Theosophy - Some Basic Concepts of Theosophy by Eunice S.Layton and Felix Latyon
SOME BASIC CONCEPTS
OF THEOSOPHY
by Eunice S. Layton and
Felix Layton
1960
The Theosophical
Publishing House Adyar, Madras India
FOREWORD
[Page V] Since I believe that the teachings contained in this book can be of
very great value to those who are able to accept them, it gives me great
pleasure to introduce and recommend this first publication by Eunice and
Felix Layton.
As devoted Theosophists and as husband and wife, they have dedicated
their lives to the service of the Theosophical Society and humanity. Without
thought of reward, for many years they have traveled throughout North
America as lecturers for the Theosophical Society in America spreading
Theosophy wherever they have gone. Large numbers of people have
received from them the teachings of the Ancient Wisdom which form the
subject matter of all their addresses. I feel sure that this book which is
based upon some of these talks will give to its readers the same sense of
inspiration, upliftment and peace of heart and mind which so many have
received who have heard and met them in the course of their work and
their world travels.
As a student myself, I find certain basic ideas of Theosophy correctly conceived
and clearly [Page VI]expressed in this book. I am grateful to these two valued
friends of mine for this opportunity to share in this their first book, to wish it
Godspeed and to express the hope that it will be followed by many others,
also written in the clear and concise manner in which they think and speak
and write.
GEOFFREY
HODSON
Adyar December, 1959
AUTHORS' PREFACE
This
book contains four talks on basic concepts of Theosophy.
They were first given to American audiences unfamiliar
with Theosophy and the Theosophical Society. They developed
further while lecturing in New Zealand, Australia and other
countries.
The concepts outlined here are the principles of the Ancient Wisdom,
taught by the wise men of all nations and ages. These timeless laws are
here revealed behind the events and experiences of everyday life in the
twentieth century. In this fact lies the element of originality which has made
the talks popular.
No claim is made that these talks represent the basic concepts of
theosophy. We present such ideas as we have discovered in our study of
the great classic literature of the Theosophical Society and in our search
for the deeper meanings of life.
We wish to emphasise that the Theosophical Society is a body of seekers
for truth who are united by their belief in the Universal Brotherhood of
Humanity. There is no dogma or creed limiting [Page VIII] the thought of the
members in any other way than is implied in the principles of the belief in
brotherhood and the acceptance of the ideal of the search for truth. When,
therefore, we send forth these ideas on Theosophy, we simply offer them
for the consideration of our fellow seekers for truth in the hope that they
may help them, as they have helped us, in forming, each for himself, a
more complete understanding of life. Seekers everywhere have been
helped by the great concepts of the Ancient Wisdom proclaimed by the
Theosophical Society as its branches and literature have spread
throughout the world. This volume is now offered in response to numerous
requests, and in the hope that it may add its contribution to the noble and
spiritual thought sent into the world by the Theosophical Society.
[Page
2] ALL
thoughtful people, at some period in their lives, ask
themselves great sweeping questions, such as: " What
is the nature of this universe ? ".
" What is Man? " . " What essentially am I? " and " What is
the purpose towards which all manifestation is working? " At
all times and in all countries people have asked such searching
questions, turning to the wise men of their nation and time
for help in finding answers. They did so in ancient Greece,
Egypt, Persia, India, China and Peru. And today also, thoughtful
people everywhere turn to the wise men of our day for aid in
solving these great problems, and the sages seek to give the
benefit of their wisdom to the seekers. These wise men of today
are mainly of two great classes; the wise men of religion and
the wise men of science. Unfortunately, however', the answers
of the men of science, on the one hand, often seem in conflict
with those of the, men of religion on the other and seekers
are left more confused than ever. Dean Sinnott, of Harvard
University, in The Biology of the Spirit (Viking Press),
describes the dilemma in these words:
Thoughtful people have thus been forced to lead double lives, one adapted
to the practical affairs of the[Page 2] mechanistic world and the other to those
deeper intuitive and emotional feelings which speak with such commanding inner
authority.
This apparent conflict causes much distress to the earnest seeker; but it should
not, for in reality there is no conflict but only two complementary viewpoints, an
understanding of both of which is necessary in order to come closer to a
complete understanding of life and its mysteries. Religion and science only work
in opposite directions like the first finger and the thumb when they grasp an
object, and just as the first finger or the thumb alone can only hold an object
uncertainly, so an understanding of life's problems based on science or on
religion alone is uncertain, whereas a problem grasped simultaneously from the
opposite approaches of religion and science, can be firmly grasped and
understood.
Such
a firm grasp by the two opposing movements of the fingers
is only possible because both are parts of a larger unit,
the hand. And the firm grip on a problem which comes
through using the approaches of religion and science
is only possible when they are seen to be part of a greater
unity which is the Ancient Wisdom. This Ancient Wisdom
has been known under different names in different cultures.
In India it has been and still is known as Brahma Vidyã (Wisdom
of Brahma), the Neo-Platonists called it Theo Sophia
(God Wisdom), and in modern days Theosophy presents the[Page 3]
same great basic ideas, which unite men's seeking along the lines of
religion, science, art, philosophy and all other lines of man's search for
truth. Let us try to see how the ideas and ideals of the Ancient Wisdom can
bring the opposing approaches of religion and science to work as a unity
for the answering of life's greatest questions.
Let us first look at the scientific approach and see how it uses its methods
to answer these great questions and to tell the story of Creation. Two
important facts stand out in the scientific approach and answers. The first
is the method and field of investigation used by science. Science
voluntarily limits itself to a consideration of the objective universe of
matter. In its basic approach it starts from an examination of the world of
matter, the almost endless number of different forms and combinations of
properties in the world around us which we contact with our physical
senses. Its understanding is gained by examining this bewildering
diversity of form and seeking ever more and more fundamental laws which
will unite objects and phenomena. The second important fact in the
scientific presentation is the existence of three great gaps or mysteries
which the scientific approach can neither bridge nor solve.
First,
there is a gap between that blank or darkness, or " nothingness",
before manifestation began, and the time when science begins
its story. Science begins on the assumption that there are[Page
4] already in
existence, either distributed throughout the universe, or concentrated
at its point of origin, large numbers of atoms or sub-atomic
particles, the building blocks of the universe. Science assumes
that they are there, but cannot explain their ultimate origin.
If
we pass this mystery by, and take for granted that these
building blocks are present, then, the story which science
tells, beginning beyond this realm of the unknown, unfolds
in a fascinating way. This story describes how, in this
area of our solar system there was first a faintly glowing,
gaseous nebula. Gradually as time went on, this chaotic,
disorganized system began to rotate. Then over further
vast periods of time, a nucleus began to form in the center,
later to become the sun. Around this sun matter began to
collect in rings which gradually condensed into the planets. [A
theory which science has alternately accepted and rejected
cut currently seems to accept]. Finally, from this
originally chaotic and completely disorganized system,
there emerged the highly organized solar system, with the
sun at its center and each planet at its allotted distance,
moving in its orbit, which can be calculated and predicted
with the very greatest of accuracy far into the past and
future. Thus in this first chapter which science tells
in astronomy and cosmology, there is the change from the
original apparent chaos into a highly organized system.[Page
5]
The
next chapter of the scientific story of Creation is told
on our earth and it begins when the planet has cooled so
that the dense clouds of vapor have begun to condense and
form the oceans, but before this chapter can be told a
second gap or mystery in scientific knowledge has to be
passed. Somewhere in those warm oceans, atoms and molecules
were brought together in peculiar combinations of great
complexity, and in these microscopic, yet highly complex
particles, a new element appeared which we call "consciousness".
It holds the materials together and directs their life-activities
while it is present. When it is withdrawn, at what is called
death, the particles separate and disintegrate. The source,
the nature and the origin of this "consciousness" is
the second great gap in science's story of Creation. But,
granted that consciousness has appeared, then, the second
chapter unfolds with fascinating detail in the story of
the evolution of living forms in the animal and plant kingdoms.
Over millions of years, science tells us, to meet the changes in
environment, changes took place in the structures of these organisms and
gradually the seemingly endless variety of living forms of the plant and
animal kingdoms were produced, each having its position, either on the
main trunk or on :some side branch or twig of that mighty tree of evolution.
Thus science shows, in its theory of evolution, a vast ordered system of
steady [Page 6] unfoldment, from the simple to the more complex forms of
living things.
Then
comes another gap or mystery, to be bridged before the
third chapter in science's fascinating story can be told.
This particular gap is so openly recognized that it is
referred to as " the missing link", the
link between the animal and the human kingdoms. The origin
and nature of the human element is a mystery, but, granted
that the first human beings have appeared on earth, then
the story proceeds. Man, at first, we are told, was primitive
and crude, living to satisfy his individual needs and urges,
often completely without: regard for others. As vast periods
of time passed, those God-like qualities within him led
him to form clans, tribes and nations, and to build up
civilizations, while the human weaknesses and ignorance
in him weakened these structures so that they crumbled
or were destroyed. There was thus a rise and fall of civilizations,
yet, through it all there was a slow steady upward movement,
a rhythmic progress, which led man from his primitive,
cave-dwelling existence, to his present state. Thus, in
this third chapter, as in the other two, science's, story
of Creation shows in the world of man a steady growth from
a primitive disorganization to a highly organized system.
As we consider this story, told by science, in its efforts to answer the great
fundamental questions of the universe, three things stand out. First, the[Page 7] story is limited to the world of matter, or to causes which produce
results in the world of matter. Second, in the detailed presentation of its
three chapters it shows change from simple, apparently chaotic conditions
of no organization, to complex and highly organized systems, and it shows
this process repeating itself at successively higher levels like the
successively higher rounds of a spiral. Third, the story has three great gaps
in it, namely: the nature and origin of the sub-atomic particles of which the
matter of the universe is built; the nature and origin of consciousness which
inhabits all living forms; and the nature and origin of man.
Let us now turn to the approach of religion to these fundamental questions,
not to the ideas of any one religion, but to those ideas which are common
to Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and the great religions of all times, the
ideas which represent the essence of the religious approach. Religion
approaches these great basic questions from a point of view in many ways
the exact opposite of that of science. It approaches them from the aspect of
Spirit rather than of matter, from an original unity rather than an existing
diversity, and from a formless world rather than from an objective world.
Behind all the bewildering details of scriptural story and precept the great
religions proclaim certain fundamental principles:
First
- There exists one Supreme FIRST CAUSE from which all
manifestation comes[Page
8] forth
and to which it will return. It is Eternal, Causeless,
Still. It is said that " only its laws endure".
Second
- A fragment of the Divine Self is enshrined in the heart
of every living thing, seeking to unfold its Divine
Self through the lower nature in the world of matter.
This has been called "The Inner Ruler Immortal,
seated in the heart of all beings”.
These
concepts are examples of those "deeper intuitive and
emotional feelings which speak with such commanding inner authority " of
which Dean Sinnott spoke. Unfortunately, however, as
time has passed, man-made superstitions and fears have so heavily
covered these great principles with the dust and grime of human
weaknesses that it is frequently difficult to perceive the
great realities. But they exist in all the great scriptures
of the world.
Clearly
there is a great gap between the spiritual truths presented by religion,
and the objective facts described in detail by science. Leading thinkers
are trying to bridge this gap and show these two as part of a greater unity.
For example, Dr. Albert Einstein said that science without religion is lame.
Religion without science is blind. He also said that he felt reverence for
the illimitably superior Intelligence who reveals himself in the few details
we are able to perceive.[Page
9]
The playwright, Robert Sherwood,
approaching from the opposite side of the gap wrote:
The
most important statement in the recorded history of man
is: " God
created man in His own image" . . . '[This Divine Source] has impelled man
out of the jungles and along the ascending path that leads to the stars ....
his perhaps blind, but persistent faith in his God-like qualities has enabled
man to defy all scientific proof that he is frail, physically and morally — that
he is in a word, mortal. He has gone out on his own and
found ways to make himself immortal.
At
the end of the last century H. P. Blavatsky made a statement
which showed the basic plan of such a bridge when she said:" Wherever
there is an atom or a particle of matter there is life
in it". This
idea, that there is a life, and a form aspect, to all, is a
concept that can link science and religion.
