Theosophy - Ancient Wisdom by Annie Besant
THE
ANCIENT WISDOM
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
THE PHYSICAL PLANE
THE ASTRAL PLANE
KÂMALOKA
THE MENTAL PLANE
DEVACHAN
THE BUDDHIC AND NIRVANIC PLANES
REINCARNATION
Section 2 of this document [not yet connected]
REINCARNATION (CONTINUED)
KARMA
THE LAW OF SACRIFICE
MAN'S ASCENT
BUILDING A KOSMOS
PREFACE
This book is intended
to place in the hands of the general reader an epitome of theosophical teachings,
sufficiently plain to serve the elementary student, and sufficiently full to
lay a sound foundation for further knowledge. It is hoped that it may serve
as an introduction to the profounder works of H.P.Blavatsky, and be a convenient
steppingstone to their study.
Those who have learned
a little of the Ancient Wisdom know the illumination, the peace, the joy, the
strength, its lessons have brought into their lives. That this book may win
some to con its teachings,and to prove for themselves their value, is the prayer
with which it is sent forth into the world.
Annie Besant,
August 1897
INTRODUCTION
THE UNITY
UNDERLYING ALL RELIGIONS
Right
thought is necessary to right conduct, right understanding to right living,
and the Divine Wisdom – whether called by its ancient Sanskrit name of Brahma
Vidyā, or its modern Greek name of Theosophia, Theosophy – comes to the
world as at once an adequate philosophy and an all-embracing religion and ethic.
It was once said of the Christian Scriptures by a devotee that they contained
shallows in which a child could wade and depths in which a giant must swim.
A similar statement might be made of Theosophy, for some of its teachings are
so simple and so practical that any person of average intelligence can understand
and follow them, while others are so lofty, so profound, that the ablest strains
his intellect to contain them and sinks exhausted in the effort.
In
the present volume an attempt will be made to place Theosophy before the reader
simply and clearly, in a way which shall convey (Page
2) its general principles and truths as forming a coherent conception
of the universe, and shall give such detail as is necessary for the understanding
of their relations to each other. An elementary textbook cannot pretend to give
the fullness of knowledge that may be obtained from abstruser works, but it
should leave the student with clear fundamental ideas on his subject, with much
indeed to add by future study but with little to unlearn. Into the outline given
by such a book the student should be able to paint the details of further research.
It
is admitted on all hands that a survey of the great religions of the world shows
that they hold in common many religious, ethical, and philosophical ideas. But
while the fact is universally granted, the explanation of the fact is a matter
of dispute.
Some
allege that religions have grown up on the soil of human ignorance tilled by
the imagination, and have been gradually elaborated from crude forms of animism
and fetishism; their likenesses are referred to universal natural phenomena
imperfectly observed and fancifully explained, solar and star worship being
the universal key for one school, phallic worship the equally universal key
for another ; fear, desire, ignorance, and wonder led the savage to personify
the powers of nature, and priests played upon his terrors and his hopes, his
misty fancies, and his bewildered questionings ; myths became scriptures and
symbols facts, and their basis was universal the likeness of the products was
inevitable. (Page 3) Thus
speak the doctors of “Comparative Mythology,” and plain people are silenced
but not convinced under the rain of proofs ; they cannot deny the likenesses,
but they dimly feel : Are all man’s dearest hopes and lofty imaginings nothing
more than the outcome of savage fancies and of groping ignorance? Have
the great leaders of the race, the martyrs and heroes of humanity, lived, wrought,
suffered and died deluded, for the mere personifications of astronomical facts
and for the draped obscenities of barbarians?
The
second explanation of the common property in the religions of the world asserts
the existence of an original teaching in the custody of a Brotherhood of great
spiritual Teachers, who – Themselves the outcome of past cycles of evolution
– acted as the instructors and guides of the child-humanity of our planet, imparting
to its races and nations in turn the fundamental truths of religion in the form
most adapted to the idiosyncrasies of the recipients. According to this view,
the Founders of the great religions are members of the one Brotherhood, and
were aided in Their mission by many other members, lower in degree than Themselves,
Initiates and disciples of various grades, eminent in spiritual insight, in
philosophical knowledge, or in purity of ethical wisdom. These guided the infant
nations, gave them their polity, enacted their laws, ruled them as kings, taught
them as philosophers, guided them as priests ; all the nations of antiquity
looked back to such mighty men, demigods, and heroes, (Page
4) and they left their traces in literature, in architecture, in
legislation.
That
such men lived it seems difficult to deny in the face of universal tradition,
of still existing Scriptures, and of prehistoric remains for the most part now
in ruins, to say nothing of other testimony which the ignorant would reject.
The sacred books of the East are the best evidence for the greatness of their
authors, for who in later days or in modern times can even approach the spiritual
sublimity of their religious thought, the intellectual splendour of their philosophy,
the breadth and purity of their ethic? And when we find that these books contain
teachings about God, man, and the universe identical in substance under much
variety of outer appearance, it does not seem unreasonable to refer to them
to a central primary body of doctrine. To that body we give the name Divine
Wisdom, in its Greek form : THEOSOPHY.
As
the origin and basis of all religions, it cannot be the antagonist of any :
it is indeed their purifier, revealing the valuable inner meaning of much that
has become mischievous in its external presentation by the perverseness of ignorance
and the accretions of superstition ; but it recognises and defends itself in
each, and seeks in each to unveil its hidden wisdom. No man in becoming a Theosophist
need cease to be a Christian, a Buddhist, a Hindu ; he will but acquire a deeper
insight into his own faith, a firmer hold on its spiritual truths, a broader
understanding of its sacred teachings. As Theosophy (Page
5) of old gave birth to religions, so in modern times does it justify
and defend them. It is the rock whence all of them were hewn, the hole of the
pit whence all were dug. It
justifies at the bar of intellectual criticism the deepest longings and emotions
of the human heart : it verifies our hopes for man ; it gives us back ennobled
our faith in God.
The
truth of this statement becomes more and more apparent as we study the various
world-Scriptures, and but a few selections from the wealth of material available
will be sufficient to establish the fact, and to guide the student in his search
for further verification. The
main spiritual verities of religion may be summarised thus:
1)
One eternal, infinite, incognisable real Existence.
2) From THAT the
manifested God, unfolding from unity to duality to trinity.
3) From the manifested
Trinity many spiritual Intelligences, guiding cosmic order.
4) Man a reflection
of the manifested God and therefore a trinity fundamentally, his inner and
real Self being eternal, one with the Self of the universe.
5) His evolution
by repeated incarnations, into which he is drawn by desire, and from which
he is set free by knowledge and sacrifice, becoming divine in potency as he
had ever been divine in latency.
China
which is now a fossilised civilisation, was peopled in old days by the Turanians,
the fourth subdivision of the great Fourth Race, the race which inhabited the
lost continent of Atlantis, and spread its (Page
6) offshoots over the world. The Mongolians, the last subdivision
of that same race, later reinforced its population, so that in China we have
traditions from ancient days, preceding the settlement of the Fifth, or Āryan
race in India. In
the Ching Chang Ching, or Classic of Purity,
we have a fragment of an ancient scripture of singular beauty, breathing out
the spirit of restfulness and peace so characteristic of the “original teaching.”
Mr. Legge says in the introductory note to his translation [
The Sacred Books of the East] that the treatise –
“Is attributed to
Ko Yüan (or Hsüan), a Tāoist of the Wü dynasty (A.D. 222-227),
who is fabled to have attained to the state of an Immortal, and is generally
so denominated. He is represented as a worker of miracles ; as addicted to intemperance,
and very eccentric in his ways. When shipwrecked on one occasion, he emerged
from beneath the water with his clothes unwet, and walked freely on the surface.
Finally he ascended to the sky in bright day. All these accounts may safely
be put down as the figments of later time.”
Such stories are repeatedly told of Initiates of various degrees, and are by
no means necessarily “figments,” but we are more interested in Ko Yüan’s own
account of the book.
“When
I obtained the true Tāo, I recited this Ching [book] ten thousand times.
It is what the Spirits of heaven practise and had not been communicated to
scholars of this lower world. I got if from the Divine Ruler of the Eastern
Hwa ; he received it from the Divine Ruler of the Golden Gate ; he received
it from the Royal-mother of the West.
Now
the “Divine Ruler of the Golden Gate,” (Page
7) was the title held by the Initiate who ruled the Toltec empire
in Atlantis, and its use suggests that the Classic
of Purity was brought thence to China when the Turanians separated off from
the Toltecs. The idea is strengthened by the contents of the brief treatise,
which deals with Tāo – literally “the Way’ – the name by which the One
Reality is indicated in the ancient Turanian and Mongolian religion. We
read:
“The
Great Tāo has no bodily form, but It produced and nourishes heaven and
earth. The Great Tāo has no passions, but It causes the sun and the moon
to revolve as they do. The Great Tāo has no name, but It effects the
growth and maintenance of all things. (i,1)
This
is the manifested God as unity, but duality supervenes:
Now
the Tāo (shows itself in two forms), the Pure and the Turbid,
and has (two conditions of) Motion and Rest, Heaven is pure and earth
is turbid ; heaven moves and the earth is at rest . The masculine is pure
and the feminine is turbid ; the masculine moves and the feminine is still.
The radical (Purity) descended, and the (turbid) issue flowed abroad,
and thus all things were produced (I, 2).
This
passage is particularly interesting from the allusion to the active and receptive
sides of Nature, the distinction between Spirit, the generator, and Matter,
the nourisher, so familiar in later writings.
In the Tāo Te Ching the teaching as to the Unmanifested and the
Manifested comes out very plainly.
“The
Tāo that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tāo.(Page
8) The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging
name. Having no name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth, having a name,
it is the Mother of all things…Under these two aspects it is really the same
; but as development takes place it receives the different names. Together
we call them the Mystery (i, 1,2,4). “
Students
of the Kabalah will be reminded of one of the Divine Names, “the Concealed Mystery.”
Again:
“There was something undefined and complete, coming into existence before heaven
and earth. How still it was and formless, standing alone and undergoing no change,
reaching everywhere and in no danger (of being exhausted). It may be regarded
as the Mother of all things. I do not know its name, and I give it the designation
of the Tāo. Making an effort to give it a name, I call it the Great. Great,
it passes on ( in constant flow). Passing on, it becomes remote. Having become
remote, it returns (xxv, 1-3). “
Very
interesting it is to see here the idea of the forthgoing and the returning of
the One Life, so familiar to us in the Hindu Literature. Familiar seems the
verse :
“All
things under heaven sprang from It as existent (and named) ; that existence
sprang from It as non-existent (and not named) (xl,2)”.
That
a Universe might become, the Unmanifest must give forth the One from whom duality
and trinity proceed :
“The
Tāo produced One ; One produced Two ; Two produced Three ; Three produced
all things. All things leave behind them the Obscurity (out of which they
have come), and go forward to embrace the Brightness (into which they
have emerged), while they are harmonised by the Breath of vacancy (xlii,
1).” (Page 9)
“Breath
of Space” would be a happier translation. Since all is produced from It, It
exists in all :
“All
pervading is the Great Tāo. It may be found on the left hand and on the
right …It clothes all things as with a garment, and makes no assumption of
being their lord ; - It may be named in the smallest things. All things return
(to their root and disappear), and do not know that it is It which presides
over their doing so – It may be named in the greatest things (xxxiv, 1,
2 ).”
Chwang-ze
(fourth century BC) in his presentation of the ancient teachings, refers
to the spiritual Intelligences coming from the Tāo:
“It
has Its root and ground (of existence) in Itself. Before there were heaven
and earth, from of old, there It was securely existing. From It came the mysterious
existence of spirits, from It the mysterious existence of God (Bk. vi,
Pt. I, Sec. vi, 7).”
A
number of the names of these Intelligences follow, but such beings are so well
known to play a great part in the Chinese religion that we need not multiply
quotations about them.
Man
is regarded as a trinity, Tāoism, says Mr. Legge, recognising in him the
spirit, the mind, and the body. This division comes out clearly in the /Classic
of Purity, in the teaching that man must get rid of desire to reach union
with the One :
Now the spirit of man loves purity, but his mind disturbs it. The mind of man
loves stillness, but his desires draw it away. If he could always send his desires
away, his mind of itself would be still. Let
his mind be made clean, and his spirit of itself becomes pure ….The reason why
men are not able (Page 10) to attain
to this is because their minds have not been cleansed, and their desires have
not been sent away. If one is able to send the desires away, when he then looks
at his mind it is no longer his: when he looks out at his body it is no longer
his ; and when he looks farther off at external things, they are things which
he has nothing to do with ..(i, 3, 4).
Then,
after giving the stages of indrawing to “the condition of perfect stillness,”
it is asked :
“In
that condition of rest independently of place, how can any desire arise? And
when no desire any longer arises there is the true stillness and rest. That
true (stillness) becomes (a) constant quality, and responds to external
things (without error) ; yea, that true and constant quality holds
possession of the nature. In such constant response and constant stillness
there is constant purity and rest. He who has this absolute purity enters
gradually into the (inspiration of the ) True Tāo (i, 5).”
The
supplied words “inspiration of” rather cloud than elucidate the meaning, for
entering into the Tāo is congruous with the whole idea and with other Scriptures.
On putting away of desire is laid much stress in Tāoism ; a commentator
on the Classic of Purity remarks that understanding
the Tāo depends on absolute purity, and
The acquiring the Absolute Purity depends entirely on the putting away of Desire,
which is the urgent practical lesson of the Treatise.
The
Tāo Teh Ching says :
Always
without desire we must be found,
If its deep mystery we would sound;
But if desire always within us be,
Its outer fringe is all that we shall see.( i, 3) (Page
11)
Reincarnation
does not seem to be so distinctly taught as might have been expected, although
passages are found which imply that the main idea was taken for granted and
that the entity was considered as ranging through animal as well as human births.
Thus we have from Chwang-ze the quaint and wise story of a dying man, to whom
his friend said :
“Great
indeed is the Creator! What will He now make you to become? Where will He
take you to? Will he make you the liver of a rat or the arm of an insect?
Szelai replied, “Wherever a parent tells a son to go, east, west, south or
north, he simply follows the command …Here now is a great founder, casting
his metal. If the metal were to leap up (in the pot) and say, ‘I must
be made into a (sword like the ) Moysh,’ the great founder would be
sure to regard it as uncanny. So again, when a form is being fashioned in
the mould of the womb, if it were to say, ‘I must become a man, I must become
a man,’ the Creator would be sure to regard it as uncanny. When we once understand
that heaven and earth are a great melting pot and the Creator a great founder,
where can we to go to that shall not be right for us? We are born as from
a quiet sleep and we die to a calm awaking” (Bk. vi, Pt. I, Sec. vi).
Turning
to the Fifth, the Āryan Race, we have the same teachings embodied in the
oldest and greatest Āryan religion – the Brāhmanical. The eternal
Existence is proclaimed in the Chhāndogyopanishad as “One only, without
a second,” and it is written :
It
willed, I shall multiply for the sake of the universe (vi, ii, 1, 3).
The
Supreme Logos, Brahman, is threefold – Being, Consciousness, Bliss, and it is
said : (Page 12)
From This arise life, mind and all the senses, ether, air, fire , water, earth
the support of all ( Mundakopanishad, ii,3).
No
grander descriptions of Deity can be found anywhere than in the Hindu Scriptures,
but they are becoming so familiar that brief quotation will suffice. Let the
following serve as specimens of their wealth of gems :
“Manifest,
near, moving in the secret place, the great abode, herein rests all that moves,
breathes, and shuts the eyes. Know That as to be worshipped, being and non-being,
the best, beyond the knowledge of all creatures. Luminous, subtler than the
subtle, in which the worlds and their denizens are infixed. That, this imperishable
Brahman ; That, also life and voice and mind…In the golden highest sheath
is spotless, partless Brahman ; That the pure Light of lights, known by the
knowers of the Self…That deathless Brahman is before, Brahman behind, Brahman
to the right and to the left, below, above, pervading ; this Brahman truly
is the all. This is the best ( Mundakopanishad , II,ii, 1,2,9,11).
Beyond
the universe, Brahman, the supreme, the great, hidden in all beings according
to their bodies, the one Breath of the whole universe, the Lord, whom knowing
(men) become immortal. I know that mighty Spirit, the shining sun beyond
darkness… I know Him the unfading, the ancient, the Soul of all, omnipresent
by His nature, whom the Brahman-knowers call unborn, whom they call eternal
(Shvetāshvataropanishad, iii. 7,8,21).
When
there is no darkness, no day nor night, no being nor non-being (there is)
Shiva even alone ; That the indestructible, That is to be worshipped by Savriti,
from That came forth the ancient wisdom. Not above nor below, nor in the midst,
can He be comprehended. Nor is there any similitude for Him whose name is
infinite glory. Not with the sight is established His form, none may by the
eye behold Him ; they who (Page 13)
know Him by the heart and by the mind, dwelling in the heart, become immortal
(Ibid., iv, 18-20).
That
man in his inner Self is one with the Self of the universe – “I am That” – is
an idea that so thoroughly pervades all Hindu thought that man is often referred
to as the “divine town of Brahman,” [ Mundakopanishad
] the “town of nine gates,” [ Shvetâshvataropanishad,
iii,14. ] God dwelling in the cavity of the heart.[
Ibid., Ii]
“In
one manner is to be seen (the Being) which cannot be proved, which is eternal,
without spot, higher than the ether, unborn, the great eternal Soul…This great
unborn Soul is the same which abides as the intelligent (soul) in all living
creatures, the same which abides as ether in the heart ; [
The “ether in the heart” is a mystical phrase used to indicate the One, who
is said to dwell therein.] - in him it sleeps; it is
the Subduer of all, the Ruler of all, the sovereign Lord of all ; it does
not become greater by good works nor less by evil work. It is the Ruler of
all, the sovereign Lord of all beings, the Preserver of all beings, the Bridge,
the Upholder of the worlds, so that they fall not to ruin ( Brihadāranyakopanishad,
IV, iv, 20,22, Trs. Dr. E. Röer.)
When
God is regarded as the evolver of the universe, the threefold character comes
out very clearly as Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahmā or again as Vishnu sleeping
under the waters, the Lotus springing from Him, and in the Lotus Brahmā.
Man is likewise threefold, and in the Mândûkyopanishad the self
is described as conditioned by the physical body, the subtle body, and the mental
body, and then rising out of all into (Page
14) the One “without duality.” From the Trimurti (Trinity) come
many Gods, connected with the administration of the universe, as to whom it
is said in the Brihadāranyakopanishad.
“Adore
Him, ye Gods, after whom the year by rolling days is completed, the Light
of lights, as the Immortal Life (IV, iv, 16).”
It
is hardly necessary to mention the presence in Brâhmanism of the teaching
of reincarnation, since its whole philosophy of life turns on this pilgrimage
of the Soul through many births and deaths, and not a book could be taken up
in which this truth is not taken for granted. By desires man is bound to this
wheel of change, and therefore by knowledge, devotion, and the destruction of
desires, man must set himself free. When the Soul knows God it is liberated.
( Shvetāsh, I, 8.) The intellect purified by knowledge beholds Him.
( Mund., III, I,8 .) Knowledge joined to devotion finds the abode of
Brahman. ( Mund., III, ii,4). Whoever knows Brahman, becomes Brahman.
( Mund., III, ii,9 ) When desires cease the mortal becomes immortal and
obtains Brahman. ( Kathop., vi, 14).
Buddhism,
as it exists in its northern form, is quite at one with the most ancient faiths,
but in the southern form it seems to have let slip the idea of the Logoic Trinity
as of the One Existence from which They came forth. The LOGOS in His triple
manifestation is : the First LOGOS, Amitâbha, (Page
15) the Boundless Light ; the Second, Avalokiteshvara, or Padmapāni
(Chenresi) ; the Third, Manjusri – “the representative of creative wisdom,
corresponding to Brahmâ.” ( Eitel’s Sanskrit Chinese Dictionary, sub
voce. ) Chinese Buddhism apparently does not contain the idea of a primordial
Existence, beyond the LOGOS, but Nepalese Buddhism postulates Âdi-Buddha,
from Whom Amitâbha arises. Padmapâni is said by Eitel to be the
representative of compassionate Providence and to correspond partly with Shiva,
but as the aspect of the Buddhist Trinity that sends forth incarnations He appears
rather to represent the same idea as Vishnu, to whom He is allied by bearing
the Lotus (fire and water, or Spirit and Matter as the primary constituents
of the universe).
Reincarnation
and Karma are so much the fundamentals of Buddhism that it is hardly worth while
to insist on them save to note the way of liberation, and to remark that as
the Lord Buddha was a Hindu preaching to Hindus, Brâhmanical doctrines
are taken for granted constantly in His teaching, as matters of course. He was
a purifier and a reformer, not an iconoclast, and struck at the accretions due
to ignorance, not at fundamental truths belonging to the Ancient Wisdom.
“Those
beings who walk in the way of the law that has been well taught, reach the
other shore of the great sea of birth and death, that is difficult to cross.”
(Udānavarga, xxix. 37).
Desire
binds man, and must be gotten rid of :
“It
is hard for one who is held by the fetters of desire to (Page
16) free himself of them, says the Blessed One. The steadfast,
who care not for the happiness of desires, cast them off and do soon depart
(to Nirvāna)….Mankind has no lasting desires : they are impermanent in
them who experience them ; free yourselves then from what cannot last, and
abide not in the sojourn of death ( Ibid., Ii, 6, 8).
He who has destroyed desires for (worldly )goods, sinfulness, the bonds of
the eye of the flesh, who has torn up desire by the very root, he, I declare,
is a Brāhmana (Ibid., xxxiii, 68).”
And
a Brâhmana is a man “having his last body,” (Udânavarga, xxxiii,
41) and is defined as one.
“Who,
knowing his former abodes (existences) perceives heaven and hell, the Muni,
who has found the way to put an end to birth”. (ibid., xxxiii,55).
In
the exoteric Hebrew Scriptures, the idea of a Trinity does not come out strongly,
though duality is apparent, and the God spoken of is obviously the LOGOS, not
the One Unmanifest :
“I
am the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness;
I make peace and create evil ; I am the Lord that doeth all these things.”
(Is., xlvii, 7)
Philo,
however, has the doctrine of the LOGOS very clearly, and it is found in the
Fourth Gospel :
“In
the beginning was the Word [Logos] and the Word was with God and the Word
was God….All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made
that was made. (St. John i, 1, 3).
In
the Kabalah the doctrine of the One, the Three, the Seven, and then the many,
is plainly taught : (Page 17)
The
Ancient of the Ancients, the Unknown of the Unknown, has a form, yet also
has not any form. It has a form through which the universe is maintained.
It also has not any form, as It cannot be comprehended. When It first took
this form [Kether, the Crown, the First Logos] It permitted to proceed
from It nine brilliant Lights [Wisdom and the Voice, forming with Kether
the Triad, and then the seven lower Sephiroth] …It is the Ancient of the
Ancients, the Mystery of the Mysteries, the Unknown of the Unknown.
It
has a form which appertains to It, since It appears (through it) to
us, as the Ancient Man above all as the Ancient of the Ancients, and as that
which there is the Most Unknown among the Unknown. But under that form by
which It makes Itself known, It however still remains the Unknown (Issac
Myer’s Qabbalah, from the Zohar, pp. 274-275).
Myer
points out that the “form” is “not ‘the Ancient of the Ancients,’ who is the
Ain Soph.
Again
:
“Three
Lights are in the Holy Upper which Unite as One ; and they are the basis of
the Thorah, and this opens the door to all….Come, see! the mystery of the
word. These are three degrees and each exists by itself, and yet all are One
and are knotted in One, nor are they separated one from another….Three come
out from One, One exists in Three, it is the force between Two, Two nourishes
One. One nourishes many sides, thus All is One. (ibid., 373, 375,376).
Needless
to say that the Hebrews held the doctrine of many Gods – “Who is like unto Thee,
O Lord, among the Gods?” –and of multitudes of subordinate ministrants, the
”Sons of God,” the “Angels of the Lord,” the “Ten Angelic Hosts.”(Exodus,
xv,ii.)
Of
the commencement of the universe the Zohar teaches : (Page
18)
In
the beginning was the Will of the King, prior to any existence which came
into being through emanation from this Will. It sketched and engraved the
forms of all things that were to be manifested from concealment into view,
in the supreme and dazzling light of the Quadrant [the Sacred Tetractys] (Myer’s
Quabbalah, pp. 194-95).
Nothing
can exist in which the Deity is not immanent, and with regard to Reincarnation
it is taught that the Soul is present in the divine Idea ere coming to earth
; if the Soul remained quite pure during its trial it escaped rebirth, but this
seems to have been only a theoretical possibility, and it is said:
All souls are subject to revolution (metempsychosis, a’leen o’gilgoolah),
but men do not know the ways of the Holy One : blessed be It! they are ignorant
of the way they have been judged in all time, and before they came into this
world and when they have quitted it (ibid., p. 198).
Traces
of this belief occur both in the Hebrew and Christian exoteric Scriptures, as
in the belief that Elijah would return, and later that he had returned in John
the Baptist.
Turning to glance at Egypt, we find there from hoariest antiquity its famous
Trinity, Ra, Osiris-Isis as the dual Second LOGOS, and Horus. The great hymn
to Amun-Ra will be remembered :
The
Gods bow before Thy Majesty by exalting the Souls of That which produceth
them….and say to Thee : Peace to all emanations from the unconscious father
of the conscious Fathers of the Gods…..Thou Producer of beings, we adore the
Souls which emanate from Thee. Thou begettest us, O Thou Unknown, and we greet
Thee in worshipping each God-Soul which descendeth (Page
19) from Thee and liveth in us (quoted in Secret
Doctrine iii, 485, 1893 ed.; v, 463, Adyar Ed.).
The
“conscious Fathers of the Gods” are the LOGOI, the “unconscious Father” is the
One Existence, unconscious not as being less but as being infinitely more than
what we call consciousness, a limited thing.
In
the fragments of the Book of the Dead we can study the conceptions
of the reincarnating of the human Soul, of its pilgrimage towards and its ultimate
union with the LOGOS. The famous papyrus of “the scribe Ani, triumphant in peace,”
is full of touches that remind the reader of the Scriptures of other faiths
; his journey through the underworld, his expectation of re-entering his body
(the form taken by reincarnation among the Egyptians), his identification with
the LOGOS :
Saith
Osiris Ani : I am the great One, son of the great One ; I am Fire, the son
of Fire …I have knit together my bones, I have made myself whole and sound
; I have become young once more ; I am Osiris the Lord of eternity (xliii,
1, 4 ).
In
Pierret’s recension of The Book of the Dead we find the striking passage:
I
am the being of mysterious names who prepares for himself dwellings for millions
of years (p. 22). Heart, that comest to me from my mother, my heart
necessary to my existence on earth …Heart, that comest to me from my mother,
heart that is necessary for me for my transformation (pp. 113-114).
In
Zoroastrianism we find the conception of the One Existence, imaged as Boundless
Space, whence arises the LOGOS, the creator Aûharmazd: (Page
20)
Supreme
in omniscience and goodness, and unrivalled in splendor : the region of light
is the place of Aûharmazd (The Bundahis, Sacred Books of the East,
v, 3, 4; v, 2).
To
him in the Yasna, the chief liturgy of the Zarathustrians, homage is first paid
:
I
announce and I (will) complete (my Yasna [worship] to Ahura Mazda, the creator,
the radiant and glorious, the greatest and the best, the most beautiful (?)
(to our conceptions), the most firm, the wisest, and the one of all whose
body is most perfect, who attains his ends the most infallibly, because of
His righteous order, to Him who disposes our minds aright, who sends His joy-creating
grace afar ; who made us and has fashioned us, and who has nourished and protected
us, who is the most bounteous Spirit (Sacred Books of the East, xxxi, pp.
195,196).
The
worshipper then pays homage to the Ameshaspends and other Gods, but the supreme
manifested God, the LOGOS, is not here presented as triune. As with the Hebrews,
there was a tendency in the exoteric faith to lose sight of this fundamental
truth. Fortunately we can trace the primitive teaching, though it disappeared
in later times from the popular belief. Dr. Haug, in his Essays on the Parsis
(translated by Dr. West and forming vol. v of Trubner’s Oriental Series)
states that Ahuramazda – Aûharmazd or Hârmazd – is the Supreme
Being, and that from him were produced –
Two
primeval causes, which, though different were united and produced the world
of material things as well as that of the spirit (p. 303).
These
were called twins and are everywhere present, in Ahuramazda as well as in man.
(Page 21) One produces reality,
the other non-reality, and it is these who in later Zoroastrianism became the
opposing Spirits of good and evil. In the earlier teachings they evidently
formed the Second Logos, duality being his characteristic mark.
The “good” and “bad” are merely Light and Darkness, Spirit and Matter, the fundamental
“twins” of the Universe, the Two from the One.
Criticising
the later idea, Dr. Haug says :
Such
is the original Zoroastrian notion of the two creative Spirits, who form only
two parts of the Divine being. But in the course of time this doctrine of
the great founder was changed and corrupted, in consequence of misunderstandings
and false interpretations. Spentômainyush [ the “good spirit”]
was taken as a name of Ahuramazda Himself, and then of course Angrômainyush
[ the “evil spirit”] by becoming entirely separated from Ahuramazda
; was regarded as the constant adversary of Ahuramazda : thus the Dualism
of God and Devil arose (p. 205).
Dr.
Haug’s view seems to be supported by the Gâtha Ahunavaiti, given with
other Gâthas by “the archangels” to Zoroaster or Zarathustra :
In
the beginning there was a pair of twins, two spirits, each of a peculiar activity
; these are the good and the base …And these two spirits united created the
first (the material things) ; one the reality, the other the non-reality …And
to succor this life (to increase it) Armaiti came with wealth, the good and
true mind ; she, the everlasting one, created the material world….All perfect
things are garnered up in the splendid residence of the Good Mind, the Wise
and the Righteous, who are known as the best beings (Yas., xxx, 3,4,7,10;
Dr. Haug’s translation, pp.149-151).(Page
22)
Here
the three LOGOI are seen, Ahuramazda the first, the supreme Life ; in and from
him the “twins,” the Second LOGOS ; then Armaiti the Mind, the Creator of the
Universe, the Third LOGOS. ( Armaiti was a first Wisdom and the Goddess
of Wisdom, Later as the creator, She became identified with the earth, and was
worshipped as the Goddess of Earth). Later Mithra appears, and in the exoteric
faith clouds the primitive truth to some extent ; of him it is said :
Whom
Ahura Mazda has established to maintain and look over all this moving world
; who, never sleeping, wakefully guards the creation of Mazda (Mihir Yast,
xxvii, 103: Sacred Books of the East, xviii).
He
was a subordinate God, the Light of Heaven, as Varuna was the Heaven itself,
one of the great ruling Intelligences. The highest of these ruling Intelligences
were the six Ameshaspends, headed by the Good Thought of Ahuramazda, Vohûman
–
Who
have charge of the whole material creation (Sacred Books of the East,v.
p. 10 note).
Reincarnation
does not seem to be taught in the books which, so far, have been translated,
and the belief is not current among modern Parsīs. But we do find the idea
of the Spirit in man as a spark that is to become a flame and to be reunited
to the Supreme Fire, and this must imply a development for which rebirth is
a necessity. Nor will Zoroastrianism ever be understood until we recover the
Chaldean Oracles and allied writings, for there is its real root.(Page
23)
Travelling
westward to Greece, we meet with the Orphic system, described with such abundant
learning by G.R.S.Mead in his work Orpheus. The Ineffable Thrice-unknown
Darkness was the name given to the One Existence.
According
to the theology of Orpheus, all things originate from an immense principle,
to which through the imbecility and poverty of human conception we give a
name, though it is perfectly ineffable, and in the reverential language of
the Egyptians in a thrice unknown darkness in contemplation of which
all knowledge is refunded into ignorance (Thomas Taylor, quoted in Orpheus,
page 93).
