Theosophy - The Lif of Jehoshua - the prophet of Nazareth. - An Occult Study and a Key to the Bible- containing the History of an initiate by Franz Hartmann- Part 2 of 2
THE
LIFE OF JEHOSHUA
THE
PROPHET OF NAZARETH
An
Occult Study and a Key to the Bible
Containing
the History of an Initiate
by Franz
Hartmann, M.D.
AWAKEN !
Boston:
Occult Publishing House 1888
Part 2 of 2 - For part 1
THE
DOCTRINES OF THE CHRIST SPIRIT
There is only one absolute Truth. Being universal, it is seen alike by all who are
able to perceive it.
[Page 118] EVER since the most ancient times Divine Wisdom has taught the same
doctrines through the mouths of the wise. Hermes Trismegistus, Confucius and
Zoroaster, Buddha and Jehoshua, Plato and Socrates, Saint Martin and Jacob
Boehmen, Theophrastus Paracelsus and Cornelius Agrippa, Shakespeare and
Shopenhauer, and innumerable others have taught the same truths more or less
complete, and each of these teachers clothed them in a form most suitable to his
own understanding or adapted to the comprehension of his disciples.
For the sake of illustration, we will take a few examples from ancient books that
existed before the Christian era; namely, the Bhagavad Gita, the books of
Hermes Trismegistus, the Dhammapada of the Buddhists, and add
corresponding verses of the Christian Bible, to show the similarity of these
doctrines.
I)
I.
“The wise man, ever devout, who worships the One, is the most excellent;
for I am dear above all things to the wise man, and he is dear to me”. —
Bhagavad Gita, VII. 17.
2. “Embrace me with thy whole heart and mind, and whatsoever thou wouldst
learn, I will teach thee”. — Hermes Trismegistus,
II. 3 [Page 119]
3. “He who reflects and meditates receives ample joy”. — Dhammapada.
4. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind,
and
with all thy soul”. Matthew,
XXII. 37.
II)
I. “I (Brahm) was never
non-existent, nor thou, nor those rulers of men, nor shall any of us hereafter
cease to be”. — Bhagavad Gita, II. 12.
2. “I
am that Light, the Mind, thy God, who am before the moist nature that appeared
out of darkness, and that bright lightful Word is
the Son of God”. —
Hermes Trismegistus, II. 8.
3. “He who has traversed this hazy and imperious world and its vanity, who
is through and has reached the other shore, is thoughtful, guileless, free
from
doubts, free from attachment, and content, — him
I call indeed a Brahmana”. — Dhammapada.
4. “Before Abraham was, I am”. — John,
VIII. 58.
III)
I. “He that spread out this All can never perish. No one is
able to cause the destruction of the Eternal”. — Bhagavad Gita, II. 17.
2. “What is God? Immutable and unalterable Good”. — Hermes Trismegistus,
I. 22. “God
and the Father is Light and Life of which Man is made. If, therefore, thou
learn and know thyself to be of the Life and Light, thou shalt again pass
into the Life”. — Hermes Trismegistus, II. 50.
3. “He who takes refuge with the (eternal) Law is delivered from all pain”. —
Dhammapada.
4. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word (power) shall
not
pass away”. — Luke, XXI. 33.
IV)
i. “As a man, having cast off his old garments, takes others that are new,
so the embodied soul, having cast off the old bodies, enters into others
that
are
new”. — Bhagavad Gita, II. 22. [Page 120]
2. “That which is unchangeable is eternal, that which is always made is always
corrupted”. — Hermes Trismegistus, II. 22, 23.
3. “He
who knoweth that this body is like froth and has learned that it is as
unsubstantial as a mirage, will break the flower-pointed arrow of Mara and never
see the king of death”. — Dhammapada.
4. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit
is
Spirit”. — John, III. 6.
V)
I. “This embodied (soul) in the body of every one, oh son of Bharata! is ever
indestructible, wherefore thou oughtest not
to mourn for any living thing”. — Bhagavad Gita, II. 30.
2. “Of the soul that part which is sensible is mortal, but that part which is
governed by reason is immortal”. — Hermes Trismegistus, I. 37. “Man is mortal because
of his body, and immortal because of the substantial Man”. — Hermes Trismegistus, II. 26.
3. “Happy is the arising of the Awakened. Even the gods envy those who are
awakened”. — Dhammapada.
4. “I live, but not I, but Christ lived in me”. — Gal.
II. 20. “He that hath the Christ
(in him) hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath no life”,— I John, V.
22.
VI)
1. “A flowery kind of language is spoken by the unwise, who pride
themselves in Veda words (in false reasoning and superficial logic), whose
souls are full of lust, who regard (a sensual) heaven as the highest good.
... The doctrines of these men, whose minds are carried away by mere words,
are
not formed for meditation”.— Bhagavad Gita,
II. 42.
2. “Terrestrial things do profit nothing the things of heaven; but celestial
things profit all things upon the earth”.— Hermes Trismegistus, I. 72. “To the foolish and evil,
wicked and vicious, covetous, murderous, and profane, I am far off, giving
place
to the avenging demons”. — Hermes Trismegistus, II. 56. [Page121]
3. “Men driven by fear go to many a refuge, to mountains and forests, to groves
and sacred trees, but that is not a safe refuge. . . . The thoughtless man,
even if he can recite a long portion of the law (prayer), but is not a doer
of it, has no
part in the priesthood, but is like a cowherd, counting the cows of others”. —
Dhammapada.
4. “Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven”. — Matt. VII. 21. “This
people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me”. — Mark, VII. 6.
VII)
i.
“Neither intelligence nor self-possession belongs to the undevout man. There
is no peace for him who is not self-possessed, and without peace how can
there be happiness?”— Bhagavad Gita, II. 66.
2. “He that through error of Love loveth the body, abideth wandering in
darkness, sensible, suffering the things of death”. — Hermes Trismegistus, II. 40.
3. “Fools of little understanding have themselves for their greatest enemies,
for
they do deeds which must bear bitter fruits”. — Dhammapada.
4. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”. — John,
III. 13.
VIII)
I.
“Brahma is the oblation, Brahma is the sacrificial butter, Brahma is the
fire, the burnt offering is by Brahma. Into Brahma, will he enter who meditates
on
Brahma in his work”. — Bhagavad Gita, IV. 62.
2. “The like always takes to itself that which is like; but the unlike never
agrees with the unlike”. — Hermes Trismegistus, I. 84. “That which in thee seeth and heareth, the
Word of the Lord and the Mind, the Father God, differ not from one another
and
the union of these is life”. —Hermes Trismegistus, II. 19. [Page 122]
3.
“Without (spiritual) knowledge there is no meditation; without meditation there
is no knowledge. He who has meditation and knowledge is near to Nirvana.'' —
Dhammapada.
4. “He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for
without me ye can do nothing”. — John, XV. 5. “Whoso eateth (aspires) my
(spiritual) flesh (substance) and drinketh (absorbeth) my blood (my power)
dwelleth in me and I in him”.—John, VI 56.
IX)
I “Let
the Yogins constantly practice devotion, fixed in a secluded spot alone,
having thought and self subdued . . . thinking on Me, intent on Me”. — Bhagavad Gita. , VI
10.
2. “Depart
from that dark light, be partakers of immortality, and leave or forsake
corruption”. Hermes Trismegistus, II, 78. “Why have you delivered yourselves over unto death,
having power to partake of immortality” “O ye people, men born and made of
the earth, which have given yourselves up to drunkenness and sleep and to the
ignorance of Good, be sober and cease your surfeit, whereunto you are allured
and visited by brutish and unreasonable sleep”. — Hermes Trismegistus, II. 75.
3. “The disciples of Gautama are always well awake, and their thoughts day and
night are always set on Buddha. Like a well-guarded fortress with defences
within and without, so let a man guard himself. Not a moment should escape,
for they who allow the right moment to pass suffer pain”. — Dhammapada.
4. “When thou prayest (meditatest), enter into thy closet (thy soul), and when
thou hast shut the door (of the external senses), pray to the Father, which
is in secret”. — Matthew. VI. 6. “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into
temptation”. —Matthew, XXVI. 41.
X)
I.
“He who sees Me everywhere and everything in Me, him I forsake not, and he
forsakes not Me”.—Bhagavad Gita, VI. 30. [Page 123]
2. “Shining steadfastly upon and around the whole mind, it enlightened all the
soul, and loosing it from the bodily senses and motions, it draweth it
from the body and changed it wholly into the essence of God. For it is possible,
o Son, to
be deified while yet it lodgeth in the body of man, if it contemplate the beauty
of
Good”. — Hermes Trismegistus, IV. 18.
3. “Self is the lord of self; who else could be the Lord? With (the lower) self
well
subdued, a man finds a lord such as few can find”. — Dhammapada.
4. “That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us”.— John, XVII. 21.
XI)
I. “I am the source of all things; the whole (universe) proceed from Me.
Thinking thus, the wise, who share my nature, worship Me”. — Bhagavad Gita, X. 8.
2. “The glory of all things, God, and that which is divine, and the divine Nature,
the beginning of things that are”. — Hermes Trismegistus, III. i.
3. “All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is made up of our
thoughts”. — Dhammapada.
4. “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made. In
Him was (is) the life, and the life was (is) the light of men”.— John, I. 3.
XII)
1.
“He who is the same to friend or foe ... to whom pain and blame are equal;
who is silent, content with every fortune, steadfast in mind, and worships
Me, that
man is dear to Me”. — Bhagavad-GitĂŁ,
Gita.
2. “The strife of piety is to know God and to injure no Man, and in this way
it becomes Mind. Such a soul, being pious and religious, is angelic and divine.
After it is departed from the body, having striven for piety, it becomes the
Mind or
God”. — Hermes Trismegistus, IV. 64.[Page 124]
3, “Let us live happily, not hating those who hate us; let us dwell free from
hatred among men who hate us. Let a man overcome anger by love, evil by good,
the
greedy by liberality, the liar by truth”. — Dhamm
4. “Love your enemies; bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate
you, and pray for them that persecute you”. — Matthew. V. 40.
The
above examples, if their esoteric meaning is compared,
will be sufficient to show the great resemblance between the doctrines
of the “New Testament” and
those of the Eastern sages. But the circumstance that they refer to the same
fundamental truths is by no means an indication that the writers have plagiarized
each other.
The
truth exists; it is as free as the air to all who are able to grasp it;
it can neither be invented nor monopolized by man. Men may grasp and remodel
ideas, and
express them in new forms; but the truth is one and universal; it may be seen
and described in one part of this globe as well as in another; it is eternal
and does not change; and the doctrines it teaches through the mouths of
those
whose minds are illumined by wisdom, a million of years hence, will be the
same which it taught a million of years ago. These doctrines The Spirit of Christ still
teaches to those who will listen to him; for he is not dead, but lives as an
immortal power whose name is Divine Wisdom, “The Word”. [Page 125]
HERODIAS
That
which is said to have taken place in the history of the Jews is taking
place today.
Continually does Desire, to which Man is wedded, seek to
alienate him from Reason,
and by appealing to Passion she often succeeds in
his destruction.
GAY was the throng which crowded the halls at the fortress of Makur, where the
birthday of Herodes the Great was to be celebrated. Stately soldiers with
glittering armours and helmets, beautiful ladies clad in rich garments and
adorned with their most precious jewels, filled the rooms; Nubian and Arabian
servants were seen hastening through the corridors; the walls were adorned with
costly hangings and with an abundance of garlands and flowers, to prepare for
the banquet, for a great orgy was to take place in that castle, to please the great
king; while in its subterranean dungeons languished the prophet John the
Baptist. Let us throw a glance at the supposed history of those times.
Herodes Antipas, the king of Judea, was an object of hate and fear to the Jews,
who, in their turn, were to him an object of ridicule and contempt. Trusting in the
power of the Roman army, by which he was supported, and in the favour of the
Emperor, he laughed at the mutterings of the discontented people, as long as
they did not disturb his comfort. Only when one or the [Page 126] other of those
rebellious spirits, more daring or more ambitious than the rest, became too
obnoxious to him, he nodded his head, and the noise-maker paid the penalty for
his rashness by a slow death of starvation upon a cross or by the more merciful
punishment of execution by the sword.
He was a great profligate; but his profligacy would not have been an object of
serious reprobation by the Jews, who were themselves an indolent and profligate
people, if he had not continually offended their vanity by treating them and their
religion with mockery and disdain; but under the existing circumstances, his
licentiousness formed one more welcome pretext for the discontented people to
denounce him in private and to point at him scornfully and hatefully whenever it
could be done without any risk to themselves.
He was married to an Arabian princess, the daughter of a neighbouring king. His
wife was a beautiful, modest, and unpretending woman; but having become
satiated with her charms, he became subject to an animal passion for Herodias,
the daughter of his half-brother. This proud and ambitious woman accepted his
proposals, and to remove the most important impediment in the way for the
accomplishment of his incestuous design, the king made up his mind to murder
his wife. The plan failed, because the queen, having discovered the plot through
the information received by a faithful servant, fled with a few trustworthy friends
across the frontier to Arabia, to seek refuge in the house of her [Page 127] parents,
This incident and the circumstances connected with it created a great scandal all
over the country; but Herodes, infuriated at thus having the mask torn from his
face, considered any further attempt at secrecy unnecessary, and resolved to
defy public opinion. He therefore took Herodias to his court, and lived with her in
open disregard of all decency and propriety.
