Theosophy - The Power and Use of Thought - by C.W.Leadbeater - Adyar Pamphlets No. 9
Adyar Pamphlets No.9
The Power and Use of Thought
by C.W. Leadbeater
The
Theosophist Office, Adyar, Chennai [Madras], India
First
Edition, November 1911 Second
Edition, November 1912
[Page
1] THOSE
who are ignorant of Theosophy sometimes suppose it to be merely a system
of speculative philosophy. Nothing could be farther from the truth than
this; there is nothing in any way speculative about it, for it is founded
entirely upon observation of facts, and upon experiments made in
connection with the phenomena and the forces of Nature. From
its study emerges a practical rule of life — a rule which cannot
but affect the thought and action of its students at every moment of their
existence. This is chiefly because it involves a study of life as it really
is, so that its students become acquainted with the whole of the world
in which they live, instead of knowing only the least important part of
it. They are led to understand the laws of evolution; and they naturally
learn to live intelligently in accordance with those laws, and to take
into account the unseen part of the world as well as the infinitesimal
portion[Page
2] which is within reach
of the limited physicalsenses.
Of
the general nature of the unseen world I have written elsewhere. For the
moment, let us concentrate our attention on one of its most striking
characteristics — the ready response of the finer types of matter (of
which it is constructed) to the influences of human thought and emotion. It
is difficult for those who have not studied the subject to grasp the absolute
reality of these forces — to understand that they are in every respect
as definite in their action upon the finer type of matter as is the power of
steam or electricity over physical matter. Every one knows that a man who has
at his disposal a large amount of steam power or electrical power can do
useful work and produce definite results; but few people know that every
man has at his disposal a certain amount of this other and higher power,
and that with that he can produce results just as definite and just as real.
As matters stand at present in the physical world, only a few men can have
at their disposal any large amount of its forces, and so only a few can
become rich by their means; but it is a prominent feature of the vivid
interest of the unseen side of life, that every human being, rich or poor,
old or young, has already at his disposal no inconsiderable[Page
3] proportion of
its forces. And therefore the riches of these higher planes, which are
obtained by the right use of these powers, are within the reach of all.
Here, then, is a power possessed by all, but intelligently used as yet by
few. It is, surely well worth our while to take up the matter, to enquire into it,
and to try to comprehend it. Indeed there is even more reason for so doing
than has yet been mentioned; for the truth is that to some extent we are all
already unconsciously making use of this power, and because of our
ignorance we are employing it wrongly, and doing harm with it instead of
good. The possession of power always means responsibility; so in order to
avoid doing harm unintentionally, and in order to utilize thoroughly these
magnificent possibilities, it will clearly be well for us to learn all that we can
on this subject.
What,
then, is THOUGHT, and how does it show itself ? Those who have even a superficial
acquaintance with Theosophical literature are aware that man possesses
a vehicle corresponding to each of the interpenetrating worlds of our solar
system — that his astral body is the vehicle of his
desires, passions, and emotions; and that his thought expresses itself
through that higher vehicle of still finer matter which we usually call the[Page
4] mental body. It is in this
latter vehicle that thought first shows itself to the sight of the clairvoyant;
and it appears as a vibration of its matter — a
vibration which is found to produce various effects, all of them quite
in line with what scientific experience in the physical world would lead
us to expect.
First there is the effect produced upon the mental body itself; and we find
that to be of the nature of setting up a habit. There are many different types
of matter in the mental body, and each of them appears to have its own
special rate of oscillation, to which it seems most accustomed, so that it
readily responds to it and tends to return thereto as soon as possible when
it has been forced away from it by some strong rush of thought or feeling. A
sufficiently strong thought may for the moment set the whole of the matter
of the mental body swinging at the same rate; and every time that that
happens it is a little easier for it to happen again. A habit of vibrating at that
rate is being set up in the mental body, so that the man will readily repeat
that particular thought.