Suggested
in this thought is one of the great basic ideas which are so beautifully
presented in the classic literature of Theosophy. It gives a key to a deeper
understanding of Life's great questions. It is the concept that all manifestation
is dual, that it has two aspects, the aspects of spirit and matter, or life
and form, and that in order to understand nature we must appreciate both
aspects of the picture she paints. We must see both the life and the form
side of all things. From this point of view the facts of science are seen
to be only one side of the picture, the form side. We must look at the other,
or life side, as well.[Page
10]
In the first
chapter of science's story of Creation, we saw in the world
of form the emergence of a solar system from a chaotic,
gaseous, nebula. This is a wonderful description of the
form side of the picture, vast changes in the world of
matter. Walt Whitman, in his poem "When I Heard the
Learned Astronomer". describes the
far deeper understanding which comes by appreciating, not
only the development and changes of form described by astronomy,
but the life side as well. He describes how, tired of the charts,
facts and figures, he left the learned lecturer on astronomy
and went outside, alone, and stood looking up at the stars,
in perfect silence. One who has thus stood alone looking at
the stars in perfect silence, knows that in the cosmos, in
addition to the material universe, a life-force throbs through
space seeking to express itself ever more and more fully as
the matter becomes more and more responsive to the great life-forces
of the universe.
In the second chapter, the lowly forms of the plant kingdom, such as the
algae, lichen and mosses are very inadequate channels for the
expression of the life within, but as the higher stages, are reached it
expresses itself more and more fully until it is most fully seen in the
grandeur and majesty of a great tree or the beauty of a flower. Similarly, in
the animal kingdom: the life can only express itself feebly in the simpler
forms of the mollusc and jelly-fish. The forms of the fishes,[Page 11]
amphibians, reptiles and mammals become more and more suitable
channels for the Divine Life until it reaches its highest expression in the
grace and beauty of a deer, and the loyalty, devotion and intelligence of
some of our domestic animals and pets, such as the dog, the horse and the
cat.
In man also, very incompletely were the life and form drawn together in the
primitive human, but as time has passed a stage of advancement has
been reached where that Divine Life expresses itself somewhat more
fully in so called civilized man: a creature who is still far from perfect. Here
and there, however, as we read the history of the world, we find instances
in which a human being has lived who has so moulded the matter of his
personality that it has become an almost perfect channel for the
expression of the life within, as he or she has lived as a great leader of
humanity, a great sage or a saint.
Thus, each chapter of science's story repeats the same theme, of life
descending to express itself more fully through the form and the form
becoming ever more complex and better adapted to express the life within.
It is as though the world of form sought slowly to mould itself into a chalice
to receive the outpouring of the Divine Life. This process repeats itself at
successively higher levels of the spiral of evolution.
This
key-idea of the duality of the great processes of manifestation
gives added meaning and[Page
12] significance
to our study of the great processes of the macrocosm, but what
about individual man ? How does this knowledge affect him?
The connection becomes apparent when we think of the great "Principle
of Correspondences" which states that the
great cosmic processes of the universe reflect themselves,
in miniature, in the processes of individuals. The principle,
as it relates to man was stated by Swedenborg when he said
that the entire creation is only a titanic man, and we are
made in the image and likeness of the universe. The Chinese
philosopher Lao-tze said: "The universe is a man on a large
scale". The converse of this is: " Man is the universe on
a small scale".
Tennyson stated this idea in poetic form when he said of the
flower:
.......but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is.
The
same great principle was expressed by Dr. Alfred Taylor
of Texas University in a lecture on cell life in which
he repeated over and over ...again, "The whole is in
the part", meaning
that, in the structure and action of each cell, is to
be found the history and principles of all cell life.
Man, then, reflects in his microcosmic world, these same
great macrocosmic principles we have been discussing.
One of the finest definitions of man is that of H. P.
Blavatsky who used this principle when she said that
man is that point in evolution [Page
13] where
highest Spirit is united to densest matter by the bridge
of intelligence. Slowly the life and form in each of
us draw together, the matter of the personality becoming
more responsive to the Divine Life within and that Divine Self
learning to express itself more and more fully through
the limitations of the personality.
As we consider this glorious concept of ourselves, however, and then look
at our daily lives, most of us will recognize that a large share of the
activities of daily life are the semi-automatic responses of the lower nature
to stimuli from without, to the necessity of providing food, clothing and
shelter for the physical body and for getting along with our neighbors.
Apparently, in the physical world we are largely unconscious of the Divine
Self.
Yet
each of us has had moments of inspiration when we have
transcended this personality and become aware of this
Divine Nature. Such moments may have come from a deep
appreciation of the beauties of Nature. Perhaps as we
have watched the beauty of a sunset, we have known in
our inmost hearts the reality of the life that pulses through
this beauty and have felt a yearning to be one with it.
At such a moment we have felt our inmost nature. These
moments of inspiration and true Self-knowledge may have
come in various ways. Perhaps they came in some great
religious experience, in appreciating or creating a work
of art or music. Perhaps they came in a feeling of deep [Page
14] pure
love, either for all humanity or for one individual. Perhaps
they came in the pure joy which follows after having performed
an act of service for another, without any selfish motive and
at cost of real sacrifice on our part. However they may have
arisen, each of us has such recollections in his own experience,
and these are the moments when we have known the Divine Self,
the " Inner Ruler
Immortal, seated in the heart of all beings".
When
we think of our true spiritual nature, and the joy which
comes when we are aware of it, and compare this with
the life of daily routine, in which this spiritual consciousness
is largely covered over by the automatic responses of
the lower personality, we may well compare man with the
symbol of the crucifix and the story of the crucifixion.
In that symbol, the cross, with its four arms, represents
matter; resistant, unyielding matter. Nailed to it, so
that all the glory of His life is destroyed, is the most
spiritual being of whom His followers can conceive,
the Christ. In that symbol, matter seems to be completely
triumphant, to have completely destroyed the Spiritual
Self which is "crucified, dead and buried". But
the story goes on to tell that, though at that stage, the Life
seems to be completely overcome by matter, this is
only apparently so, for after he had thus descended He "rose
from the dead" and, because of His
descent into matter, He gained the capacity to serve humanity,
to teach, to heal and to bless as never before. This is the
story of [Page
15] the
descent of the Divine into every human life, its apparent death
and burial there at the hands of the material world and its
inevitable final triumphant resurrection. In all the great
religions of the world the same story is repeated in different
forms. It was told in ancient Egypt in the death of the great
God Osiris and his final triumphant resurrection. It is depicted
symbolically in the ceremonies of the Masonic Orders, and it
was told in Greece in the descent of Orpheus into the underworld.
A beautiful new symbolic representation of the same idea is
found in the meditation room in the United Nations Building.
Here, where some have wisely thought it good to provide a special
room where delegates may escape from the war of tongues and
have "a center of stillness surrounded by silence", a problem
arose as to what to put in the room, since the symbol of any
religion might be inspiring to one and objectionable to another.
This was solved by placing in the center a solid block of iron
ore, symbol of matter, with a single bright light, symbol
of Spirit, shining on it from above. The meaning of this is
explained as the light of Spirit shining on matter and drawing
forth the life in it. An interesting summary of the whole idea
is the statement of Henri Bergson that " the Universe is a
machine for making Gods ".
Each
human life is divine in its essential nature. That Divine Self, the true
man, is veiled in successively denser layers of matter, each with its separate [Page
16] characteristics
and consciousness. The ultimate purpose of life for man
is to let this Divine Self within, unfold and express its
divine powers through these lower veils of matter — to
let the beauty of the spiritual Self unfold and open, like
the bud of a beautiful flower, and expose its beauty and
shed its fragrance on all around. This, many believe, is
the real purpose and ultimate goal of man's life. Yet as
we look at the world we see millions of children growing
up, passing through youth and maturity, to old age and
death, without achieving this goal. Their efforts appear
largely to be lost. Many feel that the teachings of religion
alone are inadequate to explain this. However, when we
add the teachings of science to those of religion we find
great concepts which remove the difficulties.
First,
science teaches that the process of the growth and unfoldment
of the potentialities of life and form is vastly deliberate
and magnificently slow. It takes millions of years for
major changes in evolution to develop and come to maturity.
From. this point of view, then, the individual who expects
this great goal of the unfoldment of man's spiritual
powers in the world of form, to be achieved in a life-time,
is, to quote a Chinese saying, like the individual who, "looks at an
egg and expects to hear it crow"! Vast periods of time are
required for the attainment of such great goals. But the thoughtful
man will then ask how such vast periods of time are to [Page 17] be
made available since man has only one life-time in which to
achieve and only in very rare cases does this life-time extend
to a hundred years. The answer to this is found in science's
second great concept, that, wherever life and form are united,
that is, wherever there is a living thing, rhythms of various
frequencies are necessary to link life and form or, as we would
say, to " maintain life ".
There are the extremely rapid vibrations such as electrical impulses in the "
brain waves " investigated in encephalography and similar studies, the
slower vibrations of the beating of the heart and breathing, far slower still,
the endless rhythm of eating, digesting and feeling hunger; and the rhythm
of fully conscious activity during the day followed by a period of withdrawal
of consciousness or sleep, at night. The stopping of any of these rhythmic
processes may cause "death". These are only some of the more
rapid vibrations. There are far longer and deeper vibrations
which are lost sight of because of man's preoccupation with
this brief, but to him, all-important, period of time between
birth and death, which he calls life.
Many people feel that the growth of the Immortal Self in man, towards its
goal of Self-expression in form, is by vast rhythmic processes. Just as the
personality moves towards its major goals in life through many days of
working and experiencing, followed by nights of rest; so on a vaster scale
the Immortal Self in man moves [Page 18] towards
its great goal by its " days
" of activity, which we call lives, followed by nights of rest
which are the periods between these lives.
Thus, over vast periods of time, commensurate with those postulated by
science, for the attainment of the goals of evolution, the Immortal Self
unfolds its spiritual powers in the world of form. This rhythmic process
of the unfoldment of man's divine powers has been openly avowed by
great thinkers of the world when the intellectual climate allowed it, and
been hinted at, or spoken of in more veiled terms when religious
orthodoxy denied it.
Yet a third principle from the world of science must be applied to the
teachings of religion to make them more deeply significant, this is the
principle that we live in a world of law and that Nature is conquered by
obedience to Nature's laws. Thus this whole great process of the
unfoldment of man's divine powers in these lower worlds of form, takes
place by a process of learning Nature's laws of the physical,
emotional and mental worlds and living in accordance with them. When we
have found these laws and built our lives in accordance with them, the
whole of life becomes a song of happiness for ourselves and all around us,
and life expresses itself freely, beautifully and joyously in all our actions.
Thus the existence of completely inviolable, natural law provides the
means whereby, through vast rhythmic processes, [Page 19] over great
periods of time, the spiritual Self in man expresses itself ever more fully.
This
stupendous concept, of the steady growth into unity and
harmonious expression of the life and form of man, until,
so far as human evolution is concerned, perfection is reached,
gives meaning to the words of the Christ:
" Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect " (Matt.,
V. 48) and to those of Saint Paul: " Till we all come, in the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph IV. 13). Here are
definite statements of the goal towards which all humanity is moving. It is
the same goal, which is described in all the religions of the world. The
steps and the obstacles on this path have been pictured over and over
again, in allegory, in the great myths and legends of the world. In these we
often find, man, symbolized by a hero, who has a God for his father and a
mortal for his mother, so that he is half-mortal and half-divine, which is a
true description of man. The stories tell how this hero sets out on his great
quest and how he meets obstacles and overcomes them. All of this
symbolizes obstacles we meet on the path and sources of difficulty and
help within us and around us.
In reality this path is threefold, as man's true nature, being made in the
Divine Image, is threefold. There are three major branches along any [Page
20] one of which a man may move towards the great goal of human
perfection. These correspond to the development of the three divine
attributes of Will, Intelligence and Love. There follows a sketch of
the characteristics of each.
THE PATH OF WILL
This
is the path of him " Who moulds his image in the likeness
of the Will of God".. On this path the Power aspect of
the threefold divine nature is dominant.
In the early stages of his great rhythmic growth towards perfection, this
strength aspect will reflect itself powerfully in the personality of the seeker.
But, because the personality is ignorant of the great laws of the worlds of
form, this will and strength are directed largely to the gaining of selfish
ends. This individual therefore, in the early stages of his great pilgrimage
through these worlds of matter uses his strength to gain what he wants by
force and personal will, often satisfying his desires regardless of the
consequences to others. This makes him frequently the center of quarrels
and fights as his growing strength brings him into repeated conflicts. He
becomes a petty leader, gathering followers around him, who, while
respecting him for his power, nevertheless follow him primarily for what
they can gain by working with him.
Eventually,
after long periods of struggle to control his surroundings
and bring to his little [Page
21] personality
what it wants, there dawns a growing dissatisfaction.