Thus we often see that the great king of selfishness in Man is more enamoured
of some Vice generated by the reasoning intellect, the half-brother of Wisdom,
than of his legitimate wife, Knowledge, the daughter of Intuition; and when the
latter sends her faithful servant, whose name is Conscience, to him, to reproach
him for his infidelity, he attempts to kill her and drive her away from his heart. But
when Conscience has once departed, Vice begins to show herself openly in
defiance of all restraint.
Among those who most denounced his immorality was John the Baptist. Fearless
and uncompromising, his voice thundered like the roar of a lion through the
desert, and its echo was heard at the palace of the Tetrarch. Death and
destruction and a day of judgment were foretold by the prophet, and repentance
enjoined. Tyranny, vanity, and cowardice always go hand in hand; and for a while
Herodes became seriously frightened. Thinking that at all events it might be well
to make an attempt to escape the penalty due for his sins, he sent to John to
inquire by what means the angry God could be pacified. John, however, was
inexorable. He replied [Page 128] that divine justice could not be bribed or
bargained with. No prayer, no sacrifice, no ceremony, he said, would avail. He
demanded cessation of the incestuous intercourse, a return to Knowledge, and a
separation from the ambitious woman.
Reproaches and accusations always smart when they are based upon truth.
Such language Herodes was not accustomed to hear, nor would he submit to be
made to appear to himself a villain. Still more angry was the beautiful Herodias,
because she saw her plans for the future and her position threatened by the
fanatical reformer. It required but little persuasion on her part to induce her lover
to give the order for the arrest of John the Baptist, and to imprison him in the
fortress of Makur.
More than this Herodes was not willing to do. He did not want to kill Reason, but
he wanted to silence its voice whenever it was unwelcome to him. In vain
Herodias wept and represented to him that John deserved to be punished by
death, and that she could not be contented as long as the prophet was permitted
to live, because his very presence was a reproach to her. Herodes knew that
John, who was of a noble family, had many influential friends, and that to kill him
would be to court an open rebellion; but there was still another cause which
prevented him from consenting to the request of Herodias and to murder the
prophet; for he suspected that perhaps, after all, the prophecies foretold by John
might come true; and if so, what better means of [Page 129] protection against the
ills that were to come, could he find than the prophet himself, who might act as
his counsellor.
Moreover, John, imprisoned in the subterranean dungeons below the castle of
Makur, was there as little capable of annoying the king, as if he had been already
dead. There he might preach and denounce as much as he pleased; there was
no one to listen to him. He therefore treated the requests of Herodias for the
death-punishment of John the Baptist, as the results of a womanish whim, and
he at last forbade her to mention this subject again.
But
who can baffle the designs of a woman whose vanity has been offended
? Who can silence the voice of vice, if reason is not permitted to speak?
Herodias
knew the weak points in the character of Herodes, — his sensuality and love of
pleasure, his lewdness and pride, — and she resolved to have recourse to a
trick, to extort from him that which she no longer dared to ask.
Herodias, as may well be imagined, was a beautiful woman. Stately was her
form, and faultless her features. From her large dark eyes, overshadowed by
long, drooping lashes, seemed to flash a supernatural fire, which made men her
slaves, while a bewitching smile played around her lips, as if she were rejoicing
over the victories she so easily gained over the senses of men. Her bearing was
full of haughtiness and pride: thus must Judith have looked as she entered the
tent of Holofernes [Page 130] to cut off the head of the king; thus may have looked
Messalina when she feasted upon Roman patrician blood. But while she might
have been regarded as an incarnation of pride, and a personification of lust, she
appeared nevertheless very modest. These lips which seemed to scorn the
world, could flatter and plead, this graceful form could bow down at the approach
of the royal voluptuary, and submit to the embraces of one whom she despised
at heart.
What
did she care for Herodes ? His person was nothing to her but an instrument
by which she hoped to attain that which she desired, — the crown. If he had not
been a king, she would have spurned him and detested his touch; but she well
knew that the surest way for a woman to render a man her slave, is to appear
to be submissive to him, and to obey his wishes even before they are uttered.
Thus
she ruled over Herodes, while Herodes dreamed of ruling over her.
She
had committed a mistake by asking of him the life of John the Baptist;
she ought to have been more careful, and induced Herodes to offer that
life to her
spontaneously, and apparently without her request. This mistake had to be
remedied; for the head of John the Baptist had to fall, if she did not want
to live in constant dread of his influence. “Who is this John”, she said
to herself, “that we should hesitate to put him to death? A beggar, like
so many others that we
have silenced when they became too noisy, and no one dared to reproach
us for it.
He, a worm, has [Page 131] dared to crawl into my path, and to oppose my will. I
will not recede; I will crush him under my foot and go on: let his blood
come upon himself”.
She
had asked for a clandestine interview with Kaiphas,
the high-priest of the temple at Jerusalem, and one night he came to
her in disguise. She asked him
for his aid to annihilate John the Baptist, or to find a pretext to have
the prophet accused and condemned by law as a heretic and infidel; but while
Kaiphas
offered no serious objection to the imprisonment of the prophet, whose violent
speeches were liable to produce a schism in the church and to lessen the
authority of the clergy, he would not listen to any proposals in regard to
his murder; for John was of his caste, — even if he was a renegade, — and he
harbored a certain amount of admiration for him.
Thus the beautiful Herodias was left to her own resources. She once attempted
to have recourse to some practices of sorcery, in which she had received
instruction from an Egyptian woman; but her ceremonies were of little avail,
because the powers of evil which she invoked could not affect the pure soul of
John the Baptist: they reverted to her own bosom and filled her heart with
despair.
But if the powers of darkness were not able to do her bidding, there was a being,
ever ready to comply with her wishes, namely, her own daughter Salome, the
fruit of a former marriage of Herodias; a charming girl of about fifteen years, who
was universally acknowledged [Page 132] to be the most beautiful young lady at the
court of Herodes, and a most graceful dancer; and it had not escaped the
attention of Herodias, that the eyes of the lascivious king often rested with a
passionate glare upon the unripe charms of her daughter.
One day Salome had found her mother in tears, and after begging her to confess
the cause of her sorrow, Herodias took her daughter into her confidence and
confided her secret to her. Then the two women concocted a plan which was to
cost John the Baptist his life. Salome was not a malicious girl; but she was
exceedingly frivolous, inconsiderate, and vain, and flattered herself she was able
to accomplish a thing in which even her mother had failed to succeed, and to
outwit the king. As to John the Baptist, she cared no more for him than if he had
been a slave.
In pursuance of the plot into which they had entered, Herodias made
arrangements for a great festival to be held at Makur, to celebrate the birthday of
the king. To that place the court resorted with a gathering of selected guests.
Herodes was to be surprised by the magnificence of the feast.
The
banquet was opened in a large hall of the castle. On three sides of the room
tables and couches were arranged in horseshoe form, opening towards the
entrance, which was hung with heavy curtains. In the midst of the half-circle
upon a somewhat elevated platform there was a throne for the king and Herodias,
while at both sides the courtiers and the ladies were [Page 133] seated. Costly
wines and rich viands were served, music and songs and various plays increased
the hilarity of those present, but the best of all the performances was to
come off
at midnight.
At
that time a number of selected beauties of Jerusalem, expert dancers,
entered. They were dressed and ornamented in a manner calculated rather to
expose their charms than to hide them. They performed an Arabian dance, that
excited the senses of the half-drunken king to the utmost degree. But now
in
the midst of it the dancers made room, the heavy curtain opened, and
Salome the
beautiful whirled into the room, nude, excepting a transparent film-like
texture, thin as a spider's web, serving as an ornament during her dance.
As the beauty
of the moon, the queen of the night, surpasses the stars, so the beauty of
Salome outshone the rest of the dancers, as she went through the most graceful
gyrations. Her magnetic gaze was directed upon the king, as if he were the
sole object of her desires and the rest of the assembly did not exist
for her; and when
the dance ended and a storm of applause filled the room, she stood before
the king, looking imploringly at him, her hands folded over her palpitating bosom.
She was the personification of vanity and desire.
“A kingly entertainment, indeed!” stuttered
the intoxicated Tetrarch, who had not recovered from his surprise. [Page 134]
“And worthy of a kingly reward!” said
Herodias, in a loud voice, so that all present could hear it.
This
remark excited the pride of Herodes. “Yes!” he said; “ask whatever thou
desirest, and thou shalt receive it from me”.
“Then
give me at once the head of John the Baptist, laid upon a golden plate”,
answered Salome.
For a moment the king stared at her in terror and in surprise. He saw that he had
been outwitted; but he was too proud to retract his promise, and, as if ashamed
of his hesitation, he answered with a forced laugh and sent one of the most
stalwart servants immediately to execute the command.
The
above is an account of events supposed by many to have taken place in Palestine
at the beginning of the Christian era, although there is no historical
evidence for it; but what every one may know by his own self-examination
is, that in the kingdom of the soul of semi-animal man selfishness is the
king,
represented as Herodes; and the voice of reason, represented as John the
Baptist, cries like a voice in the wilderness. In many cases man does not
wish to listen to that voice, nor does he wish to destroy it, unless, reduced
by Passion,
the daughter of Desire, he complies with her request, destroys his own reason,
and thereby himself.
[Page 135]
JERUSALEM
The
Truth is self-existent and independent of the opinions of men. It has not
a stone upon which
to rest its head, nor does it require any logical argument
to support it.
It is known to all who
are willing to receive it when it enters their
heart.
A CRY of indignation arose all over Judea when the foul murder of John the
Baptist became known. The rich and the poor alike denounced, in unmeasured
terms, that act of tyranny and cowardice. It seemed as if this had been the straw
that broke the long-enduring camel's back, and in many parts of the country an
open rebellion was threatened; for John was not merely a general favourite with
the people and the accepted prophet of the Nazarenes; he was also of the Levitic
caste, whose members were considered sacred. Now was the time for the long-expected Saviour to come. If he had appeared at that time and proved his
authority by a few miracles, he would have had no end of admirers; but the
redeemer did not come.
The Romans, full of security in their superior strength, remained quiet and looked
upon the existing confusion as disinterested spectators. They knew that there
was no hero among the Jews who could act as a leader, and the few persons
who were inclined to act as such, counteracted each other's efforts by their own
petty [Page 136] envies and jealousies. The Jews claimed that something must
be done, but there was no one to do it; they all waited for Jehovah to perform
some miracle, but the miracle was not performed; nor would an open rebellion
without a great and heroic leader have been successful, for the Romans were
well prepared for such an event; and although they seemed to be inactive, they
silently took measures to suppress an insurrection. They acted wisely in not
irritating the excited populace, for soon the sensation caused by the murder
ceased to be a novelty; bread-and-butter affairs became again more important in
their eyes than politics, and even the noisiest braggarts who had fought great
battles with their tongues, quieted down.
At
the beginning of the excitement Jehoshua was traveling in Judea; but when
he heard of the murder of John the Baptist, he returned to his friends, the
Nazarenes, to consult with them what measures were to be taken. He well knew
that while the passions were raging, it would be useless for him to preach
the gospel of wisdom to a people whose reason was dead, and any attempt on
his
part to occupy the position of a leader would have immediately caused him to
be suspected of being a political agitator. To occupy such a position was
not his
desire. It was not his intention to interfere with the political institutions
of the country; but to raise humanity up to a higher region of thought, to
bring them
nearer to a realization of the nature of true manhood, and to elevate their
character and their sense [Page 137] of morality, upon which a change for the
better in their external condition would follow as a natural consequence.
All
external conditions are the outcome of internal conditions. This is as true
in regard to a people as it is true in regard to a man, a society, an animal,
a plant,
or a rock. We cannot change the nature of a tree by trimming its branches;
we cannot change the character of an animal by depriving it of its limbs;
we cannot
change the character and the natural conditions of a people by forcing upon
it conditions which are unnatural, because they are not the outcome of interior
growth. The law of Karma is an universal law which acts within communities, yea,
even within solar systems, as it acts in regard to individuals. A vice forcibly
repressed, unless displaced by a virtue, will accumulate strength until the
pent-up force is followed by an explosion. Man is whatever he makes himself
by his
thoughts. A people on the whole may be looked upon as a compound individual,
made up of a great many personalities, and yet being one entity to which
the same law applies. A vicious man would drop back into vice tomorrow,
if his sins
were forgiven today; a people that cannot bear freedom would soon return
to slavery, even if they were liberated by some miracle-worker.
Individuals,
as well as communities, grow spiritually in proportion as they rise up to
a higher ideal. If their ideal is lowered, they sink; if it becomes exalted,
they [Page 138] will be elevated accordingly; slavery is an unnatural condition for men,
but a natural condition for slaves; freedom is only made for the free. What
will merely external reforms amount to, as long as the heart is not reformed
? Does a
villain become less of a villain if we dress him in beautiful garments ? What
will it serve to cut the branches of evil as long as the roots and the trunk
remain ?
Heroes are the product of the growth of ideas. Reformers come when the time
for reform is ripe; if they appear and bloom prematurely, they will produce
no fruits.
Luther and Napoleon were the products of their times; they did not create
reforms before the necessity for reform had created them; the characters that
appear upon the stage of life are the products of previously existing ideas;
external life is merely a shadow-picture, representing upon the wall of matter
the picture contained within the magic lantern of the mind. Ideas are everything;
personalities, if compared with ideas, are nothing. Persons are only useful
if they are instruments for the execution of ideas; a person who is not a
vehicle for an
idea is merely a corpse.
