national
force and distinguishing peculiarities go to make up a definite and
separate
national character. These differences, both individual and national,
are
due to essential character and not to education. Even the doctrine of the
survival
of the fittest should show this, for the fitness can not come from
nothing
but must at last show itself from the coming to the surface of the
actual
inner character. And as both individuals and nations among those who are
ahead
in the struggle with nature exhibit an immense force in their character,
we
must find a place and time where the force was evolved. These, Theosophy
says,
are this earth and the whole period during which the human race has been
on
the planet.
So,
then, while heredity has something to do with the difference in character as
to
force and morale, swaying the soul and mind a little and furnishing also the
appropriate
place for receiving reward and punishment, it is not the cause for
the
essential nature shown by every one.
But
all these differences, such as those shown by babes from birth, by adults as
character
comes forth more and more, and by nations in their history, are due to
long
experience gained during many lives on earth, are the outcome of the soul's
own
evolution. A survey of one short human life gives no ground for the
production
of his inner nature. It is needful that each soul should have all
possible
experience, and one life cannot give this even under the best conditions.
It
would be folly for the Almighty to put us here for such a short time, only to
remove us just when we had begun to see the object of life and the
possibilities in it. The mere selfish desire of a person to escape the trials
and discipline of life is not enough to set nature's laws aside, so the soul
must be reborn until it has ceased to set in motion the cause of rebirth, after
having developed character up to its possible limit as indicated by all the
varieties of human nature, when every experience has been passed through, and
not until all of truth that can be known has been acquired. The vast disparity
among men in respect to capacity compels us, if we wish to ascribe justice to Nature
or to God, to admit reincarnation and to trace the origin of the disparity back
to the past lives of the Ego. For people are as much hindered and handicapped,
abused and made the victims of seeming injustice because of limited capacity,
as they are by reason of circumstances of birth or education.
We
see the uneducated rising above circumstances of family and training, and often
those born in good families have very small capacity; but the troubles of
nations
and families arise from want of capacity more than from any other cause.
And
if we consider savage races only, there the seeming injustice is enormous.
For
many savages have good actual brain capacity but still are savage. This is
because
the Ego in that body is still savage and undeveloped, for in contrast to
the
savage there are many civilized men with small actual brain force who are
not
savage in nature because the indwelling Ego has had long experience in
civilization
during other lives, and being a more developed soul has power to
use
the brain instrument to its highest limit.
Each
man feels and knows that he has an individuality of his own, a personal
identity
which bridges over not only the gaps made by sleep but also those
sometimes
supervening on temporary lesions in the brain. This identity never
breaks
from beginning to end of life in the normal person, and only the
persistence
and eternal character of the soul will account for it.
So,
ever since we began to remember, we know that our personal identity has not
failed us, no matter how bad may be our memory.
This
disposes of the argument that identity depends on recollection, for the reason
that if it did depend alone on recollection we should each day have to begin
over again, as we cannot remember the events of the past in detail, and some
minds remember but little yet feel their personal identity. And as it is often
seen that some who remember the least insist as strongly as the others on their
personal identity, that persistence of feeling must come from the old and immortal
soul.
Viewing
life and its probable object, with all the varied experience possible
for
man, one must be forced to the conclusion that a single life is not enough
for
carrying out all that is intended by Nature, to say nothing of what man
himself
desires to do. The scale of variety in experience is enormous. There is
a
vast range of powers latent in man which we see may be developed if
opportunity
be given. Knowledge infinite in scope and diversity lies before us,
and
especially in these days when special investigation is the rule. We perceive
that
we have high aspirations with no time to reach up to their measure, while
the
great troop of passions and desires, selfish motives and ambitions, war with
us
and among themselves, pursuing us even to the door of death. All these have
to
be tried, conquered, used, subdued. One life is not enough for all this. To
say
that we have but one life here with such possibilities put before us and
impossible
of development is to make the universe and life a huge and cruel joke
perpetrated
by a powerful God who is thus accused, by those who believe in a
special
creation of souls, of triumphing and playing with puny man just because
that
man is small and the creature of the Almighty. A human life at most is
seventy
years; statistics reduce this to about forty; and out of that little
remainder
a large part is spent in sleep and another part in childhood. Thus in
one
life it is perfectly impossible to attain to the merest fraction of what
Nature
evidently has in view. We see many truths vaguely which a life gives us
no
time to grasp, and especially is this so when men have to make such a
struggle
to live at all. Our faculties are small or dwarfed or weak; one life
gives
no opportunity to alter this; we perceive other powers latent in us that
cannot
possibly be brought out in such a small space of time; and we have much
more
than a suspicion that the extent of the field of truth is vastly greater than
the narrow circle we are confined to. It is not reasonable to suppose that
either God or nature projects us into a body simply to fill us with bitterness
because we can have no other opportunity here, but rather we must conclude that
a series of incarnations has led to the present condition, and that the process
of coming here again and again must go on for the purpose of affording us the
opportunity needed.
The
mere fact of dying is not of itself enough to bring about development of
faculties
or the elimination of wrong tendency and inclination. If we assume
that
upon entering heaven we at once acquire all knowledge and purity, then that
state
after death is reduced to a dead level and life itself with all its discipline
is shorn of every meaning. Some of the churches teach of a school of discipline
after death where it is impudently stated that the Apostles themselves, well
known to be ignorant men, are to be the teachers. This is absurd and devoid of
any basis or reason in the natural order. Besides, if there is to be such
subsequent discipline, why were we projected into life at all? And why after
the suffering and the error committed are we taken from the place
where
we did our acts?
The
only solution left is in reincarnation. We come back to earth because on it and
with the beings upon it our deeds were performed; because it is the only proper
place where punishment and reward can be justly meted out; because here is the
only natural spot in which to continue the struggle toward perfection, toward
the development of the faculties we have and the destruction of the wickedness
in us. Justice to ourselves and to all other beings demands it, for we cannot
live for ourselves, and it would be unjust to permit some of us to escape,
leaving those who were participants with us to remain or to be plunged into a
hell of eternal duration.
The
persistence of savagery, the rise and decay of nations and civilizations,
the
total extinction of nations, all demand an explanation found nowhere but in
reincarnation.
Savagery remains because there are still Egos whose experience is
so
limited that they are still savage; they will come up into higher races when
ready.
Races die out because the Egos have had enough of the experience that
sort
of race gives. So we find the red Indian, the Hottentot,
the Easter
Islanders,
and others as examples of races deserted by high Egos and as they are dying
away other souls who have had no higher life in the past enter into the
bodies
of the race to go on using them for the purpose of gaining such
experience
as the race body will give. A race could not possibly arise and then
suddenly
go out. We see that such is not the case, but science has no
explanation;
it simply says that this is the fact, that nations decay. But in this
explanation no account is taken of the inner man nor of the recondite subtle
and occult laws that unite to make a race. Theosophy shows that the energy
drawn together has to expend itself gradually, and therefore the reproduction
of bodies of the character of that race will go on, though the Egos are not
compelled to inhabit bodies of that sort any longer than while they are of the
same development as the race. Hence a time comes when the whole mass of
Egos
which built up the race leaves it for another physical environment more
like
themselves. The economy of Nature will not permit the physical race to
suddenly
fade away, and so in the real order of evolution other and less
progressed
Egos come in and use the forms provided, keeping up the production of new
bodies but less and less in number each century.