Secondly,
there is the effect produced upon the other vehicles of the man, which
are above and below the mental body in degree of density. We know that
in the physical world disturbances in one type of matter are readily communicated
to another type — that, for example, an
earthquake[Page
5] will
produce a mighty wave in the sea and again (from the other side) that the
disturbance of the air by a storm will immediately produce ripples, and
presently great waves, in the ocean beneath it. In just the same way a
disturbance in a man's astral body (that is to say, what we commonly call
an emotion) will set up undulations in the mental body, and cause thoughts
which correspond to the emotion. Conversely, the movement in the mental
body affects the astral body, if it be of a type which can affect it — which
means that certain types of thought will readily provoke emotion. Just as
the mental vibration acts upon the astral matter, which is denser than it
is, so also does it inevitably act upon the matter of the causal body, which
is finer than it. Thus the habitual thought of the man builds up qualities
in the ego himself.
So
far, we have been dealing with the effect of the man's thought upon himself;
and we see that in the first place it tends to repeat itself, and that
in the second place it acts not only upon his emotions, but also permanently
upon the man himself. Now let us turn to the effects which it produces
outside of himself — that is, upon the sea of mental matter which surrounds
us all, just as does the atmosphere.
Thirdly, then, every
thought produces a radiating undulation, which may be either simple or[Page
6] complex
according to the nature of the thought that gives it birth. This vibration
may under certain conditions be confined to the mental world, but also it
may produce an effect in worlds above and below. If the thought be purely intellectual
and impersonal — if, for example, the
thinker is considering a philosophical system, or attempting to solve a
problem in algebra or geometry — the wave sent forth will affect merely
the mental matter. If the thought be of a spiritual nature, if it be tinged
with love or aspiration, or with deep unselfish feeling, it will rise upwards
into the realm of the higher mental, and may even borrow some of the splendour
and glory of the intuitional level — a combination which renders it
exceedingly powerful. If, on the other hand, the thought is tinged with something
of self or of personal desire, its oscillations at once draw downwards and
expend most of their force in the astral world.
All these undulations
act upon their respective levels just as does a vibration of light or sound
here in the physical world. They radiate out in all directions, becoming
less powerful in proportion to their distance from their source. But we should
remember that the radiations affect not only the sea of mental matter which
surrounds us, but also act upon other mental bodies moving within that sea.
We are all familiar with the experiment in which a note struck on a piano,[Page
7] or
a string sounded on a violin, will set the corresponding note sounding upon
another instrument of the same kind, which has been tuned exactly to the
same pitch. Just as the vibration set up in one instrument is conveyed through
the air and acts upon the other instrument, so is the thought-vibration set
up in one mental body conveyed by the surrounding mental matter and reproduced
in another mental body — which, stated from another point of view,
means that thought is infectious. We will return to this consideration later.
Fourthly,
every thought produces not only an undulation but a form — a
definite, separate object, which is endowed with force and vitality of a
certain kind, and in many cases behaves like a temporary living creature.
This form, like the vibration, may be in the mental world only; but much
more frequently it descends to the astral level and produces its principal
effect in the world of emotions. The study of these thought-forms is of
exceeding interest; a detailed account of many of them, with coloured
illustrations of their appearance, will be found in a book called Thought-Forms,
which can be had at The Theosophist Office. At the moment, we
are concerned less with their appearance than with their effects and with
the way in which they can be utilized.[Page
8]
Let
us consider separately the action of these two manifestations of thought-power.
The vibration may be simple or it may be complex, according to the character
of the thought; but its strength is poured out chiefly upon some one of
the four levels of mental matter — the four
subdivisions which constitute the lower part of the mental world. Most of
the thoughts of the ordinary man center round himself, his desires, and his
emotions, and they are therefore undulations of the lowest subdivision of
mental matter; indeed, the corresponding part of the mental body is the
only one which is as yet fully developed and active in the great majority of
mankind. It must not be forgotten that in this respect the condition of the
mental body is very different from that of the astral vehicle. In the ordinary
cultured man of our race the astral body is, as fully developed as the
physical, and the man is perfectly capable of using it as a vehicle of
consciousness. He is not yet much in the habit of so using it, and is
consequently shy about it and distrustful of his powers; but the astral
powers are all there, and it is simply a question of becoming accustomed to
their use. When he finds himself functioning in the astral world either during
sleep or after death, he is fully capable of sight and hearing, and can move
about whithersoever he will.[Page
9]
In
the heaven-world, however, he finds himself under very different conditions,
for the mental body is as yet by no means fully developed, that being the
part of its evolution upon which the human race is at the present moment
engaged. The mental body can be employed as a vehicle only by those who
have been specially trained in its use under Teachers belonging to the
Great Brotherhood of Initiates; in the average man it is only partially
developed, and cannot in the least be employed as a separate vehicle of
consciousness. In the majority of men the higher portions of the mental
body are as yet quite dormant, even when, the lower portions are in
vigorous activity. This necessarily implies that while the whole mental
atmosphere is surging with vibrations belonging to the lowest subdivision,
there is as yet comparatively little activity on the higher subdivisions — a
fact which we shall need to have clearly in mind when we come to consider
presently the practical possibility of the use of thought-power. It has also
an important bearing upon the distance to which a thought-wave may
penetrate.
