Theosophy - Masters of Wisdom - by C.W.Leadbeater - Adyar Pamphlets No. 86
Adyar
Pamphlets No. 86
MASTERS
OF WISDOM
by C.W.
Leadbeater
Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar. Madras. India
February
1918
[Page 1] THE existence of perfected man is one of the most distinctive,
and also one of the most encouraging, teachings in Theosophy. It
follows, if one thinks it out, from the doctrines of Evolution and
Reincarnation. It is quite clear that if the spirit of man is steadily
unfolding itself; if it comes again and again into new bodies, each in
some way or other a little better than the last one; if we can see, as we do,
men standing at all levels, on all rungs of this evolutionary ladder; then it
is surely clear that this process of evolution does not stop with us.
There certainly have been men greater in every way than any of us is,
those men also were specimens of human evolution, and if they are still
continuing in evolution they must assuredly still be greater than we.
Where, then, are those men clearly greater than ourselves ? This
scheme of evolution must have certain definite stages, and it must have
a goal. The probability would be, reasoning from analogy, that it has
several goals; that is to say, it has an immediate goal and an ultimate goal,
the last more difficult to understand, because we can see no particular
reason why such a process should ever stop, but at any rate there is
probably some immediate goal, the attainment of [Page 2] which would
be the high-water mark of humanity as it stands at present. If that is
so, then there should be some who have
reached it, there should certainly be many who have come nearer to it than
at the present time we have come. We have heard of great men of all
times, the church, for example, tells us of her great saints in the past.
These perfected men are saints, but they are also very much more than
saints, for they are men who have achieved all that was set before them.
As it is put in The Light of Asia, they have worked the purpose
through of what did make them Man, and so they are now more than men.
They are super-men, and are entering upon a higher stage of evolution
than any we know.
Now the system of evolution
is that the Monad, which is a spark of the divine fire, descends into matter.
No words that we can use are strictly applicable to this Monad; it stands
beyond our powers of expression altogether; but we come perhaps nearest to
it if we call it simply a fragment of Divinity. There can truly be no fragment
in that which is all-pervading, and yet any other term is, I think, somewhat
more misleading. The Monad has been spoken of as a reflection of the Deity,
but it is very much more than a mere reflection, and to our limited understanding
the term fragment conveys more of the reality than the other. But of course
one must admit that it is quite a wrong term to use. This fragment then,
being a fragment of the Divine, has within itself all goodness, all perfection,
in potentiality. What it [Page
3] has
to do in the course of such evolution as may come to it is to unfold all
this. As it stands, Divine though it be, it appears incapable of acting
or working down here upon these lower planes. It needs to descend into
matter in order to obtain definiteness, accuracy and a grasp of physical
details, as it were. It must already know far more than we down here can
know of the infinite, of the higher and altogether the grander side of everything,
and yet it does not apparently possess the power of grasping physical details
down here, the power of acting in physical matter with definiteness and
precision. It can descend only to a certain level. So far as we are concerned,
in this solar system it descends to the second of our planes. We speak
in Theosophy of certain planes or subdivision of matter; of these we have
seven, and counting from the top downwards this Monad descends to the second
only, and would appear to be unable in its totality to penetrate beyond it.
It can project a very small part of itself a good deal further down, as
far down as the upper part of what we call the mental plane, which is the
fifth from the top; it can reach only the higher part apparently of that
plane, and there it again comes to the end of its possibilities. That projection
we call the ego. It corresponds closely with what some people call the
soul. When the ego is still undeveloped he needs powerful and comparatively
coarse vibrations to affect him at first, and since these do not exist
on his own plane he has to put himself down to lower levels in order to find
them. Therefore, he in turn does what the Monad [Page
4] did. He cannot
as a whole descend any lower, but he can project a small part of himself
down to the physical plane upon which we are now living, and to that small
fragment of a fragment we give the name of the personality. Now that personality
dips down into matter on behalf of the ego, or soul, of which it is a part,
and
its object is to return to that ego bearing with it the result of what
it has learned to do. It, as a small part of that ego, learns to function
down here, to work through a physical brain; learns to act in the astral
and mental body, and then presently goes back again to the ego bearing with
it the capacities which it has developed. The capacity to respond to one
set of vibrations we should call love, to another would be devotion, to another
sympathy, and so on. It can all be expressed in terms of vibration, and that
is really in many ways the most scientific way to approach the matter. Anyway,
this fragment goes back again and again to the ego from which it came, bearing
with it each time slightly advanced powers. There comes a time in the process
of evolution when the ego has unified the personality with itself. The
man then enters upon a special training, and the end of that special training
is to carry him as rapidly as may be to the level which is set for humanity
in this particular set of worlds through which we are evolving. This particular
cycle of evolution in which we are engaged has to take us to a certain
definite level. When a man has attained that level he will have reached
the stage at which the ego and the Monad [Page
5] are unified, when the
Monad can use the ego simply as an instrument, and work through it on
all the planes on which it has been developing. That is the end of purely
human evolution, and a man is then fit for Adeptship.