These
lower Egos are not able to keep up to the limit of the capacity of the
congeries of energies left by the other Egos, and so while the new set gains as
much experience as is possible the race in time dies out after passing through
its decay. This is the explanation of what we may call descending savagery, and
no other theory will meet the facts. It has been sometimes thought by
ethnologists that the more civilized races kill off the other, but the fact is
that in consequence of the great difference between the Egos inhabiting the old
race body and the energy of that body itself, the females begin to be sterile,
and thus slowly but surely the number of deaths exceeds the births.
Great
civilizations like those of
who made them have long ago reincarnated in the
great conquering nations of
Of
all the old races the Aryan Indian alone yet remains as the preserver of the
old
doctrines. It will one day rise again to its old heights of glory.
The
appearance of geniuses and great minds in families destitute of these
qualities,
as well as the extinction from a family of the genius shown by some
ancestor,
can only be met by the law of rebirth. Napoleon the First came in a
family
wholly unlike him in power and force. Nothing in his heredity will
explain
his character. He said himself, as told in the Memoirs of Prince
Talleyrand,
that he was Charlemagne. Only by assuming for him a long series of
lives
giving the right line of evolution or cause for his mind and nature and
force
to be brought out, can we have the slightest idea why he or any other
great
genius appeared at all. Mozart when an infant could compose orchestral
score.
This was not due to heredity, for such a score is not natural, but is
forced,
mechanical, and wholly conventional, yet he understood it without
schooling.
How? Because he was a musician reincarnated, with a musical brain
furnished
by his family and thus not impeded in his endeavors to show forth his
musical
knowledge. But stronger yet is the case of Blind Tom, a Negro whose
family
could not by any possibility have a knowledge of the piano, a modern
instrument,
so as to transmit that knowledge to the atoms of his body, yet he
had
great musical power and knew the present mechanical musical scale on the
piano.
There are hundreds of examples like these among the many prodigies who have
appeared to the world's astonishment. In
It
is seen in the child and the animal, and is no more than the result of previous
experience. And whether we look at the new-born babe flinging out its arms for
self-protection, or the animal with very strong instinctual power, or the bee
building a cell on the rules of geometry, it is all the effect of reincarnation
acting either in the mind or physical cell, for under what was first laid down
no atom is devoid of life, consciousness, and intelligence of its own.
In
the case of the musician Bach we have proof that heredity counts for nothing
if
the Ego is not advanced, for his genius was not borne down his family line;
it
gradually faded out, finally leaving the family stream entirely. So, too, the
coming
of idiots or vicious children to parents who are good, pure, or highly
intellectual
is explained in the same way. They are cases where heredity is set
at
nought by a wholly bad or deficient Ego.
And
lastly, the fact that certain inherent ideas are common to the whole race is
explained
by the sages as due to recollection of such ideas, which were
implanted
in the human mind at the very beginning of its evolutionary career on
this
planet by those brothers and sages who learned their lessons and were
perfected
in former ages long before the development of this globe began. No
explanation
for inherent ideas is offered by science that will do more than say,
"they
exist." These were actually taught to the mass of Egos who are engaged in
this
earth's evolution; they were imprinted or burned into their natures, and
always
recollected; they follow the Ego through the long pilgrimage.
It
has been often thought that the opposition to reincarnation has been solely
based
on prejudice, when not due to a dogma which can only stand when the mind is
bound down and prevented from using its own powers. It is a doctrine the most
noble of all, and with its companion one of Karma, next to be
considered,
it alone gives the basis for ethics. There is no doubt in my mind that the
founder of Christianity took it for granted and that its present absence from
that religion is the reason for the contradiction between the professed ethics
of
Christian
nations and their actual practises which are so
contrary to the morals
given
out by Jesus.
CHAPTER
11
Karma
Karma
is an unfamiliar word for Western ears. It is the name adopted by
Theosophists
of the nineteenth century for one of the most important of the laws
of
nature. Ceaseless in its operation, it bears alike upon planets, systems of
planets,
races, nations, families, and individuals. It is the twin doctrine to
reincarnation.
So inextricably interlaced are these two laws that it is almost
impossible
to properly consider one apart from the other. No spot or being in
the
universe is exempt from the operation of Karma, but all are under its sway,
punished
for error by it yet beneficently led on, through discipline, rest, and
reward,
to the distant heights of perfection. It is a law so comprehensive in
its
sweep, embracing at once our physical and our moral being, that it is only
by
paraphrase and copious explanation one can convey its meaning in English.
For
that reason the Sanskrit term Karma was adopted to designate it. Applied to
man's moral life it is the law of ethical causation, justice, reward and
punishment; the cause for birth and rebirth, yet equally the means for escape
from incarnation. Viewed from another point it is merely effect flowing from
cause, action and reaction, exact result for every thought and act. It is act
and the result of act; for the word's literal meaning is action. Theosophy
views the Universe as an intelligent whole, hence every motion in the Universe
is an action of that whole leading to results, which themselves become causes
for further results.
Viewing
it thus broadly, the ancient Hindus said that every being up to Brahma was
under the rule of Karma. It is not a being but a law, the universal law of
harmony which unerringly restores all disturbance to equilibrium. In this the
theory conflicts with the ordinary conception about God, built up from the
Jewish system, which assumes that the Almighty as a thinking entity, extraneous
to the Cosmos, builds up, finds his construction inharmonious, out of
proportion, errant, and disturbed, and then has to pull down, destroy, or
punish that which he created. This has either caused thousands to live in fear
of God, in compliance with his assumed commands, with the selfish object of
obtaining reward and securing escape from his wrath, or has plunged them into
darkness which comes from a denial of all spiritual life. But as there is
plainly, indeed painfully, evident to every human being a constant destruction
going on in and around us, a continual war not only among men but everywhere
through the whole solar system, causing sorrow in all directions, reason
requires a solution of the riddle. The poor, who see no refuge or hope, cry
aloud to a God who makes no reply, and then envy springs up in them when they
consider the comforts and opportunities of the rich. They see the rich
profligates, the wealthy fools, enjoying themselves unpunished.
Turning
to the teacher of religion, they meet the reply to their questioning of
the
justice which will permit such misery to those who did nothing requiring
them
to be born with no means, no opportunities for education, no capacity to
overcome
social, racial, or circumstantial obstacles, "It is the will of God."
Parents
produce beloved offspring who are cut off by death at an untimely hour,
just
when all promised well. They too have no answer to the question "Why am I
thus
afflicted?" but the same unreasonable reference to an inaccessible God
whose
arbitrary will causes their misery. Thus in every walk of life, loss,
injury,
persecution, deprivation of opportunity, nature's own forces working to
destroy
the happiness of man, death, reverses, disappointment continually beset
good
and evil men alike. But nowhere is there any answer or relief save in the
ancient
truths that each man is the maker and fashioner of his own destiny, the
only
one who sets in motion the causes for his own happiness and misery. In one life
he sows and in the next he reaps. Thus on and forever, the law of Karma
leads
him.
Karma
is a beneficent law wholly merciful, relentlessly just, for true mercy is
not
favor but impartial justice.
"My brothers! each man's life
The outcome of his former living is;
The bygone wrongs bring forth sorrows and
woes,
The bygone right breeds bliss. . . .
This is the doctrine of Karma."
