Theosophy - A Textbook of Theosophy by C.W.Leadbeater
A
TEXTBOOK OF THEOSOPHY
by
C.W.Leadbeater
Editions in 1912, 1914, 1918, 1925,
1937
CONTENTS
Chapter
---1- What
Theosophy Is
Chapter
---2- From the Absolute to Man
Chapter
-- 3- The Formation of a Solar
System
Chapter
--4- The Evolution of Life
Chapter
--5- The Constitution of Man
Chapter
--6- After Death
Chapter
--7- Reincarnation
Chapter
--8- The Purpose of Life
Chapter
--9- The Planetary Chains
Chapter
-10-The Result of Theosophical
Study
CHAPTER
1
WHAT
THEOSOPHY IS
(Page
1 ) “ There is a school of philosophy still in existence
of which modern culture has lost sight.” In these words
Mr. A. P. Sinnett began his1881 book, The
Occult World, the first popular exposition of Theosophy,
published thirty years ago. During the years that have
passed since then, many thousands have learned wisdom
in that school, yet to the majority its teachings are
still unknown, and they can give only the vaguest of
replies to the query, “What is Theosophy?”
Two
books already exist which answer that question: Mr. Sinnett’s Esoteric
Buddhism and Mrs. Besant’s The
Ancient Wisdom. I have no thought of entering into
competition with those standard works; what I desire
is to present a statement, as clear and simple as I can
make it, which may be regarded as introductory to them.
We
often speak of Theosophy as not in itself a religion,
but the truth which lies behind all religions alike.
That is so; yet, from another point of view, we may surely
say that it is at once a philosophy, because it puts
plainly before us an explanation of the scheme (Page
2) of evolution of both the souls and the bodies contained,
in our solar system. It is a religion in so far as, having
shown us the course of ordinary evolution, it also puts
before us and advises a method of shortening that course,
so that by conscious effort we may progress more directly
towards the goal. It is a science, because it treats
both these subjects as matters not of theological belief
but of direct knowledge obtainable by study and investigation.
It asserts that man has no need to trust to blind faith,
because he has within him latent powers which, when aroused,
enable him to see and examine for himself, and it proceeds
to prove its case by showing how those powers may be
awakened. It is itself a result of the awakening of such
powers by men, for the teachings which it puts before
us are founded upon direct observations made in the past,
and rendered possible only by such development.
As
a philosophy, it explains to us that the solar system
is a carefully - ordered mechanism, a manifestation of
a magnificent life, of which man is but a small part.
Nevertheless, it takes up that small part which immediately
concerns us, and treats it exhaustively under three heads
– present, past and future.
It
deals with the present by describing what man really
is, as seen by means of developed faculties. It is customary
to speak of man as having a soul. Theosophy, as the result
of direct investigation, reverses that dictum, and states
that man is a soul, and has a body
– in fact several bodies, which are his vehicles and
instruments in various worlds. These worlds are (Page
3) not separate in space; they are simultaneously present
with us, here and now, and can be examined; they are
the divisions of the material side of Nature – different
degrees of density in the aggregation of matter, as will
presently be explained in detail. Man has an existence
in several of these, but is normally conscious only of
the lowest, though sometimes in dreams and trances he
has glimpses of some of the others. What is called death
is the laying aside of the vehicle belonging to this
lowest world, but the soul or real man in a higher world
is no more changed or affected by this than the physical
man is changed or affected when he removes his overcoat.
All this is a matter, not of speculation, but of observation
and experiment.
Theosophy
has much to tell us of the past history of man – of how
in the course of evolution he has come to what he now
is. This also is a matter of observation, because of
the fact that there exists an indelible record of all
that has taken place – a sort of memory of Nature – by
examining which the scenes of earlier evolution may be
made to pass before the eyes of the investigator as though
they were happening at this moment. By thus studying
the past we learn that man is divine in origin and that
he has a long evolution behind him – a double evolution,
that of the life or soul within, and that of the outer
form. We learn, too, that the life of man as a soul is
of what to us seems enormous length, and that what we
have been in the habit of calling his life is in reality
only one day of his real existence. He has already lived
through many such days, and has many more of them yet
before him; and if we wish to understand the (Page
4 ) real life and its object, we must consider it in relation
not only to this one day of it, which begins with birth
and ends with death, but also to the days which have
gone before and those which are yet to come.
Of
those that are yet to come there is also much to be said,
and on this subject too a great deal of definite information
is available. Such information is obtainable, first,
from men who have already passed much further along the
road of evolution than we, and have consequently direct
experience of it; and, secondly, from inferences drawn
from the obvious direction of the steps which we seem
to have been previously taken. The goal of this particular
cycle, is in sight, though still far above us but it
would seem that, even when that has been attained, an
infinity of progress still lies before everyone who is
willing to undertake it.
One
of the most striking advantages of Theosophy is that
the light which it brings to us at once solves many of
our problems, clears away many difficulties, accounts
for the apparent injustices of life, and in all directions
brings order out of seeming chaos. Thus while some of
its teaching is based upon the observation of forces
whose direct working is somewhat beyond the ken of the
ordinary man of the world, if the latter will accept
it as a hypothesis he will very soon come to see that
it must be a correct one, because it, and it alone, furnishes
a coherent and reasonable explanation of the drama of
life which is being played before him.
The
existence of Perfected Men, and the possibility of coming
into touch with Them and being taught by (Page
5) Them,
are prominent among the great new truths which Theosophy
brings to the Western World. Another of them is the stupendous
fact that the world is not drifting blindly into anarchy,
but that its progress is under the control of a perfectly
organized Hierarchy, so that final failure even for the
tiniest of its units is of all impossibilities the most
impossible. A glimpse of the working of that Hierarchy
inevitably engenders the desire to co-operate with it,
to serve under it, in however humble a capacity, and
some time in the far-distant future to be worthy to join
the outer fringes of its ranks.
This
brings us to that aspect of Theosophy which we have called
religious. Those who come to know and to understand these
things are dissatisfied with the slow aeons of evolution;
they yearn to become more immediately useful, and so
they demand and obtain knowledge of the shorter but steeper
Path. There is no possibility of escaping the amount
of work that has to be done. It is like carrying a load
up a mountain; whether one carries it straight up a steep
path or more gradually by a road of gentle slope, precisely
the same number of foot-pounds must be exerted. Therefore
to do the same work in a small fraction of the time means
determined effort. It can be done, however, for it has
been done; and those who have done it agree that it far
more than repays the trouble. The limitations of the
various vehicles are thereby gradually transcended, and
the liberated man becomes an intelligent co-worker in
the mighty plan for the evolution of all beings.
In
its capacity as a religion, too, Theosophy gives (Page
6) its followers a rule of life, based not on alleged
commands delivered at some remote period of the past,
but on plain common sense as indicated by observed facts.
The attitude of the student of Theosophy towards the
rules which it prescribes resembles rather that which
we adopt to hygienic regulations than obedience to religious
commandments. We may say, if we wish, that this thing
or that is in accordance with the divine Will, for the
divine Will is expressed in what we know as the laws
of nature. Because that Will wisely ordereth all things,
to infringe its laws means to disturb the smooth working
of the scheme, to hold back for a moment that fragment
or tiny part of evolution, and consequently to bring
discomfort upon ourselves and others. It is for that
reason that the wise man avoids infringing them – not
to escape the imaginary wrath of some offended deity.
But if from a certain point of view we may think of Theosophy
as a religion, we must note two great points of difference
between it and what is ordinarily called religion in the
West. First, it neither demands belief from its followers,
nor does it even speak of belief in the sense in which
that word is usually employed. The student of occult science
either knows a thing or suspends his judgment
about it; there is no place in his scheme for blind faith.
Naturally, beginners in the study cannot yet know for
themselves, so they are asked to read the results of the
various observations and to deal with them as probable
hypothesis – provisionally to accept and act upon them,
until such time as they can prove for themselves.
Secondly,
Theosophy never endeavours to convert (Page
7) any man
from whatever religion he already holds. On the contrary,
it explains his religion to him, and enables him to see
in it deeper meanings than he has ever known before.
It teaches him to understand it and live it better than
he did, and in many cases it gives back to him, on a
higher and more intelligent level, the faith in it which
he had previously all but lost.
Theosophy
has its aspect as a science also; it is in very truth
a science of life, a science of the soul. It applies
to everything the scientific method of oft-repeated,
painstaking observation, and then tabulates the results
and makes deductions from them. In this way it has investigated
the various planes of nature, the conditions of man’s
consciousness during life and after what is commonly
called death. It cannot be too often repeated that its
statements on all these matters are not vague guesses
or tenets of faith, but are based upon direct and oft-repeated observation of
what happens. Its investigators have dealt also to a
certain extent with subjects more in the range of ordinary
science, as may be seen by those who read the recently
issued book on Occult Chemistry.
Thus
we see that Theosophy combines within itself some of
the characteristics of philosophy, religion and science.
What, it might be asked, is its gospel for this weary
world? What are the main points which emerge from its
investigations? What are the great facts which it has
to lay before humanity?
They
have been well summed up under three main heads.
“There
are three truths which are absolute, and (Page
8) which
cannot be lost, but yet may remain silent for lack of
speech.
“The
soul of man is immortal, and its future is the future
of a thing whose growth and splendour has no limit.
“The
principle which gives life dwells in us and without us,
is undying and eternally beneficent, is not heard or
seen or smelt, but is perceived by the man who desires
perception
“Each
man is his own absolute lawgiver; the dispenser of glory
or gloom to himself; the decreer of his life, his reward,
his punishment.
“These
truths, which are as great as is life itself, are as
simple as the simplest mind of man”.
Put
shortly, and in the language of the man of the street,
this means that God is good, that man is immortal, and
that as we sow so we must reap. There is a definite scheme
of things; it is under intelligent direction and works
under immutable laws. Man has his place in this scheme
and is living under these laws. If he understands them and
co-operates with them, he will advance rapidly and will
be happy; if he does not understand them – if wittingly
or unwittingly, he breaks them, he will delay his progress
and be miserable. These are not theories, but proved
facts. Let him who doubts read on, and he will see. (Page
9)
CHAPTER
II
FROM
THE ABSOLUTE TO MAN
Of
the Absolute, the Infinite, the All-embracing, we can
at our present stage know nothing, except that It
is; we can say nothing that is not a limitation, and
therefore inaccurate.
In
It are innumerable universes; in each universe countless
solar systems. Each solar system is the expression of
a mighty Being, whom we call the Logos, the Word of God,
the Solar Deity. He is to it all that men mean by God.
He permeates it; there is nothing in it which is not
He; it is the manifestation of Him in such matter as
we can see. Yet He exists above it and outside it, living
a stupendous life of His own among His Peers. As is said
in Eastern Scripture: “Having permeated this whole universe
with one fragment of Myself, I remain”.
Of
this higher life of His we can know nothing. But of the
fragment of His life which energizes His system we may
know something in the lower levels of its manifestation.
We may not see Him, but we may see His power at work.
No one who is clairvoyant can be atheistic; the evidence
is too tremendous.
Out
of Himself He has called this mighty system into being.
We who are in it are evolving fragments of His life,
Sparks of His divine Fire; from Him we all have come;
into Him we shall all return.
Many
have asked why He as done this; why He (Page
10) has
emanated from Himself all this system; why He has sent
us forth to face the storms of life. We cannot know,
nor is the question practical; suffice it that we are
here, and we must do our best. Yet many philosophers
have speculated on this point and many suggestions have
been made. The most beautiful that I know is that of
a Gnostic philosopher:
“God
is Love, but Love itself cannot be perfect unless it
has those upon whom it can be lavished and by whom it
can be returned. Therefore He put forth of Himself into
matter, and He limited His glory, in order that through
this natural and slow process of evolution we might come
into being; and we in turn according to His will are
to develop until we reach even His own level, and then
the very love of God itself will become more perfect,
because it will then be lavished on those, His own children,
who will fully understand and return it, and so His great
scheme will be realized and His Will be done”.
At
what stupendous elevation His consciousness abides we
know not, nor can we know its true nature as it shows
itself there. But when He puts Himself down into such
conditions as are within our reach, His manifestation
is ever threefold, and so all religions have imaged Him
as a Trinity. Three, yet fundamentally One; Three Persons
(for person means a mask) yet one God, showing Himself
in those Three Aspects. Three to us, looking at Them
from below, because Their functions are different; one
to Him, because He knows Them to be but facets of Himself.
All
three of these Aspects are concerned in the evolution
of the solar System; all Three are also concerned (Page
11) in the evolution of man. This evolution is His will;
the method of it is His plan.
Next
below this Solar Deity, yet also in some mysterious manner
part of Him, come His seven Ministers, sometimes called
the Planetary Spirits. Using an analogy drawn from the
physiology of our own body, Their relation to Him is
like that of the ganglia or the nerve centers of the
brain. All evolution which comes forth from Him comes
through one or other of Them.
Under
Them in turn come vast hosts or order of spiritual beings,
whom we call angels or devas. We do not yet know all
the functions which They fulfill in different parts of
this wonderful scheme, but we find some of them intimately
connected with the building of the system and the unfolding
of life within it.
Here
in our world there is a great Official who represents
the Solar Deity, and is in absolute control of all the
evolution that takes place upon this planet. We may image
Him as the true King of this world, and under Him are
ministers in charge of different departments. One of
these departments is concerned with the evolution of
the different races of humanity, so that for each great
race there is a Head who founds it, differentiates it
from all others, and watches over its development. Another
department is that of religion and education, and it
is from this that all the greatest teachers of history
have come – that all religions have been sent forth.
The great Official at the head of this department either
comes Himself or sends one of His pupils to found a new
religion when He decides that one is needed.
Therefore
all religions, at the time of their first (Page
12) presentation
to the world, have contained a definite statement of
the Truth, and in its fundamentals this Truth has been
always the same. The presentations of it have varied
because of differences in the races to who it was offered.
The condition of civilization and the degree of evolution
obtained by various races have made it desirable to present
this one Truth in divers forms. But the inner Truth is
always the same, and the source from which it comes is
the same, even though the external phases may appear
to be different and even contradictory. It is foolish
for men to wrangle over the question of the superiority
of one teacher or one form of teaching to another, for
the teacher is always one sent by the Great Brotherhood
of Adepts, and in all its important points, in its ethical
and moral principles, the teaching has always been the
same.
There
is in the world a body of Truth which lies at the back
of all these religions, and represents the facts of nature
as far as they are at present known to man. In the outer
world, because of their ignorance of this, people are
always disputing and arguing about whether there is a
God; whether man survives death; whether definite progress
is possible for him, and what is his relation to the
universe. These questions are ever present in the mind
of man as soon as intelligence is awakened. They are
not unanswerable, as is frequently supposed; the answers
to them are within the reach of anyone who will make
proper efforts to find them. The truth is obtainable,
and the conditions of its attainment are possible of
achievement by anyone who will make the effort. (Page
13)
In the earlier stages of the development of humanity,
the great Officials of the Hierarchy are provided from
outside, from other and more highly evolved parts of
the system, but as soon as men can be trained to the
necessary level of power and wisdom these offices are
held by them. In order to be fit to hold such an office
a man must raise himself to a very high level, and must
become what is called an adept – a being of goodness,
power and wisdom so great that He towers above the rest
of humanity, for He has already attained the summit of
ordinary human evolution; He has achieved what the plan
of the Deity marked out for Him to achieve during this
age or dispensation. But His evolution later on continues
beyond that level – continues to divinity.
A
large number of men have attained the Adept level – men
not of one nation, but of all the leading nations of
the world – rare souls who with indomitable courage have
stormed the fortresses of nature, and captured her innermost
secrets, and so have truly earned the right to be called
Adepts. Among Them there are many degrees and many lines
of activity; but always some of Them remain within touch
of our earth as members of this Hierarchy which has in
charge the administration of the affairs of our world
and of the spiritual evolution of our humanity.
This
august body is often called the Great White Brotherhood,
but its members are not a community all living together.
Each of Them, to a large extent, draws Himself apart
from the world, and They are in constant communication
with one another and with Their Head; but Their knowledge
of higher forces (Page 14 ) is so great that this is
achieved without any necessity for meeting in the physical
world. In many cases They continue to live each in His
own country, and Their power remains unsuspected among
those who live near Them. Any man who will may attract
their attention, but he can do it only by showing himself
worthy of Their notice. None need fear that his efforts
will pass unnoticed; such oversight is impossible, for
the man who is devoting himself to service such as this,
stands out from the rest of humanity like a great flame
in a dark night. A few of these great Adepts, who are
thus working for the good of the world, are willing to
take on apprentices those who have resolved to devote
themselves utterly to the services of mankind; such Adepts
are called Masters.
One
of these apprentices was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky –
a great soul who was sent out to offer knowledge to the
world some forty years ago [1875]. With Colonel Henry
Steele Olcott she founded the Theosophical Society for
the spread of this knowledge which she had to give. Among
those who came into contact with her in those early days
was Mr. A. P. Sinnett, the editor of The Pioneer,
and his keen intellect at once grasped the magnitude
and the importance of the teaching which she put before
him. Although Madame Blavatsky herself had previously
written Isis Unveiled, it had attracted but
little attention, and it was Mr. Sinnett who first made
the teaching really available for western readers in
his two books, The Occult World and Esoteric
Buddhism.
It
was through these works that I myself first came to know
their author, and afterwards Madame Blavatsky (Page
15) herself; from both of them I learned
much. When I asked Madame Blavatsky how one could learn
still more, how
one could make definite progress along the Path which
she pointed out to us, she told me of the possibility
that other students might be accepted as apprentices
by the great Masters, even as she herself had been accepted,
and that the only way to gain such acceptance was to
show oneself worthy of it by earnest and altruistic work.
She told me that to reach that goal a man must be absolutely
one-pointed in his determination; that no one who tried
to serve both God and Mammon could ever hope to succeed.
One of these Masters Himself has said: “In order to succeed,
a pupil must leave his own world and come into ours”.
This
means that he must cease to be one of the majority who
live for wealth and power, and must join the tiny majority
who care nothing for such things, but live only in order
to devote themselves selflessly to the good of the world.
She warned us clearly that the way was difficult to tread,
that we should be misunderstood and reviled by those
who still lived in the world, and that we had nothing
to look forward to but the hardest of hard work; and
though the result was sure, no one could foretell how
long it would take to arrive at it. Some of us accepted
these conditions joyfully, and we have never for a moment
regretted the decision.
After
some years of work I had the privilege of coming into
contact with these great Masters of the Wisdom; from
Them I learnt many things – among others, how to verify
for myself at first hand most (Page 16) of the teachings
which They had given. So that, in this matter, I write
of what I know, and what I have seen for myself. Certain
points are mentioned in the teaching, for the verification
of which powers are required far beyond anything which
I have gained so far. Of them, I can only say that they
are consistent with what I do know, and in many cases
are necessary as hypotheses to account for what I have
seen. They came to me along with the rest of the theosophical
system upon the authority of these mighty Teachers. Since
then I have learned to examine for myself by far the
greater part of what I was told, and I have found the
information given to me to be correct in every particular;
therefore I am justified in assuming the probability
that that other part, which as yet I cannot verify, will
also prove to be correct when I arrive at its level.
To
attain the honour of being accepted as an apprentice
of one of the Masters of the Wisdom is the object set
before himself by every earnest Theosophical student.
But it means a determined effort. There have always been
men who were willing to make the necessary effort, and
therefore there have always been men who knew. The knowledge
is so transcendent that when a man grasps it fully he
becomes more than man, and he passes beyond our ken.
But
there are stages in the acquirement of this knowledge,
and we may learn much, if we will, from those who themselves
are still in process of learning; for all human beings
stand on one or other of the rungs of the ladder of evolution.
The primitive stand at its foot; we who are civilized
beings have already (Page 17) climbed
part of the way. But though we can look back and see
rungs of the ladder
below us which we have already passed, we may also look
up and see many rungs above us to which we have not yet
attained. Just as men are standing even now on each of
the rungs below us, so that we can see the stages by
which man has mounted, so also are there men standing
on each of the rungs above us, so that from studying
them we may see how man shall mount in the future. Precisely
because we see men on every step of this ladder, which
leads up to a glory which as yet we have no words to
express, we know that the ascent to that glory is possible
for us. Those who stand high above us, so high that They
seem to us as gods in Their marvellous knowledge and
power, tell us that They stood not long since where we
are standing now, and They indicate to us clearly the
steps which lie between, which we also must tread if
we would be as They. (Page
18)
CHAPTER
III
THE
FORMATION OF A SOLAR SYSTEM
The
beginning of the universe (if ever it had a beginning)
is beyond our ken. At the earliest point of history that
we can reach, the two great opposites of Spirit and matter,
of life and form, are already in full activity. We find
that the ordinary conception of matter needs a revision,
for what are commonly called force and matter are in
reality only two varieties of Spirit at different stages
in evolution, and the real matter or basis of everything
lies in the background unperceived. A French scientist
has recently said: “There is no matter; there is nothing
but holes in the aether”.
This
also agrees with the celebrated theory of Professor Osborne
Reynolds. Occult investigation shows this to be the correct
view, and in that way explains what Oriental sacred books
mean when they say that matter is an illusion.
The
ultimate root-matter as seen at our level is what scientists
call the aether of space. ( This has been described in Occult
Chemistry under the name of koilon) To every physical
sense the space occupied by it appears empty, yet in
reality this aether is far denser than anything of which
we can conceive. Its density is defined by Professor
Reynolds as being ten thousand (Page 19) times greater
than that of water, and it means pressure as seven hundred
and fifty thousand tons to the square inch.
