Theosophy - Epitome of Theosophical Teachings by William Q. Judge
EPITOME OF
THEOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS
By William Q. Judge
(General Secretary of the American Section of the Theosophical
Society)
Being an extension of a Tract issued by New York Theosophists,
entitled,
“An Epitome of Theosophy”.
[Written for the T.P.S.]
JUNE 20, 1888
reprinted from “Theosophical
Siftings” Volume - 1 -
[Page 3] THEOSOPHY, the Wisdom-Religion, has existed from immemorial
time. It offers us a theory of nature and of life which is founded upon
knowledge acquired by the Sages of the past, more especially those of the
East; and its higher students claim that this knowledge is not imagined or
inferred, but that it is a knowledge of facts seen and known by those who
are willing to comply with the conditions requisite for seeing and knowing.
Theosophy,
meaning knowledge of or about God, [Not in the
sense of a personal anthropomorphic God, but in that
of divine “godly” wisdom.] and
the term “God” being universally accepted as including the
whole of both the known and the unknown, it follows that “Theosophy” must
imply wisdom respecting the absolute; and, since the absolute
is without beginning and eternal, this wisdom must have existed
always. Hence Theosophy is sometimes called the Wisdom-Religion,
because from immemorial time it has had knowledge of all
the laws governing the spiritual, the moral, and the material.
The
theory of nature and of life which it offers is not one
that was at first speculatively laid down and then proved
by adjusting facts or conclusions to fit it; but is an
explanation of existence, cosmic and individual, derived
from knowledge reached by those who have acquired the power
to see behind the curtain that hides the operations of
nature from the ordinary mind. Such Beings are called
Sages, using the term in its highest sense. Of late they
have been called Mahatmas and Adepts. In ancient times
they were known as the Rishees and Maharishis, the last
being a word that means Great Rishees.
It is not claimed that these exalted beings, or Sages, have existed only in
the East. They are known to have lived in all parts of the globe, in
obedience to the cyclic laws referred to below. But as far as concerns the
present development of the human race on this planet, they now are to be
found in the East, although the fact may be that some of them had, in
remote times, retreated from even the American shores.
There being of necessity various grades among the students of this
wisdom-religion, it stands to reason that those belonging to the lower
degrees are able to give out only so much of the knowledge as is the
appanage of the grade they have reached, and depend, to some extent, for
further information upon students who are higher yet. It is these [Page 4]
higher students
for whom the claim is asserted that their knowledge is
not mere inference, but that it concerns realities seen
and known by them. While some of them are connected with
the Theosophical Society, they are yet above it. The
power to see and absolutely know such laws is surrounded
by natural inherent regulations which must be complied
with as conditions precedent; and it is, therefore, not
possible to respond to the demand of the worldly man for
an immediate statement of this wisdom, insomuch as he could
not comprehend it until those conditions are fulfilled.
As this knowledge deals with laws and states of matter,
and of consciousness undreamed of by the “practical” western
world, it can only be grasped, piece by piece, as the student
pushes forward the demolition of his preconceived notions,
that are due either to inadequate or to erroneous theories.
It is claimed by these higher students that, in the Occident
especially, a false method of reasoning has for many
centuries prevailed, resulting in a universal habit of
mind which causes men to look upon many effects as causes,
and to regard that which is real as the unreal, putting
meanwhile the unreal in the place of the real. As a minor
example, the phenomena of mesmerism and clairvoyance, have,
until lately, been denied by western science, yet there
have always been numerous persons who know for themselves,
by incontrovertible introspective evidence, the truth of
these phenomena, and, in some instances, understand their
cause and rationales.
The
following are some of the fundamental propositions of Theosophy:—
The
spirit in man is the only real and permanent part of his
being; the rest of his nature being variously compounded.
And since decay is incident to all composite things, everything
in man but his spirit is impermanent.
Further,
the universe being one thing and not diverse, and everything
within it being connected with the whole and with every
other thing therein, of which upon the upper plane (below
referred to) there is a perfect knowledge, no act or thought
occurs without each portion of the great whole perceiving
and noting it. Hence all are inseparably bound together
by the tie of Brotherhood.