How
is the present life affected by that bygone right and wrong act, and is it
always
by way of punishment? Is Karma only fate under another name, an already fixed
and formulated destiny from which no escape is possible, and which therefore
might make us careless of act or thought that cannot affect destiny?
It
is not fatalism. Everything done in a former body has consequences which in
the new birth the Ego must enjoy or suffer, for, as
not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a
man soweth that shall he also reap." For the
effect is in the cause, and Karma produces the manifestation of it in the body,
brain, and mind furnished by reincarnation. And as a cause set
up
by one man has a distinct relation to him as a center from which it came, so
each
one experiences the results of his own acts. We may sometimes seem to
receive
effects solely from the acts of others, but this is the result of our
own
acts and thoughts in this or some prior life. We perform our acts in company
with others always, and the acts with their underlying thoughts have relation
always to other persons and to ourselves.
No
act is performed without a thought at its root either at the time of
performance
or as leading to it. These thoughts are lodged in that part of man
which
we have called Manas -- the mind, and there remain as subtle but powerful
links
with magnetic threads that enmesh the solar system, and through which
various
effects are brought out. The theory put forward in earlier pages that
the
whole system to which this globe belongs is alive, conscious on every plane,
though
only in man showing self-consciousness, comes into play here to explain
how
the thought under the act in this life may cause result in this or the next
birth. The marvellous modern experiments in hypnotism show that the slightest
impression,
no matter how far back in the history of the person, may be waked up to life,
thus proving it is not lost but only latent. Take for instance the case
of
a child born humpbacked and very short, the head sunk between the
shoulders,
the arms long and legs curtailed. Why is this? His karma for thoughts and acts
in a prior life. He reviled, persecuted, or otherwise injured a deformed person
so persistently or violently as to imprint in his own immortal mind the
deformed picture of his victim. For in proportion to the intensity of his
thought will be the intensity and depth of the picture.
It
is exactly similar to the exposure of the sensitive photographic plate,
whereby, just as the exposure is long or short, the impression in the plate is
weak or deep. So this thinker and actor -- the Ego -- coming again to rebirth
carries with him this picture, and if the family to which he is attracted for
birth has similar physical tendencies in its stream, the mental picture causes
the newly-forming astral body to assume a deformed shape by electrical and
magnetic osmosis through the mother of the child. And as all beings on earth
are indissolubly joined together, the misshapen child is the karma of the
parents also an exact consequence for similar acts and thoughts on their part
in other lives. Here is an exactitude of justice which no other theory will
furnish.
But
as we often see a deformed human being -- continuing the instance merely for
the purpose of illustration -- having a happy disposition, an excellent
intellect,
sound judgment, and every good moral quality, this very instance
leads
us to the conclusion that karma must be of several different kinds in
every
individual case, and also evidently operates in more than one department
of
our being, with the possibility of being pleasant in effect for one portion
of
our nature and unpleasant for another.
Karma
is of three sorts:
First --
that which has not begun to produce any effect in our lives owing to the
operation on us of some other karmic causes. This is under a law well known to
physicists, that two opposing forces tend to neutrality, and that one force may
be strong enough to temporarily prevent the operation of another one.
This law
works on the unseen mental and karmic planes or spheres of being just as it
does on the material ones. The force of a certain set of bodily, mental, and
psychical faculties with their tendencies may wholly inhibit the operation on
us of causes with which we are connected, because the whole nature of each
person is used in the carrying out of this law. Hence the weak and mediocre
furnish a weak focus for karma, and in them the general result of a lifetime is
limited, although they may feel it all to be very heavy. But that person who
has a wide and deep-reaching character and much force will feel the operation
of a greater quantity of karma than the weaker person.
Second --
that karma which we are now making or storing up by our thoughts and acts, and
which will operate in the future when the appropriate body, mind, and
environment are taken up by the incarnating Ego in some other life, or whenever
obstructive karma is removed.
This bears
both on the present life and the next one. For one may in this life come to a
point where, all previous causes being worked out, new karma, or that which is
unexpended, must begin to operate.
Under this
are those cases where men have sudden reverses of fortune or changes for the
better either in circumstances or character. A very important bearing of this
is on our present conduct. While old karma must work out and cannot be stopped,
it is wise for the man to so think and act now under present circumstances, no
matter what they are, that he shall produce no bad or prejudicial causes for
the next rebirth or for later years in this life.
Rebellion
is useless, for the law works on whether we weep or rejoice. The great French
engineer, de Lesseps, is a good example of this class
of karma. Raised to a high pitch of glory and achievement for many years of his
life, he suddenly falls covered with shame through the
Third --
that karma which has begun to produce results. It is the operating now in this
life on us of causes set up in previous lives in company with other Egos. And it
is in operation because, being most adapted to the family stock, the individual
body, astral body, and race tendencies of the present incarnation, it exhibits
itself plainly, while other unexpended karma awaits its regular turn.
These
three classes of karma govern men, animals, worlds, and periods of
evolution.
Every effect flows from a cause precedent, and as all beings are
constantly
being reborn they are continually experiencing the effects of their
thoughts
and acts (which are themselves causes) of a prior incarnation. And thus
each
one answers, as St. Matthew says, for every word and thought; none can
escape
either by prayer, or favor, or force, or any other intermediary.
Now
as karmic causes are divisible into three classes, they must have various
fields
in which to work. They operate upon man in his mental and intellectual
nature,
in his psychical or soul nature, and in his body and circumstances. The
spiritual
nature of man is never affected or operated upon by karma.
One
species of karma may act on the three specified planes of our nature at the
same
time to the same degree, or there may be a mixture of the causes, some on
one
plane and some on another. Take a deformed person who has a fine mind and a
deficiency in his soul nature. Here punitive or unpleasant karma is operating
on his body while in his mental and intellectual nature good karma is being
experienced, but psychically the karma, or cause, being of an indifferent sort
the result is indifferent. In another person other combinations appear. He has
a fine body and favourable circumstances, but the
character is morose, peevish, irritable, revengeful, morbid, and disagreeable
to himself and others.
Here
good physical karma is at work with very bad mental, intellectual, and psychical
karma. Cases will occur to readers of persons born in high station having every
opportunity and power, yet being imbecile or suddenly becoming insane.
And
just as all these phases of the law of karma have sway over the individual
man,
so they similarly operate upon races, nations, and families. Each race has
its
karma as a whole. If it be good that race goes forward. If bad it goes out
--
annihilated as a race -- though the souls concerned take up their karma in
other
races and bodies. Nations cannot escape their national karma, and any
nation
that has acted in a wicked manner must suffer some day, be it soon or
late.
The karma of the nineteenth century in the West is the karma of
for even the merest tyro can see that the Mosaic
influence is the strongest in
the
European and American nations. The old Aztec and other ancient American
peoples
died out because their own karma -- the result of their own life as
nations
in the far past -- fell upon and destroyed them. With nations this heavy
operation
of karma is always through famine, war, convulsion of nature, and the
sterility
of the women of the nation. The latter cause comes near the end and
sweeps
the whole remnant away. And the individual in race or nation is warned by this
great doctrine that if he falls into indifference of thought and act, thus
moulding himself into the general average karma
of his race or nation, that
national
and race karma will at last carry him off in the general destiny. This
is
why teachers of old cried, "Come ye out and be ye separate."
With
reincarnation the doctrine of karma explains the misery and suffering of
the
world, and no room is left to accuse Nature of injustice.