From
this the “Primordial Triad,” Universal Good, Universal Soul, Universal Mind,
again the Logoic Trinity. Of this Mr. Mead writes :
The
first Triad, which is manifestable to intellect, is but a reflection of, or
substitute for the Unmanifestable, and its hypostases are: (a) the Good, which
is super-essential; (b) Soul (the World Soul), which is a self-motive essence;
and (c) Intellect (or the Mind), which is an impartible, immovable essence
(ibid., p. 94).
After
this, a series of ever-descending Triads, showing the characteristics of the
first in diminishing splendor until man is reached, who –
Has in him potentially the sum and substance of the universe…"The race
of men and gods is one (Pindar, who was a Pythagorean, quoted by Clemens,
Strom., v.709)…Thus man was called the microcosm or little world,
to distinguish him from the universe or great world (ibid., p. 271).
He
has the Nous, or real mind, the Logos or rational part, the Alogos or irrational
part, the two latter again forming a Triad, and thus presenting the more elaborate
septenary division. (Page 24) The
man was also regarded as having three vehicles, the physical and subtle bodies
and the luciform body or augoeides, that :
Is
the “causal body,” or karmic vesture of the soul, in which its destiny, or
rather all the seeds of past causation are stored. This is the “thread-soul,”
as it is sometimes called, the “body” that passes over from one incarnation
to another (ibid., p. 284).
As to
reincarnation:
Together
with all the adherents of the Mysteries in every land the Orphics believed
in reincarnation (ibid., p. 292).
To
this Mr. Mead brings abundant testimony, and he shows that it was taught by
Plato, Empedocles, Pythagoras, and others. Only by virtue could men escape from
the life-wheel.
Taylor in his notes to the Select Works of Plotinus, quotes from Damascius
as to the teachings of Plato on the One beyond the One, the Unmanifest Existence
:
Perhaps
indeed, Plato leads us ineffably through the one as a medium to
the ineffable beyond the one which is now the subject of discussion
; and this by an ablation of the one in the same manner as he leads
to the one by an ablation of other things…That which is beyond the
one is to be honoured in the most perfect silence…The one indeed
wills to be by itself, but with no other ; but the unknown beyond the
one is perfectly ineffable, which we acknowledge we neither know, nor
are ignorant of, but which has about itself super-ignorance. Hence
by proximity to this the one itself is darkened ; for being near
to the immense principle, if it be lawful so to speak, it remains as it were
in the adytum of the truly mystic silence…The first is above the one
and all things, being more simple than either of these (pp.341-343).(Page
25)
The
Pythagorean, Platonic, and Neo-Platonic schools have so many points of contact
with Hindu and Buddhist thought that their issue from the one fountain is obvious.
R. Garbe, in his work, Die Sāmkhya Philosophie (iii,pp.85-105) presents
many of these points, and his statement may be summarised as follows :
The
most striking is the resemblance – or more correctly the identity – of the doctrine
of the One and Only in the Upanishads and the Eleatic school. Xenophanes’ teaching
of the unity of God and the Kosmos and of the changelessness of the One, and
even more that of Parmenides, who held that reality is ascribable only to the
One unborn, indestructible and omnipresent, while all that is manifold and subject
to change is but an appearance, and further that Being and Thinking are the
same – these doctrines are completely identical with the essential contents
of the Upanishads and of the Vedântic philosophy which springs from them.
But even earlier still
the view of Thales, that all that exists has sprung from Water, is curiously
like the VaidiK doctrine that the Universe arose from the waters. Later on Anaximander
assumed as the basis (άρχή) of all things an eternal,
infinite, and indefinite Substance, from which all definite substances proceed
and into which they return – an assumption identical with that which lies at
the root of the Sānkhya, viz., the Prakŗti from which the whole material
side of the universe evolved.
And
his famous saying πάντα ́ρεî (panta
rhei) (Page 26) expresses the
characteristic view of the Sânkhya that all things are ever changing under
the ceaseless activity of the three gunas. Empedocles again taught theories
of transmigration and evolution practically the same as those of the Sânkhyas,
while his theory that nothing can come into being which does not already exist
is even more closely identical with a characteristically Sânkhyan doctrine.
Both
Anaxagoras and Democritus also present several points of close agreement, especially
the latter’s view as to the nature and position of the Gods, and the same applies,
notably in some curious matters of detail, to Epicurus. But it is, however,
in the teachings of Pythagoras that we find the closest and most frequent identities
of teachings and argumentation, explained as due to Pythagoras himself having
visited India and learned his philosophy there, as tradition asserts. In later
centuries we find some peculiarly Sânkhyan and Buddhist ideas playing
a prominent part in Gnostic thought. The following quotation from Lassen, cited
by Garbe on p. 97, shows this very clearly :
Buddhism
in general distinguishes clearly between Spirit and Light, and does not regard
the latter as immaterial ; but a view of Light is found among them which is
closely related to that of the Gnostics. According to this, Light is the manifestation
of Spirit in matter ; the intelligence thus clothed in Light comes into relation
with matter, in which the Light can be lessened and at last quite obscured,
in which case the Intelligence falls finally into complete unconsciousness.
Of
the highest Intelligence it is maintained that it is neither Light nor Not-Light,
neither Darkness nor Not-Darkness, since all (Page
27) those expressions denote relations of the Intelligence to the
Light, which indeed in the beginning was free from these connections, but
later on encloses the Intelligence and mediates its connection with matter.
It follows from this that the Buddhist view ascribes to the highest Intelligence
the power to produce light from itself, and that in this respect also there
is an agreement between Buddhism and Gnosticism.
Garbe
here points out that, as regards the features alluded to, the agreement between
Gnosticism and Sânkhya is very much closer than that with Buddhism ; for
while these views as to the relations between Light and Spirit pertain to the
later phases of Buddhism, and are not at all fundamental to, or characteristic
of it as such, the Sânkhya teaches clearly and precisely that Spirit is
Light. Later still
the influence of the Sânkhya thought is very plainly evident in the Neo-Platonic
writers ; while the doctrine of the LOGOS or Word, though not of Sânkhyan
origin, shows even in its details that it has been derived from India, where
the conception of Vāch, the Divine Word, plays so prominent a part in the
Brâhmanical system.
Coming
to the Christian religion, contemporaneous with the Gnostic and Neo-Platonic
systems, we shall find no difficulty in tracing most of the same fundamental
teachings with which we have now become so familiar. The threefold LOGOS appears
as the Trinity ; the First LOGOS, the fount of all life being the Father ; the
dual-natured Second LOGOS the Son, God-man ; the Third, the creative Mind, the
Holy Ghost, whose brooding over the waters of chaos brought forth the worlds.
(Page 28) Then comes “the seven
Spirits of God” [Rev.
iv. 5.] and the hosts archangels and angels. Of the One Existence from which
all comes and into which all returns, but little is hinted, the Nature that
by searching cannot be found out ; but the great doctors of the Church Catholic
always posit the unfathomable Deity, incomprehensible, infinite, and therefore
necessarily but One and partless.
Man
is made in the “image of God,” [Gen. I, 26-27] and is consequently triple
in his nature – Spirit and Soul and body, [1-Thess. V, 23] he is a “habitation
of God,” [Eph. Ii, 22] the “temple of God,” [ I Cor.,iii,16] the
“temple of the Holy Ghost,” [ I Cor., vi, 19] – phrases that exactly
echo the Hindu teaching. The doctrine of reincarnation is rather taken for granted
in the New Testament than distinctly taught ; thus Jesus speaking of
John the Baptist, declares that he is Elias “which was for to come.” [ Matt.
xi., 14] referring to the words of Malachi, “ I will send you Elijah the
prophet”, [ Mal., Iv, 5] and again, when asked as to Elijah coming before
the Messiah, He answered that “Elias is come already and they knew him not.”
[ Matt. xvii, 12 ].So
again we find the disciples taking reincarnation for granted in asking whether
blindness from birth was a punishment for a man’s sin and Jesus in answer not
rejecting the possibility of ante-natal sin, but only excluding it as causing
the blindness in the special instance. [John, ix, 1-13 ] The remarkable
phrase applied to “him that overcometh” in Rev. iii, 12, - (Page
29) that he shall be “a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall
go no more out”, has been taken as signifying escape from rebirth. From
the writings of some of the Christian Fathers a good case may be made our for
a current belief in reincarnation ; some argue that only the pre-existence of
the Soul is taught, but this view does not seem to me supported by the evidence.
The unity of moral teaching is not less striking, than the unity of the conceptions
of the universe and of the experiences of those who rose out of the prison of
the body into the freedom of the higher spheres. It
is clear that this body of primeval teaching was in the hands of definite custodians,
who had schools in which they taught, disciples who studied their doctrines.
The identity of these schools and of their discipline stands out plainly when
we study the moral teaching, the demands made on the pupils, and the mental
and spiritual states to which they were raised. A caustic division is made
in the Tāo Teh Ching of the types of scholars :
Scholars
of the highest class when they hear about the Tāo, earnestly carry it
into practice. Scholars of the middle class, when they have hears about it,
seem now to keep it and now to lose it. Scholars of the lowest class, when
they have heard about it, laugh greatly at it (Sacred Books of the East,
xxxix, op. Cit., xli, 1).
In the
same book we read :
The
sage puts his own person last, and yet it is found in the foremost place; he
treats his person as if it were foreign to him, and yet that person is preserved.
It is not because (Page 30) he
has no personal and private ends that therefore such ends are realised? (vii,2)
– He is free from self-display, and therefore he shines; from self-assertion,
and therefore he is distinguished ; from self-boasting, and therefore his merit
is acknowledged, from self-complacency, and therefore he acquires superiority.
It is because he is
thus free from striving that therefore no one in the world is able to strive
with him (xxii, 2). There is no guilt greater than to sanction ambition
; no calamity greater than to be discontented with one’s lot ; no fault greater
than the wish to be getting (xlvi,2). To those who are good (to me)
I am good ; and to those who are not good (to me) I am also good ; and
thus all get to be good. To those who are sincere (with me) I am sincere;
and to those who are not sincere (with me) I am also sincere ; and thus
(all) get to be sincere (xlix, 1). He who has in himself abundantly the
attributes (of the Tâo ) is like an infant. Poisonous
insects will not sting him ; fierce beasts will not seize him ; birds of prey
will not strike him – (
lv, 1), I have three precious things which I prize and hold fast. The
first is gentleness ; the second is economy ; the third is shrinking from taking
precedence of others …Gentleness is sure to be victorious, even in battle, and
firmly to maintain its ground. Heaven will save its possessor, by his (very)
gentleness protecting him (lxvii,2,4).
Among
the Hindus there were selected scholars deemed worthy of special instruction
to whom the Guru imparted the secret teachings, while the general rules of right
living may be gathered from Manu’s Ordinances, the Upanishads,
the Mahâbhârata and many other treatises :
Let
him say what is true, let him say what is pleasing, let him utter no disagreeable
truth, and let him utter no agreeable falsehood ; that is the eternal law
(Manu, iv, 138). Giving no pain to any creature, let him slowly accumulate
spiritual merit (iv, 238). For that twice-born man, by whom not (Page
31) the smallest danger even is caused to created beings, there
will be no danger from any (quarter) after he is freed from his body (vi,
40). Let him
patiently bear hard words, let him not insult anybody, and let him not become
anybody’s enemy for the sake of this (perishable) body. Against an angry man
let him not in return show anger, let him bless when he is cursed (vi,
47-48). Freed from passion, fear and anger, thinking on Me, taking refuge
in Me, purified in the fire of Wisdom, many have entered My Being (Bhagavad
Gitâ , iv, 10). Supreme joy is for the Yogi whose Manas is peaceful,
whose passion-nature is calmed, who is sinless and of the nature of Brahman
(iv, 27). He
who beareth no ill-will to any being, friendly and compassionate, without
attachment and egoism, balanced in pleasure and pain, and forgiving, ever
content, harmonious, with the self controlled, resolute, with Manas and Buddhi
dedicated to Me – he, My devotee, is dear to Me (xii,13,14)
If
we turn to the Buddha, we find Him with His Arhats, to whom His secret teachings
were given ; while published we have :
The
wise man through earnestness, virtue, and purity makes himself an island which
no flood can submerge (Udânavarga, iv, 5 ). The wise man in
this world holds fast to faith and wisdom, these are his greatest treasures
; he cast aside all other riches, (x 9). He who bears ill-will to those
who bear ill-will can never become pure ; but he who feels no ill-will pacifies
those who hate ; as hatred brings misery to mankind, the sage knows no hatred
(xiii, 12). Overcome anger by not being angered ; overcome evil by
good ; overcome avarice by liberality ; overcome falsehoods by truth (xx,18).
The Zoroastrian
is taught to praise Ahuramazda, and then:
What
is fairest, what is pure, what immortal, what brilliant, all that is good.
The good spirit we honor, the good kingdom we honor, and the good law, and
the good wisdom (Page 32) (Yasna,
xxxvii). May there come to this dwelling contentment, blessing, guilelessness,
and wisdom of the pure (Yasna, lix). Purity is the best good. Happiness,
happiness is to him ; namely, to the best pure in purity (Ashem-vohu).
All good thoughts, words, and works are done with knowledge. All evil thoughts,
words, and works are not done with knowledge (Mispa Kumata). ( Selected
from the Avesta in Ancient Iranian and Zoroastrian Morals,
by Dhunjibhoy Jamsetji Medhora).
The
Hebrew had his “schools of the prophets” and his Kabbalah, and in the exoteric
books we find the accepted moral teachings :
Who
shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in His holy place?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart ; who hath not lifted up his soul
unto vanity, not sworn deceitfully (Ps. xxiv,3,4). What doth the Lord
require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God? (Micah,vi,8). The lip of truth shall be established for ever ; but
a lying tongue is but for a moment (Prov. xii, 19). Is not this the
fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy
burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is
it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are
cast out to thy home? when thou seest the naked that thou cover him, and that
thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? (Isa. lviii,6,7).
The
Christian teacher had His secret instructions for His disciples, (Matt. xiii,
10-17) – and He bade them:
Give
not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine
(Matt. vii, 6).
For
public teaching we may refer to the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount and
to such (Page 33) doctrines as
:
I
say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute
you….Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect
(Matt. v, 44-48). He that findeth his life shall lose it ; and he that
loseth his life for my sake shall find it (x,39). Whoever shall humble
himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven
(xviii, 4). The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance ; against such there is
no law (Gal., v, 22-23). Let us love one another ; for love is of God
; and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God ( I John iv,
7 ).
The
school of the Pythagoras and those of the Neo-Platonists kept up the tradition
for Greece, and we know that Pythagoras gained some of his learning in India,
while Plato studied, and was initiated in the schools of Egypt. More precise
information has been published of the Grecian schools than of others ; the Pythagorean
had pledged disciples as well as an outer discipline, the inner circle passing
through three degrees during five years of probation. (For details see
G.R.S. Mead’s Orpheus, p. 263 et. Seq.). The outer discipline
he describes as follows :
We
must first give ourselves up entirely to God. When a man prays he should never
ask for any particular benefit, fully convinced that that will be given which
is right and proper, and according to the wisdom of God and not the subject
of our own selfish desires (Diod. Sic. ix, 41). By virtue alone does
man arrive at blessedness, and this is the exclusive privilege of a rational
being (Hippodamus, De Felicitate, ii, Orelli, Opusc. Græcor. Sent. et Moral.,
Ii, 284). In himself, of his own nature, man is neither good nor happy,
but he may become so by the teaching of the true doctrine (Page
34) (μαθήσιος και΄
προνι΄ας ποτιδέεται)
– (Hippo, ibid.).
The most sacred duty is filial piety. “God showers his blessings on him who
honors and reveres the author of his days,” says Pampelus (De Parentibus,
Orelli, op. Cit., ii, 345). Ingratitude towards one’s parents is the
blackest of all crimes, writes Perictione ( ibid.,p. 350), who is supposed
to have been the mother of Plato. The cleanliness and delicacy of all Pythagorean
writings were remarkable (Œlian, Hist. Var., xiv,19). In all that
concerns chastity and marriage their principles are of the utmost purity.
Everywhere the great teacher recommends chastity and temperance ; but at the
same time he directs that the married should first become parents before
living a life of absolute celibacy, in order that children might be born under
favourable conditions for continuing the holy life and succession of the Sacred
Science (Iamblichus, Vit. Pythag., and Hierocl., ap. Stob. Serm. xlv, 14).
This is exceedingly
interesting, for it is precisely the same regulation that is laid down in
the Mânava Dharma Shâstra, the great Indian Code. …Adultery was
most sternly condemned (Iamb., ibid.). Moreover, the most gentle treatment
of the wife by the husband was enjoined, for had he not taken her as his companion
“before the Gods”? (See Lascaulx. Zur Geschichte der Ehe bei den Griechen,
in the Mém. De l’Acad. De Bavière, vii, 107,sq.).
Marriage
was not an animal union, but a spiritual tie. Therefore, in her turn, the
wife should love her husband even more than herself, and in all things be
devoted and obedient. It is further interesting to remark that the finest
characters among women with which ancient Greece presents us were formed in
the school of Pythagoras, and the same is true of the men.
The
authors of antiquity are agreed that this discipline had succeeded in producing
the highest examples not only of the purest chastity and sentiment, but also
a simplicity of manners, a delicacy, and a taste for serious pursuits which
was unparalleled. This is admitted even by Christian writers (See Justin,
xx, 4)…Among the members of the school the idea of justice directed
all their acts, while they observed (Page
35) the strictest tolerance and compassion in their mutual relationships.
For justice is the
principle of all virtue, as Polus, (ap. Stob., Serm., viii, ed. Schow,
p. 232) teaches ; “’tis justice which maintains peace and balance in the
soul ; she is the mother of good order in all communities, makes concord between
husband and wife, love between master and servant.’ The
word of a Pythagorean: was also his bond. And finally a man should live so
as to be ever ready for death ( Hippolytus, Philos., vi). (ibid., p. 263-267).
The
treatment of the virtues in the Neo-Platonic schools is interesting, and the
distinction is clearly made between morality and spiritual development, or
as Plotinus put it, “The endeavour is not to be without sin, but to be of God.”
(Select Works of Plotinus, trans. Thomas Taylor, ed., 1895, p. 11).The
lowest stage was becoming without sin by acquiring the “political virtues” which
made a man perfect in conduct (the physical and ethical being below these),
the reason controlling and adorning the irrational nature. Above these were
the cathartic, pertaining to reason alone, and which liberated the Soul from
the bonds of generation ; the theoretic , lifting the Soul into touch with natures
superior to itself;and the paradigmatic, giving it a knowledge of true being
:
Hence
he who energises according to the practical virtues is a worthy man;
but he who energises according to the cathartic virtues is a demoniacal
man, or is also a good demon. (A good spiritual intelligence,
as the daimon of Socrates). He who energises according to the intellectual
virtues alone is a God. But he who energises according to the paradigmatic
virtues (Page 36) is the Father
of the Gods. (Note on Intellectual Prudence, pp. 325-332).
By
various practices the disciples were taught to escape from the body, and to
rise into higher regions. As grass is drawn from a sheath, the inner man was
to draw himself from his bodily casing (
Kathopanishad, vi,17). The “body of light” or “radiant body” of the Hindus
is the “luciform body” of the Neo-Plationists, and in this man rises to find
the Self :
Not
grasped by the eye, nor by speech, nor by the others senses (lit., Gods),
nor by austerity, nor by religious rites ; by serene wisdom, by the pure essence
only, doth one see the partless One in meditation. This subtle Self is to
be known by the mind in which the fivefold life is sleeping. The mind of all
creatures is instinct with [these] lives ; in this, purified, manifests the
Self ( Mundakopanishad, III, ii, 8,9).
Then
alone can man enter the region where separation is not, where “the spheres have
ceased.” In G.R.S.Mead’s Introduction to Taylor’s Plotinus, he quotes
from Plotinus a description of a sphere which is evidently the Turîya
of the Hindus :
They
likewise see all things, not those with which generation, but those with which
essence is present. And they perceive themselves in others. For all things
there, are diaphanous; and nothing is dark and resisting, but everything is
apparent to every one internally and throughout. For light everywhere meets
with light ; since everything contains all things in itself and again see
all things in another. So that all things are everywhere and all is all. Each
thing likewise is everything. And the splendor there is infinite. For everything
there is great, since even that which is small is great. (Page
37) The sun too which is there is all the stars; and again each
star is the sun and all the stars. In each however, a different property predominates,
but at the same time all things are visible in each. Motion likewise there
is pure; for the motion is not confounded by a mover different from it (p.
lxxiii).
A
description which is a failure, because the region is one above describing by
mortal language, but a description that could only have been written by one
whose eyes had been opened.
A whole volume might easily be filled with the similarities between the religions
of the world, but the above imperfect statement must suffice as a preface to
the study of Theosophy, to that which is a fresh and fuller presentment to the
world of the ancient truths on which it has ever been fed. all
these similarities point to a single source, and that is the Brotherhood of
the White Lodge, the Hierarchy of Adepts who watch over and guide the evolution
of humanity, and who have preserved these truths unimpaired ; from time to time,
as necessity arose, reasserting them in the ears of men. From other worlds,
from earlier humanities, They came to help our globe, evolved by a process comparable
to that now going on with ourselves, and that will be more intelligible when
we have completed our present study than it may now appear ; and They have afforded
this help, reinforced by the flower of our own humanity, from the earliest times
until today.
Still
They teach eager pupils, showing the path and guiding the disciple’s steps ;
still They may be reached by all who seek Them, (Page
38) bearing in their hands the sacrificial fuel of love, of devotion,
of unselfish longing to know in order to serve ; still They carry out the ancient
discipline, still unveil the ancient Mysteries. The two pillars of Their Lodge
gateway are Love and Wisdom, and through its straight portal can only pass those
from whose shoulders has fallen the burden of desire and selfishness.
A
heavy task lies before us, and beginning on the physical plane we shall climb
slowly upwards, but a bird’s eye view of the great sweep of evolution and of
its purpose may help us, ere we begin our detailed study in the world that surrounds
us. A LOGOS, ere a
system has begun to be, has in His mind the whole, existing as idea – all forces,
all forms, all that in due process shall emerge into objective life. He draws
the circle of manifestation within which He wills to energise, and circumscribes
Himself to be the life of His universe. As
we watch we see strata appearing of successive densities, till seven vast regions
are apparent, and in these centres of energy appear whirlpools of matter that
separate from each other, until when the processes of separation and of condensation
are over – so far as we are here concerned – we see a central sun, the physical
symbol of the LOGOS, and seven planetary chains, each chain consisting of seven
globes.
Narrowing
down our view to the chain of which our globe is one, we see life-waves sweep
round i, forming the kingdoms of nature, the three elemental, the mineral, vegetable,
animal, human. Narrowing down our view still further to our own globe and its
surroundings, we (Page 39) watch
human evolution, and see man developing self-consciousness by a series of many
life-periods ; then centering on a single man we trace his growth and see that
each life-period has a threefold division that each is linked to all life-periods
behind it reaping their results, and to all life-periods before it sowing their
harvests, by a law that cannot be broken ; that thus man may climb upwards with
each life-period adding to his experience, each life-period lifting him higher
in purity, in devotion, in intellect, in power of usefulness, until at last
he stands where They stand who are now the Teachers, fit, to pay to his younger
brothers the debt he owes to Them.
CHAPTER
I
THE
PHYSICAL PLANE
(Page
40) We have just
seen that the source from which a universe proceeds is a manifested Divine Being,
to whom in the modern form of the Ancient Wisdom the name LOGOS, or Word has
been given. The name is drawn from Greek Philosophy, but perfectly expresses
the ancient idea, the Word which emerges from the Silence, the Voice, the Sound,
by which the worlds come into being. We
must now trace the evolution of spirit-matter, in order that we may understand
something of the nature of the materials with which we have to deal on the physical
plane, or physical world. For it is in the potentialities wrapped up, involved,
in the spirit-matter of the physical world that lies the possibility of evolution.
The whole process is an unfolding, self-moved from within and aided by intelligent
beings without, who can retard or quicken evolution, but cannot transcend the
capacities inherent in the materials. Some idea of these earliest stages of
the world’s “becoming” is therefore necessary, although any attempt to go into
minute details would carry us far beyond the limits of such an elementary treatise
as the present. A very cursory sketch must suffice. (Page
41)
Coming
forth from the depths of the One Existence, from the ONE beyond all thought
and all speech, a LOGOS, by imposing on Himself a limit, circumscribing voluntarily
the range of His own Being, becomes the manifested God, and tracing the limiting
sphere of His activity thus outlines the area of His universe. Within
that sphere the universe is born, is evolved, and dies ; it lives, it moves,
it has its being in Him ; its matter is His emanation ; its forces and energies
are currents of His Life ; He is immanent in every atom, all-pervading, all-sustaining,
all-evolving ; He is its source and its end, its cause and its object, its centre
and circumference ; it is built on Him as its sure foundation, it breathes in
Him as its encircling space ; He is in everything and everything in Him. Thus
have the sages of the Ancient Wisdom taught us of the beginning of the manifested
worlds.
From
the same source we learn of the Self-unfolding of the LOGOS into a threefold
form ; the First LOGOS, the Root of all being ; from Him the Second, manifesting
the two aspects of Life and Form, the primal duality, making the two poles of
nature between which the web of the universe is to be woven – Life-Form, Spirit-Matter,
Positive-Negative, Active-Receptive, Father-Mother of the worlds. Then the Third
LOGOS, the Universal Mind, that in which all archetypically exists, the source
of beings, the fount of fashioning energies, the treasure house in which are
stored up all the archetypal forms which are to be brought forth and elaborated
in lower kinds (Page 42) of matter
during the evolution of the universe. These
are the fruits of past universes, brought over as seeds for the present.
The phenomenal spirit and matter of any universe are finite in their extent
and transitory in their duration, but the roots of spirit and matter are eternal.
The root of matter (Mulâprakriti ) has been said by a profound writer
to be visible to the LOGOS as a veil thrown over the One existence, the supreme
Brahman (Parabrahman) –to use the ancient name.
It
is this “veil” which the LOGOS assumes for the purpose of manifestation, using
it for the self-imposed limit which makes activity possible. From this He elaborates
the matter of His universe, being Himself its informing, guiding, and controlling
life. ( Hence He is called “The Lord of Mâyâ” in some Eastern Scriptures,
Mâyâ, or illusion, being the principle of form; form is regarded
as illusory, from its transitory nature and perpetual transformations, the life
which expresses itself under the veil of form being the reality).
Of
what occurs on the two higher planes of the universe, the seventh and sixth,
we can form but the haziest conception. The energy of the LOGOS as whirling
motion of inconceivable rapidity “digs holes in space” in this root matter,
and this vortex of life encased in a film of the root of matter is the primary
atom; these and their aggregations, spread throughout the universe, form all
the subdivisions of spirit-matter of the highest or seventh plane. The sixth
plane is formed by some of the (Page 43)
countless myriads of these primary atoms, setting up a vortex in the coarsest
aggregations of their own plane, and this primary atom en-walled with spiral
strands of the coarsest combinations of the seventh plane becomes the finest
unit of spirit-matter, or atom of the sixth plane. These sixth plane atoms and
their endless combinations form the subdivisions of the spirit-matter of the
sixth plane.
The
sixth-plane-atom, in its turn, sets up a vortex in the coarsest aggregations
of its own plane, and, with these coarsest aggregations as a limiting wall,
becomes the finest unit of spirit-matter, or atom, of the fifth plane. Again,
these fifth-plane atoms, and their combinations form the subdivisions of the
spirit-matter of the fifth plane. The process is repeated to form successively
the spirit-matter of the fourth, the third, the second, and the first planes.
These are
the seven great regions of the universe, so far as their material constituents
are concerned. A clearer idea of them will be gained by analogy when we come
to master the modifications of the spirit-matter of our own physical world.
(The
student may find the conception clearer if he thinks of the fifth plane atoms
as Ātmā ; those of the fourth plane as Ātmā enveloped in
Buddhi-matter ; those of the third plane as Ātmā enveloped in Buddhi
and Manas-matter ; those of the second plane as Ātmā enveloped in
Buddhi-Manas- and Kāma-matter ; those of the lowest as Ātmā enveloped
in Buddhi-Manas-Kāma and Sthûla-matter. Only the outermost is active
in each, but the inner are there, though latent, ready to come into activity
on the upward arc of evolution).
The
world “spirit-matter” is used designedly. (Page
44) At implies the fact that there is no such thing as “dead” matter
; all matter is living, the tiniest particles are lives. Science speaks truly
in affirming : “No force without matter, no matter without force.” They are
wedded together in an indissoluble marriage throughout the ages of the life
of a universe, and none can wrench them apart. Matter
is form, and there is no form which does not express a life ; spirit is life,
and there is no life that is not limited by form. Even the LOGOS, the Supreme
Lord, has during manifestation the universe as His form, and so down to the
atom.
This
involution of the life of the LOGOS as the ensouling force in every particle,
and its successive enwrapping in the spirit-matter of every plane, so that the
materials of each plane have within them in a hidden, or latent condition, all
the form and force possibilities of all the planes above them as well as those
of their own – these two facts make evolution certain and give to the very lowest
particle the hidden potentialities which will render it fit – as they become
active powers – to enter into the forms of the highest beings. In
fact, evolution may be summed up in a phrase : it is latent potentialities becoming
active powers.
The second great wave of evolution, the evolution of form, and the third great
wave, the evolution of self-consciousness, will be dealt with later on. These
three currents of evolution are distinguishable on our earth in connection with
humanity ; the making of the materials, the building of the house, and the growing
(Page 45) of the tenant of the
house, or, as said above, the evolution of spirit-matter, the evolution of form,
the evolution of self-consciousness.If
the reader can grasp and retain this idea, he will find a helpful clue to guide
him through the labyrinth of facts.
We can now turn to the detailed examination of the physical plane, that on which
our world exists and to which our bodies belong.
Examining the materials belonging to this plane, we are struck by their immense
variety, the innumerable differences of constitution in the objects around us,
minerals, vegetables, animals, all differing in their constituents : matter
hard and soft, transparent and opaque, brittle and ductile, bitter and sweet,
pleasant and nauseous, coloured and colourless. Out of this confusion three
subdivisions of matter emerge as a fundamental classification : matter is solid,
liquid, gaseous. Further examination shows that these solids, liquids and gases
are made up by combinations of much simpler bodies, called by chemists “elements,”
and that these elements may exist in a solid, liquid, or gaseous condition without
changing their respective natures.
Thus
the chemical element oxygen is a constituent of wood, and in combination with
other elements forms the solid wood fibres ; it exists in the sap with another
element, yielding a liquid combination as water ; and it exists also in it by
itself as gas. Under these three conditions it is oxygen. Further , pure oxygen
can be reduced from a gas to a liquid, (Page
46) and from a liquid to a solid, remaining pure oxygen all the time,
and so with other elements. We thus obtain as three subdivisions, or conditions
of matter on the physical plane, solid, liquid, gas. Searching further, we find
a fourth condition, ether, and a minute search reveals that this ether exists
in four conditions as well defined as those of solid, liquid and gas ; to take
oxygen again as an example : as it may be reduced from the gaseous condition
to the liquid and the solid, so it may be raised from the gaseous through four
etheric stages the last of which consists of the ultimate physical atom, the
disintegration of the atom taking matter out of the physical plane altogether,
and into the next plane above.
In
the annexed plate three gases are shown in the gaseous and four etheric states
; it will be observed that the structure of the ultimate physical atom is the
same for all, and that the variety of the “elements” is due to the variety of
ways in which these ultimate physical atoms combine. Thus
the seventh subdivision of physical spirit-matter is composed of homogeneous
atoms ; the sixth is composed of fairly simple heterogeneous combinations of
these, each combination behaving as a unit ; the fifth is composed of more complex
combinations, and the fourth of still more complex ones, but in all cases these
combinations act as units .