This
substance is perceptible only to highly developed clairvoyant
power. We must assume a time (though we have no direct
knowledge on this point) when this substance filled all
space. We must also suppose that some great Being (not
the Deity of a solar system, but some Being almost infinitely
higher than that) changed this condition of rest by pouring
out His spirit or force into a certain section of this
matter, a section of the size of a whole universe. The
effect of the introduction of this force is at that of
the blowing of a mighty breath; it has formed within
this aether an incalculable number of tiny spherical
bubbles (The bubbles are spoken of in The Secret Doctrine
as the holes which Fohat digs in space), and these bubbles
are the ultimate atoms of which what we call matter is
composed. They are not the atoms of the chemist, nor
even the ultimate atoms of the physical world. They stand
at a far higher level, and what are usually called atoms
are composed of vast aggregations of these bubbles, as
will be seen later.
When
the Solar Deity begins to make His system, He finds ready
to His hand this material – this infinite mass of tiny
bubbles which can be built up into various kinds of matter
as we know it. He commences by defining the limit of
His field of activity, a vast sphere whose circumference
is far larger than the orbit of the outermost of His
future planets. Within the limit of that sphere He sets
up a kind of (Page 20) gigantic vortex – a motion which
sweeps together all the bubbles into a vast central mass,
the material of the nebula that is to be.
Into
this vast revolving sphere He sends forth successive
impulses of force, gathering together the bubbles into
ever more and more complex aggregations, and producing
in this way seven gigantic interpenetrating worlds of
matter of different degrees of density, all concentric
and all occupying the same space.
Acting
through His Third Aspect, He sends forth into this stupendous
sphere the first of these impulses. It sets up all through
the sphere a vast number of tiny vortices, each of which
draws into itself forty-nine bubbles and arranges them
in a certain shape. These little groupings of bubbles
so formed are the atoms of the second of the interpenetrating
worlds. The whole number of the bubbles is not used in
this way, sufficient being left in the dissociated state
to act as atoms for the first and highest of these worlds.
In due time comes the second impulse, which seizes upon
nearly all these forty nine bubble atoms (leaving only
enough to provide atoms for the second world), draws
them back into itself and then, throwing them out again,
sets up among them vortices, each of which holds within
itself 2,401 bubbles (49 2). These
form the atoms of the third world. Again after a time
comes a third impulse, which in the same way seizes upon
nearly all these 2,401 bubble atoms, draws them back
again into their original form, and again throws them
outward once more as the atoms of the fourth world –
(Page 21) each atom containing this time 49 3 bubbles.
This process is repeated until the sixth of these successive
impulses has built the atom of the seventh or lowest
world – that atom containing 49 6 of
the original bubbles.
This
atom of the seventh world is the ultimate atom of the
physical world – not any of the atoms of which chemists
speak, but that ultimate out of which all their atoms
are made. We have at this stage arrived at that condition
of affairs in which the vast whirling sphere contains
within itself seven types of matter, all one in essence,
because all built of the same kind of bubbles, but differing
in their degree of density. All these types are freely
intermingled, so that specimens of each type would be
found in a small portion of the sphere taken at random
in any part of it, with, however, a general tendency
of the heavier atoms to gravitate more and more towards
the center.
The
seventh impulse sent out from the Third Aspect of the
Deity does not, as before, draw back the physical atoms
which were last made into the original dissociated bubbles,
but draws them together into certain aggregations, thus
making a number of different kinds of what may be called
proto-elements, and these again are joined together into
the various forms which are known to science as chemical
elements. The making of these extends over a period of
ages, and they are made in a certain definite order by
the interaction of several forces, as is correctly indicated
in Sir William Crookes’ paper on The Genesis of the
Elements. Indeed the process of their making it
is not even (Page 22) now concluded; uranium is the latest
and heaviest element so far as we know, but others still
more complicated may perhaps be produced in the future.
As
ages roll on the condensation increased, and presently
the stage of a vast glowing nebula was reached. As it
cooled, still rapidly rotating, it flattened into a huge
disc and gradually broke up into rings surrounding a
central body – an arrangement not unlike that which Saturn
exhibits at the present day, though on a far larger scale.
As the time drew near when the planets would be required
for the purposes of evolution, the Deity set up somewhere
in the thickness of each ring a subsidiary vortex, into
which a great deal of the matter of the ring was by degrees
collected. The collisions of the gathered fragments caused
a revival of the heat, and the resulting planet was for
a long time a mass of glowing gas. Little by little it
cooled once more, until it became fit to be the theatre
of life such as ours. Thus were all the planets formed.
Almost
all the matter of those interpenetrating worlds was by
this time concentrated into the newly formed planets.
Each of them was and is composed of all those different
kinds of matter. The earth upon which we are now living
is not merely a great ball of physical matter, built
of the atoms of that lowest world, but has also attached
to it an abundant supply of matter of the sixth, the
fifth, the fourth and other worlds. It is well known
to all students of science that particles of matter never
actually touch one another, even in the hardest of substances.
The spaces between (Page 23) them are always far greater
in proportion than their own size – enormously greater.
So there is ample room for all the other kinds of atoms
of all those other worlds, not only to lie between the
atoms of the denser matter, but to move quite freely
among them and around them. Consequently this globe upon
which we live is not one world, but seven interpenetrating
worlds, all occupying the same space, except that the
finer types of matter extend further from the center
than does the denser matter.
We
have given names to these interpenetrating worlds for
convenience in speaking of them. No name is needed for
the first, as man is not yet in direct connection with
it; but when it is necessary to mention it, it may be
called the divine world. The second is described as the
monadic, because in it exist those Sparks of the divine
Life which we call the human Monads; but neither of these
can be touched by the highest clairvoyant investigations
at present possible for us. The third sphere, whose atoms
contain 2,401 bubbles, is called the spiritual world,
because in it functions the highest Spirit in man as
now constituted. The fourth is the intuitional world
(Previously called in theosophical literature the buddhic
plane) because from it come the highest intuitions. The
fifth is the mental world, because of its matter is built
the mind of man. The sixth is called the emotional or
astral world, because the emotions of man cause undulations
in its matter. (The name astral was given to it by mediaeval
alchemists, because its matter is starry or shining as
(Page 24) compared to that of the denser world). The
seventh world, composed of the type of matter which we
see all around us, is called the physical.
The
matter of which all these interpenetrating worlds are
built is essentially the same matter, but differently
arranged and of different degrees of density. Therefore
the rates at which these various types of matter normally
vibrate differ also. They may be considered as a vast
gamut of undulations consisting of many octaves. The
physical matter uses a certain number of the lowest of
these octaves, the astral matter another group of octaves
just above that, the mental matter a still further group,
and so on.
Not
only has each of these worlds its own type of matter;
it has also its own set of aggregations of that matter
– its own substances. In each world we arrange these
substances in seven classes according to the rate at
which their molecules vibrate. Usually, but not invariably,
the slower oscillation involves also a larger molecule
– a molecule, that is built up by a special arrangement
of the smaller molecules of the next higher subdivision.
The application of heat increases the size of the molecules
and also quickens and amplifies their undulation, so
that they cover more ground, and the object as a whole
expands, until the point is reached where the aggregation
of molecules breaks up, and the latter passes from one
condition to that next above it. In the matter of the
physical world the seven subdivisions are represented
by seven degrees of density of matter, to which, beginning
from below upwards, we give the names solid liquid, gaseous,
etheric, super-etheric, subatomic and atomic.(Page
25)
The atomic subdivision is one in which all forms
are built by the compression into certain shapes of the
physical
atoms, without any previous collection of these atoms
into blocks or molecules. Typifying the physical ultimate
atom for the moment by a brick, any form in the atomic
subdivision would be made by gathering together some
of the bricks, and building them into a certain shape.
In order to make matter for the next lower subdivision,
a certain number of the bricks (atoms) would be first
gathered together and cemented into small blocks of say
four bricks each, five bricks each, six bricks or seven
bricks; and then these blocks so made would be used as
building-stones. For the next subdivision several of
the blocks of the second subdivision cemented together
in certain shapes would form building-stones, and so
on to the lowest.
To
transfer any substance from the solid condition to the
liquid (that is to say, to melt it) is to increase the
vibration of its compound molecules until at last they
are shaken apart into the simpler molecules of which
they were built. This process can in all cases be repeated
again and again until finally any and every physical
substance can be reduced to the ultimate atoms of the
physical world.
Each
of these worlds has its inhabitants, whose senses are
normally capable of responding to the undulations of
their own world only. A man living (as we are all doing)
in the physical world sees, hears, feels, by vibrations
connected with the physical matter around him. He is
equally surrounded by the astral and mental and other
worlds which are interpenetrating his own denser world,
but of them he is normally (Page 26) unconscious, because
his senses cannot respond to the oscillations of their
matter, just as our physical eyes cannot see by the vibrations
of ultraviolet light, although scientific experiments
show that they exist and there are other consciousnesses
with differently-formed organs who can see by
them. A being living in the astral world might be occupying
the very same space as a being living in the physical
world, yet each would be entirely unconscious of the
other and would in no way impede the free movement of
the other. The same is true of all the other worlds.
We are at this moment surrounded by these worlds of finer
matter, as close to us as the world we see, and their
inhabitants are passing through us and about us, but
we are entirely unconscious of them.
Since
our evolution is centered at present upon this globe
which we call the earth, it is in connection with it
only that we shall be speaking of these higher worlds,
so in future when I use the term “astral world” I shall
mean by it the astral part of our own globe only, and
not (as heretofore) the astral part of the whole solar
system. This astral part of our own world is also a globe,
but of astral matter. It occupies the same place as the
globe which we see, but its matter (being so much lighter)
extends out into space on all sides of us further than
does the atmosphere of the earth – a great deal further.
It stretches to a little less than the mean distance
of the moon, so that though the two physical globes,
the earth and the moon, are nearly 240,000 miles apart,
the astral globes of these two bodies touch one another
when the moon is in perigee, but not when she is in apogee.
I shall apply (Page 27) the
term “mental world” to the still larger globe of mental
matter in the midst of which
our physical earth exists. When we come to the still
higher globes we have spheres large enough to touch the
corresponding spheres of other planets in the system,
though their matter also is just as much about us here
on the surface of the solid earth as that of the others.
All these globes of finer matter are a part of us, and
are all revolving round the sun with their visible part.
The student will do well to accustom himself to think
of our earth as the whole of this mass of interpenetrating
worlds – not only the comparatively small physical ball
in the center of it. (Page
28)
CHAPTER
IV
THE
EVOLUTION OF LIFE
All
the impulses of life which I have described as building
the interpenetrating worlds came forth from
the Third
Aspect of the Deity. Hence in the Christian scheme that
Aspect is called “the Giver of Life”, the Spirit who
brooded over the face of the waters of space. In theosophical
literature these impulses are usually taken as a whole,
and called the first outpouring.
When
the worlds had been prepared to this extent, and most
of the chemical elements already existed, the second
outpouring of life took place, and this came from the
Second Aspect of the Deity. It brought with it the power
of combination. In all the worlds it found existing what
may be thought of as elements corresponding to those
worlds. It proceeded to combine those elements into organisms
which it then ensouled, and in this way it built up the
seven kingdoms of nature. Theosophy recognizes seven
kingdoms, because it regards man as separate from the
animal kingdom, and it takes into account several stages
of evolution which are unseen by the physical eye, and
gives to them the mediaeval name of “elemental kingdoms”.
The
divine Life pours itself into matter from above, and
its whole course may be thought of in two stages (Page
29 ) – the gradual assumption of grosser and grosser
matter, and then the gradual casting off again of the
vehicles which have been assumed. The earliest level
upon which its vehicles can be scientifically observed
is the mental – the fifth counting from the finer to
the grosser, the first on which there are separated globes.
In practical study it is found convenient to divide this
mental world into two parts, which we call the higher
and lower according to the degree of density of their
matter. The higher consists of the three finer subdivisions
of mental matter; the lower part of the other four.
When
the outpouring reaches the higher mental world it draws
together the ethereal elements there, combines them into
what at the level correspond to substances, and of these
substances builds forms which it inhabits. We call this
the first elemental kingdom.
After
a long period of evolution, through different forms at
that level, the wave of life, which is all the time pressing
steadily downwards, learns to identify itself so fully
with those forms that, instead of occupying them and
withdrawing from them periodically, it is able to hold
them permanently and make them part of itself, so that
now from that level it can proceed to the temporary occupation
of forms at a still lower level. When it reaches this
stage we call it the second elemental kingdom, the ensouling
life of which resides upon the higher mental levels,
while the vehicles through which it manifests are on
the lower.
After
another vast period of similar length, it is found that
the downward pressure has caused this (Page
30 ) process
to repeat itself; once more the life has identified itself
with its forms, and has taken up its residence upon the
lower mental levels, so that it is capable of ensouling
bodies in the astral world. At this stage we call it
the third elemental kingdom.
We
speak of all these forms as finer or grosser relatively
to one another, but all of them are almost infinitely
finer than any with which we are acquainted in the physical
world. Each of these three is a kingdom of nature, as
varied in the manifestations of its different forms of
life as in the animal or vegetable kingdom which we know.
After a long period spent in ensouling the forms of the
third of these elemental kingdoms it identifies itself
with them in turn, and so is able to ensoul the etheric
part of the mineral kingdom, and becomes the life which
vivifies that – for there is a life in the mineral kingdom
just as much as in the vegetable or the animal, although
it is in conditions where it cannot manifest so freely.
In the course of the mineral evolution the downward pressure
causes it to identify itself in the same way with the
etheric matter of the physical world, and from that to
ensoul the denser matter of such minerals as are perceptible
to our senses.
In
the mineral kingdom we include not only what are usually
called minerals, but also liquids, gases and many etheric
substances the existence of which is unknown to western
science. All the matter of which we know anything is
living matter, and the life which it contains is always
evolving. When it has reached the central point of the
mineral stage the downward (Page 31) pressure ceases,
and is replaced by an upward tendency; the outbreathing
has ceased and the indrawing has begun.
When
mineral evolution is completed, the life has withdrawn
itself again into the astral world, but bearing with
it all the results obtained through its experiences in
the physical. At this stage it ensouls vegetable forms,
and begins to show itself much more clearly as what we
commonly call life – plant life of all kinds; and at
a yet later stage of its development it leaves the vegetable
kingdom and ensouls the animal kingdom. The attainment
of this level is the sign that it has withdrawn itself
still further, and is now working from the lower mental
world. In order to work in physical matter from that
mental world it must operate through the intervening
astral matter; and that astral matter is now no longer
part of the garment of the group soul as a whole, but
is the individual astral body of the animal concerned,
as will be later explained.
In
each of these kingdoms it not only passes a period of
time which is to our ideas almost incredibly long, but
it also goes through a definite course of evolution,
beginning from the lower manifestations of that kingdom
and ending with the highest. In the vegetable kingdom,
for example, the life-force might commence its career
by occupying grasses or mosses and end it by ensouling
magnificent forest trees. In the animal kingdom it might
commence with the mosquitoes or with animalculae, and
might end with the finest specimens of the mammals. (Page
32)
The whole process is one of steady evolution from
lower forms to higher, from the simpler to the more complex.
But what is evolving is not primarily the form, but the
life within it. The forms also evolve and grow better
as time passes; but this is in order that they may be
appropriate vehicles for more and more advanced waves
of life. When the life has reached the highest level
possible in the animal kingdom, it may then pass on into
the human kingdom, under conditions which will presently
be explained.
The
outpouring leaves one kingdom and passes to another,
so that if we had to deal with only one wave of this
outpouring we could have in existence only one kingdom
at a time. But the Deity sends out a constant succession
of these waves, so that at any given time we find a number
of them simultaneously in operation. We ourselves represent
one such wave; but we find evolving alongside us another
wave which ensouls the animal kingdom – a wave which
came out from the Deity one stage later than we did.
We find also the vegetable kingdom, which represents
a third wave, and the mineral kingdom, which represents
a fourth; and occultists know the existence all round
us of three elemental kingdoms, which represent the fifth,
sixth and seventh waves. All these, however, are successive
ripples of the same great outpouring from the Second
Aspect of the Deity.
We
have here, then, a scheme of evolution in which the divine
Life involves itself more and more deeply in matter,
in order that through that matter it may receive vibrations
which could not otherwise affect it (Page
33) – impacts
from without, which by degrees arouse within it rates
of undulation corresponding to their own, so that it
learns to respond to them. Later on it learns of itself
to generate these rates of undulation, and so becomes
a being possessed of spiritual powers.
We
may presume that when this outpouring of life originally
came forth from the Deity, at some level altogether beyond
our power of cognition, it may perhaps have been homogeneous;
but when it first comes within practical cognizance,
when it is itself in the intuitional world, but is ensouling
bodies made of the matter of the higher mental world,
it is already not one huge world-soul, but many souls.
Let us suppose a homogeneous outpouring, which may be
considered as one vast soul at one end of the scale;
at the other, when humanity is reached, we find that
one vast soul broken up into millions of the comparatively
little souls of individual men. At any stage between
these two extremes we find an intermediate condition,
the immense world-soul already subdivided, but not to
the utmost limit of possible subdivision.
Each
man is a soul, but not each animal or each plant. Man,
as a soul, can manifest through only one body at a time
in the physical world, whereas one animal soul manifests
simultaneously through a number of animal bodies, one
plant-soul through, a number of separate plants. A lion,
for example, is not a permanently separate entity in
the same way as a man is. When the man dies – that is,
when he as a soul lays aside his physical body – he remains
himself exactly as he was before, an entity separate
from (Page 34) all other
entities. When the lion dies, that which has been the
separate soul of him is poured
back into the mass from which it came – a mass which
is at the same time providing the souls for many other
lions. To such a mass we give the name of “group-soul”.
To
such a group-soul is attached a considerable number of
lion bodies – let us say a hundred. Each of those bodies
while it lives has its hundredth part of the group-soul
attached to it, and for the time being this is apparently
quite separate, so that the lion is as much an individual
during his physical life as the man; but he is not a
permanent individual. When he dies the soul of him flows
back into the group-soul to which it belongs, and that
identical soul-lion cannot be separated from the group.
A
useful analogy may help comprehension. Imagine the group-soul
to be represented by the water in a bucket, and the hundred
lion bodies by a hundred tumblers. As each tumbler is
dipped into the bucket it takes out from it a tumblerful
of water (the separate soul). That water for the time
being takes the shape of the vehicle which it fills,
and is temporarily separate from the water which remains
in the bucket, and from the water in the other tumblers.
Now
put into each of the hundred tumblers some kind of coloring
matter or some kind of flavoring. That will represent
the qualities developed by its experiences in the separate
soul of the lion during its lifetime. Pour back the water
from the tumbler into the bucket; that represents the
death of the lion. The coloring matter or the flavoring
will be distributed (Page 35) through the whole of the
water in the bucket, but will be a much fainter coloring,
a much less pronounced flavor when thus distributed than
it was when confined in one tumbler. The qualities developed
by the experience of one lion attached to that group-soul
are therefore shared by the entire group-soul but in
a much lower degree.
We
may take out another tumblerful of water from that bucket,
but we can never again get exactly the same tumblerful
after it has once been mingled with the rest. Every tumblerful
taken from that bucket in the future will contain some
traces of the coloring or flavoring put into each tumbler
whose contents have been returned to the bucket. Just
so the qualities developed by the experience of a single
lion will become the common property of all lions who
are in the future to be born from that group-soul, though
in a lesser degree than that in which they existed in
the individual lion who developed them.
That
is the explanation of inherited instincts; that is why
the duckling which has been hatched by a hen takes to
the water instantly without needing to be shown, how
to swim; why the chicken just out of its shell will cower
at the shadow of a hawk; why a bird which has been artificially
hatched, and has never seen a nest, nevertheless knows
how to make one, and makes it according to the traditions
of its kind.
Lower
down the scale of animal life enormous numbers of bodies
are attached to a single group-soul – countless millions,
for example, in the case of some of the smaller insects;
but as we rise in the animal kingdom (Page
36) the number
of bodies attached to a single group-soul becomes smaller
and smaller, and therefore the differences between individuals
become greater.
Thus
the group-souls, gradually break up. Returning to the
symbol of the bucket, as tumbler after tumbler of water
is withdrawn from it, tinted with some sort of coloring
matter and returned to it, the whole bucketful of water
gradually becomes richer in color. Suppose that by imperceptible
degrees a kind of vertical film forms itself across the
center of the bucket, and gradually solidifies itself
into a division, so that we have now a right half and
a left half to the bucket, and each tumblerful of water
which is taken out is returned always to the same half
from which it came.
Then
presently a difference will be set up, and the liquid
in one half of the bucket will no longer be the same
as that in the other. We have then practically two buckets,
and when this stage is reached in a group-soul it splits
into two, as a cell separates by fission. In this way,
as the experience grows ever richer, the group-souls
grow smaller but more numerous, until at the highest
point we arrive at man with his single individual soul,
which no longer returns into a group but remains always
separate.
One
of the life-waves is vivifying the whole of a kingdom;
but not every group-soul in that life-wave will pass
through the whole of that kingdom from the bottom to
the top. If in the vegetable kingdom a certain group-soul
has ensouled forest trees, when it passes on into the
animal kingdom it will omit all (Page
37) the lower stages
– that is, it will never inhabit insects or reptiles,
but will begin at once at the level of the lower mammals.
The insects and reptiles will be vivified by group-souls
which have for some reason left the vegetable kingdom
at a much lower level than the forest tree. In the same
way the group-soul which has reached the highest levels
of the animal kingdom, will not individualize into primitive
savages but into men of somewhat higher type, the primitive
savage being recruited from group-souls which have left
the animal kingdom at a lower level.