The distance covered
by such a wave, and the strength and persistence with which it can impinge
upon the mental bodies of others, depend upon the strength and clearness
of the original thought. In this respect it resembles the voice[Page
10] of a speaker, setting
in motion waves of sound in the air, which radiate from him in all directions,
and convey his words to all those who are (as we say) within
hearing; and the distance to which his voice can penetrate
depends upon its strength and the clearness of his enunciation.
In exactly the same way a strong thought will carry much farther
than one which is weak and undecided; but clearness
and distinctness are of even greater importance than strength. Again,
just as the speaker's voice may fall upon heedless ears where
men are already engaged in business or in pleasure, so may a
strong wave of thought sweep past without affecting the
mind of a man if he is already wholly engrossed in some other
line of thought. Many men, however, do not think definitely
or strongly except when in the immediate prosecution of
some business that demands their whole attention, so that
there are always within reach many minds that are liable to
be considerably affected by the thoughts which impinge upon them.
The action of this
undulation is eminently adaptable. It may exactly reproduce itself, if it
finds a mental body which readily responds to it in every particular; but
when this is not the case, it may nevertheless produce a decided effect along
lines broadly similar to its own. Suppose[Page
11] for
example, that a Catholic kneels in devotion before an image of
the Blessed Virgin. He sends rippling out from him in all directions
strong devotional vibrations; if they strike upon the mental
or astral body of another Catholic, they will arouse in him a thought
and feeling identical with the original. But if they should
strike upon a Christian of some other sect, to whom the image of
the Blessed Virgin is unfamiliar, they will still awaken
in him the sentiment of devotion, but that will follow along its accustomed
channel, and be directed towards the Christ.
In
the same way, if they should touch a Muhammadan they would arouse in him
devotion to Allah, while in the case of a Hindû
the object might be Krshna, and in the case of a Pãrsî,
Ahuramazda. But they would excite devotion of some sort
wherever there was a possibility of response to that idea.
If, however, they should touch the mental body of a materialist, to
whom the very idea of devotion in any form is unknown, they would still
produce an elevating effect. They could not at once create a
type of vibration to which the man was wholly unaccustomed, but
their tendency would be to stir a higher part of his mental
body into some sort of activity; and the effect, though less permanent than
in the case of the sympathetic recipient, could not fail to be good.[Page
12]
The action of an evil or
impure thought is governed by the same laws. A man who is so foolish as
to allow himself to think of another with hatred or envy radiates a wave
tending to provoke similar passions in others; and though his feeling of
hatred be for someone quite unknown to these others, and so it is impossible
that they should share it, yet the radiation will stir in them an emotion
of the same nature towards a totally different person.
The
work of the thought-form is more limited, but much more precise than that
of the undulation. It cannot reach so many persons — indeed we may
say that it cannot act upon a person at all unless he has in him something
which is harmonious with the vibrant energy which ensouls it. The powers
and possibilities of these thought-forms will perhaps be clearer to us if we
attempt to classify them. Let us consider first the thought which is definitely
directed towards another person — as when a man sends forth from himself
a thought of affection or of gratitude (or unfortunately it may be sometimes
of envy or jealousy) towards someone else. Such a thought will produce
radiating waves precisely as would any other, and will therefore tend to
reproduce itself in the minds of those within the sphere of its influence.
But the thought-form which it creates is imbued with[Page
13] definite intention,
as it were; and as soon as it breaks away from the mental and astral
bodies of the thinkers it goes straight towards the person to whom it is
directed, and fastens itself upon him.