The
third subdivision consists of yet more complicated combinations, regarded by
the chemist as gaseous atoms or “elements,” and on this subdivision many of
the combinations have received special names, oxygen, hydrogen, (Page
47) nitrogen, chlorine, etc., and each newly discovered combination
now receives its name ; the second subdivision consists of combinations in the
liquid condition, whether regarded as elements such as bromine, or as combinations
such as water or alcohol ; the first subdivision is composed of all solids,
again whether regarded as elements, such as iodine, gold, lead, etc., or as
compounds, such as wood, stone, chalk, and so on.
The
physical plane may serve the student as a model from which by analogy he may
gain an idea of the subdivisions of spirit-matter of other planes. When a Theosophist
speaks of a plane, he means a region throughout which spirit-matter exists,
all whose combinations are derived from a particular set of atoms; these atoms,
in turn, are units possessing similar organisations, whose life is the life
of the LOGOS veiled in fewer or more coverings according to the plane, and whose
form consists of the solid, or lowest subdivision of matter, of the plane immediately
above. A plane is thus a division in nature, as well as a metaphysical idea.
Thus
far we have been studying the results in our own physical world of the evolution
of spirit-matter in our division of the first or lowest plane of our system.
For countless ages the fashioning of materials has been going on, the current
of the evolution of spirit-matter, and in the materials of our globe we see
the outcome at the present time. But
when we begin to study the inhabitants of the physical plane, we come to the
evolution of form, ( Page 48) the
building of organisms out of these materials.
When the evolution of materials had reached a sufficiently advanced state, the
second great life-wave from the LOGOS gave the impulse to the evolution of form,
and He became the organising force (As Âtmâ-Buddhi, indivisible
in action, and therefore spoken of as the Monad. All forms have Âtmâ-Buddhi
as controlling life.) - of His Universe, countless hosts of entities, entitled
Builders -- ( Some are lofty spiritual Intelligences, but the name covers even
the building Nature-spirits The subject is dealt with in Chapter XII ) - taking
part in the building up of forms out of combinations of spirit-matter. The life
of the LOGOS abiding in each form is its central, controlling, and directing
energy.
This
building of forms on the higher planes cannot here be conveniently studied in
detail; it may suffice to say that all forms exist as Ideas in the mind of the
LOGOS, and that in this second life-wave these were thrown outwards as models
to guide the Builders. On the third and second planes the early spirit-matter
combinations are designed to give it facility in assuming shapes organised to
act as units, and gradually to increase its stability when shaped into an organism.
This
process went on upon the third and second planes, in what are termed the three
elemental kingdoms, the combinations of matter formed therein being called generally
“elemental essence,” and this essence being moulded into forms by aggregations,
the forms (Page 49) enduring for
a time and then disintegrating. The outpoured life, or Monad, evolved through
these kingdoms and reached in due course the physical plane, where it began
to draw together the ethers and hold them in filmy shapes, in which life-currents
played and into which the denser materials were built, forming the first minerals.
In these are
beautifully shown – as may be seen by reference to any book on crystallurgy
– the numerical and geometrical lines on which forms are constructed, and from
them may be gathered plentiful evidence that life is working in all minerals,
although much “cribbed, cabined, and confined.” The fatigue to which metals
are subject is another sign that they are living things, but it is here enough
to say that the occult doctrine so regards them, knowing the already-mentioned
processes by which life has been involved in them.
Great
stability of form having been gained in many of the minerals, the evolving Monad
elaborated greater plasticity of form in the vegetable kingdom, combining this
with stability of organisation. These characteristics found a yet more balanced
expression in the animal world, and reached their culmination of equilibrium
in man, whose physical body is made up of constituents of most unstable equilibrium,
thus giving great adaptability, and yet which is held together by a combining
central force which resists general disintegration even under the most varied
conditions.
Man’s
physical body has two main divisions : the dense body, made of constituents
from the three (Page 50) lower
levels of the physical plane, solids, liquids, and gases: and the etheric
double, violet-gray or blue-gray in colour, interpenetrating the dense body
and composed of materials drawn from the four higher levels. The
general function of the physical body is to receive contacts from the physical
world, and send the report of them inwards, to serve as materials from which
the conscious entity inhabiting the body is to elaborate knowledge. Its etheric
portion has also the duty of acting as a medium through which the life-currents
poured out from the sun can be adapted to the uses of the denser particles.
The
sun is the great reservoir of the electrical, magnetic, and vital forces for
our system, and it pours out abundantly these streams of life-giving energy.
They are taken in by the etheric doubles of all minerals, vegetables, animals,
and men, and are by them transmuted into the various life-energies needed by
each entity. ( When thus appropriated the life is called Prāna, and it
becomes the life-breath of every creature. Prāna is but a name for the
universal life while it is taken in by an entity and is supporting its separated
life.)
The
etheric doubles draw in, specialise, and distribute them over their physical
counterparts. It has been observed that in vigorous health much more of the
life-energies are transmuted than the physical body requires for its own support,
and that the surplus is rayed out and is taken up and utilised by the weaker.
What is technically called the health aura is the part of the etheric double
that extends a few inches from the (Page 51)
whole surface of the body and shows radiating lines, like the radii
of a sphere, going outwards in all directions. These lines droop when vitality
is diminished below the point of health, and resume their radiating character
with renewed vigour. It is this vital energy, specialised by the etheric double,
which is poured out by the mesmeriser for the restoration of the weak and for
the cure of disease, although he often mingles with it currents of a more rarefied
kind. Hence the depletion of vital energy shown by the exhaustion of the mesmeriser
who prolongs his work to excess.
Man’s
body is fine or coarse in its texture according to the materials drawn from
the physical plane for its composition. Each subdivision of matter yields finer
or coarser materials ; compare the bodies of a butcher and of a refined student
; both have solids in them, but solids of such different qualities. Further
, we know that
a coarse body can be refined, a refined body coarsened. The body is constantly
changing ; each particle is a life, and the lives come and go. They are drawn
to a body consonant with themselves, they are repelled from one discordant with
themselves. All things live in rhythmical vibrations, all seek the harmonious
and are repelled by dissonance.
A
pure body repels coarse particles because they vibrate at rates discordant with
its own ; a coarse body attracts them because their vibrations accord with its
own. Hence if the body changes its rates of vibration, it gradually drives out
of it the constituents that cannot fall into the new rhythm, and fills up their
places by drawing in from external nature fresh constituents that are harmonious.
(Page 52) Nature provides materials
vibrating in all possible ways, and each body exercises its own selective action.
In
the earlier building of human bodies this selective action was due to the Monad
of form, but now that man is a self-conscious entity he presides over his own
building. By his thoughts he strikes the keynote of his music, and sets up the
rhythms that are the most powerful factors in the continual changes in his physical
and other bodies. As his knowledge increases he learns how to build up his physical
body with pure food, and so facilitates the tuning of it. He
learns to live by the axiom of purification : “Pure food, pure mind, and constant
memory of God.” As the highest creature living on the physical plane, he is
the vice-regent of the LOGOS thereon, responsible, so far as his powers extend,
for its order, peace, and good government ; and this duty he cannot discharge
without these three requisites.
The
physical body, thus composed of elements drawn from all the subdivisions of
the physical plane, is fitted to receive and to answer impression from it of
every kind. Its first contacts will be of the simplest and crudest sorts, and
as the life within it thrills out in answer to the stimulus from without, throwing
its molecules into responsive vibrations, there is developed all over the body
the sense of touch, the recognition of something coming into contact with it.
As specialised sense-organs (Page 53)
are developed to receive special kinds of vibrations, the value of the body
increases as a future vehicle for a conscious entity on the physical plane.
The more impressions it can answer to, the more useful does it become ; for
only those to which it can answer can reach the consciousness.
Even
now there are myriads of vibrations pulsing around us in physical nature from
the knowledge of which we are shut out because of the inability of our physical
vehicle to receive and vibrate in accord with them. Unimagined beauties, exquisite
sounds, delicate subtleties, touch the walls of our prison house and pass on
unheeded. Not yet is developed the perfect body that shall thrill to every pulse
in nature as the aeolian harp to the zephyr.
The
vibrations that the body is able to receive, it transmits to physical centres,
belonging to its highly complicated nervous system. The etheric vibrations which
accompany all the vibrations of the denser physical constituents are similarly
received by the etheric double, and transmuted to its corresponding centres.
Most of the vibrations in the dense matter are changed into chemical heat, and
other forms of physical energy; the etheric give rise to magnetic and electric
action, and also pass on the vibrations to the astral body, whence, as we shall
see later, they reach the mind.
Thus
information about the external world reaches the conscious entity enthroned
in the body, the Lord of the body, as he is sometimes called. As the channels
of information develop and are exercised, the conscious entity (Page
54) grows by the materials supplied to his thought by them, but so
little is man yet developed that even the etheric double is not yet sufficiently
harmonised to regularly convey to the man impressions received by it independently
of its denser comrade, or to impress them on his brain. Occasionally
it succeeds in doing so, and then we have the lowest form of clairvoyance, the
seeing of the etheric doubles of physical objects, and of things that have etheric
bodies as their lowest vesture.
Man
dwells, as we shall see, in various vehicles, physical, astral, and mental and
it is important to know and remember that as we are evolving upwards, the lowest
of the vehicles, the dense physical, is that which consciousness first controls
and rationalises. The physical brain is the instrument of consciousness in waking
life on the physical plane, and consciousness works in it – in the undeveloped
man – more effectively than in any other vehicle. Its
potentialities are less than those of the subtler vehicles, but its actualities
are greater, and the man knows himself as “ I “ in the physical body ere he
finds himself elsewhere. Even if he be more highly developed than the average
man, he can only show as much of himself down here as the physical organism
permits, for consciousness can manifest on the physical plane only so much as
the physical vehicle can carry.
The
dense and etheric bodies are not normally separated during earth life; they
normally function together, as the lower and higher strings of a single (Page
55) instrument when a chord is struck, but they also carry on separate
though coordinated activities. Under conditions of weak health or nervous excitement
the etheric double may in great part be abnormally extruded from its dense counterpart
; the latter then becomes very dully conscious , or entranced, according to
the less or greater amount of the etheric matter extruded. Anesthetics drive
out the greater part of the etheric double, so that consciousness cannot affect
or be affected by the dense body, its bridge of communication being broken.
In the abnormally organised person called mediums, dislocation of the etheric
and dense bodies easily occurs, and the etheric double, when extruded, largely
supplies the physical basis for “materialisations.”
In
sleep, when the consciousness leaves the physical vehicle which it uses during
waking life, the dense and etheric bodies remain together, but in the physical
dream life they function to some extent independently. Impressions experienced
during waking life are reproduced by the automatic action of the body, and both
the physical and etheric brains are filled with disjointed fragmentary pictures,
the vibrations as it were, jostling each other, and causing the most grotesque
combinations. Vibrations from outside also affect both, and combinations often
set up during waking life are easily called into activity by currents from the
astral world of like nature with themselves. The purity or impurity of waking
thoughts will largely govern the pictures arising in dreams, (Page
56) whether spontaneously set up or induced from without.
At
what is called death, the etheric double is drawn away from its dense counterpart
by the escaping consciousness ; the magnetic tie existing between them during
life earth life is snapped asunder, and for some hours the consciousness remains
enveloped in this etheric garb. In this it sometimes appears to those with whom
it is closely bound up, as a cloudy figure, very dully conscious and speechless
– the wraith. It may also be seen, after the conscious entity has deserted it,
floating over the grave where its dense counterpart is buried, slowly disintegrating
as time goes on.
When
the time comes for rebirth, the etheric double is built in advance of the dense
body, the latter exactly following it in its ante-natal development. These bodies
may be said to trace the limitations within which the conscious entity will
have to live and work during his life, a subject that will be more fully explained
in Chapter IX on Karma.
CHAPTER
-2-
THE ASTRAL PLANE
(Page
57) The
astral plane is the region of the universe next to the physical, if the word
“next” may be permitted in such a connection. Life there is more active than
on the physical plane, and form is more plastic. The spirit-matter of that plane
is more highly vitalised and finer than any grade of spirit-matter in the physical
world. For ,
as we have seen, the ultimate physical atom, the constituent of the rarest physical
ether, has for its sphere-wall innumerable aggregations of the coarsest astral
matter. The word “next” is, however, inappropriate, as suggesting the idea that
the planes of the universe are arranged as concentric circles, one ending where
the next begins. Rather they are concentric interpenetrating spheres, not separated
from each other by distance but by difference of constitution.
As
air permeates water, as ether permeates the densest solid, so does astral matter
permeate all physical. The astral world is above us, below us, on every side
of us, through us; we live and move in it, but it is intangible, invisible,
inaudible, imperceptible, because the prison of the physical body shuts us (Page
58) away from it, the physical particles being too gross to be set
in vibration by astral matter.
In
this chapter we shall study the plane in its general aspects, leaving on one
side for separate consideration those special conditions of life on the astral
plane surrounding the human entities who are passing through it on their way
from earth to heaven. ( Devachan, the happy or bright state, is the Theosophical
name for heaven. Kâmaloka, the place of desire, is the name given to the
conditions of intermediate life on the astral plane).
The
spirit-matter of the astral plane exists in seven subdivisions, as we have seen
in the spirit-matter of the physical. There, as here, there are numberless combinations,
forming the astral solids, liquids, gases, and ethers. But most material forms
there have a brightness, a translucency, as compared to forms here, which have
caused the epithet astral, or starry, to be applied to them – an epithet which
is, on the whole, misleading, but is too firmly established by use to be changed.
As there are
no specific names for the subdivisions of astral spirit-matter, we may use the
terrestrial designations. The main idea to be grasped is that astral objects
are combinations of astral matter, as physical objects are combinations of physical
matter, and that the astral world scenery much resembles that of earth in consequence
of its being largely made up of the astral duplicates of physical objects.
One
peculiarity, however, arrests and confuses the untrained observer; partly because
of the translucency of astral objects, (Page
59) and partly because of the nature of astral vision – consciousness
being less hampered by the finer astral matter than when encased in the terrestrial
– everything is transparent, its back is visible as its front, its inside as
its outside. Some
experience is needed, therefore, ere objects are correctly seen, and a person
who has developed astral vision, but has not yet had much experience in its
use, is apt to receive the most topsy-turvy impressions and to fall into the
most astounding blunders.
Another striking and at first bewildering characteristic of the astral world
is the swiftness with which forms – especially when unconnected with any terrestrial
matrix – change their outlines.
An
astral entity will change his whole appearance with the most startling rapidity,
for astral matter takes the form under every impulse of thought, the life swiftly
remoulding the form to give itself new expression. As the great life-wave of
the evolution of form passed downwards through the astral plane, and constituted
on that plane the third elemental kingdom, the Monad drew round itself combinations
of astral matter, giving to these combinations – entitled elemental essence
– a peculiar vitality and the characteristic of responding to, and instantly
taking shape under, the impulse of thought vibrations.
This
elemental essence exists in hundreds of varieties on every subdivision of the
astral plane, as though the air became visible here – as indeed it may seen
in quivering waves under great heat – and were in constant undulatory motion
with changing (Page 60) colours
like mother-of-pearl.
This
vast atmosphere of elemental essence is ever answering to vibrations caused
by thoughts, feelings, and desires, and is thrown into commotion by a rush of
any of these like bubbles in boiling water. ( C.W. Leadbeater, Astral Plane,
p. 52). The duration of the form depends on the strength of the impulse to which
it owes its birth ; the clearness of its outline depends on the precision of
the thinking, and the colour depends on the quality – intellectual, devotional,
passional – of the thought.
The
vague loose thoughts which are so largely produced by undeveloped minds gather
round themselves loose clouds of elemental essence when they arrive in the astral
world, and drift about, attracted hither and thither to other clouds of similar
nature, clinging round the astral bodies of persons whose magnetism attracts
them – either good or evil – and after a while disintegrating, to again form
a part of the general atmosphere of elemental essence. While
they maintain a separate existence they are living entities, with bodies of
elemental essence and thoughts as the ensouling lives, and they are then called
artificial elementals, or thought-forms.
Clear,
precise thoughts have each their own definite shapes, with sharp clean outlines,
and show an endless variety of designs. They are shaped by vibrations set up
by thought, just as on the physical plane we find figures which are shaped by
vibrations set up by sound. “Voice-figures”
offer a very fair analogy for “thought-figures,” for nature, with all (Page
61) her infinite variety, is very conservative of principles, and
reproduces the same methods of working on plane after plane in her realms.
These clearly defined artificial elementals have a longer and much more active
life than their cloudy brethren, exercising a far stronger influence on the
astral bodies (and through them on the minds) of those to whom they are attracted.
They set up in them vibrations similar to their own, and thus thoughts spread
from mind to mind without terrestrial expression. More
than this: they can be directed by the thinker towards any person he desires
to reach, their potency depending on the strength of his will and the intensity
of his mental power.
Among
average people the artificial elementals created by feeling or desire are more
vigorous and more definite than those created by thought. Thus an outburst of
anger will cause a very definitely outlined and powerful flash of red, and sustained
anger will make a dangerous elemental, red in colour, and pointed, barbed, or
otherwise qualified to injure. Love,
according to its quality, will set up forms more or less beautiful in colour
and design, all shades of crimson to the most exquisite and soft hues of rose,
like the palest blushes of sunset or the dawn, clouds of tenderly strong protective
shapes. Many a Mother’s loving prayers go to hover round her son as angel-forms,
turning aside from him evil influences that perchance his own thoughts are attracting.
It
is characteristic of these artificial elementals, (Page
62) when they are directed by the will towards any particular person,
that they are animated by the one impulse of carrying out the will of their
creator. A protective elemental will hover round its object, seeking any opportunity
of warding off evil or attracting good – not consciously, but by a blind impulse,
as finding there the line of least resistance.
So,
also, an elemental ensouled by a malignant thought will hover round its victim
seeking opportunity to injure. But neither the one nor the other can make any
impression unless there be in the astral body of the object something skin to
themselves, something that can answer accordingly to their vibrations, and thus
enable them to attach themselves. If
there be nothing in him of matter cognate to their own, then by a law of their
nature they rebound from him along the path they pursued in going to him – the
magnetic trace they have left – and rush to their creator with a force proportionate
to that of their projection. Thus a thought of deadly hatred, failing to strike
the object at which it was darted, has been known to slay its sender, while
good thoughts sent to the unworthy return as blessings to him that poured them
forth.
A
very slight understanding of the astral world will thus act as a most powerful
stimulus to right thinking, and will render heavy the sense of responsibility
in regard to the thoughts and feelings, and desires that we let loose into this
astral realm. Ravening beasts of prey, rending and devouring, are too many of
the thoughts with which men people the (Page
63) astral plane. But
they err from ignorance, they know not what they do. One of the objects of theosophical
teaching, partly lifting up the veil of the unseen world, is to give men a sounder
basis for conduct, a more rational appreciation of the causes of which the effects
only are seen in the terrestrial world.
A
few of its doctrines are more important in their ethical bearing than this of
the creation and direction of thought-forms, or artificial elementals, for through
it man learns that his mind does not concern himself alone, that his thoughts
do not affect himself alone, but that he is ever sending out angels and devils
into the world of men, for whose creation he is responsible, and for whose influences
he is held accountable. Let men, then, know the law, and guide their thoughts
thereby.
If,
instead of taking artificial elementals separately, we take them in the mass,
it is easy to realise the tremendous effect they have in producing national
and race feelings, and thus in biasing and prejudicing the mind. We
all grow up surrounded by an atmosphere crowded with elementals embodying certain
ideas ; national prejudices, national ways of looking at all questions, national
types of feelings and thoughts, all these play on us from our birth, aye, and
before. We see everything through this atmosphere, every thought is more or
less refracted by it, and our own astral bodies are vibrating in accord with
it.
Hence
the same idea will look quite different to the Hindu, an Englishman, a Spaniard,
and a Russian ; some conceptions easy to (Page
64) the one will be almost impossible to the other, customs instinctively
attractive to the one are instinctively odious to the other. We are all dominated
by our national atmosphere, i.e., by that portion of the astral world
immediately surrounding us.
The
thoughts of others, cast much in the same mould, play upon us and call out from
us synchronous vibrations ; they intensify the points in which we accord with
our surroundings and flatten away the differences, and this ceaseless action
upon us through the astral body impresses on us the national half-mark and traces
channels for mental energies into which they readily flow. Sleeping
and waking , these currents play upon us, and our very unconsciousness of their
action makes it the more effective. As most people are receptive rather than
initiative in their nature, they act almost as automatic reproducers of the
thoughts which reach them, and thus the national atmosphere is continually intensified.
When
a person is beginning to be sensitive to astral influences, he will occasionally
find himself suddenly overpowered or assailed by a quite inexplicable and seemingly
irrational dread, which swoops upon him with even paralysing force. Fight against
it as he may, he yet feels it, and perhaps resents it. Probably there are few
who have not experienced this fear to some extent, the uneasy dread of an invisible
something, the feeling of a presence, of “not being alone.” This arises partly
from a certain hostility which animates the natural elemental world against
the human, on account of the various (Page
65) destructive agencies devised by mankind on the physical plane
and reacting on the astral, but is also largely due to the presence of so many
artificial elementals of an unfriendly kind, bred by human minds.
Thoughts
of hatred, jealousy, revenge, bitterness, suspicion, discontent, go out by millions
crowding the astral plane with artificial elementals whose whole life is made
of these feelings. How much also is there of vague distrust and suspicion poured
out by the ignorant against all whose ways and appearance are alien and unfamiliar.
The blind distrust of all foreigners, the surly contempt, extending in many
districts even towards inhabitants of another country – these things also contribute
evil influences to the astral world. There being so much of these things among
us, we create a blindly hostile army on the astral plane, and this is answered
in our own astral bodies by a feeling of dread, set up by the antagonistic vibrations
that are sensed, but not understood.
Outside
the class of artificial elementals, the astral world is thickly populated, even
excluding, as we do for the present, all the human entities who have lost their
physical bodies by death. There are great hosts of natural elementals, or nature-spirits,
divided into five main classes –the elementals of the ether, the fire, the air,
the water, and the earth ; the last four groups have been termed, in mediaeval
occultism, the Salamanders, Sylphs, Undines, and Gnomes (needless to say there
are two other classes, completing the seven, not concerning us here, as they
are (Page 66) still unmanifested).
These
are the true elementals, or creatures of the elements, earth, water, air, fire
and ether, and they are severally concerned in the carrying on of the activities
connected with their own element ; they are the channels through which work
the divine energies in these several fields, the living expressions of the law
in each. At the head of each division is a great Being, the captain of the mighty
host, (Called a Deva, or God, by the Hindus. The student may like to have the
Sanskrit names of the five Gods of the manifested elements ; Indra, lord of
the Akâsha, or ether of space ; Agni, lord of fire ; Pavana, lord of air, Varuna,
lord of water ; Kshiti, lord of the earth). the directing and guiding intelligence
of the whole department of nature which is administered and energised by the
class of elementals under his control.
Thus
Agni the fire-God, is a great spiritual entity concerned with the manifestation
of fire on all planes of the universe, and carries on his administration through
the host of the fire-elementals. By understanding the nature of these, or knowing
the methods of their control, the so-called miracles of magical feats are worked,
which from time to time are recorded in the public press, whether they are avowedly
the results of magical arts, or are done by the aid of “spirits” – as in the
case of the late Mr. Home, who could unconcernedly pick a red-hot coal out of
a blazing fire with his fingers and hold it in his hand unhurt. Levitation (the
suspension of a heavy body in the air without visible support) and walking on
the water have been done by the aid (Page
67) respectively of the elementals of the air and the water, although
another method is more often employed.
As
the elements enter into the human body, one or another predominating according
to the nature of the person, each human being has relations with these elementals,
the most friendly to him being those whose element is preponderant in him. The
effects of this fact are often noted, and are popularly ascribed to “luck”.
A person has
“ a lucky hand” in making plants grow, in lighting fires, in finding underground
water, etc. Nature is ever jostling us with her occult forces, but we are slow
to take her hints. Tradition sometimes hides a truth in a proverb or a fable,
but we have grown beyond all such “superstitions.”
We
find also on the astral plane, nature-spirits – less accurately termed elementals
– who are concerned with the building of forms in the mineral, vegetable, animal,
and human kingdoms. There are nature-spirits who build up minerals, who guide
the vital energies in plants, and who molecule by molecule form the bodies of
the animal kingdom ; they are concerned with the making of the astral bodies
of minerals, plants, and animals, as well as with that of the physical.
These
are the fairies and elves of legends, the “little people” who play so large
a part in the folk lore of every nation, the charming irresponsible children
of nature, whom science had coldly relegated to the nursery, but who will be
replaced in their own grade of natural order by the wiser scientists of a later
day. Only poets and occultists believe in them just now, poets by the intuition
of their genius, occultists by the vision of their trained inner senses. The
multitude laugh at both, most of all at the occultists ; but it matter not –
wisdom shall be justified (Page 68)
of her children.
The
play of the life-currents in the etheric doubles of the forms in the mineral,
vegetable, and animal kingdoms, awoke out of latency the astral matter involved
in the structure of their atomic and molecular constituents. It began to thrill
in a very limited way in the minerals, and the Monad of form, exercising his
organising power, drew in materials from the astral world, and these were built
by the nature-spirits into a loosely constituted mass, the mineral astral body.
In
the vegetable world the astral bodies are a little more organised, and their
special characteristic of “feeling” begins to appear. Dull and diffused sensations
of well-being and discomfort are observable in most plants as the results of
the increasing activity of the astral body. They dimly enjoy the air, the rain,
and the sunshine, and gropingly seek them, while they shrink from noxious conditions.
Some seek the light and some seek the darkness ; they answer to stimuli, and
adapt themselves to external conditions, some showing plainly a sense of touch.
In the animal kingdom the astral body is more developed, reaching in the higher
members of that kingdom a sufficiently definite organisation to cohere for some
time after the death of the physical body, and to lead an independent existence
on the astral plane. (Page 69)
The
nature-spirits concerned with the building of the animal and human astral bodies
have been given the special name of desire-elementals, (Kâmadevas, they
are called "desire-gods") because they are strongly animated by desires
of all kinds, and constantly build themselves into the astral bodies of animals
and men.
They
also use the varieties of elemental essence similar to that of which their own
bodies are composed to construct the astral bodies of animals, those bodies
thus acquiring, as interwoven parts, the centres of sensation and of the various
passional activities. These centres are stimulated into functioning by impulses
received by the dense physical organs, and transmitted by the etheric physical
organs to the astral body.
Not
until the astral centre is reached does the animal feel pleasure or pain. A
stone may be struck, but it will feel no pain ; it has dense and etheric physical
molecules, but its astral body is unorganised ; the animal feels pain from a
blow because he possesses the astral centres of sensation, and the desire-elementals
have woven into him their own nature.
As
a new consideration enters into the work of these elementals with the human
astral body, we will finish our survey of the inhabitants of the astral plane
ere studying this more complicated astral form.
The desire-bodies, (Kâmarûpa is the technical name for the astral body, from
Kâma, desire, and rûpa, form) or astral bodies, of animals are found, as has
just been stated, to lead (Page 70)
an independent though fleeting existence on the astral plane after death has
destroyed their physical counterparts. In
“civilised” countries these animal astral bodies add much to the general feeling
of hostility which was spoken of above, for the organised butchery of animals
in slaughterhouses and by sport sends millions of these annually into the astral
world, full of horror, terror, and shrinking from men.
The
comparatively few creatures that are allowed to die in peace and quietness are
lost in the vast hordes of the murdered, and from the currents set up by these
there rain down influences from the astral world on the human and animal races
which drive them yet further apart and engender “instinctive” distrust and fear
on the one side and lust of inflicting cruelty on the other.
These
feelings have been much intensified of late years by the coldly devised methods
of the scientific torture called vivisection, the unmentionable barbarities
of which have introduced new horrors into the astral world by their reaction
on the culprits, (See Chapter III, on “Kâmaloka .”) as well as having increased
the gulf between man and his “poor relations”.
Apart
from what we may call the normal population of the astral world, there are passing
travellers in it, led there by their work, whom we cannot leave entirely without
mention. Some of these come from our own terrestrial world, while others are
visitors from loftier regions.
Of
the former, many are Initiates of various grades, (Page
71) some belonging to the Great White Lodge – the Himâlayan or Tibetan
Brotherhood, as it is often called (It is to some members of this Lodge that
the Theosophical Society owes its inception) – while others are members of different
occult lodges throughout the world, ranging from white through shades of grey
to black. (
Occultists who are unselfish and wholly devoted to the carrying out of the Divine
Will, or who are aiming to attain these virtues, are called “white”. Those who
are selfish and are working against the Divine purpose in the universe are called
“black.” Expanding selflessness, love and devotion are the marks of the one
class : contracting selfishness, hatred, and harsh arrogance are the sign of
the other. Between these are the classes whose motives are mixed, and who have
not yet realised that they must evolve towards the One Self or towards separated
selves ; these I have called grey. Their members gradually drift into, or deliberately
join, one of the two great groups with clearly marked aims).
All
these are men living in physical bodies, who have learned to leave the physical
encasement at will, and to function in full consciousness in the astral body.
They are of all grades of knowledge and virtue, beneficent and maleficent, strong
and weak, gentle and ferocieous. There are also many younger aspirants, still
uninitiated, who are learning to use the astral vehicle, and who are employed
in works of benevolence or malevolence according to the path they are seeking
to tread.
After these, we have psychics of varying degrees of development, some fairly
alert, others dreamy and confused, wandering about while their physical (Page
72) bodies are asleep or entranced. Unconscious of their external
surroundings, wrapped in their own thoughts, drawn as it were within their astral
shell, are millions of drifting astral bodies inhabited by conscious entities,
whose physical frames are sunk in sleep.
As
we shall see presently, the consciousness in its astral vehicle escapes when
the body sinks into sleep, and passes on to the astral plane ; but it is not
conscious of its surroundings until the astral body is sufficiently developed
to function independently of the physical.
Occasionally
is seen on this plane a disciple (A Chelâ, the accepted pupil of an Adept),
who has passed through death and is awaiting an almost immediate reincarnation
under the direction of his Master. He is, of course, in the enjoyment of full
consciousness, and is working like other disciples who have merely slipped off
their bodies in sleep. A certain stage (See chapter XI, on “Man’s Ascent”)
– a disciple is allowed to reincarnate very quickly after death, and under these
circumstances he has to await on the astral plane a suitable opportunity for
rebirth.
Passing
through the astral plane also are the human beings who are on their way to reincarnation
; they will again be mentioned later on (See chapter VII, on “Reincarnation”.)
and they concern themselves in no way with the general life of the astral world.
The desire-elementals, however, who have affinity with them from their past
passional and sensational activities, gather round them, (Page
73) assisting in the building of the new astral body for the coming
earth-life.
We
must now turn to the consideration of the human astral body during the period
of existence in this world, and study its nature and constitution as well as
its relations with the astral realm. We will take the astral body of (a) an
undeveloped man, (b) an average man, and (c) a spiritually developed man.
(a)
An undeveloped man’s astral body is a cloudy, loosely organised, vaguely outlined
mass of astral spirit-matter, containing materials – both astral matter and
elemental essence – drawn from all the subdivisions of the astral plane, but
with a predominance of substances from the lower, so that it is dense and coarse
in texture, fit to respond to all the stimuli connected with the passions and
appetites. The colours caused by the rates of vibration are dull, muddy, and
dusky – brown, dull reds, dirty greens, are predominant hues. There is no play
of light or quickly changing flashing of colours through this astral body, but
the various passions show themselves as heavy surges, or, when violent, as flashes
; thus sexual passion will send a wave of muddy crimson, rage a flash of lurid
red.