He begins to realize that his ceaseless search for happiness
and security, by taking by force that which he wants,
does not give lasting happiness or joy but only leads
to further struggle and conflict. Then, inwardly, begins
the great search for a deeper meaning, for that which
will give lasting peace and bliss. This inner discontent
may slowly grow, through many lives, while he seeks deeper
and deeper for the answers to life's most fundamental
problems.
Eventually
the light begins to dawn for this man of will. He begins
to recognize that behind the chaotic turmoil, there exists
One Will, which is the Supreme Will, and he realizes slowly
that the only way in which he can find true happiness is
by putting his little will into complete harmony with the
One Will and saying: "Not my will, but Thy Will be done".
This
is now, for him, the great goal in life. It involves the
complete changing of the motives for every feeling, thought
and action, and therefore it involves deep inner struggle.
He faces this task in the manner typical of the man of
will. He passes the whole of his lower nature before
him in review, much as a General preparing for battle
might review his forces. He looks at his own personality
directly and fearlessly, seeing what is good and must
be used and strengthened, and what is wrong and must be altered
or discarded. Then begins the internal [Page
22] conflict as
he effects these changes, and violent and intense is the inner
struggle, for this is the man in whom the conscious patterns
of reaction have been strengthened by long effort far beyond
the similar efforts of other men. However, he will find that
though the resistance to be overcome is greater, so also is
the power within him greater arid, as he is able to say: "Not
my will but Thy Will be done", he invokes an irresistible force.
Slowly the personality is thus moulded to become a vehicle for the
expression of the One Will. He again emerges as a leader in the world of
form but now he is a leader in great movements for the progress of the
race and for the uplifting of humanity. He becomes the great
reformer, the great champion of the downtrodden, the mistreated, and the
victims of social injustice. He now becomes the great leader who inspires
others to follow him, not by rousing the hope of selfish gain but by helping
them to know and to feel the One Life in all and to work in harmony with
that and for its service.
For each great path there is an invocation which
seems particularly to call on the power which is its keynote. An
invocation helpful to the follower of this path might be:
More radiant than the Sun, Purer than the snow, Subtler than the ether, Is the Self, the Spirit within my heart. I am that Self. That Self
am I.[Page 23]
THE PATH OF WISDOM
This
is the path of him "Who moulds his image in the likeness
of the Wisdom of God". Before he realizes that his purpose
in life is to shed the light of the Wisdom of God around
him, the man who follows this path is at work in the realms
of knowledge for his own ends. Cleverness and even cunning
are prominent characteristics, and he will take great pains
to examine, analyze and dissect and thus he will develop
highly the powers of mind. The cunning lawyer and the crooked
salesman are early types of those who will progress along
this line. The time will come when this man will realize
that all this search for knowledge, with himself as the
center, with analysis as the method, and personal gain
as the object, does not bring happiness.
Darkness and light have always been the symbols of ignorance and
wisdom, and this man now takes Light as the object of his search. The
finding and spreading of the Light will become the central purpose of his
life. He now examines himself to see where the veils of superstition and
prejudice have wound themselves through his mind and heart, blocking the
Light. He seeks to tear down these veils and to find the Light of the Temple
of Wisdom within himself. His first step is to raise his objectives from the
seeking of mere knowledge to the seeking of Wisdom. To do this he must
leave the restless [Page 24] prodding and searching for details and learn to
hear the unity of Nature's song. He hears this ever more fully as he learns
to sense the beauty and the unity of God's plan in the world and finds
himself not only a part of that unity but one with it. He finds deep within
himself the same light of God's Wisdom which shines through all.
Henceforth all his seeking and painstaking thought will be directed to
finding the one Light, the Divine Light, within himself, and in all Nature.
No longer will he be destructive in his search for knowledge, for now he
will look directly and invoke the Light of Divine Wisdom within himself to
shine through the darkness of the outer forms and show him the Divine
Light in that which he seeks to understand.
As
the search for the Light begins to achieve success he can
return to his books and the details of his worldly work
and shed a wonderful new light on the problems he now
considers. But he must dedicate his work utterly to the
service of humanity and of the Light otherwise, the pride
of the lower self, the great danger to the man of this
temperament, will block the shining of the Light and
turn him from the path he has chosen, changing his Light
to darkness. If he holds fast to his ideals, attacks
will only intensify his search until he becomes as a
Light shining in the darkness, shedding the Light of
God's Wisdom on the world and calling to men to rend
the veils of prejudice and superstition which shroud
the Light within. [Page
25]
An invocation suitable for
the man who seeks to tread the path of Wisdom might be:
From the unreal, lead me to the Real, From darkness, lead me to Light, From death, lead me to Immortality.
THE PATH OF LOVE
This
is the path of him "Who moulds his image in the likeness of the Love
of God". In the early stages his activities are largely dominated
by the emotional nature, by its ever-changing likes and dislikes,
in the worlds of form. As time passes, through the experience
of many lives, the emotional power becomes strong and dominates
the mind and the physical body. Its desires are basically selfish
and degrade both himself and the object of his affections.
Finally comes the realization that lasting happiness will never
come by gratifying the desires of the personality. Like those
on the other paths, he also enters the period of inner search,
seeking a deeper goal and a deeper meaning for life. His answer
comes as he learns the universality of the Life behind and
within all forms, and determines to see it and serve it within
his own heart and in all forms around him, no matter how evil
he or it may appear on the surface.
Like
the others, this man then passes his personality in review,
examining his strong points [Page
26] and
his weaknesses and seeking to make his personality
an instrument for serving the one life within and without.
The method by which he proceeds is that of recognizing,
even in his faults, the seeds of virtues, and then giving
all his attention and life-giving energy to strengthening
these seeds which will grow and blossom, while, from
lack of attention, the outer husk of the vice falls lifeless
away and there stands in its place the beauty of the
noble virtue.
As the aspirant learns to see behind the forms, to the One Life, a change
takes place within his own nature and he learns to live in constant inner
communion with the One Life within his own heart which steadily radiates
an impersonal love on all around, untroubled by the passing waves of
personal feeling which no longer disturb that eternal peace. Thus he
passes to his goal.
An invocation of particular help to him who seeks to move along the path
of Love might be:
O
Hidden Life! vibrant in every atom; O Hidden Light! shining in every creature; O Hidden Love! embracing all in oneness; May each, who feels himself as one with thee, Know he is also one with every other.
It
is well for each person to decide for himself which of
these three paths is the path he will tread and to begin
consciously to develop the qualities of that path now.
But each should also realize that: [Page
27] the strong
development of one of these aspects of his nature will necessitate
a development of the other aspects, and the final goal
of perfected humanity will only be reached when each man
has developed all three aspects to perfection.[Page
28]
F. L.
- 2 -
KNOW THY REAL SELF
THE SEARCH FOR THE SELF
IF
modern man needs to know one thing more than anything else,
it is something about his own nature. Isn't it amazing
that the last thing man discovers is himself ? As one of
our military leaders said recently, "
We know so much about killing and so little about living .
. . We know so much about things and so little about ourselves
. . . We are a nation of nuclear giants and ethical infants". If
we look at modern knowledge and see some of the vast strides
that have been taken in various fields we will see that this
is true. In the fields of astronomy and physics — the
macrocosm for example, scientists are continually making new
discoveries. Our concepts of the universe and space
and time, etc have changed tremendously in the last hundred
years. At the opposite end of the scale — look at the
world of matter, the atom, the microcosm. Our ideas about matter
have been revolutionized in the last century. We are getting
much closer to the truth of what matter and the atom really
are. How our material lives [Page
29] are being
changed in this nuclear era! Even as far as living things
are concerned, we have made some progress. Through our studies
of the plant and animal kingdoms, we are now able to raise
a better ear of corn, a more beautiful flower, a more productive
fruit tree, and more highly bred animals. But what about man
? Most men are not only a mystery to themselves but they are
even unaware that there is a mystery and of course wecannot
do much about solving a problem until we at least realize
there is a problem to be solved. If we were to ask the first
man we met on the street what he really is — what happens
when he acts and feels and thinks — what
is the constant urge or driving force that makes him continue
on through life; he would not only be unable to answer, but
the very question would seem strange to him. Yet what can be
more strange than that we travel the weary road from birth
to death with all of its problems and difficulties and never
stop to question "why". Suppose we saw an individual struggling
up the mountain side carrying a heavy burden and, when we stopped
him to ask where he was going with such a heavy load, he were
to answer that the question had never occurred to him. We would
certainly think there was something wrong with that individual,
would we not? Isn't that what men are doing when they go through
this life, with all of its ups and downs, and never ask "why"? [Page
30]
However, the time
does come for every individual, in this long pilgrimage from
birth to perfection, when he does begin to question. Such times
usually come when we have experienced some great suffering,
or difficulty or problem — some experience that strips
some of the superficiality from us and brings us face to face
with ourselves —
circumstances that break through these outer shells we all
build around our real selves. It is very interesting that we
never question all the good fortune that comes to us. We are
sure we deserve anything good that comes our way — we
take it all for granted; but when trouble comes, that is a
different story. Clergymen, doctors, psychiatrists, and others
consulted by people in trouble, will tell you that the commonest
question asked by those who come for help is " Why should this
happen to me?"
So I sometimes feel that these great difficulties, these
so-called evils, are in reality great blessings because they
do force us deeper within ourselves, for the answers to life.
One philosopher has put it this way: "Pain
makes man think; thinking makes man wise; wisdom makes life
endurable". However, I would change that last phrase
to read: "Real
wisdom makes life a great joy".
Now
let us think through this question together and see if
we cannot come to a little deeper understanding of what
we really are. When we look at an individual, the first
thing we are usually [Page
31] conscious
of is the physicalbody — this thing we see in the mirror. Many
people think they are just a physical body and that physical
existence is the only existence; so they spend their entire
lifetime feeding and indulging the physical body — providing
it with every comfort, adorning it with costly jewels and expensive
clothing, catering to its every whim. These are the kinds of
individuals who "live to eat", instead of "eating to live".
Their philosophy is "Eat, drink, and be merry for
tomorrow we die".
Such individuals have as their greatest goal in life
that of gaining enough wealth to provide them with every possible
physical luxury and care so that they will no longer have to
turn a hand for themselves unless they feel like it. But surely
a little thought on the subject will convince us that we are
more than merely a physical body. In the first place, physiologists
tell us that the material of which our physical bodies are
composed is constantly changing and that within a very short
time we have a completely new physical body — not one
single cell of the old one is left. Yet, we feel we are the
same individual do we not — with
the same likes and dislikes, the same capacities and characteristics?
Also, we can control our physical body — we can make
it move when we want it to move, we can train it in skills;
such as playing the piano, or typing, or swimming, or in doing
various other things. Well, if I can control this physical
body then I must be [Page
32] something more
than just the physical body. Who, then, is this "I" that controls
it?
Just
as we have different gradations of physical matter; the
solids and liquids that are visible, and air and further
gradations of ether that are invisible, so this gradation
of matter continues and we have what we might call emotional
matter because it is subtle enough to respond to those
more rapid rates of vibration which we call emotion. This
matter makes up our
emotional body, sometimes called our desire body,
because it is the driving force of our nature that impels
us to go after the things we desire. I think it is fairly
easy to prove the existence of our emotional body to
ourselves if we can be objective about it. The next time
you have occasion to visit a funeral parlor, a hospital,
a great cathedral, a football game, or an exciting movie,
for example, observe yourself and see how difficult it
is, when you are in such intense emotional atmospheres,
not to let your own emotional body respond to it, and
become affected by that concentrated, emotional atmosphere.
It is very difficult to stay in such a highly charged atmosphere
without beginning to respond, and feel that same type of emotion.
Also, you probably have had the experience at some time in
your life of being carried completely away by your emotional
body — perhaps in a fit of anger or fear or excitement — until
you lost control of yourself entirely and didn't know what
you were doing. However, we can control [Page
33] our emotions.
So, who is the " I " who controls them?
This
gradation of matter goes on to finer, subtler and rarer
matter capable of responding to the even more rapid vibrations
which we call thought, and we have what we might call a mental
body made up of this mental
matter — mind stuff — so subtle and so rare that
it is able to respond to thought waves. You are probably all
familiar with the work that great scientists are doing to prove
scientifically the existence of this mental matter and thought
waves and the effects these have on us. Men like Dr J B Rhine
of Duke University, in experimenting with telepathy, and many
others working in the field of parapsychology are moving in
this direction. But, here again, I feel we can prove to some
extent for ourselves the existence of this mental body. How
often, for example, do two people think of the same thing at
the same time — especially if those two individuals
are very close to each other. Husband and wife, or two close
friends who have built up a strong rapport with each other
often demonstrate this. One may have been thinking of something
else entirely and all of a sudden both say the same thing at
the same time. Or you may have had the experience, that many
of us have had, of attending a lecture or class in which a
professor was expounding some very profound and difficult subject,
and while you were there, listening to him, you seemed to comprehend
the whole subject. Later, when [Page
34] you got home,
however, and tried to explain it to someone else, you found
that when you had only your own mental body and thought power
to turn on the subject you were not capable of reproducing
that kind of thinking — that you were only able to
understand because of the intense mental atmosphere created
by that professor and the other students in the group that
were following the discussion. Also, we can control our minds.