Long-continued
and abject fear of Jehovah had made the Jews a nation of cowards. They had
no power to help themselves, because they excluded the
saving grace of God from their hearts. They needed an external saviour, an
outward redeemer, one that would come riding upon the clouds, presenting
credentials to secure an undisputed belief in his authority to save; a god,
invested with thunder and lightning to destroy [Page 139] their oppressors. They
were a people amongst whom individual selfishness had become so
concentrated, that no true patriotism was to be found. There was at that time
no
Marcus Curtius among them, willing to sacrifice his personal self for the benefit of
his country; those who were called patriots, were inspired by the love of
self and
of vanity; they expected to receive some reward from almighty Jehovah.
The more their self-confidence failed, the louder became their appeals to the god
which they had created in their imagination. The odour arising from burning
bodies of animals went uninterruptedly up to the clouds, to tickle the nostrils of
the sleepy deity, to wake him up and induce him to fulfil his promises and to send
the long-expected redeemer: but Jehovah would not awaken.
Such times were propitious to increase the authority of the priest and to fill the
money-bags of the church. Not to allow any profit to escape the clutches of the
church, the temples were partly turned into stables and bazaars, where animals
of various kinds, such as were used for sacrifice, were kept for sale. Cattle and
sheep, goats and pigeons, were waiting for the priestly butcher knife, to have
their throats cut after a bargain was made. Helpless beasts were killed to please
the bloodthirsty god; while those who killed them suffered ferocious monsters to
grow up within their own souls.
Those
who speculate upon human vanity and greed, easily accomplish their purpose.
At those times the [Page140] ignorant believed that to obtain gifts from
God, it was necessary to make gifts to the church; then as now those who were
able to pay for expensive ceremonies and church-service were considered the
most pious and worthy to be respected. Well may the better-informed Pharisee
then as now have laughed in his sleeve at the foolishness of the pilgrim who
emptied his savings into the treasury of the church, to buy with material wealth
things which could exist nowhere but in his own imagination; but deception
was considered to be unavoidable and necessary, to secure a firm footing
for the
church in the hearts of the people and to keep them in subjection to the laws
of
order.
Clad in long-flowing robes, upon which were embroidered in gold, sentences
from the sacred scrolls, the Pharisees went about public places, praying in loud
voices and making a public display of their piety. No more did God speak in the
hearts of men, for men had lost their power to hear; but instead of the voice of
God they heard the voice of the priests, who claimed to be the keepers of the
truth. They said that their words were the words of God, and to prove their
authority pointed to the books of the law and the prophets and explained them in
a manner most suitable to the interests of the church. But the people believed
what they were told, for their John the Baptist was dead, having been killed by
their own Herodes, and could not enlighten them in regard to this matter.
Owing to the ignorance and selfishness of the scribes, [Page 141] external worship
had become entirely divorced from the internal one, and empty forms and
ceremonies were considered of far more importance than knowledge. Religion
became a servant of clerical interests, and matters of theology became mixed up
with political affairs.
All
attempts to unite the interests of church and state will always degrade
religion and weaken the state by creating a rival power within the latter.
True Religion
has no other interest but the ennobling of the soul; she is above all temporal
and egoistic considerations; she does nothing for the purpose of gaining
material
wealth or to gratify personal ambition; such things are done by the church,
but not by religion. A government that needs the assistance of priestcraft
to frighten
the people into submission is a government of slaves, and itself a slave to
the church. It is weak, and becomes still weaker by dividing its power
with the
Pharisees. Religion ought never to be used as a means to accomplish an
unreligious purpose; true religion has for its purpose the final union of Man
with the universal God, and rests upon a knowledge of the nature of the
relations
existing between God and Man; but the foundation upon which priestcraft rests
is the self-love of man and his desire to obtain rewards which he does
not deserve. This selfishness is inherent in the animal nature of Man; it is
the rock upon
which sectarianism rests, and it is as everlasting as the mountains; for
as long as men
exist in semi-animal forms, their higher aspirations will be mixed with selfish
desires. As long as they possess [Page 142] no knowledge of self, they will be
helpless and ignorant; as long as they cannot protect themselves against their
own selves, they will look to the state for the protection of their bodies,
and to the church for the salvation of their souls. They may do away with certain
forms of
superstition and abolish some creed; they may for a time imagine themselves
to be free; but as long as they are not free from their own selfish desires,
they
cannot be really free: for the devil who keeps them in chains is within their
own selves; he goes with them to the church and wherever they go. If they do
away
with one superstition, it will be merely to replace it by another; if they
break the chains of one master, they will soon crave for another to protect
them against
their own selves.
As long as men are not able to govern their own desires, as long as they possess
merely opinions but not knowledge, they cannot be free, and require a master to
lead them; but they have a right to demand that their master should know more
than they know themselves, and that he should assist them in gaining knowledge
and not force them to remain ignorant. However much it may be in the interest of
mankind to attain knowledge, it is not in the interests of their masters that they
should attain it; for if men were to attain knowledge, they would become free and
need no other master but their own selves. Thus the interests of priestcraft are in
continual conflict with religion, and will remain so until mankind comes a step
nearer to God in spite of the resistance offered by the church.[Page 143]
Woe to the church that speculates upon the ignorance of mankind; it will
be a power of evil and perish in darkness. Woe to the state that cannot stand
without being propped up by the church. It may find the support pleasant and
useful, but the time may come when the spirits that have been evoked grow
strong and will not retire at our bidding, and they then become a curse to the
country and overpower the state that called them to its aid.
At the time of which we are writing, the alliance between the state and the church
at Jerusalem was not very strong; for the views of the Romans in regard to
theology were different from those of the Jews. But the Roman government
recognized the rights of the Sanhedrin to have laws of its own, and it even lent its
aid to enforce these laws; and thus while the want of energy among the Jews,
originating in their religious beliefs, made it easy for the Romans to keep
the Jews in subjection, the recognition of the temporal authority of the
church created — so to say — a Jewish government within the Roman government, weakening
the latter and producing conflicts between the two, besides nourishing a
rebellious spirit among the Jews, which had to be kept down by the
overwhelming power of the Romans.
Similar
conditions may be found to exist even at this day in that “Jerusalem” known as the Mind of Man. In a well-governed Mind the king of Reason
enlightened by Wisdom ought to rule supreme; but if he forms an alliance with
Selfishness, Reason will lose its power, [Page 144] and a kingdom of Ignorance will
be established within the kingdom of Reason. Then will the edicts of the “church” enter in conflict with the laws given by the legitimate ruler, and Reason will
be lost unless Wisdom comes to its aid.
Thus
the processes that are continually going on within the Mind of individual
men resemble the processes taking place within the Mind of Humanity; and
as the thoughts of individual man find outward expression in his features
and in his
acts, likewise the thoughts of Humanity find expression in personalities
and historical events; for the visible world is nothing else but a stage
upon which the
inner life of humanity is enacted, a place where man's subjective and real
existence finds an external representation in that sphere of illusions called
the physical world. [Page 145]
THE GREAT RENUNCIATION
We can attain the High only by rising above that which is low. The life of
the God in Man
necessitates the sacrifice of his attraction to the animal elements
existing in his constitution.
GREAT
was the joy with which the Nazarenes welcomed him whom they now recognized
as their Master. His mind had expanded, his spirituality had become
strong, and his very presence seemed awe-inspiring and holy. There was no
wavering or uncertainty in his decisions; he had grown to that full stature
in which man's thoughts become his words, and words become acts; he
had gained the
power to control his own mind, and in doing so he controlled the minds of
others. His superiority was so self-evident, that his former friends now
became his
disciples, and his followers looked upon him as if he were something more
than mortal, — a god. Nor was such a belief unjustifiable; for he had become so
much united to his own divine inner Self, that the divinity of the latter
seemed to permeate even his mortal frame and to attract to itself other spiritual
influences of
the same kind, whose presence was manifested on several occasions.
Thus once he went with some of his disciples upon the top of a high mountain,
and as he stood there, he became deeply immersed in meditation, while his
companions, [Page 146] not wishing to disturb the sacred silence, watched him
from the distance. Then it appeared to them as if a light of a supernatural kind
were emanating from him, and in that light they beheld the presence of two
Adepts, whom they supposed to be Moses and Elias of old.
Such
an occurrence need not be regarded as impossible or incredible by the sceptic.
The Higher Self, the divine Adonai, the “Spirit” of Man, is not a poetical
fancy or a metaphysical hypothesis to those who have risen up to his sphere.
There are perhaps few persons who have not at least once in their lives,
perhaps during the days of their childhood, felt that such a “guardian spirit”
was near, and there is abundant evidence in the biographies of heroes and
saints, in ancient
and modern history, going to show that man's Higher Self may manifest itself
visibly to the lower self, and that it may have spiritual intercourse with
its own equals, in the same sense as a mortal man may communicate with other
mortals
upon this earth.
As
to the nature of man's divine Self we are informed by the ancient Bhagavad
Gita, that: “In this world there are two existences, the perishable and the
imperishable. The Perishable consists of all living things, (the Senses, etc.);
the Imperishable is called the Lord on high. But there is another, the highest
existence, called the Supreme Spirit, who as the eternal Lord (Iswara) [The
Logos (Christ), John x 9] pervades the three worlds and sustains them”; [Page
147] and we are furthermore informed by the same source, that: “Some by
meditation perceive the soul within themselves by themselves . . . , while
others, who know it not, hear of it from others, and worship, and these too,
devoted to
the sacred doctrine, pass over death”.
These
views are amply corroborated by the teachings of Jehoshua, who speaks of
himself on many occasions, as if he had become one with that divine Self,
while the apostle Paul and others repeat the same doctrine in regard to the
corruptible and incorruptible body. [Colossians i. 27. II Corinthians iv
16. I
Corinthians xv 53].
Again
he began to teach in the towns of Galilee and Judea, and more than ever
his fame spread over the country and penetrated even within the walls of
Jerusalem. The members of his family, who were astonished to see him acquire
such a renown, went to him, to claim him as one of their own. But Jehoshua
had outgrown that stage in which ties of blood form any attraction to
man; he had
become one with his soul, and that soul was not the son of a mortal woman.
He was a genius, and the Universal Spirit his Father; he was above all
terrestrial
considerations, living entirely in the realm of the Ideal. Our parents are
the progenitors of the physical forms which man temporarily inhabits
during his
earthly life; but that form is not the real self of the regenerated man,
who existed from all eternity. [John v 26].
Jehoshua
therefore said: “Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? He who
does the will of our [Page 148] eternal Father is my brother, my sister, and mother”.
[Mathew xii. 50] He was so taken up and absorbed by the one grand idea of
universal fraternal Love, that he lost sight of the earthly ties that bind
personalities to each other. In his superior state he ceased to be an individual
man in all but external form; it was as if his soul had become unconscious
of inhabiting a separate state of existence, and had mixed with the universal
indivisible divine Spirit.
How can such a superior state be realized by those who cling to the illusion of
Self ? How can it be understood by an age whose fundamental principle upon
which its religion and science, politics and social intercourse are based, is the
illusion of Self, and to which a renunciation of personal existence appears to be
identical with annihilation ? And yet Christians claim to believe such things in
theory; for the fundamental doctrine upon which original Christianity was founded
is the sacrifice of personal existence, which leads to a resurrection in a life
beyond personality and mortality.
What
is the signification of the Christian Cross ? Is it merely a memento of an
historical event, to remind the present generation that some eighteen hundred
years ago, an honest man was executed as a criminal by being nailed to a cross
? Then if that man or God had been executed by means of a gallows, a gallows
would have become the emblem of the Christian faith, and [Page 149] gallows in
the place of crosses would now be seen in churches and houses and upon the
tops of the spires of Christian places of worship. No! The Cross has a far deeper
signification; it is a symbol that was known thousands of years before the
advent of modern Christianity ; it may be found in Indian cave-temples and
upon relics
dating from antediluvian times. It cannot mean the death of a god, for gods
are immortal and cannot be killed; it means the entire cessation of all thoughts
of self — of all self-love, self-will; it means the mystic death, the renunciation of
everything belonging to personality and limitation, and the entering in a life
in the Infinite, Unlimited, and Eternal. This renunciation of Self is the great
“stone of contention” in the way of those who desire to become immortal while
they yet
cling to their personal self. [Mathew viii 35]. This superior state is one
of spiritual consciousness above all sense of personality; it is a happy, and
therefore a
“heavenly”, state. It requires no keys of bishop or pope, nor any permission
to be obtained by a clergyman, to enter its portals; it merely requires the
power
and the ability to give up one's love for the lower self and to join the consciousness
of the
Higher Self, which already exists in “heaven”.
How
could the prohibition of a priest or the malediction of a pope ever prevent
a man from rising up to a higher region of thought or entering a higher state
of
consciousness ? If man's soul is able to wing itself up to [Page 150] those celestial
heights, no interdict will be able to prevent it. How could the permission
of a church enable man to enter into a region of thought which he is not able
to enter,
because he clings with the grasp of despair to his lower perishing self ? Verily
a church claiming such a power is like the Pharisees of old, of whom Jehoshua
said: “Woe to you, hypocrites! who devour the widows' houses, pretending to
give spiritual gifts, while you do not possess them yourselves”, [Mathew xxiii
14].
This
doctrine of the entire renunciation of Self is the great mystery which
the Spirit of Christ has taught at all times through the mouths of the
sages; it is the great
secret which Jehoshua vainly attempted to bring to the understanding of a
selfish nation; it is the great truth which Divine Wisdom still continues
to teach.