Group-souls
at any level or at all levels arrange themselves into
seven great types, according to the Minister of the Deity
through whom their life has poured forth. These types
are clearly distinguishable in all the kingdoms, and
the successive forms taken by any one of them form a
connected series, so that animals, vegetables, minerals
and the varieties of the elemental creatures may all
be arranged into seven groups, and the life coming along
one of those lines will not diverge into any of the others.
No
detailed list has yet been made of the animals, plants
or minerals from this point of view; but it is certain
that the life which is found ensouling a mineral of a
particular type will never vivify a mineral of any other
type than its own, though within that type it may vary.
When it passes on to the vegetable and animal kingdoms
it will inhabit vegetables and animals of that type and
of no other, and when it eventually reaches humanity
it will individualize into men of that type and of no
other.(Page
38)
The method of individualization is the raising of the
soul of a particular animal to a level so much higher
than that attained by its group-soul that it can no longer
return to the latter. This cannot be done with any animal,
but only with those whose brain is developed to a certain
level, and the method usually adopted to acquire such
mental development is to bring the animal into close
contact with man. Individualization, therefore, is possible
only for domestic animals, and only for certain kinds
even of those. At the head of each of the seven types
stands one kind of domestic animal – the dog for one,
the cat for another, the elephant for a third, the monkey
for a fourth, and so on. The wild animals can all be
arranged on seven lines leading up to the domestic animals;
for example, the fox and the wolf are obviously on the
same line with the dog, while the lion, the tiger and
the leopard equally obviously lead up to the domestic
cat; so that the group-soul animating a hundred lions
mentioned some time ago might at a later stage of its
evolution have divided into, let us say, five group-souls
each animating twenty cats.
The
life-wave spends a long period of time in each kingdom;
we are now only a little past the middle of such an aeon,
and consequently the conditions are not favourable for
the achievement of that individualization which normally
comes only at the end of a period. Rare instances of
such attainment may occasionally be observed on the part
of some animal much in advance of the average. Close
association with man is necessary to produce this result.
The animal if (Page 39) kindly treated develops devoted
affection for his human friend, and also unfolds his
intellectual powers in trying to understand that friend
and to anticipate his wishes. In addition to this, the
emotions and the thoughts of man act constantly upon
those of the animal, and tend to raise him to a higher
level both emotionally and intellectually. Under favourable
circumstances this development may proceed so far as
to raise the animal altogether out of touch with the
group to which he belongs, so that his fragment of a
group-soul becomes capable of responding to the outpouring
which comes from the First Aspect of the Deity.
For
this final outpouring is not like the others, a mighty
outrush affecting thousands or millions simultaneously;
it comes to each one individually as that one is ready
to receive it. This outpouring has already descended
as far as the intuitional world; but it comes no farther
than that until this upward leap is made by the soul
of the animal from below; but when that happens this
Third Outpouring leaps down to meet it, and in the higher
mental world is formed an ego, a permanent individuality
– permanent, that is, until, far later in his evolution,
the man transcends it and reaches back to the divine
unity from which he came. To make this ego, the fragment
of the group-soul (which has hitherto played the part
always of ensouling force) becomes in its turn a vehicle,
and is itself ensouled by that divine Spark which has
fallen into it from on high. That Spark may be said to
have been hovering in the monadic world over the group-soul
(Page 40) through the whole
of its previous evolution, unable to effect a junction
with it until its corresponding
fragment in the group-soul had developed sufficiently
to permit it. It is this breaking away from the rest
of the group-soul and developing a separate ego which
marks the distinction between the highest animal and
the lowest man. (Page
41)
CHAPTER
V
THE
CONSTITUTION OF MAN
Man
is therefore in essence a Spark of the divine Fire, belonging
to the monadic world. (The President
has now
decided upon a set of names for the planes, so for the
future these will be used instead of those previously
employed. A table of them is given below for reference)
To that Spark, dwelling all the time in that world, we
give the name “Monad”. For the purpose of human evolution
Monad manifests itself in lower worlds. When it descends
one stage and enters the spiritual world, it shows itself
there as the triple Spirit, having itself three aspects
(just as in worlds infinitely higher the Deity has His
three Aspects.) Of those three - one remains always in
that world, and we call that the Spirit in man. The second
aspect manifests itself in the intuitional world, and
we speak of it as the Intuition in man. The third shows
itself in the higher mental world, and we call it the
Intelligence in man. These three aspects taken together
constitute the ego which ensouls the fragment from the
group-soul. Thus man as we know him, though in (Page
42)
|
New
Names |
Old
Names |
|
1 |
Divine
World |
Âdi
Plane |
2 |
Monadic
World |
Anupâdaka |
3 |
Spiritual
World |
Âtmic
or Nirvânic Plane |
4 |
Intuitional
World |
Buddhic
Plane |
5 |
Mental
World |
Mental
Plane |
6 |
Emotional
or Astral World |
Astral
Plane |
7 |
Physical
World |
Physical
Plane |
These
will supersede the names given in Vol. -II- of The
Inner Life. |
reality a Monad residing in the monadic world, shows
himself as an ego in the higher mental world, manifesting
these three aspects of himself (Spirit, Intuition and
Intelligence) through that vehicle of higher mental matter
which we name the casual body.
This
ego is the man during the human stage of evolution; he
is the nearest correspondence, in fact, to the ordinary
unscientific conception of the soul. He lives unchanged
(except for his growth) from the moment of individualization
until humanity is transcended and merged into divinity.
He is in no way affected by what we call birth and death;
what we commonly consider as his life is only a day in
his life. The body which we can see, the body which is
born and dies, is a garment which he puts on for the
purposes of a certain part of his evolution.
Nor
is it the only body which he assumes. Before he, the
ego in the higher mental world, can take a vehicle belonging
to the physical world, he must make a connection with
it through the lower mental and astral worlds. When he
wishes to descend he draws around himself a veil of the
matter of the lower mental world, which we call his mental
body. This is the instrument by means of which he thinks
all his concrete thoughts – abstract thought being a
power of the ego himself in the higher mental world.
Next
he draws round himself a veil of astral matter, which
we call his astral body; and that is the instrument of
his passions and emotions, and also (in conjunction with
the lower part of his mental body) (Page
43) the instrument
of all such thought as is tinged by selfishness and personal
feeling. Only after having assumed these intermediate
vehicles can he come into touch with a baby physical
body, and be born into the world which we know. He lives
through what we call his life, gaining certain qualities
as the result of its experiences; and at its end, when
the physical body is worn out, he reverses the process
of descent and lays aside one by one the temporary vehicles
which he has assumed. The first to go is the physical
body, and when that is dropped, his life is centered
in the astral world and he lives in his astral body.
The
length of his stay in that world depends upon the amount
of passion and emotion which he has developed within
himself in his physical life. If there is much of these
the astral body is strongly vitalized, and will persist
for a long time; if there is but little, the astral body
has less vitality, and he will soon be able to cast that
vehicle aside in turn. When that is done he finds himself
living in his mental body. The strength of that depends
upon the nature of the thoughts to which he had habituated
himself, and usually his stay at this level is a long
one. At last it comes to an end, he casts aside the mental
body in turn, and is once more the ego in his own world.
Owing
to lack of development, he is as yet but partially conscious
in that world; the vibrations of its matter are too rapid
to make any impression upon him, just as the ultraviolet
rays are too rapid to make any impression upon our eyes.
After a rest there, he feels the desire to descend to
a level where the undulations (Page 44) are perceptible
to him, in order that he may feel himself to be fully
alive; so he repeats the process of descent into denser
matter, and assumes once more a mental, an astral and
a physical body. As his previous bodies have all disintegrated,
each in its turn, these new vehicles are entirely distinct
from them, and thus it happens that in his physical life
he has no recollection whatever of other similar lives
which have preceded it.
When
functioning in this physical world he remembers by means
of his mental body; but since that is a new one, assumed
only for this birth, it naturally cannot contain the
memory of previous births in which it had no part. The
man himself, the ego, does remember them all when in
his own world, and occasionally some partial recollection
of them or influence from them filters through into his
lower vehicles. He does not usually, in his physical
life, remember the experiences of earlier lives, but
he does manifest in physical life the qualities which
those experiences have developed in him. Each man is
therefore exactly what he has made himself during those
past lives; if he has in them developed good qualities
in himself, he possesses the good qualities now; if he
neglected to train himself, and consequently left himself
weak and of evil disposition, he finds himself precisely
in that condition now. The qualities, good or evil, with
which he is born are those which he has made for himself.
This
development of the ego is the object of the whole process
of materialization; he assumes those veils of matter
precisely because through them he is able (Page
45) to receive
vibrations to which he can respond, so that his latent
faculties may thereby be unfolded. Though man descends
from on high into these lower worlds, it is only through
that descent that a full cognizance of the higher worlds
is developed in him. Full consciousness in any given
world involves the power to perceive and respond to all
the undulations of that world; therefore the ordinary
man has not yet perfect consciousness at any level –
not even in this physical world which he thinks he knows.
It is possible for him to unfold his percipience in all
these worlds, and it is by means of such developed consciousness
that we observe all these facts which I am now describing.
The
causal body is the permanent vehicle of the ego in the
higher mental world. It consists of matter of the first,
second and third subdivisions of that world. In ordinary
people it is not yet fully active, only that matter which
belongs to the third subdivision being vivified. As the
ego unfolds his latent possibilities through the long
course of his evolution, the higher matter is gradually
brought into action, but it is only in the perfected
man whom we call the Adept that it is developed to its
fullest extent. Such matter can be discerned by clairvoyant
sight, but only by a seer who knows how to use the sight
of the ego.
It
is difficult to describe a causal body fully, because
the senses belonging to its world are altogether different
from and higher than ours at this level. Such memory
of the appearance of a causal body as it is possible
for a clairvoyant to bring into his physical brain represents
it as ovoid, and as surrounding the (Page
46) physical
body of the man, extending to a distance of about eighteen
inches from the normal surface of that body. In the case
of primitive man it resembles a bubble, and gives the
impression of being empty. It is in reality filled with
higher mental matter, but as this is not yet brought
into activity it remains colorless and transparent. As
advancement continues it is gradually stirred into alertness
by vibrations which reach it from the lower bodies. This
comes but slowly, because the activities of man in the
earlier stages of his evolution are not of a character
to obtain expression in matter so fine as that of the
higher mental body; but when a man reaches the stage
where he is capable either of abstract thought or of
unselfish emotion the matter of the causal body is aroused
into response.
When
these rates of undulation are awakened within him they
show themselves in his causal body as colors, so that
instead of being a mere transparent bubble it gradually
becomes a sphere filled with matter of the most lovely
and delicate hues – an object beautiful beyond all conception.
It is found by experience that these colors are significant.
The vibration which denotes the power of unselfish affection
shows itself as a pale rose-color; that which indicates
high intellectual power is yellow; that which expresses
sympathy is green, while blue betokens devotional feeling,
and a luminous lilac-blue typifies the higher spirituality.
The same scheme of color significance applies to the
bodies which are built of denser matter, but as we approach
the physical world the hues are in every case by comparison
grosser – not only less delicate but also less living.(Page
47)
In the course of evolution in the lower worlds man often
introduces into his vehicles qualities which are undesirable
and entirely inappropriate for his life as an ego – such,
for example, as pride, irritability, sensuality. These,
like the rest, are reducible to vibrations, but they
are in all cases vibrations of the lower subdivisions
of their respective worlds, and therefore they cannot
reproduce themselves in the casual body, which is built
exclusively of the matter of the three higher subdivisions
of its world. For each section of the astral body acts
strongly upon the corresponding section of the mental
body, but only upon the corresponding section; it cannot
influence any other part. So the casual body can be affected
only by the three higher portions of the astral body;
and the oscillations of those represent only good qualities.
The
practical effect of this is that the man can build into
the ego (that is, into his true self) nothing but good
qualities; the evil qualities which he develops are in
their nature transitory and must be thrown aside as he
advances, because he has no longer within him matter
which can express them. The difference between the causal
bodies of the savage and the saint is that the first
is empty and colorless, while the second is full of brilliant
coruscating tints. As the man passes beyond even sainthood
and becomes a great spiritual power, his causal body
increases in size, because it has so much more to express,
and it also begins to pour out from itself in all directions
powerful rays of living light. In one who has attained
Adeptship this body is of enormous dimensions.
The
mental body is built of matter of the four lower (Page
48) subdivisions of the mental world, and expresses the concrete
thoughts of the man. Here also we find the same color
scheme as in the casual body. The hues are somewhat less
delicate, and we notice one or two additions. For example,
a thought of pride shows itself as orange, while irritability
is manifested by a brilliant scarlet. We may see here
sometimes the bright brown of avarice, the grey-brown
of selfishness, and grey-green of deceit. Here also we
perceive the possibility of a mixture of colors; the
affection, the intellect, the devotion may be tinged
by selfishness, and in that case their distinctive colors
are mingled with the brown of selfishness, and so we
have an impure and muddy appearance. Although its particles
are always in intensely rapid motion among themselves,
this body has at the same time a kind of loose organization.
The
size and shape of the mental body are determined by those
of the causal vehicle. There are in it certain striations
which divide it more or less irregularly into segments,
each of these corresponding to a certain department of
the physical brain, so that every type of thought should
function through its duly assigned portion. The mental
body is as yet so imperfectly developed in ordinary men
that there are many in whom a great number of special
departments are not yet in activity, and any attempt
at thought belonging to those departments has to travel
round through some inappropriate channel which happens
to be fully open. The result is that thought on those
subjects is for those people clumsy and uncomprehending. (Page
49) This is why some people have a head for mathematics and
others are unable to add correctly – why some people
instinctively understand, appreciate and enjoy music,
while others do not know one tune from another.
All
the matter of the mental body should be circulating freely,
but sometimes a man allows his thought upon a certain
subject to set and solidify, and then the circulation
is impeded, and there is congestion which presently hardens
into a kind of wart on the mental body. Such a wart appears
to us down here as a prejudice; and until it is absorbed
and free circulation restored, it is impossible for man
to think truly or to see clearly with regard to that
particular department of his mind, as the congestion
checks the free passage of undulations both outward and
inward.
When
a man uses any part of his mental body it not only vibrates
for the time more rapidly, but it also temporarily swells
out and increases in size. If there is prolonged thought
upon a subject this increase becomes permanent, and it
is thus open to any man to increase the size of his mental
body either along desirable or undesirable lines.
Good
thoughts produce vibrations of the finer matter of the
body, which by its specific gravity tends to float in
the upper part of the ovoid; whereas bad thoughts, such
as selfishness and avarice, are always oscillations of
the grosser matter, which tends to gravitate towards
the lower part of the ovoid. Consequently the ordinary
man, who yields himself not infrequently to selfish thoughts
to various kinds, usually (Page 50) expands the lower
part of his mental body, and presents roughly the appearance
of an egg with its larger end downwards. The man who
has repressed those lower thoughts, and devoted himself
to higher ones, tends to expand the upper part of his
mental body and therefore presents the appearance of
an egg standing on its smaller end. From a study of the
colors and striations of a man’s mental body the clairvoyant
can perceive his character and the progress he has made
in his present life. From similar features of the causal
body he can see what progress the ego has made since
its original formation, when the man left the animal
kingdom.
When
a man thinks of any concrete object – a book, a house,
a landscape – he builds a tiny image of the object in
the matter of his mental body. This image floats in the
upper part of that body, usually in front of the face
of the man and at about the level of the eyes. It remains
there as long as the man is contemplating the object,
and usually for a little time afterwards, the length
of time depending upon the intensity and the clearness
of the thought. This form is quite objective, and can
be seen by another person, if that other has developed
the sight of his own mental body. If a man thinks of
another, he creates a tiny portrait in just the same
way. If his thought is merely contemplative and involves
no feeling (such as affection or dislike) or desires
(such as a wish to see the person) the thought does not
usually perceptibly affect the man of whom he thinks.
If
coupled with the thought of the person there is a (Page
51) feeling, as for example of affection, another phenomenon
occurs besides the forming of the image. The thought
of affection takes a definite form, which it builds out
of the matter of the thinker’s mental body. Because of
the emotion involved, it draws round it also matter of
his astral body, and thus we have an astro-mental form
which leaps out of the body in which it has been generated,
and moves through space towards the object of the feeling
of affection. If the thought is sufficiently strong,
distance makes absolutely no difference to it; but the
thought of an ordinary person is usually weak and diffused,
and is therefore not effective outside a limited area.
When
this thought-form reaches its object it discharges itself
into his astral and mental bodies, communicating to them
its own rate of vibration. Putting this in another way,
a thought of love sent from one person to another involves
the actual transference of a certain amount both of force
and of matter from the sender to the recipient, and its
effect upon the recipient is to arouse the feeling of
affection in him, and slightly but permanently to increase
his power of loving. But such a thought also strengthens
the power of affection in the thinker, and therefore
it does good simultaneously to both.
Every
thought builds a form; if the thought be directed to
another person it travels to him; if it be distinctly
selfish it remains in the immediate neighbourhood of
the thinker; if it belongs to neither of these categories
it floats for awhile in space and then slowly disintegrates.
Every man therefore is leaving behind (Page
52) him wherever
he goes a trail of thought-forms; as we go along the
street we are walking all the same amidst a sea of other
men’s thoughts. If a man leaves his mind blank for a
time, these residual thoughts of others drifts through
it, making in most cases but little impression upon him.
Sometimes one arrives which attracts his attention, so
that his mind seizes upon it and makes it its own, strengthens
it by the addition of its force, and then casts it out
again to affect somebody else. A man, therefore, is not
responsible for a thought which floats into his mind,
because it may be not his, but someone else’s, but he
is responsible if he takes it up, dwells upon it and
then sends it out strengthened.
Self-centered
thought of any kind hangs about the thinker, and most
men surround their mental bodies with a shell of such
thoughts. Such a shell obscures the mental vision and
facilitates the formation of prejudice.
Each
thought-form is a temporary entity. It resembles a charged
battery, awaiting an opportunity to discharge itself.
Its tendency is always to reproduce its own rate of vibration
in the mental body upon which it fastens itself, and
so to arouse in it a like thought. If the person at whom
it is aimed happens to be busy, or already engaged in
some definite train of thought, the particles of his
mental body are already swinging at a certain determinate
rate, and cannot for the moment be affected from without.
In that case the thought-form bides its time, hanging
about its object until he is sufficiently at rest to
permit its entrance; (Page 53) then it discharges itself
upon him, and in the act ceases to exist.
The
self-centered thought behaves in exactly the same way
with regard to its generator, and discharges itself upon
him when opportunity offers. If it be an evil thought
he generally regards it as the suggestion of a tempting
demon, whereas in truth he tempts himself. Usually each
definite thought creates a new thought-form; but if a
thought-form of the same nature is already hovering round
the thinker, under certain circumstances a new thought
on the same subject, instead of creating a new form,
coalesces with and strengthens the old one, so that by
long brooding over the same subject a man may sometimes
create a thought-form of tremendous power. If the thought
be a wicked one, such a thought-form may become a veritable
evil influence, lasting perhaps for many years, and having
for a time all the appearance and powers of a real living
entity.
All
these which have been described are the ordinary unpremeditated
thoughts of man. A man can make a thought-form intentionally,
and aim it at another with the object of helping him.
This is one of the lines of activity adopted by those
who desire to serve humanity. A steady stream of powerful
thought directed intelligently upon another person may
be of the greatest assistance to him. A strong thought-form
may be a real guardian angel, and protect its object
from impurity, from irritability or from fear.
An
interesting branch of the subject is the study of the
various shapes and colors taken by thought-forms (Page
54) of different kinds. The colors indicate the nature of
the thought, and are in agreement with those which we
have already described as existing in the bodies. The
shapes are of infinite variety, but are often in some
way typical of the kind of thought which they express.
Every
thought of definite character, such as a thought of affection
or hatred, of devotion or suspicion, of anger or fear,
of pride or jealousy, not only creates a form but also
radiates an undulation. The fact that each one of these
thoughts is expressed by a certain color indicates that
the thought expresses itself as an oscillation of the
matter of a certain part of the mental body. This rate
of oscillation communicates itself to the surrounding
mental matter precisely in the same way as the vibration
of a bell communicates itself to the surrounding air.
This
radiation travels out in all directions, and whenever
it impinges upon another mental body in a passive or
receptive condition it communicates to it something of
its own vibration. This does not convey a definite complete
idea, as does the thought-form, but it tends to produce
a thought of the same character as itself. For example,
if the thought be devotional its undulations will excite
devotion, but the object of worship may be different
in the case of each person upon whose mental body they
impinge. The thought-form, on the other hand, can reach
only one person, but will convey to that person (if receptive)
not only a general devotional feeling, but also a precise
image of the Being for whom the adoration was originally
felt.(Page
55)
Any person who habitually thinks pure, good and strong
thoughts is utilizing for that purpose the higher part
of his mental body – a part which is not used at all
by the ordinary man, and is entirely undeveloped in him.
Such an one is therefore a power for good in the world,
and is being of great use to all those of his neighbours
who are capable of any sort of response. For the vibration
which he sends out tends to arouse a new and higher part
of their mental bodies, and consequently to open before
them altogether new fields of thought.
It
may not be exactly the same thought as that sent out,
but it is of the same nature. The undulations generated
by a man thinking of Theosophy do not necessarily communicate
theosophical ideas to all those around him; but they
do awaken in them more liberal and higher thought than
that to which they have before been accustomed. On the
other hand, the thought-forms generated under such circumstances,
though more limited in their action than the radiation,
are also more precise; they can affect only those who
are to some extent open to them, but to them they will
convey definite Theosophical ideas.