All the lower kingdoms,
and the evolution which has been going on through them, are preparatory for
that of which I am speaking to you, because you will remember the ego descends
only when individualization takes place. That is what is meant by individualization,
the definite separate ego entering into the man. We are all at a definite
stage in evolution, some of course in advance of others, but broadly speaking
our position is this: Our physical bodies are developed, and they should
be perfectly under our control. Of course, we know in many cases they are
not, but we all recognize that they should be; that part of our evolution
is attained. We have fully developed the next vehicle, the astral body, but
that is as yet not completely under control, except in the case of a very
few. The astral body is the vehicle of emotion and desire, and the majority
of the human race unquestionably lives in its emotions and for its emotions
and for its desires. Some few there are who have conquered this lower self
and transcended all desires, and live for altogether other and higher purposes;
but as yet they are only a few, and the majority of men are still at the
stage where they ought to be working to gain control over this body of emotion
and desire. The next vehicle, the mental body, is with all of us only in [Page
6]
process of development. Intellect
certainly has done a vast amount for us, but it is capable of doing very
much more, and it will do very much more. Our mental bodies are as yet only
very partially developed, except in the case of a very few.
Now
when these three vehicles have been subordinated to the ego, the man is
ready to enter upon that higher, special form of training, but it does
not follow, of course, that the man who has become an Initiate has perfectly
developed all these; it is quite certain that he has not, because if he
had, he would have then attained Adeptship. But the man who is treading
the Path must have single-minded-ness, he must have only the one aim — the
aim of helping evolution. When the path of descent into humanity has been
accomplished, when the man has attained Adeptship, then he proceeds to
live his real life, the life of the Monad, to which all that has happened
previously is only the introduction. If one can grasp this conception of
evolution, one sees at once that our actions and our objects in any one
life can be only relative, only of small account, as compared to the whole.
When a man thinks he lives only this one life here, of course the aims
of this one life are the things of real importance to him, but when he
realizes that this life is only one day in a larger life, all these things
which are for one day only are things of subordinate account. Now such
a man, having become an Adept, having attained that goal of human life,
usually drops material bodies altogether, but he retains the power to take
a body at [Page
7] any level whenever it is needed
for his work. I cannot go aside now into the work which he is doing, but we
may imagine it to be very much like that which is usually attributed to the
angels. The word angel is derived from a Greek word meaning messenger. The
angels are the messengers of God, and so these people who are more than human
become His messengers also, and humanity is only a stage through which they
have passed in order that they might develop the power to be His messengers,
the faculties required for such work. Most of them, as I have said, have
no physical bodies, and they pass entirely away from our ken, but some of
these perfected men remain in touch with the world in, order to fill offices
which are necessary for the progress of evolution in the world.
Human progress is not
left to take care of itself as many have thought; it is being steadily guided,
surely, though slowly, on its way; the progress is very slow, this progress
of humanity through the centuries, yet it is definite progress, it is after
all moving, and as it moves it is definitely guided. I know that the whole
of evolution looks a mere chaos when regarded from below, but when looked
at from above one sees that, however slow it may seem, the progress is orderly.
The attainment of perfection is a possibility which is certainly lying before
every man in the course of his evolution, and at any given moment he may
turn his attention to that evolution of his and may hasten it very greatly
if he will take it intelligently in hand. Very few of these great and [Page
8] perfected
men stay behind in order to fill these places in connection with the direction
of the different developments of terrestrial evolution. Out of that small
body again quite a small number are willing to take apprentices, to take
men who are like-minded with themselves, and train them to do the work which
they are doing. Those who have already reached that level, so far as this world
is concerned, are a small body of men only; you will easily understand that
they are men, not of one nation, but of all the developed nations of the
world. These are men who, having attained, are free from the usual laws governing
humanity — I
mean such laws as compel a man to take incarnation in this place or that.
They are no longer forced into any incarnation; if they take a body it is
for the purpose of helping humanity, and they can take that body where and
when they please. It is not of any particular importance in what race they
choose to present themselves.