The
astral body is larger than the physical, extending round it in all directions
ten to twelve inches in such a case as we are considering. The centres of the
organs of sense are definitely marked, and are active when worked on from without
; but in quiescence the life-streams are sluggish, and the astral body, stimulated
neither from the physical nor mental worlds, is drowsy and indifferent. ( the
student will recognise here the predominance of the (Page
74) tâmasic guna, the quality of darkness or inertness in nature.)
It
is a constant characteristic of the undeveloped state that activity is prompted
from without rather from the inner consciousness . A stone to be moved must
be pushed ; a plant moves under the attractions of light and moisture ; an animal
becomes active when stirred by hunger : a poorly developed man needs to be prompted
in similar ways. Not till the mind is partly grown does it begin to initiate
action. The
centres of higher activities, ( The seven Chakras, or wheels, so named from
the whirling appearance they present, like wheels of living fire when in activity.)
related to the independent functioning of the astral senses, are scarcely visible.
A man at this stage requires for his evolution violent sensations of every kind,
to arouse the nature and stimulate it into activity. Heavy blows from the outer
world, both of pleasure and pain, are wanted to awaken and spur to action.
The
more numerous and violent the sensations, the more he can be made to feel, the
better for his growth. At this stage quality matters little, quantity and vigour
are the main requisites. The beginnings of this man’s morality will be in his
passions ; a slight impulse of unselfishness in his relations to wife and child
or friend, will be the first step upwards, by causing vibrations in the finer
matter of his astral body and attracting into it more elemental essence of an
appropriate kind. The astral body is constantly (Page
75) changing its materials under this play of the passions, appetites,
desires, and emotions.
All
good ones strengthen the finer parts of the body, shake out some of the coarser
constituents, draw into it the subtler materials, and attract round it elementals
of a beneficent kind who aid in the renovating process. All evil ones have diametrically
opposite effects, strengthening the coarser, expelling the finer, drawing in
more of the former, and attracting elementals who help in the deteriorating
process.
The
man’s moral and intellectual powers are so embryonic in the case we are considering
that most of the building and changing of his astral body may be said to be
done for him rather than by him. It depends more on his external circumstances
than on his own will, for, as just said, it is characteristic of a low stage
of development that a man is moved from without and through the body much more
than from within and by the mind. It is a sign of considerable advance when
a man begins to be moved by the will, by his own energy, self-determined, instead
of being moved by desire, i.e., by a response to an external attraction
or repulsion.
In
sleep the astral body, enveloping the consciousness, slips out of the physical
vehicle, leaving the dense and etheric bodies to slumber. At this stage, however,
the consciousness is not awake in the astral body, lacking the strong contacts
that spur it while in the physical frame, and the only things that affect the
astral body may be elementals of the coarser kinds, that may set up therein
vibrations which are reflected to the etheric and dense brains, and induce dreams
of animal pleasures. The astral body floats just over the physical, held by
its strong attraction, and cannot go far away from it. (Page
76)
(b)
In the average moral and intellectual man the astral body shows an immense advance
on that just described. It is larger in size, its materials are more balanced
in quality, the presence of the rarer kinds giving a certain luminous quality
to the whole, while the expression of the higher emotions sends playing through
it beautiful ripples of colour. Its outline is clear and definite, instead of
vague and shifting, as in the former case, and it assumes the likeness of its
owner. It is obviously becoming a vehicle for the inner man, with good definite
organisation and stability, a body fit and ready to function, and able to maintain
itself, apart from the physical. While retaining great plasticity, it yet has
a normal form, to which it continuously recurs when any pressure is removed
that may have caused it to change its outline.
Its
activity is constant, and hence it is in perpetual vibration, showing endless
varieties of changing hues ; also the “wheels” are clearly visible though not
yet functioning ( Here the student will note the predominance of the râjasic
guna, the quality of activity in nature.) It
responds quickly to all the contacts coming to it through the physical body,
and is stirred by the influences rained on it from the conscious entity within,
memory and imagination stimulating it to action, and causing it to (Page
77) become the prompter of the body to activity instead of only being
moved by it.
Its
purification proceeds along the same lines as in the former case – the expulsion
of lower constituents by setting up vibrations antagonistic to them and the
drawing in of finer materials in their place. But now the increased moral intellectual
development of the man puts the building almost entirely under his own control,
for he is no longer driven here and there by stimuli from external nature, but
reasons, judges, and resists or yields as he thinks well. By
the exercise of well-directed thought he can rapidly affect the astral body,
and hence its improvement can proceed apace. Nor is it necessary that he should
understand the modus operandi in order to bring about the effect, any
more than that a man should understand the laws of light in order to see.
In
sleep, this well-developed astral body slips, as usual, from its physical encasement,
but is by no means held captive by it, as in the former case. It roams about
in the astral world, drifted hither and thither by the astral currents, while
the consciousness within it, not yet able to direct its movements, is awake,
engaged in the enjoyment of its own mental images and mental activities, and
able also to receive impressions through its astral covering, and to change
them into mental pictures. In this way a man may gain knowledge when out of
the body, and may subsequently impress it on the brain as a vivid dream or vision,
or without this link of (Page 78) memory
it may filter through into the brain-consciousness.
(c)
The astral body of a spiritually developed man is composed of the finest particles
of each subdivision of astral matter, the higher kinds largely predominating
in amount. It is therefore a beautiful object in luminosity and colour, hues
not known on earth showing themselves under the impulses thrown into it by the
purified mind. The
wheels of fire are now seen to deserve their names, and their whirling motion
denotes the activity of the higher senses. Such a body is, in the full sense
of the words, a vehicle of consciousness, for in the course of evolution it
has been vivified in every organ and brought under the complete control of its
owner.
When
in it he leaves the physical body there is no break in consciousness ; he merely
shakes off his heavier vesture, and finds himself unencumbered by its weight.
He can move anywhere within the astral sphere with immense rapidity, and is
no longer bound by the narrow terrestrial conditions. His body answers to his
will, reflects and obeys his thought. His
opportunities for serving humanity are thus enormously increased, and his powers
are directed by his virtue and his beneficence. The absence of gross particles
in his astral body renders it incapable of responding to the promptings of lower
objects of desire, and they turn away from him as beyond their attraction. The
whole body vibrates only in answer to the higher emotions, his love has grown
into devotion, his energy is curbed by patience.
Gentle,
(Page 79) calm, serene, full of
power, but with no trace of restlessness, such a man “all the Siddhis stand
ready to serve.” (Here the sâttvic guna, the quality of bliss and purity in
nature, is predominant. Siddhis are superphysical powers.)
The
astral body forms the bridge over the gulf which separates consciousness from
the physical brain. Impacts received by the sense organs and transmitted, as
we have seen, to the dense and etheric centres, pass thence to the corresponding
astral centres ; here they are worked on by the elemental essence and are transmuted
into feelings , and are then presented to the inner man as objects of consciousness,
the astral vibrations awakening corresponding vibrations in the materials of
the mental body. (See chapter IV, on “The Mental Plane.”)
By
these successive gradations in fineness of spirit-matter the heavy impacts of
terrestrial objects can be transmitted to the conscious entity ; and, in turn,
the vibrations set up by his thoughts can pass along the same bridge to the
physical brain and there induce physical vibrations corresponding to the mental.
This is the regular normal way in which consciousness receives impressions from
without, and in turn sends impressions outwards. By this constant passage of
vibrations to and fro the astral body is chiefly developed ; the current plays
upon it from within and from without, it evolves its organisation, and subserves
its general growth.
By
this it becomes larger, finer in texture, more definitely outlined, and more
organised interiorly. (Page 80) Trained
thus to respond to consciousness, it gradually becomes fit to function as its
separate vehicle, and to transmit to it clearly the vibrations received directly
from the astral world. Most readers will have had some little experience of
impressions coming into consciousness from without, that do not arise from any
physical impact, and that are very quickly verified by some external occurrence.
These
are frequently impressions that reach the astral body directly, and are transmitted
by it to the consciousness, and such impressions are often of the nature of
previsions which very quickly prove themselves to be true. When the man is far
progressed, though the stage varies much according to other circumstances, links
are set up between the physical and the astral, the astral and mental, so that
consciousness works unbrokenly from one state to the other, memory having in
it none of the lapses which in the ordinary man interpose a period of unconsciousness
in passing from one plane to another. The
man can then also freely exercise the astral senses while the consciousness
is working in the physical body, so that these enlarged avenues of knowledge
become an appanage of his waking consciousness. Objects which were before matters
of faith becomes matters of knowledge, and he can personally verify the accuracy
of much of the Theosophical teaching as to the lower regions of the invisible
world.
When
man is analysed into “principles,” i.e., into (Page
81) modes of manifesting life, his four lower principles, termed
the "lower Quaternary," are said to function on the astral and physical
planes. The fourth principle is Kâma, desire, and it is the life manifesting
in the astral body and conditioned by it ; it is characterised by the attribute
of feeling, whether in the rudimentary form of sensation, or in the complex
form of emotion, or in any of the grades that lie between. This is summed up
as desire, that which is attracted or repelled by objects, according as they
give pleasure or pain to the personal self.
The
third principle is Prâna, the life specialised for the support of the physical
organism. The second principle is the etheric double, and the first is the dense
body. These three function on the physical plane. In H.P.Blavatsky’s later classifications
she removed both Prâna and the dense physical body from the rank of principles,
Prâna as being universal life, and the dense physical body as being the mere
counterpart of the etheric, and made of constantly changing materials built
into the etheric matrix. Taking
this view, we have the grand philosophic conception of the One Life, the One
Self, manifesting as man, and presenting varying and transitory differences
according to the conditions imposed on it by the bodies which it vivifies; itself
remaining the same in the centre, but showing different aspects when looked
at from outside, according to the kinds of matter in one body or another.
In
the physical body it is Prâna, energising, controlling, co-ordinating. In the
astral body it is (Page 82) Kâma,
feeling, enjoying, suffering. We shall find it in yet other aspects, as we pass
to higher planes, but the fundamental idea is the same throughout, and it is
another of those root-ideas of Theosophy, which firmly grasped, serve as guiding
clues in this most tangled world. (Page 83)
CHAPTER
III
KÂMALOKA
KÂMALOKA,
literally the place or habitat of desire, is, as has already been intimated,
a part of the astral plane, not divided from it as a distinct locality, but
separated off by the conditions of consciousness of the entities belonging to
it. (The Hindus call this state Pretaloka, the habitat of Pretas. A Preta is
a human being who has lost his physical body, but is still encumbered with the
vesture of his animal nature. He cannot carry this on with him, and until it
is disintegrated he is kept imprisoned by it.)
These
are human beings who have lost their physical bodies by the stroke of death,
and have to undergo certain purifying changes before they can pass on to the
happy and peaceful life which belongs to the man proper, to the human soul.
(The soul is the human intellect, the link between the Divine Spirit in man
and his lower personality. It is the Ego, the individual, the “ I “, which develops
by evolution. In Theosophical parlance, it is Manas, the Thinker. The mind is
the energy of this, working within the limitations of the physical brain, or
the astral and mental bodies).
This
region represents and includes the conditions described as existing in the various
hells, purgatories, and intermediate states, one or other of which is alleged
by all the great religions to be the temporary
(Page 84) dwelling-place of man after he leaves the body and before
he reaches “heaven.” It does not include any place of eternal torture, the endless
hell still believed in by some narrow religionists being only a nightmare dream
of ignorance, hate and fear. But it does include conditions of suffering, temporary
and purificatory in their nature, the working out of causes set going in his
earth-life by the man who experiences them. These are as natural and inevitable
as any effects caused in this world by wrongdoing, for we live in a world of
law and every seed must grow up after its own kind. Death makes no sort of difference
in a man’s moral and mental nature, and the change of state caused by passing
from one world to another takes away his physical body, but leaves the man as
he was.
The Kâmalokic condition is found on each subdivision of the astral plane, so
that we may speak of it as having seven regions, calling them the first, second,
third, up to the seventh, beginning from the lowest and counting upwards. (Often
these regions are reckoned the other way, taking the first as the highest and
the seventh as the lowest. It does not matter from which end we count ; and
I am reckoning upwards to keep them in accord with the planes and principles.).
We
have already seen that materials from each subdivision of the astral plane enter
into the composition of the astral body, and it is a peculiar rearrangement
of these materials, to be explained in a moment, which separates the people
dwelling in one region from those dwelling in another, although those in the
same region are able to intercommunicate.(Page
85) The regions, being each a subdivision of the astral plane, differ
in density, and the density of the external form of the Kâmalokic entity determines
the region to which he is limited ; these differences of matter are the barriers
that prevent passage from one region to another ; the people dwelling in one
can no more come into touch with people dwelling in another than a deep-sea
fish can hold a conversation with an eagle – the medium necessary to the life
of the one would be destructive to the life of the other.
When
the physical body is struck down by death, the etheric body, carrying Prâna
with it and accompanied by the remaining principles – that is, the whole man,
except the dense body – withdraws from the “tabernacle of flesh,” as the outer
body is appropriately called. All the outgoing life-energies draw themselves
inwards, and are “gathered up by Prâna,” their departure being manifested by
the dullness that creeps over the physical organs of the senses.
They
are there, uninjured, physically complete, ready to act as they have always
been ; but the “inner Ruler,” is going, he who through them saw, heard, felt,
smelt, tasted, and by themselves they are mere aggregations of matter, living
indeed but without power of perceptive action. Slowly the lord of the body draws
himself away, enwrapped in the violet-grey etheric body, and absorbed in the
contemplation of the panorama of his past life, which in the death hour rolls
before him, complete in every detail.
In
that life-picture are (Page 86)
all the events of his life, small and great ; he sees his ambitions with their
success or frustration, his efforts, his triumphs, his failures, his loves,
his hatreds ; the predominant tendency of the whole comes clearly out, the ruling
thought of the life asserts itself, and stamps itself deeply into the soul,
marking the region in which the chief part of his post-mortem existence will
be spent.
Solemn
the moment when the man stands face to face with his life, and from the lips
of his past hears the presage of his future. For a brief space he sees himself
as he is, recognises the purpose of life, knows that the Law is strong and just
and good. Then
the magnetic tie breaks between the dense and etheric bodies, the comrades of
a lifetime are disjoined, and – save in exceptional cases – the man sinks into
peaceful unconsciousness.
Quietness
and devotion should mark the conduct of all who are gathered round a dying body,
in order that a solemn silence may leave uninterrupted this review of the past
by the departing man. Clamorous weeping, loud lamentations, can but jar and
disturb the concentrated attention of the soul, and to break with the grief
of a personal loss into the stillness which aids and soothes him, is at once
selfish and impertinent. Religion has wisely commanded prayers for the dying,
for these preserve calm and stimulate unselfish aspirations directed to his
helping, and these, like all loving thoughts, protect and shield.
Some
hours after death – generally not more than thirty-six, it is said – the man
draws himself out of the (Page 87)
etheric body, leaving it in turn as a senseless corpse, and the latter, remaining
near its dense counterpart, shares its fate. If the dense body be buried, the
etheric double floats over the grave, slowly disintegrating, and the unpleasant
feelings many experience in a churchyard are largely due to the presence of
these decaying etheric corpses. If the body is burned, the etheric double breaks
up quickly, having lost its nidus, its physical centre of attraction, and this
is one among many reasons why cremation is preferable to burial, as a way of
disposing of corpses.
The
withdrawal of the man from the etheric double is accompanied by the withdrawal
from it of Prâna, which thereupon returns to the great reservoir of life universal,
while the man, ready now to pass into Kâmaloka, undergoes a rearrangement of
his astral body, fitting it for submission to the purificatory changes which
are necessary for the freeing of the man himself. (These changes result in
the formation of what is called by Hindus the Yâtanâ, or the suffering body,
or in the case of very wicked men, in whose astral bodies there is a preponderance
of the coarser matter, the Dhruvam, or strong body).
During
earth life the various kinds of astral matter intermingle in the formation of
the body, as do the solids, liquids, gases, and ethers in the physical. The
change in the arrangement of the astral body after death consists in the separation
of these materials, according to their respective densities, into a series of
concentric shells – the finest within, the densest without – each shell (Page
88) being made of the materials drawn from one subdivision only of
the astral plane. The
astral body thus becomes a set of seven superimposed layers, or a seven-shelled
encasement of astral matter, in which the man may not inaptly be said to be
imprisoned, as only the breaking of these can set him free. Now will be seen
the immense importance of the purification of the astral body during earth-life;
the man is retained in each subdivision of Kâmaloka so long as the shell of
matter pertaining to that subdivision is not sufficiently disintegrated to allow
of his escape into the next.
Moreover,
the extent to which his consciousness has worked in each kind of matter determines
whether he will be awake and conscious in any given region, or will pass though
it in unconsciousness, “wrapped” in rosy dreams,” and merely detained during
the time necessary for the process of mechanical disintegration.
A
spiritually advanced man, who has so purified his astral body that its constituents
are drawn only from the finest grade of each division of astral matter, merely
passes through Kâmaloka without delay, the astral body disintegrating with extreme
swiftness, and he goes on to whatever may be his bourne, according to the point
he has reached in evolution. A
less developed man, but one whose life has been pure and temperate and who has
sat loosely on the things of the earth, will wing a less rapid flight through
Kâmaloka, but will dream peacefully, unconscious of his surroundings, as his
mental body disentangles itself from the astral shells, one after the other,
to (Page 89) awaken only when he
reaches the heavenly places.
Others,
less developed still, will awaken after passing out of the lower regions, becoming
conscious in the division which is connected with the active working of the
consciousness during the earth-life, for this will be aroused on receiving familiar
impacts, although these be received now directly through the astral body, without
the help of the physical. Those who have lived in the animal passions will awake
in their appropriate region, each man literally going “to his own place.”
The
case of men struck suddenly out of physical life by accident, suicide, murder,
or sudden death in any form, differs from those of persons who pass away by
failure of the life-energies through disease or old age. If they are pure and
spiritually minded they are specially guarded, and sleep out happily the term
of their natural life. But in other cases they remain conscious – often entangled
in the final scene of earth-life for a time, and unaware that they have lost
the physical body – held in whatever region they are related to by the outermost
layer of the astral body : their normal Kâmalokic life does not begin until
the natural web of earth-life is out-spun, and they are vividly conscious of
both their astral and physical surroundings.
One
man who had committed an assassination and had been executed for his crime was
said, by one of H.P.Blavatsky’s Teachers, to be living through the scenes of
the murder and the subsequent events over and over again in Kâmaloka, ever repeating
his diabolical (Page 90) act and
going through the terrors of his arrest and execution.
A
suicide will repeat automatically the feelings of despair and fear which preceded
his self-murder, and go through the act and the death-struggle time after time
with ghastly persistence. A woman who perished in the flames in a wild condition
of terror and with frantic efforts to escape, created such a whirls of passions
that, five days afterwards, she was still struggling desperately, fancying herself
still in the fire and wildly repulsing all efforts to soothe her: while another
woman who, with her baby on her breast, went down beneath the whirl of waters
in a raging storm, with her heart calm and full of love, slept peacefully on
the other side of death, dreaming of husband and children in happy lifelike
visions.
In
more ordinary cases, death by accident is still a disadvantage, brought on a
person by some serious fault, (Not necessarily a fault committed in the present
life. The law of cause and effect will be explained in Chapter IX, “Karma”),
for the possession of full consciousness in the lower Kâmalokic regions, which
are closely related to the earth, is attended by many inconveniences and perils.
The man is full of all the plans and interests that made up his life, and is
conscious of the presence of people and things connected with them.
He
is almost irresistibly impelled by his longings to try and influence the affairs
to which his passions and feelings still cling, and is bound to the earth while
he has lost all his accustomed organs of activity ; his only hope of (Page
91) peace lies in resolutely turning away from earth and fixing his
mind on higher things, but comparatively few are strong enough to make this
effort, even with the help always offered them by workers on the astral plane,
whose sphere of duty lies in helping and guiding those who have left his world.
(These workers are disciples of some of the great Teachers who guide and help
humanity, and they are employed in this special duty of succouring souls in
need of such assistance.)
Too
often such sufferers impatient in their helpless inactivity, seek the assistance
of sensitives, with whom they can communicate and so mix themselves up once
more in terrestrial affairs ; they sometimes seek even to obsess convenient
mediums and thus to utilise the bodies of others for their own purposes, so
incurring many responsibilities in the future. Not without occult reason have
English churchmen been taught to pray : “From battle, murder, and from sudden
death, Good Lord, deliver us.”
We
may now consider the divisions of Kâmaloka one by one, and so gain some idea
of the conditions which the man has made for himself in the intermediate state
by the desires which he has cultivated during physical life ; it being kept
in mind that the amount of vitality in any given “shell” – and therefore his
imprisonment in that shell – depends on the amount of energy thrown during earth-life
into the kind of matter of which that shell consists.
If
the lowest passions have been active, the coarsest matter will be strongly vitalised
and its amount will also be relatively large. This principle rules through all
Kâmalokic regions, so that a man during earth-life can judge very fairly as
to the future for himself (Page 92)
that he is preparing immediately on the other side of death.
The
first or lowest, division is the one that contains the conditions described
in so many Hindu and Buddhist Scriptures under the name of “hells” of various
kinds. It must be understood that a man, in passing into one of these states,
is not getting rid of the passions and vile desires that have led him thither
; these remain, as part of his character, lying latent in the mind in a germinal
state, to be thrown outwards again to form his passional nature when he is returning
to birth in the physical world. (See chapter VII, on “Reincarnation”). His
presence in the lowest region of Kâmaloka is due to the existence in his kâmic
body of matter belonging to that region, and he is held prisoner there until
the greater part of that matter has dropped away, until the shell composed of
it is sufficiently disintegrated to allow the man to come into contact with
the region next above.
The
atmosphere of this place is gloomy, heavy, dreary, depressing to an inconceivable
extent. It seems to reek with all the influences most inimical to good, as in
truth it does, being caused by the persons whose evil passions have led them
to this dreary place. All the desires and feelings at which we shudder, find
here the materials for their expression ; it is, in fact, the lowest slum,
with all the horrors veiled from physical sight parading their naked hideousness.
(Page 93) Its repulsiveness is
much increased by the fact that in the astral world character expresses itself
in form, and the man who is full of evil passions looks the whole of
them ; bestial appetites shape the astral body into bestial forms, and repulsively
human animal shapes are the appropriate clothing of brutalised human souls.
No
man can be a hypocrite in the astral world, and cloak foul thoughts with a veil
of virtuous seeming ; whatever a man is that he appears to be in outward form
and semblance, radiant in beauty if his mind be noble, repulsive in hideousness
if his nature be foul. It will readily be understood, then, how such Teachers
as the Buddha – to whose unerring vision all worlds lay open – should describe
what was seen in these hells in vivid language of terrible imagery, that seems
incredible to modern readers only because people forget that, once escaped from
the heavy and unplastic matter of the physical world, all souls appear in their
proper likenesses and look just what they are . Even
in this world a degraded and besotted ruffian moulds his face into most repellent
aspect ; what then can be expected when the plastic astral matter takes shape
with every impulse of his criminal desires, but that such a man should wear
a horrifying form, taking on changing elements of hideousness?
For
it must be remembered that the population – if that word may be allowed – of
this lowest region consists of the very scum of humanity, murderers, ruffians,
violent criminals of all types, drunkards, (Page
94) profligates, the vilest of mankind. None is here, with consciousness
awake to its surroundings, save those guilty of brutal crimes, or of deliberate
persistent cruelty, or possessed by some vile appetite. The only persons who
may be of a better general type, and yet for a while be held here, are suicides,
men who have sought by self-murder to escape from the earthly penalties of crimes
they had committed, and who have but worsened their position by the exchange.
Not all suicides, be it understood , for self-murder is committed from many
motives, but only such as are led up to by crime and are then committed in order
to avoid the consequences.
Save
for the gloomy surroundings and the loathsomeness of a man’s associates, every
man here is the immediate creator of his own miseries. Unchanged, except for
the loss of the bodily veil, men here show out their passions in all their native
hideousness, their naked brutality ; full of fierce unsatiated appetites, seething
with revenge, hatred, longings after physical indulgences which the loss of
physical organs incapacitates them for enjoying, they roam, raging and ravening,
through this gloomy region, crowding round all foul resorts on earth, round
brothels and gin-palaces, stimulating their occupants to deeds of shame and
violence, seeking opportunities to obsess them, and so to drive them into worse
excesses.
The
sickening atmosphere felt round such places comes largely from these earthbound
astral entities, reeking with foul passions and (Page
95) unclean desires. Mediums – unless of very pure and noble character
– are special objects of attack, and too often the weaker ones, weakened still
further by the passive yielding of their bodies for the temporary habitation
of other excarnate souls are obsessed by these creatures, and are driven into
intemperance or madness.
Executed
murderers, furious with terror and passionate revengeful hatred, acting over
again, as we have said, their crime and recreating mentally its terrible results,
surround themselves with an atmosphere of savage thought-forms, and, attracted
to any one harbouring revengeful and violent designs, they egg him on into the
actual commission of the deed over which he broods. Sometimes
a man may be seen constantly followed by his murdered victim, never able to
escape from his haunting presence, which hunts him with a dull persistency ,
try he ever so eagerly to escape. The murdered person, unless himself of a very
base type, is wrapped in unconsciousness, and this very unconsciousness seems
to add a new horror to its mechanical pursuit.
Here
also is the hell of the vivisector, for cruelty draws into the astral body the
coarsest materials and the most repulsive combinations of the astral matter,
and he lives amid the crowding forms of his mutilated victims – moaning, quivering,
howling (they are vivified, not by the animal souls but by elemental life) pulsing
with hatred to the tormentor – rehearsing his worst experiments with automatic
regularity, conscious of all the horror, and yet (Page
96) imperiously impelled to the self-torment by the habit set up
during earth-life.
It
is well once again, to remember, ere quitting this dreary region, that we have
no arbitrary punishments inflicted from outside, but only the inevitable working
out of the causes set going by each person. During physical life they yielded
to the vilest impulses and drew into, built into, their astral bodies the materials
which alone could vibrate in answer to those impulses ; this self-built body
becomes the prison house of the soul, and must fall into ruins ere the soul
can escape from it.
As
inevitably as a drunkard must live in his repulsive soddened physical body here,
so must he live in his equally repulsive astral body there. The harvest sown
is reaped after its kind. Such is the law in all the worlds, and it may not
be escaped. Nor indeed is the astral body there more revolting and horrible
than it was when the man was living upon earth and made the atmosphere around
him fetid with his astral emanations. But people on earth do not generally recognise
its ugliness, being astrally blind.
Further,
we may cheer ourselves in contemplating these unhappy brothers of ours by remembering
that their sufferings are but temporary, and are giving a much-needed lesson
in the life of the soul. By the tremendous pressure of nature’s disregarded
laws they are learning the existence of those laws, and the misery that accrues
from ignoring them in life and conduct. The
lesson they would not learn (Page 97)
during earth-life, whirled away on the torrent of lusts and desires, is pressed
on them here, and will be pressed on them in their succeeding lives, until the
evils are eradicated and the man has risen into a better life. Nature’s lessons
are sharp, but in the long run they are merciful, for they lead to the evolution
of the soul and guide it to the winning of its immortality.
Let
us pass to a more cheerful region. The second division of the astral world may
be said to be the astral double of the physical, for the astral bodies of all
things and of many people are largely composed of the matter belonging to this
division of the astral plane, and it is therefore more closely in touch with
the physical world than any other part of the astral. The great majority of
people make some stay here, and a very large proportion of these are consciously
awake in it. These latter are folk whose interests were bound up in the trivial
and petty objects of life, who set their hearts on trifles, as well as those
who allowed their lower natures to rule them, and who died with the appetites
still active and desirous of physical enjoyment.
Having
largely sent their life outwards in these directions, thus building their astral
bodies largely of the materials that responded very readily to material impacts,
they are held by these bodies in the neighbourhood of their physical attractions.
They are mostly dissatisfied, uneasy, restless, with more or less suffering
according to the vigour of the wishes they cannot gratify ; some even undergo
positive pain (Page 98) from this
cause, and are long delayed ere these earthly longings are exhausted.
Many
unnecessarily lengthen their stay by seeking to communicate with the earth,
in whose interests they are entangled, by means of mediums, who allow them to
use their physical bodies for this purpose, thus supplying the loss of their
own. From them comes most of the mere twaddle with which every one is familiar
who has had experience of public spiritualistic séances, the gossip and trite
morality of the petty lodging-house and small shop – feminine, for the most
part. As these
earth bound souls are generally of small intelligence, their communications
are of no more interest- (to those already convinced of the existence of the
soul after death) –than was their conversation when they were in the body, and
– just as on earth – they are positive in proportion to their ignorance, representing
the whole astral world as identical with their own very limited area. There
as here :
They
think the rustic cackle of their burgh
The murmur
of the world.
It
is from this region that people who have died with some anxiety on their minds
will sometimes seek to communicate with their friends in order to arrange the
earthly matter that troubles them ; if they cannot succeed in showing themselves,
or in impressing their wishes by a dream on some friend, they will often cause
much annoyance by knockings and other noises directly intended to draw attention
(Page 99) or caused unconsciously
by their restless efforts. It is a charity in such cases for some competent
person to communicate with the distressed entity and learn his wishes, as he
may thus be freed from the anxiety which prevents him from passing onwards.
Souls, while in this region, may also very easily have their attention drawn
to the earth, even although they would not spontaneously have turned back to
it, and this disservice is too often done to them by the passionate grief and
craving for their beloved presence by friends left behind on earth.
The
thought-forms set up by these longings throng round them, and oftentimes arouse
them if they are peacefully sleeping, or violently draw their thoughts to earth
if they are already conscious. It is especially in the former case that this
unwitting selfishness on the part of friends on earth does mischief to their
dear ones that they would themselves be the first to regret ; and it may that
the knowledge of the unnecessary suffering thus caused to those who have passed
through death may, with some, strengthen the binding force of the religious
precepts which enjoin submission to the divine law and the checking of excessive
and rebellious grief.
The
third and fourth regions of the Kâmalokic world differ but little from the second,
and might also be described as etherialised copies of it, the fourth being more
refined than the third, but the general characteristics of the three subdivisions
being very similar. Souls of somewhat more progressed (Page
100) types are found there, and although they are held there by the
encasement built by the activity of their earthly interests, their attention
is for the most part directed onwards rather than backwards, and, if they are
not forcibly recalled to the concerns of earth-life, they will pass on without
very much delay.
Still,
they are susceptible to earthly stimuli, and the weakening interest in terrestrial
affairs may be reawakened by cries from below. Large numbers of educated and
thoughtful people, who were chiefly occupied with worldly affairs during their
physical lives, are conscious in these regions, and may be induced to communicate
through mediums, and, more rarely, seek such communication themselves. Their
statements are naturally of a higher type than those spoken of as coming from
the second division, but are not marked by any characteristics that render them
more valuable than similar statements made by persons still in the body. Spiritual
illumination does not come from Kâmaloka.
The
fifth subdivision of Kâmaloka offers many new characteristics. It presents a
distinctly luminous and radiant appearance, eminently attractive to those accustomed
only to the dull hues of the earth, and justifying the epithet astral, starry,
given to the whole plane. Here are situated all the materialised heavens which
play so large a part in popular religions all the world over.
The
happy hunting grounds of the Red Indian, the Valhalla of the Norsemen, the houri-filled
paradise of the Muslim, the golden (Page 101)
jewelled-gated New Jerusalem of the Christian, the lyceum-filled heaven of the
materialistic reformer, all have their places here. Men and women who clung
desperately to every “letter that killeth” have here the literal satisfaction
of their cravings, unconsciously creating in astral matter by their powers of
imagination, fed on the mere husks of the world’s Scriptures, the cloud-built
palaces whereof they dreamed.