The
colors of the astral body bear the same meaning as those
of the higher vehicles, but are several octaves of color
below them, and much more nearly approaching to such
hues as we see in the physical world. It is the vehicle
of passion and emotion and consequently it may exhibit
additional colors, expressing man’s less desirable feelings,
which cannot show themselves at higher levels; for example,
a lurid brownish red indicates the presence of sensuality,
while black (Page 56) clouds show malice and hatred.
A curious livid grey betokens the presence of fear, and
a much darker grey, usually arranged in heavy rings around
the ovoid, indicates a condition of depression. Irritability
is shown by the presence of a number of small scarlet
flecks in the astral body, each representing a small
angry impulse. Jealousy is shown by a peculiar brownish-green,
generally studded with the same scarlet flecks. The astral
body is in size and shape like those just described,
and in the ordinary man its outline is usually clearly
marked; but in the case of primitive man it is often
exceedingly irregular, and resembles a rolling cloud
composed of all the more unpleasant colors.
When
the astral body is comparatively quiet (it is never actually
at rest) the colors which are to be seen in it indicate
those emotions to which the man is most in the habit
of yielding himself. When the man experiences a rush
of any particular feeling, the rate of vibration which
expresses that feeling dominates for a time the entire
astral body. If, for example, it be devotion, the whole
of his astral body is flushed with blue, and while the
emotion remains at its strongest the normal colors do
little more than modify the blue, or appear faintly through
a veil of it; but presently the vehemence of the sentiment
dies away, and the normal colors reassert themselves.
But because of that spasm of emotion the part of the
astral body which is normally blue has been increased
in size. Thus a man who frequently feels high devotion
soon comes to have a large area of blue permanently existing
in his astral body.(Page
57)
When the rush of devotional feeling comes over him
it is usually accompanied by thoughts of devotion. Although
primarily formed in the mental body, these draw round
themselves a large amount of astral matter as well, so
that their action is in both worlds. In both worlds also
is the radiation which was previously described, so that
devotional man is a center of devotion, and will influence
other people to share both his thoughts and his feelings.
The same is true in the case of affection, anger, depression
– and, indeed, of all other feelings.
The
flood of emotion does not itself greatly affect the mental
body, although for a time it may render it almost impossible
for any activity from that mental body to come through
into the physical brain. That is not because that body
itself is affected, but because the astral body, which
acts as a bridge between it and the physical brain, is
vibrating so entirely at one rate as to be incapable
of conveying any undulation which is not in harmony with
that.
The
permanent colors of the astral body reacts upon the mental.
They produce in it their correspondences, several octaves
higher, in the same manner as a musical note produces
overtones. The mental body in its turn reacts upon the
causal in the same way, and thus all the good qualities
expressed in the lower vehicles by degrees establish
themselves permanently in the ego. The evil qualities
cannot do so, as the rates of vibration which express
them are impossible for the higher mental matter of which
the causal body is constructed.(Page
58)
So far, we have described vehicles which are the
expression of the ego in their respective worlds – vehicles
which
he provides for himself; in the physical world we come
to a vehicle which is provided for him by nature under
laws which will be explained later – which , though also
in some sense an expression of him, is by no means a
perfect manifestation. In ordinary life we see only a
small part of this physical body – only that which is
built of the solid and liquid subdivisions of physical
matter. The body contains matter of all the seven subdivisions,
and all of them play their part in its life and are of
equal importance to it.
We
usually speak of the invisible part of the physical body
as the etheric double; “double” because it exactly reproduces
the size and shape of the part of the body that we can
see, and “etheric” because it is built of that finer
kind of matter by the vibrations of which light is conveyed
to the retina of the eye. (This must not be confused
with the true aether of space – that of which matter
is the negation.) This invisible part of the physical
body is of great importance to us, since it is the vehicle
through which flow the streams of vitality which keeps
the body alive, and without it, as a bridge to convey
undulations of thought and feeling from the astral to
the visible denser physical matter, the ego could make
no use of the cells of his brain.
The
life of a physical body is one of perpetual change and
in order that it shall live, it needs constantly to be
supplied from three distinct sources. It must have food
for its digestion, air for its breathing, (Page
59) and
vitality for its absorption. This vitality is essentially
a force, but when clothed in matter it appears to us
a definite element, which exists in all the worlds of
which we have spoken. At the moment we are concerned
with that manifestation of it which we find in the highest
subdivision of the physical world. Just as the blood
circulates through the veins, so does the vitality circulate
along the nerves; and precisely as any abnormality in
the flow of the blood at once affects the physical body
so does the slightest irregularity in the absorption
or flow of the vitality affect this higher part of the
physical body.
Vitality
is a force which comes originally from the sun. When
an ultimate physical atom is charged with it, it draws
round itself six other atoms and makes itself into an
etheric element. The original force of vitality is then
subdivided into seven, each of the atoms carrying a separate
charge. The element thus made is absorbed into the human
body through the etheric part of the spleen. It is there
split up into its component parts, which at once flow
to the various parts of the body assigned to them. The
spleen is one of the seven force-centers in the etheric
part of the physical body. In each of our vehicles seven
such centers should be in activity, and when they are
thus active they are visible to clairvoyant sight. They
appear usually as shallow vortices, for they are the
points at which the force from the higher bodies enters
the lower. In the physical body these centers are: (1)
at the base of the spine, (2) at the solar plexus, (3)
at the spleen, (4) over the heart, (5) at the throat,
(Page 60 ) (6) between the eyebrows, and (7) at the top
of the head. There are other dormant centers, but their
awakening is undesirable.
The
shape of all the higher bodies as seen by the clairvoyant
is ovoid, but the matter composing them is not equally
distributed throughout the egg. In the midst of this
ovoid is the physical body. The physical body strongly
attracts astral matter, and in its turn the astral matter
strongly attracts mental matter. Therefore by far the
greater part of the matter of the astral body is gathered
within the physical frame; and the same is true of the
mental vehicle. If we see the astral body of a man in
its own world, apart from the physical body, we shall
still perceive the astral matter aggregated in exactly
the shape of the physical, although, as the matter is
more fluidic in its nature, what we see is a body built
of dense mist, in the midst of an ovoid of much finer
mist. The same is true for the mental body. Therefore,
if in the astral or the mental world we should meet an
acquaintance, we should recognize him by his appearance
just as instantly as in the physical world.
This,
then, is the true constitution of man. In the first place
he is a Monad, a Spark of the Divine. Of that Monad the
ego is a partial expression, formed in order that he
may enter evolution, and may return to the Monad with
joy, bringing his sheaves with him in the shape of qualities
developed by garnered experience. The ego in his turn
puts down part of himself for the same purpose into lower
worlds, and we call that part a personality, because
the Latin word persona (Page 61) means a mask, and this
personality is the mask which the ego puts upon himself
when he manifests in worlds lower than his own. Just
as the ego is a small part and an imperfect expression
of the Monad, so is the personality a small part and
an imperfect expression of the ego; so that what we usually
think of as the man is only in truth a fragment of a
fragment.
The
personality wears three bodies or vehicles, the mental,
the astral and the physical. While the man is what we
call alive and awake on the physical earth he is limited
by his physical body, for he uses the astral and mental
bodies only as bridges to connect himself with his lowest
vehicle. One of the limitations of the physical body
is that it quickly becomes fatigued and needs periodical
rest. Each night the man leaves it to sleep, and withdraws
into his astral vehicle, which does not become fatigued,
and therefore needs no sleep. During this sleep of the
physical body the man is free to move about the astral
world; but the extent to which he does this depends upon
his development. The primitive savage usually does not
move more than a few miles away from his sleeping physical
form – often not as much as that; and he has only the
vaguest consciousness.
The
educated man is generally able to travel in his astral
vehicle wherever he will, and has much more consciousness
in the astral world, though he has not often the faculty
of bringing into his waking life any memory of what he
has seen and done while his physical body was asleep.
Sometimes he does remember some incident which he has
seen, some experience (Page 62) which he has had, and
then he calls it a vivid dream. More often his recollections
are hopelessly entangled with vague memories of waking
life, and with impressions made from without upon the
etheric part of his brain. Thus we arrive at the confused
and often absurd dreams of ordinary life. The developed
man becomes as fully conscious and active in the astral
world as in the physical, and brings through into the
latter full remembrance of what he has been doing in
the former – that is, he has a continuous life without
any loss of consciousness throughout the whole twenty-four
hours, and thus throughout the whole of his physical
life, and even through death itself.(Page
63)
CHAPTER
VI
AFTER
DEATH
Death is the laying aside of the physical body; but
it makes no more difference to the ego than does the
laying
aside of an overcoat to the physical man. Having put
off his physical body, the ego continues to live in his
astral body until the force has become exhausted which
has been generated by such emotions and passions as he
has allowed himself to feel during earth life. When that
has happened, the second death takes place; the astral
body also falls away from him, and he finds himself living
in the mental body and in the lower mental world. In
that condition he remains until the thought forces generated
during his physical and astral lives have worn themselves
out; then he drops the third vehicle in its turn and
remains once more an ego in his own world, inhabiting
his causal body.
There
is, then, no such thing as death as it is ordinarily
understood. There is only a succession of stages in a
continuous life – stages lived in the three worlds one
after another. The apportionment of time between these
three worlds varies much as man advances. The primitive
man lives almost exclusively in the physical world, spending
only a few years in the astral at the end of each of
his physical lives. As he develops, the astral life becomes
longer, and as intellect (Page 64) unfolds in him, and
he becomes able to think, he begins to spend a little
time in the mental world as well. The ordinary man of
civilized races remains longer in the mental world than
in the physical and astral; indeed, the more a man evolves
the longer becomes his mental life and the shorter his
life in the astral world.
The
astral life is the result of all feelings which have
in them the element of self. If they have been directly
selfish, they bring him into conditions of great unpleasantness
in the astral world; if, though tinged with thoughts
of self, they have been good and kindly they bring him
a comparatively pleasant though still limited astral
life. Such of his thoughts and feelings as have been
entirely unselfish produce their result in his life in
the mental world; therefore that life in the mental world
cannot be other than blissful. The astral life, which
the man has made
for himself either miserable or comparatively joyous,
corresponds to what Christians call purgatory; the lower
mental life, which is always entirely happy, is what
is called heaven.
Man
makes for himself his own purgatory and heaven, and these
are not planes, but states of consciousness. Hell does
not exist; it is only a figment of the theological imagination;
but a man who lives foolishly may make for himself a
very unpleasant and long-enduring purgatory. Neither
purgatory nor heaven can ever be eternal, for a finite
cause cannot produce an infinite result. The variations
in individual cases are so wide that to give actual figures
is somewhat misleading. If we take the average man of
(Page 65) what is called the lower middle class, the
typical specimen of which would be a small shopkeeper
or shop-assistant, his average life in the astral world
would be perhaps about forty years, and the life in the
mental world about two hundred. The man of spirituality
and culture, on the other hand, may have perhaps twenty
years of life in the astral world and a thousand in the
heaven life. One who is specially developed may reduce
the astral life to a few days or hours and spend fifteen
hundred years in heaven.
Not
only does the length of these periods vary greatly, but
the conditions in both worlds also differ widely. The
matter of which all these bodies are built is not dead
matter but living, and that fact has to be taken into
consideration. The physical body is built up of cells,
each of which is a tiny separate life animated by the
Second Outpouring, which comes forth from the Second
Aspect of the Deity. These cells are of varying kinds
and fulfill various functions, and all these facts must
be taken into account if the man wishes to understand
the work of his physical body and to live a healthy life
in it.
The
same thing applies to the astral and mental bodies. In
the cell life which permeates them there is as yet nothing
in the way of intelligence, but there is a strong instinct
always pressing in the direction of what is for its development.
The life animating the matter of which such bodies are
built is upon the outward arc of evolution, moving downwards
or outwards into matter, so that progress for it means
to descend into denser forms of matter, and to learn
to express itself (Page 66) through them. Unfoldment
for the man is just the opposite of this; he has already
sunk deeply into matter and is now rising out of that
towards his source. There is consequently a constant
conflict of interests between the man within and the
life inhabiting the matter of his vehicles, inasmuch
as its tendency is downward, while his is upward.
The
matter of the astral body (or rather the life animating
its molecules) desires for its evolution such undulations
as it can get, of as many different kinds as possible,
and as coarse as possible. The next step in its evolution
will be to ensoul physical matter and become used to
its still slower oscillations; and as a step on the way
to that, it desires the grossest of the astral vibrations.
It has not the intelligence definitely to plan for these;
but its instinct helps it to discover how most easily
to procure them.
The
molecules of the astral body are constantly changing,
as are those of the physical body, but nevertheless the
life in the mass of those astral molecules has a sense,
though a very vague sense, of itself as a whole – as
a kind of temporary entity. It does not know that it
is part of a man’s astral body; it is quite capable of
understanding what a man is; but it realizes in a blind
way that under its present conditions it receives many
more waves, and much stronger ones, than it would receive
if floating at large in the atmosphere. It would then
only occasionally catch, as from a distance, the radiation
of man’s passions and emotions; now it is in the very
heart of them, it can miss none, and it gets them at
their strongest. Therefore it (Page
67) feels itself
in a good position, and it makes an effort to retain
that position. It finds itself in contact with something
finer than itself – the matter of the man’s mental body;
and it comes to feel that if it can contrive to involve
that finer something in its own undulations, they will
be greatly intensified and prolonged.
Since
astral matter is the vehicle of desire and mental matter
is the vehicle of thought, this instinct, when translated
into our language, means that if the astral body can
induce us to think that we want what it wants, it is
much more likely to get it. Thus it exercises a slow
steady pressure upon the man – a kind of hunger on its
side, but for him a temptation to what is coarse and
undesirable. If he be a passionate man there is a gentle
but ceaseless pressure in the direction of irritability;
if he be a sensual man, an equally steady pressure in
the direction of impurity.
A
man who does not understand this usually makes one of
two mistakes with regard to it: either he supposes it
to be the prompting of his own nature, and therefore
regards that nature as inherently evil; or he thinks
of the pressure as coming from outside – as temptation
of an imaginary devil. The truth lies between the two.
The pressure is natural, not to the man but to the vehicle
which he is using; its desire is natural and right for
it, but harmful to the man, and therefore it is necessary
that he should resist it. If he does so resist, if he
declines to yield himself to the feelings suggested to
him, the particles within him which need those vibrations
become apathetic for lack of nourishment, and eventually
atrophy and fall out (Page 68) from his astral body,
and are replaced by other particles, whose natural wave
rate is more nearly in accordance with that which the
man habitually permits within his astral body.
This
gives the reason for what are called promptings of the
lower nature during life. If the man yields himself to
them, such promptings grow stronger and stronger until
at least he feels as though he could not resist them,
and identifies himself with them – which is exactly what
this curious half-life in the particles of the astral
body wants him to do.
At
the death of the physical body this vague astral consciousness
is alarmed. It realizes that its existence as a separated
mass is menaced, and it takes instinctive steps to defend
itself and to maintain its position as long as possible.
The matter of the astral body is far more fluidic than
that of the physical, and this consciousness seizes upon
its particles and disposes them so as to resist encroachment.
It puts the grossest and densest upon the outside as
a kind of shell, and arranges the others in concentric
layers, so that the body as a whole may become as resistant
to friction as its constitution permits, and may therefore
retain its shape as long as possible.
For
the man this produces various unpleasant effects. The
physiology of the astral body is quite different from
that of the physical; the latter acquires its information
from without by means of certain organs which are specialized
as the instruments of its senses, but the astral body
has no separated senses in our meaning of the word. That
which for the astral body (Page 69) corresponds
to sight is the power of its molecules to respond to
impacts from
without, which come to them by means of similar molecules.
For example, a man has within his astral body matter
belonging to all the subdivisions of the astral world,
and it is because of that that he is capable of “seeing”
objects built of the matter of any of these subdivisions.
Supposing
an astral object to be made of the matter of the second
and third subdivisions mixed, a man living in the astral
world could perceive that object only if on the surface
of his astral body there were particles belonging to
the second and third subdivisions of that world which
were capable of receiving and recording the vibrations
which that object set up. A man who from the arrangement
of his body by the vague consciousness of which we have
spoken, had on the outside of that vehicle only the denser
matter of the lowest subdivision, could no more be conscious
of the object which we have mentioned than we are ourselves
conscious in the physical body of the gases which move
about us in the atmosphere or of objects built exclusively
of etheric matter.
During
physical life the matter of the man’s astral body is
in constant motion, and its particles pass among one
another much as do those of boiling water. Consequently
at any given moment it is practically certain that particles
of all varieties will be represented on the surface of
his astral body, and that therefore when he is using
his astral body during sleep he will be able to “see”
by its means any astral object which approaches him.(Page
70)
After death, if he has allowed the rearrangement
to be made (as from ignorance, all ordinary persons do)
his
condition in this respect will be different. Having on
the surface of his astral body only the lowest and grossest
particles, he can receive impressions only from corresponding
particles outside; so that instead of seeing the whole
of the astral world about him, he will see only one-seventh
of it, and that the densest and most impure. The vibrations
of this heavier matter are the expressions only of objectionable
feelings and emotions, and of the least refined class
of astral entities. Therefore it emerges that a man in
this condition can see only the undesirable inhabitants
of the astral world, and can feel only its most unpleasant
and vulgar influences.
He
is surrounded by other men, whose astral bodies are probably
of quite ordinary character; but since he can see and
feel only what is lowest and coarsest in them, they appear
to him to be monsters of vice with no redeeming features.
Even his friends seem not at all what they used to be,
because he is now incapable of appreciating any of their
better qualities. Under these circumstances it is little
wonder that he considers the astral world a hell; yet
the fault is in no way with the astral world, but with
himself – first, for allowing himself so much of that
ruder type of matter, and secondly, for letting that
vague astral consciousness dominate him and dispose it
in that particular way.
The
man who has studied these matters declines absolutely
to yield to the pressure during life or to permit the
rearrangement after death, and consequently he retains
his power of seeing the astral world as a (Page
71) whole,
and not merely the cruder and baser part of it.
The
astral world has many points in common with the physical;
just like the physical, it presents different appearances
to different people, and even to the same person at different
periods of his career. It is the home of emotion and
of lower thoughts; and emotions are much stronger in
that world than in this. When a person is awake we cannot
see that larger part of his emotion at all; its strength
goes in setting in motion the gross physical matter of
the brain. So if we see a man show affection here, what
we can see is not the whole of his affection, but only
such part of it as is left after all this other work
has been done. Emotions therefore bulk far more largely
in the astral life than in the physical. They in no way
exclude higher thought if they are controlled, so in
the astral world as in the physical a man may devote
himself to study and to helping his fellows, or he may
waste his time and drift about aimlessly.
The
astral world extends nearly to the mean distance of the
orbit of the moon; but though the whole of this realm
is open to any of its inhabitants who have not permitted
the redistribution of their matter, the great majority
remain much nearer to the surface of the earth. The matter
of the different subdivisions of that world interpenetrates
with perfect freedom, but there is on the whole a general
tendency for the denser matter to settle towards the
center. The conditions are much like those which obtain
in a bucket of water which contains in suspension a number
of kinds of matter of different degrees of density. Since
the water is kept in perpetual motion, the different
kinds of matter (Page 72) are diffused through it; but
in spite of that, the densest matter is found in greatest
quantity nearest to the bottom. So that though we must
not at all think of the various subdivisions of the astral
world as lying above one another as do the coats of an
onion, it is nevertheless true that the average arrangement
of the matter of those subdivisions partakes somewhat
of that general character.
Astral
matter interpenetrates physical matter precisely as though
it were not there, but each subdivision of physical matter
has a strong attraction for astral matter of the corresponding
subdivision. Hence it arises that every physical body
has its astral counterpart. If I have a glass of water
standing upon a table, the glass and the table, being
of physical matter in the solid state, are interpenetrated
by astral matter of the lowest subdivision. The water
in the glass, being liquid, is interpenetrated by astral
matter of the sixth subdivision; whereas the air surrounding
both, being physical matter in the gaseous condition,
is entirely interpenetrated by astral gaseous matter
– that is, astral matter of the fifth subdivision.
But
just as air, water, glass and table are alike interpenetrated
all the time by the finer physical matter which we have
called etheric, so are all the astral counterparts interpenetrated
by the finer astral matter of the higher subdivisions
which correspond to the etheric. But even the astral
solid is less dense than the finest of the physical ethers.
The
man who finds himself in the astral world after (Page
73) death, if he has not submitted to the rearrangement of
the matter of his body, will notice but little difference
from physical life. He can float about in any direction
at will, but in actual fact he usually stays in the neighbourhood
to which he is accustomed. He is still able to perceive
his house, his room, his furniture, his relations, his
friends. The living, when ignorant of the higher worlds,
suppose themselves to have “lost” those who have laid
aside their physical bodies; but the dead are never for
a moment under the impression that they have lost the
living.
Functioning
as they are in the astral body, the dead can no longer
see the physical bodies of those whom they have left
behind; but they do see their astral bodies, and as those
are exactly the same in outline as the physical, they
are perfectly aware of the presence of their friends.
They see each one surrounded by a faint ovoid of luminous
mist, and if they happen to be observant, they may notice
various other small changes in the surroundings; but
it is at least quite clear to them that they have not
gone away to some distant heaven or hell, but still remain
in touch with the world which they know, although they
see it at a somewhat different angle.
The
dead man has the astral body of his living friends obviously
before him, so he cannot think of him as lost; but while
the friend is awake, the dead man will not be able to
make any impression upon him, for the consciousness of
the friend is then in the physical world, and his astral
body is being used only as a bridge. The dead man cannot
therefore communicate (Page 74) with his friend, nor
can he read his friend’s higher thoughts; but he will
see by the change in color in the astral body any emotion
which that friend may feel, and with a little practice
and observation he may easily learn to read all those
thoughts of his friend which have in them anything of
self or of desire.