This
first fundamental proposition of Theosophy postulates
that the universe is not an aggregation of diverse unities
but that it is one whole. This whole is what is denominated “Deity” by
Western Philosophers, and “Para-Brahm” by the Hindu
Vedantins. It may be called the Unmanifested, containing
within itself the potency of every form of manifestation,
together with the laws governing those manifestations.
Further, it is taught that there is no creation of worlds
in the theological sense; but that their appearance is
due strictly to evolution. When the time comes for the
Unmanifested to manifest as an objective Universe, which
it does [Page
5] periodically,
it emanates a Power or “The First Cause”, so called
because it itself is the rootless root of that Cause,
and called in the East the “Causeless Cause”.
The first Cause, we may call Brahmâ, or Ormazd, or Osiris,
or by any name we please. The projection into time of the
influence or so-called “breath of
Brahmâ” causes all the worlds and the beings upon them
to gradually appear. They remain in manifestation just
as long as that influence continues to proceed forth
in evolution. After long aeons the outbreathing, evolutionary
influence slackens, and the universe begins to go into
obscuration, or pralaya, until, the “breath” being
fully indrawn, no objects remain, because nothing is but
Brahma. Care must be taken by the student to make a distinction
between Brahma (the impersonal Parabrahma) and Brahmâ
the manifested Logos. A discussion of the means used
by this power in acting would be out of place in this
Epitome, but of those means Theosophy also treats.
This
breathing-forth is known as a Manvantara, or the Manifestation
of the world between two Manus (from Manu, and Antara “between”)
and the completion of the inspiration brings with it Pralaya,
or destruction. It is from these truths that the erroneous
doctrines of “creation” and the “last judgment” have sprung.
Such Manvantaras and Pralayas have eternally occurred,
and will continue to take place periodically, and for ever.
For
the purpose of a manvantara two so-called eternal principles
are postulated, that is, Purusha and Prakriti (or spirit
and matter), because both are ever present and conjoined
in each manifestation. Those terms are used here because
no equivalent for them exists in English. Purusha is called “spirit“,
and Prakriti “matter”, but this Purusha is not the
unmanifested, nor is Prakriti matter as known to science;
the Aryan Sages therefore declare that there is a higher
spirit still, called Purushottama. The reason for this
is that at the night of Brahma, or the so-called indrawing
of his breath, both Purusha and Prakriti are absorbed in
the Unmanifested; a conception which is the same as the
idea underlying the Biblical expression — “remaining
in the bosom of the Father”.
This
brings us to the doctrine of Universal Evolution as expounded
by the Sages of the Wisdom-Religion.
The
Spirit, or Purusha, they say, proceeds from Brahma through
the various forms of matter evolved at the same time,
beginning in the world of the spiritual from the highest
and in the material world from the lowest form. This
lowest form is one unknown as yet to modern science.
Thus therefore the mineral, vegetable, and animal forms
each imprison a spark of the Divine, a portion of the
indivisible Purusha. These sparks struggle to
“return to the Father”, or in other words, to secure self-consciousness,
and at last come into the highest form, on Earth, that of
man, where alone self-consciousness is possible to them.
The period, calculated in human time, during which this evolution
goes on embraces millions of ages. Each [Page
6]
spark of divinity
has therefore millions of ages in which to accomplish
its mission — that
of obtaining complete self-consciousness while in the
form of man. But by this is not meant that the mere act
of coming into human forms of itself confers self-consciousness
upon this divine spark. That great work may be accomplished
during the Manvantara in which a Divine spark reaches
the human form, or it may not; all depends upon the individual's
own will and efforts. Each particular spirit thus goes
through the Manwantara, or enters into manifestation,
for its own enrichment and for that of the Whole. Mahatmas
and Rishees are thus gradually evolved during a Manwantara,
and become, after its expiration, planetary spirits,
who guide the evolutions of other future planets. The
planetary spirits of our globe are those who in previous
Manwantaras — or days of
Brahma — made the efforts, and became in the course
of that long period Mahatmas.