The
crudest religious beliefs find here their temporary cloud-land realisation,
and literalists of every faith, who were filled with selfish longings for their
own salvation in the most materialistic of heavens, here find an appropriate,
and to them enjoyable, home, surrounded by the very conditions in which they
believed. The religious and philanthropic busybodies, who cared more to carry
out their own fads and impose their own ways on their neighbours than to work
unselfishly for the increase of human virtue and happiness, are here much to
the fore, carrying on reformatories, refuges, schools, to their own great satisfaction,
and much delighted are they still to push an astral finger into an earthly pie
with the help of a subservient medium whom they patronise with lofty condescension.
They
build astral churches and schools and houses, reproducing the materialistic
heavens they coveted ; and though to keener vision their erections are imperfect,
even pathetically grotesque, they find them all-sufficing. People of the same
religions flock together and co-operate with each other in various ways, so
that communities are formed, differing as widely from each other
(Page 102) as do similar communities on earth.
When
they are attracted to the earth they seek, for the most part, people of their
own faith and country, chiefly by natural affinity, doubtless, but also because
barriers of language still exist in Kâmaloka ; as may be noticed occasionally
in messages received in spiritualistic circles. Souls from this region often
take the most vivid interest in attempts to establish communication between
this and the next world, and the “spirit guides” of average mediums come, for
the most part, from this and from the region next above. They
are generally aware that there are many possibilities of higher life before
them, and that they will, sooner or later, pass away into worlds whence communication
with this earth will not be possible.
The
sixth Kâmalokic region resembles the fifth, but is far more refined, and is
largely inhabited by souls of a more advanced type, wearing out the astral vesture
in which much of their mental energies had worked while they were in the physical
body. Their delay is here due to the large part played by selfishness in their
artistic and intellectual life, and to the prostitution of their talents to
the gratification of the desire-nature in a refined and delicate way.
Their
surroundings are the best that are found in Kâmaloka, as their creative thoughts
fashion the luminous materials of their temporary home into fair landscapes
and rippling oceans, snow-clad mountains and fertile plains, scenes that are
of fairy-like beauty compared with even the most exquisite (Page
103) that earth can show. Religionists also are found here, of a
slightly more progressed kind than those in the division immediately below,
and with more definite views of their own limitations. They look forward more
clearly to passing out of their present sphere, and reaching a higher state.
The
seventh, the highest, subdivision of Kâmaloka, is occupied almost entirely by
intellectual men and women who were either pronouncedly materialistic while
on earth, or who are so wedded to the ways in which knowledge is gained by the
lower mind in the physical body that they continue its pursuit in the old ways,
though with enlarged faculties. One
recalls Charles Lamb’s dislike of the idea that in heaven knowledge would have
to be gained “by some awkward process of intuition” instead of through his beloved
books. Many a student lives for long years, sometimes for centuries – according
to H.P.Blavatsky – literally in the astral library, conning eagerly all books
that deal with his favourite subject, and perfectly contented with his lot.
Men
who have been keenly set on some line of intellectual investigation, and have
thrown off the physical body, with their thirst for knowledge unslaked, pursue
their object still with unwearied persistence, fettered by their clinging to
the physical modes of study. Often such men are still sceptical as to the higher
possibilities that lie before them, and shrink from the prospect of what is
practically a second death – the sinking into unconsciousness ere the soul is
born into the higher life of heaven. (Page
104) Politicians,
statesmen, men of science, dwell for a while in this region, slowly disentangling
themselves from the astral body, still held to the lower life by their keen
and vivid interest in the movements in which they have played so large a part,
and in the effort to work out astrally some of the schemes from which Death
snatched them ere yet they had reached fruition.
To
all, however, sooner or later – save to that small minority who during earth-life
never felt one touch of unselfish love, of intellectual aspiration, of recognition
of something or some one higher than themselves – there comes a time when the
bonds of the astral body are finally shaken off, while the soul sinks into brief
unconsciousness of its surroundings, like the unconsciousness that follows the
dropping off of the physical body, to be awakened by a sense of bliss, intense,
immense, fathomless, undreamed of, the bliss of the heaven-world, of the world
to which by its own nature it belongs.
Low
and vile may have been many of its passions, trivial and sordid many of its
longings, but it had gleams of a higher nature, broken lights now and then from
a purer region, and these must ripen as seeds to the time of their harvest,
and however poor and few must yield their fair return. The man passes on to
reap this harvest, and to eat and assimilate its fruit. (See Chapter V, on Devachan).
The
astral corpse, as it is sometimes called, or the “shell” of the departed entity,
consists of the (Page 105) fragments
of the seven concentric shells before described, held together by the remaining
magnetism of the soul. Each shell in turn has disintegrated, until the point
is reached when mere scattered fragments of it remain ; these cling by magnetic
attraction to the remaining shells, and when one after another has been reduced
to this condition, until the seventh or innermost is reached and itself disintegrates,
the man himself escapes, leaving behind him these remains.
The
shell drifts about vaguely in the kâmalokic world, automatically and feebly
repeating its accustomed vibrations, and as the remaining magnetism gradually
disperses, it falls into a more and more decayed condition, and finally disintegrates
completely, restoring its materials to the general mass of astral matter, exactly
as does the physical body to the physical world.
This
shell drifts wherever the astral currents may carry it, and may be vitalised,
if not too far gone, by the magnetism of embodied souls on earth, and so restored
to some amount of activity. It will suck up magnetism as a sponge sucks up water,
and will then take on an illusory appearance of vitality, repeating more vigorously
and vibration to which it was accustomed ; these are often set up by the stimulus
of thoughts common to the departed soul and friends and relations on earth,
and such a vitalised shell may play quite respectably the part of a communicating
intelligence; it is however, distinguishable – apart from the use of astral
vision – by its automatic repetitions of familiar thoughts, and by the (Page
106) total absence of all originality and of any traces of knowledge
not possessed during physical life.
Just
as souls may be delayed in their progress by foolish and inconsiderate friends,
so may they be aided in it by wise and well-directed efforts. Hence all religions,
which retain any traces of the occult wisdom of their Founders, enjoin the use
of “prayers for the dead.” These prayers with their accompanying ceremonies
are more or less useful according to the knowledge, the love, and the willpower
by which they were ensouled.
They
rest on that universal truth of vibration by which the universe is built, modified,
and maintained. Vibrations are set up by the uttered sounds, arranging astral
matter into definite forms, ensouled by the thought enshrined in the words.
These are directed towards the Kâmalokic entity, and, striking against the astral
body, hasten its disintegration. With the decay of occult knowledge these ceremonies
have become less and less potent, until their usefulness has almost reached
a vanishing point.
Nevertheless
they are still sometimes performed by a man of knowledge, and then exert their
rightful influence. Moreover, every one can help his beloved departed by sending
to them thoughts of love and peace and longing for their swift progress through
the Kâmalokic world and their liberation from astral fetters. No one should
leave his “dead” to go on a lonely way, unattended by loving hosts of these
guardian angel thought-forms, helping them forward with joy. (Page
107)
CHAPTER
IV
THE MENTAL PLANE
The
mental plane, as its name implies, is that which belongs to consciousness working
as thought ; not of the mind as it works through the brain, but as it works
in its own world, unencumbered with physical spirit-matter. This world is the
world of the real man. The word “man” comes from the Sanskrit root “man” and
this is the root of the Sanskrit verb “to think,” so that man means
thinker; he is named by his most characteristic attribute, intelligence.
In
English the word “mind” has to stand for the intellectual consciousness itself,
and also for the effects produced on the physical brain by the vibration of
that consciousness ; but we have now to conceive of the intellectual consciousness
as an entity, an individual – a being, the vibrations of whose life are thoughts,
thoughts which are images, not words.
This
individual is Manas, or the Thinker ; (Derived from Manas is the technical name,
the mânasic plane. Englished as “mental.” We might call it the plane of the
mind proper, to distinguish its activities from those of the mind working in
the flesh.) –he is the Self, clothed in the matter, and working within the conditions,
of the higher subdivisions (Page 108)
of the mental plane. He reveals his presence on the physical plane by the vibrations
he sets up in the brain and nervous system ; these respond to the thrills of
his life by sympathetic vibrations, but in consequence of the coarseness of
their material they can reproduce only a small section of his vibrations and
even that very imperfectly.
Just
as science asserts the existence of a vast series of etheric vibrations, of
which the eye can only see a small fragment, the solar light spectrum, because
it can vibrate only within certain limits, so can the physical thought-apparatus,
the brain and nervous system, think only a small fragment of the vast series
of mental vibrations set up by the Thinker in his own world.
The
most receptive brains respond up to the point of what we call the great intellectual
power ; the exceptionally receptive brains respond up to the point of what we
call genius ; the exceptionally unreceptive brains respond only up to the point
we call idiocy ; but every one sends beating against his brain millions of
thought-waves to which it cannot respond, owing to the density of its materials,
and just in proportion to its sensitiveness are the so-called mental powers
of each. But before studying the Thinker, it will be well to consider his world,
the mental plane itself.
The
mental plane is that which is next to the astral, and is separated from it only
by differences of materials, just as the astral is separated from the physical.
In fact, we may repeat what was said as to the astral and the physical with
regard to the (Page 109) mental
and the astral. Life on the mental plane is more active than on the astral,
and form is more plastic. The spirit-matter of that plane is more highly vitalised
and finer than any grade of matter in the astral world. The
ultimate atom of astral matter has innumerable aggregations of the coarsest
mental matter for its encircling sphere-world, so that the disintegration of
the astral atom yields a mass of mental matter of the coarsest kinds. Under
these circumstances it will be understood that the play of the life-forces on
this plane will be enormously increased in activity, there being so much less
mass to be moved by them.
The
matter is in constant ceaseless motion, taking form under every thrill of life,
and adapting itself without hesitation to every changing motion. “Mind-stuff,”
as it has been called, makes astral spirit-matter seem clumsy, heavy, and lustreless,
although compared with the physical spirit-matter it is so fairy-light and luminous.
But the law of analogy holds good, and gives us a clue to guide us through this
super astral region, the region that is our birthplace and our home, although,
imprisoned in a foreign land, we know it not, and gaze at descriptions of it
with the eyes of aliens.
Once
again here, as on the two lower planes, the subdivisions of the spirit-matter
of the plane are seven in number. Once again, these varieties enter into countless
combinations, of every variety of complexity, yielding the solids, liquids,
gases, and ethers of the mental plane. The word “solid” seems indeed absurd,
when speaking of even the most (Page 110)
substantial forms of mind-stuff ; yet as they are dense in comparison with other
kinds of mental materials, and as we have no descriptive words save such as
are based on physical conditions, we must even use it for lack of a better.
Enough
if we understand that this plane follows the general law and order of Nature,
which is, for our globe, the septenary basis, and that the seven subdivisions
of matter are of lessening densities, relatively to each other, as the physical
solids, liquids, gases, and ethers ; the seventh, or highest, subdivision being
composed exclusively of the mental atoms.
These
subdivisions are grouped under two headings, to which the somewhat inefficient
and unintelligible epithets “formless” and “form” have been assigned. (Arûpa,
without form: rûpa, form. Rûpa is form, shape, body. ) The
lower four – the first, second, third, and fourth subdivisions – are grouped
together as “with form” ; the higher three – the fifth, sixth and seventh
subdivisions – are grouped as “formless.” The grouping is necessary, for the
distinction is a real one, although one difficult to describe, and the regions
are related in consciousness to the divisions in the mind itself – as will appear
more plainly a little farther on.
The
distinction may perhaps be best expressed by saying that in the lower four subdivisions
the vibrations of consciousness give rise to forms, to images or pictures, and
every thought appears as a living shape ; whereas in the higher three, consciousness,
though still, of course, setting up (Page
111) vibrations, seems rather to send them out as a mighty stream
of living energy, which does not body itself into distinct images while it remains
in this higher region, but which steps up a variety of forms all linked by some
common condition when it rushes into the lower worlds.
The
nearest analogy that I can find for the conception I am trying to express is
that of abstract and concrete thoughts ; an abstract idea of a triangle has
no form, but connotes any plane figure contained within three right lines, the
angles of which make two right angles ; such an idea, with conditions but without
shape, thrown into the lower world, may give birth to a vast variety of figures,
right-angled, isosceles, scalene, of any colour and size, but all filling the
conditions – concrete triangles each one with a definite shape of its own. The
impossibility of giving in words a lucid exposition of the difference in the
action of consciousness in the two regions is due to the fact that words are
the symbols of images and belong to the workings of the lower mind in the brain,
and are based wholly upon those workings ; while the “formless” region belongs
to the Pure reason, which never works within the narrow limits of language.
The
mental plane is that which reflects the Universal Mind in Nature, the plane
which in our little system corresponds with that of the Great Mind in the Kosmos.
(Mahat, the Third LOGOS, or Divine Creative Intelligence, the Brahmâ of the
Hindus, the Mandjusri of the Northern Buddhists, the Holy Spirit of the Christians.)
In its higher regions exist all the archetypal ideas which are now in course
of concrete evolution, and in its lower the working out of these (Page
112) into successive forms, to be duly reproduced in the astral and
physical worlds.
Its
materials are capable of combining under the impulse of thought vibrations,
and can give rise to any combination which thought can construct ; as iron can
be made into a spade for digging or into a sword for slaying, so can mind-stuff
be shaped into thought-forms that help or injure ; the vibrating life of the
Thinker shapes the materials around him, and according to his volitions so is
his work. In
that region thought and action, will and deed, are one and the same thing –
spirit-matter here becomes the obedient servant of the life, adapting itself
to every creative motion.
These vibrations, which shape the matter of the plane into thought-forms, give
rise also from their swiftness and subtlety to the most exquisite and constantly
changing colours, waves of varying shades like the rainbow hues of mother-of-pearl,
etherialised and brightened to an indescribable extent, sweeping over and through
every form, so that each presents a harmony of rippling, living, luminous,
delicate colours, including many not ever known to earth.
Words
can give no idea of the exquisite beauty and radiance shown in combinations
of this subtle matter, instinct with life and motion. Every seer who has witnessed
it, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, speaks in rapturous terms of its glorious beauty,
and ever confesses his utter inability to describe it; (Page
113) words seem but to coarsen and deprave it, however deftly woven
in its praise.
Thought-forms
naturally play a large part among the living creatures that function on the
mental plane. They resemble those with which we are already familiar in the
astral world, save that they are far more radiant and more brilliantly coloured,
are stronger, more lasting, and more fully vitalised. As
the higher intellectual qualities become more clearly marked, these forms show
very sharply defined outlines, and there is a tendency to a singular perfection
of geometrical figures accompanied by an equally singular purity of luminous
colour. But, needless to say at the present stage of humanity, there is a vast
preponderance of cloudy and irregularly shaped thoughts, the production of the
ill-trained minds of the majority.
Rarely
beautiful artistic thoughts are also here encountered, and it is little wonder
that painters who have caught, in dreamy vision, some glimpse of their ideal,
often fret against their incapacity to reproduce its glowing beauty in earth’s
dull pigments. These thought-forms are built out of the elemental essence of
the plane, the vibrations of the thought throwing the elemental essence into
a corresponding shape, and this shape having the thought as its informing life.
Thus again
we have “artificial elementals” created in a way identical with that by which
they come into being in the astral regions. All that is said in Chapter II of
their generation and of their importance may be repeated of those of the mental
plane, with here the additional responsibility on their creators of the greater
force and permanence belonging (Page 114)
to those of this higher world.
The
elemental essence of the mental plane is formed by the Monad in the stage of
its descent immediately preceding its entrance into the astral world, and it
constitutes the second elemental kingdom, existing on the four lower subdivisions
of the mental plane. The three higher subdivisions, the “formless,” are occupied
by the first elemental kingdom, the elemental essence there being thrown by
thought into brilliant coruscations, coloured streams, and flashes of living
fire, instead of into definite shapes, taking as it were its first lessons in
combined action, but not yet assuming definite limitations of forms.
On
the mental plane, in both its great divisions, exist numberless Intelligences,
whose lowest bodies are formed of the luminous matter and elemental essence
of that plane – Shining ones who guide the processes of natural order, overlooking
the hosts of lower entities before spoken of, and yielding submission in their
several hierarchies to their great overlords of the seven Elements. (These are
the Arûpa and Rûpa Devas of the Hindus and the Buddhists, the “Lords of the
heavenly and the earthly” of the Zoroastrians, the Archangels and Angels of
the Christians and Mahomedans).
They
are, as may readily be imagined, beings of vast knowledge, of great power, and
most splendid in appearance, radiant, flashing creatures, myriad-hued, like
rainbows of changing supernal colours, of stateliest mien, (Page
115) calm energy incarnate, embodiments of resistless strength. The
description of the great Christian Seer leaps to mind, when he wrote of a mighty
angel: “A rainbow was upon his head, and his face was imperial as it were the
sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.( Revelation, x, 1). “As
the sound of many waters” are their voices, as echoes from the music of the
spheres. They guide natural order, and rule the vast companies of the elementals
of the astral world, so that their cohorts carry on ceaselessly the processes
of nature with undeviating regularity and accuracy.
On
the lower mental plane are seen many Chelâs at work in their mental bodies,
(Usually called Mâyâvi Rûpa, or illusory body, when arranged for independent
functioning in the mental world.) --- freed for a time from their physical vestures.
When the body is wrapped in deep sleep the true man, the Thinker, may escape
from it, and work untrammelled by its weight in these higher regions. From here
he can aid and comfort his fellowmen by acting directly on their minds, suggesting
helpful thoughts, putting before them noble ideas, more effectively and speedily
than he can do when encased in the body. He can see their needs more clearly
and therefore can supply them more perfectly, and it is his highest privilege
and joy thus to minister to his struggling brothers, without their knowledge
of his service or any ideas of theirs as to the strong arm that lifts their
burden, or the soft voice that whispers solace in their pain.
Unseen,
unrecognised, he works, (Page 116)
serving his enemies as gladly and as freely as his friends, dispensing to individuals
the stream of beneficent forces that are poured down from the great Helpers
in higher spheres. Here also are sometimes seen the glorious figures of the
Masters, though for the most part They reside on the highest level of the “formless”
division of the mental plane ; and other Great Ones may also sometimes come
hither on some mission of compassion requiring such lower manifestation.
Communication
between intelligences functioning consciously on this plane, whether human or
non-human, whether in or out of the body, is practically instantaneous, for
it is with :the “speed of thought.” Barriers of space have here no power to
divide, and any soul can come into touch with any one by merely directing his
attention to him.
Not
only is communication thus swift, but it is also complete, if the souls are
at about the same stage of evolution ; no words fetter and obstruct the communion,
but the whole thought flashes from the one to the other, or, perhaps more exactly,
each sees the thought as conceived by the other. The real barriers between
souls are the differences of evolution ; the less evolved can know only as much
of the more highly evolved as his is able to respond to ; the limitation can
obviously be felt only by the higher one, as the lesser has all that he can
contain.
The
more evolved a soul, the more does he know of all around him, the nearer does
he approach to realities ; but the mental plane has also its veils of illusion,
it must be remembered, though they be far fewer and thinner than those of the
astral and the physical worlds. Each soul (Page
117) has its own mental atmosphere, and, as all impressions must
come through this atmosphere, they are all distorted and coloured. The clearer
and purer, the atmosphere, and the less it is coloured by the personality, the
fewer are the illusions that can befall it.
The
three highest subdivisions of the mental plane are the habitat of the Thinker
himself, and he dwells on one or other of these, according to the stage of his
evolution. The vast majority live on the lowest level, in various stages of
evolution ; a comparatively few of the highly intellectual dwell on the second
level, the Thinker ascending thither – to use a phrase more suitable to the
physical than to the mental plane – when the subtler matter of that region preponderates
in him, and thus necessitates the change ; there is of course, no “ascending,”
no change of place, but he receives the vibrations of that subtler matter,
being able to respond to them, and he himself is able to send out forces that
throw its rare particles into vibration.
The
student should familiarise himself with the fact that rising in the scale of
evolution does not move him from place to place, but renders him more and more
able to receive impressions. Every sphere is around us, the astral,
the mental, the buddhic, the nirvânic, and worlds higher yet, the life of the
supreme God ; we need not stir to find them, for they are here; but our dull
unreceptivity shuts them out more effectively than millions of miles of mere
space.
We
are (Page 118) conscious only of
that which affects us, which stirs us to responsive vibration, and as we become
more and more receptive, as we draw into ourself finer and finer matter, we
come into contact with subtler and subtler worlds. Hence, rising from one level
to another means that we are weaving our vestures of finer materials and can
receive through them the contacts of finer worlds ; and it means further that
in the Self within these vestures diviner powers are waking from latency into
activity, and are sending out their subtler thrills of life.
At
the stage now reached by the Thinker, he is fully conscious of his surroundings
and is in possession of the memory of his past. He knows the bodies he is wearing,
through which he is contacting the lower planes, and he is able to influence
and guide them to a great extent. He sees the difficulties, the obstacles, they
are approaching – the results of past careless living – and he sets himself
to pour into them energies by which they may be better equipped for their task.
His
direction is sometimes felt in the lower consciousness as an imperiously compelling
force that will have its way, and that impels to a course of action for which
all the reasons may not be clear to the dimmer vision caused by the mental and
astral garments. Men who have done great deeds have occasionally left on record
their consciousness of an inner and compelling power, which seemed to leave
them no choice save to do as they had done. They were then acting as the real
man ; the Thinkers, that are the inner men, (Page
119) were doing the work consciously through the bodies that then
were fulfilling their proper functions as vehicles of the individual. To these
higher powers all will come as evolution proceeds.
On
the third level of the upper region of the mental plane dwell the Egos of the
Masters, and of the Initiates who are Their Chelâs, the Thinkers having here
a preponderance of the matter of this region in their bodies. From this world
of subtlest mental forces the Masters carry on Their beneficent work for humanity,
raining down noble ideals, inspiring thoughts, devotional aspirations, streams
of spiritual and intellectual help for men.
Every
force there generated, rays out in myriad directions, and the noblest, purest
souls catch most readily these helpful influences. A discovery flashes into
the mind of the patient searcher into Nature’s secrets ; a new melody entrances
the ear of the great musician ; the answer to a long studied problem illumines
the intellect of a lofty philosopher ; a new energy of hope and love suffuses
the heart of an unwearied philanthropist. Yet men think that they are left uncared
for, although the very phrases they use ; “the thought occurred to me; the idea
came to me; the discovery flashed on me " unconsciously testify to the
truth known to their inner selves though the outer eyes be blind.
Let
us now turn to the study of the Thinker and his vestures as they are found in
men on earth. The body of the consciousness, conditioning it in the four lower
subdivisions of the mental plane – the mental body, (Page
120) as we term it – is formed of combinations of the matter of these
subdivisions. The Thinker, the individual, Human Soul – formed in the way described
in the latter part of this chapter – when he is coming into incarnation, first
radiates forth some of his energy in vibrations that attract round him, and
clothe him in, matter drawn from the four lower subdivisions of his own plane.
According
to the nature of the vibrations are the kinds of matter they attract ; the finer
kinds answer the swifter vibrations and take form under their impulse ; the
coarser kinds similarly answer the slower ones ; just as a wire will sympathetically
sound out a note – i.e., a given number of vibrations – coming from
a wire similar in weight and tension to itself, but will remain dumb amid a
chorus of notes from wires dissimilar to itself in these respects, so do the
different kinds of matter assort themselves in answer to different kinds of
vibrations. Exactly
according to the vibrations sent out by the Thinker will be the nature of the
mental body that he thus draws around him, and this mental body is what is
called the lower mind, the lower Manas, because it is the Thinker clothed in
the matter of the lower subdivisions of the mental plane and conditioned by
it in his further working.
None
of his energies which are too subtle to move this matter, too swift for its
response, can express themselves through it ; he is therefore limited by it,
conditioned by it, restricted by it in his expression of himself. It is the
first of his prison-houses during his incarnate life, and while his energies
are acting (Page 121) within it
he is largely shut off from his own higher world, for his attention is with
the outgoing energies and his life is thrown with them into the mental body,
often spoken as a vesture, or sheath, or vehicle – any expression will serve
which connotes the idea that the Thinker is not the mental body, but formed
it and uses it in order to express as much of himself as he can in the lower
mental region.
It
must not be forgotten that his energies, still pulsing outwards, draw round
him also the coarser matter of the astral plane as his astral body ; and during
his incarnate life the energies that express themselves through the lower kinds
of mental matter are so readily changed by it into the slower vibrations that
are responded to by astral matter that the two bodies are continually vibrating
together, and become very closely interwoven ; the coarser the kinds of matter
built into the mental body, the more intimate becomes this union, so that the
two bodies are sometimes classed together and even taken as one.( Thus the Theosophist
will speak of Kâma Manas, meaning the mind as working in and with the
desire nature, affecting and affected by the animal nature. The Vedântin
classes the two together, and speaks of the Self as working in the Manomayakosha,
the sheath composed of the lower mind, emotions, and passions. The European
psychologist makes “feelings” one section of his tripartite division of “mind”,
and includes under feelings both emotions and sensations.) When we come to study
Reincarnation we shall find this fact assuming vital importance.
According
to the stage of evolution reached by (Page
122) the man will be the type of mental body he forms on his way
to become again incarnate, and we may study, as we did with the astral body,
the respective mental bodies of three types of men –
a)
an undeveloped man ; b) an average man ; c) a spiritually advanced man.
a)
In the undeveloped man the mental body is but little perceptible, a small amount
of unorganised mental matter, chiefly from the lowest subdivisions of the plane,
being all that represents it. This is played on almost entirely from the lower
bodies, being set vibrating feebly by the astral storms raised by the contacts
with material objects through the sense organs. Except when stimulated by these
astral vibrations it remains almost quiescent, and even under their impulses
its responses are sluggish. No definite activity is generated from within, these
blows from the outer world being necessary to arouse any distinct response.
The
more violent the blows, the better for the progress of the man, for each responsive
vibration aids in the embryonic development of the mental body. Riotous pleasure,
anger, rage, pain, terror, all these passions, causing whirlwinds in the astral
body, awaken faint vibrations in the mental, and gradually these vibrations,
stirring into commencing activity the mental consciousness, cause it to add
something of its own to the impressions made on it from without.
We
have seen that the mental body is so closely mingled with the astral that they
act as a single body, but the dawning mental faculties add to the astral passions
a certain (Page 123) strength and
quality not apparent in them when they work as purely animal qualities. The
impressions made on the mental body are more permanent than those made on the
astral, and they are consciously reproduced by it. Here memory and the organ
of imagination begin, and the latter gradually moulds itself, the images from
the outer world working on the matter of the mental body and forming its materials
into their own likeness.
These
images, born of the contacts of the senses, draw round themselves the coarsest
mental matter; the dawning powers of consciousness reproduce these images, and
thus accumulate a store of pictures that begin to stimulate action initiated
from within, from the wish to experience again through the outer organs the
vibrations that were found pleasant, and to avoid those productive of pain.
The
mental body then begins to stimulate the astral, and to arouse in it the desires
that, in the animal, slumber until awakened by a physical stimulus ; hence we
see in the undeveloped man a persistent pursuit of sense-gratification never
found in the lower animals, a lust, a cruelty, a calculation, to which they
are strangers. The dawning powers of the mind, yoked to the service of the senses,
make of man a far more dangerous and savage brute than any animal, and the stronger
and more subtle forces inherent in the mental-spiritual matter lend to the passion-nature
an energy and a keenness that we do not find in the animal world.
But
these very excesses lead to their own correction by the sufferings which they
cause, (Page 124) and these resultant
experiences play upon the consciousness and set up new images on which the imagination
works. These stimulate the consciousness to resist many of the vibrations that
reach it by way of the astral body from the external world, and to exercise
its volition in holding the passions back instead of giving them free rein.
Such
resistant vibrations are set up in, and attract towards, the mental body, finer
combinations of mind-stuff and tend also to expel from it the coarser combinations
that vibrate responsively to the passional notes set up in the astral body ;
by this struggle between the vibrations set up by passion-images and the vibrations
set up by the imaginative reproduction of past experiences, the mental body
grows, begins to develop a definite organisation, and to exercise more and more
initiative as regards external activities.
While
the earth life is spent gathering experiences, the intermediate life is spent
assimilating them, as we shall see in detail in the following chapter, so that
in each return to earth the Thinker has an increased stock of faculties to take
shape as his mental body. Thus the undeveloped man, whose mind is the slave
of his passions, grows into the average man, whose mind is a battleground in
which passions and mental powers wage war with varying success, about balanced
in their forces, but who is gradually gaining the mastery over his lower nature.
(b)
In the average man, the mental body is much increased in size, shows a certain
amount of organisation, and contains a fair proportion of matter (Page
125) drawn from the second, third, and fourth subdivisions of the
mental plane. The general law which regulates all the building up and modifying
of the mental body may here be fitly studied, though it is the same principle
already seen working in the lower realms of the astral and physical worlds.
Exercise
increases, disuse atrophies and finally destroys. Every vibration set up in
the mental body causes changes in its constituents, throwing out of it, in the
part affected, the matter that cannot vibrate sympathetically, and replacing
it by suitable materials drawn from the practically illimitable store around.
The more a series of vibrations is repeated, the more does the part affected
by them increase in development ; hence, it may be noted in passing, the injury
done to the mental body by over-specialisation of mental energies.
Such
mistaken direction of these powers causes a lopsided development of the mental
body ; it becomes proportionately over developed in the region in which these
forces are continually playing and proportionately undeveloped in other parts,
perhaps equally important. A harmonious and proportionate all-round development
is the object to be sought, and for this we need a calm self-analysis and a
definite direction of means to ends. A
knowledge of this law, further explains certain familiar experiences, and affords
a sure hope of progress. When a new study is commenced, or a change in favour
of high morality is initiated, the early stages are found to be fraught with
difficulties ; sometimes the effort is even abandoned because the (Page
126) obstacles in the way of its success appear to be insurmountable.
At
the beginning of any new mental undertaking, the whole automatism of the mental
body opposes it ; the materials habituated to vibrate in a particular way, cannot
accommodate themselves to the new impulses, and the early stage consists chiefly
of sending out thrills of force which are frustrated, so far as setting up vibrations
in the mental body are concerned, but which are the necessary preliminary to
any such sympathetic vibrations, as they shake out of the body the old refractory
materials and draw into it the sympathetic kinds.
During
this process, the man is not conscious of any progress; he is conscious only
of the frustration of his efforts and of the dull resistance he encounters.
Presently, if he persists, as the newly attracted materials begin to function,
he succeeds better in his attempts, and at last, when all the old materials
are expelled and the new are working, he finds himself succeeding without an
effort, and his object is accomplished.
The
critical time is during the first stage ; but if he trust in the law, as sure
in its working as every other law in Nature, and persistently repeat his efforts,
he must succeed ; and a knowledge of this fact may cheer him when otherwise
he would be sinking in despair. In this way, then, the average man may work
on, finding with joy that as he steadily resists the promptings of the lower
nature he is conscious they are losing their power over him, for he is expelling
from his mental body all the materials that are capable of being thrown (Page
127) into sympathetic vibrations. Thus
the mental body gradually comes to be composed of the finer constituents of
the four lower subdivisions of the mental plane, until it has become radiant
and exquisitely beautiful form which is the mental body of the –
(
c ) Spiritually developed man. From this body all the coarser combinations have
been eliminated, so that the objects of the senses no longer find in it, or
in the astral body connected with it, materials that respond sympathetically
to their vibrations. It
contains only the finer combinations belonging to each of the four subdivisions
of the lower mental world, and of these again the materials of the third and
fourth sub-planes very much predominate in its composition over the materials
of the second and first, making it responsive to all the higher workings of
the intellect, to the delicate contacts of the higher arts, to all the pure
thrills of loftier emotions.