It
may be compared not inaptly to a Leyden jar with its charge of electricity — the
matter of the mental and astral worlds forming the body, which is symbolized
by the jar, and the vibrant energy of the thought which ensouls it corresponding
to the charge of electricity. If the man towards whom it is directed is
at the moment in a passive condition, or if he has within him active oscillations
of a character harmonious with its own, it will at once discharge itself
upon him. Its effect will naturally be to provoke an undulation similar
to its own if none such previously existed, and to intensify it if it is
already to be found there. If the man's mind is for the time so strongly
occupied along some other lines that it is impossible for the vibration
to find an entrance, the thought-form hovers about him waiting for an opportunity
to discharge itself.
In the case of a thought
which is not directed to some other person, but is connected chiefly with
the thinker himself (as indeed are the majority of man's thoughts), the undulation
spreads in all directions as usual, but the thought-form[Page
14] floats
in the immediate neighbourhood of its creator, and its tendency is constantly
to react upon him. As long as his mind is fully occupied with business, or
with a thought of some other type, the floating form simply bides its time;
but when his train of thought is exhausted, or his mind for a moment lies
fallow, it has an opportunity to react upon him, and immediately it begins
to repeat itself — to stir up in his mind a repetition
of the thought to which he has previously yielded himself. Many a man may
be seen surrounded by a shell of such thought-forms, and he will frequently
feel their pressure upon him — a constant suggestion from without of
certain thoughts; and if the thought be evil, he very likely believes himself
to be tempted by the devil: whereas the truth is that he is his own tempter,
and that the evil thoughts are entirely his own creation.
Thirdly,
there is the class of thought which is neither centered round the thinker
nor aimed specially at any person. The thought-form generated in this case
does not hang about the thinker, nor has it any special attraction towards
another man, so it simply remains idly floating where it was called into
existence. Each man as he moves through life is thus producing three classes
of thought-forms — those which shoot straight out away from him,
aiming at a definite objective;[Page
15] those which hover round him
and follow him wherever he goes; and those which he leaves behind him as a
sort of trail which marks his route.
The
whole atmosphere is filled with thought of this third type, vague and indeterminate;
so that as we walk along we are, as it were, picking our way through vast
masses of them; and if our minds are not already definitely occupied, these
vague wandering fragments of other people's thought will seriously affect
us. They, sweep through the mind which is lying idle, and probably the
majority of them do not arouse in it any especial interest; but now and
then comes one which attracts attention, and the mind fastens upon it,
entertains it for a moment or two, and dismisses it a little stronger than
it was on arrival. Naturally this mixture of thought from many sources
has no definite coherence — though it must be remembered that any one
of these may start a line of associated ideas, and so set the mind thinking
on its own account. If a man pulls himself up suddenly as he walks along the
street, and asks himself: " What am I thinking about, and why ? How did I
reach this particular point in my train of thought ?" and if he tries to follow
back the line of his thoughts for the last ten minutes, he will probably be
quite surprised to discover how many idle and [Page
16] useless thoughts
have passed through his mind in that space of time. They are not one-fourth
of them his own thoughts; they are simply those fragments which he has picked
up as he passed along. In most cases they are quite valueless, and their general
tendency is distinctly more likely to be evil than good.
Now that we understand
to some extent the action of thought, let us see what use it is possible
to make of this knowledge, and what practical considerations emerge from
it. Knowing these things, what can we do to forward our own evolution, and
what can we do to help others ? Obviously, a scientific consideration of
the way in which thought works exhibits it as a matter of far greater importance
for evolution than we ordinarily suppose. Since every thought or emotion
produces a permanent effect by strengthening or weakening a tendency, and
since, furthermore, every thought-vibration and thought-form must inevitably
react upon the thinker, the greatest care must be exercised as to the thought
or emotion which the man permits within himself. The ordinary man rarely
thinks of attempting to check an emotion; when he feels it surging within
him he yields himself to it and considers it merely natural. One who studies
scientifically the action of these forces realizes that it is his interest
as well as his duty to check[Page
17] every such upwelling, and
consider before he allows it to sway him whether it is or is not prejudicial
to his evolution.