Each
Manwantara is for the same end and purpose, so that the
Mahatmas who have now attained those heights, or those
who may become such in the succeeding years of the present
Manwantara, will probably be the planetary spirits of the
next Manwantara for this or other planets. This system
is thus seen to be based upon the identity of Spiritual
Being, and, under the name of “Universal Brotherhood“,
constitutes the basic idea of the Theosophical Society,
whose object is the realization of that Brotherhood among
men.
The
Sages say that this Purusha is the basis of all manifested
objects. Without it nothing could exist or cohere. It interpenetrates
everything everywhere. It is the reality of which, or upon
which, those things called real by us are mere images.
As Purusha reaches to and embraces all beings, they are
all connected together; and in or on the plane where that
Purusha is, there is a perfect consciousness of every act,
thought, object, and circumstance, whether supposed to
occur there, or on this plane, or on any other. For below
the spirit and above the intellect is a plane of consciousness
in which experiences are noted, commonly called man's “spiritual
nature”; this is frequently said to be as susceptible of
culture as his body or his intellect.
This
upper plane is the real register of all sensations and
experiences, although there are other registering planes.
It is sometimes called “the subconscious mind”. Theosophy,
however, holds that it is a misuse of terms to say that
the spiritual nature can be cultivated. The real object
to be kept in view is to so open up or make porous the
lower nature that the spiritual nature may shine through
it and become the guide and ruler. It is only “cultivated” in
the sense of having a vehicle prepared for its use, into
which it may descend. In other words, it is held that the
real man, who is the higher self — being the spark
of the Divine before alluded to — overshadows the
visible being, which has the possibility of becoming united
to that spark. Thus it is said that the higher Spirit is
not in the man, but above him. [Page
7]
It is always
peaceful, unconcerned, blissful, and full of absolute knowledge.
It continually partakes of the Divine state, being continually
that state itself, “conjoined with the Gods, it feeds upon
Ambrosia”. The object of a student is to let the light
of that spirit shine through the lower coverings.
This “spiritual
culture” is only attainable as the grosser interests, passions,
and demands of the flesh are subordinated to the interests,
aspirations, and needs of the higher nature; and this is
a matter of both system and established law.
This
spirit can only become the ruler when the firm intellectual
acknowledgment or admission is first made that IT alone
is. And, as stated above, it being not only the person
concerned but also the whole, all selfishness must be eliminated
from the lower nature before its divine state can be reached.
So long as the smallest personal or selfish desire — even
for spiritual attainment for our own sake — remains,
so long is the end desired put off. Hence the above term “demands
of the flesh” really covers also demands that are not of
the flesh, and its proper rendering would be “desires of
the personal nature, including those of the individual
soul”.
When
systematically trained in accordance with the aforesaid
system and law, men attain to clear insight into the immaterial,
spiritual world, and their interior faculties apprehend
truth as immediately and readily as physical faculties
grasp the things of sense, or mental faculties those of
reason. Or, in the words used by some of them, “They are
able to look directly upon ideas”; and hence their testimony
to such truth is as trustworthy as is that of scientists
or philosophers to truth in their respective fields.
In
the course of this spiritual training such men acquire
perception of, and control over, various forces in Nature
unknown to other men, and thus are able to perform works
usually called “miraculous”, though really but the result
of larger knowledge of natural law. What these powers are
may be found in Patanjali's “Yoga Philosophy”.
Their
testimony as to super-sensuous truth, verified by their
possession of such powers, challenges candid examination
from every religious mind.
Turning
now to the system expounded by these sages we find, in
the first place, an account of cosmogony, the past and
future of this earth and other planets, the evolution of
life through elemental, mineral, vegetable, animal and
human forms, as they are called.
These “passive
life elementals” are unknown to modern science, though
sometimes approached by it as a subtle material agent in
the production of life, whereas they are a form of life
itself.
Each
Kalpa, or grand period, is divided into four ages or
Yugas, each lasting many thousands of years, and each
one being marked by a predominant characteristic. These
are the Satya-yug (or age of truth), the Tretya-yug,
the Dvapara-yug, and our present Kali-yug (or age of
darkness), which began five thousands of years back.