Such
a body enables the Thinker who is clothed in it to express himself much more
fully in the lower mental region and in the astral and physical worlds ; its
materials are capable of a far wider range of responsive vibrations, and the
impulses from a loftier realm mould it into nobler and subtler organisation.
Such a body is rapidly becoming ready to reproduce every impulse from the Thinker
which is capable of expression on the lower subdivisions of the mental plane
; it is growing into a perfect instrument for activities in this lower mental
world. (Page 128)
A
clear understanding of the nature of the mental body would much modify modern
education, and would make it far more serviceable to the Thinker than it is
at present. The general characteristics of this body depend on the past lives
of the Thinker on earth, as will be thoroughly understood when we have studied
Reincarnation and Karma. The body is constituted on the mental plane, and its
materials depend on the qualities that the Thinker has garnered within himself
as the results of his past experiences.
All
that education can do is to provide such external stimuli as shall arouse and
encourage the growth of the useful faculties he already possesses, and stunt
and help in the eradication of those that are undesirable. The drawing out of
these inborn faculties, and not the cramming of the mind with facts, is the
object of true education.
Nor
need memory be cultivated as a separate faculty, for memory depends on attention
– that is on the steady concentration of the mind on the subject studied – and
on the natural affinity between the subject and the mind. If
the subject be liked – that is, if the mind has a capacity for it – memory will
not fail, provided due attention be paid. Therefore education should cultivate
the habit of steady concentration, of sustained attention, and should be directed
according to the inborn faculties of the pupil.
Let
us now pass into the “formless” divisions of the mental plane, the region which
is man’s true home during the cycle of his reincarnations, into which (Page
129) he is born, a baby soul, an infant Ego, an embryonic individuality,
when he begins his purely human evolution.( See Chapters VII and VIII, on “Reincarnation”).
The
outline of this Ego, the Thinker, is oval in shape, and hence H.P. Blavatsky
speaks of this body of Manas which endures throughout all his incarnations as
the Auric Egg. Formed of the matter of the three highest subdivisions of the
mental plane, it is exquisitely fine, a film of rarest subtlety, even at its
first inception ; and, as it develops, it becomes a radiant object of supernal
glory and beauty, the shining One, as it has been aptly named. ( This is the
Augœides of the Neo-Platonists, the “spiritual body” of St. Paul).
What
is this Thinker? He is the divine Self, as already said, limited, or individualised,
by this subtle body drawn from the materials of the “formless” region of the
mental plane. (The Self, working in the Vignyânamayakosha, the sheath of discriminative
knowledge, according to the Vedântic classification). This
matter – drawn around a ray of the Self, a living beam of the one Light and
Life of the universe – shuts off this ray from its Source, so far as the external
world is concerned, encloses it within a filmy shell of itself, and so makes
it “an individual.” The life is the Life of the LOGOS, but all the powers of
that Life are lying latent, concealed ; everything is there potentially, germinally,
as the tree is hidden within the tiny germ in the seed.
This
seed is dropped into the (Page 130)
soil of human life that its latent forces may be quickened into activity by
the sun of joy and the rain of tears, and he fed by the juices of the life-soil
that we call experience, until the germ grows into a mighty tree, the image
of its generating Sire. Human
evolution is the evolution of the Thinker; he takes on bodies on the lower mental
and astral, and the physical planes, wears then through earthly, astral, lower
mental life, dropping them successively at the regular stages of this life-cycle
as he passes from world to world, but ever storing up within himself the fruits
he has gathered by their use on each plane.
At
first, as little conscious as a baby’s earthly body, he almost slept through
life after life, till the experiences playing on him from without awakened some
of his latent forces into activity; but gradually he assumed more and more part
in the direction of his life, until, with manhood reached, he took his life
into his own hands, and an ever-increasing control over his future destiny.
The
growth of the permanent body which, with the divine consciousness, forms the
Thinker is extremely slow. Its technical name is the causal body, because he
gathers up within it the results of all experiences, and these act as causes,
moulding future lives. It
is the only permanent one among the bodies during incarnation, the mental, the
astral, and physical bodies being reconstituted for each fresh life ; as each
perishes in turn, it hands on its harvest to the one above it, and thus all
the harvests are finally stored in the permanent body ; when the (Page
131) Thinker returns to incarnation he sends out his energies, constituted
of these harvests, on each successive plane, and thus draws round him a anew
body after body suitable to his past.
The
growth of the causal body itself, as said, is very slow, for it can vibrate
only in answer to impulses that can be expressed in the very subtle matter
of which it is composed, thus weaving them into the texture of its being. Hence
the passions, which play so large a part in the early stages of human evolution,
cannot directly affect its growth. The Thinker can work into himself only the
experiences that can be reproduced in the vibrations of the causal body, and
these must belong to the mental region, and be highly intellectual or loftily
moral in their character ; other wise its subtle matter can give no sympathetic
vibration in answer.
A
very little reflection will convince any one how little material, suitable for
the growth of this lofty body, he affords by his daily life ; hence the slowness
of evolution, the little progress made. The Thinker should have more of himself
to put out in each successive life, and, when this is the case, evolution goes
swiftly forward. Persistence
in evil courses reacts in a kind of indirect way on the causal body, and does
more harm than the mere retardation of growth ; it seems after a long time to
cause a certain incapacity to respond to the vibrations set up by the opposite
good, and thus to delay growth for a considerable period after the evil has
been renounced.
Directly
to injure the causal body, evil of a highly intellectual and (Page
132) refined kind is necessary, the “spiritual evil” mentioned in
the various Scriptures of the world. This is fortunately rare, rare as spiritual
good, and found only among the highly progressed, whether they be following
the Right-hand or the Left-hand Path. (The
Right-hand Path is that which leads to divine manhood, to Adeptship used in
the service of the worlds. The Left-hand Path is that which also leads to Adeptship,
but to Adeptship that is used to frustrate the progress of evolution and is
turned to selfish individual ends. They are sometimes called the White and Black
Paths respectively.)
The
habitat of the Thinker, of the Eternal Man, is on the fifth subplane, the lowest
level of the “formless” region of the mental plane. The great masses of mankind
are here, scarce yet awake, still in the infancy of their life. The Thinker
develops consciousness slowly, as his energies, playing on the lower planes,
there gather experience, which is indrawn with these energies as they return
to him treasure-laden with the harvest of life. This
eternal Man, the individualised Self, is the actor in every body that he wears
; it is his presence that gives the feeling of “ I “ alike to body and mind,
the “ I “ being that which is self-conscious and which, by illusion, identifies
itself with that vehicle in which it is most actively energising.
To
the man of the senses the “ I “ is the physical body and the desire nature ;
he draws from these his enjoyment, and he thinks of these as himself, for his
life is in them. To the scholar the “ I “ is the mind, for in its exercise lies
his joy and therein his life is concentrated. (Page
133) Few can rise to the abstract heights of spiritual philosophy,
and feel this Eternal Man as “ I “, with memory ranging back over past lives
and hopes ranging forward over future births.
The
physiologists tell us that if we cut the finger we do not really feel the pain
there where the blood is flowing, but that pain is felt in the brain, and is
by imagination thrown outwards to the place of the injury ; the feeling of pain
in the finger is, they say an illusion ; it is put by imagination at
the point of contact with the object causing the injury ; so also will a man
feel pain in an amputated limb, or rather in the space the limb used to occupy.
Similarly does
the one “ I “, the Inner Man, feel suffering and joy in the sheaths which enwrap
him, at the points of contact with the external world, and feels the sheath
to be himself, knowing not that this feeling is an illusion, and that he is
the sole actor and experiencer in each sheath.
Let
us now consider, in this light, the relations between the higher and lower mind
and their action on the brain. The mind, Manas, the Thinker, is one, and is
the Self in the causal body; it is the source of innumerable energies, of vibrations
of innumerable kinds. These
it sends out, raying outwards from itself. The subtlest and finest of these
are expressed in the matter of the causal body, which alone is fine enough to
respond to them ; they form what we call the Pure Reason, whose thoughts are
abstract, whose method of gaining knowledge is intuition ; its very “nature
is knowledge,” and it recognises truth at sight as congruous with itself. (Page
134)
Less
subtle vibrations pass outwards, attracting the matter of the lower mental region,
and these are the Lower Manas, or lower mind – the coarser energies of the higher
expressed in denser matter ; these we call the intellect, comprising reason,
judgement, imagination, comparison, and the other mental faculties ; its thoughts
are concrete, and its method is logic ; it argues, it reasons, it infers. These
vibrations, acting through astral matter on the etheric brain, and by that on
the dense physical brain, set up vibrations therein, which are the heavy and
slow reproductions of themselves – heavy and slow, because the energies lose
much of their swiftness in moving the heavier matter.
This
feebleness of response when a vibration is initiated in a rare medium and then
passes into a dense one is familiar to every student of physics. Strike a bell
in air and it sounds clearly ; strike it in hydrogen, and let the hydrogen vibrations
have to set up the atmospheric waves, and how faint the result. Equally feeble
are the workings of the brain in response to the swift and subtle impacts of
the mind ; yet that is all that the vast majority know as their “consciousness.”
The
immense importance of the mental workings of this “consciousness” is due to
the fact that it is the only medium whereby the Thinker can gather the harvest
of experience by which he grows. While
it is dominated by the passions it runs riot, and he is left unnourished and
therefore unable to develop ; while it is occupied wholly in mental activities
concerned with the outer world, it can arouse only his lower energies; (Page
135) only as he is able to impress on it the true object of its life,
does it commence to fulfil its most valuable functions of gathering what will
arouse and nourish his higher energies.
As
the Thinker develops he becomes more and more conscious of his own inherent
powers, and also of the workings of his energies on the lower planes, of the
bodies which those energies have drawn around him. He at last begins to try
to influence them, using his memory of the past to guide his will, and these
impressions we call “conscience” when they deal with morals and “flashes of
intuition “ when they enlighten the intellect.
When
these impressions are continuous enough to be normal, we speak of their aggregate
as “genius.” The higher evolution of the Thinker is marked by his increasing
control over his lower vehicles, by their increasing susceptibility to his influence,
and their increasing contributions to growth. Those who would deliberately aid
in this evolution may do so by a careful training of the lower mind and of the
moral character, by steady and well directed effort.
The
habit of quiet, sustained, and sequential thought, directed to non-worldly subjects,
of meditation, of study, develops the mind-body and renders it a better instrument
; the effort to cultivate abstract thinking is also useful, as this raises the
lower mind towards the higher, and draws into it the subtlest materials of the
lower mental plane.
In
these and cognate ways all may actively co-operate in their own higher evolution,
each step forward making the (Page 136)
succeeding steps more rapid. No effort, not even the smallest, is lost, but
is followed by its full effect, and every contribution gathered and handed inwards
is stored in the treasure-house of the causal body for future use. Thus evolution,
however slow and halting, is yet ever onwards, and the divine Life, ever unfolding
in every soul, slowly subdues all things to itself.
(Page 137)
CHAPTER
V
DEVACHAN
The
word Devachan is the theosophical name for heaven, and, literally translated,
means the shining land, or the Land of the Gods. ( Devasthan, the place of the
Gods, is the Sanskrit equivalent. It is the Svarga of the Hindus ; the Sukhâvati
of the Buddhists ; the Heaven of the Zoroastrians and Christians, and of the
less materialised among the Mohammedans). It
is a specially guarded part of the mental plane, whence all sorrow and all evil
are excluded by the action of the great spiritual Intelligences who superintend
human evolution ; and it is inhabited by human beings who have cast off their
physical and astral bodies, and who pass into it when their stay in Kâmaloka
is completed.
The
devachanic life consists of two stages, of which the first is passed in the
four lower subdivisions of the mental plane, in which the Thinker still wears
the mental body and is conditioned by it, being employed in assimilating the
materials gathered by it during the earth-life from which he has just emerged.
The second stage is spent in the “formless world,” the Thinker escaping from
the mental body, and living in his own unencumbered (Page
138) life in the full measure of the self-consciousness and knowledge
to which he has attained.
The
total length of time spent in Devachan depends upon the amount of material for
the devachanic life which the soul has brought with it from its life on earth.
The harvest of the fruit for consumption and assimilation in Devachan consists
of all the pure thoughts and emotions generated during earth-life, all the intellectual
and moral efforts and aspirations, all the memories of useful work and plans
for human service – everything which is capable of being worked into mental
and moral faculty, thus assisting in the evolution of the soul.
Not
one is lost, however feeble, however fleeting ; but selfish animal passions
cannot enter, there being no material in which they can be expressed. Nor does
all the evil in the past life, though it may largely preponderate over the good,
prevent the full reaping of whatever scant harvest of good there may have been
; the scantiness of the harvest may render the devachanic life very brief, but
the most depraved, if he has had any faint longings after the right, any stirrings
of tenderness, must have a period of devachanic life in which the seed of good
may put forth its tender shoots, in which the spark of good may be gently fanned
into a tiny flame.
In
the past, when men lived with their hearts largely fixed on heaven and directed
their lives with a view to enjoying its bliss, the period spent in Devachan
was very long, lasting sometimes for many thousands of years ; at the present
time, men’s minds (Page 139) being
so much more centred on earth, and so few of their thoughts comparatively being
directed towards the higher life, their devachanic periods are correspondingly
shortened.
Similarly,
the time spent in the higher and lower regions of the mental plane ( Called
technically the Arûpa and Rûpa Devachan – existing on the arûpa and rûpa levels
of the mental plane ) respectively is proportionate to the amount of thought
generated severally in the mental and causal bodies ; All the thoughts belonging
to the personal self, to the life just closed – with all its ambitions, interests,
loves, hopes, and fears – all these have their fruition in the Devachan where
forms are found ; while those belonging to the higher mind, to the regions of
abstract, impersonal thinking, have to be worked out in the “formless” devachanic
region. The
majority of people only just enter that lofty region to pass swiftly out again
; some spend there a large portion of their devachanic existence ; a few spend
there almost the whole.
Ere
entering into any details let us try to grasp some of the leading ideas which
govern the devachanic life, for it is so different from physical life that any
description of it is apt to mislead by its very strangeness. People realise
so little of their mental life, even as led in the body, that when they are
presented with a picture of mental life out of the body they lose all sense
of reality, and feel as though they had passed into a world of dream.
The
first thing to grasp is that mental life is far more intense, vivid, and nearer
to reality than (Page 140) the
life of the senses. Everything we see and touch and hear and taste and handle
down here is two removes farther from the reality than everything we contact
in Devachan. We do not even see things as they are, but the things that we see
down here have two more veils of illusion enveloping them. Our
sense of reality here is an entire delusion ; we know nothing of things, of
people, as they are ; all that we know of them are the impressions they make
on our senses, and the conclusions, often erroneous, which our reason deduces
from the aggregate of these impressions. Get and put side by side the ideas
of a man held by his father, his closest friend, the girl who adores him, his
rival in business, his deadliest enemy, and a casual acquaintance, and see how
incongruous the pictures.
Each
can only give the impressions made on his own mind, and how far are they from
the reality of what the man is, seen by the eyes that pierces all veils and
behold the whole man. We know of each of our friends the impressions they make
on us, and these are strictly limited by our capacity to receive ; a child may
have as his father a great statesman of lofty purpose and imperial aims, but
that guide of nation’s destinies is to him only his merriest play fellow, his
most enticing storyteller.
We
live in the midst of illusions, but we have the feeling of reality, and this
yields us content. In Devachan we shall also be surrounded by illusions – though,
as said, two removes nearer to reality – and there also we shall have a similar
feeling of reality which will yield us content. (Page
141)
The
illusions of earth, though lessened, are not escaped from in the lower heavens,
though contact is more real and more immediate. For it must never be forgotten
that these heavens are part of a great evolutionary scheme, and, until man has
found the real Self, his own unreality makes him subject to illusions. One thing
however, which produces the feeling of reality in earth-life and of unreality
when we study Devachan, is that we look at earth-life from within, under the
full sway of its illusions, while we contemplate Devachan from outside, free
for the time from its veil of Mâyâ.
In
Devachan the process is reversed, and its inhabitants feel their own life to
be the real one and look on the earth-life as full of the most patent illusions
and misconceptions. On the whole, they are nearer to the truth than the physical
critics of their heaven-world.
Next, the Thinker – being clad only in the mental body and being in the untrammelled
exercise of its powers – manifests the creative nature of these powers in a
way and to an extent that down here we can hardly realise. On
earth a painter, a sculptor, a musician, dreams, dreams of exquisite beauty,
creating their visions by the powers of the mind ; but when they seek to embody
them in the coarse materials of earth they fall far short of the mental creation.
The marble is too resistant for perfect form, the pigments to muddy for perfect
colour.
In
heaven, all they think, is at once reproduced in form, for the rare and subtle
matter of the heaven-world is (Page 142)
mind stuff, the medium in which the mind normally works when free from passion,
and it takes shape with every mental impulse. Each man, therefore, in a very
real sense, makes his own heaven, and the beauty of his surroundings is definitely
increased, according to the wealth and energy of his mind. As
the soul develops his powers, his heaven grows more and more subtle and exquisite;
all the limitations in heaven are self-created, and heaven expands and deepens
with the expansion and deepening of the soul.
While
the soul is weak and selfish, narrow and ill-developed, his heaven shares these
pettinesses; but it is always the best that is in the soul, however poor that
best may be. As the man evolves, his devachanic lives become fuller, richer,
more and more real, and advanced souls come into ever closer and closer contact
with each other, enjoying wider and deeper intercourse.
A
life on earth, thin, feeble, vapid, and narrow, mentally and morally, produces
a comparatively thin, feeble, vapid and narrow life in Devachan, where only
the mental and the moral survive. We cannot have more than we are,
and our harvest is according to our sowing. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked
; for whatsoever a man soweth, that,”- and neither more nor less, - “shall
he also reap.” Our indolence and greediness would fain reap where we have not
sown, but in this universe of law, the Good Law, mercifully just, brings to
each the exact wages of his work.
The
mental impressions, or mental pictures, we make (Page
143) of our friends will dominate us in Devachan. Round each soul
throng those he loved in life, and every image of the loved ones that live in
the heart becomes a living companion of the soul in heaven. And they are unchanged.
They will be to us there as they were here, and no otherwise. The outer semblance
of our friend as it affected our senses, we form out of mind-stuff in Devachan
by the creative powers of the mind; what
was here a mental picture is there – as in truth it was here, although we knew
it not – an objective shape in living mind-stuff, abiding in our own mental
atmosphere ; only what is dull and dreamy here is forcibly living and vivid
there.
And
with regard to the true communion, that of the soul with soul? That is closer,
nearer, dearer than anything we know here, for, as we have seen, there is no
barrier on the mental plane between soul and soul; exactly in proportion to
the reality of the soul-life in us is the reality of soul-communion there ;
the mental image of our friend is our own creation ; his form is as we knew
and loved it ; and his soul breathes through that form to ours just to the extent
that his soul and ours can throb in sympathetic vibration.
But
we can have no touch with those we knew on earth if the ties were only of the
physical or astral body, or if they and we were discordant in the inner life
; therefore into our Devachan no enemy can enter, for sympathetic accord of
minds and hearts can alone draw men together there. Separateness of heart and
mind means separation in the heavenly life, for all that is (Page
144) lower than the heart and mind can find no means of expression
there. With
those who are far beyond us in evolution we come into contact just as far as
we can respond to them ; great ranges of their being will stretch beyond our
ken, but all that we can touch is ours. Further, these greater ones can and
do aid us in the heavenly life, under conditions we shall study presently, helping
us to grow towards them, and thus be able to receive more and more. There is
then no separation by space or time, but there is separation by absence of sympathy,
by lack of accord between hearts and minds.
In
heaven we are with all whom we love and with all whom we admire, and we commune
with them to the limit of our capacity, or, if we are more advanced, of theirs.
We meet them in the forms we loved on earth, with perfect memory of our earthly
relationships, for heaven is the flowering of all earth’s buds, and the marred
and feeble loves of earth expand into beauty and power there. The communion
being direct, no misunderstandings of words or thoughts can arise ; each sees
the thought his friend creates, or as much of it as he can respond to.
Devachan,
the heaven-world, is a world of bliss, of joy unspeakable. But it is much more
than this, much more than a rest for the weary. In Devachan all that was valuable
in the mental and moral experiences of the Thinker during the life just ended
is worked out, meditated over, and is gradually transmuted into definite mental
and moral faculty, (Page 145) into
powers which he will take with him to his next rebirth. He
does not work into the mental body the actual memory of the past, for the mental
body will, in due course, disintegrate ; the memory of the past abides only
in the Thinker himself, who has lived through it and who endures. But these
facts of past experiences are worked into mental capacity, so that if a man
has studied a subject deeply the effects of that study will be the creation
of a special faculty to acquire and master that subject when it is first presented
to him in another incarnation.
He
will be born with a special aptitude for that line of study, and will pick it
up with great facility. Everything thought upon earth is thus utilised in Devachan
; every aspiration is worked up into power ; all frustrated efforts become faculties
and abilities ; struggles and defeats reappear as materials to be wrought into
instruments of victory ; sorrows and errors shine luminous as precious metals
to be worked up into wise and well-directed volitions.
Schemes
of beneficence, for which power and skill to accomplish were lacking in the
past, are in Devachan worked out in thought, acted out, as it were, stage by
stage, and the necessary power and skill are developed as faculties of the mind
to be put into use in a future life on earth, when the clever and earnest student
shall be reborn as a genius, when the devotee shall be reborn as a saint. Life
then, in Devachan, is no mere dream, no lotus-land of purposeless idling ; it
is the land in which the mind and heart develop, unhindered by gross matter
and by the trivial cares, where weapons are forged for earth’s fierce battlefields,
and where the progress (Page 146)
of the future is secured.
When
the Thinker has consumed in the mental body all the fruits belonging to it of
his earthly life, he shakes it off and dwells unencumbered in his own place.
All the mental faculties which express themselves on the lower levels are drawn
within the causal body – with the germs of the passional life that were drawn
into the mental body when it left the astral shell to disintegrate in Kâmaloka
– and these become latent for a time, lying within the causal body, forces which
remain concealed for lack of material in which to manifest. (The
thoughtful student may here find a fruitful suggestion on the problem of continuing
consciousness after the cycle of the universe is trodden. Let him place Îshvara
in the place of the Thinker, and let the faculties that are the fruits of a
life represent the human lives that are the fruits of a Universe. He may then
catch some glimpse of what is necessary for consciousness, during the interval
between universes).
The
mental body, the last of the temporary vestures of the true man, disintegrates,
and its materials return to the general matter of the mental plane, whence they
were drawn when the Thinker last descended into incarnation. Thus the causal
body alone remains, the receptacle and treasure-house of all that has been assimilated
from the life that is over. The Thinker has finished a round of his long pilgrimage
and dwells for a while in his own native land.
His condition as to consciousness depends entirely (Page
147) on the point he has reached in evolution. In his early stages
of life he will merely sleep, wrapped in unconsciousness, when he has lost his
vehicles on the lower planes. His
life will pulse gently within him, assimilating any little results from his
closed earth-existence that may be capable of entering into his substance ;
but he will have no consciousness of his surroundings. But as he develops, this
period of his life becomes more and more important, and occupies a greater proportion
of his Devachanic existence.
He
becomes self-conscious, and thereby conscious of his surroundings – of the not-self
– and his memory spreads before him the panorama of his life, stretching backwards
into the ages of the past. He sees the causes that worked out their effects
in the last of his life-experiences, and studies the causes he has set going
in this latest incarnation. He
assimilates and works into the texture of the causal body all that was noblest
and loftiest in the closed chapter of his life, and by his inner activity he
develops and co-ordinates the materials in his causal body. He comes into direct
contact with great souls, whether in or out of the body at the time, enjoys
communion with them, learns from their riper wisdom and longer experience.
Each
succeeding devachanic life is richer and deeper ; with his expanding capacity
to receive, knowledge flows into him in fuller tides ; more and more he learns
to understand the workings of the law, the conditions of evolutionary progress,
and thus returns to earth-life each time with greater knowledge, more effective
power, his vision of the goal of life becoming ever clearer and the way to it
more plain before his feet. (Page 148)
To
every Thinker, however unprogressed, there comes a moment of clear vision when
the time arrives for his return to the life of the lower worlds. For a moment
he sees his past and the causes working from it into the future, and the general
map of his next incarnation is also unrolled before him. Then the clouds of
lower matter surge round him and obscure his vision, and the cycle of another
incarnation begins with the awakening of the powers of the lower mind, and their
drawing round him, by their vibrations, materials from the lower mental plane
to form the new mental body for the opening chapter of his life-history. This
part of our subject, however, belongs in its detail to the chapters on reincarnation.
We
left the soul asleep, (See Chapter III., On Kâmaloka, Page 83) having
shaken off the last remains of his astral body, ready to pass out of Kâmaloka
into Devachan, out of purgatory into heaven. The sleeper awakens to a sense
of joy unspeakable, of bliss immeasurable, of peace that passeth understanding.
Softest melodies are breathing round him, tenderest hues greet his opening eyes,
the very air seems music and colour, the whole being is suffused with light
and harmony.
Then
through the golden haze dawn sweetly the faces loved on earth, etherialised
into the beauty which expresses their noblest, loveliest emotions, unmarred
by (Page 149) the troubles and
the passions of the lower worlds. Who may tell the bliss of that awakening,
the glory of that first dawning of the heaven-world?
We
will now study the conditions in detail of the seven subdivisions of Devachan,
remembering that in the four lower we are in the world of form, and a world,
moreover, in which every thought presents itself at once as a form. This world
of form belongs to the personality, and every soul is therefore surrounded by
as much of his past life as has entered into his mind and can be expressed in
pure mind-stuff.
The
first, or lowest, region is the heaven of the least progressed souls, whose
highest emotion on earth was a narrow, sincere, and sometimes selfish love for
family and friends. Or it may be that they felt some loving admiration for some
one they met on earth who was purer and better than themselves, or felt some
wish to lead a higher life, or some passing aspiration towards mental and moral
expansion.
There
is not much material here out of which faculty can be moulded, and their life
is but very slightly progressive ; their family affections will be nourished
and a little widened, and they will be reborn after a while with a somewhat
improved emotional nature, with more tendency to recognise and respond to a
higher ideal. Meanwhile
they are enjoying all the happiness they can receive; their cup is but a small
one, but it is filled to the brim with bliss, and they enjoy all that they are
able to conceive of heaven. Its purity, its harmony, (Page
150) play on their undeveloped faculties and woo them to awaken into
activity, and the inner stirrings begin which must precede any manifested budding.
The
next division of devachanic life comprises men and women of every religious
faith whose hearts during their earthly lives had turned with loving devotion
to God, under any name, under any form. The form may have been narrow, but the
heart rose up in aspiration, and here finds the object of its loving worship.
The concept of the Divine which was formed by their mind when on earth here
meets them in the radiant glory of devachanic matter, fairer, diviner, than
their wildest dreams.
The
Divine One limits Himself to meet the intellectual limits of His worshipper,
and in whatever form the worshipper has loved and worshipped Him, in that form
He reveals Himself to his longing eyes, and pours out on him the sweetness of
His answering love. The souls are steeped in religious ecstasy, worshipping
the One under the forms their piety sought on earth, losing themselves in the
raptures of devotion, in communion with the Object they adore. No one finds
himself a stranger in the heavenly places, the Divine veiling Himself in the
familiar form. Such souls grow in purity and in devotion under the sun of this
communion, and return to earth with these qualities much intensified. Nor is
all their devachanic life spent in this devotional ecstasy, for they have full
opportunities of maturing every other quality they may possess of heart and
mind. (Page 151)
Passing
onwards to the third region, we come to those noble and earnest beings who were
devoted servants of humanity while on earth, and largely poured out their love
to God in the form of works for man. They are reaping the reward of their good
deeds by developing larger powers of usefulness and increased wisdom in their
direction. Plans
of wider beneficence unroll themselves before the mind of the philanthropist,
and like an architect, he designs the future edifice which he will build in
a coming life on earth ; he matures the schemes which he will then work out
into actions, and like a creative God plans his universe of benevolence, which
shall be manifested in gross matter when the time is ripe. These souls will
appear as the great philanthropists of yet unborn centuries, who will incarnate
on earth with innate dower of unselfish love and of power to achieve.
Most
varied in character, perhaps, of all the heavens is the fourth, for here the
powers of the most advanced souls find their exercise, so far as they can be
expressed in the world of form. Here the kings of art and of literature are
found, exercising all their powers of form, of colour, of harmony, and building
greater faculties with which to be reborn when they return to earth. Noblest
music, ravishing beyond description, peals forth from the mightiest monarchs
of harmony that the earth has known, as Beethoven, no longer deaf, pours out
his imperial soul in strains of unexampled beauty, making even the heaven world
more melodious as (Page 152) he
draws down harmonies from higher spheres, and sends them thrilling through the
heavenly places. Here also we find the masters of painting and of sculpture,
learning new hues of colour, new curves of undreamed beauty.
And
here also are others who failed, though greatly aspiring, and who are here transmuting
longings into powers, and dreams into faculties, that shall be theirs in another
life. Searchers into Nature are here, and they are learning her hidden secrets
; before their eyes are unrolling systems of worlds with all their hidden mechanism,
woven series of workings of unimaginable delicacy and complexity ; they shall
return to earth as great “discoverers,” with unerring intuitions of the mysterious
ways of Nature.
In
this heaven also are found students of the deeper knowledge, the eager, reverent
pupils who sought the Teachers of the race, who longed to find a Teacher, and
patiently worked at all that had been given out by some one of the great spiritual
Masters who have taught humanity. Here their longings find their fruition, and
Those they sought, apparently in vain, are now their instructors ; the eager
souls drink in the heavenly wisdom, and swift their growth and progress as they
sit at their Master’s feet. As
teachers and as light-bringers shall they be born again on earth, born with
the birthmark of the teacher’s high office upon them.
Many
a student on earth, all unknowing of these subtler workings, is preparing himself
a place in this fourth heaven, as he bends with a real devotion (Page
153) over the pages of some teacher of genius, over the teachings
of some advanced soul. He is forming a link between himself and the teacher
he loves and reverences, and in the heaven-world that soul-tie will assert itself,
and draw together into communion the souls it links. As
the sun pours down its rays into many rooms, and each room has all it can contain
of the solar beams, so in the heaven-world do these great souls shine into hundreds
of mental images of themselves created by their pupils, fill them with life,
with their own essence, so that each student has his master to teach him and
yet shuts out none other from his aid.
Thus,
for periods long in proportion to the materials gathered for consumption upon
earth, dwell men in these heaven-worlds of form, where all good that the last
personal life had garnered finds its full fruition, its full working out into
minutest detail. Then
as we have seen, when everything is exhausted, when the last drop has been drained
from the cup of joy, the last crumb eaten of the heavenly feast, all that has
been worked up into faculty, that is of permanent value, is drawn within the
causal body, and the Thinker shakes off him and the then disintegrating body
through which he has found expression on the lower levels of the devachanic
world. Rid
of this mental body, he is in his own world, to work up whatever of his harvest
can find material suitable for it in that high realm.
A
vast number of souls touch the lowest level of the formless world as it were
but for a moment, (Page 154) taking
brief refuge there, since all lower vehicles have fallen away. But so embryonic
are they that they have as yet no active powers that there can function independently,
and they become unconscious as the mental body slips away into disintegration.
Then, for a
moment, they are aroused to consciousness, and a flash of memory illumines their
past and they see its pregnant causes ; and a flash of foreknowledge illumines
their future, and they see such effects as will work out in the coming life.
This is all that very many are as yet able to experience of the formless world.
For, here again, as ever, the harvest is according to the sowing, and how should
they who have sowed nothing for that lofty region expect to reap any harvest
therein?