The
misery of any nation or race is the direct result of the thoughts and acts
of
the Egos who make up the race or nation. In the dim past they did wickedly
and
now suffer. They violated the laws of harmony. The immutable rule is that
harmony
must be restored if violated. So these Egos suffer in making
compensation
and establishing the equilibrium of the occult cosmos. The whole
mass
of Egos must go on incarnating and reincarnating in the nation or race
until
they have all worked out to the end the causes set up. Though the nation
may
for a time disappear as a physical thing, the Egos that made it do not leave
the
world, but come out as the makers of some new nation in which they must go on
with the task and take either punishment or reward as accords with their
karma.
Of this law the old Egyptians are an illustration. They certainly rose to
a
high point of development, and as certainly they were extinguished as a
nation.
But the souls -- the old Egos -- live on and are now fulfilling their
self-made
destiny as some other nation now in our period. They may be the new
American
nation, or the Jews fated to wander up and down in the world and suffer much at
the hands of others. This process is perfectly just. Take, for instance, the
Individual
unhappiness in any life is thus explained:
(a)
It is punishment for evil done in past lives; or
(b)
it is discipline taken up by the Ego for the purpose of eliminating defects or
acquiring fortitude and sympathy. When defects are eliminated it is like
removing the obstruction in an irrigating canal which then lets the water flow
on. Happiness is explained in the same way: the result of prior lives of
goodness.
The
scientific and self-compelling basis for right ethics is found in these and in
no other doctrines. For if right ethics are to be practised
merely for themselves, men will not see why, and have never been able to see
why, for that reason they should do right. If ethics are to be followed from
fear, man is degraded and will surely evade; if the favor of the Almighty, not
based on law or justice, be the reason, then we will have just what prevails
today -- a code given by Jesus to the west professed by nations and not practised save by the few who would in any case be
virtuous.
On
this subject the Adepts have written the following to be found in the Secret
Doctrine:
"Nor
would the ways of karma be inscrutable were men to work in union and
harmony
instead of disunion and strife. For our ignorance of those ways -- which one
portion of mankind calls the ways of Providence dark and intricate, while
another sees in them the action of blind fatalism, and a third simple chance
with
neither gods nor devils to guide them -- would surely disappear if we would
but
attribute all these to their correct cause. With right knowledge, or at any
rate
with a confident conviction that our neighbours will
no more work harm to
us
than we would think of harming them, two-thirds of the world's evil would
vanish
into thin air. Were no man to hurt his brother, Karma-Nemesis would have
neither cause to work for nor weapons to act through. . . . We cut these
numerous
windings in our destinies daily with our own hands, while we imagine
that
we are pursuing a track on the royal high road of respectability and duty,
and
then complain of those ways beings so intricate and so dark. We stand
bewildered
before the mystery of our own making and the riddles of life that we
will
not solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx of devouring us. But verily
there
is not an accident in our lives, not a misshapen day or a misfortune, that
could
not be traced back to our own doings in this or another life. . . .
Knowledge
of Karma gives the conviction that if --
'virtue in distress and vice in triumph Make
atheists of Mankind',
it
is only because that mankind has ever shut its eyes to the great truth that
man
is himself his own saviour as his own destroyer; that
he need not accuse
heaven
and the gods, fates and providence, of the apparent injustice that reigns
in
the midst of humanity. But let him rather remember and repeat this bit of
Grecian
wisdom which warns man to forbear accusing That which
'Just though mysterious, leads us on unerring
Through ways unmarked from guilt to
punishment'
--
which are now the ways and the high road on which move onward the great
European
nations. The western Aryans had every nation and tribe like their
eastern
brethren of the fifth race, their Golden and their Iron ages, their period of
comparative irresponsibility, or the Satya age of
purity, while now several of them have reached their Iron age, the Kali Yuga,
an age black with horrors. This state will last . . . until we begin acting
from within instead of ever following impulses from without . . . Until then
the only palliative is union and harmony -- a Brotherhood in actu and altruism not simply in name."
CHAPTER
12
Kama Loka
Let
us now consider the states of man after the death of the body and before
birth,
having looked over the whole field of the evolution of things and beings
in
a general way. This brings up at once the questions: Is there any heaven or
hell,
and what are they? Are they states or places? Is there a spot in space
where
they may be found and to which we go or from where we come? We must also go
back to the subject of the fourth principle of the constitution of man, that called
After
dealing with
man not only in a general outline but down to the
smallest detail of even the most minute and fleeting impression. At this
moment, though every indication leads the physician to pronounce for death and
though to all intents and purposes the person is dead to this life, the real
man is busy in the brain, and not until his work there is ended is the person
gone. When this solemn work is over the astral body detaches itself from the physical,
and, life energy having departed, the remaining five principles are in the
plane of
The
natural separation of the principles brought about by death divides the
total
man into three parts:
First, the
visible body with all its elements left to further disintegration
on the
earth plane, where all that it is composed of is in time resolved into
the
different physical departments of nature.
Second, the
kama rupa
made up of the astral body and the passions and desires, which also begins at
once to go to pieces on the astral plane;
Third, the
real man, the upper triad of Atma-Buddhi-Manas, deathless but now out of earth
conditions, devoid of body, begins in devachan to
function solely as mind clothed in a very ethereal vesture which it will shake
off when the time comes for it to return to earth.
Kama loka -- or the place
of desire -- is the astral region penetrating and
surrounding the earth. As a place it is on and in
and about the earth. Its extent is to a measurable distance from the earth, but
the ordinary laws obtaining here do not obtain there, and entities therein are
not under the same conditions as to space and time as we are. As a state it is
metaphysical, though that metaphysic relates to the astral plane. It is called
the plane of desire because it relates to the fourth principle, and in it the
ruling force is desire devoid of and divorced from intelligence.
It
is an astral sphere intermediate between earthly and heavenly life. Beyond any
doubt it is the origin of the Christian theory of purgatory, where the soul
undergoes penance for evil done and from which it can be released by prayer and
other ceremonies or offerings.
The
fact underlying this superstition is that the soul may be detained in kama
loka by the enormous force
of some unsatisfied desire, and cannot get rid of the
astral
and kamic clothing until that desire is satisfied by
some one on earth or
by
the soul itself. But if the person was pure minded and of high aspirations,
the
separation of the principles on that plane is soon completed, permitting the
higher
triad to go into Devachan. Being the purely astral sphere, it partakes of
the
nature of the astral matter which is essentially earthly and devilish, and
in
it all the forces work undirected by soul or conscience. It is the slag-pit,
as
it were, of the great furnace of life, where nature provides for the sloughing
off of elements which have no place in Devachan, and for that reason it must
have many degrees, every one of which was noted by the ancients.
These
degrees are known in Sanskrit as lokas or places in a
metaphysical sense. Human life is very varied as to character and other
potentialities, and for each of
these the appropriate place after death is provided,
thus making kama loka an
infinitely varied sphere. In life some of the
differences among men are modified
and some inhibited by a similarity of body and
heredity, but in kama loka
all
the hidden desires and passions are let loose in
consequence of the absence of
body,
and for that reason the state is vastly more diversified than the life
plane.
Not only is it necessary to provide for the natural varieties and
differences,
but also for those caused by the manner of death, about which
something
shall be said. And all these various divisions are but the natural
result
of the life thoughts and last thoughts of the persons who die on earth.