Jehoshua's disciples did not grasp this idea; for when he explained to
them that it
was necessary to give up personal existence, to gain that life which is eternal,
“they refused to go any further with him”. They, too, dreamed of a sensual
heaven; their aspirations did not rise higher than to gain an everlasting
terrestrial life in a material heaven, where, unburdened from gross matter,
their astral egos
might enjoy a life resembling the one upon this planet, but without the sufferings
of the latter; a life where there are still personal likes and dislikes,
attractions and desires, social intercourse and amusements; a life in a
limited, although ethereal
form, full of change, and therefore not self-existent and not eternal. [Page
151]
But Jehoshua spoke of a heavenly state, where no one is married nor
given in marriage; where there is no distinction of sex or race or of religious
opinion; where each individual soul is a spiritual power, a note in the great
symphony that constitutes the harmony of the All; a state in which we will
all be
one in Divinity, as we are now one in Humanity; an existence where all are
cemented together by the universal principle of Love, where individual
consciousness is swallowed up in the inconceivable happiness of eternal and
universal existence, of which men cannot conceive intellectually as long
as they cling to form, and which is therefore like nothing to them.
A kingdom after this pattern Jehoshua wanted to establish even on this earth. He
wanted to unite all mankind by the power of fraternal love, to do away with
injustice, superstition, and priestcraft, to bring each individual up to a conscious
realization of his own divine nature, to induce men to cultivate their spiritual
talents and to develop the spiritual powers which slumber in every soul. He well
knew that all men are not alike, and that there can be no external equality upon
the material plane as long as the process of evolution lasts. Permanent equality
would mean a permanent cessation of progress; it would be characterized by an
absence of that necessary stimulus which causes activity; but he knew that all
men had the same natural rights for the attainment of knowledge, and that they
all were entitled to see the truth and to strive after supreme and eternal [Page 152] happiness. He wanted to give them a higher, a true Ideal, which would raise
them up into the highest regions of thought to a nobler conception of Man, and
thus by ennobling them save them even from their material degradation, by and
through their own efforts.
Great is the power of Wisdom! It captivates even those who are not able to see it,
provided they do not wilfully repel its light when it seeks to enter the heart. The
soul feels the power of wisdom, even if the intellect cannot grasp it. The doctrines
of Jehoshua captivated the minds of the people; they began to look upon him as
the promised saviour, who had come to destroy their enemies, to make the poor
equals of the rich, and to supply all with comfort and happiness. Some believed
him to be an incarnation of John the Baptist; others imagined they beheld in him
the spiritual power of an Avatar. The Pharisees and the scribes of the temple at
Jerusalem searched their sacred scrolls; but they could find no prophecy of any
star that was to arise from Nazareth; they would not believe that any good could
come out of that place. His language sounded insulting to them, because it
exposed their failings; his doctrines were undermining the foundation upon which
their church and its dogmas rested. He deserved death, and it was necessary by
all means to secure his person, to prevent further mischief to the interests of the
church. In Galilee he was secure as long as he created no political trouble with
the Romans; the authority of the temple of Jerusalem did not extend beyond [Page
153] certain limits. They consulted with each other about means to coax him to
come to Jerusalem; they tried to bribe his family to induce him to go there,
and
his brothers advised him to go. [John vii 3].
The
idea of going to Jerusalem, to give the finishing stroke to his work,
had already entered the mind of Jehoshua. He well knew the dangers connected
with
such an attempt; but now he had grown strong and powerful and risen above
all personal considerations. His personal safety seemed to him not worthy
of a
moment's thought; it was the truth — not his person — that he desired to defend;
and if his mortal body were to die in his attempt at defending the truth,
the cause which he advocated could only gain by such a sacrifice.
In
vain his friends pleaded that he should not thus risk his life. Dark clouds
of the future rose up before his clairvoyant vision; but above these clouds
he saw a
light, as if a thousand suns were bursting forth in the sky, filling infinite
space with its glory. He beheld his human personality like a hardly perceptible
speck of dust
in the boundless ocean of matter. Was it worth while to consider what became
of such an insignificant thing, when the whole of humanity was to be saved
from
ignorance ?
Let
the would-be wise of the world call such a state of mind a product of
a “morbid imagination“, “hallucination”, or whatever they please. To the
vulgar everything [Page 154] is vulgar, and the worm crawling under the ground can
realize nothing else but the presence of earth. To the coward, courage would
be an abnormal state; to the stingy, generosity is a pathological condition;
to the
foolish, knowledge belongs to the unknowable; to the selfish, unselfishness
is an absurdity. When our philosophers will be able to answer intelligently
the question,
What is Matter? then will it be time for them to study what is Consciousness or
Spirit. When our anthropologists will have learned something
more about the constitution of Man than merely his phenomenal aspect, when
our naturalists will
know more than the mere superficial laws of nature, and our “Divines” are
divine in truth and not merely in name, then will it be time to argue the questions
of eternity and immortality with them. Until that time arrives, “the wisdom
of the
worldly wise will be foolishness in the eyes of Divine Wisdom”. [John vii 3]
In
our utilitarian age the most useless things are looked upon as Real and
Useful, and that which is of the highest use in the end is regarded as
an Illusion. Matter
is said to be all, and Spirit is said to be nothing. But of what use would
Matter be without life and without thought ? how could we utilize Matter,
if we had no
Intellect to employ it, and what is the Intellect but an activity of matter
produced by the stimulus coming from what is called “Spirit” or God?
The
time of the festival of the Tabernacles was approaching [Page 155] preaching,
and this was considered by Jehoshua as the most appropriate time for his visit
to the capital of Judea. At that time the city would be filled with great
crowds from
the country, upon whose good natural common sense he might rely to a certain
extent, because they were less sophisticated than the inhabitants of the city,
whose opinions and sentiments change like the wind, where a hero may be
glorified today and stoned to death tomorrow.
The followers of Jehoshua saw that the storm was approaching. Some of the
more timid ones began to regard him as a fanatic, whose rashness was about to
bring on his destruction, and they silently retired to their homes. Others believed
that the long-expected day of judgment was about to appear and that some great
miracle was to take place. They went with him, because they hoped to get some
celestial reward, and they already began to dispute which one of them would be
the greatest in heaven. Many believed that he would never reach Jerusalem
alive, that the priests would cause him to be murdered on the way, to avoid the
sensation which was certain to be created by his open arrest. Perhaps on
account of these considerations Jehoshua kept his plan secret and did not start
for the capital with the usual caravan, but left soon afterwards by a different
route, going by the way of Sichem and through the country of the Samaritans,
known as the place where works of charity are performed.
It
is said that when he entered Jerusalem, he rode [Page 156] upon an ass: nor
could it have been otherwise; for the truth cannot enter the soul of man unless
sitting upon the ass of self-conceit, and those who attempt to enter the temple
of
knowledge carrying that ass on their backs will be left outside. [Page 157]
THE TEMPLE
There is only one Temple in which the Truth can manifest its divinity; it
is that living and conscious organism which constitutes the soul and body of Man.
THE unexpected arrival of Jehoshua at Jerusalem was to the Pharisees of the
temple like a thunderbolt coming from a clear sky. They had given up all hopes of
drawing him into their net, and believed that he would not dare to come to
Jerusalem, and now the bird arrived voluntarily and without any coaxing. But the
bird was an eagle, and was likely to tear the meshes with his claws and punish
his assailants with his beak.
The first information they received of the arrival of their enemy came through the
triumphal shouts of the multitude at the temple, to which Jehoshua had
immediately gone and where he inspired his hearers with the living fire of truth
that came from his heart.
They
went to the place where he spoke and they asked him by what authority he
was teaching, and he answered them that he taught by the authority of that
omnipotent power which inspired the ancient prophets; but that only those
who were true themselves would be able to perceive the truth speaking in
him; and
when they asked him to prove that his doctrines were true, he said: “The
doctrines which I teach are not my own, [Page 158] but it is the Truth which teaches
them through me. He that teaches his own doctrines and theories speaketh of
himself; he is acting under the impulse of earthly ambition and seeketh his
own glory and not the glory of God; but he that seeks to glorify, — not himself, — but
God, by giving expression to the truth of which he is conscious, is true, and
no evil can be in him.[John vii 16]. Live so, that you may know the truth, not by
external appearances and argumentation, but by its own inherent power.[John
vii 24]. Be true, and you will know the truth”. [John viii 47].
“The
organism of Man”, he said, “resembles a kingdom; its capital is the Mind,
and its temple the soul. In that capital and temple there are many false
prophets, as there are in Jerusalem. There are the Pharisees of sophistry
and false logic,
credulity, and scepticism; and the 'scribes' are the prejudices and erroneous
opinions engrafted upon the memory. Do not listen to what these false prophets
say, but listen to the voice of wisdom that speaks in your heart; for verily
I say unto you, the temple, built of speculations which the scribes have
erected, will be
destroyed, and not one of the dogmas and theories of which it has been
constructed will remain, when the day of sound judgment appears. [Mathew
xxiv. 2]
“See
the truth enters your heart, bearing the palm leaf, the symbol of peace.
Let it abide in you, and abide yourself in the truth. There is no other
worship [Page 159] acceptable to the universal God, but to keep his commandments, which he
reveals to you through the power of Divine Wisdom, whose voice speaks in
your higher consciousness. Love one another; and as you grow in unselfish love,
so
will you grow in wisdom.
“Those
who are seeking for Truth in external things will not find it, for the
external world is merely a world of appearances, and not of absolute
truth. The
Spirit of God is pervading the universe, but the physical senses are not
constituted to see it; neither can the finite intellect comprehend the Infinite.
Seek for divine wisdom within yourself; then will God come to reside
in you, and you
will find him. He that hates the truth hates God, for the Truth is divine
and comes from God. If you let. the spirit of Wisdom abide in your hearts,
it will guide you
into the light of knowledge; but when it departs from your heart, then will
you abide in the darkness of ignorance, and your soul will weep and lament,
but the
animal instincts within you will rejoice, for they love darkness and are
sorely
grieved by the light of the truth.
“Open
your hearts and see the image of the true God within them. He is not
to be found in man-made temples and churches; and if any one tells you,
Christ
is in this church, or he is in that one, do not believe it, but seek
for God within your
own heart. Let not the Pharisees and the scribes and the intellectual powers
of your mind mislead you, but listen to the divine voice of Intuition,
which speaks at
the centre of your own soul”. [Page 160]
It may easily be imagined that such language exasperated the
Pharisees and the sceptics; nor would it be tolerated by them today. They
attempted to have Jehoshua arrested upon the spot, but they did not succeed,
because the populace took his part. There is an eternal battle going on in
the mind of man and on the external plane between error and truth, between
speculation and intuition, between true religion and priestcraft, and the two
combatants are often so intermingled with each other, that it is exceedingly
difficult to distinguish them from each other and to tell where the truth ends
and
where falsehood begins. Every attack made upon the erroneous opinions and the
selfishness of the church autocrats is misrepresented by the latter as an
attack upon religion; not upon their religious views, but as an attack upon religion itself.
Their church is their God, and the interests of the church are their religion;
it is all the God and the religion they know; they can form no conception
of a God
without priestcraft, nor of a religion without church-benefits. Having all
their lives kept their minds within the narrow grooves prescribed for them
by their creeds,
having become accustomed to worship an unnatural, limited, impossible, and
helpless God, who needs the assistance of the clergy to teach mankind; the
universal, omnipotent, omnipresent Divinity, the Christ, whose light shines into
the hearts of men is non-existent to them; and although they preach such Christ
with their mouths, repeating the sayings of the ancient books of wisdom, without
understanding [Page 161] their meaning, nevertheless they deny him in practice
and reject him on every occasion. They preach love and act hate; they claim
to love God, but the God they love is fashioned after their own fancies, and
by
loving him, they love nothing else but themselves. Their God is a limited,
personal, circumscribed and narrow-minded God, and their love is equally
narrow-minded and intolerant.
Such
and similar truths Jehoshua attempted to bring to the understanding of
the people in the temple of Jerusalem. “The spirit of Wisdom”, he said,
“that speaks in me and through my lips, and whose voice every one of you
might hear within
his heart, if he knew how to listen to it, is the way, the truth, and the life.
It is the light of the world, and he that followeth it, shall not walk
in darkness, but shall
have the light of life.[John viii 12]. He who has become conscious of the
existence of that light within his soul will not die, for he then lives in
the light and the light lives in him. [John vi 57] I am not asking you to believe what Jehoshua
says, but I ask you to seek for the truth within your own selves, so that you
may know that the truth is speaking through me; [John v 30] for the truth is self-evident to those that are true, and requires
no other certificate but its own self. [John v 36] I am not here to do the will of the terrestrial elements composing
that frame, but to do the will of the Supreme Intelligence, from whom all spirits
are
born. [John
vi 38]. You are now [Page 162] worshipping something of which you
know nothing; but the time will come when men will rise up to an understanding
of that God who is not a product of the imagination of man, and must be
worshipped in spirit and in truth. [John iv 22]. Salvation must come from
within yourself; it does not come from without. It cannot be bought with sacrifices
nor be
conferred upon you by a clergyman, but it is attained by the sacrifice of yourself.
If the spirit of God does not live within you, how can you expect to live ? [Romans viii 8] for the spirit of God is Life and is immortal in Man. The gods
which men have created are the servants of their churches; but the true God
is greater than the church. There is no temple worthy to be the residence of
the
God of Humanity, but the living souls of those who are pure in their hearts. [Luke xvii 21]. There is no salvation without sanctification”. [Hebrews
xii 14].