The word “darkness” [Page
8] here refers
to spiritual and not material darkness. In this age,
however, all causes bring about their effects much more
rapidly than in any other age, a fact due to the intensified
momentum of “evil”, as
the course of its cycle is about rounding towards that
of a new cycle of truth. Thus a sincere lover of the
race can accomplish more in three incarnations during
Kali-Yuga, than he could in a much greater number in
any other age. The darkness of this age is not absolute,
but is greater than that of other ages; its main tendency
being towards materiality, while having some mitigation
in occasional ethical or scientific advance conducive
to the well-being of the race, by the removal of immediate
causes of crime or disease.
Our
earth is one of a chain of seven planets, it alone being
on the visible plane, while the six others are on different
planes, and therefore invisible. [The other planets
of our solar system belong each to a chain of seven.] And
the life-wave passes from the higher to the lower in the
chain until it reaches our earth, and then ascends and
passes to the three others on the opposite arc, and thus
seven times. The evolution of forms is co-incident with
this progress, the tide of life bearing with it the mineral
and vegetable forms, until each globe in turn is ready
to receive the human life wave. Of these globes our earth
is the fourth.
Humanity
passes from globe to globe in a series of Rounds, first
circling about each globe, and re-incarnating upon it a
fixed number of times. Concerning the human evolution on
the concealed planets or globes little is permitted to
be said. We have to concern ourselves with our Earth alone.
The latter, when the wave of humanity has reached it for
the last time (in this, our Fourth Round), began to evolute
man, subdividing him into races. Each of these races when
it has, through evolution, reached the period known as “the
moment of choice” and decided its future destiny as an
individual race, begins to disappear. The races are separated,
moreover, from each other by catastrophies of nature, such
as the subsidence of continents and great natural convulsions.
Coincidently with the development of races the development
of specialized senses takes place; thus our fifth race
has so far developed five senses.
The sages further tell us that the affairs of this world and its people are
subject to cyclic laws, and during any one cycle the rate or quality of
progress appertaining to a different cycle is not possible. These cyclic laws
operate in each age. As the ages grow darker the same laws prevail, only
the cycles are shorter; that is, they are the same length in the absolute
sense, but go over the given limit in a shorter period of time. These laws
impose restrictions on the progress of the race. In a cycle, where all is
ascending and descending, the adepts must wait until the time comes
before they can aid the race to ascend. They cannot, and must not,
interfere with Karmic law. Thus they begin to work actively again in the
spiritual sense, when the cycle is known by them to be approaching its
turning point.[Page 9]
At the same time
these cycles have no hard lines or points of departure or inception,
inasmuch as one may be ending or drawing to a close for some
time after another has already begun. They thus overlap and
shade into one another, as day does into night; and it is only
when the one has completely ended and the other has really
begun by bringing out its blossoms, that we can say we are
in a new cycle. It may be illustrated by comparing two adjacent
cycles to two interlaced circles, where the circumference of
one touches the centre of the other, so that the moment where
one ended and the other began would be at the point where the
circumferences intersected each other. Or by imagining a
man as representing, in the act of walking, the progress of
the cycles; his rate of advancement can only be obtained by
taking the distance covered by his paces, the points at the
middle of each pace, between the feet, being the beginning
of cycles and their ending.
The
cyclic progress is assisted, or the deterioration further
permitted, in this way; at a time when the cycle is ascending,
developed and progressed Beings, known in Sanscrit by the
term Gnanis, descend to this earth from other spheres
where the cycle is going down, in order that they may also
help the spiritual progress of this globe. In like manner
they leave this sphere when our cycle approaches darkness.
These Gnanis must not, however, be confounded with
the Mahatmas and Adepts mentioned above. The right aim
of true theosophists should therefore be so to live that
their influence may be conducive for the dispelling of
darkness to the end that such Gnanis may turn again towards
this sphere.
Theosophy
also teaches the existence of a universally diffused and
highly ethereal medium, which has been called the “Astral
Light” and “Akâsa”. It is the repository of all past,
present, and future events, and in it are recorded the
effects of spiritual causes, and of all acts and thoughts
from the direction of either spirit or matter. It may be
called the Book of the Recording Angel.