When
the friend falls asleep the whole position is changed.
He is then also conscious in the astral world side by
side with the dead man, and they can communicate in every
respect as freely as they could during physical life.
The emotions felt by the living react strongly upon the
dead who love them. If the former give way to grief,
the latter cannot but suffer severely.
The
conditions of life after death are almost infinite in
their variety, but they can be calculated without difficulty
by any one who will take the trouble to understand the
astral world and to consider the character of the person
concerned. That character is not in the slightest degree
changed by death; the man’s thoughts, emotions and desires
are exactly the same as before. He is in every way the
same man, minus his physical body, and his happiness
or misery depends upon the extent to which this loss
of the physical body affects him.
If
his longings have been such as need a physical body for
their gratification, he is likely to suffer considerably.
Such a craving manifests itself as a vibration in the
astral body, and while we are still in this world most
of its strength is employed in setting in motion the
heavy physical particles. Desire is therefore (Page
75) a far greater force in the astral life than in the physical,
and if the man has not been in the habit of controlling
it, and if in this new life it cannot be satisfied, it
may cause him great and long-continued trouble.
Take
as an illustration the extreme case of a drunkard or
a sensualist. Here we have a lust which has been strong
enough during physical life to overpower reason, common-sense
and all the feelings of decency and of family affection.
After death the man finds himself in the astral world
feeling the appetite perhaps a hundred times more strongly,
yet absolutely unable to satisfy it because he has lost
the physical body. Such a life is a very real hell –
the only hell there is; yet no one is punishing him;
he is reaping the perfectly natural result of his own
action. Gradually as time passes this force of desire
wears out, but only at the cost of terrible suffering
for the man, because to him every day seems as a thousand
years. He has no measure of time such as we have in the
physical world. He can measure it only by his sensations.
From a distortion of this fact has come the blasphemous
idea of eternal damnation.
Many
other cases less extreme than this will readily suggest
themselves, in which a hankering which cannot be fulfilled
may prove itself a torture. A more ordinary case is that
of a man who has no particular vices, such as drink or
sensuality, but yet has been attached entirely to things
of the physical world, and has lived a life devoted to
business or to aimless social functions. For him the
astral world is a place of (Page 76) weariness; the only
things for which he craves are no longer possible for
him, for in the astral world there is no business to
be done, and, though he may have as much companionship
as he wishes, society is now for him a very different
matter, because all the pretences upon which it is usually
based in this world are no longer possible.
These
cases, however, are only the few, and for most people
the state after death is much happier than life upon
earth. The first feeling of which the dead man is usually
conscious is one of the most wonderful and delightful
freedom. He has absolutely nothing to worry about, and
no duties rest upon him, except those which he chooses
to impose upon himself. For all but a very small minority,
physical life is spent in doing what the man would much
rather not do; but he has to do it in order to support
himself or his wife and family. In the astral world no
support is necessary; food is no longer needed, shelter
is not required, since he is entirely unaffected by heat
or cold; and each man by the mere exercise of his thought
clothes himself as he wishes. For the first time since
early childhood the man is entirely free to spend the
whole of his time in doing exactly just what he likes.
His
capacity for every kind of enjoyment is greatly enhanced,
if only that enjoyment does not need a physical body
for expression. If he loves the beauties of Nature, it
is now within his power to travel with great rapidity
and without fatigue over the whole world, to contemplate
all its loveliest spots, and to explore its most secret
recesses. If he delights in art, (Page
77) all the world’s
masterpieces are at his disposal. If he loves music,
he can go where he will to hear it, and it will now mean
much more to him than it has ever meant before; for though
he can no longer hear the physical sounds, he can receive
the whole effect of the music into himself in far fuller
measure than in this lower world. If he is a student
of science, he not only can visit the great scientific
men of the world, and catch from them such thoughts and
ideas as may be within his comprehension, but also he
can undertake the researches of his own into the science
of this higher world, seeing much more of what he is
doing than has ever before been possible to him. Best
of all, he whose great delight in this world has been
to help his fellow men will still find ample scope for
his philanthropic efforts.
Men
are no longer hungry, cold, or suffering from disease
in this astral world; but there are vast numbers who,
being ignorant, desire knowledge – who, being still in
the grip of desire for earthly things, need the explanation
which will turn their thought to higher levels – who
have entangled themselves in a web of their own imaginings,
and can be set free only by one who understands these
new surroundings and can help them distinguish the facts
of the world from their own ignorant misrepresentation
of them. All these can be helped by the man of intelligence
and of kindly heart. Many men arrive in the astral world
in utter ignorance of its conditions, not realizing at
first that they are dead, and when they do realize it
fearing the fate that may be in store for them, because
of false (Page 78) and wicked theological teaching. All
of these need the cheer and comfort which can only be
given to them by a man of common sense who possesses
some knowledge of the facts of nature.
There
is thus no lack of the most profitable occupation for
any man whose interests during his physical life have
been rational; nor is there any lack of companionship.
Men whose tastes and pursuits are similar drift naturally
together there just as they do here; and many realms
of Nature, which during our physical life are concealed
by the dense veil of matter, now lie open for the detailed
study of those who care to examine them.
To
a large extent people make their own surroundings. We
have already referred to the seven subdivisions of this
astral world. Numbering these from the highest and least
material downwards, we find that they fall naturally
into three classes – division one, two and three forming
one such class, and four, five and six another; while
the seventh and lowest of all stands alone. As I have
said, although they all interpenetrate, their substance
has a general tendency to arrange itself according to
its specific gravity, so that most of the matter belonging
to the higher subdivisions is found at a greater elevation
above the surface of the earth than the bulk of the matter
of the lower portions.
Hence,
although any person inhabiting the astral world can move
into any part of it, his natural tendency is to float
at the level which corresponds with the specific gravity
of the heaviest matter in his astral (Page
79) body.
The man who has not permitted the rearrangement of the
matter of his astral body after death is entirely free
of the whole astral world; but the majority, who do permit
it, are not equally free – not because there is anything
to prevent them from rising to the highest level or sinking
to the lowest, but because they are able to sense clearly
only a certain part of that world.
I
have described something of the fate of a man who is
on the lowest level, shut in by a strong shell of coarse
matter. Because of the extreme comparative density of
that matter he is conscious of less outside of his own
subdivision than a man at any other level. The general
specific gravity of his own astral body tends to make
him float below the surface of the earth. The physical
matter of the earth is absolutely non-existent to his
astral senses, and his natural attraction is to that
least delicate form of astral matter which is the counterpart
of that solid earth. A man who has confined himself to
that lowest subdivision will therefore usually find himself
floating in darkness and cut off to a great extent from
others of the dead, whose lives have been such as to
keep them on a higher level.
Divisions
four, and six of the astral world (to which most people
are attracted) have for their background the astral counterpart
of the physical world in which we live, and all its familiar
accessories. Life in the sixth subdivision is simply
like our ordinary life on this earth minus the physical
body and its necessities while as it ascends through
the fifth and (Page 80) fourth
divisions it becomes less and less material and is more
and more withdrawn
from our lower world and its interests.
The
first, second and third sections, though occupying the
same space, yet give the impression of being much further
removed from the physical, and correspondingly less material.
Men who inhabit these levels lose sight of the earth
and its belongings; they are usually deeply self-absorbed,
and to a large extent create their own surroundings,
though these are sufficiently objective to be perceptible
to other men of their level, and also to clairvoyant
vision.
This
region is the summerland of which we hear in spiritualistic
circles – the world in which, by the exercise of their
thought, the dead call into temporary existence their
houses and schools and cities. These surroundings, though
fanciful from our point of view, are to the dead as real
as houses, temples or churches built of stone are to
us, and many people live very contentedly there for a
number of years in the midst of all these thought creations.
Some
of the scenery thus produced is very beautiful; it includes
lovely lakes, magnificent mountains, pleasant gardens,
decidedly superior to anything in the physical world;
though on the other hand it also contains much which
to the trained clairvoyant (who has learned to see things
as they are) appears ridiculous – as, for example, the
endeavors of the unlearned to make a thought form of
some of the curious symbolic descriptions contained in
their various scriptures. An ignorant peasant’s thought
image of a beast full of (Page 81) eyes within, or of
a sea of glass mingled with fire, is naturally often
grotesque, although to its maker it is perfectly satisfactory.
This astral world is full of thought-created figures
and landscapes. Men of all religions image here their
deities and their respective conceptions of paradise,
and enjoy themselves greatly among these dream forms
until they pass into the mental world and come into touch
with something nearer to reality.
Every
one after death – any ordinary person, that is, in whose
case the rearrangement of the matter of the astral body
has been made – has to pass through all these subdivisions
in turn. It does not follow that every one is conscious
in all of them. The ordinary decent person has in his
astral body but little of the matter of its lowest portion
– by no means enough to construct a heavy shell. The
redistribution puts on the outside of the body its densest
matter; in the ordinary man this is usually matter of
the sixth subdivision, mixed with a little of the seventh,
and so he finds himself viewing the counterpart of the
physical world.
The
ego is steadily withdrawing into himself, and as he withdraws
he leaves behind him level after level of this astral
matter. So the length of the man’s detention in any section
of the astral world is precisely in proportion to the
amount of its matter which is found in his astral body,
and that in turn depends upon the life he has lived,
the desires he has indulged, and the class of matter
which by so doing he has attracted towards him and built
into himself. Finding (Page 82) himself then in the
sixth section, still hovering about the places and persons
with which he was most closely connected while on earth,
the average man as time passes on finds the earthly surroundings
gradually growing dimmer and becoming of less and less
importance to him, and he tends more and more to mould
his entourage into agreement with the more persistent
of his thoughts. By the time that he reaches the third
level he finds that this characteristic has entirely
superseded the vision of the realities of the astral
world.
The
second subdivision is a shade less material than the
third, for if the latter is the summerland of the spiritualists,
the former is the material heaven of the more ignorant
orthodox; while the first or highest level appears to
be the special home of those who during life have devoted
themselves to materialistic but intellectual pursuits,
following them not for the sake of benefiting their fellow
men, but either from motives of selfish ambition or simply
for the sake of intellectual exercise. All these people
are perfectly happy. Later on they will reach a stage
when they can appreciate something much higher, and when
that stage comes they will find the higher ready for
them.
In
this astral life people of the same nation and of the
same interests tend to keep together, precisely as they
do here. The religious people, for example, who imagine
for themselves a material heaven, do not at all interfere
with men of other faiths whose ideas of celestial joy
are different. There is nothing to prevent a Christian
from drifting into the heaven of the Hindu (Page
83) or the Mohammedan, but he is little likely to do so,
because his interests and attractions are all in the
heaven of his own faith, along with friends who have
shared that faith with him. This is by no means the true
heaven described by any of the religions, but only a
gross and material misrepresentation of it; the real
thing will be found when we come to consider the mental
world.
The
dead man who has not permitted the rearrangement of the
matter of his astral body is free of the entire world,
and can wander all over it at will, seeing the whole
of whatever he examines, instead of only a part of it
as the others do. He does not find it inconveniently
crowded, for the astral world is much larger than the
surface of the physical earth, while its population is
somewhat smaller, because the average life of humanity
in the astral world is shorter than the average of the
physical.
Not
only the dead, however, are the inhabitants of this astral
world, but always about one third of the living as well,
who have temporarily left their physical bodies behind
them in sleep. The astral world has also a great number
of non-human inhabitants, some of them far below the
level of man, and some considerably above him. The nature
spirits form an enormous kingdom, some of whose members
exist in the astral world, and make a large part of its
population. This vast kingdom exists in the physical
world also, for many of its orders wear etheric bodies,
and are only just beyond the range of ordinary physical
sight. Indeed, circumstances not infrequently occur under
(Page 84) which they can be seen, and in many lonely
mountain districts these appearances are traditional
among the peasants, by whom they are commonly spoken
of as fairies, good people, pixies or brownies.
They
are protéan, but usually prefer to wear a miniature
human form. Since they are not yet individualized, they
may
be thought of almost as etheric and astral animals; yet
many of them are intellectually quite equal to average
humanity. They have their nations and types just as we
have, and they are often grouped into four great classes,
and called the spirits of earth, water, fire and air.
Only the members of the last of these four divisions
normally reside in the astral world, but their numbers
as so prodigious that they are everywhere present in
it.
Another
great kingdom has its representatives here – the kingdom
of the angels (called in India the devas). This is a
body of beings who stand far higher in evolution than
man, and only the lowest fringe of their hosts touches
the astral world – a fringe whose constituent members
are perhaps at about the level of development of what
we should call a distinctly good man.
We
are neither the only nor even the principal inhabitants
of our solar system; there are other lines of evolution
running parallel with our own which do not pass through
humanity at all, though they must all pass through a
level corresponding to that of humanity. On one of these
other lines of evolution are the nature spirits above
described, and at a higher level of that line comes this
great kingdom of the angels.(Page 85
) At our present
level of evolution they come into obvious contact with
us only very rarely, but as we develop we shall be likely
to see more of them - especially as the cyclic progress
of the world is now bringing it more and more under the
influence of the Seventh Ray. This Seventh Ray has ceremonial
for one of its characteristics, and it is through ceremonial
such as that of the Church or of Free-masonry that we
come most easily into touch with the angelic kingdom.
When
all the man’s lower emotions have worn themselves out
– all emotions, I mean, which have in them any thought
of self – his life in the astral world is over, and the
ego passes on into the mental world. This is not in any
sense a movement in space; it is simply that the steady
process of withdrawal has now passed beyond even the
finest kind of astral matter; so that the man’s consciousness
is focused in the mental world. His astral body has not
entirely disintegrated, though it is in process of doing
so, and he leaves behind him an astral corpse, just as
at a previous stage of the withdrawal he left behind
him a physical corpse. There is a certain difference
between the two which should be noticed, because of the
consequences which ensue from it.
When
the man leaves his physical body his separation from
it should be complete, and generally is so; but this
is not the case with the much finer matter of the astral
body. In the course of his physical life the ordinary
man usually entangles himself so much in astral matter
(which, from another point of view, means that he identifies
himself so closely with his lower desires) that the indrawing
force of the ego cannot entirely separate him from it
again. Consequently, when he finally breaks away from
the astral body and transfers his activities to the mental,
he loses a little of himself, he leaves some of himself
behind imprisoned in the matter of the astral body. Page
86)
(
This gives a certain remnant of vitality to the astral
corpse, so that it still moves freely in the astral
world, and may easily be mistaken by the ignorant for
the man himself – the more so as such fragmentary consciousness
as still remains to it is part of the man, and therefore
it naturally regards itself and speaks of itself as the
man. It retains his memories but is only a partial and
unsatisfactory representation of him. Sometimes in spiritualistic
séances one comes into contact with an entity of this
description, and wonders how it is that one’s friend
has deteriorated so much since his death. To this fragmentary
entity we give the name “shade”.
At
a later stage even this fragment of consciousness dies
out of the astral body, but does not return to the ego
to whom it originally belonged. Even then the astral
corpse still remains, but when it is quite without any
trace of its former life we call it a “shell”. Of itself
a shell cannot communicate at a séance, or take any action
of any sort; but such shells are frequently seized upon
by sportive nature spirits and used as temporary habitations.
A shell so occupied can communicate at a séance and masquerade
as its original owner, since some of his characteristics
and certain portions of his memory can be evoked by the
nature spirit from his astral corpse.
When
a man falls asleep, he withdraws in his astral body,
leaving the whole of the physical vehicle behind him.
When he dies, he draws out with him the etheric part
of the physical body, and consequently has usually at
least a moment of unconsciousness (Page
87) while he
is freeing himself from it. The etheric double is not
a vehicle, and cannot be used as such; so when the man
is surrounded by it, he is for the moment able to function
neither in the physical world nor the astral. Some men
succeed in shaking themselves free of this etheric envelope
in a few minutes; other rest within it for hours, days
or even weeks.
Nor
is it certain that, when the man is free from this, he
will at once become conscious of the astral world. For
there is in him a good deal of the lowest kind of astral
matter, so that a shell of this may be made around him.
But he may be quite unable to use that matter. If he
had lived a reasonably decent life he is little in the
habit of employing it or responding to its vibrations,
and he cannot instantly acquire this habit. For that
reason, he may remain unconscious until that matter gradually
wears away, and some matter which he is in the
habit of using comes on the surface. Such an occlusion,
however,
is scarcely ever complete, for even in the most carefully
made shell some particles of the finer matter occasionally
find their way to the surface and give him fleeting glimpses
of his surroundings.
There
are some men who cling so desperately to their physical
vehicles that they will not relax their hold upon the
etheric double, but strive with all their might to retain
it. They may be successful in doing so for a considerable
time, but only at the cost of great discomfort to themselves.
They are shut out from both worlds, to find themselves
surrounded by a dense grey mist, through which they see
very (Page 88) dimly the things of the physical world,
but with all the color gone from them. It is a terrible
struggle to them to maintain their position in this miserable
condition, and yet they will not relax their hold upon
the etheric double, feeling that that is at least some
sort of link with the only world that they know. Thus
they drift about in a condition of loneliness and misery
until from sheer fatigue their hold fails them, and they
slip into the comparative happiness of astral life. Sometimes
in their desperation they grasp blindly at other bodies,
and try to enter into them, and occasionally they are
successful in such an attempt. They may seize upon a
baby body, ousting the feeble personality for whom it
was intended, or sometimes they grasp even the body of
an animal. All this trouble arises entirely from ignorance,
and it can never happen to anyone who understands the
laws of life and death.
When
the astral life is over, the man dies to that world in
turn, and awakens in the mental world. With him it is
not at all what it is to the trained clairvoyant, who
ranges through it and lives amidst the surroundings which
he finds there, precisely as he would in the physical
or astral worlds. The ordinary man has all through his
life been encompassing himself with a mass of thought-forms.
Some which are transitory, to which he pays little attention,
have fallen away from his long ago, but those which represent
the main interests of his life are always with him, and
grow ever stronger and stronger. If some of these have
been selfish, their force pours down into astral matter,
and he has exhausted (Page 89) them during his life
in the astral world. But those which are entirely unselfish
belong purely to his mental body, and so when he finds
himself in the mental world it is through these special
thoughts that he is able to appreciate it.
His
mental body is by no means fully developed; only those
parts of it are really in action to their fullest extent
which he has used in this altruistic manner. When he
awakens again after the second death his first sense
is one of indescribable bliss and vitality – a feeling
of such utter joy in living that he needs for the time
nothing but just to live. Such bliss is of the essence
of life in all the higher worlds of the system. Even
astral life has possibilities of happiness far greater
than anything that we can know in the dense body; but
the heaven life in the mental world is out of all proportions
more blissful than the astral. In each higher world the
same experience is repeated. Merely to live in any one
them seems the uttermost conceivable bliss; and yet,
when the next one is reached, it is seen that it far
surpasses the last.
Just
as the bliss increases, so does the wisdom and the breadth
of view. A man fusses about in the physical world and
thinks himself so busy and so wise; but when he touches
even the astral, he realizes at once that he has been
all the time only a caterpillar crawling about and seeing
nothing but his own leaf, whereas now he has spread his
wings like the butterfly and flown away into the sunshine
of a wider world. Yet, impossible as it may seem, the
same experience is repeated when he passes into the (Page
90) mental world, for this life is in turn so much fuller
and wider and more intense than the astral that once
more no comparison is possible. And yet beyond all these
there is still another life, that of the intuitional
world, unto which even this is but as moonlight unto
sunlight.
The
man’s position in the mental world differs widely from
that in the astral. There he was using a body to which
he was thoroughly accustomed, a body which he had been
in the habit of employing every night during sleep. Here
he finds himself living in a vehicle which he has never
used before – a vehicle furthermore which is very far
from being fully developed – a vehicle which shuts him
out to a great extent from the world about him, instead
of enabling him to see it. The lower part of his nature
burnt itself away during his purgatorial life, and now
there remains to him only his higher and more refined
thoughts, the noble and unselfish aspirations which he
poured out during earth life. These cluster round him,
and make a sort of shell about him, through the medium
of which he is able to respond to certain types of vibrations
in this refined matter.
These
thoughts which surround him are the powers by which he
draws upon the wealth of the heaven-world, and he finds
it to be a storehouse of infinite extent, upon which
he is able to draw just according to the power of those
thoughts and aspirations; for in this world is existing
the infinite fullness of the Divine Mind, open in all
its limitless affluence to every soul, just in proportion
as that soul has qualified itself to receive. A man who
has already completed (Page 91) his
human evolution, who has fully realized and unfolded
the divinity whose
germ is within him, finds the whole of this glory within
his reach; but since none of us has yet done that, since
we are only gradually rising toward that splendid consummation,
it follows that none of us as yet can grasp that
entirety.
But
each draws from it and cognizes so much of it as he has
by previous effort prepared himself to take. Different
individuals bring different capacities; they tell us
in the East that each man brings his own cup, and some
of the cups are large and some are small, but small or
large every cup is filled to its utmost capacity; the
sea of bliss holds far more than enough for all.
A
man can look out upon this glory and beauty only through
the windows which he himself has made. Every one of these
thought-forms is such a window, through which response
may come to him from the forces without. If during his
earth life he has chiefly regarded physical things, then
he has made for himself but few windows through which
this higher glory can shine in upon him. Yet every man
who is above the lowest savage must have had some touch
of pure unselfish feeling, even if it were but once in
all his life, and that will be a window for him now.