As a matter of fact some sixteen of these Great Ones are individually
known to me. I know of many more than that, but these are those with
whom I have more or less come into contact, and these I find to belong to
most of the leading races. Four of these are at present wearing Indian
bodies; two of them are at present in English bodies. One of the very
greatest of all is in an Irish body, two are Greek, and three others have
bodies in Aryan races, but I do not know what was the place of their birth.
There are some others still greater who come from another evolution
altogether. So that you see there is no [Page 9] foundation for the common
idea that all such teachers belong to the one race, nor do they all live
together like monks in a monastery on this plane.
What are the particular
characteristics of an Adept ? His powers are many and to us most wonderful,
because he understands perfectly the working of many laws of Nature which
are at present to us a sealed book. But perhaps the characteristic which
dominates all others in an Adept is that he looks upon everything from a
point of view quite different from ours. He has absolutely no desires or
thoughts connected with himself; he is thinking only and absolutely about
the work that he has to do; he exists for that, and his work is always in
some form or other helping forward this process of evolution; he exists entirely
for that, and there is no thought of himself. Now that is so different a
point of view from the ordinary one that it is hard for people to understand
at all, but there are some enthusiasts, who live only for some great cause
with which they have identified themselves, who will be able to grasp the
idea, will be able to understand that a man may truly forget himself in this
great work. Another very striking characteristic is the all-round development
of the Adept. All of us, you must know, I think, are imperfect in our development,
that is to say, one side of our character, one set of our qualities, is usually
developed much more than the other. The Adept is equally developed along
all lines, and because of that he strikes us always as a very wonderful person,
because on every point, as it were, he is able [Page
10] to meet you, along every
line he is able to understand perfectly. We are often asked, suppose an ordinary
man were to meet an Adept, would he know that he was an Adept ? I think probably
not; he would certainly know that he was in the presence of one who was
impressive, noble, dignified, but there would be no definite external
peculiarity by which he could divine the fact that the man was an Adept.
He would see in him a calmness, a benevolence, a certainty, expressing the
peace which passeth all understanding. And yet there would be nothing to
mark him out from any other good man, except perhaps the wisdom that he
would show. He would be, I think, more silent than most, for an Adept
speaks only with a definite purpose, only for the purpose of encouraging
or helping on the great work, and he certainly does not waste his forces
in idle conversation. He would be always kindly, and yet have a very keen
sense of humor, but a humor that would never be exercised in a way that would
wound anyone, but only to help a man on his way, or generally to make the
man see a thing in the proper light. A man without a sense of humor would
certainly not make progress along occult lines; it is a very necessary
quality indeed. So, we might say, the ordinary man might meet an Adept
and certainly not know him as such; he would hardly fail to be impressed
by the man, but he certainly might not recognize his occult power.
Now as to the
question of evidence of their existence, I myself needed no evidence of
their [Page
11] existence, because I knew
at once that if evolution were true, and if reincarnation were a fact, there
must be such men somewhere, and it did not seem to me
at all unreasonable that one should sometimes be able to come in
contact with them. But for you who approach the thing in a
somewhat different way, there is plenty of testimony available.
We all came into this matter through the teaching of our great founder,
Madame Blavatsky; she herself bore witness that she had seen
many of these Masters, that she had stayed in the house of one
of them, and that she had met many of them over and over again,
and was indeed in constant communication with them. Her co-founder,
our first President, Colonel Olcott, also bore witness to exactly the same
thing; he himself had on many occasions encountered these Masters, and had
seen them both astrally and physically. Our present Vice-President, Mr. A.
P. Sinnett, gave the same testimony, as also our present President, Mrs.
Annie Besant. She knows personally many of these Great Ones, and can tell
you that she has seen them over and over again under circumstances which
entirely preclude any idea of mistake or error of any sort. I can myself
give the same testimony that I have seen a great number of them, and know
very closely, and if one may venture to say it, intimately, all those whom
I have just mentioned to you. Many of our members have been privileged to
see one or two of the Great Masters, many others have recollections of them
which are hardly sufficiently defined to [Page
12] be brought forward as testimony
to others, although entirely convincing to the man or woman who experiences
them. The only objection which is made to such testimony is that we may have
dreamt these things, or we may have been deluded, and the reason why it
is possible to make such a suggestion as that is that the circumstances
of the case preclude us from frequently meeting these Great Ones, when both
they and we are wearing our physical bodies.