Such
unorthodox language was as intolerable to the Pharisees as it would be to
their modern successors, if it were publicly repeated today. Such language,
if tolerated, would overthrow the authority of the church and of that god
who is
believed to belong to the church. What would be the use for men to hire a priest
to intercede with God, if God accepted no intercession ? What would become
of the doctrine which taught that the Jews were the favourite people of Jehovah,
if
Jehovah had no favourites and was no respecter of persons, but a universal
Spirit, dispensing life and light to all [Page 163] without partiality? “This man”, they
said, “must surely be possessed of a devil”; and they consulted with each other
how they might kill him; but they dared not to attack him openly, because he
was very popular, for there were many among the crowd who had been mentally
blind
all their life, and who now became able to open their eyes and to see the light
of the truth.
The people always admire courage and intrepidity; they well knew the dangers by
which Jehoshua was surrounded, and the fact that he remained within the walls
of Jerusalem and continued to teach in the temple, in spite of the threatening
danger, gained for him their hearts.
There was an old law, which said that whoever attempted to create contempt for
the prevailing methods of worship, or to cause disrespect in regard to the
established forms of religion, should be stoned to death without the privilege of a
hearing, without judgment, and without defence. According to this law, Jehoshua
had many times incurred the penalty of death, but the Pharisees did not dare to
arrest him, on account of his great popularity.
But an event occurred which brought on the end.
As
the mind of man, the temple of the living God, becomes converted into a
stable and trading shop, if selfishness is permitted to enter. likewise the
temple of Jerusalem had become converted into a stable and market-hall by
the
selfishness of the Pharisees. The courts of the temple and even the interior
halls were [Page 164] filled with stalls, where merchants sold their goods, and the noise
made by the seller who praised his goods, and the buyer who attempted to
cheapen the price, penetrated into the innermost sanctuary.
Grieved at this desecration, and while carried away by his ardour, he overthrew
one of the stalls where trinkets were sold, and his enthusiastic listeners followed
his example. Immediately the selfish passions of the audience were aroused;
their instincts told them that an opportunity had arrived for plunder, and a fight
ensued, during which the merchants lost their goods and were driven from the
temple, while thieves enriched themselves with their stores.
This
unfortunate occurrence broke the spell by which Jehoshua ruled the hearts
of the people. Brute force can never be an ally for the promulgation of the
truth. Wisdom is a spiritual power, and external measures are useless
for its purpose
unless they are guided by wisdom. For one moment only the great reformer
had lost the mastery over himself, and now a crime had been committed. At
that
moment he had ceased to be a representative of the truth and become an
offender — not merely against the laws of the church, but against the divine law
of justice. As long as he contented himself with denouncing the selfishness
of the Pharisees, he merely appealed to the power of reason, but by his perhaps
involuntary and unpremeditated act, he had appealed to the unreasoning
instincts of the populace and entered into relation with the elements of evil. [Page 165] By this act he had ceased to be a reformer, and become a disturber of
the peace.
The Pharisees were not slow to recognize the advantage they had gained by this
event. They now appealed to the sense of justice and reason, and Jehoshua had
to leave the city to avoid arrest. He went to the village of Ephraim and remained
there with his disciples.
History
is said to be always repeating itself. Even the Pharisees of the world and
the reasoning powers in Man are willing to listen to the voice of the truth
as long as it does not come in conflict with their selfish interests. All
men admire the
truth, as long as he remains in his cage and does not threaten their self-interest;
but when he overthrows a favourite creed, then will they drive him away from
the
city. Then will the spirit of Wisdom have to retire to some quiet place,
to wait until the storm of the passion has ceased, when it may again attempt
to enter the
heart. [Page 166]
THE
HERO
That which is impermanent and illusive depends for its existence on external
conditions.
That which is real and permanent finds the necessary conditions
within itself.
IT
is not often that an error committed does not cause another. Jehoshua,
in overthrowing the stall at the temple, had committed a mistake; his
flight from
Jerusalem was another one; it was dictated by prudence and necessary to save
his person from danger, but personal considerations of any kind should never
be allowed to enter the mind of the true Adept, if they are in conflict
with justice. He
who has risen entirely above the sphere of selfishness, to that plane to
which few are able to rise, acts only in accordance with justice, — a justice blind to all
personal claims. Such justice demanded that he should have remained and
faced the consequences of the act for which he was morally responsible. He
well knew that if he were to deliver himself to his enemies, it was not
justice but
revenge that would await him; but he perceived that it was wrong for him
to have left Jerusalem, and that it would have been his duty to remain at
his post.
Moreover, the row at the temple had caused a misunderstanding in regard to
the doctrines he taught, and it was necessary to correct this mistake.[Page 167]
His
first act of imprudence could not be remedied — the stolen goods
would not be restored; but to remedy the second mistake was in his power,
and the fact that it was his duty to return to Jerusalem was strongly
impressed
upon his mind. In spite of the entreaties of his friends, he therefore
resolved to return,
and he selected for that purpose the approaching festival of the Passover.
From
a worldly and personal point of view such a resolution appears absurd;
but from the standpoint of the higher self it was reasonable, because
it was right. His
reason and logic told him that, while he would expose himself to a great
danger if he returned to Jerusalem, he would probably not even find an opportunity
to
explain his position; but his intuition told him that by returning he would
act in accordance with justice. The intellect argues and speculates to
find out what may
be true, but Wisdom knows the truth without any argumentation. His intellect
told him not to expose his person to danger; but intuition told him to
go without fear:
for even if the Pharisees would take undue advantage of him and act unjustly
towards his person, that was their own affair, which he had not to consider;
for no man can be made responsible for any other acts than those which
he performs
himself or wilfully causes others to perform. Logic came and told him that
it would be far more reasonable for him to escape, for he would be able
to do a great deal more good for humanity by continuing to live, than if
he [Page 168] were to go to the
capital and permit himself to be killed by his enemies; but Divine Wisdom
bade him to
go to Jerusalem, and to leave the consequences to God.
The
preparations for the Passover festival had begun; the city became filled
with strangers, and once more Jehoshua and his disciples were on their way
to
Jerusalem. It was publicly known that the Sanhedrin had issued an order to
have him arrested as soon as he should enter the gates of the city; and when
it
became known at Jerusalem, that in spite of the threatening danger he was
on his way to return, his friends rejoiced at his courage, and they went
to the suburb
to meet him. They received him with exclamations of joy and made him ride
in their midst. Thus they entered the gates and baffled the vigilance of
the priests,
who did not dare to arrest him while he was surrounded by so many adherents.
Thus does the soul of man rejoice when, after a period of darkness during which
the truth had departed, and sin and selfishness assumed the rule, wisdom, the
king and saviour, appears again at the gates. At such a solemn moment the
passions flee to their dens, superstitions retire to their corners. Peace
accompanies the king and enters with him, and the whole interior world is filled
with light and resounds with solemn harmonies, while from all the intelligent
powers arises a glad Hosanna.
But the priests and Pharisees well knew that their doom was approaching, unless
they acted without further [Page 169] delay. If they permitted him to remain at
Jerusalem, he would indeed become a king of the Jews; for he gained all hearts,
not so much by his arguments as by that power by which a superior spirit obtains
the mastery over the masses.
The arguments which Jehoshua used while teaching in the temple were indeed
unanswerable and his doctrines were sublime; but his ideas were too grand to be
understood by the people; they could not grasp them intellectually, but they
intuitively knew that he was right, and they believed not merely in his words, but
in Him.
The Pharisees consulted with each other, and they agreed that it was not
advisable to attempt to arrest him during that day; they resolved to wait until the
following night, and they bribed one of his followers to inform them about the
place where Jehoshua was going to spend the night, so that they might secure
his person without difficulty.
Thus,
if the truth has once entered the soul and the inhabitants of the mind have
become conscious of his presence, all selfish desires will become subject
to his supreme rule; nor will it be possible for doubts to obtain mastery
over the truth as
long as the light of knowledge exists; but when the night of ignorance again
appears, and the intelligent spiritual powers which accompany the king fall
asleep, then will doubts again appear, and by bribing Logic, one of the disciples
of Wisdom, they will induce him to use his sophistry [Page 170] and to traduce his
Master; for this “Judas Ischarioth” is easily influenced by selfish desires and
external illusions; it can easily be made to traduce and pervert the truth:
but if it allows itself to be thus employed, it would be better it had never
been born; for
when the day of sound judgment appears and wisdom returns, then will this
false logic be forced to destroy itself by its own power, and by its own
deductions
annihilate itself.
The nearer this fallacious logic approaches the truth, the more dangerous will it
become; for an argument which is false and touches the truth, becomes a traitor
to it. Only when Logic embraces the Truth and remains one with it, can it be
trusted.
The chief priests and the elders of the temple arrived; and as they dared not
capture him in the midst of the crowd, they attempted to mislead him with their
arguments. They tempted him, and asked whether or not it was just that they
should pay taxes to the Emperor, or whether they should give up their whole life
to the contemplation of the things of the Spirit. And Jehoshua answered them in
parables, teaching that as long as man is inhabiting a corporeal form, it is his
duty to provide for that form; but that he should not give to Matter that which
belongs to the Spirit. He said that while the labour of the body and intellect may
be employed for terrestrial purposes, they themselves, being of a terrestrial
nature, man's higher intelligent powers and aspirations should always be directed
towards [Page 171] the Eternal. The body and Intellect of Man is his servant, and it
is the duty of the Master to provide for the needs of the latter; but the Master
must not become the slave of his servant by making his wisdom subservient to
the intellect or by employing his reason for the gratification of the animal self.
Then
spake Jehoshua to the multitude and to his disciples, and said: “The
Scribes and the Pharisees (the intellectual reasoning powers of man) have
occupied the chair belonging to Divine Wisdom. If men speak wisely, observe
what they say; but very often they speak wise words and do not act wisely.
The priests put heavy burdens upon the people, grievous to be borne, but
they
themselves will not — nor can they — lift a finger to move them. All the works
they do, are done for the purpose of being seen and admired by men; they
ornament their clothing and make big arguments, and broad borders to their
garments. They love the uppermost rooms at the feast, and the chief seats
in the synagogues; they want to be greeted in the markets and be called Rabbi,
Rabbi;
but be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your Master, the Truth, and all ye are
brethren. Call no man your (spiritual) father (by adopting his opinion);
for one is your Father, the consciousness of the Truth. The Intellect seems now to you to
be the greatest of the powers of man; but it can only be the greatest, if
it is illuminated by Wisdom.
“Woe
to you, Scribes and Pharisees, for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against
men, by preventing them [Page 172] from attaining spiritual knowledge. Ye
neither go in yourselves, neither will ye suffer them that are entering to go in. You
send your missionaries to encompass sea and land to make one proselyte; and
when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of evil than yourself,
because you teach him to argue and use sophistry, and to cling to external
illusions. Woe unto you, who are blind to the spiritual perception of the truth,
while you pretend to be the keepers of it, ye blind guides who strain at a gnat and
swallow a camel. You are like whited sepulchres, which appear beautiful
outward, but which are within full of dead men's bones and corruption. Wisdom
has departed from you, and will not return until you give up your hypocrisy and
selfishness, and learn to worship the truth.
“He
who is filled with the spirit of wisdom, possessing spiritual knowledge,
is the heaven-ordained priest, the true shepherd, and those who love
the truth know his
voice; but the merely man-ordained and selfish priests, full of vanity and
having no truth in their hearts, are like thieves that enter the sheepfold,
not through the
legitimate door of direct perception, but by climbing in through the window
of argumentation”.
Such
language was sufficient to wound the vanity of the Pharisees and their followers,
and it was the more painful because it was true. Accusations or
vilifications which are not just cause no pain to the self-conscious spirit;
they drop like blunt arrows from the armour of him who rises above them;
but the more an
accusation [Page 173] approaches the truth, the more will it penetrate to the heart
and cause a painful wound. If the death of Jehoshua had not been already
resolved upon by the priesthood, this public exposition of their hypocrisy
and untrustworthiness would have been sufficient to draw their venomous hate
upon
him: moreover, his death was now a matter of political necessity, for as long
as the truth is permitted to remain, there is no security for priestcraft,
sectarianism
and erroneous opinions.
He had aroused the spirit of inquiry among the intelligent powers; he had dared
to tear the masks from conceit and hypocrisy, and to hold up the nakedness of
time-honoured superstitions to public contempt, and he was hated and feared by
the orthodox Jews. They desired to kill him, because Logic easily becomes the
enemy of the truth if Selfishness whispers in his ear.
As a matter of course, it was not to be supposed that the crowds which listened
to his language understood his ideas; for ideas, like trees, do not grow up and
unfold in one day like a product of Magic; they require time to take root in the
mind, to bring forth branches and leaves, to bear flowers and fruits; but some
seeds had been laid in the soil, and some persons commenced to think; some of
the intuitional powers within the mind had begun to wake up and become
receptive. Some remained in that condition, while others went to sleep again, like
a drunken man who opens his eyes as the thunder rolls in the sky, and then falls
back again into his stupor. [Page 174]
It
may be asked: “Why should mankind be disturbed in their happy
dreams ? Why should they be enlightened in regard to things which they do
not care to know, being happy in their ignorance ? Is not the object
of life the
attainment of happiness, and how could we convey a greater happiness upon
mankind, than by saving them the trouble of thinking, by taking the labour
for their salvation upon our shoulders, so that they may spend all their
time for
pleasure and for the acquisition of luxury ? Is not the ideal golden age
one in which all men are of one opinion, and what greater peace could
we convey
upon
men than to cause them all to embrace one belief? If they would all believe
as we do, they would be happy and bless us as their redeemers”.
