Theosophy - Conduct by Maurice Fredal as published in Volume 5 of Theosophical Siftings
CONDUCT
by MAURICE FREDAL
as published in Volume 5 of "Theosophical Siftings" - of 1892
CONDUCT, it has
been said by one of the ablest of living English writers,
makes up at least three-fourths of life. Hence it is supremely
important that we should find some criterion by which our
conduct may be ordered to the best advantage. Though in
different parts of the globe there are considerable differences
of opinion in the estimation of the heinousness of similar
crimes, we find on the whole a universal prevalence of
similar ideas of right and wrong. The difference is not
so much in the ideas themselves or in their nature as in
the reasons on which those ideas are founded. A large portion
of mankind consider that they are bound to act in certain
ways, because they would otherwise displease their deity,
and in that case would be visited with punishment. Others
uphold a system of morality and abide by it on the ground
that all are bound to act in such a manner as to promote
the greatest good of the greatest number. There is, however,
a third way of arriving at the foundation of a sound system
of morality which seems to possess the further recommendation
that it is contained in the very nature of things. For
if we admit the action of one life governed by one law,
working throughout the universe, then what we call right
must be simply action in accordance with that law, and
what we call wrong must be action in opposition to it. [Page
23]
The main characteristic
of the universal law is that under its operation all things
tend to reach out towards a higher development, as does
also the universe itself. Hence action in accordance with
that law will be action that will serve to promote our
higher development, and not such as will tend to hinder
it by the indulgence of the lower or animal nature.
Again, by treating others with brotherly kindness, we shall
help on their development also, and it is our plain duty
to do this if we are to follow the dictates of the universal
law, for if we act in a different manner, if by considering
our own interests alone and endeavouring to promote them
at the expense of others, by selfish action, then we act
against the law which makes for the development of the whole
as well as of every part, and we shall infallibly be crushed
by the forces of nature. Once admit the real intrinsic unity
of the universe, and what has just been said must follow
as a natural corollary.
Thought governs action, and to arrive at right conduct right
thought must be cultivated. The mind must be restrained and
its workings must be made to proceed in the most spiritual
direction that we are capable of conceiving. We must act
not from intellectual impulse merely, but in accordance with
our highest intellectual conceptions of the truth. It is
here that an acquaintance with the esoteric doctrine or wisdom-religion
is seen to have a definite practical value. Its great practical
recommendation is that it furnishes us with a comprehensive
theory of life as a whole, and so gives us a rational ground
on which to order our conduct. Moreover it gives a unity
to the whole course of our life, so that we are able to live
for a definite end and to make progress that is real and
lasting.
The two main passions by which man is governed are those
of love and hatred. The former makes for unity, the latter
for separation and destruction.
The doctrine of
reïncarnation follows the acceptance
of the doctrine of human perfectibility, for if this perfectibility
is a fact, and it is also a fact that it has to be worked
out by evolutionary development, then we can conceive no
other way in which this result can be brought about. Higher
development in some state of existence other than that of
our present earth life, cannot produce the same effects,
and if we know that a portion at least of our development
must inevitably be worked out on earth, then, unless we admit
that there is such a thing as partial development only, the
whole remaining portion must in like manner be worked out
on earth. Unless this be so, one of two things must happen.
Either this life must be final, in which case our best course
would be surely to please ourselves only at whatever cost,
or else in the higher spheres, if their existence be admitted,
there will be nothing but confusion.
There are some
who consider that human immortality is confined to the
succession of life on earth, and that we shall live again
in our descendants, and thus only. If death immediately
followed the production of offspring, there would be some
show of reason in this hypothesis, for it might be argued
that the parents dying, left their essential selves in their
children, endowing them by the law of heredity with the result
of their experience, and so on. But as a matter of fact this
is not what actually does happen. For the most part men and
women live some years after they have given birth to children.
Hence the question arises, what becomes of the experience
gained by a man after his paternity ? Are we to suppose that
it all perishes with the physical body ? Has all the energy
generated by [Page 24] unfulfilled aspirations, and that
was latent in faculties that never had a chance of full fruition,
no further existence ? Unless we accept the hypothesis of
reïncarnation there does not seem to be any satisfactory
answer to this question.
The accumulation of experience, the formation of the real
man, goes on until the day of his death, or at least as long
as his faculties remain unimpaired. If it is true that any
further development is to take place, that development must
start from the stage attained during the whole life, and
not merely from a point reached some years before death.
Again, if this development is to take place, it is evident
that the starting-point must be, as it were, a quintessence
of the whole life of the man, further progress can only be
possible as an addition to what has been completely accomplished;
hence it is that a state of rest becomes in the majority
of cases a necessary part of human development, in order
to get rid of the energy set up by unfulfilled desire and
the like.