Of
course, there are those who say that the whole Theosophical idea is a sort
of fraud, and that we simply pretend to have seen these Great Ones. A great
many people are uncertain about the testimony, because they say: "You have
seen these people, but you have seen them when you were in your astral body,
and you have brought back the memory of that into your physical brain. We do
not know anything about astral bodies, we are not even certain that we possess
such things, and we cannot be sure that the recollection brought in that way
is a true recollection; it seems to us to be very much in the nature of a dream". But
since many of us are, and have been for many years, in daily communication
with these Great Ones, it would surely need a somewhat phenomenal power of
dreaming, if all our experiences of this kind are but vivid dreams. Spiritualistic
friends have sometimes asked me: "How do you know these Masters of yours really
exist on the physical plane; may they not be, after all, spirits from higher
spheres, who have somehow mesmerized you, and are pretending to live
on the physical plane ? "All I can [Page
13] say is that if there could
be so complete a dominion as that sustained over all these years, then I
suppose that might be so; I do not know that I am in a position to prove
anything to the contrary, because of course on that theory we
may be hypnotized to believe anything. If any evidence can
be taken, here is the evidence of these people, and many others. These
things exist, but there is this objection, that a great number of the
interviews which take place happen when we are in our astral bodies,
and the Great One in his physical body; sometimes the process is
reversed, when we in our physical bodies suddenly find standing beside
us one of these Great Ones in a materialized form. You will say that
also might be some sort of hallucination. As I have told you, these Great
Ones keep themselves to a large extent apart from humanity, simply
because they can do very much better and more satisfactory work when
they are so apart. You must think of them as great spiritual powers,
as working on the souls of men and not on their bodies. You will find
that both Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott tell you in their
books that they themselves, being in their physical bodies, have met
some of these Great Ones, also in their physical bodies. Similar
testimony is given by various other writers.
I myself, for example, can bear witness that I have seen two of these Great
Ones when both they and I were in our physical bodies. In one case I had
the honor of receiving an invitation to dine and spend the night at the house
of one of these great men who [Page 14] lived in India, so there at least I had
the fullest possible proof of physical existence, and as I had previously
seen the same Great One many times in the astral body, to meet him in
his physical body was additional proof. In the case of one of the
European Adepts, I had the privilege of meeting him in the Corso in
Rome. So you see there is evidence for those who desire the
evidence, testimony just precisely as you would get with regard to the
existence of any other persons whom you had not yourself seen. But I have
never needed the testimony for myself, because of the fact that I feel
certain that these people must exist, and, therefore, to be told that they
do, is only exactly what one would expect.
The
interest for me has always centered round how one may learn from them;
how one may come closely into touch with them, and be trained to help in
this wonderful work they are doing, the forwarding of the evolution of
humanity. We were told in the early days of this possibility when we spoke
to Madame Blavatsky herself, and asked her: " Is it possible for
us in any sort of way to learn more than this, can we in any way get into
touch with these Great Ones of whom you tell us, can we work for them?" She
said:
"Yes, certainly you can, but remember that they have no favorites; they
will take a man certainly and make him an apprentice, but they will
do so only if he promises to be a useful apprentice, only if he shows by his
character now that he will be able to work as they worked when he has been
taught; because any [Page
15] man
who still has within himself anything of self-seeking, any man who is thinking
of his own progress and not of the work to be done, will certainly not come
into touch with them, just because it would waste their time to invest it
in training him." For though
their powers seem to us like those of a God, they are so far greater in
every way than ourselves, and themselves are so much nobler - yet each
Master's power is after all limited. And Madame Blavatsky told us that they hold
themselves responsible for using that power to the very last ounce of it, for
putting it to the very best possible use for the progress of evolution. If by
teaching a man they could obtain within reasonable time a good instrument, one
who under their guidance would do a vast amount of definite good in the world,
definite good for the progress of evolution then they would consider it worth
their while to invest in that man the amount of time necessary for his training;
but if they did not think that the man would repay their trouble, then they would
consider the time spent in teaching that man would not be spent to the best advantage.
And
so absolutely the only way for any person to come to be accepted by them is to
go to work and show what he can do without the training to be an unselfish and
workman, to get to work on some altruistic undertaking. So long as he is working
absolutely without thought of himself, and only for a cause which is definitely
for the good of humanity, then such a man has the possibility of being noted
and guided by some of these Great Ones, for they [Page
16] are ever on the watch for
those who will take their places in the future. Therefore, anyone may come
near to them in that way, but it is not by any sort of favoritism, it is
simply by going to work and deserving their notice. The knowledge of the
plan of evolution is available to us all as Theosophists; there it is for
us to study, and if, having studied it, and having gained some sort of understanding,
we wish to draw nearer to them, the path is always open. Be sure that we
can reach them only by making ourselves unselfish as they are unselfish,
by learning to forget our personal selves and devoting ourselves, as they
do, wholly to the service of humanity.
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