Such fallacious arguments, full of sophistry, are often used by the followers of
dogmatic theology. If all men could be supplied with an equal share of wisdom,
they would all be equally happy; but opinion is not knowledge, ignorance is not
wisdom, animal comfort is not the object of life, knowledge of external things is
not the aim of existence, a merely imaginary salvation does not convey
immortality. If all men could be transformed into stones, all would cease to suffer;
if they were all enclosed in one common tomb, they would all be equally at
peace.
The
object of life is not life itself, but the attainment of a higher degree
of perfection in the ladder of evolution; the attainment of a higher state
of
consciousness, [Page 175] which can be reached only through that spiritual
knowledge which ennobles the soul. What would a being transferred into the
spiritual realm do, if it possessed merely a knowledge of externals, but no
consciousness for spiritual things, and consequently no power to perceive its
surroundings ? What would it do in the realm of Divine Wisdom, if it merely
possessed the artificial light of Logic, but not the light of the living Christ ?
Surrounded by darkness, it would exist within the hell created by its own
imagination, until the laws of its being would permit it to come back again
to this
earth, to seek for light in a new expression in form.
“Man
has before him life and death; whatever he chooses will be given to him”.
[John iii 13]. If he chooses to remain in darkness and ignorance, trusting
that another will do his own work, his choice will be death in the spirit;
if he wants to
live he must work; for the truth, when it once enters the heart, will bring
peace to the spirit;, but to the soul it will bring the sword with which to combat selfish
desires and to conquer Self. [Sirach xv 17]
It
is not “Morals” that we attempt to preach, but the awakening of the inner man
to a realization of his own true manhood. It is not a scheme of salvation by
which divine justice may be cheated, or a certain rule of conduct that
we wish to
establish, but the attainment of knowledge. The external conduct of a man,
however good it may be, amounts to little as far as he himself is concerned,
unless it is a true expression of the internal [Page 176] state of his mind. Good
conduct accompanied with evil thoughts and desires is often a result of
cowardice and hypocrisy.
As the evening approached, Jehoshua, with his disciples, retired to the house of
a friend, to partake of the supper that had been prepared for them. He spoke to
them of the immortality of that divine and universal essence contained in every
soul, and how all souls in which this principle would become self-conscious,
would thereby be rendered consciously immortal. He spoke of that divine life of
Intelligence that renders the soul which it permeates luminous, like a ray of
sunlight pervading a crystal globe, while the souls of those who were filled only
with the love of self become dark, when the mortal intellect whose illusive light
illuminated them during terrestrial life had become dissolved.
“He
who clings to his lower self”, he said, “will
die with the latter; but he who, even during his life upon this earth,
rises above all selfish thoughts, and becomes
conscious of being an integral part of the divine Spirit that pervades all
creation, will live. The soul of Man, having during his terrestrial life
become united with
God, when the physical body dies, returns with the spirit to the divine Centre to
which it is attracted by the laws of its constitution, and will bring its own
light with it, thereby increasing the light of that Centre. Thus it will glorify
God, and an
increased radiance of Light will take place and bless the hearts of mankind. [John
xxiv 17]. Partake ye all [Page 177] of that Light which gives life, for it is the
nourishment of the soul, it will form the substance of the celestial body; [Mathew xxv 26] but the wine of spiritual love is the great fiery stimulus,
that
causes the souls of men to expand beyond the narrow spheres of self-adulation
and personal existence, so that they may become like gods. There is no one
to condemn you for your mistakes, unless you condemn yourself. Those who are
unable to see the truth, will not be punished for their ignorance; but they
will
remain in darkness until they learn to open their eyes and to see the light;
but those who are conscious of the truth and reject it, prefer death to life,
and they
therefore commit spiritual suicide, that unpardonable sin, which causes their
own destruction”. [John xii 47].
They
complained to him how difficult it was to keep the thoughts continually
directed towards the Eternal and to exclude selfish desires, and he told
them that in proportion as they would love all mankind they would forget
their
love of self,
and that as their thoughts would reach up towards the Infinite, their own
spheres of consciousness would expand beyond the region of selfish desires.
Moreover,
he taught them a prayer, which he had learned in Egypt from the book of “Kadish” and which they might repeat in silence, keeping their thoughts fastened
to the sentiments therein, to prevent them from sinking into the lower region
of minds. In its esoteric meaning it may be rendered as follows: [Page 178] —
“Let
us glorify the universal Spirit of Divine Wisdom, from whose Light the consciousness
of all beings originates; let us worship Him by sacrificing to
Him all thoughts of self and all individual self-interests, and by rising
up to His sphere in our thoughts and aspirations. May no earthly wish ever
cause us to act
against the universal Will of the Supreme, who rules all things in the visible
and invisible universe by His unchangeable Law! May his power cause all mankind
to
grow in daily knowledge and to expand in Love, and may all men awaken to
a realization of their true state as spiritual powers, temporarily connected
with
mortal forms! Let no thoughts of our past deeds, when we were in a state
of darkness, mar our present state of supreme happiness, and let us forget
all the
evils that have ever been inflicted upon us by others. Let us strive to become
free from all the attractions of matter and sensuality, and submerging our
consciousness into that of the Universal and Supreme, become redeemed from
the illusion of self, the source of all evil; for the mortal self of man
is merely an unsubstantial shadow, while the Real and Substantial is the
Indivisible,
Eternal,
and Infinite Spirit”.
While discussing such matters, the evening passed away and the sun sank down
below the western horizon, when they arose to take a walk in the suburbs, to
breathe the balmy air of spring and to pass the night in the garden of
Gethsemane.
As
long as the soul of man is chained to its material [Page 179] form, there will
always be moments when that which is mortal in man attempts to assert its
claims. The love of life is an inherent property of the animal element in nature,
and the mortal parts in the constitution of Jehoshua seemed to feel the
impending doom and revolted. He therefore left his disciples and went a little
higher up on the hill, to seek consolation from the
Divinity in his soul and to gather courage and strength, and while he sunk
his thoughts down to the utmost
depths of his soul and seriously prayed to the Godhead within, he became lost
to all his surroundings. Again that divine Light which at the time of his Initiation
and
upon the Mount of Transfiguration had filled his soul, illumined his mind,
filling him with consolation and joy, so that he forgot that he was an isolated
being and
realized his Unity with the Eternal Father of All. [Page 180]
THE FINAL INITIATION
The light of Divine Wisdom will not be seen in its purity until the clouds
of matter that obscure
the sight are dispersed; the sanctuary of the temple
cannot be seen until the curtain is lifted.
THE
light of torches appeared in the distance, the clang of arms resounded through
the garden of Gethsemane, and the guardians of the temple
accompanied by a crowd of fanatical Jews approached the grove where
Jehoshua was absorbed in deep meditation while his disciples slept. The
approach of the soldiers called him roughly back from the realities of the
Ideal to the illusions of Earth, and the disciples fled in dismay; nor would
the guard have
permitted them to escape if they had remained; still less would they have
suffered them to offer any resistance. They knew Jehoshua very well, for
they had seen him many times in the temple; but the Truth they did not know
face to
face; they only knew it from hearsay and from the revelations made by Logic,
the traitor.
They
bound him and took him through the now almost deserted streets to the house
of the High Priest, where he was kept a prisoner until the day began to
dawn, and then they led him out of the city upon a hill and threw stones
at him until he was dead, according to their law. [Page 181]
Thus
the body of Jehoshua Ben-Pandira died; and as his great soul left its earthly
tenement, the latter grew dark, having been deserted by the light of the
spirit, and its tombs opened to let the vital powers escape; the veil of
Matter, which during his terrestrial life had hidden the sanctuary of the
Temple of the
Universal Spirit from the sight of his soul, was now rent asunder, and the
genius of Jehoshua went rejoicing back to the bosom of his eternal Father,
to receive his
final Initiation into that Mystery which can be known only to
those who have attained a state beyond all imaginable isolated existence,
but which
consists in becoming one with that which really is and in partaking of its divine
nature and universal self-consciousness. As his great Soul became resurrected
from the grave of Matter, wherein it had been imprisoned during its terrestrial
life, all the intellectual powers of his mind arose from their prisons and
walked again
in the bright daylight of Divine Wisdom.
After he had expired, they nailed his body upon a wooden cross and left it there
exposed, as a warning to all who might henceforth dare to defend the truth
against superstition and scepticism, and the hate with which they regarded him
has descended upon their successors, so that even now, when the latter refer to
Jehoshua Ben-Pandira, they speak of him merely as the man whose name ought
not to be uttered.
His
followers took the corpse down from the cross and buried it secretly, so
that it should be no more desecrated, [Page 182] for they looked upon their Master with
great reverence and almost worshipped him as a god. In fact, the belief that
the
person of Jehoshua had actually been a god gained more and more credence
among the ignorant, and there was especially one man, named Peter, who,
having been an ignorant fisherman, had become one of the disciples of
Jehoshua, whose teachings he could not comprehend, and who now began to
teach this erroneous doctrine. He was seriously opposed by Paul, a man of
superior understanding, who taught that the universal God could not be a mortal
man; but that He was eternal and omnipresent; that “He is before all things
and by Him all things exist”;[Colossians i 17] and that the Christ is likewise an
eternal, omnipresent principle, the first born and greatest of all spiritual
Powers, constituting Himself the head of that universal spiritual Temple, wherein
the Spirit
of Divine Wisdom in his fulness dwells, and which not merely embraces all
mankind, [Ibid iii II] but the whole of the Universe with all its inhabited worlds;
that “church” whose High Priest is the Truth, whose dogma is universal fraternal
Love, and whose knowledge comes to all who open their hearts to receive it. [Ibid i 27]
But Peter,
whose spiritual perception had never been opened like that of Paul,
and who was, moreover, a vain and ambitious person, wanting to rule and to
occupy himself, the place of Jehoshua, taught that men could not be saved by
the attainment of Divine Wisdom, but [Page 183] only through the authority of the
church; and as there are always more people willing to take the easy road
and submit to be saved by somebody, than such as are willing to use strong
efforts
for themselves, the doctrines of Peter found more adherents than those of Jehoshua
and Paul, and thus Peter, by teaching a doctrine contrary to that of Jehoshua,
became a traitor to his Master and denied him thrice even before the
cock had crowed to announce the dawn of a new day of enlightenment to
mankind. Thus the darkness of ignorance was re-established upon the Earth,
and the sacrifice of Jehoshua was, to a great extent rendered useless by those
who claimed to be his successors.
But
the God that gave Jehoshua life and spoke through his lips is not dead. He
still enters the heart without asking permission of the Pharisees and the Scribes.
If his presence is once realized within the soul, then will man begin to know
the
King of the Jews, and bow down before Him. Then will the money changers, the
sophists, and scribes be driven away. The three Sages from the East, the
principal powers of Man, his Will, Thought, and Action, guided by the star of
Wisdom, will come and offer a continual sacrifice to the new-born God; the
soul of Man will become transformed from a stable into a temple, wherein Herodes,
the king of selfishness, has no jurisdiction. The Christ growing strong within
man will select those of his intellectual powers which are suitable to become
His
disciples; he will cure man's mental blindness, purify his [Page 184] mind of its
leprosy, drive out the evil spirits of envy, malice, and lust from the soul,
and make the virtues which have died, alive again, even if they have already
begun to
acquire a bad odour. New powers will awaken within, but their development
involves the crucifixion and death of all that is evil and selfish in Man.
Then when selfishness has died and been buried, will the free spirit within
resurrect from its
tomb, and its glorified form will become visible to the eyes of the soul.
Listen!
A well-known voice, which no one can misunderstand, is calling within
your heart. It is the true Saviour, speaking now as he did when he spoke
in
the
heart of Jehoshua: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one cometh
unto the Father but by me”. This Christ has never died, but men have spiritually
died when they became unconscious of his existence. He has been always with
you,
but you did not know it; because your attention was attracted to your semi-animal
self. He is your own God, the divine self of all men. He lives in that sphere
where no separation and isolation exists; but where all are as one. He
requires no
substitute to speak to your heart, no deputy to enter into communication
with you, no “successor“, for He is here Himself. He is yourself, and
you will be He if you will merely open your eyes and become conscious of
his Divinity within yourself
by living in accordance with his divine Will.
Not
to depend upon the promises of another man, even if they are said to emanate
from a god; but to [Page 185] exert your own efforts and to put your trust
in that which is divine within yourself; to become conscious of the existence
of God by rising up to the highest regions of thought and to remain therein;
this will
be the religion of the future — the only religion worthy of an enlightened humanity.
Then will the true faith be restored; the Scribes and Pharisees, priestcraft,
superstition and scepticism will disappear, and our works will correspond
with our thoughts. Then will our knowledge not be based upon the opinion
of any
other
man, but upon our own power to see and perceive the truth, and upon an
understanding of the laws of Nature and the corresponding nature of Man.
As
long as men crucify the truth, and keep it hanging between superstition and
doubt, the two thieves that steal the reason of man away, they will not be
able to become self-conscious of its divinity. To obtain self-knowledge of
the Truth, man
must be one with it, and exalt it by exalting himself above the sphere of
credulity into the region of pure spiritual knowledge. Eternal Truth is immortal,
and cannot
be grasped by mortal man; it can only be known to that principle which is
immortal in man. The Truth can be known only to itself. [Page 186]
THE
CHURCH
Woe to him who pretends to be a co-operator of God without being a
god.