The
ordinary man is not capable of any great activity in
this mental world; his condition is chiefly receptive,
and his vision of anything outside his own shell of thought
is of the most limited character. He is surrounded by
living forces, mighty angelic inhabitants of this glorious
world, and many of their (Page 92) orders are very sensitive
to certain aspirations of man and readily respond to
them. But a man can take advantage of these only in so
far as he has already prepared himself to profit by them,
for his thoughts and aspirations are only along certain
lines, and he cannot suddenly form new lines. There are
many directions which the higher thought may take – some
of them personal and some impersonal. Among the latter
are art, music and philosophy; and a man whose interest
lay along any one of these lines finds both measureless
enjoyment and unlimited instruction waiting for him –
that is, the amount of enjoyment and instruction is limited
only by his power of perception.
We
find a large number of people whose only higher thoughts
are those connected with affection and devotion. If a
man loves another deeply or if he feels strong devotion
to a personal deity, he makes a strong mental image of
that friend or the deity, and the object of his feeling
is often present in his mind. Inevitably he takes that
mental image into the heaven world with him, because
it is to that level of matter that it naturally belongs.
Take
first the feeling of affection. The love which forms
and retains such an image is very powerful force – a
force which is strong enough to reach and to act upon
the ego of his friend in the higher part of the mental
world. It is that ego that is the real man whom he loves
– not the physical body which is so partial a representation
of him. The ego of the friend, feeling this vibration,
at once and eagerly responds to it, and pours himself
into the thought (Page 93) form which has been made
for him; so that the man’s friend is truly present with
him more vividly than ever before. To this result it
makes no difference whatever whether the friend is what
we call living or dead; the appeal is made not to the
fragment of the friend which is sometimes imprisoned
in a physical body, but to the man himself on his own
true level; and he always responds. A man who has a hundred
friends can simultaneously and fully respond to the affection
of every one of them, for no number of representations
on a lower level can exhaust the infinity of the ego.
Thus
every man in his heaven life has around him all the friends
for whose company he wishes, and they are for him always
at their best, because he himself makes for them in the
thought-form through which they manifest to him. In our
limited physical world we are so accustomed to thinking
of our friend as only the limited manifestation which
we know in the physical world, that it is at first difficult
for us to realize the grandeur of the conception; when
we can realize it, we shall see how much nearer we are
in truth to our friends in the heaven life than we ever
were on earth. The same is true in the case of devotion.
The man in the heaven world is two great stages nearer
to the object of his devotion than he was during physical
life, and so his experiences are of a far more transcendent
character.
In
this mental world, as in the astral, there are seven
subdivisions. The first, second and third are the habitat
of the ego in his causal body, so the mental body contains
matter of the remaining four only, (Page
94) and it
is in those sections that his heaven life is passed.
Man does not, however, pass from one to the other of
these, as in the case in the astral world, for there
is nothing in this life corresponding to the rearrangement.
Rather is the man drawn to the level which best corresponds
to the degree of his development, and on that level he
spends the whole of his life in the mental body. Each
man makes his own conditions, so that the number of varieties
is infinite.
Speaking
broadly, we may say that the dominant characteristic
observed in the lowest portion is unselfish family affection.
Unselfish it must be, or it would find no place here;
all selfish tinges, if there were any, worked out their
results in the astral world. The dominant characteristic
of the sixth level may be said to be anthropomorphical
religious devotion; whilst that of the fifth section
is devotion expressing itself in active work of some
sort. All these – the fifth, sixth and seventh subdivisions
– are concerned with the working out of devotion to personalities
(either to one’s family and friends or to a personal
deity) rather than the wider devotion to humanity for
its own sake, which finds its expression in the next
section. The activities of this fourth stage are varied.
They can best be arranged in four main divisions: unselfish
pursuit of spiritual knowledge; high philosophy or scientific
thought; literary or artistic ability exercised for unselfish
purposes; and service for the sake of service.
Even
to this glorious heaven life there comes an (Page
95) end, and then the mental body in its
turn drops away as the others have done, and the man’s
life in his causal
body begins. Here the man needs no windows, for this
is his true home and all his walls have fallen away.
The majority of men have as yet but very little consciousness
at such a height as this; they rest dreamily unobservant
and scarcely awake, but such vision as they have is true,
however limited it may be by their lack of development.
Still, every time they return, these limitations will
be smaller, and they themselves will be greater; so that
this truest life will be wider and fuller for them.
As
this improvement continues, this casual life grows longer
and longer, assuming an ever larger proportion as compared
to the existence at lower levels. And as he grows, the
man becomes capable not only of receiving but also of
giving. Then indeed is his triumph approaching, for he
is learning the lesson of the Christ, learning the crowning
glory of sacrifice, the supreme delight of pouring out
all his life for the helping of his fellow-men, the devotion
of the self to the all, of celestial strength to human
service, of all those splendid heavenly forces to the
aid of the struggling sons of earth. That is part of
the life that lies before us; these are some of the steps
which even we who are still so near the bottom
of the golden ladder may see rising above us, so that
we
may
report
them to those who have not seen as yet, in order that
they too may open their eyes to the unimaginable splendor
which surrounds them here and now in this dull daily
life. This is a part of the (Page 96) gospel
of Theosophy – the certainty of this sublime future for
all. It is
certain because it is here already; because to inherit
it we have only to fit ourselves for it. (Page
97)
CHAPTER
VII
REINCARNATION
This
life of the ego in his own world, which is so glorious
and so fully satisfying for the developed man,
plays but a very small part in the life of the ordinary
person, for in his case the ego has not yet reached a
sufficient stage of development to be awake in his causal
body. In obedience to the law of nature he has withdrawn
into it, but in doing so he has lost the sensation of
vivid life, and restless desire to feel this once more
pushes him in the direction of another descent into matter.
This
is the scheme of evolution appointed for man at the present
stage – that he shall develop by descending into grosser
matter, and then ascend to carry back into himself the
result of the experiences so obtained. His real life,
therefore, covers millions of years, and what we are
in the habit of calling a life is only one day of this
greater existence. Indeed, it is in reality only a small
part of one day; for a life of seventy years in the physical
world is often succeeded by a period of twenty times
that length spent in higher spheres.
Every
one of us has a long line of these physical lives behind
him, and the ordinary man has a fairly long line still
in front of him. Each of such lives is a day at school.
The ego puts upon himself his garment of flesh and goes
forth into the school of (Page 98) the physical world
to learn certain lessons. He learns them, or does not
learn them, or partially learns them, as the case may
be, during his school day of earth life; then he lays
aside the vesture of the flesh and returns home to his
own level for rest and refreshment. In the morning of
each new life he takes up again his lesson at the point
where he left it the night before. Some lessons he may
be able to learn in one day, while others may take him
many days.
If
he is an apt pupil and learns quickly what is needed,
if he obtains an intelligent grasp of the rules of the
school, and takes the trouble to adapt his conduct to
them, his school life is comparatively short, and when
it is over he goes forth fully equipped into the real
life of the higher worlds for which all this is only
a preparation. Other egos are duller boys who do not
learn so quickly; some of them do not understand the
rules of the school, and through that ignorance are constantly
breaking them; others are wayward, and even when they
see the rules they cannot at once bring themselves to
act in harmony with them. All of these have a longer
school life, and by their own actions they delay their
entry upon the real life of the higher worlds.
For
this is a school in which no pupil ever fails; every
one must go on to the end. He has no choice as to that;
but the length of time which he will take in qualifying
himself for the higher examinations is left entirely
to his own discretion. The wise pupil, seeing that school
life is not a thing in itself, but (Page
99) only a preparation
for a more glorious and far wider life, endeavors to
comprehend as fully as possible the rules of his school,
and shapes his life in accordance with them as closely
as he can, so that no time may be lost in the learning
of whatever lessons are necessary. He co-operates intelligently
with the Teachers, and sets himself to do the maximum
of work which is possible for him, in order that as soon
as he can he may come of age and enter into his kingdom
as a glorified ego.
Theosophy
explains to us the laws under which this school life
must be lived, and in that way gives a great advantage
to its students. The first great law is that of evolution.
Every man has to become a perfect man, to unfold to the
fullest degree the divine possibilities which lie latent
within him, for that unfoldment is the object of the
entire scheme so far as he is concerned. This law of
evolution steadily presses him onward to higher and higher
achievements. The wise man tries to anticipate its demands
– to run ahead of the necessary curriculum, for in that
way he not only avoids all collision with it, but he
obtains the maximum of assistance from its action. The
man who
lags behind in the race of life finds its steady pressure
constantly constraining him – a pressure which, if resisted,
rapidly becomes painful. Thus the laggard on the path
of evolution has always the sense of being hunted and
driven by fate, while the man who intelligently co-operates
is left perfectly free to choose the direction in which
he shall move, so long as it is onward and upward. (Page
100)
The
second great law under which this evolution is taking
place is the law of cause and effect. There
can be no effect without its cause, and every cause must
produce its effect. They are in fact not two but one,
for the effect is really part of the cause, and he who
sets one in motion sets the other also. There is in
Nature no such idea as that of reward or punishment,
but only of cause and effect. Any one can see this in
connection with mechanics or chemistry; the clairvoyant
sees it equally clearly with regard to the problems of
evolution. The same law obtains in the higher as in the
lower worlds; there, as here, the angle of reflection
is always equal to the angle of incidence. It is a law
of mechanics that action and reaction are equal and opposite.
In the almost infinitely finer matter of the higher worlds
the reaction is by no means always instantaneous; it
may sometimes be spread over long periods of time, but
it returns inevitably and exactly.
Just
as certain in its working as the mechanical law in the
physical world is the higher law, according to which
the man who sends out a good thought or does a good action
receives good in return, while the man who sends out
an evil thought or does an evil action receives evil
in return with equal accuracy – once more, not in the
least as a reward or punishment administered by some
external will, but simply as the definite and mechanical
result of his own activity. Man has learnt to appreciate
a mechanical result in the physical world, because the
reaction is usually almost immediate and can be seen
by him. (Page101) He does
not invariably understand the reaction in the higher
worlds because that takes
a wider sweep, and often returns not in this physical
life, but in some future one.
The
action of this law affords the explanation of a number
of the problems of ordinary life. It accounts for the
different destinies imposed upon people, and also
for the differences in the people themselves. If one
man is clever in a certain direction and another is stupid,
it is because in a previous life the clever man has devoted
much effort to practice in that particular direction,
while the stupid man is trying it for the first time.
The genius and the precocious child are examples not
of the favoritism of some deity but of the result produced
by previous lives of application. All the varied circumstances
which surround us are the result of our own actions in
the past, precisely as are the qualities of which we
find ourselves in possession. We are what we have made
ourselves, and our circumstances are such as we have
deserved.
There
is, however, a certain adjustment or apportionment of
these effects. Though the law is a natural law and mechanical
in its operation, there are nevertheless certain great
Angels who are concerned with its administration. They
cannot change by one feather weight the amount of the
result which follows upon any given thought or act, but
they can within certain limits expedite or delay its
action, and decide what form it shall take.
If
this were not done there would be at least a (Page
102) possibility that in his earlier stages the man might
blunder so seriously that the results of his blundering
might be more than he could bear. The plan of the Deity
is to give man a limited amount of freewill; if he uses
that small amount well, he earns the right to a little
more next time; if he used it badly, suffering comes
upon him as the result of such evil use, and he finds
himself restrained by the result of his previous actions.
As the man learns how to use his free will, more and
more of it is entrusted to him, so that he can acquire
for himself practically unbounded freedom in the direction
of good, but his power to do wrong is strictly restricted.
He can progress as rapidly as he will, but he cannot
wreck his life in his ignorance. In the earlier stages
of the savage life of primitive man it is natural that
there should be on the whole more of evil than of good,
and if the entire result of his actions came at once
upon a man as yet so little developed, it might well
crush the newly evolved powers which are still so feeble.
Besides
this, the effects of his actions are varied in character.
While some of them produce immediate results, others
need much more time for their action, and so it comes
to pass that as the man develops he has above him a hovering
cloud of undischarged results, some of them good, some
of them bad. Out of this mass (which we may regard for
the purposes of analogy much as though it were a debt
owing to the powers of nature) a certain amount falls
due in each of his successive births; and that amount,
so (Page 103) assigned, may be thought of as the man’s
destiny for that particular life.
All
that it means is that a certain amount of joy and a certain
amount of suffering are due to him, and will unavoidably
happen to him; how he will meet this destiny and what
use he will make of it, that is left entirely to his
own option. It is a certain amount of force which has
to work itself out. Nothing can prevent the action of
that force, but its action may always be modified by
the application of a new force in another direction,
just as is the case in mechanics. The result of past
evil is like any other debt; it may be paid in one large
check upon the bank of life – by some one supreme catastrophe;
or it may be paid in a number of smaller notes, in minor
troubles and worries; in some cases it may even be paid
in the small change of a vast number of petty annoyances.
But one thing is quite certain – that, in some form or
other, paid it will have to be.
The
conditions of our present life, then, are absolutely
the result of our own action in the past; and the other
side of that statement is that our actions in this life
are building up conditions for the next one. A man who
finds himself limited either in powers or in outer circumstances
may not always be able to make himself or his conditions
all that he would wish in this life; but he can certainly
secure for the next one whatever he chooses.
Man’s
every action ends not with himself, but invariably affects
others around him. In some cases this effect may be comparatively
trivial, while in (Page 104) others
it may be of the most serious character. The trivial
results, whether
good or bad are simply small debits or credits in our
account with Nature; but the greater effects, whether
good or bad, make a personal account which is to be settled
with the individual concerned.
A
man who gives a meal to a hungry beggar, or cheers him
by a kindly word, will receive the result of his good
action as part of a kind of general fund of Nature’s
benefits; but one who by some good action changes the
whole current of another man’s life will assuredly have
to meet that same man again in a future life, in order
that he who has been benefited may have the opportunity
of repaying the kindness that has been done to him. One
who causes annoyance to another will suffer proportionately
for it somewhere, somehow, in the future, though he may
never meet again the man whom he has troubled; but one
who does serious harm to another, one who wrecks his
life or retards his evolution, must certainly meet his
victim again at some later point in
the course
of
their lives, so that he may have the opportunity, by
kindly and self-sacrificing service, of counterbalancing
the wrong which he has done. In short, large debts must
be paid personally, but small ones go into the general
fund.
These
then are the principal factors which determine the next
birth of the man. First acts the great law of evolution,
and its tendency is to press the man into that position
in which he can most easily develop the qualities which
he most needs. For the purposes of the general scheme,
humanity is divided (Page 105) into
great races, called root-races, which rule and occupy
the world successively.
The great Aryan or Indo-Caucasian race, which at the
present moment includes the most advanced ofEearth’s
inhabitants, is one of these. That which came before
it in the order of evolution was the Mongolian race,
usually called in Theosophical books Atlantean, because
the continent from which it ruled the world lay where
now roll the waters of the Atlantic ocean. Before that
came the Negroid race, some of whose descendants still
exist, though by this time much mingled with offshoots
of later races. From each of these great root-races there
are many offshoots which we call sub-races – such, for
example, as the Romance races or the Teutonic; and each
of these sub-races in turn divides itself into branch
races, such as the French and the Italians, the English
and the Germans.
These
arrangements are made in order that for each ego there
may be a wide choice of varying conditions and surroundings.
Each race is especially adapted to develop within its
people one or other of the qualities which are needed
in the course of evolution. In every nation there exist
an almost infinite number of diverse conditions, riches
and poverty, a wide field of opportunities or a total
lack of them, facilities for development or conditions
under which development is difficult or well-nigh impossible.
Amidst all these infinite possibilities the pressure
of the law of evolution tends to guide the man to precisely
those which best suit his needs at the stage at which
he happens to be.
But
the action of this law is limited by that other (Page
106) law of which we spoke, the law of cause and effect. The
man’s actions in the past may not have been such as to
deserve (if we may put it so) the best possible opportunities;
he may have set in motion in his past certain forces
the inevitable result of which will be to produce limitations;
and these limitations may operate to prevent his receiving
that best possible of opportunities, and so as the result
of his own actions in the past he may have to put up
with the second-best. So we may say that the action of
the law of evolution, which if left to itself would do
the very best possible for every man, is restrained by
the man’s own previous actions.
An
important feature in that limitation – one which may
act most powerfully for good or for evil – is the influence
of the group of egos with which the man has made definite
links in the past – those with whom he has formed strong
ties of love or hate, of helping or of injury – those
souls whom he must meet again because of connections
made with them in days of long ago. His relation with
them is a factor which must be taken into consideration
before it can be determined where and how he shall be
reborn.
The
will of the Deity is man’s evolution. The effort of that
nature which is an expression of the Deity is to give
the man whatever is most suitable for that evolution;
but this is conditioned by the man’s deserts in the past
and by the links which he has already formed. It may
be assumed that a man descending into incarnation could
learn the lessons necessary for that life in any one
of a hundred positions. (Page 107) From half of these
or more than half he may be debarred by the consequences
of some of his many and varied actions in the past. Among
the few possibilities which remain open to him, the choice
of one possibility in particular may be determined by
the presence in that family or in that neighborhood of
other egos upon whom he has a claim for services rendered,
or to whom he in his turn owes a debt of love.(Page
108)
CHAPTER
VIII
THE
PURPOSE OF LIFE
To fulfill our duty in the divine scheme we must
try to understand not only that scheme as a whole, but
the
special part that man is intended to play in it. The
divine outbreathing reaches its deepest immersion in
matter in the mineral kingdom, but it reaches its ultimate
point of differentiation not at the lowest level of materiality,
but at the entrance into the human kingdom on the upward
arc of evolution. We have thus to realize three stages
in the course of this evolution:
(a) The
downward arc in which the tendency is toward differentiation
and also toward greater materiality. In this stage spirit
is involving itself in matter, in order that it may learn
to receive impressions through it.
(b) The
earlier part of the upward arc, in which the tendency
is still toward greater differentiation, but at the same
time toward spiritualization and escape from materiality.
In this stage the spirit is learning to dominate matter
and to see it as an expression of itself.
(c) The
later part of the upward arc, when differentiation has
been finally accomplished, and the tendency is toward
unity as well as toward greater spirituality. In this
stage the spirit, having learnt (Page109) perfectly
how to receive impressions through matter and how to
express itself through it, and having awakened its dormant
powers, learns to use these powers rightly in the service
of the Deity.
The
object of the whole previous evolution has been to produce
the ego as a manifestation of the Monad. Then the ego
in its turn evolves by putting itself down into a succession
of personalities. Men who do not understand this look
upon the personality as the self, and consequently live
for it alone, and try to regulate their lives for what
appears to be its temporary advantage. The man who understands
realizes that the only important thing is the life of
the ego, and that its progress is the object for which
the temporary personality must be used. Therefore when
he has to decide between two possible courses he thinks
not, as the ordinary man might: “Which will bring the
greater pleasure and profit to me as a personality?”
but “Which will bring greater progress to me as an ego?”
Experience soon teaches him that nothing can ever be
really good for him, or for any one, which is not good
for all, and so presently he learns to forget himself
altogether, and to ask only what will be best for humanity
as a whole.
Clearly
then at this stage of evolution whatever tends to unity,
whatever tends to spirituality, is in accord with the
plan of the Deity for us, and is therefore right for
us, while whatever tends to separateness or to materiality
is certainly equally wrong for us. There are thoughts
and emotions which tend to unity, such as love, sympathy,
reverence, benevolence; (Page 110) there are others which
tend to disunion, such as hatred, jealousy, envy, pride,
cruelty, fear. Obviously the former group are for us
the right, the latter group are for us the wrong.
In
all these thoughts and feelings which are clearly wrong,
we recognize one dominant note, the thought of self;
while in all those which are clearly right we recognize
that the thought is turned toward others, and that the
personal self is forgotten. Wherefore we see that selfishness
is the one great wrong, and that perfect unselfishness
is the crown of all virtue. This gives us at once a rule
of life. The man who wishes intelligently to co-operate
with the Divine Will must lay aside all thought of the
advantage or pleasure of the personal self, and must
devote himself exclusively to carrying out that Will
by working for the welfare and happiness of others.
This
is a high ideal, and difficult of attainment, because
there lies behind us such a long history of selfishness.
Most of us are as yet far from the purely altruistic
attitude; how are we to go to work to attain it, lacking
as we do the necessary intensity in so many of the good
qualities, and possessing so many which are undesirable?
Here
comes into operation the great law of cause and effect
to which I have already referred. Just as we can confidently
appeal to the laws of nature in the physical world, so
may we also appeal to these laws of the higher world.
If we find evil qualities within us, they have grown
up by slow degrees through ignorance and through self-indulgence.
Now (Page 111) that the ignorance is dispelled by knowledge,
now that in consequence we recognize the quality as an
evil, the method of getting rid of it lies obviously
before us.
For
each of these vices there is a contrary virtue; if we
find one of them rearing its head within us, let us immediately
determine deliberately to develop within ourselves the
contrary virtue. If a man realizes that in the past he
has been selfish, that means that he has set up within
himself the habit of thinking of himself first and pleasing
himself, of consulting his own convenience or his pleasure
without due thought of the effect upon others; let him
set to work purposefully to form the exactly opposite
habit, to make a practice before doing anything of thinking
how it will affect all those around him; let him set
himself habitually to please others, even though it be
at the cost of trouble or privation for himself. This
also in time will become a habit, and by developing it
he will have killed out the other.
If
a man finds himself full of suspicion, ready always to
assign evil motives to the actions of those about him,
let him set himself steadily to cultivate trust in his
fellows, to give them credit always for the highest possible
motives. It may be said that a man who does this will
lay himself open to be deceived, and that in many cases
his confidence will be misplaced. That is a small matter;
it is far better for him that he should sometimes be
deceived as a result of his trust in his fellows than
that he should save himself from such deception by maintaining
a (Page 112) constant attitude of suspicion. Besides,
confidence begets faithfulness. A man who is trusted
will generally prove himself worthy of the trust, whereas
a man who is suspected is likely presently to justify
that suspicion.