Akâsa,
however, is a misnomer when it is confused with Ether or
the Astral light of the Kabalists. Akâsa is the noumenon
of the phenomenal Ether or Astral light proper, for Akâsa
is infinite, impartite, intangible, its only procuction
being Sound. [Akâsa in the mysticism of the
esoteric philosophy is properly speaking the female “Holy
Ghost”; “Sound” or speech being the logos,
the manifested verbum of the unmanifested Mother. See Sankhyasara
Preface p 33 et seq.]
And
this Astral light is material and not spirit. It is, in
fact, the lower principle of that cosmic body of which
Akâsa is the highest. It has the power of retaining
all images. This includes a statement that each thought
as well as word and act makes an image there. These images
may be said to have two lives, 1st. Their own as an image.
2nd. The impress left by them in the matrix of the astral
light. In the upper realm of this light there is no such
thing as space or time in the human sense. [Page
10] All future
events are the thoughts and acts of men; these are producers
in advance of the picture of the event which is to occur.
Ordinary men continually, recklessly, and wickedly, are
making these events sure to come to pass, but the Sages,
Mahatmas, and the Adepts of the good law, make only such
pictures as are in accordance with Divine law, because
they control the production of their thought. In the Astral
light are all the differentiated sounds as well. The elementals
are energic centres in it. The shades of departed human
beings and animals are also there. Hence, any seer or entranced
person can see in it all that anyone had done or said,
as well as that which had happened to anyone with whom
he is connected. Hence, also, the identity of deceased
persons — who are supposed to report specially out
of this plane — is not to be concluded from the giving
of forgotten or unknown words, facts, or ideas. Out of
this plane of matter can be taken the pictures of all who
have ever lived, and then reflected on a suitable magneto-electrical
surface, so as to seem like the apparition of the deceased,
producing all the sensations of weight, hardness, and extension.
Through
the means of the Astral Light and the help of Elementals,
the various material elements may be drawn down and precipitated
from the atmosphere upon either a plane surface or in the
form of a solid object; this precipitation may be made
permanent, or it may be of such a light cohesive power
as to soon fade away. But the help of the elementals can
only be obtained by a strong will added to a complete knowledge
of the laws which govern the being of the elementals. It
is useless to give further details on this point; first,
because the untrained student cannot understand; and second,
the complete explanation is not permitted, were it even
possible in this space.
The
world of the elementals is an important factor in our world
and in the course of the student. Each thought as it is
evolved by a man coalesces instantly with an Elemental,
and is then beyond the man's power.
It
can easily be seen that this process is going on every
instant. Therefore each thought exists as a entity. Its
length of life depends on two things: (a) The original
force of the person's will and thought; (b) The power
of the elemental which coalesced with it, the latter
being determined by the class to which the elemental
belongs. This is the case with good and bad thoughts
alike, and as the will beneath the generality of wicked
thoughts is usually powerful, we can see that the result
is very important, because the elemental has no conscience
and obtains its constitution and direction from the thought
it may from time to time carry.
Each
human being has his own elementals that partake of his
nature and his thoughts. If you fix your thoughts upon
a person in anger, or in critical, uncharitable judgment,
you attract to yourself a number of those [Page
11]
elementals
that belong to, generate, and are generated by this particular
fault or failing, and they precipitate themselves upon
you. Hence, through the injustice of your merely human
condemnation, which cannot know the source and causes
of the action of another, you at once become a sharer
of his fault or failing by your own act, and the spirit
expelled returns “with
seven devils worse than himself”. This is the origin
of the popular saying that “curses, like chickens, come
home to roost”, and
has its root in the laws governing magnetic affinity.
In
the Kali-Yuga we are hypnotized by the effect of the immense
body of images in the Astral Light, compounded of all the
deeds, thoughts, and so forth of our ancestors, whose lives
tended in a material direction. These images influence
the inner man — who is conscious of them — by
suggestion. In a brighter age the influence of such images
would be towards Truth. The effect of the Astral Light,
as thus moulded and painted by us, will remain so long
as we continue to place those images there, and it thus
becomes our judge and our executioner. Every universal
law thus contains within itself the means for its own accomplishment
and the punishment for its violation, and requires no further
authority to postulate it or to carry out its decrees.