We can concentrate on this particular problem, or turn it to
another subject, or hold it so still that the brain brings
through no thought images. If we can control our mind, then,
we must be something more than mind. Who, then, is this " I" that
controls ?
I
would like to suggest that these three bodies: the physical,
composed of physical matter capable of responding to physical
stimuli, the emotional, formed of finer matter capable
of responding to the more rapid vibrations of emotion,
and the mental body made of still subtler and more rarified
matter capable of responding to the much more rapid vibrations
of thought — these
three bodies make up our personality. Here I would like to
call your attention to the origin and meaning of the word "personality".
It comes from the Latin word persona, meaning a
mask. That is exactly what the personality is, a mask of
the Real Self — simply three cloaks or vehicles
we wear in order to experience or respond to stimuli in the
three worlds of matter [Page
35]— physical,
emotional and mental. If we did not have these cloaks or vehicles
we could not respond to these worlds. It is very much as if
you put on a fine silk coat (the mental body), and on top of
that a heavier topcoat (the emotional body), and on top of
that a huge bulky cloak (the physical body). Each one of them
limits you. Each one of them hides the Real You. Each one of
them makes it more difficult for you to express yourself as
you really are. It also makes it more difficult for others
to know the Real You.
Now
the really great tragedy occurs when we become so limited,
so encased within these cloaks, or vehicles, or masks,
that we begin identifying ourselves with them: when we
say "I am hungry". "I am tired"
and think we are really hungry and tired instead
of realizing it is only the physical body that is hungry
and tired and certainly we must see that it gets proper
care, but is not indulged. We are even getting to the point
these days of identifying ourselves with our automobiles.
We hear people say " I
need gas", or "I have a flat tire", or "My brakes need relining",
etc.. Well, of course, we don't need gas or have a flat tire;
it is our car, and certainly we need to take proper care of
it as it won't run very well without gas and proper tires.
The same thing is true of the body. We are no more our bodies
than we are our car. Both are vehicles we use. We make the
same mistake of identifying ourselves with our [Page
36] emotions. We
say, "I am
angry", or "I am sad". You never get angry or sad — your
emotional body may, but not you. This may also be applied to
the world of thought or mind.
An
individual may use a car if he is going to travel on land
and may change to a ship to travel the seas and a plane
to travel by air. It is the same individual traveling,
he simply uses a different vehicle depending on the matter
on or through which he wishes to travel. He is not the
car or the ship or the plane, they are simply the vehicles,
without which he could not travel in that particular element.
In just the same way we require vehicles or bodies, in
order to act in the three worlds of matter. All are transient — our
instruments, wearing out and being renewed according to
our needs. Well then, who am I?
I
would like to suggest that in order to understand what
we really are and what our true destiny is, we need to
gain a greater perspective — we
need to build a larger framework into which we can fit
all of life and see our relationship to it. Science gives
us some partial answers, philosophy gives us some partial
answers, religion and psychology give us partial answers
but very often the answer of the scientist seems to be in conflict
with that of the philosopher and that of the religionist
doesn't agree with that of the psychologist. Trying to
fit all of these fragments of truth together is, to me,
like trying to add one-third, one-fourth, and one-fifth. [Page
37]How are
you going to add one-third, one-fourth, and one-fifth ?
It can never be done as long as they remain in this form — fractions with differing denominators.
They can only be added when you supply a common denominator, which
will be larger than any single denominator, but which will contain them all,
in this case sixty. To me that larger denominator into which we can fit all of
the fragments of truth is Theosophy — the Ancient Wisdom.
I
would like, very briefly and sketchily, to build a framework
of Theosophy large enough to contain all of life so that
we may see our relationship to it. Now, when I say "briefly and sketchily" you will understand something of
what I mean when I tell you that the word "Theosophy" means " Divine
Wisdom" which, of course, I do not pretend to have, in anything
approximating its completion. All the Theosophy written so far is only a
fragment of a fragment of that Divine Wisdom. Even to try to comprehend
that which has been expressed in books takes a lifetime of study and I am
going to try to build this framework in ten or fifteen minutes, so it will be
sketchy with many gaps — just the framework or scaffolding from which you
will have to erect your own edifice. Also, may I reiterate that these are
simply ideas and concepts for your consideration and never dogmas for
your belief — possible hypotheses that you may want to
think about and try out for yourself. [Page
38]
Let us try to push back in our
imagination to the time when there was no universe — a time when there
is no life on this planet — no
planet — no universe —- just an Absolute, Perfect, Unmanifest Deity,
Causeless Cause, Logos, God, or simply That, as the Hindus call It. Of
this state it is said: "Time was not for it lay asleep in the infinite bosom
of Duration. . . . Alone the one form of existence stretched, boundless,
infinite, causeless in dreamless sleep. . . . The visible that was, and
the invisible that is, rested in Eternal Non-Being the One Being".
I am aware it is impossible for us to imagine the infinite
with a finite mind so let us begin with manifestation which
is also finite. Even this will seem beyond the furthest stretch
of our imagination but as we must begin somewhere, let us try
this.
To me it
is much easier to try to understand these tremendous abstract
concepts with the help of diagrams and charts. I have reproduced
a diagram which is often used by Theosophists to present
these concepts of the creation of the Universe. While I explain
it I would like you to keep in mind that it is a diagrammatic
representation. Although the diagram depicts layers of matter,
one on top of another, all these are in reality right here,
interpenetrating; not in layers at all. This gradation of
matter could be just as truly represented if I had placed
a point in the center of concentric circles as might form
if I were to drop a stone in a [Page 39]
[Page 40] quiet pool, circles radiating from the point where the stone hit the
water. All types of matter interpenetrate at any point, but they have been
separated in layers in this diagram in order to help us understand more
easily.
You
will notice that at the top of the diagram there are three
circles which represent the three Aspects of the Divine.
In our Christian terminology we refer to them as God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In ancient
Egypt these were referred to as Osiris, Horus and Isis.
In Hinduism they are called Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Because
we are probably all more familiar with the Christian terminology
we will use that. Let us keep in mind here, too, that all
is one — One First Cause — One God — the
Three Aspects are one, but we have separated them to help us
understand.
Manifestation
begins with the Third Aspect — the Holy Spirit Aspect — the
Divine Creative Power, Energy or Intelligence. We find a reference
to this in the Bible when it says, " And the Spirit of
God Moved on the Face of the Waters". This is the Aspect
of God which creates matter, the atoms, at all levels,
thus preparing the Field in which all manifestation is
to take place. It creates atoms and holds them together
in molecules or elements, which become ever denser and
denser as the Energy is slowed down to slower and slower
rates of vibration. At last it is so slowed down, so crystallized,
that it appears to us as physical matter—dense, solid [Page
41] matter (so-called).
It is extremely interesting that our modern physicists now
tell us that matter is energy. They don't quite say " God's
Energy slowed down"
yet, but they have at least discovered it is energy.
When
the field of manifestation has been created, or prepared
the Second Aspect, the God the Son Aspect which is the
life or consciousness aspect, takes that matter — atoms — builds
it into forms and ensouls the forms. It is impossible
for us to conceive what the forms might be like at these
higher levels of existence; certainly they would not
be objective, concrete forms such as we know at the
physical level, but rather the archetypes or abstractions,
capable of being developed into infinite multiplicities — every
conceivable form that we know as physical forms. Perhaps
we might get some concept of this if we try to think
of the abstract idea of "tree"; a tree idea that would
contain every tree that has ever been or ever might
be — "treeness" we might
say; or the abstract idea of triangle, capable of containing
within itself every conceivable triangle. This Second
Aspect — the God the
Son Aspect — begins as a Divine Spark or Seed, with
everything latent or germinal. The initial process in manifestation
of this Second Aspect is a process of the life or consciousness — the
Divine Seed — involving
itself into denser and denser matter — forms — before
it can begin this long process of evolving itself back up,
out of matter. [Page
42]
Now some people may ask, " What
is the purpose of all this? If life is already Divine, why go through all of
this in order to reach the Divine again?" I suppose it is hardly our province
to question the Deity and His purposes, but it may be helpful in understanding
this whole process to use the law of correspondences that was
described in the talk on the " Plan ". Let us consider the acorn and the
oak tree and let the oak tree correspond to the Divine — the Whole or
One — and the acorn correspond to the Divine Spark or Seed.
Picture in your imagination a perfect oak tree, complete with acorns,
which are, of course, part of it; they are part of the perfect oak tree. Now
we could just leave it at that and the acorns could remain as part of the
perfect tree. But what happens ? The acorn drops from the oak tree,
descends into matter — the earth — gets itself
buried in dense matter for a period of time in order that it
may evolve out of matter again, to become itself a perfect
oak tree, complete with acorns capable of producing other oak
trees, which in their turn can repeat the same process. This
is a process of Unconscious Perfection, moving to Conscious
Imperfection (as the Divine Seed involves itself in matter),
and finally through evolution to Self-Conscious Perfection.
The life or consciousness begins, then, as a Divine Spark and
the first process is involution into denser and denser forms
until it finally involves itself" [Page
43] in
the densest physical matter — the mineral kingdom.
Let
us consider what life must be like in the mineral. In this
densest of physical matter we have life most limited or
restricted because of the germinal or seed-like nature
of that life and because the dense matter in which it is
involved provides the most rigid form. It takes an extreme
outside stimulus to call forth any response whatsoever
from the sleeping life within. So what do we find going
on at the mineral level? Tremendous, devastating upheavals — earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, extreme heat, extreme
cold, unbelievable pressures, deluges producing violent floods,
etc. I never think of this process of the evolution of
life in the mineral kingdom without being reminded of Walt
Disney's Fantasia. In one episode
he depicts his concept of the formation of the universe. In
his inimitable way he vividly portrays these great upheavals,
these ceaseless cataclysmic displays of nature's irresistible
forces calling forth some faint response from the sleeping
life within the mineral. Eventually, and we must remember
that what I am presenting in ten minutes took place over
a period of millions and millions of years, eventually
the involved life does begin to respond and the matter
does begin to be a little more plastic and we finally have
what we might call the "kings" of the mineral kingdom in the
jewels and crystals of that kingdom. [Page
44]
Certainly anyone who has
ever studied crystallography has been filled with awe and wonder
by the beauty, symmetry and precise formations of those crystals.
One great crystallographer, who had been illustrating the process
of the formation of crystals with pictures, concluded his lecture
with these words: "Atom is thus added to atom, and
molecule to molecule, not boisterously or fortuitously, but
silently and symmetrically, and in accordance with laws more
rigid than those which guide a human builder when he places
his bricks and stones together ... It runs, as if alive, into
the most beautiful symmetric forms". I think if we
could sum up the experience gained by the life in the mineral
kingdom we might say that it learns to respond to outside stimuli
and learns to build according to the laws of symmetry. The
very rigidity of the matter in which it builds, forces it to
build according to the laws of symmetry.
There are no great leaps in nature and scientists have difficulty drawing a
fine line of demarcation between what can be classified as mineral crystal
forms and some plant forms which seem to be almost mineral; also
between some plant forms that seem to have characteristics of the animal
kingdom. So this life that has evolved through the mineral kingdom moves
on to begin experience in the plant kingdom. Now it is much more
responsive to outside stimuli, plants being decidedly more sensitive than
minerals. They still build according to the laws of [Page 45] symmetry but now
in matter that is much more plastic and we find the myriads of beautiful
symmetric forms which make up the entire plant kingdom. In addition, as
the life moves on into the vegetable kingdom it begins to develop that
power of consciousness which we call sensation, the ability to feel and
react. In this kingdom we see responses to pleasure and pain, attraction
and repulsion. Thus the life is gradually evolving or moving up into the
realms shown on the chart as the emotional plane. Plants will go out to the
things they like and withdraw from the things they do not like. Plants that
like sun will reach out in the direction of the sun; those that like water send
their roots out in the direction of water. Those that do not like salt will
withdraw their roots from the ground where salt has been sprinkled and
send them out in the opposite direction. We may not be able to say that
plants actually have emotions or feelings but certainly there are indications
that the consciousness in them is evolving through matter in that direction.