But
many souls have during their earth-life, by deep thinking and noble living,
sown much seed, the harvest of which belongs to this fifth devachanic region,
the lowest of the three heavens of the formless world. Great is now their reward
for having so risen above the bondage of the flesh and of passion, and they
begin to experience the real life of man, the lofty existence of the soul itself,
unfettered by vestures belonging to the lower worlds. They
learn truths by direct vision, and see the fundamental causes of which all concrete
objects are the results; they study the underlying unities, whose presence is
marked in the lower worlds by the variety of irrelevant details.
Thus
they gain a deep knowledge of law, and learn to recognise its changeless workings
below results apparently the most incongruous, (Page
155) thus building into the body that endures firm unshakable convictions,
that will reveal themselves in earth-life as deep intuitive certainties of the
soul, above and beyond all reasoning. Here
also the man studies his own past, and carefully disentangles the causes he
has set going ; he marks their interaction, the resultants accruing from them,
and sees something of their working out in the lives yet in the future.
In
the sixth heaven are more advanced souls, who during earth-life had felt but
little attraction for its passing shows, and who had devoted all their energies
to the higher intellectual and moral life. For them there is no veil upon the
past, their memory is perfect and unbroken, and they plan the infusion into
their next life of energies that will neutralise many of the forces that are
working for hindrance, and strengthen many of those that are working for good.
This
clear memory enables them to form definite and strong determinations as to actions
which are to be done and actions which are to be avoided, and these volitions
they will be able to impress on their lower vehicles in their next birth, making
certain classes of evils impossible, contrary to what is felt to be the deepest
nature, and certain kinds of good inevitable, the irresistible demands of a
voice that will not be denied.
These
souls are born into the world with high and noble qualities which render a base
life impossible, and stamp the babe from its cradle as one of the pioneers of
humanity. The man who has attained to this sixth (Page
156) heaven sees unrolled before him the vast treasures of the Divine
Mind in creative activity and can study the archetypes of all forms that are
being gradually evolved in the lower worlds. There
he may bathe himself in the fathomless ocean of the Divine Wisdom, and unravel
the problems connected with the working out of those archetypes, the partial
good that seems as evil to the limited vision of men encased in flesh. In this
wider outlook, phenomena assume their due relative proportions, and he sees
the justification of the divine ways, no longer to him “past finding out” so
far as they are concerned with the evolution of the lower worlds.
The
questions over which on earth he pondered, and whose answers ever eluded his
eager intellect, are here solved by an insight that pierces through phenomenal
veils and sees the connecting links which make the chain complete. Here also
the soul is in the immediate presence of, and in full communion with, the greater
souls that have evolved in our humanity, and, escaped from the bonds which make
“the past” of earth, he enjoys “the ever-present” of an endless and unbroken
life.
Those
we speak of here as “the mighty dead” are there the glorious living, and the
soul enjoys the high rapture of their presence, and grows more like them as
their strong harmony attunes his vibrant nature to their key.
Yet
higher, lovelier, gleams the seventh heaven, where Masters and Initiates have
their intellectual home. No soul can dwell there ere yet is has passed while
on earth through the narrow gateway of Initiation,
(Page 157) the strait gate that “leadeth unto life” unending. ( See
Chapter XI, on “Man’s Ascent.” The Initiate has stepped out of the ordinary
line of evolution, and is treading a shorter and steeper road to human perfection).
That
world is the source of the strongest intellectual and moral impulses that flow
down to earth ; thence are poured forth the invigorating streams of the loftiest
energy. The intellectual life of the world has there its root; thence genius
receives its purest inspirations. To the souls that dwell there it matters little
whether, at the time, they be or be not connected with the lower vehicles ;
they ever enjoy their lofty self-consciousness and their communion with those
around them ; whether, when “embodied” they suffuse their lower vehicles with
as much of this consciousness as they can contain is a matter for their own
choice – they can give or withhold as they will.
And
more and more their volitions are guided by the will of the Great Ones, whose
will is one with the will of the LOGOS, the will which seeks ever the good of
the worlds. For here are being eliminated the last vestiges of separateness
– ( Ahamkâra, the “ I “ making principle, necessary in order that self consciousness
may be evolved, but transcended when its work is over) – in all who have not
yet reached final emancipation – all, that is, who are not yet Masters – and,
as these perish, the will becomes more and more harmonised with the will that
guides the worlds.
Such
is an outline of the “seven heavens” into one or other of which men pass in
due time after the (Page 158) “change
that men call death.” For death is only a change that gives the soul a partial
liberation, releasing him from the heaviest of his chains. It is but a birth
into a wider life, a return after a brief exile on earth to the soul’s true
home, a passing from a prison into the freedom of the upper air. Death
is the greatest of earth’s illusions ; there is no death, but only changes in
life’s conditions. Life is continuous, unbroken, unbreakable ; “unborn, eternal,
constant,” it perishes not with the perishing of the bodies that clothe it.
We might as well think that the sky is falling when a pot is broken, as imagine
that the soul perishes when the body falls to pieces. ( A simile used in the
Bhagavad Purâna).
The
physical, astral and mental planes are “the three worlds” though which lies
the pilgrimage of the soul, again and again repeated. In these three worlds
revolves the wheel of human life, and souls are bound to that wheel throughout
their evolution, and are carried by it to each of these worlds in turn. We
are now in a position to trace a complete life-period of the soul, the aggregate
of these periods making up its life, and we can also distinguish clearly the
difference between personality and individuality.
A
soul when its stay in the formless world of Devachan is over, begins a new life-period
by putting forth the energies which function in the form-world of the mental
plane, these energies being (Page 159)
the resultant of the preceding life-periods. These passing outwards, gather
round themselves, from the matter of the four lower mental levels, such materials
as are suitable for their expression, and thus the new mental body for the coming
birth is formed. The
vibration of these mental energies arouses the energies which belong to the
desire-nature, and these begin to vibrate ; as they awake and throb, they attract
to themselves suitable materials for their expression from the matter of the
astral world, and these form the new astral body for the approaching incarnation.
Thus
the Thinker becomes clothed with his mental and astral vestures, exactly expressing
the faculties evolved during the past stage of his life. He is drawn, by forces
which will be explained later, (See Chapter VII , on "Reincarnation")
to the family which is to provide him with a suitable physical encasement, and
becomes connected with this encasement through his astral body.
During
prenatal life the mental body becomes involved with the lower vehicles, and
this connection becomes closer and closer through the early years of childhood,
until at the seventh year they are as completely in touch with the Thinker himself
as the stage of evolution permits. He then begins to slightly control his vehicles,
if sufficiently advanced, and what we call conscience is his monitory voice.
In any case, he gathers experience through these vehicles, and during the continuance
of earth-life, stores the gathered experience in its own proper vehicle, in
the body connected with the (Page 160)
plane to which the experience belongs.
When
the earth-life is over the physical body drops away, and with it his power of
contacting the physical world, and his energies are therefore confined to the
astral and mental planes. In due course, the astral body decays, and the outgoings
of his life are confined to the mental plane, the astral faculties being gathered
up and laid by within himself as latent energies.
Once
again, in due course, its assimilative work completed, the mental body disintegrates,
its energies in turn becoming latent in the Thinker, and he withdraws his life
entirely into the formless devachanic world, his own native habitat. Thence,
all experiences of his life period in the three worlds being transmuted into
faculties and powers for future use, are contained within himself, he anew commences
his pilgrimage and treads the cycle of another life-period with increased power
and knowledge.
The
personality consists of the transitory vehicles through which the Thinker energises
in the physical, astral, and lower mental worlds, and of all the activities
connected with these. These are bound together by the links of memory caused
by impressions made on the three lower bodies ; and, by the self-identification
of the Thinker with his three vehicles, the personal “ I “ is set up. In the
lower stages of evolution this “ I “ is in the physical and passional vehicles,
in which the greatest activity is shown, later it is in the mental vehicle,
which then assumes predominance.
The
personality with its transient (Page 161)
feeling, desires, passions, thus forms a quasi-independent entity, though drawing
all its energies from the Thinker it enwraps, and as its qualifications, belonging
to the lower worlds, are often in direct antagonism to the permanent interests
of the “Dweller in the body,” conflict is set up in which victory inclines sometimes
to the temporary pleasure, sometimes to the permanent gain. The life of the
personality begins when the Thinker forms his new mental body, and it endures
until that mental body disintegrates at the close of its life in the form-world
of Devachan.
The
individuality consists of the Thinker himself, the immortal tree that puts out
all these personalities as leaves, to last through the spring, summer and autumn
of human life. All that the leaves take in and assimilate enriches the sap that
courses through their veins, and in the autumn this is withdrawn into the parent
trunk, and the dry leaf falls and perishes. The Thinker alone lives forever
; he is the man for whom “the hour never strikes,” the eternal youth who as
the Bhagavad Gitâ has it, puts on and casts off bodies as a man
puts on new garments and throws off the old.
Each
personality is a new part for the immortal Actor, and he treads the stage of
life over and over again, only in the life-drama each character he assumes is
the child of the preceding ones and the father of those to come, so that the
life-drama is a continuous history, the history of the Actor who plays the successive
parts.
To
the three worlds that we have studied is (Page
162) confined the life of the Thinker, while he is treading the earlier
stages of human evolution. A time will come in the evolution of humanity when
its feet will enter loftier realms, and reincarnation will be of the past.
But while the wheel of rebirth and death is turning, a man is bound thereon
by desires that pertain to the three worlds, his life is led in these three
regions.
To the realms that lie beyond we now may turn, albeit but little can be said
of them that can be either useful or intelligible. Such little as may be said,
however, is necessary for the outlining of the Ancient Wisdom. (Page
163)
CHAPTER
VI
THE
BUDDHIC AND NIRVÂNIC PLANES
We
have seen that man is an intelligent self-conscious entity, the Thinker, clad
in bodies belonging to the lower mental, astral and physical planes ; we have
now to study the Spirit which is his innermost Self, the source whence he proceeds.
This
Divine spirit, a ray from the LOGOS, partaking of His own essential Being, has
the triple nature of the LOGOS Himself, and the evolution of man as man consists
in the gradual manifestation of these three aspects, their development from
latency into activity, man thus repeating in miniature the evolution of the
universe.
Hence
he is spoken of as the microcosm, the universe being the macrocosm; he is called
the mirror of the universe, the image, or reflection, of God ; ( “Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness.” – Gen. I, 26. ) – and hence
also the ancient axiom, “As above, so below.” It is this in-folded deity that
is the guarantee of man’s final triumph ; this is the hidden motive power that
makes evolution at once possible and inevitable, the upward-lifting force that
slowly overcomes every obstacle and every difficulty. It
was this Presence that Matthew Arnold dimly (
Page 164) sensed when he wrote of the “Power, not ourselves, that
makes for righteousness,” but he erred in thinking “not ourselves,” for it is
the very innermost Self of all – truly not our separated selves, but our Self.
(Âtma, the reflection of Paramâtmâ.)
This
Self is the One, and hence is spoken of as the Monad – ( It is called the Monad,
whether it be the Monad of spirit-matter, Âtma ; or the Monad of form or the
human Monad, Âtma-Buddhi-Manas. In each it is a unit and acts as a unit, whether
the unit be one-faced, two-faced, or three-faced) – and we shall need to remember
that this Monad is the outbreathed life of the LOGOS, containing within itself
germinally, or in a state of latency, all the divine powers and attributes.
These
powers are brought into manifestation by the impacts arising from contact with
the objects of the universe into which the Monad is thrown ; the friction caused
by these gives rise to responsive thrills from the life subjected to their stimuli,
and one by one the energies of the life pass from latency into activity. The
human Monad – as it is called for the sake of distinction – shows as we have
already said, the three aspects of Deity, being the perfect image of God, and
in the human cycle these three aspects are developed one after the other.
These
aspects are the three great attributes of the Divine Life as manifested in the
universe, existence, bliss, and intelligence – ( Satchitânanda is often used
in the Hindu Scriptures as the abstract name of Brahman, the Trimûrti being
the concrete manifestation of these) –the three LOGOI severally showing these
forth with all the (Page 165) perfection
possible within the limits of manifestation.
In
man, these aspects are developed in the reversed order – intelligence, bliss,
existence – “existence” implying the manifestation of the divine powers. In
the evolution of man that we have so far studied we have been watching the development
of the third aspect of the hidden deity – the development of consciousness as
intelligence. Manas, the Thinker, the human Soul, is the image of the Universal
Mind, of the Third LOGOS, and all his long pilgrimage on the three lower planes
is devoted to the evolution of this third aspect, the intellectual side of the
divine nature in man.
While
this is proceeding, we may consider the other divine energies as rather brooding
over the man, the hidden source of his life, than as actively developing their
forces within him. They play within themselves, unmanifest. Still, the preparation
of these forces for manifestation is slowly proceeding; they are being roused
from that unmanifested life that we speak of as latency by the ever-increasing
energy of the vibrations of the intelligence, and the bliss-aspect begins to
send outwards its first vibrations – faint pulsings of its manifested life thrill
forth.
This
bliss-aspect is named in theosophical terminology Buddhi, a name derived from
the Sanskrit word for wisdom, and it belongs to the fourth, or buddhic plane
of our universe, the plane, in which there is still duality, but were there
is no separation. Words fail me to convey the idea, for words belong to the
lower planes where duality and separation are ever (Page
166) connected, yet some approach to the idea may be gained.
It
is a state in which each is himself, with a clearness and vivid intensity which
cannot be approached on lower planes, and yet in which each feels himself to
include all others, to be one with them, inseparate and inseparable. (The reader
should refer back to the Introduction, p. 36, and reread the description given
by Plotinus of this state, commencing: “They likewise see all things.” And he
should note the phrases, “Each likewise is everything,” and “In each, however
a different quality predominates.)
Its
nearest analogy on earth is the condition between two persons who are united
by a pure, intense love, which makes them feel as one person, causing them to
think, feel, act, live as one, recognising no barrier, no difference, no mine
and thine, no separation. (It is for this reason that the bliss of divine love
has in many Scriptures been imaged by the profound love of husband and wife,
as in the Bhagavad Purâna of the Hindus, the Song of Solomon
of the Hebrews and Christians. This is also the love of the Sufi mystics, and
indeed of all mystics.)
It
is a faint echo from this plane which makes men seek happiness by union between
themselves and the object of their desire, no matter what that object may be.
Perfect isolation is perfect misery ; to be stripped naked of everything, to
be hanging in the void of space, in utter solitude, nothing anywhere save the
lone individual, shut out from all, shut into the separated self – imagination
can conceive no horror more intense. The antithesis to this is union, and perfect
union is perfect bliss.
As
this bliss-aspect of the Self begins to send (Page
167) outwards its vibrations, these vibrations, as on the planes
below, draw round themselves the matter of the plane on which they are functioning,
and thus is formed gradually the buddhic body, or bliss-body, as it is appropriately
termed. (Ânandamayakosha, or bliss-sheath, of the Vedântins. It is also the
body of the sun, the solar body, of which a little is said in the Upanishads
and elsewhere.)
The
only way in which the man can contribute to the building of this glorious form
is by cultivating pure, unselfish, all-embracing, beneficent love, love “that
seeketh not its own” – that is, love that is neither partial, nor seeks any
return for its outflowing. This spontaneous outpouring of love is the most marked
of the divine attributes, the love that gives everything, that asks nothing.
Pure love brought the universe into being, pure love maintains it, pure love
draws it upwards towards perfection, towards bliss.
And
wherever man pours out love on all who need it, making no difference, seeking
no return, from pure spontaneous joy in the outpouring, there that man is developing
the bliss-aspect of the Deity within him, and is preparing that body of beauty
and joy ineffable into which the Thinker will rise, casting away the limits
of separateness, to find himself, and yet one with all that lives.
This
“the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” whereof wrote St. Paul,
the great Christian Initiate ; and he raised charity, pure love, above all other
virtues, because by that alone can man on earth contribute to that glorious
dwelling. For a similar reason is (Page 168)
separateness called “the great heresy” by the Buddhist, and “union” is the goal
of the Hindu ; liberation is the escape from the limitations that keep us apart,
and selfishness is the root-evil, the destruction whereof is the destruction
of all pain.
The
fifth plane, the Nirvânic, is the plane of the highest human aspect of the God
within us, and this aspect is named by theosophists Âtmâ, or the Self. It is
the plane of pure existence, of divine powers in their fullest manifestation
in our fivefold universe – what lies beyond on the sixth and seventh planes
is hidden in the unimaginable light of God.
This
âtmic, or nirvânic, consciousness, the consciousness belonging to life on the
fifth plane, is the consciousness attained by those lofty Ones, the first fruits
of humanity, who have already completed the cycle of human evolution, and who
are called Masters. (Known as Mahâtmâs, great Spirits, and Jivanmuktas, liberated
souls, who remain connected with physical bodies for the helping of humanity.
Many other great Beings also live on the nirvânic plane.) They have solved in
Themselves the problem of uniting the essence of individuality with non-separateness,
and live, immortal Intelligences, perfect in wisdom, in bliss, in power.
When
the human Monad comes forth from the LOGOS, it is as though from the luminous
ocean of Âtmâ a tiny thread of light was separated off from the rest by a film
of buddhic matter, and from this hung a spark which becomes enclosed in an egg-like
casing of matter belonging to the formless levels of (Page
169) the mental plane.
“The
spark hangs from the flame by the finest thread of Fohat.” ( Book of Dzyan,
Stanza vii, 5, ; Secret Doctrine, vol. I, p. 66, 1893 ed. ; p. 98 Adyar Edition)
As evolution proceeds, this luminous egg grows larger and more opalescent, and
the tiny thread becomes a wider and wider channel through which more and more
of the âtmic life pours down. Finally, they merge – the third with the second,
and the twain with the first, as flame merges with flame and no separation can
be seen.
The
evolution of the fourth and fifth planes belongs to a future period of our race,
but those who choose the harder path of swifter progress may tread it even now,
as will be explained later. (see Chapter XI, on “Man’s Ascent.”) On that path
the bliss body is quickly evolved, and a man begins to enjoy the consciousness
of that loftier region, and knows the bliss which comes from the absence of
separative barriers, the wisdom which flows in when the limits of the intellect
are transcended. Then
is the wheel escaped from which binds the soul in the lower worlds, and then
is the first foretaste of the liberty which is found perfected on the nirvânic
plane.
The
nirvânic consciousness is the antithesis of annihilation; it is existence raised
to a vividness and intensity inconceivable to those who know only the life of
the senses and the mind. As the farthing rush-light to the splendour of the
sun at noon, so is the nirvânic to the earth-bound consciousness, and to regard
it as an annihilation because the limits of the earthly consciousness have vanished,
is as though a man, knowing only the rush-light, should say that (Page
170) light could not exist without a wick immersed in tallow. That
Nirvâna is, has been born witness to in the past in the Scriptures
of the world by Those who enjoy it and live its glorious life, and is still
borne witness to by others of our race who have climbed that lofty ladder of
perfected humanity, and who remain in touch with earth that the feet of our
ascending race may mount its rungs unfalteringly.
In
Nirvâna dwell the mighty Beings who accomplished Their own human evolution in
past universes, and who came forth with the LOGOS when He manifested Himself
to bring this universe into existence. They are His ministers in the administration
of the worlds, the perfect agents of His will. The
Lords of all the hierarchies of the Gods and lower ministrants that we have
seen working on the lower planes have here Their abiding-place, for Nirvâna
is the heart of the universe, whence all its life-currents proceed. Hence the
Great Breath comes forth, the life of all, and thither it is indrawn when the
universe has reached its term. There is the Beatific Vision for which mystics
long, there the unveiled Glory, the Supreme Goal.
The
Brotherhood of Humanity – nay, the Brotherhood of all things – has its sure
foundation on the spiritual planes, the âtmic and buddhic, for here alone is
unity, and here alone perfect sympathy is found. The intellect is the separative
principle in man, that marks off the “ I “ from the “ not I ,” that is conscious
(Page 171) of itself, and sees
all else as outside itself and alien. It
is the combative, struggling, self-assertive principle, and from the plane of
the intellect downwards the world presents a scene of conflict, bitter in proportion
as the intellect mingles in it. Even the passion-nature is only spontaneously
combative when it is stirred by the feeling of desire and finds anything standing
between itself and the object of its desires; it becomes more and more aggressive
as the mind inspires its activity, for then it seeks to provide for the gratification
of future desires, and tries to appropriate more and more from the stores of
Nature.
But
the intellect is spontaneously combative, its very nature being to assert itself
as different from others, and here we find the root of separateness, the ever-springing
source of divisions among men.
But unity is at once felt when the buddhic plane is reached, as though we stepped
from a separate ray, diverging from all other rays, into the sun itself, from
which radiate all the rays alike.
A
being standing in the sun, suffused with its light, and pouring it forth, would
feel no difference between ray and ray, but would pour forth along one as readily
and easily as along another. And so with the man who has once consciously attained
the buddhic plane ; he feels the brotherhood that others speak of as
an ideal, and pours himself out into any one who wants assistance, giving mental,
moral, (Page 172) astral, physical
help exactly as it is needed.
He
sees all beings as himself, and feels that all he has is theirs as much as his;
nay, in many cases, as more theirs than his, because their need is greater,
their strength being less. So do the elder brothers in a family bear the family
burdens, and shield the little ones from suffering and privation ; to the spirit
of brotherhood weakness is a claim for help and loving protection, not an opportunity
for oppression.
Because
They had reached this level and mounted even higher, the great Founders of religions
have ever been marked by Their overwelling compassion and tenderness, ministering
to the physical as well as to the inner wants of men, to every man according
to his need. The consciousness of this inner unity, the recognition of the One
Self dwelling equally in all, is the one sure foundation of Brotherhood ; all
else save this is frangible.
This
recognition, moreover, is accompanied by the knowledge that the stage in evolution
reached by different human and non-human beings depends chiefly on what we may
call their age. Some began their journey in time very much later than others,
and, though the powers in each be the same, some have unfolded far more of those
powers than others, simply because they have had a longer time for the process
than their younger brethren. As well blame and despise the seed because it is
not yet a flower, the bud because it is not yet the fruit, the babe because
it is not yet the man, and blame and despise the germinal and baby souls around
us because they have not (Page 173)
yet developed to the stage we ourselves occupy. We do not blame ourselves because
we are not yet as Gods ; in time we shall stand where our elder Brothers are
standing.
Why
should we blame the still younger souls who are not yet as we? The very word
brotherhood connotes identity of blood and inequality of development ; and it
therefore represents exactly the link between all creatures in the universe
– identity of the essential life, and difference in the stages reached in the
manifestation of that life.
We
are one in our origin, one in the method of our evolution, one in our goal,
and the differences of age and stature but give opportunity for the growth of
the tenderest and closest ties. All that a man would do for his brother of the
flesh, dearer to him than himself, is the measure of what he owes to each who
shares with him the one Life. Men are shut out from their brothers’ hearts by
differences of race, of class, of country ; the man who is wise by love rises
above all these petty differences, and sees all drawing their life from the
one source, all as part of his family.
The
recognition of this Brotherhood intellectually, and the endeavour to live it
practically, are so stimulative of the higher nature of man, that it was made
the one obligatory object of the Theosophical Society, the single “article of
belief” that all who would enter its fellowship must accept. To live it, even
to a small extent, cleanses the heart and purifies the vision ; to live it perfectly
would be to eradicate all stain of separateness, and to let the pure
(Page 174) shining of the Self irradiate us, as a light through flawless
glass.
Never
let it be forgotten that this Brotherhood is, whether men ignore it
or deny it. Man’s ignorance does not change the laws of nature, nor vary by
one hair’s breadth her changeless, irresistible march. Her laws crush those
who oppose them, and break into pieces everything which is not in harmony with
them. Therefore can no nation endure that outrages Brotherhood, no civilisation
can last that is built on its antithesis. We have not to make brotherhood ;
it exists. We have to attune our lives into harmony with it, if we desire that
we and our works shall not perish.
It
may seem strange to some that the buddhic plane – a thing to them misty and
unreal – should thus influence all planes below it, and that its forces should
ever break into pieces all that cannot harmonise itself with them in the lower
worlds. Yet so it is, for this universe is an expression of spiritual forces,
and they are the guiding, moulding energies pervading all things, and slowly,
surely, subduing all things to themselves.
Hence
this Brotherhood, which is a spiritual unity, is a far more real thing than
any outward organisation ; it is a life and not a form, “wisely and sweetly
ordering all things.” It may take innumerable forms, suitable to the times,
but the life is one ; happy they who see its presence, and make themselves
the channels of its living force.
The student has now before him the constituents (Page
175) of the human constitution, and the regions to which these constituents
respectively belong; so a brief summary should enable him to have a clear idea
of this complicated whole.
The
human Monad is Âtma-Buddhi-Manas, or, as sometimes translated, the Spirit, the
Spiritual Soul, and Soul, of man. The fact that these three are but aspects
of the Self makes possible man’s immortal existence, and though these three
aspects are manifested separately and successively, their substantial unity
renders it possible for the Soul to merge itself in the spiritual Soul, giving
to the latter the precious essence of individuality, and for this individualised
Spiritual Soul to merge itself in the Spirit, colouring it – if the phrase may
be permitted with the hues due to individuality, while leaving uninjured its
essential unity with all other rays of the LOGOS and with the LOGOS Himself.
These
three form the seventh, sixth and fifth principles of man, and the materials
which limit and encase them, i.e., which make their manifestation and
activity possible, are drawn respectively from the fifth (nirvânic), the fourth
(buddhic), and the third (mental), planes of our universe. The fifth principle
further takes to itself a lower body on the mental plane, in order to come into
contact with the phenomenal worlds, and thus intertwines itself with the fourth
principle, the desire-nature, or Kâma, belonging to the second or astral plane.
Descending
to the first, the physical plane, we have the third, second and first principles
– the specialised life, or Prâna ; the (Page
176) etheric double, its vehicle ; the dense body, which contacts
the coarser materials of the physical world. We have already seen that sometimes
Prâna is not regarded as a “principle,” and then the interwoven desire and mental
bodies take rank together as Kâma Manas ; the pure intellect is called the Higher
Manas, and the mind apart from desire Lower Manas.
The
most convenient conception of man is perhaps that which most closely represents
the facts as to the one permanent life and the various forms in which it works
and which condition its energies, causing the variety in manifestation. Then
we see the Self as the one Life, the source of all energies, and the forms as
the buddhic, causal, mental, astral, and physical (etheric and dense) bodies.
( Linga Sharira was the name originally given to the etheric body, and must
not be confused with the Linga Sharira of Hindu philosophy. Sthūla Sharira
is the Sanskrit name for the dense body.)
Putting
together the two ways of looking at the same thing, we may construct a table:
(Page 177)
PRINCIPLES |
|
LIFE |
FORMS |
Atmâ.
|
Spirit |
Atmâ |
|
Buddhi |
Spiritual
Soul |
|
Bliss-Body |
Higher
Manas |
Human
Soul |
|
Causal
Body |
Lower
Manas |
|
Mental
Body |
Those
of our readers who are more familiar with the Vedântin classification
may find the following two tables of the form-side useful: |
Buddhic
body |
Ânandamayakosha |
Causal
body |
Vignyânamayakosha |
Mental
body |
Manomayakosha |
Astral
body |
Physical
body |
Etheric |
Prânamayakosha |
Dense |
Annamaykosha |
PRINCIPLES |
FORMS |
|
|
Kâma
. Animal Soul |
Astral
Body |
Linga
Sharira * |
Etheric
Double |
Sthûla
Sharira |
Dense
Body |
|
|
*
Linga Sharira was the name originally given to the etheric body, and must
not be confused with the Linga Sharîra of Hindu philosophy. Sthûla
Sharira is the Sanskrit name for the dense body. |
It
will be seen that the difference is merely a question of names, and that the
sixth, fifth, fourth, and third “principles” are merely Âtmâ working in the
Buddhic, causal, mental and astral bodies, while the second and first “principles
“ are the two lowest bodies themselves. This sudden change in the method of
naming is apt to cause confusion in the mind of the student, and as H.P. Blavatsky,
our revered teacher, expressed much dissatisfaction with the then current nomenclature
as confused and misleading, and desired others and myself to try and improve
it, the above names, as descriptive, simple, and representing the facts, are
here adopted.
The various
subtle bodies of man that we have now studied form in their aggregate what is
usually called the “aura” of the human being. This aura has the appearance of
an egg-shaped luminous cloud, in the midst of which is the dense physical body,
and from its appearance it has often been spoken of as though it were nothing
more than such a cloud. What
is usually called the aura is merely such parts of the subtle bodies as extend
beyond the periphery of the dense physical body ; each body is complete (Page
178) in itself, and interpenetrates those that are coarser than itself
; it is larger or smaller according to its development, and all that part of
it that overlaps the surface of the dense body is termed the aura. The aura
is thus composed of the overlapping portions of the etheric double, the desire
body, the mental body, the causal body, and in rare cases the buddhic body,
illuminated by the Âtmic radiance.
It
is sometimes dull, coarse and dingy ; sometimes magnificently radiant in size,
light, and colour ; it depends entirely on the stage of evolution reached by
the man, on the development of his different bodies, on the moral and mental
character he has evolved. All his varying passions, desires, and thoughts are
herein written in form, in colour, in light, so that “he that runs may read
“ if he has eyes for such script. Character is stamped thereon as well as fleeting
changes, and no deception is there possible as in the mask we call the physical
body. The increase in size and beauty of the aura is the unmistakable mark of
the man’s progress, and tells of the growth and purification of the Thinker
and his vehicles. (Page
179)
CHAPTER
VII
REINCARNATION
We are now in a position
to study one of the pivotal doctrines of the Ancient Wisdom, the doctrine of
reincarnation. Our view of it will be clearer and more in congruity with natural
order, if we look at it as universal in principle, and then consider the special
case of the reincarnation of the human soul.
In
studying it, this special case is generally wrenched from its place in natural
order, and is considered as a dislocated fragment, greatly to its detriment.
For all evolution consists of an evolving life, passing from form to form as
it evolves, and storing up in itself the experiences gained through the forms
; the reincarnation of the human soul is not the introduction of a new principle
into evolution, but the adaptation of the universal principle to meet the conditions
rendered necessary by the individualisation of the continuously evolving life.
Mr.
Lafcadio Hearn ( “Mr. Hearn has lost his way in expressing – but not, I think,
in his inner view – in part of his exposition of the Buddhist statement of this
doctrine, and his use of the word “Ego” will mislead the reader of his very
interesting chapter on this subject, if the distinction between real and illusory
ego is not readily kept in mind.”) has put this point well in considering the
bearing of the idea of the pre-existence on the scientific thought of the West.
He says : - (Page 180)
“With
the acceptance of the doctrine of evolution, old forms of thought crumbled ;
new ideas everywhere arose to take the place of worn-out dogmas ; and we now
have the spectacle of a general intellectual movement in directions strangely
parallel with Oriental philosophy. The unprecedented rapidity and multiformity
of scientific progress during the last fifty years could not have failed to
provoke an equally unprecedented intellectual quickening among the non-scientific.
“
“That
the highest and most complex organisms have been developed from the lowest and
simplest ; that a single physical basis of life is the substance of the whole
living world ; that no line of separation can be drawn between the animal and
vegetable ; that the difference between life and non-life is only a difference
of degree, not of kind ; that matter is not less incomprehensible than mind,
while both are but varying manifestations of one and the same unknown reality
– these have already become the commonplaces of the new philosophy.”
“After
the first recognition even by theology of physical evolution, it was easy to
predict that the recognition of psychical evolution could not be indefinitely
delayed ; for the barrier erected by old dogma to keep men from looking backward
had been broken down. And today for the student of scientific psychology the
idea of pre-existence passes out of the realm of theory into the realm of fact,
proving the Buddhist explanation of the universal mystery quite as plausible
as any other.”