It
is beyond the scope of this work to go into a description of all these
degrees,
inasmuch as volumes would be needed to describe them, and then but few would
understand.
To
deal with kama loka compels us to deal also with the fourth principle in
the
classification of man's constitution,
and arouses a conflict with modern ideas
and
education on the subject of the desires and passions. It is generally
supposed
that the desires and passions are inherent tendencies in the individual, and
they have an altogether unreal and misty appearance for the ordinary student.
But in this system of philosophy they are not merely inherent in the individual
nor are they due to the body per se. While the man is living in the world the
desires and passions -- the principle kama -- have no
separate life apart from the astral and inner man, being, so to say, diffused throughout
his being. But as they coalesce with the astral body after death and thus form
an entity with its own term of life, though without soul, very important
questions arise.
During
mortal life the desires and passions are guided by the mind and soul; after
death they work without guidance from the former master; while we live we are
responsible for them and their effects, and when we have left this life we are
still responsible, although they go on working and making effects on others
while they last as the sort of entity I have described, and without our direct
guidance. In this is seen the continuance of responsibility.
They
are a portion of the skandhas -- well known in
eastern philosophy -- which
are
the aggregates that make up the man. The body includes one set of the
skandhas, the astral man
another, the kama principle is another set, and still
others pertain to other parts. In kama are the really active and important ones
which control rebirths and lead to all the varieties
of life and circumstance
upon
each rebirth. They are being made from day to day under the law that every
thought
combines instantly with one of the elemental forces of nature, becoming
to
that extent an entity which will endure in accordance with the strength of
the
thought as it leaves the brain, and all of these are inseparably connected
with
the being who evolved them. There is no way of escaping; all we can do is
to
have thoughts of good quality, for the highest of the Masters themselves are
not
exempt from this law, but they "people their current in space" with
entities
powerful
for good alone.
Now
in kama loka
this mass of desire and thought exists very definitely until
the conclusion of its disintegration, and then the
remainder consists of the
essence
of these skandhas, connected, of course, with the
being that evolved and had them. They can no more be done away with than we can
blot out the universe.
Hence
they are said to remain until the being comes out of devachan,
and then at
once
by the law of attraction they are drawn to the being, who from them as germ or
basis builds up a new set of skandhas for the new
life. Kama loka therefore
is distinguished from the earth plane by reason of the existence therein,
uncontrolled and unguided, of the
mass of passions and desires; but at the same
time earth-life is also a kama
loka, since it is largely governed by the
principle kama, and will
be so until at a far distant time in the course of
evolution the races of men shall have developed
the fifth and sixth principle,
thus throwing kama into
its own sphere and freeing earth-life from its
influence.
The
astral man in kama loka is
a mere shell devoid of soul and mind, without
conscience
and also unable to act unless vivified by forces outside of itself.
It
has that which seems like an animal or automatic consciousness due wholly to
the
very recent association with the human Ego. For under the principle laid
down
in another chapter, every atom going to make up the man has a memory of its own
which is capable of lasting a length of time in proportion to the force
given
it. In the case of a very material and gross or selfish person the force
lasts
longer than in any other, and hence in that case the automatic
consciousness
will be more definite and bewildering to one who without knowledge dabbles with
necromancy. Its purely astral portion contains and carries the record of all
that ever passed before the person when living, for one of the qualities of the
astral substance is to absorb all scenes and pictures and the impressions of
all thoughts, to keep them, and to throw them forth by reflection when the
conditions permit. This astral shell, cast off by every man at death, would be
a menace to all men were it not in every case, except one which shall be
mentioned, devoid of all the higher principles which are the directors. But
those guiding constituents being disjoined from the shell, it wavers and floats
about from place to place without any will of its own, but governed wholly by
attractions in the astral and magnetic fields.
It
is possible for the real man -- called the spirit by some -- to communicate
with us immediately after death for a few brief moments, but, those passed, the
soul has no more to do with earth until reincarnated. What can and do influence
the sensitive and the medium from out of this sphere are the shells I have
described. Soulless and conscienceless, these in no sense are the spirits of
our deceased ones. They are the clothing thrown off by the inner man, the
brutal earthly portion discarded in the flight to devachan,
and so have always been
considered
by the ancients as devils -- our personal devils -- because
essentially
astral, earthly, and passional. It would be strange
indeed if this shell, after being for so long the vehicle of the real man on
earth, did not retain an automatic memory and consciousness. We see the
decapitated body of the frog or the cock moving and acting for a time with a
seeming intelligence, and why is it not possible for the finer and more subtle
astral form to act and move with a far greater amount of seeming mental
direction?
Existing
in the sphere of kama loka, as, indeed, also in all parts of the globe
and the solar system, are the elementals or nature
forces. They are innumerable,
and
their divisions are almost infinite, as they are, in a sense, the nerves of
nature.
Each class has its own work just as has every natural element or thing.
As
fire burns and as water runs down and not up under their general law, so the
elementals
act under law, but being higher in the scale than gross fire or water
their
action seems guided by mind. Some of them have a special relation to
mental
operations and to the action of the astral organs, whether these be
joined
to a body or not. When a medium forms the channel, and also from other
natural
co-ordination, these elementals make an artificial connection with the
shell
of a deceased person, aided by the nervous fluid of the medium and others
near,
and then the shell is galvanized into an artificial life. Through the
medium
connection is made with the physical and psychical forces of all present.
The
old impressions on the astral body give up their images to the mind of the
medium,
the old passions are set on fire. Various messages and reports are then
obtained
from it, but not one of them is original, not one is from the spirit.
By
their strangeness, and in consequence of the ignorance of those who dabble in
it, this is mistaken for the work of spirit, but it is all from the living when
it
is not the mere picking out from the astral light of the images of what has
been
in the past. In certain cases to be noted there is an intelligence at work
that
is wholly and intensely bad, to which every medium is subject, and which
will
explain why so many of them have succumbed to evil, as they have confessed.
A
rough classification of these shells that visit mediums would be as follows:
(1) Those
of the recently deceased whose place of burial is not far away. This class will
be quite coherent in accordance with the life and thought of the former owner.
An unmaterial, good, and spiritualized person leaves
a shell that will soon disintegrate. A gross, mean, selfish, material person's
shell will be heavy, consistent, and long lived: and so on with all varieties.
(2) Those
of persons who had died far away from the place where the medium is. Lapse of
time permits such to escape from the vicinity of their old bodies, and at the
same time brings on a greater degree of disintegration which corresponds on the
astral plane to putrefaction on the physical.
These are
vague, shadowy, incoherent; respond but briefly to the psychic stimulus, and
are whirled off by any magnetic current. They are galvanized for a moment by
the astral currents of the medium and of those persons present who were related
to the deceased.
(3) Purely
shadowy remains which can hardly be given a place. There is no English to
describe them, though they are facts in this sphere. They might be said to be
the mere mould or impress left in the astral substance by the once coherent
shell long since disintegrated. They are therefore so near being fictitious as
to almost deserve the designation. As such
shadowy
photographs they are enlarged, decorated, and given an imaginary life by the thoughts,
desires, hopes, and imaginings of medium and sitters at the seance.