Finally we come to what we might call the kings of the plant kingdom in the
great majestic trees and beautiful flowers and again the life or
consciousness graduates from this kingdom and moves on for experience
to the animal kingdom.
In
this kingdom we find still greater response to outside stimuli, the life
continues to build according to the laws of symmetry and the consciousness
of [Page
46] sensation
and pleasure and pain is much more highly developed. In
fact animals run the gamut of all the lower emotions and
when we get to our most highly evolved domestic animals — those
which we might think of as the "kings" of the animal kingdom, such as
highly bred dogs, horses, or cats — we find at least
an attempt at thought. I don't know that we could actually
say that animals think, but I am sure that any of you who have
had fine pets know that they make great attempts at times and
try their very best to understand what you are trying to say
or do for them. At least we see a reaching up towards the level
of mind, shown on our chart as the mental plane.
Now
I would like you to try to concentrate carefully as I make
this next point because it is a step which is most often
misunderstood. When we try to express this great scheme
of life evolving through all the forms of nature in this
vast sweep of evolution, people sometimes say, "you are
trying to tell me I have been an animal", or that "if I
don't live this life as I should, I will come back as a
butterfly or worm or something of the sort". Now if you
will follow this next step closely you will see that such
a thing is just as impossible as it would be for the hen
to become the egg again. Something else has to happen.
Up to this point in evolution, the summit of the animal
kingdom, we have only two Aspects of God's Nature in manifestation — the
Divine [Page
47] Creative Energy
or Holy Spirit Aspect, which has created matter, and the Life
or consciousness Aspect, God the Son Aspect, which has taken
that matter and built it into forms which it has ensouled;
first in the mineral, then in the plant, and finally in the
animal kingdoms. It first involved itself in matter and then
evolved up through matter to the point of reaching toward mind,
where the triangle is placed on our diagram, and that is as
far as it can go. Then, as if sensing its own incompleteness,
it reaches up for fulfilment, for something more to be added.
We sometimes see this happen, I think, when we see animals
make great sacrifices or perform acts of heroism, love, and
devotion; when a dog, for example, gives everything for its
master in some supreme effort, as if reaching up to something
higher or more, sacrificing the lesser to the greater. The
life thus reaching up forms, as it were, a chalice into which,
in response to this great upsurge, the God the Father Aspect — Pure
Spirit, uninvolved in matter in any way whatever, flashes
down and a human soul is created. This individualization process
has been compared to a carbon arc lamp, with one positive
pole and one negative. When the two are near enough to each
other the resistance of the air is overcome, the current jumps
from one pole to the other, the arc is formed and the light
blazes. Now we have Pure Spirit which is Divine Will, Divine
Love and Divine Intelligence, added to these other two [Page
48] Aspects of
God that have been manifesting up to this point. Then — and
only then — is a human soul created. This new born soul
now has latent within it all Divine qualities, however germinal
or seed-like — he is a God
in the becoming. This evolutionary process continues through
human evolution and on to superhuman levels and on and on to
levels beyond our capacity to comprehend until complete perfection
is reached.
The
first talk spoke of three great gaps in the scheme of evolution,
as painted by science. A possible solution to those gaps,
or mysteries, I might suggest, can be seen in the diagram.
The first gap was the unanswered question, " Where
does matter come from? Where do the atoms or sub-atomic
particles come from that start the creation of a universe? " I
would like to suggest that the Third Aspect, the Holy Spirit
or Divine, Creative Energy Aspect of God's Nature brings
into being the necessary matter, shown as the central column
of the diagram. The second gap was the unanswered question, " Where
does the consciousness of living things come from? What
about the first living cell?" Might I suggest this comes
from the God the Son Aspect which ensouls all forms and is
represented by the left descending curve . and its rise
to the triangle on the chart. The third unanswered question
was, " Where does the first human come from,
the missing link in this evolutionary process of science? " I
would like to suggest [Page
49] that the human
soul or individual is only created after the response of the
God the Father Aspect — Pure
Spirit — has
been added, which is represented by the meeting of forces at
the triangle at the lower right of the diagram.
But we set
out to discover what we really are and how we fit
into the scheme of things. So for a few minutes now let us
consider human evolution. I would like you to try in your
imagination to picture standing beside you the most primitive
human of whom you can conceive; some savage of the dark jungles
of Africa, or a cave man perhaps. Then, on the other side
of you, picture the most perfect human being of whom you
can conceive; some great Sage, or Saint, or Spiritual King.
Now compare the two. Compare them physically — this
crude, hulky, unresponsive physical body contrasted with
this delicately formed, beautiful, sensitive, physical body.
Compare them emotionally. Compare them mentally.
I
am always reminded of the story told of the British Government,
concerned with the welfare of a group of Australian Aborigines,
who then provided them with blankets during some very
cold weather. The primitives were very happy to wrap
themselves in the blankets at night but in the morning,
when the sun came out and it warmed up, they just left
their blankets or traded them for food — incapable
of creating a single mental process without outside stimuli.
It is said that the first real step in the [Page
50] use of the
human mind is taken when we can generate one thought within
ourselves lacking outside stimuli — when
an individual can remember.
"It was cold last night " and reason that " it may be cold
tonight and I had better save the blanket". Now, compare that
situation with that of the great Sage or Saint you have just
imagined. Compare them morally. Compare them spiritually and
every other way. How can you say to these two individuals, " Be
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect",
and expect that to occur in one lifetime? It may happen to
the great being you have pictured, but surely it is impossible
for the primitive one, is it not? How are you going to change
the primitive being into the great being?
I
would like to suggest that it is accomplished in very much
the same way that you change an infant into a mature
adult. The infant contains within itself the full potential
of the adult, but that potential is latent — it
is germinal. It needs time and experience and proper environment
in which to unfold the adult capacity. In just the same
way the savage contains within himself the full potential
of the Saint, he is simply younger, with the capacity
latent instead of in full flower. How, then, does the infant
progress to adulthood? The child spends approximately
(and these figures are very approximate and flexible)
the first seven years of his life, developing and learning
to control and use the physical body — learning
to walk, learning to talk, [Page
51] to move his
arms and get his balance, learning to hold or grasp things,
and many other physical skills. He eats, sleeps and plays and
this constitutes life at this age. He spends approximately
the next seven years having a wonderful time of activity with
these newly acquired skills of the physical body; any who have
had contact with such children, know the tremendous physical
activity of this age. It is at this time the child begins the
struggle of developing the emotions. This is the adolescent
age which many find so difficult. For approximately the next
seven years they experience these great emotional expansions — falling
in love, "getting
religion", discovering the beauties of nature, or art or music,
etc.. It is during this time that unfoldment of the mind begins.
They now reach the age when they know so much that father can
tell them nothing, teacher can tell them nothing — they
just know it all and there is nothing anyone can tell them.
Finally they develop the mind and become mature adults who
will eventually develop a little wisdom, we hope.
Now
look at the great family of humanity and see if there are
not individuals at each of these levels. There are still
some infants — young souls — who
are fully occupied with developing at the physical level. They
are interested simply in eating and sleeping and doing
a little physical work or activity — responding to
physical stimuli — and this is the extent
of life for them. Perhaps most of humanity is at the adolescent
level. Look at [Page
52]
humanity and
see if the main interests of the mass of people do not
lie at this emotional level. What do people turn to or
want as soon as the pressure of earning a living lets up?
What do people do when they have leisure? What is the first
thing they think of? Is it not having fun, experiencing
a new thrill or emotional excitement of some kind ? We
find a few of humanity, in comparison with the whole, at
the next level — the
level of developing the mind. They know so much and are so
proud and confident of what they know that no one can tell
them anything — very
characteristic of this lower mind level of development.
Here and there we come across those rare individuals who are
the mature adults of humanity, who have developed a little
real wisdom. Now, just as the child must go through the elementary
grades and then to high school and on to college and as he
spends a period in a chemistry laboratory to learn chemistry,
in an art studio to learn art and on an athletic field to learn
sports; so on a far larger scale the growing human soul has
a whole lifetime which is just one day in the world school,
first in one culture and then another, in one nation and then
another, in this religion and then that, in different races,
different sexes, at different social levels in order to develop
all capacities and learn all the lessons in this world school.
As you think of the perfected human being you will realize that
he has, balanced within [Page 53] himself all capacities. He has those we
think of as masculine and those we think of as feminine qualities, those we
think of as Eastern and those we think of as Western, etc. He could
respond to all peoples, be at home in all circumstances, in any
environment, because he has completed life's school, learned all its
lessons and unfolded all his capacities.
Just as we begin tomorrow where we leave off tonight, so in this world
school whatever capacity we unfold in one life is ours for all time. As we
live this life today, so we face its consequences tomorrow or on some other
tomorrow. We progress in a world of absolute law, absolute order and
absolute justice according to good common sense and reason, until we
have completed life's school. We find, if we look around, that we ourselves,
and everyone else, stand somewhere between the primitive savage and
the perfected being. The savage has within himself all that the saint has.
He is simply younger. It is no discredit to him that he is primitive any more
than it is to the child that he is in the first grade while another is graduating
from the university. He simply started later, that is all; he will one day reach
that status when he has had the time to unfold and the same is true of the
savage also.
Now,
how does this larger framework of Theosophy — this viewing of life
from the mountain top in its true perspective — this
seeing all of life through [Page 54] the eyes of the Real Self change our attitude or approach to
living ? It seems to me it is revolutionary in its effect. It is like changing
our center of awareness from the circumference or periphery of the wheel
to the hub or center.
First
of all, a person with such a viewpoint realizes that there
is a Supreme Power, which is all-wise and all-loving, directing
the Universe; that there is a Divine Plan which is evolution
or growth and progress for all life; that that Plan is
working for good regardless of the apparent chaos on the
surface, and that the final attainment will be unimaginable
glory for every human being. He knows that he is part of
that Divine Life and Plan — there is
nothing else outside of God — with all capacity latent
within himself waiting to be unfolded. He knows for a fact
that all life is one great brotherhood. For him brotherhood
is not sentimental nonsense or an impractical ideal, it is
a reality and only that which is good for the whole can be
really good for any single individual. He therefore ceases
selfish effort for personal gain and devotes his life to the
service of all.
Next
he realizes that the life of the True Self is the only
life worth living and devotes all of his energies to
that life. He ceases to identify himself with his bodies — his masks — and
therefore gradually gains control of them, so that they
become a perfect channel for expressing the Divine Life
within. He regards all troubles or problems, all so-called
evils, [Page
55] simply as
outside stimuli, the resisting force, which helps to call the True Self into
full bloom and develop all of his latent capacities. He knows that whatever
comes to him is for his own good, regardless of how much his personality
may feel otherwise, that there is no such thing as chance. He is aware that
he is in the exact circumstances he has created and which provide the
means or opportunity by which he may take the next step forward, so he
uses them instead of longing for different circumstances.
He knows death as a recurring and natural event in growth and so has no
fear of such an event but discards the worn-out body much as he would a
worn-out coat. He looks on one life-time simply as one day in the world
school in which he learns the lessons of human evolution and he tries to
apply himself and learn his lessons well that he may pass on and graduate
and be more helpful to others. He knows that he wakes up each morning
with the same capacities with which he went to bed; that no miracle
happens overnight to change him from a third-grader to an eighth-grader
and that neither will he wake up tomorrow or begin his new incarnation as a
bootblack if he has developed the capacities of a great scientist or
musician.
From
such a vantage point all of life becomes a great adventure,
a great drama in which we each have a part to play; a great
symphony which will only be completed when we sound forth
our own [Page
56] individual
note in perfection to complete the One Perfect Harmony.
Then will we truly know our Real Self which is Divine and
our True Destiny which is the attainment of Absolute Bliss.[Page
57]
E. S. L.
- 3 -
REINCARNATION
FROM time to time, in the growth of the civilization of the west, a
great new idea has dawned on man's understanding. As this master
concept has been grasped, first by one man, then by a few, then by more
and more, with it has come a greatly increased understanding of the nature
of the objective forms of the universe which surrounds us, and of the
subjective nature and significance of man in relation to these forms.
One
such master concept for example, which first dawned on
man's understanding several hundred years ago was the idea
that the earth on which we live is not flat but is round.
As this idea was grasped, first by a few, then by more
and more until finally it came to be generally accepted,
with it came a clearer objective picture of the nature of this
earth on which we live, then of its position in the Solar
System and the Universe, and of man's subjective relation
to it.
Another such idea which dawned on man's understanding in the last
century was the master concept of evolution, the great theory which shows
that there is a scheme, which links together the [Page 58] forms of every living
thing found on earth today or which ever has lived. This concept places
every plant and creature somewhere on the main trunk, or on one of the
branches of this great, ever unfolding tree of evolution. As this idea was
grasped, man saw the relationship of the objective forms of all living things
to each other and something of his own relationship to them.