Let those who desire to reform the world begin by reforming themselves.
SOON
after the death of Jehoshua a spook is said to have appeared to Peter
and his associates, and assuming the shape of Jehoshua, to have said to those
present: “Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted to him; and whosesoever
sins ye retain, they are retained”. Whether
this self-evident falsehood, contrary to all the doctrines of Christ, was
uttered by an Elemental, parading in the astral
remnant of Jehoshua, or whether it was — like
many other sayings contained in the Bible — a pious interpolation, made in the interest of the church, or whether it
has an esoteric meaning, referring — not to the “apostles”, but to the memory of
Man; — the acceptation of this doctrine completely neutralized all that Jehoshua
ever taught; it caused divine wisdom, justice, and truth to be henceforth
regarded as matters of little importance; it did away with the eternal God
of the universe,
and established in its place the rule of a man-made church.
Absurd and monstrous as such a doctrine will necessarily appear to all who are
able to use the power of enlightened reason with which they have been endowed
by God, it was nevertheless greedily grasped by the ignorant [Page 187] and by
those who worshipped at the altar of Self; for in the place of the invisible and
intangible God of Humanity, whose presence can only be perceived spiritually by
those who are pure in their hearts, and whose eternal laws cannot be changed
by men, it furnished them with visible and tangible gods in human shapes, who
could be bribed and bargained with; with a church that had the power to permit
mankind to sin, and nevertheless to admit them to heaven after their death.
The
words spoken by Jehoshua, when he said: “Come unto me, all who are
suffering sorrow, and I will give you peace. Follow me; my yoke is easy and
my burden is light”, were now travestied by the rulers of the church, and
misapplied by interpreting them in an external sense, entirely opposed to
that which
Jehoshua intended to convey; for he meant to say that those who would open
their hearts to Divine Wisdom and follow the dictates of the Truth, would easily
rise above the sufferings caused by the illusions of self; while the false
prophets made it appear, as if those who would join their church and submit
to their rules,
would be saved from the labour which the acquisition of self-knowledge entails.
In vain the apostle Paul denounced such an erroneous doctrine and said that
he was preaching not a belief in a person, but a faith in the universal power of Christ [Galatians i. 12, 16] and that those who preached any other Christ but the
Logos were
teaching errors and belonged [Page 188] to
the powers of darkness: his doctrine, like that of Jehoshua, was comprehended
by few. He was
denounced by Peter as being a visionary, and even his epistles were forged
and falsified for the purpose of deluding the seekers after the truth. [G.
Massey, “Paul the Gnostics Opponent of Peter.”]
Thus while the true and eternal, invisible and spiritual church of The Christ is
based upon the Truth, the visible sectarian “Christian” churches upon this globe
are based upon a falsehood; and while the former will exist eternally, the
latter will exist as long as the powers of evil prevail.
The
doctrine of a personal extra cosmic deity who can be bribed with sacrifices,
was too much engrafted into the minds of the Jews to be easily eradicated
by the teachings of Jehoshua and Paul; and when soon afterwards great misfortunes
befell that nation, they were still more in need of a saviour to accomplish
a work
which they were too indolent to accomplish themselves. Jehovah did not fulfil
his promises, and the claims of the newly made Christian god were taken into
consideration.
“What
shall we do to be saved?” asked the poor and oppressed; and the glad response
was, “Join the church of the Nazarenes; and even if you fail to obtain
any relief during terrestrial life, you will obtain untold pleasures in heaven”.
“But
what must we do”, they asked, “to obtain such a heaven?” — “Nothing at
all”, was the answer, “but allow yourself to be baptized with water and believe [Page 189] that God will save you through the power of the church; for he has
resigned his authority and authorized the priests to bind or to loose: he
has intrusted them with the keys to heaven and hell, and if you follow the
dictates
of those people whom God has appointed to rule in his place, you may believe
yourself to be free of all danger”.
Such
an advice was easy enough to follow. The sect of the Nazarenes grew; and
as the number of its agnostic members increased, its gnostic members
disappeared from sight; superstition took the place of knowledge, mere opinions
the place of the true faith. The ancient doctrines of the sages contained
in the books of Hermes, and the prophets which had heretofore been guarded
with
jealous care from the eyes of the ignorant, became the common property of
those who were unable to understand their meaning; they misinterpreted them
in various ways, divisions of opinions took place, and sects arose like mushrooms
after a rainy night, and the desecration of the sacred mysteries soon began
to
claim its penalty in rivers of blood.
To the huts of the poor and into the palaces of the rich penetrated the gospel of
joy and salvation made easy. The religious systems of the Romans were
decaying rapidly, because they, too, had lost the keys of their mysteries, and the
divine and intelligent powers pervading the Universal Mind, which had been
allegorically represented by their deities, had begun to be looked upon as being
the personal gods and goddesses, whom [Page 190] their images represented. The
people believed their own religious opinions to be threatened by the new sect,
and persecutions began. These persecutions merely served to strengthen the
Christians and to give rise to a heroism almost unparalleled in history.
The
arenas in Rome resounded with the cries of the martyrs; Nubian tigers and
African lions were fed with living men and women, and the bodies of the
Christians, enveloped in combustible substances and set on fire, served as
living torches for the orgies of an insane emperor; but for every victim
that died,
hundreds of new converts joined the ranks. While the original gnostic Christians
had attained eternal life by that mystic death, by which the lower self becomes as
it were dead to all attractions of matter, while the spirit rises above the
plane of self, the new converts, misunderstanding that doctrine, imagined
to gain heaven
by sacrificing their physical forms. To die “for the sake of Christ” and
for the benefit of the church was considered a privilege, followed by an
eternal
reward, and thousands rushed voluntarily into the jaws of death; thus imitating
the
Indian religious fanatics, who, likewise in consequence of a similar misunderstanding,
threw themselves down before the car of the Juggernath, to be crushed by its
wheels, and to bargain away a short life upon this earth for an eternal enjoyment
in heaven. [The doctrine of the Hindus is, that he who succeeds in seeing
the
Dwarf hidden within the Car of the Juggernath, will attain eternal life. The “Dwarf” means the spiritual principle in the
soul of man, and the “Car” is
the body, and it is perfectly true that those who learn to know the Divinity
in their souls,
while living in the body, thereby attain spiritual consciousness. But the
ignorant, misunderstanding this doctrine, applied it in a literal sense.
They had a wagon
constructed, and called it the Juggernath, and as it was drawn through the
streets they crowded around it, to see a dwarf, whom they believed to be
hidden therein. Many were crushed by the wheels in their vain attempts to
see that
dwarf, and as such a death was said to be meritorious, and to open the portals
of heaven, it became gradually fashionable to commit suicide in this manner.] [Page 191]
The
church grew, being continually watered by rivers of blood, and it became
a power, rivaling the power of the governments. Kings and emperors
watched its growth with jealous eyes; and as they saw that they could not
suppress it, they asked: “What shall we do to make this power useful to us
?” and the church replied: “Lend us the power of your arm, by which you enslave
the bodies of men, and we will lend you the power by which we enslave their
minds”. They accepted the offer, and made the pact with the church, and the
Evil
One, whose offer Jehoshua had rejected while in the wilderness, signed the
contract, putting the name of “Christ” to the document.
The
Christians ceased to be persecuted, and the church now became a persecutor
in the name of Christ, being assisted in her work by the powers of the
state. Europe was at that time overrun with idlers and vagabonds, and the “Holy
Land” in the East, which they could not find in their souls, looked inviting
for pillage and plunder. Religious fanatics inflamed the populace, and soon
Europe
emptied its dregs upon the “heathen”, and murder and rape were committed in [Page 192] the name of Him who taught the religion of universal fraternal love to
humanity.
The
God of the Christian church was as impotent as that of the Jews. He had
no power to save his worshippers from the fate they deserved; but as
he grew in
size he increased the fanaticism and the greed of his priests. The “holy
inquisition” was inaugurated, and fagots kindled by well-fed monks depopulated
the country and filled the treasury of the church. Millions of human beings
expired upon the rack or stake, in dungeons or upon the battle-field, and
the most
horrible crimes were committed by the God of the church that paraded in the
mask of Christ.
At
last a reaction began, for the age had become ripe for a change. The spirit
of Luther overthrew the monster at Rome; but while he succeeded to a certain
extent in driving back the powers of darkness that ruled the country, he could
not
remove the clouds that prevent mankind from seeing the light. By the side of
the gloomy cathedrals of Rome, he erected churches, whose windows admitted
more light; but when he entered therein, an army of devils followed him. His
temples are built upon the same foundation as that of the church of Rome;
namely, upon a belief in salvation by external means of that perishing thing
called
the personal self. Both churches, with all their subdivisions, are based upon
the selfish propensities inherent in the semi-animal nature in man; both
appeal to his
selfish desire for reward and to his fear of [Page 193] punishment in the
problematical hereafter. Both are resting upon the erroneous belief that Divine
authority can be conferred upon man-ordained priests by a man-made church;
but while the Roman church — if once the fundamental falsehood upon which
she bases her claims is accepted — may appeal to Logic, the most powerful
devil in man, to prove her other pretensions, the claims of the Protestant
church for, Divine authority to save mankind are not so supported.
What
is that thing which these people desire to save, whose existence they desire
to preserve, whose life they crave to prolong ? What is this personal self
?
It has no self-existence and possesses no life of its own. It is a continually
changing conglomeration of principles, endowed with a continually changing
consciousness. If it were not for the power of memory, which connects these
continually changing states of mind with each other, and which is itself subject
to change, no man would ever know that he is the same person he was an
hour
ago. The only thing in man which is not subject to change is his consciousness
of the Eternal, and whenever he enters that state, he forgets that he is
a person,
becomes unconscious of the isolation of form, and is only conscious of being
in the Infinite Spirit. These are facts, which require no arguments for
proof, but
which every one may know by reflection and self-examination: they are self-evident.
But this consciousness of the eternal needs no salvation; it is already
safe, for it is the consciousness of the [Page 194] Christ; the only state in which
man can be immortal, because it is not subject to change. Salvation is therefore
an internal process which no man can produce for another, but which each one
must accomplish within himself. To enter that state of consciousness in the
Eternal is the only possible salvation for man.
As
long as men possess no self-knowledge, they will clamour for a belief;
as long as they possess insufficient self-control, they will crave to
be the slaves of a
master; and priestcraft, assuming the garb of Religion, takes her harp and
sings the sweet lullaby: —
“Come
to me, all of ye who are troubled with sorrow; I will take the load
from your shoulders. I will save you the trouble of thinking and of mastering
your
passions. I will make the battle for self-control easy for you by thinking
for you and assuming control over you. I will take care of your thoughts
while you live; I
will give you bladders to swim and crutches to walk with, and you will rest
warm on my maternal bosom. I will lull you to sleep when you die, and
take care of you
after your death”.
Thus the siren song is heard, while the ship glides along upon the storm-tossed
waves of the river of life, and the helmsman listens, and dropping the oar he falls
in a drowsy sleep and indulges in fanciful dreams, trusting the guidance of the
ship to a form without substance or power, until it founders upon the rocks.
Great is the imaginary power by which men are deluded, and which is called the
authority of the church. [Page 195] It has become a dangerous rival of the
governments, and the day may arrive when the latter will curse the day when
they signed the compact.
The unreality of the pretensions of the modern church has come to the
understanding of the more enlightened masses. They have begun to laugh at her
claims, but the church laughs at them. She clings for protection to the skirts of
the goddess of fashion; the goddess gives her bright ornaments of brass and
glittering tinsel; she furnishes her with pomp and elaborate ceremonies, and men
are used to imagine that they are in need of these things: they borrow them from
the church, and the latter again takes hold of the leading-strings.
And while this farce is played, the true church of the Christ is deserted. Clear and
strong shines the bright sunshine of Divine Wisdom through the transparent roof
of its dome, as it did in ancient times; but the crowds of worshippers that used to
crowd the halls have deserted the temple. The sacrificial fires upon the altars
have gone out for want of fuel; for those who used to worship in the temple of
Wisdom now worship at the altar of Self. The temple of Truth, wherein all
humanity unknowingly live and whose altars exist in the innermost centre of
every human heart, is the temple, where the divine Redeemer still continues to
teach, in spite of all the Pharisees and scribes by which he is now surrounded.
External churches decay, unless they are upheld and supported by man; but this
eternal [Page 196] temple needs no support from mortals: it will never cease to
exist. It asks for no favours and fees; but the condition to be admitted to
it is an entire renunciation of self. It requires no one to explain its doctrines,
for the truth
becomes clear to all as soon as they become able to see it, and all will recognize
it by its beauty as soon as they draw the veil from its face. The foundation
of that temple is knowledge, — not that illusive knowledge taught by mortal man, which
refers merely to the illusions of sense, but that spiritual knowledge which
arises from a realization of the truth. Fear and doubt do not enter that temple,
nor is
there any difference of opinion; because the truth is only one in the absolute, and
all who know it have the same knowledge. There are no inducements held out in
that temple to cause men to be virtuous but the beauty of virtue; there is no other
penalty for the wicked but that which naturally follows the disobedience of the
law. There is only one supreme Law, the Love of absolute Good. When men
become satiated with the worship of self and of living on salt sea fruit, they will
again return to the Temple of Wisdom to partake of the water of Truth.
CONCLUSION
There can be no higher wisdom than a realization of Divine Truth.