If
a man finds in himself the tendency toward avarice, let
him go out of his way to be especially generous; if he
finds himself irritable, let him definitely train himself
in calmness; if he finds himself devoured by curiosity,
let him deliberately refuse again and again to gratify
that curiosity; if he is liable to fits of depression,
let him persistently cultivate cheerfulness, even under
the most adverse circumstances.
In
every case the existence of an evil quality in the personality
means a lack of the corresponding good quality in the
ego. The shortest way to get rid of that evil and to
prevent its reappearance is to fill the gap in the ego,
and the good quality which is thus developed will show
itself as an integral part of the man’s character through
all his future lives. An ego cannot be evil, but he can
be imperfect. The qualities which he develops cannot
be other than good qualities, and when they are well
defined they show themselves in each of all his numerous
personalities, and consequently those personalities can
never be guilty of the vices opposite to these qualities;
but where there is a gap in the ego, where there is a
quality undeveloped, there is nothing inherent in the
personality to check the growth of the opposite vice;
and since others in the world about him already possess
(Page 113) that vice, and man is an imitative animal,
it is quite probable that it will speedily manifest itself
in him. This vice, however, belongs to the vehicles only
and not to the man inside. In these vehicles its repetition
may set up a momentum which is hard to conquer; but if
the ego bestirs himself to create in himself the opposite
virtue, the vice is cut off at its root, and can no longer
exist – neither in this life nor in all the lives that
are to come.
A
man who is trying to evolve these qualities in himself
will find certain obstacles in his way – obstacles which
he must learn to surmount. One of these is the critical
spirit of the age – the disposition to find fault with
a thing, to belittle everything, to look for faults in
everything, and in everyone. The exact opposite of this
is what is needed for progress. He who wishes to move
rapidly along the path of evolution must learn to see
good in everything – to see the latent Deity in everything
and in every one. Only so can he help those other people
– only so can he get the best out of those other things.
Another
obstacle is the lack of perseverance. We tend in these
days to be impatient; if we try any plan we expect immediate
results from it, and if we do not get them, we give up
that plan and try something else. That is not the way
to make progress in occultism. The effort which we are
making is to compress into one or two lives the evolution
which would naturally take perhaps a hundred lives. That
is not the sort of undertaking in which immediate results
are to be expected. We attempt to uproot an (Page114) evil habit, and we find it hard work; why? Because we
have indulged in that practice for, perhaps, twenty thousand
years; one cannot shake off the custom of twenty thousand
years in a day or two. We have allowed that habit to
gain an enormous momentum, and before we can set up a
force in the opposite direction we have to overcome that
momentum. That cannot be done in a moment, but it is
absolutely certain that it will be done eventually, if
we persevere, because the momentum, however strong it
may be, is a finite quality, whereas the power that we
can bring to bear against it is the infinite power of
the human will, which can make renewed efforts day after
day, year after year, even life after life if necessary.
Another
great difficulty in our way is the lack of clearness
in our thought. People in the West are little used to
clear thought with regard to religious matters. Everything
is vague and nebulous. For occult development vagueness
and nebulosity will not do. Our conceptions must be clear
cut and our thought images definite. Other necessary
characteristics are calmness and cheerfulness; these
are rare in modern life, but are absolute essentials
for the work which we are here undertaking.
The
process of building a character is as scientific as that
of developing one’s muscles. Many a man, finding himself
with certain muscles flabby and powerless takes that
as his natural condition, and regards their weakness
as a kind of destiny imposed upon him; but anyone who
understands a little of the human body is aware that
by continued exercise (Page 115) those muscles can be
brought into a state of health and the whole body eventually
put in order. In exactly the same way, many a man finds
himself possessed of a bad tamper or a tendency to avarice
or suspicion or self-indulgence, and when in consequence
of any of these vices he commits some great mistake or
does some great harm he offers it as an excuse that he
is a hasty-tempered man, or that he possesses this or
that quality by nature – implying that therefore he cannot
help it.
In
this case just as in the other the remedy is in his own
hands. Regular exercise of the right kind will develop
a certain muscle, and regular mental exercise of the
right kind will develop a missing quality in a man’s
character. The ordinary man does not realize that he
can do this, and even if he sees that he can do it, he
does not see why he should, for it means much effort
and much self-repression. He knows of no adequate motive
for undertaking a task so laborious and painful.
The
motive is supplied by the knowledge of the truth. One
who gains an intelligent comprehension of the direction
of evolution feels it not only his interest but his privilege
and his delight to co-operate with it. One who wills
the end wills also the means; in order to be able to
do good work for the world he must develop within himself
the necessary strength and the necessary qualities. Therefore
he who wishes to reform the world must first of all reform
himself. He must learn to give up altogether the attitude
of insisting upon rights, and must devote himself utterly
(Page 116) to the most earnest performance of his duties.
He must learn to regard every connection with his fellowman
as an opportunity to help that fellowman, or in some
way to do him good.
One
who studies these subjects intelligently cannot but realize
the tremendous power of thought, and the necessity for
its efficient control. All action springs from thought,
for even when it is done (as we say) without thought,
it is the instinctive expression of the thoughts, desires
and feelings which the man has allowed to grow luxuriantly
within himself in earlier days.
The
wise man, therefore, will watch his thought with the
greatest of care, for in it he possesses a powerful instrument,
for the right use of which he is responsible. It is his
duty to govern his thought, lest it should be allowed
to run riot and to do evil to himself and to others;
it is his duty also to develop his thought power, because
by means of it a vast amount of actual and active good
can be done. Thus controlling his thought and his action,
thus eliminating from himself all evil and unfolding
in himself all good qualities, the man presently raises
himself far above the level of his fellows, and stands
out conspicuously among them as one who is working on
the side of good as against evil, of evolution as against
stagnation.
The
members of the great Hierarchy in whose hands is the
evolution of the world are watching always for such men
in order that They may train them to help in the greater
work. Such a man inevitably attracts Their attention
and They begin to (Page 117) use him as an instrument
in Their work. If he proves himself a good and efficient
instrument, presently They will offer him definite training
as an apprentice, that by helping Them in the world-business
which They have to do he may some day become even as
They are, and join the might Brotherhood to which They
belong.
But
for an honor so great as this mere ordinary goodness
will not suffice. True, a man must be good first of all,
or it would be hopeless to think of using him, but in
addition to being good he must be wise and strong. What
is needed is not merely a good man, but a great spiritual
power. Not only must the candidate have cast aside all
ordinary weaknesses but he must have acquired strong
positive qualities before he can offer himself to Them
with any hope that he will be accepted. He must live
no longer as a blundering and selfish personality, but
as an intelligent ego who comprehends the part which
he has to play in the great scheme of the universe. He
must have forgotten himself utterly; he must have resigned
all thought of worldly profit or pleasure or advancement;
he must be willing to sacrifice everything, and himself
first of all, for the sake of the work that has to be
done. He may be in the world, but he must not be of the
world. He must be careless utterly of its opinion. For
the sake of helping man he must make himself something
more than man. Radiant, rejoicing, strong, he must live
but for the sake of others and to be an expression of
the love of God in the world. A high ideal, yet not too
high; possible, because there are men who have achieved
it.(Page
118)
When a man has succeeded in unfolding his latent
possibilities so far that he attracts the attention of
the Masters
of the Wisdom, one of Them will probably receive him
as an apprentice upon probation. The period of probation
is usually seven years, but may be either shortened or
lengthened at the discretion of the Master. At the end
of that time, if his work has been satisfactory, he becomes
what is commonly called the accepted pupil. This brings
him into close relations with his Master, so that the
vibrations of the latter constantly play upon him, and
he gradually learns to look at everything as the Master
looks at it. After yet another interval, if he proves
himself entirely worthy, he may be drawn into a still
closer relationship, when he is called the son of the
Master.
These
three stages mark his relationship to his own Master
only, not to the Brotherhood as a whole. The Brotherhood
admits a man to its ranks only when he has fitted himself
to pass the first of the great Initiations.
This
entry into the Brotherhood of Those who rule the world
may be thought of as the third of the great critical
points in man’s evolution. The first of these is when
he becomes man – when he individualizes out of the animal
kingdom and obtains a causal body. The second is what
is called by the Christian “conversion”, and by the Hindu
“the acquirement of discrimination”, and by the Buddhist
“the opening of the doors of the mind”. That is the point
at which he realizes the great facts of life, and turns
away from the pursuit of selfish ends in order to move
intentionally (Page 119) along
with the great current of evolution in obedience to the
divine Will. The third
point is the most important of all, for the Initiation
which admits him to the ranks of the Brotherhood also
insures him against the possibility of failure to fulfill
the divine purpose in the time appointed for it. Hence
those who have reached this point are called in the Christian
system the “elect”, the “saved” or the “safe,” and in
the Buddhist scheme “those who have entered on the stream.”For
those who have reached this point have made themselves
absolutely certain of reaching a further point also –
that of Adeptship, at which they pass into a type of
evolution which is definitely superhuman.
The
man who has become an Adept has fulfilled the divine
Will so far as this chain of worlds is concerned. He
has reached, even already the midmost point of the aeon
of evolution, the stage prescribed for man’s attainment
at the end of it. Therefore he is at liberty to spend
the remainder of that time either in helping his fellow-men
or in even more splendid work in connection with other
and higher evolutions. He who has not yet been initiated
is still in danger of being left behind by our present
wave of evolution, and dropping into the next one – the
“aeonian condemnation” of which the Christ spoke, which
has been mistranslated “eternal damnation”. It is from
this fate of possible aeonian failure – that is, failure
for this age, or dispensation, or life-wave – that the
man who attains Initiation is “safe”. He has “entered
upon the stream" which now must bear him on to Adeptship
in this present (Page 120) age,
though it is still possible for him by his actions to
hasten or delay his progress
along the Path which he is treading.
That
first Initiation corresponds to the matriculation which
admits a man to a University, and the attainment of Adeptship
to the taking of a degree at the end of the course. Continuing
the simile, there are three intermediate examinations,
which are usually spoken of as the second, third and
fourth Initiations, Adeptship being the fifth. A general
idea of the line of this higher evolution may be obtained
by studying the list of what are called in Buddhist books
“the fetters” which must be cast off – the qualities
of which a man must rid himself as he treads this Path.
These are: the delusion of separateness; doubt or uncertainty;
superstition; attachment to enjoyment; the possibility
of hatred; desire for life, either in this or the higher
worlds; pride; agitation or irritability; and ignorance.
The man who reaches the Adept level has exhausted all
the possibilities of moral development, and so the future
evolution which still lies before him can only mean still
wider knowledge and still more wonderful spiritual powers.
(Page 121)
CHAPTER
IX
THE
PLANETARY CHAINS
The
scheme of evolution of which our Earth forms a part is
not the only one in our solar system, for ten separate
chains of globes exist in that system which are all of
them theatres of somewhat similar progress. Each of these
schemes of evolution is taking place upon a chain of
globes, and in the course of each scheme its chain of
globes goes through seven incarnations. The plan, alike
of each scheme as a whole and of the successive incarnations
of its chain of globes, is to dip step by step more deeply
into matter, and then to rise step by step out of it
again.
Each
chain consists of seven globes, and both globes and chains
observe the rule of descending into matter and then rising
out of it again. In order to make this comprehensible
let us take as an example the chain to which our Earth
belongs. At the present time it is in its fourth or most
material incarnation, and therefore three of its globes
belong to the physical world, two to the astral world
and two to the lower part of the mental world. The wave
of Divine Life passes in succession from globe to globe
of this chain, beginning with one of the highest, descending
gradually to the lowest and then climbing again to the
same level as that at which it began.
Let
us for convenience of reference label the seven (Page
122) globes by the earlier letters of the alphabet, and number
the incarnations in order. Thus, as this is the fourth
incarnation of our chain, the first globe in this incarnation
will be 4A, the second 4B, the third 4C, the fourth (which
is our Earth) 4D, and so on.
These
globes are not all composed of physical matter. 4A contains
no matter lower than that of the mental world; it has
its counterpart in all the worlds higher than that, but
nothing below it. 4B exists in the astral world; but
4C is a physical globe, visible to our telescope, and
is in fact the planet which we know as Mars. Globe 4D
is our own Earth, on which the life-wave of the chain
is at present in action. Globe 4E is the planet which
we call Mercury – also in the physical world. Globe 4F
is
in
the astral world, corresponding on the ascending arc
to globe 4B in the descent; while globe 4G corresponds
to globe 4A in having its lowest manifestation in the
lower part of the mental world. Thus it will be seen
that we have a scheme of globes starting in the lower
mental world, dipping through the astral into the physical
and then rising into the lower mental through the astral
again.
Just
as the succession of the globes in a chain constitutes
a descent into matter and an ascent from it again, so
do the successive incarnations of a chain. We have described
the condition of affairs in the fourth incarnation; looking
back at the third, we find that that commences not on
the lower level of the mental world but on the higher.
Globes 3A and 3G, then, are both of higher mental matter,
while globes (Page123) 3B and 3F are at the lower mental
level. Globes 3C and 3E belong to the astral world, and
only globe 3D is visible in the physical world. Although
this third incarnation of our chain is long past, the
corpse of this physical globe 3D is still visible to
us in the shape of that dead planet the Moon, whence
that third incarnation is usually called the lunar chain.
The
fifth incarnation of our chain, which still lies very
far in the future, will correspond to the third. In that,
globes 5A and 5G will be built of higher mental matter,
globes 5B and 5F of lower mental matter, globes 5C and
5E of astral matter, and only globe 5D will be in the
physical world. This planet 5D is of course not yet in
existence.
The
other incarnations of the chain follow the same general
rule of gradually decreasing materiality; 2A, 2G, 6A
and 6G are all in the intuitional world; 2B, 2F, 6B and
6F are all in the higher part of the mental world; 2C,
2E, 6C and 6E are in the lower part of the mental world;
2D and 6D are in the astral world. In the same way 1A,
1G, 7A and 7G belong to the spiritual world; 1B, 1F,
7B and 7F are in the intuitional world; 1C, 1E, 7C and
7E are in the higher part of the mental world; 1D and
7D are in the lower part of the mental world.
Thus
it will be seen that not only does the life-wave in passing
through one chain of globes dip down into matter and
rise out of it again, but the chain itself in its successive
incarnations does exactly the same thing.
There
are ten schemes of evolution at present existing in our
solar system, but only seven of them (Page
124) are at
the stage where they have planets in the physical world.
These are: (1) that of an unrecognized planet Vulcan,
very near the sun, about which we have very little definite
information. It was seen by the astronomer Hersche, but
is now said to have disappeared. We at first understood
that it was in its third incarnation; but it is now regarded
as possible that it has recently passed from its fifth
to its sixth chain, which would account for its alleged
disappearance;
(2) that of Venus,
which is in its fifth incarnation, and also therefore
has only one visible globe; (3) that of the Earth, Mars
and Mercury, which has three visible planets because
it is in its fourth incarnation; (4) that of Jupiter,
(5) that of Saturn, (6) that of Uranus, all in their
third incarnations; and (7) that of Neptune and the two
unnamed planets beyond his orbit, which is in its fourth
incarnation, and therefore has three physical planets as
we have.
In
each incarnation of a chain (commonly called a chain-period)
the wave of Divine Life moves seven times round the chain
of seven planets, and each such movement is spoken of
as a round. The time that the life-wave stays upon each
planet, is known as a world-period, and in the course
of a world-period there are seven great root-races. As
has been previously explained, these are subdivided into
sub-races, and those again into branch races. For convenience
of reference we may state this in tabular form: (Page
125)
|
|
Make |
7 |
Branch-Races |
1-
Sub-Race |
7 |
Sub-Races |
1-Root-Race |
7 |
Root-Races |
1-World-Period |
7 |
World-Periods |
1-Round |
7 |
Rounds |
1-Chain-Period |
7 |
Chain-Periods |
1-Scheme
of Evolution |
10 |
Schemes
of Evolution |
Our
System Evolution |
It is clear that the fourth root-race of the fourth
globe of the fourth round of a fourth chain-period would
be
the central point of a whole scheme of evolution, and
we find ourselves at the present moment only a little
past the point. The Aryan race, to which we belong, is
the fifth root-race of the fourth globe, so that the
actual middle point fell in the time of the last great
root-race, the Atlantean. Consequently the human race
as a whole is very little more than halfway through its
evolution, and those few souls who are already nearing
Adeptship, which is the end and crown of this evolution,
are very far in advance of their fellows.
How
do they come to be so far in advance? Partly and in
some cases because they have worked harder, but usually
because they are older egos – because they were individualized
out of the animal kingdom at an earlier date, and so
have had more time for the human part of their evolution.
Any
given wave of life sent forth from the Deity usually
spends a chain-period in each of the great kingdoms of
nature. That which in our first chain was ensouling the
first elemental kingdom must have ensouled in the second
of those kingdoms in the second chain, the third of them
in the Moon-chain, and is now in the mineral kingdom
in the fourth chain. In the future fifth chain it will
ensoul the vegetable kingdom, in the sixth the animal,
and in the seventh it will attain humanity.
From
this it follows that we ourselves represented the mineral
kingdom on the first chain, the vegetable on the second,
and the animal on the lunar chain. (Page
126) There some
of us attained our individualization, and so we were
enabled to enter this Earth-chain as men. Others who
were a little more backward did not succeed in attaining
it, and so had to be born into this chain as animals
for a while before they could reach humanity.
Not
all of mankind, however, entered this chain together.
When the lunar chain came to its end the humanity upon
it stood at various levels. Not Adeptship, but what is
now for us the fourth step on the Path, was the goal
appointed for that chain. Those who had attained it (commonly
called in theosophical literature the Lords of the Moon)
had, as is usual, seven choices before them as to the
way in which they would serve. Only one of those choices
brought them, or rather a few of them, over into this
Earth-chain, to act as guides and teachers to the earlier
races. A considerable proportion – a vast proportion,
indeed – of the Moon-men had not attained that level,
and consequently had to appear in this Earth-chain as
humanity. Besides this, a great mass of the animal kingdom
of the Moon-chain was surging up to the level of individualization,
and some of its members had already reached it, while
many others had not. These latter needed further animal
incarnations upon the Earth-chain, and for the moment
may be put aside.
There
were many classes even among humanity, and the manner
in which these distributed themselves over the Earth-chain
needs some explanation. It is the general rule that those
who have attained the highest possible in any chain,
on any globe, in (Page 127) any root-race, are not born
into the beginning of the next chain, globe or race,
respectively. The earlier stages are always for the backward
entities, and only when they have already passed through
a good deal of evolution and are beginning to approach
the level of those others who had done better, do the
latter descend into incarnation and join them once more.
That is to say, almost the earlier half of any period
of evolution, whether it be a race, a globe or a chain,
seems to be devoted to bringing the backward people up
to nearly the level of those who have got on better;
then these latter also (who, in the meantime, have been
resting in great enjoyment in the mental world) descend
into incarnation along with the others, and they press
on together until the end of the period.
Thus
the first of the egos from the Moon who entered the Earth-chain
were by no means the most advanced. Indeed they may be
described as the least advanced of those who had succeeded
in attaining humanity – the animal-men. Coming as they
did into a chain of new globes, freshly aggregated, they
had to establish the forms in all the different kingdoms
of Nature. This needs to be done at the beginning of
the first round in a new chain, but never after that;
for though the life-wave is centered only upon one of
the seven globes of a chain at any given time, yet life
has not entirely departed from the other globes. At the
present moment, for example, the life-wave of our chain
is centered in this Earth, but on the other two physical
globes of our chain, Mars and Mercury, life still exists.
There is still a (Page128) population,
human, animal and vegetable, and consequently when the
life-wave goes
round again to either of those planets there will be
no necessity for the creation of new forms. The old types
are already there, and all that will happen will be
a sudden marvellous fecundity, so that the various kingdoms
will quickly increase and multiply, and make a rapidly
increasing population instead of a stationary one.
It
was, then, the animal-men, the lowest class of human
beings of the Moon-chain, who established the forms in
the first
round of the Earth-chain. Pressing closely after them
were the highest of the lunar animal kingdom, who were
soon ready to occupy the forms which had just been made.
In the second journey round the seven globes of the Earth-chain,
the animal-men who had been the most backward of the
lunar humanity were leaders of this terrene humanity,
the highest of the moon-animals making its less developed
grades. The same thing went on in the third round of
the Earth-chain, more and more of the lunar animals attaining
individualization and joining the human ranks, until
in the middle of that round on this very globe D which
we call the Earth, a higher class of human beings – the
Second Order of moon-men – descended into incarnation
and at once took the lead.
When
we come to the fourth, our present round, we find the
First Order of the moon-men pouring in upon us – all
the highest and the best of the lunar humanity who had
only just fallen short of success. (Page
129) Some of
those who had already, even on the Moon, entered upon
the Path soon attained its end, became Adepts and passed
away from the Earth. Some few others who had not been
quite so far advanced have attained Adeptship only comparatively
recently – that is, within the last few thousand years,
and these are the Adepts of the present day. We, who
find ourselves in the higher races of humanity now, were
several stages behind Them, but the opportunity lies
before us of following in Their steps if we will.
The
evolution of which we have been speaking is that of the
ego himself, of what might be called the soul of man;
but at the same time there has been also an evolution
of the body. The forms built in the first round were
very different from any of which we know anything now.
Properly speaking, those which were made on our physical
earth can scarcely be called forms at all, for they were
constructed of etheric matter only, and resembled vague,
drifting and almost shapeless clouds. In the second round
they were definitely physical, but still shapeless and
light enough to float about in currents of wind.
Only
in the third round did they begin to bear any kind of
resemblance to man as we know him today. The very methods
of reproduction of those primitive forms differed from
those of humanity today, and far more resembled those
which we now find only in very much lower types of life.