I believe that a third such idea, which is emerging into the world of man's
understanding in the occidental world today, is the idea of Reincarnation,
which shows man as a pilgrim; soul, moving forward rhythmically, over vast
periods of time, to the unfoldment of his spiritual powers. As men grasp this
master concept they gain a vastly increased understanding of the objective
nature and position of man in this; world of form, and of his subjective and
spiritual relation to matter.
A strange thing about these ideas is that they are all ideas which were
known in the ancient cultures and had spread into the Mediterranean
civilizations, which were the advance guards of modern western culture.
They were swept aside and lost when the barbarian invaders wiped out
those civilizations, and plunged Europe into the Dark Ages. Very slowly at
first, and then more rapidly, man has rediscovered them for himself. By
thus rediscovering them, however, he has found them in a form
unencumbered by the encrustations of superstition [Page 59] and time
which have degraded, or sometimes almost completely buried them in
older cultures.
A very natural reaction, and perhaps a purifying force, has been the
opposition which has greeted these ideas as they have been presented
by their champions. This opposition is natural, for the ideas
fundamentally change men's views on life and upset widely accepted
ideas. The opposition to the idea that the earth is round was at first
very strong, but it has gradually crumbled and the idea is now
almost universally accepted. Remnants of the old way of thinking
still linger on, however, and are championed by a small group of
people who call themselves the Flat Earthists and
insist that the earth is flat. The idea of Evolution is more
recent and so the opposition to it, though steadily diminishing,
is still quite strong and is represented by a considerable
group who might be called the " Anti-evolutionists ", and
who generally maintain that every living thing was spontaneously
created. The idea of Reincarnation is still only accepted by
a minority of the western world, and the opposition largely
confines itself to ridicule, but it is gaining adherents at
an ever increasing pace.
Schopenhauer said that when a new truth is presented to the world it
passes through three phases. First, it is met with scorn and ridicule.
Second it is violently and forcefully attacked. Finally it is accepted as a self-evident truth. These [Page 60]three stages may perhaps be seen in the
reaction to these three ideas.
One of the great battle cries of the opponents of these master concepts
has always been that they are unspiritual, that they degrade and belittle
man. This opposition comes from a misunderstanding of their true nature
for when rightly understood, they cause man to stand in awe before the
majesty and vastness of the laws which they reveal as governing the
universe.
One of the greatest contributions which the Theosophical Society has
made in the last eighty years, is to present Reincarnation as the great
spiritual idea which it is; proclaiming it as a new master concept in the west
and re-proclaiming its spiritual significance in the Orient. Reincarnation is
here presented as the majestic method by which the Divine Spark in each
human being moves steadily forward towards the expression of its divine
nature in the world of form. It is presented unencumbered by superstitions
such as that which speaks of men reincarnating as animals and plants.
Such changes are as impossible as it is impossible for a hen to become an
egg again.
One of the simplest methods of explaining Reincarnation is by answering
the questions a man might ask who was meeting the idea for the first time.
This method will be used here, answering the following questions:
1. What
is Reincarnation? 2. What
Reincarnates? [Page
61]
3. Who believes in Reincarnation ?
4. What is the evidence
for Reincarnation ?
5. Is Reincarnation a Christian teaching?
6. Why do
we not remember our past lives?
7. How does a belief in
Reincarnation affect our outlook on life?
WHAT IS
REINCARNATION?
The
first question an enquirer might ask is "What is Reincarnation?" One
definition is; Reincarnation is the vast rhythmic process by which the
spiritual self in man unfolds its spiritualpowers in the world of form. This
process takes vast periods of time, commensurate with the periods of time
which science sees as necessary for the evolution of the forms of living
things.
Rhythmic
motion seems to be a basic property of matter and of
all living things. There are the characteristic rhythms
or vibrations of every chemical element, which identify
it for us in the light of stars; there are rhythms of
sound waves, heart beats, breathing; rhythms of day and night
and the human rhythm of waking and sleeping which keeps
pace with it; there are rhythms of the phases of the
moon, of the seasons, vaster rhythms of ice-ages followed
by temperate periods, the majestic rhythm of the precession
of the equinoxes which requires 25,000 years for one complete
rhythmic swing and, vastest of all science's rhythmic
concepts, the idea [Page
62] that
we may live in a " Pulsating Universe " where one complete
cycle, or pulsation, will take several thousands of millions
of years.
Reincarnation is one of the greater rhythmic processes of which our lifetime
is one part of one pulsation. In the complete life cycle of a normal human
being, we see the lowest part of one such vast pulsation of expression and
withdrawal. Life begins by manifesting feebly through the infant body,
hardly able to control its environment at all. Through childhood and youth
this life learns to use its instruments and to express itself more effectively
while rushing forth for new experiences, eager to try everything and to
conquer the world. It then passes on through maturity and gradually
becomes more reflective and contemplative as it approaches old age.
The desire for exciting new experiences fades and the withdrawal of life is
complete at death.
Many
thinkers considering the forthgoing and return phases
of human life have thought them to be the lower portion
of a far greater rhythmic motion. The first phase is
the descent of the soul, from its sublime, free, spiritual
realms to inhabit .a baby form, and to learn to express itself
through that form. The second phase begins somewhere
around the middle of life and continues after death in
a process of withdrawal from the physical plane and assimilation,
at successively higher levels, of the experiences on
earth. Finally, having completely [Page
63] withdrawn
and cast off all instruments of personal experience,
it stands again in its spiritual and formless nature,
ready to begin its next rhythmic manifestation and to descend
into matter and to unfold more powers.
From such a view point, which covers vast periods of time, what we call a
lifetime is as a day in the life of the true spiritual man, which moves forward
on a vast pilgrimage to the complete unfoldment of his spiritual powers,
every lifetime bringing him closer to his great goal of complete self-expression.
During
the Dark Ages man's concept of time was limited to a few thousand years at
most. Science broke this limitation for the physical world of nature and
the concept of reincarnation similarly breaks it for man himself showing
him as an immortal being moving rhythmically forward in vast eras of time.
An analogy which some people have found helpful in trying to understand
Reincarnation is to compare the soul of man to an eagle, perched in its erie
high above a lake. From time to time the eagle leaves its nest, dives into
the lake, catches a fish and returns to its nest where it eats, digests and
assimilates the fish and after some time once again becomes hungry and
dives into the water for more food. This descent into the water corresponds
to the taking of a human body, catching the fish may be compared to the
gathering of experience in the [Page 64] world
of flesh and the time of digestion and assimilation to the
time of digesting and assimilating of experiences during the
periods between lives. This is of course only an analogy and
must not be carried too far; it does however help in answering
the question " How long is the period between lives? " The
periods between the descents of the eagle depend in a general
way on the size of the fish caught and the periods between
the descent of the soul into incarnation depend in a general
way on the amount of experience gathered. However, a short
life can be very rich in deep and significant experiences and
a long life can run smoothly with few deeply stirring events.
Also, the individual may still be unable to deeply understand
and assimilate his experiences and thus to learn their lessons
fully. In general however, a longer life would be followed
by a longer period between lives and a person with a spiritual
and philanthropic outlook on life and its deeper meanings would
pass a far longer period absorbing experiences between lives
than would the simple savage. The periods, seem to range from
a few years to two thousand years or even more in exceptional
cases.
WHAT REINCARNATES?
The
question "What reincarnates?" is perhaps one of the most
difficult to answer for in our language we have words for
all the phenomena of matter, space and time, but that which
reincarnates is the [Page
65] part of man
which belongs to the formless non-material and timeless worlds.
It is probably the impossibility of answering this question
objectively which has led to the development of the idea that
only the qualities of an individual reincarnate, not the man
himself. The physical body and all of its characteristics of
height, strength, complexion etc will not reincarnate. The
emotional nature, with all its personal likes and dislikes
will not reincarnate. The mental nature, with its accumulated
knowledge and its habits of thinking will not reincarnate.
That which is above all these aspects of the personality of
man, is that which reincarnates.
In
normal daily life we are not aware of this inmost self, "The
Inner Ruler Immortal". In our moments of great inspiration,
however, we transcend the limitations of form and time
to a certain extent and feel the wonder and beauty of the
life behind all forms around us. In these moments we are
aware of our inmost self and we then know that which reincarnates.
The
word 'body' comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word 'Bodig'
which means a dwelling place. The word 'abode' also comes
from the same root. This is what our bodies really are — the
temporary abode or abiding place of the immortal Self which
reincarnates.
It
is said of that which reincarnates that it is immortal,
and " Its
future is the future of a thing whose growth and splendor
have no limits". [Page 66]
WHO BELIEVES IN REINCARNATION?
People
who ask the question " Who believes in Reincarnation?" are
sometimes startled to be told that most people believe in Reincarnation,
but it is undoubtedly true that if all human beings were
questioned on their belief, most of mankind would assert
its belief in a great rhythmic process in which the spiritual
self in man descends into incarnation again and again.
There would be great differences of mass opinion in different
areas and among different racial and religious groups,
the idea being very widely accepted in India and many oriental
countries but being accepted by only a minority in Europe
and America. As regards the prevalence of the idea in the
west the only figures I can give are those of Dr. Margaret
Meade, who quoted a London Sunday Times poll as showing
that in England one person in eight, or about twelve and
a half percent, believed in Reincarnation, The idea is
becoming more and more generally accepted in Europe and
America. In addition to this type of answer, however, people
who ask this question usually want to know the names of people,
whose opinions are respected, who have openly stated their
belief in this great principle of rhythmic growth of an
immortal self in man by repeated descent into incarnation.
Here then is a very brief and incomplete list to indicate
the type of people who hold such a belief:[Page
67]
Ralph
Waldo Emerson
Kahil
Gibran
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Robert
Browning
Tennyson
Goethe
Leslie Wetherhead (Rev.)
John
Masefield
Longfellow
Wordsworth
Plato
Schopenhauer
Pythagoras
Shri
Krishna
Walt Whitman
The
Buddha
A listener once commented that this list was composed entirely of artists,
philosophers, poets and men of religion and said that practical men do not
believe in Reincarnation. Here are the names of a few practical men who
have stated their belief in it:
Henry Ford,
Lord Dowding
Thomas Edison
Benjamin Franklin.
I like to quote Benjamin Franklin's statement of Reincarnation because he
lived at a time when the idea was almost unknown in America and would
have been considered shocking by most people, yet he had such a
delightful way of stating new ideas in a whimsical, humorous way, that was
so amusing that it raised no objection. Here is his epitaph, proclaiming his
belief in the great principle of rhythmic manifestation. It is inscribed on a
brass plate beside his grave in Philadelphia:[Page
68]
The
body of Benjamin Franklin, printer, like the cover
of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped
of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for
worms. But the work shall not be lost, for it will, as
he believed, appear once more, in a new and more elegant
edition, revised and corrected by the author.
WHAT IS
THE EVIDENCE FOR REINCARNATION?
When enquirers ask for evidence of reincarnation, they usually first ask for
the evidence of individuals who can remember past lives clearly and in
detail. Such evidence is not nearly so valuable as the enquirer expects
because it depends on the capacity of the individual to observe accurately
without being misled or misleading others. This is a most difficult thing to
do, even in material things, but when the observation is largely subjective,
as in such cases, the difficulties increase greatly. Such evidence is
available, notably in the writings of C. W. Leadbeater and others. Each
enquirer must decide for himself how much credence he will put in these
observers' statements and so this evidence will not be considered here.
The next type of evidence, which periodically arouses much popular
interest, is that of the statements of a subject in a hypnotic trance, who is
made to recall successively the events of his youth, childhood, and infancy.
An effort is then made to have the subject transcend the barrier of death
and recall his previous lives. An account of such an attempt, which created
much interest, was published in the book The Search for Bridey Murphy.
But this [Page 69] evidence is unsatisfactory also, for even if a subject
described what he called his previous life, and subsequent investigations
showed that the individual described had really lived, and the details were
correctly described, and even if it was found impossible that he could have
read or been told about that individual's life, the matter would still not be
proved. There are other possible explanations for such phenomena which
the sceptic will accept; telepathy, clairvoyance, influencing by a deceased
spirit. Dr J B Rhine, of Duke University, one of the outstanding authorities
on the scientific evaluation of objective evidence in support of facts relating
to non-material phenomena, stated emphatically that such evidence would
not be at all acceptable as scientific proof of Reincarnation.