(4)
Definite, coherent entities, human souls bereft of the spiritual tie, now
tending
down to the worst state of all, avitchi, where
annihilation of the
personality
is the end. They are known as black magicians. Having centered the
consciousness in the principle of kama,
preserved intellect, divorced themselves from spirit, they are the only damned
beings we know. In life they had human bodies and reached their awful state by
persistent lives of evil for its own sake; some of such already doomed to
become what I have described, are among us on earth today. These are not
ordinary shells, for they have centered all their force in kama, thrown out every spark of good thought or
aspiration, and have a complete mastery of the astral sphere. I put them in the
classification of shells because they are such in the sense that they are
doomed to disintegration consciously as the others are to the same end
mechanically only.
They may
and do last for many centuries, gratifying their lusts through any sensitive
they can lay hold of where bad thought gives them an opening. They preside at
nearly all seances, assuming high names and taking
the direction so as to keep the control and continue the delusion of the
medium, thus enabling themselves to have a convenient channel for their own
evil purposes. Indeed, with the shells of suicides, of those poor wretches who
die at the hand of the law, of drunkards and gluttons, these black magicians
living in the astral world hold the field of physical mediumship
and are liable to invade the sphere of any medium no matter how good.
The door
once open, it is open to all. This class of shell has lost higher manas, but in the struggle not only after death but as well
in life the lower portion of manas which should have
been raised up to godlike excellence was torn away from its lord and now gives
this entity intelligence which is devoid of spirit but power to suffer as it
will when its final day shall come.
In
the state of Kama Loka suicides and those who are
suddenly shot out of life
by
accident or murder, legal or illegal, pass a term almost equal to the length
life
would have been but for the sudden termination. These are not really dead.
To
bring on a normal death, a factor not recognized by medical science must be
present.
That is, the principles of the being as described in other chapters
have
their own term of cohesion, at the natural end of which they separate from
each
other under their own laws. This involves the great subject of the cohesive
forces
of the human subject, requiring a book in itself. I must be content
therefore
with the assertion that this law of cohesion obtains among the human
principles.
Before that natural end the principles are unable to separate.
Obviously
the normal destruction of the cohesive force cannot be brought about
by
mechanical processes except in respect to the physical body. Hence a suicide,
or person killed by accident or murdered by man or by order of human law, has
not come to the natural termination of the cohesion among the other
constituents, and is hurled into the
kama loka state only partly
dead. There the
remaining principles have to wait until the actual
natural life term is reached,
whether
it be one month or sixty years.
But
the degrees of kama loka provide for the many varieties of the
last-mentioned shells. Some pass the
period in great suffering, others in a
dreamy
sort of sleep, each according to the moral responsibility. But executed
criminals
are in general thrown out of life full of hate and revenge, smarting
under
a penalty they do not admit the justice of. They are ever rehearsing in
kama loka
their crime, their trial, their execution, and their revenge. And
whenever they can gain touch with a sensitive
living person, medium or not, they
attempt
to inject thoughts of murder and other crime into the brain of such
unfortunate.
And that they succeed in such attempts the deeper students of
Theosophy
full well know.
We
have now approached devachan. After a certain time in
kama loka
the being
falls into a state of unconsciousness which precedes
the change into the next
state.
It is like the birth into life, preluded by a term of
darkness and heavy sleep. It then wakes to the joys of devachan.
CHAPTER
13
Devachan
Having
shown that just beyond the threshold of human life there is a place of
separation
wherein the better part of man is divided from his lower and brute
elements,
we come to consider what is the state after death of the real being,
the
immortal who travels from life to life. Struggling out of the body the
entire man goes into kama loka, to purgatory, where he again struggles and
loosens himself from the lower skandhas; this period of birth over, the higher
principles,
Atma-Buddhi-Manas, begin to think in a manner different from that
which
the body and brain permitted in life. This is the state of Devachan, a
Sanskrit
word meaning literally "the place of the gods," where the soul enjoys
felicity;
but as the gods have no such bodies as ours, the Self in devachan
is
devoid
of a mortal body. In the ancient books it is said that this state lasts
"for
years of infinite number," or "for a period proportionate to the
merit of
the
being"; and when the mental forces peculiar to the state are exhausted,
"the
being
is drawn down again to be reborn in the world of mortals." Devachan is
therefore
an interlude between births in the world. The law of karma which
forces
us all to enter the world, being ceaseless in its operation and also
universal
in scope, acts also on the being in devachan, for
only by the force or
operation
of Karma are we taken out of devachan. It is
something like the
pressure
of atmosphere which, being continuous and uniform, will push out or
crush
that which is subjected to it unless there be a compensating quantity of
atmosphere
to counteract the pressure. In the present case the karma of the
being
is the atmosphere always pressing the being on or out from state to state;
the
counteracting quantity of atmosphere is the force of the being's own
life-thoughts
and aspirations which prevent his coming out of devachan
until
that
force is exhausted, but which being spent has no more power to hold back
the
decree of our self-made mortal destiny.
The
necessity for this state after death is one of the necessities of evolution
growing
out of the nature of mind and soul. The very nature of manas
requires a
devachanic state as soon as the body is lost, and
it is simply the effect of
loosening
the bonds placed upon the mind by its physical and astral encasement.
In
life we can but to a fractional extent act out the thoughts we have each
moment;
and still less can we exhaust the psychic energies engendered by each
day's
aspirations and dreams. The energy thus engendered is not lost or
annihilated,
but is stored in Manas, but the body, brain, and astral body permit
no
full development of the force. Hence, held latent until death, it bursts then
from
the weakened bonds and plunges Manas, the thinker, into the expansion, use, and
development of the thought-force set up in life. The impossibility of
escaping
this necessary state lies in man's ignorance of his own powers and
faculties.
From this ignorance delusion arises, and Manas not being wholly free
is
carried by its own force into the thinking of devachan.
But while ignorance
is
the cause for going into this state the whole process is remedial, restful,
and
beneficial. For if the average man returned at once to another body in the
same
civilization he had just quitted, his soul would be completely tired out
and
deprived of the needed opportunity for the development of the higher part of
his nature.
Now
the Ego being minus mortal body and kama, clothes
itself in devachan with a vesture which cannot be
called body but may be styled means or vehicle, and in that it functions in the
devachanic state entirely on the plane of mind and
soul.
Everything is as real then to the being as this world seems to be to us.
It
simply now has gotten the opportunity to make its own world for itself
unhampered
by the clogs of physical life. Its state may be compared to that of
the
poet or artist who, rapt in ecstacy of composition or
arrangement of color,
cares
not for and knows not of either time or objects of the world.
We
are making causes every moment, and but two fields exist for the
manifestation
in effect of those causes. These are, the objective as this world
is
called, and the subjective which is both here and after we have left this
life.
The objective field relates to earth life and the grosser part of man, to
his
bodily acts and his brain thoughts, as also sometimes to his astral body.
The
subjective has to do with his higher and spiritual parts. In the objective
field
the psychic impulses cannot work out, nor can the high leanings and
aspirations
of his soul; hence these must be the basis, cause, substratum, and
support
for the state of devachan. What then is the time,
measured by mortal
years,
that one will stay in devachan?
This
question while dealing with what earth-men call time does not, of course,
touch
the real meaning of time itself, that is, of what may be in fact for this
solar
system the ultimate order, precedence, succession, and length of moments.