Instead
of allowing his emotions to run away with him he must have them absolutely
under control; and since the stage of evolution at which we have arrived
is the development of the mental body, he must take this matter also seriously
in hand and see what can be done to assist that development. Instead of
allowing the mind to indulge in its vagaries he should endeavour to assert
control over it, recognizing that the mind is not the man, but is an instrument
which the man must learn to use. It must not be left to lie fallow; it
must not be allowed to remain idle, so that any passing thought-form can
drift in upon it and impress it. The worthy Dr. Watts long ago remarked
that " Satan finds some mischief still for idle
hands to do," and certainly there is truth in the saying when it is applied
to these higher levels, for the mind which is left unoccupied is far more likely
to take up evil impressions than good ones. The first step towards control
of the mind is to learn to keep it usefully occupied — to have some definite
good and useful set of thoughts as a background to the mind's
operation — something upon which it shall always fall back when there
is no immediate need for its activity in connection with duty to be done. [Page
18]
Another
most necessary point in its training is that it shall be taught to do thoroughly
that which it has to do — in other words, that the power of
concentration shall be acquired. This is no light task, as any unpracticed
person will find who endeavours to keep his mind absolutely upon one point
even for five minutes. He will find that there is an active tendency to
wander — that all kinds of other thoughts thrust themselves in; the first
effort to fix the mind on one subject, for five minutes is likely to resolve
itself into spending five minutes in bringing the mind back again and again
from various side-issues which it has followed. Fortunately, though
concentration itself is no easy thing, there are plenty of opportunities for
attempting it, and the acquisition of it will be of great use in our daily
life. We should learn then, whatever we are doing, to focus our attention upon
it, and to do it with all our might and as well as it can be done; if we write
a letter, let that letter be well and accurately written, and let no carelessness
in detail delay it or mar its effect; if we are reading a book, even though
it be only a novel, let us read it with attention, trying to grasp the author's
meaning, and to gain from it all that there is to be gained. The endeavour
to be constantly learning something, to let no day pass without some definite
exercise of the[Page
19] mind, is a most salutary one;
for it is only by exercise that strength comes, and thus disuse means always
weakness and eventual atrophy.
Another
point of great importance is that we should learn to husband our energy.
Each man possesses only a certain amount of energy, and he is responsible
for its utilization to the best advantage. The ordinary man wastes his
force in the most foolish manner; but it is especially necessary for the
student of occultism to learn to avoid this. The average man is simply
a center of agitated vibration; he is constantly in a condition of worry,
of trouble about something, or in a condition of deep depression, or else
he is unduly excited in the endeavour to grasp something. For one reason
or another he is always in a state of unnecessary agitation, usually about
the merest trifle. Although he never thinks about it, he is all the while
influencing other people around him by this condition of his astral and
mental bodies; he is constantly communicating these vibrations and this
agitation to those unfortunate people who are near him. It is just because
millions of people are thus unnecessarily agitated by all sorts of foolish
desires and feelings that it is difficult for a sensitive person to live
in a large city, or to go into a great crowd of his fellow-men.
Another way in which
the average man wastes a great deal of force is by unnecessary[Page
20] argument. It appears to be
impossible for him to hold any opinion, whether it be religious or political,
or relating to some matter in ordinary life, without becoming a prey to an
overmastering desire to force this opinion upon everyone else. He seems quite
incapable of grasping the rudimentary fact that what another man chooses
to believe is no business of his, and that he is not commissioned by the
authorities in charge of the world to go round and secure uniformity in thought
and practice. The wise man realizes that truth is a many-sided thing, not
commonly held in its entirety by any one man, or by any one set of men; he
knows that there is room for diversity of opinion upon almost any conceivable
subject, and that therefore a man whose point of view is opposite to his
own may nevertheless have something of reason and truth in his belief, He
knows that most of the subjects over which men argue are not in the least
worth the trouble of discussion, and that those who speak most loudly and
most confidently about them are usually those who know least. The student
of occultism will therefore decline to waste his time in argument; if he
is asked for information he is quite willing to give it, but not to waste
his time and strength in unprofitable wrangling.