Where then are we to seek for evidence of Reincarnation ? I suggest that
we should proceed as a scientist proceeds, when seeking the principle
underlying a set of phenomena. He first observes as many examples of the
phenomena as he can. Then he thinks over these examples and takes, as
a hypothesis, or possible explanation, some idea which may explain them
all. This he then tries to apply to all his observations. If it does not fit he
discards it. If it fits and appears to apply in all cases, he will become more
sure of its truth and may begin to call it a theory, and finally after very
widespread corroboration he may announce it as a law. Each individual
considering the idea of Reincarnation [Page 70] should first take it as a
hypothesis and try to apply it to human life around him. He will then be able
to decide whether, in his understanding of life. Reincarnation should be
accepted as a theory, or a law, or whether it should be discarded as not
fitting the observed facts. He should not make the mistake of rejecting the
obvious influences on human character of heredity, environment and
psychological blocks, but neither should he accept the assumption that
they explain all. The efforts to explain human capacity and behavior by
these factors alone sometimes lead to the most solemn pronouncements of
the most fantastic explanations which strain human credulity to the limit.
Let us then, consider some phenomena, such as we meet in our everyday
world, and see how simple and logical is their explanation when
Reincarnation is taken as an additional hypothesis to the factors of
heredity, environment, and psychological disturbances.
First there is the fact that, from time to time, child prodigies appear such as
the great musician Mozart. Mozart, at the age of six was able to play so
beautifully that he toured Europe, charming his listeners in all the courts.
He was already a composer at the same early age. How did a child gain
the capacity to put such beauty and depth of feeling into his music, a
capacity which many adults have failed to achieve after a life-time of study
? The explanation of Reincarnation is that here is one who, in his previous
life, or lives, has [Page 71] worked at the task of making music a channel for
the expression of beauty and spiritual truths. In this life he had a musical
heredity, a musical environment from birth and he was probably reborn
very rapidly after his previous incarnation. Thus he, found in this life a clear
channel through which this capacity re-expressed itself immediately.
Such outstanding prodigies are rare and we seldom meet them in daily life
but in any group of children you will find that each comes with a certain
aptitude or natural capacity for some line of activity, while there are other
lines for which he seems to have little or no such aptitude. The explanation
of reincarnation is that these natural capacities are the results of work and
training in previous lives and the skills for which they must now work so
hard are those on which little effort has been spent in the past. The limiting
factors of physical heredity, environmental pressures and psychological
strains must be recognized as real factors, but they do not begin to give a
full explanation of these facts for many thinking people.
All evidence for Reincarnation depends ultimately on memory, although the
facts are not always recognized as memory. What we have considered
here is the memory of capacity or skill.
Let us now consider our relations with people around us. In our daily lives
many of us meet hundreds of people, and with most of these the [Page 72]
contact is purely superficial, but, perhaps once in a lifetime or perhaps
more often, we may have met someone with whom we quickly felt
completely at home and felt that there was a deep mutual understanding.
With him we felt a complete rapport and we knew that we could talk of the
ideas and thoughts closest to our inmost nature, ideas seldom discussed
lest they be misunderstood.
After discounting such experiences for the attraction of the opposite sex
and for the fascination of a pleasing social personality, the explanation of
Reincarnation is that here we are meeting again someone with whom we
have worked, perhaps many times, and in various relationships, in previous
lives and though we have never before met in this life, yet soul instantly
recognizes soul and the understanding from that level pervades the
personality. Such sudden friendships, for those fortunate enough to have
them, are striking verifications of the hypothesis of Reincarnation, through
memories of friends from the past.
A third set of facts to which to apply the hypothesis of reincarnation is that
dealing with our personal memories. Very few people can remember even
isolated scenes from another incarnation; even fewer can review at will any
or all of their previous lives, although this capacity will one day unfold in all
of us. Many people, however, with no clairvoyant faculties whatever, have
vague and nebulous memories of previous lives, which are, [Page 73]
nevertheless, memories. These express themselves in a vague interest
and a feeling of familiarity towards a certain nation, a certain religion or a
certain period of history. Perhaps the art work, the sculpture or the ruins of
some nation seem strangely familiar and fascinating. Some of these
findings, after discounting for similarity with earlier environments etc, are
explainable only by Reincarnation as the vague and blurred memories of
experiences among these things in previous lives.
Another kind of memory of experiences is that of the emotional impact of
events in a previous life which made a deep impression: difficulties which,
in that life were never overcome. Such memories are frequently awakened
by events in this life which have elements of similarity. For example, the
horror and despair which resulted from being imprisoned in a previous life
may be re-awakened by a childhood experience of being shut up in a dark
place. Perhaps only the emotions of fear and despair are recalled while the
details of the terrible experience which originally caused them are
forgotten. These deep, painful emotions may then exert a crippling
influence on the personality in this life. This is frequently the case in
unexplainable fears such as fear of water, fear of heights or fear of
explosions and noises which may recall disasters in previous lives caused
by drowning, falls or death on a battlefield. Recently fear of the noise of an
airplane motor may be added to such [Page 74] lists. Psychiatrists and others
who trace back emotional blocks to outwardly insignificant events of
childhood often get only to the outer circumstances of this life which
reawakened the deep emotions connected with those major experiences of
previous lives. But this discovery is important to the psychiatrist, who then
works, quite correctly, on healing the emotional disturbance associated
with these events. These are some of the verifications of Reincarnation
from our memories of previous events and places.
As we progress towards the unfoldment of the powers of the spiritual self in
the world of form, we have to unfold those virtues which we associate with
noble men, such as courage, strength and mental power and we also have
to unfold those virtues which we associate with noble women such as
patience, gentleness and compassion. The perfect man or woman has all
of these, unfolded to the full. As we progress towards this goal it may well
happen that we may have a series of lives in one sex and then transfer to
the opposite sex. The first life after the change is apt to be difficult and to
be one in which we appear in the unfortunate role of the effeminate man or
the masculine woman. There are other reasons for this phenomena but the
hypothesis of Reincarnation here gives a valuable key and shows why
such individuals need our sympathy and help.
The beautiful harmonious relationship between the majestic rhythm of
Reincarnation and the [Page 75] absolute certainty of natural law shows to the
seeker for understanding, a magnificent scheme unfolding with perfect
justice for every individual. This moral and ethical vindication of
Reincarnation is a most important piece of evidence but it will not be
discussed here as it is fully developed in the next talk titled Divine Justice.
Here then are some of the factors to be considered by the thoughtful
person who is willing to take reincarnation as a hypothesis and apply it,
together with the facts of heredity, environment and psychological
disturbances to the circumstances of life around him. He will then be able
to decide for himself if Reincarnation is a correct hypothesis.
IS IT A CHRISTIAN TEACHING?
The Christian Church does not yet openly preach a belief in Reincarnation,
although I personally know several clergymen of different denominations
who firmly believe in it. But it was a current belief among many of the
peoples of Palestine at the time of the Christ. There are several references
in the Bible to the general acceptance of this idea. There is, for example,
the well known instance in which the Christ asked his disciples the
question:
"Whom
say the people that I am ?" The answers show that the question
was understood to mean " Of whom do the people think that I
am a Reincarnation? " for they said that " Some say John the
Baptist; but some say Elias and others, Jeremias. [Page
76] or, one of
the prophets" (Math
16. 13-14). One unmistakable reference, in the words of the
Christ Himself, is His statement with regard to John the Baptist: " If
ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come" (Matt.
11, 13-15). Reincarnation gradually dropped from the outer
teaching of the early Christian Church although fragments of
it appear in the doctrine of the resurrection.
The
idea of the resurrection of the bodies of all men is obviously
a scientific impossibility, even if all the atoms in one
man's body could be brought together again. Unquestionably
many of the atoms used in his body have been used again
in those of other men, and all bodies could not therefore
be resurrected simultaneously. The idea of the resurrection "of
the body"
may well be the result of interpretation and translation of
those who failed to see the true meaning of the phrase. Perhaps
it should be rendered as the resurrection "in a body". In
spite of the fact that Reincarnation is not one of the accepted
teachings of the Christian Church today there is a steadily
increasing number of clergymen who believe in it and a smaller,
and also steadily growing number who preach the spiritual ideal
of Reincarnation.
WHY DO WE NOT REMEMBER OUR PAST LIVES?
The
questioner who asks " Why do we not remember our past lives?" is
under a misapprehension, for unquestionably the Real Self,
that [Page 77]
which reincarnates, does remember.
However, the questioner usually means " Why do we not remember the details of previous lives such as
names and physical appearances, occupations and adventures, home life
and family relationships?" In order to answer this question let us first see
what we remember and what we forget of our present incarnation. Most of
us have learned to read and write in this life. We probably acquired these
skills by attending classes in primary school for some years. If today we
were asked to describe in detail the lesson on a specific day, most of us
would be unable to answer such simple questions as: " Who was the
teacher and what did he say ? " What was the lesson you learned and who
were all the other students in the class?" We have forgotten
this mass of unimportant detail connected with the learning
but we remember the essence of those many experiences and use
it whenever we read and write. So it is with memory of past
lives, the details of experiences in previous lives are forgotten
but we carry with us, and use constantly, the essence of those
experiences in our daily lives. In a similar way the personality
of this life remembers past lives. First, as was discussed
under evidences there are the memories of skills and accomplishments
which express themselves in natural aptitudes in this life. Then there are the
memories of people, occasionally expressing themselves in sudden and
deep friendships; memories appearing as fascination [Page 78] for certaincountries, cultures and art work, and memories showing themselves as
unreasonable fears.
But
the most important memory is that which appears as conscience.
In previous lives we have all made decisions, performed
actions of far-reaching consequences, bringing sorrow or
happiness in their wake. The details of those decisions
and consequences are all forgotten, but their essence is
remembered and guides and directs us in this life when
we have similar problems to face, similar decisions to
make. It speaks to us as
"the still small voice", the voice of conscience, which is
the memory of our past experiences. The existence of such individual
conscience, explains why some men, even though they have been
taught otherwise by parents, schools and religious teachers,
will rob a man if they can get him at a disadvantage, and think
they can avoid capture. Others, who sometimes have had little
advantage of moral instruction in this life, nevertheless feel,
in their inmost being, that such action is wrong and will have
none of it. In such ways as these we remember our previous
lives.
HOW DOES A BELIEF IN REINCARNATION
AFFECT OUR OUTLOOK
ON LIFE?
One
who believes in Reincarnation realizes that his body and
personality, which are usually mistaken for the man, form
only the temporary outer [Page
79] husk of the
real man, the soul within. From this point of view it is wrong
to say "Man has a soul" if by man we mean the outer form of
flesh and blood and the personality that goes with it, for
these are temporary things which will disintegrate at the end
of the earthly life. Such a mortal creature cannot possess
something which is immortal and spiritual. The statement should
be reversed and it should be said " Man is a soul and has a
body."
He has it for the period of a lifetime and then discards it
as we discard worn out clothes. Looked at from this point of
view, things, such as prestige, power, wealth and fame, which
we gain or lose for one life-time only, are relatively insignificant.
The significant things are the qualities we are building into
our immortal characters, the future opportunities we are preparing
by our actions and the human links of all kinds which we are
making that will determine our future contacts. This outlook
gives the believer in Reincarnation a completely different
standard by which to judge himself and others, to evaluate
events and to plan his actions.
When one with an understanding of Reincarnation sees a child, he knows
that he is seeing one whose mind is not like a blank slate, on which
teachers and parents can write what character and capacities they choose.
He knows that he is looking at the instrument of a soul who is seeking to
express more fully, capacities already partly developed in the [Page 80] past
and to develop new qualities and powers in this life. Parents and teachers
have a great privilege and responsibility to train the new body and
personality to be healthy, pure and alert, to be self-controlled and free from
fear. They can provide the healthy environment in which the shoots of
future qualities and powers may develop into buds which will later blossom
forth as the expressions of the beauty of the soul within.
Such a believer
sees all humanity as forming a great life wave, moving steadily
forward to a magnificent goal. No matter how high or how
low one may stand, he sees some who are ahead of him, from
whom he can learn, some who stand at his own level, with
whom he can work side by side, and others behind him who
need his help. Thus he learns the great law that progress
for one can only be made by helping others. The individual
who thus sees the great spiritual reality behind the law
of Reincarnation feels awe as he contemplates the majesty
of the steady forward movement of all mankind and is filled
with reverence for the Great Law which controls and directs
this stupendous scheme. [Page
81]
F.L.
- 4 -
DOES JUSTICE RULE THE WORLD?
THERE comes a time in the life of nearly all of us when we begin to
question the justice of life. Sometimes this questioning comes because of
circumstances in which we find ourselves; sometimes because of
something that has happened to those near and dear to us; sometimes
because of injustices we see happening to the larger family of humanity.