It
is a question which may be answered in respect to our time, but not certainly
in
respect to the time on the planet Mercury, for instance, where time is not
the
same as ours, nor, indeed, in respect to time as conceived by the soul. As
to
the latter any man can see that after many years have slipped away he has no
direct
perception of the time just passed, but is able only to pick out some of
the
incidents which marked its passage, and as to some poignant or happy
instants
or hours he seems to feel them as but of yesterday. And thus it is for
the
being in devachan. No time is there. The soul has all
the benefit of what
goes
on within itself in that state, but it indulges in no speculations as to
the
lapse of moments; all is made up of events, while all the time the solar orb
is
marking off the years for us on the earth plane.
This
cannot be regarded as an impossibility if we will remember how, as is well
known in life, events, pictures, thoughts, argument, introspective feeling will
all sweep over us in perfect detail in an instant, or, as is known of those who
have been drowning, the events of a whole life time pass in a flash before the
eye of the mind. But the Ego remains as said in devachan
for a time exactly proportioned to the psychic impulses generated during life.
Now this being a matter which deals with the mathematics of the soul, no one
but a Master can tell what the time would be for the average man of this
century in every land. Hence we have to depend on the Masters of wisdom for
that average, as it must be based upon a calculation.
They
have said, as is well put by Mr. A. P. Sinnett in his
Esoteric Buddhism,
that
the period is fifteen hundred years in general. From a reading of his book,
which
was made up from letters from the Masters, it is to be inferred he desires
it
to be understood that the devachanic period is in
each and every case fifteen
centuries;
but to do away with that misapprehension his informants wrote at a
later
date that that is the average period and not a fixed one. Such must be the
truth,
for as we see that men differ in respect to the periods of time they
remain
in any state of mind in life due to the varying intensities of their
thoughts,
so it must be in devachan where thought has a greater
force though
always
due to the being who had the thoughts.
What
the Master did say on this is as follows: "The 'dream of devachan' lasts
until
karma is satisfied in that direction. In devachan
there is a gradual
exhaustion
of force. The stay in devachan is proportionate to
the unexhausted
psychic
impulses originated in earth life. Those whose actions were
preponderatingly material will be sooner
brought back into rebirth by the force
of
Tanha." Tanha is the
thirst for life. He therefore who has not in life
originated
many psychic impulses will have but little basis or force in his
essential
nature to keep his higher principles in devachan.
About all he will
have
are those originated in childhood before he began to fix his thoughts on
materialistic
thinking. The thirst for life expressed by the word Tanha
is the
pulling
or magnetic force lodged in the skandhas inherent in
all beings. In such
a
case as this the average rule does not apply, since the whole effect either
way
is due to a balancing of forces and is the outcome of action and reaction.
And
this sort of materialistic thinker may emerge out of devachan
into another
body
here in a month, allowing for the unexpended psychic forces originated in
early
life. But as every one of such persons varies as to class, intensity and
quantity
of thought and psychic impulse, each may vary in respect to the time of
stay
in devachan. Desperately materialistic thinkers will
remain in the
devachanic condition stupefied or asleep, as it
were, as they have no forces in
them
appropriate to that state save in a very vague fashion, and for them it can
be
very truly said that there is no state after death so far as mind is
concerned;
they are torpid for a while, and then they live again on earth. This
general
average of the stay in devachan gives us the length
of a very important
human
cycle, the Cycle of Reincarnation. For under that law national development will
be found to repeat itself, and the times that are past will be found to come
again.
The
last series of powerful and deeply imprinted thoughts are those which give
color
and trend to the whole life in devachan. The last
moment will color each
subsequent
moment. On those the soul and mind fix themselves and weave of them a whole set
of events and experiences, expanding them to their highest limit, carrying out
all that was not possible in life. Thus expanding and weaving these thoughts
the entity has its youth and growth and growing old, that is, the
uprush of the force, its expansion, and its dying down
to final exhaustion. If
the
person has led a colourless life the devachan will be colourless; if a
rich
life,
then it will be rich in variety and effect. Existence there is not a dream
save
in a conventional sense, for it is a stage of the life of man, and when we
are
there this present life is a dream. It is not in any sense monotonous. We
are
too prone to measure all possible states of life and places for experience
by
our present earthly one and to imagine it to be reality. But the life of the
soul
is endless and not to be stopped for one instant. Leaving our physical body
is
but a transition to another place or plane for living in. But as the ethereal
garments
of devachan are more lasting than those we wear here,
the spiritual,
moral,
and psychic causes use more time in expanding and exhausting in that
state
than they do on earth. If the molecules that form the physical body were
not
subject to the general chemical laws that govern physical earth, then we
should
live as long in these bodies as we do in the devachanic
state. But such a
life
of endless strain and suffering would be enough to blast the soul compelled
to
undergo it. Pleasure would then be pain, and surfeit would end but in an
immortal
insanity. Nature, always kind, leads us soon again into heaven for a
rest,
for the flowering of the best and highest in our natures.
Devachan
is then neither meaningless nor useless. "In it we are rested; that
part
of us which could not bloom under the chilling skies of earth-life bursts
forth
into flower and goes back with us to earth-life stronger and more a part
of
our nature than before. Why should we repine that Nature kindly aids us in
the
interminable struggle, why keep the mind revolving about the present petty
personality
and its good and evil fortunes? " (Letter from Mahatma K. H. See
Path
p. 191, Vol. 5.)
But
it is sometimes asked, what of those we have left behind: do we see them
there?
We do not see them there in fact, but we make to ourselves their images
as
full, complete, and objective as in life, and devoid of all that we then
thought
was a blemish. We live with them and see them grow great and good
instead
of mean or bad. The mother who has left a drunken son behind finds him before
her in devachan a sober, good man, and likewise
through all possible
cases,
parent, child, husband, and wife have their loved ones there perfect and
full
of knowledge. This is for the benefit of the soul. You may call it a delusion
if you will, but the illusion is necessary to happiness just as it often is in
life. And as it is the mind that makes the illusion, it is no cheat.
Certainly
the idea of a heaven built over the verge of hell where you must know,
if
any brains or memory are left to you under the modern orthodox scheme, that
your
erring friends and relatives are suffering eternal torture, will bear no
comparison
with the doctrine of devachan. But entities in devachan are not
wholly
devoid of power to help those left on earth. Love, the master of life, if
real,
pure, and deep, will sometimes cause the happy Ego in devachan
to affect
those
left on earth for their good, not only in the moral field but also in that
of
material circumstance. This is possible under a law of the occult universe
which
cannot be explained now with profit, but the fact may be stated. It has
been
given out before this by H. P. Blavatsky, without, however, much attention
being
drawn to it.
The
last question to consider is whether we here can reach those in devachan or
do
they come here. We cannot reach them nor affect them unless we are Adepts.
The
claim of mediums to hold communion with the spirits of the dead is baseless,
and still less valid is the claim of ability to help those who have gone to
devachan. The Mahatma, a being who has developed
all his powers and is free from illusion, can go into the devachanic
state and then communicate with the Egos there. Such is one of their functions,
and that is the only school of the
Apostles
after death. They deal with certain entities in devachan
for the
purpose
of getting them out of the state so as to return to earth for the
benefit
of the race. The Egos they thus deal with are those whose nature is
great
and deep but who are not wise enough to be able to overcome the natural
illusions
of devachan. Sometimes also the hypersensitive and
pure medium goes
into
this state and then holds communication with the Egos there, but it is
rare,
and certainly will not take place with the general run of mediums who
trade
for money. But the soul never descends here to the medium. And the gulf
between
the consciousness of devachan and that of earth is so
deep and wide that it is but seldom the medium can remember upon returning to
recollection here what or whom it met or saw or heard in devachan.