Another painfully
common method of wasting strength is in worry. Many men are constantly[Page
21] forecasting
evil for themselves and for those whom they love — troubling themselves
with the fear of death and of what comes after it, with the fear of financial
ruin or loss of social position. A vast amount of strength is frittered away
along these unprofitable and unpleasant lines; but all such foolishness
is swept aside for the man who realizes that the world is governed by a law
of absolute justice, that progress towards the highest is the Divine Will
for him, that he cannot escape from that progress, that whatever comes in
his way and whatever happens to him is meant to help him along that line,
and that he himself is the only person who can delay that advance. He no
longer troubles and fears about himself and about others; he simply goes
on and does the duty that comes nearest in the best way that, he can, confident
that if he does that, all will be well for him. He knows that worry never
yet helped anyone, nor has it ever been of the slightest use, but that it
has been responsible for an immense amount of evil and waste of force.
The wise man declines
to spend his strength in ill-directed emotion. For example, he will utterly
decline to take offence at what is said or done by someone else. If another
man says something which is untrue or offensive, it is certain that in nine
cases out of ten there was[Page
22] no
evil intention behind the remark, so that it is not only foolish but unjust
to be disturbed about it. Even in the rare case where the remark is intentionally
wicked and spiteful — where the man said something purposely to wound
another — it
is still utterly foolish for that other to allow himself to feel hurt. The
irritating word does not in any way injure him, except in so far as he may
choose to take it up and injure himself by brooding over it or allowing himself
to be wounded in his feelings. What are the words of another, that he should
let his serenity be disturbed by them ? If he permits himself to care about
what another, has said, then it is he himself who is responsible for the
disturbance created in his mental body, and not the other man. The other
has done and can do nothing that can harm him, and if the student feels
hurt and injured, and thereby makes a great deal of trouble for himself,
he has only himself to thank for it. If he suffers a disturbance to arise
within his mental body or his astral body in reference to something that
another has said, that is merely because he has not yet perfect control over
his vehicles; he has not yet developed the common-sense which enables him
to look down as a soul upon all this, and to go on his way and attend to
his own work without taking the slightest notice of foolish or spiteful remarks
made by others.[Page
23]
But
this is after all only one side of the matter, and that the least important.
It is certainly necessary for his own evolution that man should keep mind
and emotion under control, and not foolishly waste his force; but it is
assuredly still more necessary from another point of view, because it is
only by such care that he can enable himself to be of use to his fellow-men,
that he can avoid doing harm to them and can learn how to do good. If, for
example, he lets himself feel angry, he naturally produces a serious effect
upon himself, because he sets up an evil habit and makes it more difficult
to resist the evil impulse next time it assails him. But he also acts seriously
upon others around him, for inevitably the vibration which radiates from him
must affect them also. If he is making an effort to control his irritability,
so perhaps are they, and his action will help or hinder them, even though
he is not in the least thinking of them. Every time that he allows himself
to send out a wave of anger, that tends to arouse a similar vibration in
the mind or astral body of another — to arouse it if it has not previously
existed, and to intensify it if it is already present; and thus he makes
his brother's work of self-development harder for him, and places a heavier
burden upon his shoulders. On the other hand, if he controls and represses
that wave[Page
24] of anger, lie radiates instead
calming and soothing influences which are distinctly helpful to all those
near him who are engaged in the same struggle.
Inevitably and without any
effort of ours any thought which arises within our minds must be influencing
the minds of others about us. Consider then the responsibility if a thought
be impure or evil, for we are then spreading moral contagion among our
fellow-men. Hundreds and thousands of people possess within them latent germs
of evil — germs
which may never blossom and bear fruit unless some force from without
plays upon them and stirs them into activity. If we yield ourselves to
an impure or unholy thought, the wave of force which we thus produce may
be the very factor which awakens the germ and causes it to begin to grow,
and so we may start some soul upon a downward career. The impulse so
given may blossom out later into thoughts and words and deeds of evil,
and these in their turn may injuriously affect thousands of other men even
in the far distant future. We see then how terrible is the responsibility
of a single impure or evil thought. Happily all this is true of good thought
as well as of evil, and the man who realizes this may set himself to work
to be a veritable sun, constantly radiating upon all his neighbours thoughts
of love and calm and peace. This is[Page
25] a truly magnificent power,
yet it is within the reach of every human being, of the poorest as well
as the wealthiest, of the little child as well as the great sage.
Possessing this tremendous
power, we must be careful how we exercise it. We must remember to think of
a person as we wish him to be, for the image that we thus make of him will
naturally act powerfully upon him and tend to draw him gradually into harmony
with itself. Let us fix our thoughts upon the good qualities of our friends,
because in thinking of any quality we tend to strengthen its undulations,
and therefore to intensify it.