IN the preceding pages we have attempted to draw a picture of Jehoshua Ben-Pandira, in whom the eternal Christ became manifest, for the purpose of bringing
the mind nearer to an intellectual understanding of the real nature of Man, and
the soul nearer to a realization of the presence of the real, living, eternal, and
only true Christ, the Spirit of Divine Wisdom, that may become manifest in all
who are receptive for it.
Many
of the doctrines we have attempted to explain are not new. They are taught
in Christian pulpits, and moreover they are also taught — but in different forms —
in the pulpits of those whom the Christians are pleased to call the “heathen”.
It will therefore be readily seen by the unprejudiced observer, that — while
denouncing the abuses made of religion by priestcraft — neither Jehoshua nor
ourselves have been attempting to overthrow the truth of Christianity, nor
of any other religious system. We have attempted to show that, while the Christ
whom
the Christian sects are preaching is merely a human being, whose work of
redemption is a thing of the past, the Christ taught by the spiritual perception
of Man is an eternal, ever-present, [Page 198] infinite Power, whose work of
redemption is still and continually going on within the hearts of all who worship
the truth.
It
may be left to those who are able to think, to decide for themselves, whether
or not a belief in the existence of an historical personal Christ is compatible
with
their own intuition and necessary, sufficient, or useful for their salvation;
but whether such a belief is justified by facts, or merely insisted upon
as a necessity
for those who are not yet able to grasp the deeper mysteries of religion,
it seems self-evident that if such an historical belief is made the main
pillar of the Christian
faith, and if Christians are satisfied with such an external belief, they
will not gain any real knowledge of the truth; for he who rests satisfied
with an adopted creed
or opinion will seek no further, and remaining idle, his progress will come
to a stop.
We
have attempted to show that the events so beautifully described in the Bible
are allegories, representing occurrences which have not only taken place
in the past, but which are continually taking place within the psychic organization
of
man, and which will continue to occur in the future; for God, Nature, and
Man are one undivided whole; the processes going on within the Universal
Mind are
continually mirrored forth within the mind of man, and the internally acting
powers of Universal Nature find their expression in external forms, as the
thoughts of
man find their external expression in his physical form and in his external
actions. [Page 199]
Whether
a belief in an “historical” Christ
walking upon the earth in the shape of a man is justifiable or not, it
can only be useful to induce mankind
to look up to him as an ideal whose example they may imitate. To enable
us to live
up to a high ideal, it is not necessary that the latter should have been
incorporated in a gross material form: it is far more necessary that our
ideal should take form within ourselves.
It is one of the fundamental doctrines of occult science, that man is the product of
his own thoughts; he is that which he makes himself by the way he thinks and
acts, for his external form is nothing else but an outward symbol of his internal
character, modified by the want of plasticity of the gross matter composing his
body, for gross matter is not sufficiently plastic to change in form as rapidly as his
thoughts. The matter composing the soul is more plastic. If our thoughts are
continually low and vulgar, it will become correspondingly degraded; but if we are
continually thinking of a high Ideal, our Ideal will take form within ourselves. If we
are satisfied with a belief in an historical Christ without seeking to cause or
enable a Christ to grow within ourselves, such a belief will not be merely useless,
but it, will be an impediment in our way to perfection.
The
object of true religion is to ennoble mankind and to awaken men to a realization
of the divinity of the Spirit within themselves. Religion in its theoretical
aspect means a real knowledge of the relations which [Page
200] exist between
man and the eternal Source from which his Spirit emanated in the beginning;
religion in its practical aspect means the union of man with God, — a union that
cannot be effected through the external interference or permission of a
clergyman, but which must be effected by the power of the internal Will. There
is no real knowledge to be attained by merely learning a theory; there is no
real
knowledge unless the theory is confirmed by practice.
We
would not abolish the external forms of religious worship, because forms
are necessary for those who live in a form to lead them up to higher conceptions
of
the truth by means of an idealization of forms, until they arrive at a state
in which they may realize the existence of that which is above form and above
expression
in language; but if the practice of a religion is not at all in accordance
with its theory; if the form is made to assume the prerogatives of the living
spirit; if a
knowledge of the truth is made to rest upon a belief in an improbable tale
of an external historical event, while the truth itself is denied admittance;
if religion,
instead of being used to ennoble mankind, is made to serve the temporal
purposes of the churches; then will the living spirit depart from the forms,
and the forms themselves will decay.
Such a decay is almost universally observed. Even those who cling to the church
must be aware of the fact that in visiting the churches they receive nothing but
what they bring with them to the church, and that [[Page 201] a sermon is only
effective upon the audience if it gives expression to the sentiments of the
latter; but the masses of the people are beginning to look upon the promises
made by
the churches as being drafts upon a bank which does not exist, and upon the “places of worship” as serving rather for houses of fashionable resort and
religious amusement, than as places where anything useful is taught. They
instinctively feel that there can be no salvation by merely external means,
and having been misled by the superficial arguments of our modern beer-house
philosophers and inoculated with the poison of scepticism, they have begun
to
doubt the possibility of a life after the death of the body, and therefore
they make no efforts to save themselves and to develop that internal power
by which they
might become conscious of a higher state of existence.
They have come to regard life as being its own object and to ridicule the idea of
any conscious existence after the death of the mortal form. They look upon
material comforts as being of supreme importance to man and the only means
for the attainment of happiness. New luxuries are invented every day, and they
become tomorrow indispensable necessities for existence; but still there is no
contentment. The gratification of desires merely begets new desires as long as
the power to enjoy that gratification exists, and thus the chains which bind man to
matter are growing stronger day by day, while the claims of the imprisoned spirit
are laughed at and neglected. Christ, being looked upon [Page 202] as being
merely an historical person, a thing of the past, is sent away to the garret, and
that higher state of consciousness which constitutes the true Christ in Man is a
thing equally unknown to the layman as it is to the priest.
The
world swarms with reformers. They are shaking the foundations of the Church
and the State, and the temples are tottering; they resemble a swarm of
birds flying around a tree, seeking to change the nature of the tree by picking
at the leaves; they seek to trim the branches, while they have no means of
changing the nature of the sap, and therefore their efforts are of little
avail; they
can merely produce ruin, but they cannot build up. Men have become unnatural
and crave for unnatural things; external life, instead of being a true expression
of the internal thought-life, is entirely out of harmony with the latter;
words are no
more the expression of thoughts, and acts are not in harmony with the words.
It seems that the only way to restore mankind to its natural condition is to assist it
to rise up to a realization of the truth; not to establish a new religious system,
based upon some new theory, but a religion based upon self-knowledge and
knowledge of self. To do this, we need not present humanity with some new
dogma, but we may submit to them some thoughts for their own consideration.
According
to the Wisdom-Religion of the ancients, aboriginal Man was a spiritual power,
emanating from [Page 203] the Great First Cause of all existence,
descending gradually into Matter, and becoming more and more material during
that descent, which lasted for millions of ages, until he became differentiated
in corporeal and gross material forms of two different sexes. His incorruptible
spiritual principle, the foundation of his existence, became, so to say,
concentrated within the innermost centre of his being and veiled by matter
of a
corruptible kind. In consequence of this “Fall”, his communication with the
world of Light was cut off, his “inner eye” closed to the perception of things of the spirit,
while his external senses developed for the perception of corporeal and external
things, From this state of degradation no mortal man can save himself, nor
would any man ever make the attempt to rise again to his former state of spirituality,
not
knowing that such a state exists or is possible to attain; if it were not for
that divine Light of the Logos, called the Christ, continually acting through the veil of
Matter upon the spark of Divinity still existing within the soul of man and
stimulating the same into activity through the powers of Intuition and Conscience,
attempting to induce Man to seek for that higher state of which mortal man
does not know, but of which the Soul feels, the existence. If man conquers the living
elements acting within his material nature, and which are appealing to his
love for animal life and animal pleasure; and if he follows the voice of Wisdom
within, the
gross elements of his “Soul” become gradually refined; the [Page 204] veil of
Matter, which hides the spiritual world from his sight, becomes thinner, and
at last he may arrive at a state in which he “dies” to the attractions of sense
and is reborn in the spirit. This freedom from the attraction of Matter is that liberty for
which man ought to strive; it is symbolized by the Eagle rising above the clouds
of matter and enjoying the light of the Spirit. The true building of the Temple
of Sol-Om-On consists, therefore, in the tearing down of the miserable hut
built up
of erroneous opinions and perverted tastes, — a hovel which we have erected
ourselves by our own thoughts, and wherein we dwell. It consists in the opening
of its walls and roof, so that the Light of the Truth may enter and drive away
the darkness of its interior; it consists in the regaining of the power of
the Spirit over
Matter, — a power which is the natural birthright of immortal Man.
There
are three stages by which this herculean task is accomplished and spiritual
knowledge attained. The first is known to all men. It consists of the power
to intuitively know the good from the bad, the just from the unjust, the
pure from the
impure, etc.; it is called “Conscience”, or, more properly, spiritual Inspiration.
The second degree of receptivity consists in the capacity, not only to feel,
but to understand intellectually, spiritual truths. It is a state known only
to those who
have attained it, and it is called interior Illumination. The third degree is only
attained by few, and the great majority of mankind in the West do not believe
that it [Page 205] exists. It consists in an entire opening of the spiritual senses, by which
spiritual realities become objectively perceptible to the soul of man, and
it is
called divine Contemplation. It is the highest kind of worship and true adoration.
These
three modes of perception are as natural and as easily comprehended by those
who know by experience the higher nature of Man, as are the sensual
perceptive powers of man's semi-animal body to those who have studied his
perishable form; but to those who know nothing about the higher nature of
man and who do not believe in his spiritual powers, anything higher than
the semi-animal existence of man is incomprehensible and incredible, and
man's spiritual
powers do not exist for them.
There
have, however, even in the most ancient times, up to the present day, existed
men in whom this power of divine contemplation has been developed,
and who are therefore in possession of superior knowledge, and if we desire
to receive information in regard to spiritual things before we have attained
the
power to perceive them ourselves, we may look to those men for instruction.
Not that a belief in their doctrines should be the final end of our aspirations
for
knowledge; but as a traveler who has gone through a wilderness may indicate
the way to those who follow after him, so may the teachings of the Adepts serve
as landmarks and guides to those who wander about in search of the truth. Such
a man was Jehoshua the Adept.[Page 206]
Such men are not easily to be found within the churches of today; for
ever since the representatives of the churches have lost the key to the
understanding of the mysteries of religion, and begun to mistake the forms
for the spirit, churchianism has become identical with narrow-mindedness and
dogmatism. They cling to beliefs accepted from each other; while true
Knowledge is free of foreign opinions and lives in her own realization of the
truth.
The
attainment of this knowledge is that glorious resurrection from the darkness
of ignorance, by which the Spirit of Man, bursting the shell of matter, arises
from the tomb in which he was imprisoned and regains his previous freedom.
It is not
a state to be expected in the problematical hereafter, when the physical
body has returned to its elements; for death of the body can merely relieve
us of things
which have become useless to us : it cannot give us anything which we do
not
possess when we die. The object of man's life is to rise up higher in the
scale of evolution, while he is living upon this earth; to develop new powers
during his
contact with matter; to acquire more strength and knowledge during his terrestrial
existence, and on account of the latter; so that he may live in a higher
state
of consciousness and enjoy the possession of knowledge of spiritual truths,
which
he has acquired during his earthly career, unimpeded by the sensations arising
from the sphere of illusions, when he re-enters the subjective state, the
state of rest. [Page 207]
All the boasted knowledge of the science learned in schools contains no
real knowledge whatever. It knows nothing of absolute truth. It is merely relative knowledge, and refers to the relations which external objects bear to each other;
and all this knowledge, however useful it may be as long as we live in this
world of external illusions and “objective hallucinations”, will be
entirely useless to us when we enter that state in which those illusions
do not exist. The only
true science, which is really useful to us in time and eternity, in
our present
condition, not less than in the hereafter, is the practical knowledge
of the Regeneration of
Man.
This knowledge is acquired neither by the study of theology and philosophy, nor
by moralizing. It does not depend on any theoretical information in regard to
terrestrial or celestial things, nor can spiritual regeneration be attained by leading
a virtuous life for fear of the consequences that are likely to follow if we indulge in
evil; it can only be acquired by a realization of the truth within our own selves.
There is nothing to prevent any man from arriving at such a realization, except
the lower tendencies of his mortal nature. The process of spiritual regeneration
therefore involves a continual battle with this lower self; an unceasing fight
between spiritual aspirations and earthly desires, in which the Spirit must gain
the victory over Matter.
Spirit
is Substance, Reality, Unity. It is therefore indestructible, indivisible,
impenetrable, incorruptible, [Page 208] eternal. Matter is an Aggregate, Multiplicity,
Illusion; it is therefore unsubstantial, divisible, corruptible, and subject to
continual change. If man gains complete mastery over the “Matter” composing
his own constitution, then will the realm of spiritual knowledge open before
him, and he will become conscious of the presence of Christ. Then will the
curtain that
hides the sanctuary of the spiritual Temple of Divine Wisdom be rent asunder,
the Great Mystery will be revealed, and Man will know his own saviour. Then
will he arise from the tomb of Ignorance and walk again in the bright daylight
of
immortal Truth, that existed in the beginning and will exist at the end.
As long as man does not know his own divine self, he will continue to seek in
externals that which can only be found interiorly; as long as he has not found his
ideal in his own soul, he will cling to external ideals; but when he awakens to the
realization of the divine power within himself, he will cease to look for salvation in
external persons and things, and instead of seeking for a Christ in history he will
find the true Jesus within himself.
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