The
Astral Light by its inherent action both evolves and destroys
forms. It is the universal register. Its chief office is
that of a vehicle for the operation of the laws of Karma,
or the progress of the principle of life, and it is thus
in a deep spiritual sense a medium or “mediator” between
man and his Deity — his higher spirit.
Theosophy
also tells of the origin, history, development, and destiny
of mankind.
Upon
the subject of Man it teaches:—
1.
That each spirit is a manifestation of the One Spirit,
and thus a part of all. It passes through a series of experiences
in incarnation, and is destined to ultimate reunion with
the Divine.
2.
That this incarnation is not single but repeated, each
individuality becoming re-embodied during numerous existences
in successive races and planets of our chain, and accumulating
the experiences of each incarnation towards its perfection.
3. That between adjacent incarnations, after grosser elements
are first purged away, comes a period of comparative
rest and refreshment, called Devachan, the soul being
therein prepared for its next advent into material life.
The
constitution of man is subdivided in a septenary manner,
the main divisions being those of body, soul and spirit.
These divisions and their relative development govern his
subjective condition after death. The real division cannot
be understood, and must for a time remain esoteric, because
it requires certain senses not usually developed for its
understanding. [Page
12] If the
present sevenfold division, as given by Theosophical writers,
is adhered to strictly and without any conditional statement,
it will give rise to controversy or error. For instance,
Spirit is not a seventh principle. It is the synthesis,
or the whole, and is equally present in the other six.
The present various divisions can only be used as a general
working hypothesis, to be developed and corrected as students
advance and themselves develop.
The
state of spiritual but comparative rest known as Devachan
is not an eternal one, and so is not the same as the eternal
heaven of Christianity. Nor does “hell” correspond to
the state known to theosophical writers as Avitchi.
All
such painful states are transitory and purificatory states.
When those are passed the individual goes into Devachan.
“Hell” and
Avitchi are thus not the same. Avitchi is the same as the “second
death”, as it is in fact annihilation that only comes to
the “black Magician” or spiritually wicked, as will be
seen further on.
The
nature of each incarnation depends upon the balance as
struck of the merit and demerit of the previous life or
lives — upon the way in which the man has lived and
thought; and this law is inflexible and wholly just.
“Karma” — a
term signifying two things, the law of ethical causation
(Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap); and
the balance or excess of merit or demerit in any individual,
determines also the main experiences of joy and sorrow
in each incarnation, so that what we call “luck” is in
reality “desert” — desert acquired in past
existence.
Karma
is not all exhausted in a single life, nor is a person
necessarily in this life experiencing the effect of all
his previous Karma; for some may be held back by various
causes. The principal cause is the failure of the Ego to
acquire a body which will furnish the instrument or apparatus
in and by which the meditation or thoughts of previous
lives can have their effect and be ripened. Hence it is
held that there is a mysterious power in the man's thoughts
during a life, sure to bring about its results in either
an immediately succeeding life or in one many lives distant;
that is, in whatever life the Ego obtains a body capable
of being the focus, apparatus, or instrument for the ripening
of past Karma. There is also a swaying or diverging power
in Karma in its effect upon the soul, for a certain course
of life — or thought — will influence the soul
in that direction for sometimes three lives, before the
beneficial, or bad, effect of any other sort of Karma must
be felt. Nor does it follow that every minute portion of
Karma must be felt in the same detail as when produced,
for several sorts of Karma may come to a head together
at one point in the life, and, by their combined effect,
produce a result which, while, as a whole, accurately representing
all the elements in it, still is a different Karma from
each single component part. This may be known as the nullification
of the postulated effect of the classes of Karma involved.[Page
13]
The process of
evolution up to re-union with the Divine is and includes
successive elevations from rank to rank of power and usefulness.
The most exalted beings still in the flesh are known as Sages,
Rishees, Brothers, Masters. Their great function being the
preservation at all times, and when cyclic laws permit, the
extension, of spiritual knowledge and influence.
When
union with the Divine is effected, all the events and experiences
of each incarnation are known.
As
to the process of spiritual development, Theosophy teaches: —
1.