We cannot look anywhere about us without observing every kind of
inequality, apparent injustice and undeserved suffering until it is no wonder
many people begin to question whether there is a God at all and, if so,
whether He is a just God.
Why are there so many apparently unearned gifts and opportunities and so
much seemingly undeserved suffering? Why should one child be born in
the slums, unwanted, unloved, surrounded by disease and poverty, with no
opportunities, and another be born with loving and intelligent parents who
provide him with every possible opportunity ? Why is one particular child
struck down and crippled for life by a careless driver ? Did that innocent
child do anything to deserve such a life of handicaps and suffering or is it
all just chance ? Why [Page 82] was it that child instead of you or me ? If
there is justice in the world why should some men be born with strong
healthy bodies and others weak, diseased, deformed, handicapped and
sickly? Why are some endowed with brains of great intellectual capacity
and some born imbeciles ? What has the new-born child done to deserve
such heritage?
Turn where we will, the world is full of inequalities, apparent injustices and
moral chaos. And yet, while there seems to be no pervading law of justice
governing our moral or intangible world, when we turn to the laws of nature
and the physical world we find the complete opposite. Our entire modern
material civilization rests on the dependability and immutability of natural
law. Nature is synonymous with law. Fire does not burn today and freeze
tomorrow. Have you ever stopped to think how we depend on these laws
and what would happen if they suddenly ceased to work? Consider the
laws of electricity. If you press the switch and the light does not go on you
do not ask if the laws governing the flow of electricity have suddenly
changed; rather, you wonder what is wrong with the man-made equipment,
whether a fuse is blown or the power turned off, but you rely on the laws of
electricity being unchanged. All of our modern manufacturing is made
possible because of the dependability and immutability of the laws of
chemistry and physics. The making of everything from a paper bag to a
giant steel bridge is only [Page 83] possible
because natural processes are predictable, being controlled
by immutable natural laws, laws which have been discovered
and used by man. Do we have to guess when we put an acorn in
the ground whether we will get an apple tree, or a rosebush
or an oak tree? The law is always the same, it always works
and for this reason man can learn the law and learn to use
it. Man's knowledge and understanding of these laws may change
but the laws themselves remain exact, dependable and immutable
whether we are considering astronomy and the laws that govern
the heavens or the law of gravity as it affects our earth.
They always work—we can always rely on them, and so we
discover them and live in accordance with them.
One
such law which is well known to every scientist is Newton's
Third Law of Motion: "For every action there is an equal
and opposite reaction". We
understand this law in the physics laboratory, working with
inorganic matter, because we can control the experiments
there and see just how this law works. However, until
we study Theosophy, most of us do not seem to realize
that this law applies just as thoroughly to human beings;
not only in our physical actions, but also at the emotional,
mental and moral levels of being. The law is just as
exact, immutable and dependable on these levels as it
is on the physical. One reason for our inability to understand
the application of this law to human existence is that
we are yet not able to [Page
84] see enough
of our pilgrimage through this human evolutionary process.
We are unable to trace all of the effects we are experiencing
at present back to their original causes; nor can we
follow all of our present actions through to the completion
of their reactions in the future. Sometimes this action
and reaction is immediate and perceivable. If you put
your hand in the fire you get burned and that is fairly
immediate, is it not? Sometimes the reaction takes a
longer period of time to occur. Suppose you neglect the
laws of dental hygiene; it may take ten years before
that reaction catches up with you and you have to suffer
it out in the dentist's chair. Sometimes an even longer
period of time is needed for it to become apparent that
the law works. If this element of time is a factor then
as we limit our concept of time we will increase the
inequalities and apparent injustices in just the same
proportion. Let us experiment with this element of time
a little and see what happens.
For
a few moments, let us try in imagination to limit our world
to a twenty-four hour existence, instead of one lifetime
of eighty or one hundred years by which we ordinarily view
and judge events, Remember now we can know nothing of life
except what we can observe in a twenty-four hour existence — we
know nothing of yesterday's actions or tomorrow's reactions.
What would we find ? Would we see any further injustices
or chaos ? Perhaps the first thing that would strike us
would be the [Page
85]
tremendous
differences between human bodies. We may think they are
unequal with our present concept of time but what would
be our thoughts if we judged them on a twenty-four hour
basis? We would see little, weak, helpless bodies that
had to be cared for and fed — had
to have everything done for them and did nothing in return
but sleep or cry for more food and attention. We would see
other bodies, big and strong and well-formed, capable and
efficient, doing all the work and caring for these weak, helpless
bodies. What would be our reaction ? Equality ? Justice ?
Nothing could be further from the truth with only a twenty-four
hour perspective on such a situation . " What", we might ask, "has
this individual done to deserve a lifetime of struggle and
helplessness in such a body?" We would have no way of knowing
that this was a baby, that the parents had once been helpless
babies and were cared for by other parents in turn, that the
infant would, given time, grow into an independent, capable
adult. In fact we would have no way of even knowing that they
were babies or young bodies as we viewed life with this twenty-four
hour time limitation. We would simply see these completely
unequal human beings and think how unjust it was and wonder
how there could be .a Divine Intelligence when such chaos
exists. Further, considering only those adults in the prime
of life whose physical and mental capacities appeared more
equal, what would we discover ? Here also, [Page
86] we
would find complete injustice, inequality and chaos. God has
favored one with a great gift — a skillful body that
can produce beautiful music while his brother, who appears
to have the same kind of body, cannot play a note. "What",
we would ask, "has this one done to earn such a gift?" Certainly
nothing as far as we could see. We would have no way of knowing
that the musician had spent years of effort and energy studying
and training that body to become musical and that in his youth
he had no more skill or ability than his brother, who refused
to study and practice. What might we think of the individual
suffering from the effects of an alcoholic spree the night
before ? How terrible! Through no fault of his own he has an
entire life of suffering — his misery begins with the
beginning of his life and lasts to the end. We would have no
way of knowing what had gone on the night before to cause the
suffering — neither
would we have any way of knowing that tomorrow he probably
would be completely recovered and a little wiser, perhaps,
for the experience. All we would see would be a life of suffering,
apparently entirely undeserved as far as his observable actions
were concerned.
So
we could go on in our imagination picturing many other
situations that would make such a world unjust, unequal
and completely incomprehensible as far as the law of cause
and effect or justice was-concerned. Think of the individual
having his. [Page
87] "day off" — a
complete life of leisure as far as we could see — maybe
that is the only day he ever had off and he works all the others,
but we would not know this. Think of the individual putting
his money in the bank while others are collecting — the
one planting his crops while others are reaping a harvest — the
student struggling in school while his professor seems to have
been born with all knowledge, and so on. Everywhere we would
see complete injustice and chaos. Just as the beginning of
time and life would occur as the sun came up and the day began,
so all would end when the sun set and the world became cold
and dark; everyone would go to sleep, all life and activity
would cease and that would be the end of existence. We would
have no way of knowing that after a rest, the sun would rise
again and the whole process would continue. Each would begin
the next day exactly where he left off the night before, not
only as far as worldly possessions and physical things are
concerned, but with the same problems, dispositions, characteristics
and capacities; the same loves, the same hates and the same
hopes and fears. A man who had been a ditch-digger or boot-black
would not wake up the following day a chemist or statesman,
neither would a great surgeon or artist awaken with merely
the ability to sell newspapers.
It
is easy enough for us to understand this twenty-four
hour cycle when we use our enlarged vision of a whole
life-time, but in just the same way we need [Page
88] to
expand our vision to include our entire human pilgrimage in
order to understand this one life-time. We begin this incarnation
with exactly what we had of credits and debits at the end of
the last life. Every strength or virtue of character which
we build or unfold is ours for all time. We are the creators
of our own destinies. "Each man is his own absolute
lawgiver, the dispenser of glory or gloom to himself". The
chains that bind him are of his own forging and he can file
them away or rivet them more strongly.
It
is not a question of reward or punishment. The laws of
nature are not commands which say we must do this or do
that. They are simply statements of certain successions
or sequences. Fire produces heat — that
is the law. What we do with that law is our own affair — we
can use that heat to keep us warm, to heat our homes, or cook
our food, or we can use it to destroy life and property. If
one man plants flowers and another plants weeds we do not blame
God and say He is punishing the man by giving him weeds instead
of flowers. If he wants flowers he must plant flowers. If one
cook chooses ingredients and combines them to get porridge
we don't say God is unjust because she got porridge instead
of pie. Maybe she wants porridge — but if she wants pie
all she has to do is combine the ingredients according to the
laws of cookery and she will get pie. If we want happiness
all we have to do is sow the seeds of happiness according to
natural [Page
89] laws which
are just as exact and just as immutable as any other law of
nature. "Nature is conquered by obedience". We learn through
a study of Theosophy that nothing merely happens in moral law
any more than in physical law — all are natural laws
but sometimes we need to expand our limited concept of time
to find the causes of some of the present effects or circumstances.
The
environment or circumstances in which we find ourselves
at the present time are the result of our past actions.
As we give happiness or misery to others so we reap it
in return — sometimes it is immediate and
sometimes it takes longer periods of time — sometimes
the period of time has to be extended over many life-times
in order to see the complete process. Our present opportunities
are the result of our past desires. The strongest force in
the universe is this force of attraction and repulsion (the
repulsion being of course just the negative aspect of this
force) We should be very careful what we desire. There is
nothing more sure than that the person or thing you really
want or desire will be attracted to you through this force,
although it may take a long period of time for it to happen.
Often as time passes we change our minds — we change
our ideas of what we want or desire and then we find ourselves
tied to the result of our former desires. Be very careful what
you long for or desire; be sure it is what you really want.
Our present character is the result of our past thoughts. [Page
90]
The one creative
force in the whole universe is Divine Thought — Divine
Creative Intelligence — a fragment of which is in each
one of us. Dr. Besant said concerning this, " God's thought
makes Universes; your thought makes yourself; it is the one
creative force by which you shape, mould and build your character".
If we do not like ourselves the way we are, the only thing
that is ever going to change us is changing our thinking.
There is one other aspect that I feel we need to keep in mind as we study
and try to understand this great law of justice. We are not only in the exact
circumstances we ourselves have created but we are also in the best
possible place to unfold, our next spiritual capacity. The law is entirely
beneficent regardless of how we may think otherwise at times. We can
usually see this when we look back on situations and circumstances. We
are not here by chance. It is no accident that we happen to be here instead
of China or the South Sea Islands or somewhere else. When we learn our
lesson, when we unfold that next capacity that circumstances and life are
trying to teach us, when we take our next step forward, then we will find our
circumstances have a miraculous way of changing. It is not the world that
needs changing; it is ourselves. We make the world what it is by being
what we are.
The
wise man does not blame God, nor his neighbor, nor fate
but learns the laws of life and [Page
91] lives in
accordance with them. For, as we are told in the Bible, "Be
not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap". And this law holds true not
only in sowing seeds in the earth but also in sowing seeds
in our minds and in our hearts.[Page
93]
E. S. L
APPENDIX
THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
THE
Theosophical Society was founded in New York City in
1875 by a little group of men and women seeking an understanding
of the deeper mysteries of life. From that small beginning
it has spread until today it has organized branches in
about 60 nations and has members in most of the countries
of the world. Its International Headquarters are located
at Adyar, Chennai [Madras] 600 020 , India. Its objects
are:
1. To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity, without
distinctions of race, creed, sex, caste or color.
2. To encourage the study of comparative Religion, Philosophy and
Science.
3. To investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in
man.
The Theosophical Society is composed of students belonging to any
religion or race in the world, who are united by their approval of the
Society's objects, by their wish to remove antagonisms and to draw
together men of goodwill whatsoever their opinions, and by their desire to
seek for truth and to share the results of their search with others. Their
bond of union is not the [Page 94] profession of a common belief, but a
common search for truth. They hold that truth is a prize to be striven for,
not a dogma to be imposed by authority. They consider that belief should
be the result of individual study or intuition, and not its antecedent, and
should rest on knowledge, not on assertion. They extend tolerance to all,
even the intolerant, not as a privilege they bestow but as a duty they
perform, and they seek to remove ignorance not to punish it. They see
every religion as an expression of the Divine Wisdom and prefer its study
to its condemnation, and its practice to its proselytism. Peace is their
watchword as truth is their aim.
Members of the Theosophical Society study the truths of the Ancient
Wisdom and Theosophists endeavor to live them. Everyone willing to
study, and to be tolerant, is welcomed as a member, and it rests with the
member to aim high and to work perseveringly, and thus to become a true
Theosophist.