From this consideration
it follows that the habit of gossip and scandal, in which many people thoughtlessly
indulge themselves, is in reality a horrible wickedness, in condemning which
no expression can be too strong. When people are guilty of the impertinence
of discussing others, it is not usually upon the good qualities that they
most insist. We have therefore a number of people fixing their thought upon
some alleged evil in another, calling to that evil the attention of others
who might perhaps not have observed it; and in this way, if that bad quality
really exists in the person whom they are so improperly criticizing, they
distinctly increase it by strengthening the vibration which[Page
26] is its expression. If, as
is usually the case, the depravity exists only in their own prurient imagination,
and is not present in the person about whom they are gossiping, then they
are doing the utmost in their power to create that evil quality in that person,
and if there be any latent germ of it existing in their victim, their nefarious
effort is only too likely to be successful.
Assuredly we may think
helpfully of those whom we love; we may hold before them in thought a high
ideal of themselves, and wish strongly that they may presently be enabled
to attain it. If we know of certain defects or vices in a man's character
we should never under any circumstances let our thoughts dwell upon them
and intensify them; on the contrary we should formulate a strong thought
of the contrary virtues, and then send out waves of that thought to the man
who needs our help. The ordinary method is for one to say to another:
"O
my dear, what a terrible thing it is that Mrs. So-and-So is so ill-tempered!
Why, do you know, only yesterday she did this and that, and I have heard
that she constantly, etc., etc.. Isn't it a terrible thing?
And this is repeated
by each person to her thirty or forty dearest friends, and in a few hours
several hundred people are pouring converging streams[Page
27] of thought, all about anger
and irritability, upon the unfortunate victim. Is it any wonder that she
presently justifies their expectations, and gives them yet another example
of ill-temper over which they can gloat ?
A
man wishing to help in such a case will be especially careful to avoid
the idea of anger, but will think with all his force: " I wish Mrs. So-and-So
were calm and serene; she has the possibility of such self-control within her;
let me try frequently to send her a strong calm soothing influence, such as
will help her to realize the Divine possibility within her". In the one case
the thought is of anger, and in the other case it is of serenity; in both alike
it will inevitably find its goal, and tend to reproduce itself in the mental
and astral bodies of the person of whom the thought is made. By all means let
us think frequently and lovingly of our friends, but let us think of their
good points, and try by concentrating our attention upon those to strengthen
them and to help our, friends by their means; let our criticism be of that
happy kind which grasps at a pearl as eagerly as the criticism of the
average man pounces upon an imaginary flaw.
A man will often say
that he cannot control his thought or his passion, that he has often tried
to do so, but has constantly failed, and[Page
28] has
therefore come to the conclusion that such effort is useless. This idea is
wholly unscientific. If an evil quality or habit possesses a certain amount
of strength within us, it is because in previous lives we have allowed that
strength to accumulate — because we have not resisted it in the beginning,
when it could easily have been repressed, but have permitted it to gather
the momentum which makes it difficult now to deal with it.
We
have in fact, made it very easy for ourselves to move along a certain line,
and correspondingly difficult to move along another line — difficult,
but not impossible. The amount of momentum or energy accumulated is
necessarily a finite amount; even if we have devoted several lives entirely
to storing up such energy (an unlikely supposition), still the time so
occupied has been a limited time, and the results are necessarily finite. If
we have now realized the mistake we made, and are setting ourselves to
control that habit and to counteract that impetus, we shall find it necessary
to put forth exactly as much strength in the opposite direction as we
originally spent in setting up that momentum. Naturally we cannot instantly
produce sufficient force entirely to counteract the work of many years, but
every effort which we make will reduce the amount of force stored up. We
ourselves as[Page
29] living souls can go on generating
force indefinitely; we have an infinite store of strength on which to draw,
and therefore it is absolutely certain that if we persevere we must eventually
succeed. However often we may fail, each time something is withdrawn from that
finite store of force, and it will be exhausted before we shall, so that
our eventual success is simply a matter of mechanics.