That the essence of the process lies in the securing of
supremacy, to the highest, the spiritual, element of man's
nature.
2.
That this is attained along four lines, among others, —
(a)
The entire eradication of selfishness in all forms, and
the cultivation of broad, generous sympathy
in, and effort for the good of others.
(b)
The absolute cultivation of the inner, spiritual man by
meditation, by reaching to and communion with the Divine,
and by exercise of the kind described by Patanjali, i.e.,
incessant striving to an ideal end.
(c)
The control of fleshly appetites and desires, all lower,
material interests being deliberately subordinated to the
behests of the spirits.
(d)
The careful performance of every duty belonging to one's
station in life, without desire for reward, leaving results
for Divine law.
3.
That while the above is incumbent on and practicable by
all religiously disposed men, a yet higher plane of spiritual
attainment is conditioned upon a specific course of training,
physical, intellectual, and spiritual, by which the internal
faculties are first aroused and then developed.
4.
That an extension of this process is reached in Adeptship,
Mahatma-ship, or the states of Rishees, Sages, and Dhyan
Chohans, which are all exalted stages, attained by laborious
self-discipline and hardship, protracted through possibly
many incarnations, and with many degrees of initiation
and preferment, beyond which are yet other stages ever
approaching the Divine.
As
to the rationale of spiritual development it asserts: —
1.
That the process takes place entirely within the individual
himself, the motive, the effort, and the result proceeding
from his own inner nature, along the lines of self-evolution.
2.
That, however personal and interior, this process is not
unaided, being possible, in fact, only through close communion
with the supreme source of all strength.
[Page
14] As to
the degree of advancement in incarnations it holds:
1.
That even a mere intellectual acquaintance with Theosophic
truth has great value in fitting the individual for a step
upwards in his next earth-life, as it gives an impulse
in that direction.
2.
That still more is gained by a career of duty, piety, and
beneficence,
3. That a still greater advance is attained by the attentive
and devoted use of the means to spiritual culture heretofore
stated.
4. That every race and individual of it reaches in evolution
a period known as “the moment of choice”, when they decide
for themselves their future destiny by a deliberate and
conscious choice between eternal life and death, and
that this right of choice is the peculiar appanage of
the free soul. It cannot be exercised until the man has
realized the soul within him, and until that soul has
attained some measure of self-consciousness in the body.
The moment of choice is not a fixed period of time; it
is made up of all moments. It cannot come unless all
the previous lives have led up to it. For the race as
a whole it has not yet come. Any individual can hasten
the advent of this period for himself under the previously
stated law of the ripening of Karma, Should he then fail
to choose right he is not wholly condemned, for the economy
of nature provides that he shall again and again have
the opportunity of choice when the moment arrives for
the whole race. After this period the race, having blossomed,
tends towards its dissolution. A few individuals of it
will have outstripped its progress and attained Adeptship
or Mahatmaship. The main body, who have chosen aright,
but who have not attained salvation, pass into the subjective
condition, there to await the influx of the human life
wave into the next globe, which they are the first souls
to people, the deliberate choosers of evil, whose lives
are passed in great spiritual wickedness (for evil done
for the sheer love of evil perse), sever
the connection with the Divine Spirit, or the monad,
which for ever abandons the human Ego. Such Egos pass
into the misery of the eighth sphere, as far as we understand,
there to remain until the separation between what they
had thus cultivated and the personal Ishwar or divine
spark is complete. But this tenet has never been explained
to us by the Masters, who have always refused to answer
and to explain it conclusively. At the next Manwantara
that Divine Spark will probably begin again the long
evolutionary journey, being cast into the stream of life
at the source and passing upward again through all the
lower forms.
So
long as the connection with the Divine Monad is not severed,
this annihilation of personality cannot take place. Something
of that personality will always remain attached to the
immortal Ego. Even after such severance the human being
may live on, a man among men — a soul-less being.
This disappointment, so to call it, of the Divine Spark
by depriving it of its chosen vehicle constitutes the “sin
against the Holy [Page
15] Ghost”,
which its very nature forbade it to pardon, because it
cannot continue an association with principles which have
become degraded and vitiated in the absolute sense, so
that they no longer respond to cyclic or evolutionary impulses,
but, weighted by their own nature, sink to the lowest depths
of matter. The connection, once wholly broken, cannot in
the nature of Being be resumed. But innumerable opportunities
for return offer themselves throughout the dissolving process,
which lasts thousands of years.