Man in those early days was androgynous, and a definite
separation into the sexes took place only about the middle
of (Page 130) the third round. From that time onward
until now the shape of man has been steadily evolving
along definitely human lines, becoming smaller and more
compact than it was, learning to stand upright instead
of stooping and crawling, and generally differentiating
itself from the animal forms out of which it had been
evolved.
One
curious break in the regularity of this evolution deserves
mention. On this globe, in this fourth round, there was
a departure from the straightforward scheme of evolution.
This being the middle globe of a middle round, the midmost
point of evolution upon it marked the last movement at
which it was possible for members of what had been the
lunar animal kingdom to attain individualization. Consequently
a sort of strong effort was made – a special scheme was
arranged to give a final chance to as many as possible.
The conditions of the first and second rounds were specially
reproduced in place of the first and second races – conditions
of which in the earlier rounds these backward egos had
not been able fully to take advantage. Now, with the
additional evolution which they had undergone during
the third round, some of them were able to take such
advantage, and so they rushed in at the very last moment
before
the door was shut, and became just human. Naturally they
will not reach any high level of human development, but
at least when they try again in some future chain it
will be some advantage to them to have had even this
slight experience of human life.
Our
terrestrial evolution received a most valuable (Page
131) stimulus from the assistance given to us by our sister
globe, Venus. Venus is at present in the fifth incarnation
of its chain, and in the seventh round of that incarnation,
so that its inhabitants are a whole chain and a half
in front of us in evolution. Since, therefore, its people
are so much more developed than ours, it was thought
desirable that certain Adepts from the Venus evolution
should be transferred to our Earth in order to assist
in the specially busy time just before the closing of
the door, in the middle of the fourth root-race.
These
august Beings have been called the Lords of the Flame
and the Children of the Fire-mist, and They have produced
a wonderful effect upon our evolution. The intellect
of which we are so proud is almost entirely due to Their
presence, for in the natural course of events the next
round, the fifth, should be that of intellectual advancement,
and in this our present fourth round we should be devoting
ourselves chiefly to the cultivation of the emotions.
We are therefore in reality a long way in advance of
the program marked out for us; and such advance is entirely
due to the assistance given by these great Lords of the
Flame. Most of Them stayed with us only through that
critical period of our history; a few still remain to
hold the highest offices of the Great White Brotherhood
until the time when men of our own evolution shall have
risen to such a height as to be capable of relieving
their august Visitors.
The
evolution lying before us in both of the life (Page
132) and of the form; for in future rounds, while the egos
will be steadily growing in power, wisdom and love, the
physical forms also will be more beautiful and more perfect
than they have ever yet been. We have in this world at
the present time men at widely differing stages of evolution,
and it is clear that there are vast hosts of savages
who are far behind the great civilized races of the world
– so far behind that it is quite impossible that they
can overtake them. Later on in the course of our evolution
a point will be reached at which it is no longer possible
for those undeveloped souls to advance side by side with
the others, so that it will be necessary that a division
should be made.
The
proceeding is exactly analogous to the sorting out by
a schoolmaster of the boys in his class. During the school
year he has to prepare his boys for a certain examination,
and by perhaps the middle of that school year he knows
quite well which of them will pass it. If he should have
in his class some who are hopelessly behind the rest,
he might reasonably say to them when the middle period
was reached:
“It
is quite useless for you to continue with your fellows,
for the more difficult lessons which I shall now have
to give will be entirely unintelligible to you. It is
impossible that you can learn enough in the time to pass
the examination, so that the effort would only be a useless
strain for you, and meantime you would be a hindrance
to the rest of the class. It is therefore far better
for you to give up striving after the impossible, and
to take up again (Page 133) the
work of the lower class which you did not do perfectly,
and then to offer yourselves
for this examination along with next year’s class, for
what is now impossible for you will then be easy”.
This
is in effect exactly what is said at a certain stage
in our future evolution, to the most backward egos. They
drop out of this year’s class and come along with the
next one. This is the “aeonian condemnation” to which
reference was made a little while ago. It is computed
that about two fifths of humanity will drop out of the
class in this way, leaving the remaining three fifths
to go on with far greater rapidity to the glorious destinies
which lie before them. (Page
134)
CHAPTER
X
THE
RESULT OF THEOSOPHICAL STUDY
“Members
of the Theosophical Society study these truths and Theosophists
endeavor to live them”. What
manner
of men then is the true Theosophist in consequence of
his knowledge? What is the result in his daily life of
all this study?
Finding
that there is a Supreme Power who is directing the course
of evolution, and that He is all-wise and all-loving,
the Theosophist sees that everything which exists within
this scheme must be intended to further its progress.
He realizes that the scripture which tells us that all
things are working together for good, is not indulging
in a flight of poetic fancy or voicing a pious hope,
but stating a scientific fact. The final attainment of
unspeakable glory is an absolute certainty for every
son of man, whatever may be his present condition; but
that is by no means all. Here and at this present moment
he is on his way toward the glory; and all the circumstances
surrounding him are intended to help and not to hinder
him, if only they are rightly understood. It is sadly
true that in the world there is much of evil and of sorrow
and of suffering; yet from the higher point of view the
Theosophist sees that, terrible though this be, it
is only temporary and superficial, and is all being utilized
as a factor in the progress.(Page
135)
When in the days of his ignorance he looked at it
from its own level it was almost impossible to see this;
while
he looked from beneath at the under side of life, with
his eyes fixed all the time upon some apparent evil,
he could never gain a true grasp of its meaning. Now
he raises himself above it to the higher levels of thought
and consciousness, and looks down upon it with the eye
of the spirit and understands it in its entirety, so
he can see that in very truth all is well – not that
all will be well at some remote period, but that even
now at this moment, in the midst of incessant striving
and apparent evil, the mighty current of evolution is
still flowing, and so all is well because all is moving
on in perfect order toward the final goal.
Raising
his consciousness thus above the storm and stress of
worldly life, he recognizes what used to seem to be evil,
and notes how it is apparently pressing backwards against
the great stream of progress; but he also sees that the
onward sweep of the divine law of evolution bears the
same relation to this superficial evil as does the tremendous
torrent of Niagara to the fleckings of foam upon its
surface. So while he sympathizes deeply with all who
suffer, he yet realizes what will be the end of that
suffering, and so for him despair or hopelessness is
impossible. He applies this consideration to his own
sorrows and troubles, as well as to those of the world,
and therefore one great result of his Theosophy is a
perfect serenity – even more than that, a perpetual cheerfulness
and joy.
For
him there is an utter absence of worry, because (Page
136) in truth there is nothing left to worry about, since
he knows that all must be well. His higher Science makes
him a confirmed optimist, for it shows him that whatever
of evil there may be in any person or in any movement,
it is of necessity temporary, because it is opposed to
the resistless stream of evolution; whereas whatever
is good in any person or in any movement must necessarily
be persistent and useful, because it has behind it the
omnipotence of that current, and therefore it must abide
and it must prevail.
Yet
it must not for a moment be supposed that because he
is so fully assured of the final triumph of good he remains
careless or unmoved by the evils which exist in the world
around him. He knows that it is his duty to combat these
to the utmost of his power, because in doing this he
is working upon the side of the great evolutionary force,
and is bringing nearer the time of its ultimate victory.
None will be more active than he in labouring for the
good, even though he is absolutely free from the feeling
of helplessness and hopelessness which so often oppresses
those who are striving to help their fellowmen.
Another
most valuable result of his theosophical study is the
absence of fear. Many people are constantly anxious or
worried about something or other; they are fearing lest
this or that should happen to them, lest this or that
combination may fail, and so all the while they are in
a condition of unrest; and most serious of all for many
is the fear of death. For the Theosophist the whole of
this feeling is entirely (Page 137) swept away. He realizes
that great truth of reincarnation. He knows that he has
often before laid aside physical bodies, and so he sees
that death is no more than sleep – that just as sleep
comes in between our days of work and gives us rest and
refreshment, so between these days of labor here on earth,
which we call lives, there comes a long night of astral
and heavenly life to give us rest and refreshment and
to help us on our way.
To
the Theosophist death is simply the laying aside for
a time of this robe of flesh. He knows that it is his
duty to preserve the bodily vesture as long as possible,
and gain through it all the experience he can; but when
the time comes for him to lay it down he will do so thankfully,
because he knows that the next stage will be a much pleasanter
one than this. Thus he will have no fear of death, although
he realizes that he must live his life to the appointed
end, because he is here for the purpose of progress,
and that progress is the one truly momentous matter.
His whole conception of life is different; the object
is not to earn so much money, not to obtain such and
such a position; the one important thing is to carry
out the Divine Plan. He knows that for this he is here,
and that everything else must give way to it.
Utterly
free also is he from any religious fears or worries or
troubles. All such things are swept aside for him, because
he sees clearly that progress toward the highest is the
Divine Will for us, that we cannot escape from that progress,
and that whatever comes in our way and whatever happens
to us is (Page 138) meant
to help us along that line; that we ourselves are absolutely
the only people who
can delay our advance. No longer does he trouble and
fear about himself. He simply goes on and does the duty
which comes nearest in the best way that he can, confident
that if he does this all will be well for him without
his perpetual worrying. He is satisfied quietly to do
his work and to try to help his fellows in the race,
knowing that the great divine Power behind will press
him onward slowly and steadily, and do for him all that
can be done, so long as his face is set steadfastly in
the right direction, so long as he does all he reasonably
can.
Since
he knows that we are all part of one great evolution
and all literally the children of one father, he sees
that the universal brotherhood of humanity is no mere
poetical conception, but a definite fact; not a dream
of something which is to be in the dim distance of Utopia,
but a condition existing here and now. The certainty
of this all-embracing fraternity gives him a wider outlook
upon life and a broad impersonal point of view from which
to regard everything. He realizes that the true interests
of all are in fact identical, and that no man can ever
make real gain for himself at the cost of loss or suffering
to some one else. This is not to him an article of religious
belief, but a scientific fact proved to him by his study.
He sees that since humanity is literally a whole, nothing
which injures one man can ever be really for the good
of any other, for the harm done influences not only the
doer but also those who are about him.(Page
139)
He knows that the only true advantage for him is
that benefit which he shares with all. He sees that any
advance
which he is able to make in the way of spiritual progress
or development is something secured not for himself alone
but for others. If he gains knowledge or self-control,
he assuredly acquires much for himself, yet he takes
nothing away from any one else, but on the contrary he
helps and strengthen others. Cognizant as he is of the
absolute spiritual unity of humanity, he knows that,
even in this lower world, no true profit can be made
by one man which is not made in the name of and for the
sake of humanity; that one man’s progress must be a lifting
of the burden of all others; that one man’s advance in
spiritual things means a very slight yet not imperceptible
advance to humanity as a whole; that every one who bears
suffering and sorrow nobly in his struggle toward the
light is lifting a little of the heavy load of the sorrow
and suffering of his brothers as well.
Because
he recognizes this brotherhood not merely as a hope cherished
by despairing men, but as a definite fact following in
scientific series from all other facts; because he sees
this as an absolute certainty, his attitude towards all
those around him changes radically. It becomes a posture
ever of helpfulness, ever of the deepest sympathy, for
he sees that nothing which clashes with their higher
interests can be the right thing for him to do, or can
be good for him in any way.
It
naturally follows that he becomes filled with the widest
possible tolerance and charity. He cannot but (Page
140) be always tolerant, because his philosophy shows him
that it matters little what man believes, so long as
he is a good man and true. Charitable also he must be,
because his wider knowledge enables him to make allowances
for many things which the ordinary man does not understand.
The standard of the Theosophist as to right and wrong
is always higher than that of the less instructed man,
yet he is far gentler than the latter in his feeling
towards the sinner, because he comprehends more of human
nature. He realizes how the sin appeared to the sinner
at the moment of its commission, and so he makes more
allowance than is ever made by the man who is ignorant
of all this.
He
goes further than tolerance, charity, sympathy; he feels
positive love towards mankind, and that leads him to
adopt a position of watchful helpfulness. He feels that
every contact with others is for him an opportunity,
and the additional knowledge which his study has brought
to him enables him to give advice or help in almost any
case which comes before him. Not that he is perpetually
thrusting his opinions upon other people. On the contrary,
he observes that to do this is one of the commonest mistakes
made by the uninstructed. He knows that argument is foolish
waste of energy, and therefore he declines to argue.
If anyone desires from him explanation or advice he is
more than willing to give it, yet he has no sort of wish
to convert anyone else to his own way of thinking.
In
every relation of life this idea of helpfulness comes
into play, not only with regard to his fellowmen (Page
141) but also in connection with the vast animal kingdom which
surrounds him. Units of this kingdom are often brought
into close relation with man, and this is for him an
opportunity of doing something for them. The Theosophist
recognizes that these are also his brothers, even though
they may be younger brothers, and that he owes a fraternal
duty to them also – so to act and so to think that his
relation with them shall be always for their good and
never for their harm.
Pre-eminently
and above all, this Theosophy is to him a doctrine of
common sense. It puts before him, as far as he can at
present know them, the facts about God and man and the
relations between them; then he proceeds to take these
facts into account and to act in relation to them with
ordinary reason and common sense. He regulates his life
according to the laws of evolution which it has taught
him, and this gives him a totally different standpoint,
and a touchstone by which to try everything – his own
thoughts and feelings, and his own actions first of all,
and then those things which come before him in the world
outside himself.
Always
he applies this criterion: Is the thing right or wrong,
does it help evolution or does it hinder it? If a thought
or a feeling arises within himself, he sees at once by
this test whether it is one he ought to encourage. If
it be for the greatest good of the greatest number then
all is well; if it may hinder or cause harm to any being
in its progress, then it is evil and to be avoided. Exactly
the same reason holds good if he is called upon to decide
(Page 142) with regard to anything outside himself. If
from that point of view a thing be a good thing, then
he can consciously support it; if not, then it is not
for him.
For
him the question of personal interest does not come into
the case at all. He thinks simply of the good of evolution
as a whole. This gives him a definite foothold and clear
criterion, and removes from him altogether the pain of
indecision and hesitation. The Will of the Deity is man’s
evolution; whatever therefore helps on that evolution
must be good; whatever stands in the way of it and delays
it, that thing must be wrong, even though it may have
on its side all the weight of public opinion and immemorial
tradition.
Knowing
that the true man is the ego and not the body, he sees
that it is the life of the ego only which is really of
moment, and that everything connected with the body must
unhesitatingly be subordinated to those higher interests.
He recognizes that this earth life is given to him for
the purpose of progress, and that that progress is the
one important thing. The real purpose of his life is
the unfoldment of his powers as an ego, the development
of his character. He knows that there must be evolvement
not only of the physical body but also of the mental
nature, of the mind, and of the spiritual perceptions.
He sees that nothing short of absolute perfection is
expected of him in connection with this development;
that all power with regard to it is in his own hands;
that he has everlasting time before him in which to attain
(Page 143) this perfection, but the sooner it is gained
the happier and more useful will he be.
He
recognizes his life as nothing but a day at school, and
his physical body as a temporary vesture assumed for
the purpose of learning through it. He knows at once
that this purpose of learning lessons is the only one
of any real importance, and that the man who allows himself
to be diverted from that purpose by any consideration
whatever is acting with inconceivable stupidity. To him
the life devoted exclusively to physical objects, to
the acquisition of wealth or fame, appears the merest
child’s play – a senseless sacrifice of all that is really
worth having for the sake of a few moment’s gratification
of the lower part of his nature. He “sets his affection
on things above and not on things of the earth”, not
only because he sees this to be the right course of action,
but because he realizes so clearly the valuelessness
of these things of earth. He always tries to take the
higher point of view, for he knows that the lower is
utterly unreliable – that the lower desires and feelings
gather round him like a dense fog, and make it impossible
for him to see anything clearly from that level.
Whenever
he finds a struggle going on within him he remembers
that he himself is the higher, and that this which is
the lower is not the real self, but merely an uncontrolled
part of one of its vehicles. He knows that though he
may fall a thousand times on the way toward his goal,
his reason for trying to reach it remains just as strong
after the thousandth fall (Page 144) as it was in the
beginning, so that it would not only be useless but unwise
and wrong to give way to despondency and hopelessness.
He
begins his journey upon the road of progress at once
– not only because he knows that it is far easier for
him now than it will be if he leaves the effort until
later, but chiefly because if he makes the endeavor now
and succeeds in achieving some progress, if he rises
thereby to some higher level, he is in a position to
hold out a helping hand to those who have not yet reached
even that step on the ladder which he has gained. In
that way he takes part, however humble it may be, in
the great divine work of evolution.
He
knows that he has arrived at his present position only
by a slow process of growth, and so he does not expect
instantaneous attainments of perfection. He sees how
inevitable is the great law of cause and effect, and
that when he once grasps the working of that law he can
use it intelligently, in regard to mental and moral development,
just as in the physical world we can employ for our own
assistance those laws of nature the action of which we
have learnt to understand.
Understanding
what death is, he knows that there can be no need to
fear it or to mourn over it, whether it comes to himself
or to those whom he loves. It has come to them all often
before, so there is nothing unfamiliar about it. He sees
death simply as a promotion from a life which is more
than half physical to one which is wholly superior, so
for himself he unfeignedly welcomes it; and even when
it comes (Page 145) to those whom he loves, he recognizes
at once the advantage for them, even though he cannot
but feel a pang of regret that he should be temporarily
separated from them so far as the physical world is concerned.
But he knows that the so-called dead are near him still,
and that he has only to cast off for a time his physical
body in sleep in order to stand side by side with them
as before.
He
sees clearly that the world is one, and that the same
divine laws rule the whole of it, whether it be visible
or invisible to physical sight. So he has no feeling
of nervousness or strangeness in passing from one part
of it to another, and no feeling of uncertainty as to
what he will find on the other side of the veil. He knows
that in that higher life there opens before him a splendid
vista of opportunities both for acquiring fresh knowledge
and for doing useful work; that life away from this dense
body has a vividness and a brilliancy to which all earthly
enjoyment is as nothing; and so through his clear knowledge
and calm confidence the power of the endless life shines
out upon all those around him.
Doubt
as to his future is for him impossible, for just as by
looking back on the savage he realizes that which he
was in the past, so by looking to the greatest and wisest
of mankind he knows what he will be in the future.
He sees an unbroken chain of development, a ladder of
perfection rising steadily before him, yet with human
beings upon every step of it, so that he knows that those
steps are possible for him to climb. It is just because
of the unchangeableness of the great law of cause and
effect that (Page 146) he
finds himself able to climb that ladder, because, since
the law works always in the
same way, he can depend upon it and he can use it, just
as he uses the laws of Nature in the physical worlds.
His knowledge of this law brings to him a sense of perspective,
and shows him that if something comes to him, it comes
because he has deserved it as a consequence of action
which he has committed, of words which he has spoken,
of thought to which he has given harbor in previous days
or in earlier lives. He comprehends that all affliction
is of the nature of the payment of a debt, and therefore
when he has to meet with the troubles of life he takes
them and uses them as a lesson, because he understands
why they have come and is glad of the opportunity which
they give him to pay off something of his obligations.
Again,
and yet another way, does he take them as an opportunity,
for he sees that there is another side to them if he
meets them in the right way. He spends no time in bearing
prospective burdens. When trouble comes to him he does
not aggravate it by foolish repining but sets himself
to endure so much of it as is inevitable, with patience
and fortitude. Not that he submits himself to it as a
fatalist might, for he takes adverse circumstances as
an incentive to such development as may enable him to
transcend them, and thus out of long-past evil he brings
forth a seed of future growth. For in the very act of
paying the outstanding debt he develops qualities of
courage and resolution that will stand him in good stead
through all the ages that are to come.
He
is distinguishable from the rest of the world (Page
147) by his perennial cheerfulness, his undaunted courage
under difficulties, and his ready sympathy and helpfulness;
yet he is at the same time emphatically a man who takes
life seriously, who recognizes that there is much for
everyone to do in the world, and that there is no time
to waste. He knows with utter certainty that he not only
makes his own destiny but also gravely affects that of
others around him, and thus he perceives how weighty
a responsibility attends the use of his power.
He
knows that thoughts are things and that it is easily
possible to do great harm or great good by their means.
He knows that no man liveth to himself, for his every
thought acts upon others as well; that the vibrations
which he sends forth from his mind and from his mental
nature are reproducing themselves in the minds and the
mental natures of other men, so that he is a source either
of mental health or of mental ill to all with whom he
comes in contact.
This
at once imposes upon him a far higher code of social
ethics than that which is known to the outer world, for
he knows that he must control not only his acts and his
words, but also his thoughts, since they may produce
effects more serious and more far-reaching than their
outward expression in the physical world. He knows that
even when a man is not in the least thinking of others,
he yet inevitably affects them for good or evil. In addition
to this unconscious action of his thought upon others
he also employs it consciously for good. He sets currents
in motion to carry mental help and comfort to many a
(Page 148) friend, and in this way he finds a whole new
world of usefulness opening before him.
He
ranges himself ever on the side of the higher rather
than the lower thought, the nobler rather than the baser.
He deliberately takes the optimistic rather than the
pessimistic view of everything, the helpful rather than
the cynical, because he knows that to be fundamentally
the true view. By looking continually for the good in
everything that he may endeavour to strengthen it, by
striving always to help and never to hinder, he becomes
ever of greater use to his fellow-men, and is thus in
his small way a co-worker with the splendid scheme of
evolution. He forgets himself utterly and lives but for
the sake of others, realizing himself as a part of that
scheme; he also realizes the God within him, and learns
to become ever a truer expression of Him, and thus in
fulfilling God’s will he is not only blessed himself,
but becomes a blessing to all. |