“None
but very hasty thinkers,’ wrote the late Professor Huxley, ‘will reject it on
the ground of inherent absurdity. Like the doctrine of evolution itself, that
of transmigration has its roots in the world of reality ; and it may claim such
support as the great argument from analogy is capable of supplying.” (Evolution
and Ethics, p. 61, ed. 1894 – Kokoro, Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner
Life, by Lafcadio Hearn, pp. 237-39 london, 1896).” (Page
181)
Let
us consider the Monad of form, Âtma-Buddhi. In this Monad, the outbreathed life
of the LOGOS, lie hidden all the divine powers, but, as we have seen, they are
latent, not manifest and functioning. They are to be gradually aroused by external
impacts, it being of the very nature of life to vibrate in answer to vibrations
that play upon it.
As
all possibilities of vibrations exist in the Monad, any vibration touching it
will arouse its corresponding vibratory powers, and in this way one force after
another will pass from the latent to the active state. (From the static to the
kinetic condition, the physicist would say.) Herein lies the secret of evolution
; the environment acts on the form of the living creature – and all things,
be it remembered, live – and this action, transmitted through the enveloping
form to the life, the Monad, within it, arouses responsive vibrations which
thrill outwards from the Monad through the form, throwing its particles, in
turn, into vibrations, and rearranging them into a shape corresponding, or adapted,
to the initial impact.
This
is the action and reaction between the environment and the organism, which have
been recognised by all biologists, and which are considered by some as giving
a sufficient mechanical explanation of evolution. Their patient and careful
observation of these actions and reactions yields, however, no explanation why
the organism should thus react to stimuli, and the Ancient Wisdom is needed
to unveil the secret of evolution, by pointing to the Self in the heart of all
(Page 182) forms,
the hidden mainspring of all the movements of nature.
Having
grasped this fundamental idea of a life containing the possibility of responding
to every vibration that can reach it from the external universe, the actual
response being gradually drawn forth by the play upon it of external forces,
the next fundamental idea to be grasped is that of the continuity of life and
forms.
Forms
transmit their peculiarities to other forms that proceed from them, these other
forms being part of their own substance, separated off to lead an independent
existence. By fission, by budding, by extrusion of germs, by development of
the offspring within the maternal womb, a physical continuity is preserved,
every new form being derived from a preceding form and reproducing its characteristics.
( The student might wisely familiarise himself with the researches of Weissman
on the continuity of germ-plasm.)
Science
groups these facts under the name of the law of heredity, and its observations
on the transmission of form are worthy of attention, and are illuminative of
the workings of Nature in the phenomenal world. But it must be remembered that
it applies only to the building of the physical body, into which enter the materials
provided by the parents.
Her
more hidden workings, those workings of life without which form could not be,
have received no attention, not being susceptible of physical observation, and
this gap can only be filled by the teachings of the Ancient Wisdom, given by
Those who of old (Page 183) used
superphysical powers of observation, and verifiable gradually by every pupil
who studies patiently in Their schools.
There
is continuity of life as well as continuity of form, and it is the continuing
life – with ever more and more of its latent energies rendered active by the
stimuli received through successive forms – which resumes into itself the experiences
obtained by its incasings in form ; for when the form perishes, the life has
the record of those experiences in the increased energies aroused by them, and
is ready to pour itself into the new forms derived from the old, carrying with
it this accumulated store.
While
it was in the previous form, it played through it, adapting it to express each
newly awakened energy; the form hands on these adaptations, inwrought into its
substance, to the separated part of itself that we speak of as its offspring,
which, beings of its substance, must needs have the peculiarities of that substance;
the life pours itself into that offspring with all its awakened powers, and
moulds it yet further ; and so on and on.
Modern
science is proving more and more clearly that heredity plays an ever-decreasing
part in the evolution of the higher creatures, that mental and moral qualities
are not transmitted from parents to offspring, and that the higher qualities
the more patent is this fact ‘ the child of the genius is oft-times a dolt;
commonplace parents give birth to a genius.
A
continuing substratum there must be, in which mental and moral qualities inhere,
in order that they may increase, else would Nature, in (Page
184) this most important department of her work, show erratic uncaused
production instead of orderly continuity. On this science is dumb, but the Ancient
Wisdom teaches that this continuing substratum is the Monad, which is the receptacle
of all results, the storehouse in which all experiences are garnered as increasingly
active powers.
These
two principles firmly grasped – of the Monad with potentialities becoming powers,
and of the continuity of the life form – we can proceed to the continuity of
life and form – we can proceed to study their working out in detail, and we
shall find that they solve many of the perplexing problems of modern science,
as well as the yet more heart-searching problems confronted by the philanthropist
and the sage.
Let
us start by considering the monad as it is first subjected to the impacts from
the formless levels of the mental plane, the very beginning of the evolution
of form. Its first faint responsive thrillings draw round it some of the matter
of that plane, and we have the gradual evolution of the first elemental kingdom,
already mentioned. (See chapter IV, on “The Mental Plane”).
The
great fundamental types of the Monad are seven in number, sometimes imaged as
like the seven colours of the solar spectrum, derived from the three primary.
(“As above, so below.” We instinctively remember the three LOGOI and the seven
primeval Sons of the Fire ; in Christian Symbolism, the Trinity and the “Seven
Spirits that are before the throne” ; or in Zoroastrian, Ahuramazda and the
seven Ameshaspentas.) (Page 185)
Each
of these types has its own colouring of characteristics, and this colouring
persists throughout the aeonian cycle of its evolution, affecting all the series
of living things that are animated by it. Now begins the process of subdivision
in each of these types, that will be carried on, subdividing and ever subdividing,
until the individual is reached.
The
currents set up by the commencing outward-going energies of the Monad – to follow
one line of evolution will suffice ; the other six are like unto it in principle
– have but brief form-life, yet whatever experience can be gained through them
is represented by an increasedly responsive life in the Monad who is their source
and cause ; as this responsive life consists of vibrations that are often incongruous
with each other, a tendency towards separation is set up within the Monad, the
harmoniously vibrating forces grouping themselves together for, as it were,
concerted action, until various sub-Monads, if the epithet may for a moment
be allowed, are formed, alike in their main characteristics, but differing in
details, like shades of the same colour.
These
become, by impacts from the lower levels of the mental plane, the Monads of
the second elemental kingdom, belonging to the form region of that plane, and
the process continues, the Monad ever adding to its power to respond, each Monad
being the inspiring life of countless forms, through which it receives vibrations,
and, as the forms disintegrate, constantly vivifying new forms ; the process
of subdivision also continues from the cause already described. (Page
186)
Each
Monad thus continually incarnates itself in forms, and garners within itself
as awakened powers all the results obtained through the forms it animates. We
may well regard these Monads as the souls of groups of forms; and as evolution
proceeds, these forms show more and more attributes, the attributes being the
powers of the monadic group-soul manifested through the forms in which it is
incarnated.
The
innumerable sub-Monads of this second elemental kingdom presently reach a stage
of evolution at which they begin to respond to the vibrations of astral matter,
and they begin to act on the astral plane, becoming the Monads of the third
elemental kingdom, and repeating in this grosser world all the processes already
accomplished on the mental plane.
They
become more and more numerous as monadic group-souls, showing more and more
diversity in detail, the number of forms animated by each becoming less as the
specialised characteristics become more and more marked. Meanwhile, it may be
said in passing, the ever-flowing stream of life from the LOGOS supplies new
Monads of form on the higher levels, so that the evolution proceeds continuously,
and as the more-evolved Monads incarnate in the lower worlds their place is
taken by the newly emerged Monads in the higher.
By
this ever-repeated process of the reincarnation of the Monads, or Monadic group-soul,
in the astral world, their evolution proceeds, until they are ready to respond
to the impacts upon them from physical matter. When we remember that the ultimate
atoms of each plane have their sphere-walls composed of the coarsest matter
of the plane immediately above it, it is easy to see how the Monads become responsive
to impacts from one plane after another. (Page
187)
When,
in the first elemental kingdom, the Monad had become accustomed to thrill responsively
to the impacts of matter of that plane, it would soon begin to answer to vibrations
received through the coarsest forms of that matter from the matter of
the plane next below. So, in its coatings of matter that were the forms composed
of the coarsest materials of the material plane, it would become susceptible
to vibrations of astral atomic matter ; and, when incarnated in forms of the
coarsest astral matter, it would similarly become responsive to atomic physical
ether, the sphere-walls of which are constituted of the grossest astral materials.
Thus
the Monad may be regarded as reaching the physical plane ; and there it begins,
or, more accurately, all these monadic group-souls begin, to incarnate themselves
in filmy physical forms, the etheric doubles of the future dense minerals of
the physical world. Into these filmy forms the nature-spirits build the denser
physical materials, and thus minerals of all kinds are formed, the most rigid
vehicles in which the evolving life in-closes itself, and through which the
least of its powers can express themselves. Each monadic group-soul has its
own mineral expressions, the mineral forms in which it is incarnated, and the
specialisation has now reached a high degree. These Monadic group-souls are
sometimes called in their (Page 188)
totality the mineral Monad or the Monad incarnating in the mineral kingdom.
From
this time forward the awakened energies of the Monad play a less passive part
in evolution. They begin to seek expression actively to some extent when once
aroused into functioning, and to exercise a distinctly moulding influence over
the forms in which they are imprisoned. As they become too active for their
mineral embodiment, the beginnings of the more plastic forms of the vegetable
kingdom manifest themselves, the nature-spirits aiding this evolution throughout
the physical kingdoms. In
the mineral kingdom there had already been shown a tendency towards the definite
organisation of form, the laying down of certain lines ( The axes of growth
which determine form. They appear definitely in crystals ) along which the growth
proceeded. This tendency governs henceforth all the building of forms, and is
the cause of the exquisite symmetry of natural objects, with which every observer
is familiar.
The
monadic group-souls in the vegetable kingdom undergo division and subdivision
with increasing rapidity, in consequence of the still greater variety of impacts
to which they are subjected, the evolution of families, genera, and species
being due to this invisible subdivision.
When
any genus, with its generic monadic group-soul, is subjected to very varying
conditions, i.e., when the forms connected with it receive very different
impacts, a fresh tendency to subdivide is set up in the Monad, and various species
are evolved, (Page 189) each having
its own specific group-soul.
When
Nature is left to her own working the process is slow, although the nature-spirits
do much towards the differentiation of species ; but when man has been evolved,
and when he begins his artificial systems of cultivation, encouraging the play
of one set of forces, warding off another, then this differentiation can be
brought about with considerable rapidity, and specific differences are readily
evolved. So long as actual division has not taken place in the monadic group-soul,
the subjection of the forms to similar influences may again eradicate the separative
tendency, but when that division is completed the new species are definitely
and firmly established , and are ready to send out offshoots of their own.
In some of the longer-lived members of the vegetable kingdom the element of
personality begins to manifest itself, the stability of the organism rendering
possible this foreshadowing of individuality. With
a tree, living for scores of years, the recurrence of similar conditions causing
similar impacts, the seasons ever returning year after year, the consecutive
motions caused by them, the rising of the sap, the putting forth of leaves,
the touches of the wind, of the sunbeams, of the rain – all these outer influences
with their rhythmical progression – set up responsive thrillings in the monadic
group-soul, and, as the sequence impresses itself by continual repetition, the
recurrence of one leads to the dim expectation of its oft-repeated successor.
Nature evolves
no quality suddenly, and these are the first faint (Page
190) adumbrations of what will later be memory and anticipation.
In
the vegetable kingdom also appear the foreshadowings of sensation, evolving
in its higher members to what the Western psychologist would term “massive”
sensations of pleasure and discomfort. (The “massive” sensation is one that
pervades the organism and is not felt especially in any one part more than in
others. It is the antithesis of the “acute.”) It must be remembered that the
Monad has drawn round itself materials of the planes through which it has descended,
and hence is able to contact impacts, from those planes, the strongest and those
most nearly allied to the grossest forms of matter being the first to make
themselves felt.
Sunshine
and the chill of its absence at last impress themselves on the monadic consciousness
; and its astral coating, thrown into faint vibrations, gives rise to the slight
massive kind of sensation spoken of. Rain and drought affecting the mechanical
constitution of the form, and its power to convey vibrations to the ensouling
Monad – are another of the “pairs of opposites,” the play of which arouses the
recognition of difference, which is the root alike of all sensation, and later
of all thought. Thus
by their repeated plant-reincarnations the monadic group-souls in the vegetable
kingdom evolve, until those that ensoul the highest members of the kingdom are
ready for the next step.
This step carries them into the animal kingdom, and here they slowly evolve
in their physical and astral vehicles a very distinct personality. The animal,
(Page 191) being
free to move about, subjects itself to a greater variety of conditions than
can be experienced by the plant, rooted to a single spot, and this variety,
as ever, promotes differentiation.
The
monadic group-soul, however, which animates a number of wild animals of the
same species or subspecies, while it receives a great variety of impacts, since
they are for the most part repeated continually and are shared by all the members
of the group, differentiates but slowly.
These
impacts aid in the development of the physical and astral bodies, and through
them the monadic group-soul gathers much experience. When the form of a member
of the group perishes, the experience gathered through that form is accumulated
in the monadic group-soul, and may be said to colour it ; the slightly increased
life of the monadic group-soul, poured into all the forms which compose its
group, shares among all the experiences of the perished form, and in this way
continually repeated experiences, stored up in the monadic group-soul, appear
as instincts, “accumulated hereditary experiences” in the new forms.
Countless
birds having fallen a prey to hawks, chicks just out of the egg will cower at
the approach of one of the hereditary enemies, for the life that is incarnated
in them knows the danger, and the innate instinct is the expression of its knowledge.
In this way are formed the wonderful instincts that guard animals from innumerable
habitual perils, while a new danger finds them unprepared and only bewilders
them. (Page 192)
As
animals come under the influence of man, the monadic group-souls evolves with
greatly increased rapidity, and, from causes similar to those which affect plants
under domestication, subdivision of the incarnating life is more readily brought
about. Personality evolves and becomes more and more strongly marked ; in the
earlier stages it may almost be said to be compound – a whole flock of wild
creatures will act as though moved by a single personality, so completely are
the forms dominated by the common soul, it, in turn, being affected by the impulse
from the external world.
Domesticated
animals of the higher types, the elephants, the horse, the cat, the dog, show
a more individualised personality – two dogs, for instance, may act very differently
under the impact of the same circumstances. The monadic group-soul incarnates
in a decreasing number of forms as it gradually approaches the point at which
complete individualisation will be reached. The
desire-body, or Kâmic vehicle, becomes considerably developed, and persists
for some time after the death of the physical body, leading an independent existence
in Kâmaloka. At last the decreasing number of forms animated by a monadic group-soul
comes down to unity, and it animates a succession of single forms – a condition
differing from human reincarnation only by the absence of Manas, with its causal
and mental bodies.
The
mental matter brought down by the monadic group-souls begins to be susceptible
to impacts from the mental plane, and the animal is then ready to receive the
third great (Page 193) outpouring
of the life of the LOGOS – the tabernacle is ready for the reception of the
human Monad.
The
human Monad is, as we have seen, triple in its nature, its three aspects being
denominated, respectively, the Spirit, the spiritual Soul, and the human Soul,
Âtma-Buddhi-Manas. Doubtless, in the course of eons of evolution, the upwardly
evolving Monad of form might have unfolded Manas by progressive growth, but
both in the human race in the past, and in the animals of the present, such
has not been the course of Nature.
When
the house was ready the tenant was sent down ; from the higher planes of being
the âtmic life descended, veiling itself in Buddhi, as a golden thread ; and
its third aspect, Manas, showing itself in the higher levels of the formless
world of the mental plane, germinal Manas within the form was fructified, and
the embryonic causal body was formed by the union. This is the individualisation
of the spirit, the incasing of it in form, and this spirit incased in the causal
body is the soul, the individual, the real man. This
is his birth hour; for though his essence be eternal, unborn and undying, his
birth in time as an individual is definite.
Further, this outpoured life reaches the evolving forms not directly, but by
intermediaries. The human race having attained the point of receptivity, certain
great Ones, called Sons of Mind – (Manasaputra is the technical name, being
merely the Sanskrit for Sons of Mind.) – cast into men the monadic spark of
Âtma-Buddhi-Manas, needed (Page 194)
for the formation of the embryonic soul.
And
some of these great Ones actually incarnated in human forms, in order to become
the guides and teachers of infant humanity. These Sons of Mind had completed
Their own intellectual evolution in other worlds, and came to this younger world,
our earth, for the purpose of thus aiding in the evolution of the human race.
They are in truth, the spiritual fathers of the bulk of our humanity. Other
intelligences of much lower grade, men who had evolved in preceding cycles in
another world, incarnated among the descendants of the race that received its
infant souls in the way just described. As this race evolved, the human tabernacles
improved, and myriads of souls that were awaiting the opportunity of incarnation,
that they might continue their evolution, took birth among its children.
These
partially evolved souls are also spoken of in the ancient records as Sons of
Mind, for they were possessed of mind, although comparatively it was but little
developed – childish souls we may call them, in distinguishment from the embryonic
souls of the bulk of humanity, and the mature souls of the great Teachers.
These
child-souls, by reason of their more evolved intelligence, formed the leading
types of the ancient world, the classes higher in mentality, and therefore in
the power of acquiring knowledge, that dominated the masses of less developed
men in antiquity. And thus arose, in our world, the enormous differences in
mental and moral capacity which separate the most highly evolved from the least
(Page 195) evolved
races, and which, even within the limits of single race, separate the lofty
philosophic thinker from the well-nigh animal type of the most depraved of his
own nation. These
differences are but differences of the stage of evolution, of the age of the
soul, and they have been found to exist throughout the whole of history of humanity
on this globe. Go back as far as we may in historic records, and we may find
lofty intelligence and debased ignorance side by side, and the occult records,
carrying us backwards, tell a similar story of the early millennia of humanity.
Nor
should this distress us, as though some had been unduly favoured and others
unduly burdened for the struggle of life. The loftiest soul had its childhood
and its infancy, albeit in previous worlds, where other souls were as high above
it as others are below it now ; the lowest soul shall climb to where our highest
are standing, and souls yet unborn shall occupy its present place in evolution.
Things seem unjust because we wrench our world out of its place in evolution,
and set it apart in isolation, with no forerunners and no successors. It is
our ignorance that sees the injustice ; the ways of Nature are equal, and she
brings to all her children infancy, childhood, and manhood. Nor hers the fault
if our folly demands that all souls shall occupy the same stage of evolution
at the same time, and cries “Unjust!” if the demand be not fulfilled.
We
shall best understand the evolution of the soul, if we take it up at the point
where we left it, when animal-man was ready to receive, and did (Page
196) receive, the embryonic soul. To avoid a possible misapprehension,
it may be well to say that there were not henceforth two Monads in man – the
one that had built the human tabernacle, and the one that descended into that
tabernacle, and whose lowest aspect was the human soul.
To
borrow a simile again from H. P. Blavatsky, as two rays of the sun may pass
through a hole in a shutter, and mingling together form but one ray though they
had been twain, so is it with these rays from the Supreme Sun, the divine Lord
of our universe. The second ray, as it entered into the human tabernacle, blended
with the first, merely adding to it fresh energy and brilliance, and the human
Monad, as a unit, began its mighty task of unfolding the higher powers
in man of that divine Life whence it came.
The
embryonic soul, the Thinker, had at the beginning for its embryonic mental body
the mind-stuff envelope that the Monad of form had brought with it, but had
not yet organised into any possibility of functioning. It was the mere germ
of a mental body, attached to a mere germ of a causal body, and for many a life
the strong desire-nature had its will with the soul, whirling it along the road
of its own passions and appetites, and dashing up against it all the furious
waves of its own uncontrolled animality.
Repulsive
as this early life of the soul may at first seem to some when looked at from
the higher stage that we have now attained, it was a necessary one for the germination
of the seeds of mind. Recognition of difference, the perception that one thing
is different (Page 197) from another,
is a preliminary essential to thinking at all. And, in order to awaken this
perception in the as yet unthinking soul, strong and violent contrasts had to
strike upon it, so as to force differences upon it – blow after blow of riotous
pleasure, blow after blow of crushing pain.
The
external world hammered on the soul through the desire nature, till perceptions
began to be slowly made, and, after countless repetitions, to be registered.
The little gains made in each life were stored up by the Thinker, as we have
already seen, and thus slow progress was made.
Slow
progress, indeed, for scarcely anything was thought, and hence scarcely
anything was done in the way of organising the mental body. Not until many
perceptions had been registered in it as mental images was there any material
on which mental action, initiated from within, could be based ; this would begin
when two or more of these mental images were drawn together, and some inference,
however elementary, was made from them. That
inference was the beginning of reasoning, the germ of all the systems of logic
which the intellect of man has since evolved or assimilated. These inferences
would at first all be made in the service of the desire-nature, for the increasing
of pleasure, the lessening of pain ; but each one would increase the activity
of the mental body, and would stimulate it into more ready functioning.
It
will readily be seen that at this period of his infancy man had no knowledge
of good or of evil; (Page 198)
right and wrong for him had no existence. The right is that which is in accordance
with the divine will, which helps forward the progress of the soul, which tends
to the strengthening of the higher nature of man and to the training and subjugation
of the lower, the wrong is that which retards evolution, which retains the soul
in the lower stages after he has learned the lessons they have to teach, which
tends to the mastery of the lower nature over the higher, and assimilates man
to the brute he should be outgrowing instead of to the God he should be evolving.
Ere
man could know what was right, he had to learn the existence of the law, and
this he could only learn by following all that attracted him in the outer world,
by grasping every desirable object, and then by learning from experience, sweet
or bitter, whether his delight was in harmony or in conflict with the law. Let
us take an obvious example, the taking of pleasant food, and see how infant
man might learn therefrom the presence of a natural law. At
the first taking, his hunger was appeased, his taste was gratified, and only
pleasure resulted from the experience, for his action was in harmony with law.
On another occasion, desiring to increase pleasure, he ate overmuch and suffered
in consequence, for he transgressed against the law. A confusing experience
to the dawning intelligence, how the pleasurable became painful by excess.
Over
and over again he would be led by desire into excess, and each time he would
experience the painful consequences, until at last he learned moderation, (Page
199) i.e., he learned to conform his bodily acts in this respect
to physical law; for he found that there were conditions which affected him
and which he could not control, and that only by observing them could physical
happiness be insured. Similar
experiences flowed in upon him through all the bodily organs, with undeviating
regularity ; his outrushing desires brought him pleasure or pain just as they
worked with the laws of Nature or against them, and, as experience increased,
it began to guide his steps, to influence his choice, It was not as though he
had to begin his experience anew with every life, for on each new birth he brought
with him mental faculties a little increased, and ever-accumulating store.
I
have said that the growth in these early days was very slow, for there was but
the dawning of mental action, and when the man left his physical body at death
he passed most of his time in Kâmaloka, sleeping through a brief devachanic
period of unconscious assimilation of any minute mental experience not yet sufficiently
developed for the active heavenly life that lay before him after many days.
Still,
the enduring causal body was there, to be the receptacle of his qualities, and
to carry them on for further development into his next life on earth. The part
played by the monadic group-soul in the earlier stages of evolution is played
in man by the causal body, and it is this continuing entity who, in all cases,
makes evolution possible. Without him, the accumulation of mental and moral
experiences, shown as (Page 200)
faculties, would be as impossible as would be the accumulation of physical experiences,
shown as racial and family characteristics without the continuity of physical
plasm.
Souls
without a past behind them, springing suddenly into existence, out of nothing,
with marked mental and moral peculiarities, are a conception as monstrous as
would be the corresponding conception of babies suddenly appearing from nowhere,
unrelated to anybody, but showing marked racial and family types.
Neither
man nor his physical vehicle is uncaused, or caused by the direct power of the
LOGOS ; here, as in so many other cases, the invisible things are clearly seen
by their analogy with the visible, the visible being, in very truth, nothing
more than the images, the reflections, of things unseen. Without a continuity
in the physical plasm, there would be no means for the evolution of physical
peculiarities ; without the continuity of the intelligence, there would be no
means for the evolution of mental and moral qualities. In both cases, without
continuity, evolution would be stopped at its first stage, and the world would
be a chaos of infinite and isolated beginnings instead of a cosmos continually
becoming.
We
must not omit to notice that in these early days much variety is caused in the
type and in the nature of individual progress by the environment which surrounds
the individual. Ultimately all the souls have to develop all their powers, but
the order in which these powers are developed depends (Page
201) on the circumstances amid which the soul is placed. Climate,
the fertility or sterility of nature, the life of the mountain or of the plain,
of the inland forest or the ocean shore – these things and countless others
will call into activity one set or another of the awakening mental energies.
A
life of extreme hardship, of ceaseless struggle with nature, will develop very
different powers from those evolved amid the luxuriant plenty of a tropical
island ; both sets of powers are needed, for the soul is to conquer every region
of nature, but striking differences may thus be evolved even in souls of the
same age, and one may appear to be more advanced than the other, according as
the observer estimates most highly the more “practical” or the more “contemplative”
powers of the soul, the active outward-going energies, or the quiet inward-turned
musing faculties. The
perfected soul possesses all, but the soul in the making must develop them successively,
and thus arises another cause of the immense variety found among human beings.
For again, it must be remembered that human evolution is individual. In a group
informed by a single monadic group-soul the same instincts will be found in
all, for the receptacle of the experiences is that monadic group-soul, and it
pours its life into all forms dependent upon it.
But
each man has his own physical vehicle and one only at a time, and the receptacle
of all experiences is the causal body, which pours its life into its one physical
vehicle, and can affect no other physical vehicle, being connected (Page
202) with none other. Hence we find differences separating individual
men greater, than the ever separated, closely allied animals, and hence also
the evolution of qualities cannot be studied in men in the mass, but only in
the continuing individual. The lack of power to make such a study leaves science
unable to explain why some men tower above their fellows, intellectual and moral
giants, unable to trace the intellectual evolution of a Shankarâchârya
or a Pythagoras, the moral evolution of a Buddha or of a Christ.
Let
us now consider the factors in reincarnation, as a clear understanding of these
is necessary for the explanation of some of the difficulties – such as the alleged
loss of memory – which are felt by those unfamiliar with the idea. We have
seen that man, during his passage through physical death, Kâmaloka and Devachan,
loses one after the other, his various bodies, the physical, the astral, and
the mental.
These are all disintegrated, and their particles remix with the materials of
their several planes. The connection of the man with the physical vehicle is
entirely broken off and done with ; but the astral and mental bodies hand on
to the man himself, to the Thinker, the germs of the faculties and qualities
resulting from the activities of the earth-life, and these are stored within
the causal body, the seeds of his next astral and mental bodies.
At
this stage, then, only the man himself is left, the labourer who has brought
his harvest home, and has lived upon it till it is all worked up into himself.
The dawn of a (Page 203) new life
begins, and he must go forth again to his labour until the even.
The new life begins by the vivifying of the mental germs, and they draw upon
the materials of the lower mental levels, till a mental body has grown up from
them that represents exactly the mental stage of the man, expressing all his
mental faculties as organs ; the experiences of the past do not exist as mental
images in this new body; as
mental images they perished when the old mind-body perished, and only their
essence, their effects on faculty, remain ; they were the food of the mind,
the materials which it wove into powers, and in the new body they reappear as
powers, they determine its materials, and they form its organs. When the man,
the Thinker, has thus clothed himself with a new body for his coming life on
the lower mental levels, he proceeds, by vivifying the astral germs, to provide
himself with an astral body for his life on the astral plane.
This,
again, exactly represents his desire-nature, faithfully reproducing the qualities
he evolved in the past, as the seed reproduces its parent tree. Thus the man
stands, fully equipped for his next incarnation, the only memory of these events
of his past being in the causal body, in his own enduring form, the one body
that passes on from life to life.
Meanwhile, action external to himself is being taken to provide him with a physical
body suitable for the expression of his qualities. In past lives he has made
ties with, contracted liabilities towards, other human beings, and some of these
will partly (Page 204) determine
his place of birth and his family. – ( This and the following causes determining
the outward circumstances of the new life will be fully explained in Chapter
IX, on “Karma”.) He
has been a source of happiness or of unhappiness to others ; this is a factor
in determining the conditions of his coming life. His desire-nature is well
disciplined, or unregulated and riotous ; this will be taken into account in
the physical heredity of the new body. He has cultivated certain mental powers,
such as the artistic ; this must be considered, as here again physical heredity
is an important factor where delicacy of nervous organisation and tactile sensibility
are required.
And
so on, in endless variety. The man may, certainly will, have in him many incongruous
characteristics, so that only some can find expression in any one body that
could be provided, and a group of his powers suitable for simultaneous expression
must be selected. All this is done by certain mighty spiritual Intelligences,(
Spoken of by H.P.Blavatsky in the Secret Doctrine. They are the Lipika,
the Keepers of the kârmic records, and the Mahârâjas, who direct the practical
working out of the decrees of the Lipika.) - often spoken of as the Lords of
Karma, because it is their function to superintend the working out of causes
continually set going by thoughts, desires, and actions. They
hold the threads of destiny which each man has woven, and guide the reincarnating
man to the environment determined by his past, unconsciously self-chosen through
his past life.(Page 205)
The race, the nation, the family, being thus determined, what may be called
the mould of the physical body – suitable for the expression of the man’s qualities,
and for the working out of the causes he has set going – is given by these great
Ones, and the new etheric double, a copy of this, is built within the mother’s
womb by the agency of an elemental, the thought of the Kārmic Lords being
its motive power.
The
dense body is built into the etheric double molecule by molecule, following
it exactly, and here physical heredity has full sway in the materials provided.
Further, the thoughts and passions of surrounding people, especially of the
continually present father and mother, influence the building elemental in its
work, the individuals with whom the incarnating man had formed ties in the past
thus affecting the physical conditions growing up for his new life on earth.
At
a very early stage the new astral body comes into connection with the new etheric
double, and exercises considerable influence over its formation, and through
it the mental body works upon the nervous organisation, preparing it to become
a suitable instrument for its own expression in the future. This influence commenced
in ante natal life – so that when a child is born its brain-formation reveals
the extent and balance of its mental and moral qualities – is continued after
birth, and this building of brain and nerves, and their correlation to the astral
and mental bodies, go on till the seventh year of childhood, at which age the
connection between the man and his physical (Page
206) vehicle is complete, and he may be said to work through it henceforth
more than upon it.
Up
to this age, the consciousness of the Thinker is more upon the astral plane
than upon the physical, and this is often evidenced by the play of psychic faculties
in young children. They see invisible comrades and fairy landscapes, hear voices
inaudible to their elders, catch charming and delicate fancies from the astral
world. These phenomena generally vanish as the Thinker begins to work effectively
through the physical vehicle, and the dreamy child becomes the commonplace boy
or girl, oftentimes much to the relief of the bewildered parents, ignorant of
the cause of their child’s “queerness.”
Most
children have at least a touch of this “queerness,” but they quickly learn to
hide away their fancies and visions from their unsympathetic elders, fearful
of blame for “telling stories,” or of what the child dreads far more – ridicule.
If parents could see their children’s brains, vibrating under an inextricable
mingling of physical and astral impacts, which the children themselves are quite
incapable of separating, and receiving sometimes a thrill – so plastic are they
– even from the higher regions, giving a vision of ethereal beauty, of heroic
achievement, they would be more patient with, more responsive to, the confused
prattlings of the little ones, trying to translate into the difficult medium
of unaccustomed words the elusive touches of which they are conscious, and which
they try to catch and retain. Reincarnation, believed in and understood, would
relieve child life (Page 207) of
its most pathetic aspect, the unaided struggle of the soul to gain control over
its new vehicles, and to connect itself fully with its densest body without
losing power to impress the rarer ones in a way that would enable them to convey
to the denser their own more subtle vibrations.
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