There
is also a fate that comes to even adepts of the Good
Law which is somewhat similar to a loss of “heaven” after
the enjoyment for incalculable periods of time. When the
adept has reached a certain very high point in his evolution
he may, by a mere wish, become what the Hindus call, a “Deva” — or
lesser god. If he does this, then, although he will enjoy
the bliss and power of that state for a vast length of time,
he will not at the next Pralaya partake of the conscious
life “in the bosom of the
Father”, but has to pass down into matter at the next new “creation”,
performing certain functions that could not be now made clear,
and has to come up again through the elemental world; but
this fate is not like that of the Black Magician who falls
into Avitchi. And again between the two he can choose the
middle state and become a Nirmanakaya — one
who gives up the Bliss of Nirvana and remains in conscious
existence outside of his body after its death: in order to
help Humanity. This is the greatest sacrifice he can do for
mankind. By advancement from one degree of interest and comparative
attainment to another as above stated, the student hastens
the advent of the moment of choice, after which his rate
of progress is greatly intensified.
It
may be added that Theosophy is the only system of religion
and philosophy which gives satisfactory explanation of
such problems as these: —
1.
The object, use, and inhabitation of other planets than
this earth, which planets serve to complete and to prolong
the evolutionary course, and to fill the required measure
of the universal experience of souls.
2. The geological cataclysms of earth; the frequent absence
of intermediate types in its fauna; the occurrence of
architectural and other relics of races now lost, and
as to which ordinary science has nothing but vain conjecture;
the nature of extinct civilizations and the causes of
their extinction; the persistence of savagery and the
unequal development of existing civilization; the differences,
physical and internal, between the various races of men;
the line of future development.
3. The contrasts and unisons of the world's faiths, and the
common foundation underlying them all.
4. The existence of evil, of suffering; and of sorrow, — a
hopeless puzzle to the mere philanthropist or theologian. [Page
16]
5.
The inequalities in social condition and privilege; the
sharp contrasts between wealth and poverty, intelligence
and stupidity, culture and ignorance, virtue and vileness;
the appearance of men of genius in families destitute of
it, as well as other facts in conflict with the law of
heredity; the frequent cases of unfitness of environment
around individuals, so sore as to embitter disposition,
hamper aspiration, and paralyse endeavour; the violent
antithesis between character and condition; the occurrence
of accident, misfortune, and untimely death; — all
of them problems solvable only by either the conventional
theory of Divine caprice or the Theosophic doctrines of
Karma and Re-incarnation.
6.
The possession by individuals of psychic powers — clairvoyance,
clairaudience, etc., as well as the phenomena of psychometry
and statuvolism.
7.
The true nature of genuine phenomena in spiritualism, and
the proper antidote to superstition and to exaggerated
expectation.
8.
The failure of conventional religions to greatly extend
their areas, reform abuses, re-organize society, expand
the idea of brotherhood, abate discontent, diminish crime,
and elevate humanity; and an apparent inadequacy to realize
in individual lives the ideal they professedly uphold.
The
above is a sketch of the main features of Theosophy, the
Wisdom-Religion. Its details are to be found in the rapidly-growing
literature upon the subject.
There
are three stages of interest, developed by the study of
Theosophy:
1.
That of intellectual inquiry, — to be met by works
in Public Libraries, etc..
2.
That of desire for personal culture, — to be met
partly by the books prepared for that specific end, partly
by the periodical Magazines expounding Theosophy.
3. That of personal identification with the Theosophical
Society, an association formed in 1875 with three aims, — to
be the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood; to promote
the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions,
and sciences; to investigate unexplained laws of nature
and the psychical powers latent in man. Adhesion to the
first only is a pre-requisite to membership, the others
being optional. The Society represents no particular
creed, is entirely unsectarian, and includes professors
of all faiths, only exacting from each member that toleration
of the beliefs of others which he desires them to exhibit
towards his own.