You may have seen a
railway porter, by steady and continuous pushing, set a big wagon or carriage
in motion. Having brought it where he wishes, how does he stop it ? It is
quite impossible for him, even by the exertion of his utmost strength, to
check it instantaneously; so he puts himself in front of it and pushes vigorously
against it, walking backwards as its advance forces him along, but never
ceasing to exert his force against that advance. Thus by degrees he counterbalances
the momentum which he has himself produced in it, and so at last wins his
victory and brings it to rest. A good object-lesson in the neutralization
of previous karma!
The knowledge of the
use of these thought-currents makes it possible for us always to give assistance
when we know of some case of sorrow or suffering. It very often happens that
we are unable to do anything for the sufferer in the physical world; our
physical presence may not[Page
30] be
helpful to him; his physical brain may be closed to our suggestions by
prejudice or by religious bigotry. But his astral and mental bodies are far
more easily impressible than the physical, and it is always open to us to
approach these by a wave of helpful thought or of affection and soothing
feeling.
We must not forget
that the law of cause and effect holds good just as certainly in finermatter
as in denser, and that consequently the energy which we pour forth must reach
its goal and must produce its effect. There can be no question that the image
or the idea which we wish to put before a man for his comfort or his help
will reach him; whether it will present itself clearly to his mind when it
arrives, depends first upon the definiteness of outline which we have been
able to give to it, and secondly upon his mental condition at the time. He
may be so fully occupied with thoughts of his own trials and sufferings that
there is little room for our idea to insert itself; but in that case our
thought-form simply bides its time, and when at last his attention is diverted,
or exhaustion forces him to suspend the activity of his own train of thought,
assuredly ours will slip in and will do its errand of mercy. There are so
many cases where the best will in the world can do nothing physically for
a sufferer; but there is no conceivable[Page
31] case in which in either the
mental or the astral world some relief cannot be given by steady
concentrated loving thought.
The
phenomena of mind-cure show how powerful thought may be even in the physical
world, and since it acts so much more easily in astral and mental matter
we may realize vividly how tremendous the power really is, if we will but
exercise it. We should watch for an opportunity of being thus helpful;
there is little doubt that plenty of cases will offer themselves. As we
walk along the street, as we ride in a tram-car or a railway train, we may
often see someone who is obviously suffering from depression or sadness;
there is our opportunity, and we may immediately take advantage of it by
trying to arouse and to help him. Let us try to send him strongly the feeling
that in spite of his personal sorrows and troubles the sun still shines above
all, and there is still much for which to be thankful, much that is good and
beautiful in the world. Sometimes we may see the instant effect of our
effort — we may actually watch the man brighten up under the influence
of the thought which we have sent to him. We cannot always expect such
immediate physical result; but if we understand the laws of nature we shall
in every case be equally sure that some result is being produced.[Page
32]
It is often difficult for
the man who is unaccustomed to these studies to believe that he is really
affecting those at whom his thought is aimed; but experience in a great
number of cases has shown us that anyone who makes a practice of such efforts
will in time find evidence of his success accumulating until it is no longer
possible for him to doubt. Each man should make it part of his life thus
to try to help all whom he knows and loves, whether they be what is commonly
called living or what is commonly called dead; for naturally the possession
or the absence of the physical body makes no difference whatever to the
action of forces which are leveled at the mental and astral bodies. By
steady regular practice great good will be done, for we again strength
by using it, and so while we are developing our own powers and ensuring
our progress the world will be helped by our kindly efforts.
I remember seeing in
an American book on mind-cure a passage which illustrates exceedingly well
what should be the Theosophical attitude with regard to the duties and associations
of daily life:
"Knead love into the
bread you bake", it ran; "wrap
strength and courage in the parcel which you tie for the woman with the
weary face; hand trust and candour with the coin that you pay to the man
with the suspicious eyes". [Page
33]
Quaint in expression, but
lovely in its thought; truly the Theosophical concept that every connection
is an opportunity, and that everyone whom we meet even casually is a person
to be helped. Thus the student of the Good Law goes through life distributing
blessings on all about him, doing good unobtrusively everywhere, though
often the recipients of the blessing and the help may have no idea whence
it comes. Never forget that in such benefactions every man can take his
share, and every man ought to take his share; all who can think can send
out kindly helpful thoughts, and no such thought has ever failed, or can
ever fail while the laws of the universe hold. We may not always see the
result, but the result is there, and we know not what fruit may spring
from the tiny seed which we sow in passing along our path of Peace and
Love.