This gulf is similar to that which separates devachan
from rebirth; it is one in which all memory of what preceded it is blotted out.
The
whole period allotted by the soul's forces being ended in devachan,
the
magnetic
threads which bind it to earth begin to assert their power. The Self
wakes
from the dream, it is borne swiftly off to a new body, and then, just
before
birth, it sees for a moment all the causes that led it to devachan
and
back
to the life it is about to begin, and knowing it to be all just, to be the
result
of its own past life, it repines not but takes up the cross again -- and
another
soul has come back to earth.
CHAPTER
14
Cycles
The
doctrine of Cycles is one of the most important in the whole theosophical
system,
though the least known and of all the one most infrequently referred to.
Western
investigators have for some centuries suspected that events move in
cycles,
and a few of the writers in the field of European literature have dealt
with
the subject, but all in a very incomplete fashion. This incompleteness and
want
of accurate knowledge have been due to the lack of belief in spiritual
things
and the desire to square everything with materialistic science. Nor do I
pretend
to give the cyclic law in full, for it is one that is not given out in
detail
by the Masters of Wisdom. But enough has been divulged, and enough was for a
long time known to the Ancients to add considerably to our knowledge.
A
cycle is a ring or turning, as the derivation of the word indicates. The
corresponding
words in the Sanskrit are Yuga, Kalpa, Manvantara, but
of these
yuga comes nearest to cycle, as it is lesser in
duration than the others. The
beginning
of a cycle must be a moment, that added to other moments makes a day, and those
added together constitute months, years, decades, and centuries.
Beyond
this the West hardly goes. It recognizes the moon cycle and the great
sidereal
one, but looks at both and upon the others merely as periods of time.
If
we are to consider them as but lengths of time there is no profit except to
the
dry student or to the astronomer. And in this way today they are regarded by
European
and American thinkers, who say cycles exist but have no very great
bearing
on human life and certainly no bearing on the actual recurrence of
events
or the reappearance on the stage of life of persons who once lived in the
world.
The
theosophical theory is distinctly otherwise, as it must be if it carries out
the doctrine of reincarnation to which in preceding pages a good deal of
attention has been given. Not only are the cycles named actual physical facts
in respect to time, but they and other periods have a very great effect on
human life and the evolution of the globe with all the forms of life thereon.
Starting
with the moment and proceeding through a day, this theory erects the
cycle
into a comprehensive ring which includes all in its limits. The moment
being
the basis, the question to be settled in respect to the great cycles is,
When
did the first moment come? This cannot be answered, but it can be said that the
truth is held by the ancient theosophists to be that at the first moments of
the solidification of this globe the mass of matter involved attained a certain
and
definite rate of vibration which will hold through all variations in any
part
of it until its hour for dissolution comes. These rates of vibration are
what
determine the different cycles, and, contrary to the ideas of western
science,
the doctrine is that the solar system and the globe we are now on will
come
to an end when the force behind the whole mass of seen and unseen matter has
reached its limit of duration under cyclic law. Here our doctrine is again
different from both the religious and scientific one.
We
do not admit that the ending of the force is the withdrawal by a God of his
protection, nor the sudden propulsion by him of another force against the
globe, but that the force at work and determining the great cycle is that of
man himself considered as a spiritual being; when he is done using the globe he
leaves it, and then with him goes out the force holding all together; the
consequence is dissolution by fire or water or what not, these phenomena being
simply effects and not causes.
The
ordinary scientific speculations on this head are that the earth may fall into
the sun, or that a comet of density may destroy the globe, or that we may
collide with a greater planet known or unknown. These dreams are idle for the
present.
Reincarnation
being the great law of life and progress, it is interwoven with
that
of the cycles and karma. These three work together, and in practice it is
almost
impossible to disentangle reincarnation from cyclic law. Individuals and
nations
in definite streams return in regularly recurring periods to the earth,
and
thus bring back to the globe the arts, the civilization, the very persons
who
once were on it at work. And as the units in nation and race are connected
together
by invisible strong threads, large bodies of such units moving slowly
but
surely all together reunite at different times and emerge again and again
together
into new race and new civilization as the cycles roll their appointed
rounds.
Therefore
the souls who made the most ancient civilizations will come back and bring the
old civilization with them in idea and essence, which being added to what
others have done for the development of the human race in its character and
knowledge will produce a new and higher state of civilization.
This
newer and better development will not be due to books, to records, to arts
or
mechanics, because all those are periodically destroyed so far as physical
evidence
goes, but the soul ever retaining in Manas the knowledge it once gained
and
always pushing to completer development the higher principles and powers,
the
essence of progress remains and will as surely come out as the sun shines.
And
along this road are the points when the small and large cycles of Avatars
bring
out for man's benefit the great characters who mould the race from time to
time.
The
Cycle of Avatars includes several smaller ones. The greater are those marked by
the appearance of Rama and Krishna among the Hindus,
of Menes among the Egyptians, of Zoroaster among the
Persians, and of Buddha to the Hindus and other nations of the East. Buddha is
the last of the great Avatars and is in a larger cycle than is Jesus of the
Jews, for the teachings of the latter are the
same as those of Buddha and tinctured with what
Buddha had taught to those who instructed Jesus. Another great Avatar is yet to
come, corresponding to Buddha and Krishna combined. Krishna and Rama were of the military, civil, religious, and occult
order; Buddha of the ethical, religious, and mystical, in which be was followed
by Jesus; Mohammed was a minor intermediate one for a certain part of the race,
and was civil, military, and religious. In these cycles we can include mixed
characters who have had great influence on nations, such as King Arthur,
Pharaoh, Moses, Charlemagne reincarnated as Napoleon Bonaparte, Clovis of
France reborn as Emperor Frederic III of Germany, and Washington the first
President of the United States of America where the root for the new race is
being formed.
At
the intersection of the great cycles dynamic effects follow and alter the
surface
of the planet by reason of the shifting of the poles of the globe or
other
convulsion. This is not a theory generally acceptable, but we hold it to
be
true. Man is a great dynamo, making, storing, and throwing out energy, and
when
masses of men composing a race thus make and distribute energy, there is a
resulting dynamic effect on the material of the globe which will be powerful
enough
to be distinct and cataclysmic. That there have been vast and awful
disturbances
in the strata of the world is admitted on every hand and now needs
no
proof; these have been due to earthquakes and ice formation so far as
concerns
geology; but in respect to animal forms the cyclic law is that certain
animal
forms now extinct and also certain human ones not known but sometimes
suspected
will return again in their own cycle; and certain human languages now
known
as dead will be in use once more at their appointed cyclic hour.
"The
Metonic cycle is that of the Moon. It is a period of
about nineteen years,
which
being completed the new and the full moons return on the same days of the
month."
"The
cycle of the Sun is a period of twenty eight years, which having elapsed
the
Dominical or Sunday letters return to their former place and proceed in the
former
order according to the Julian calendar."
The
great Sidereal year is the period taken by the equinoctial points to make in
their
precession a complete revolution of the heavens. It is composed of 25,868
solar
years almost. It is said that the last sidereal year ended about 9,868
years
ago, at which time there must have been on this earth a violent convulsion
or
series of such, as well as distributions of nations. The completion of this
grand
period brings the earth into newer spaces of the cosmos, not in respect to
its own orbit, but by reason of the actual progress o