Theosophy - What Theosophy Does for Us - by C.W.Leadbeater - Adyar Pamphlets No. 12
Adyar
Pamphlets. No.12
What Theosophy Does for Us
by C.W. Leadbeater
First
Edition February 1912. Second Edition
November 1912
The Theosophist Office. Adyar. Madras. India
THERE
are certain great basic facts of life about which every thinking man desires
accurate information — such facts as the existence and nature of
God and His relation to man; we desire to know whence we came and
whither we are going and what is the object of our existence. There are in
the world many forms of religion, and each of these forms has propounded
its own theories with regard to these matters, but these theories have
differed widely, and each has bitterly assailed and ridiculed the beliefs of
the others, so that the majority of men have come to think that upon all
these points there is no certain information available.
So
it comes to them as a surprise to find that there is a coherent and reasonable
theory of the universe — a plain declaration of the great facts of
nature, so far as they are known — a statement which is not to be accepted
as a creed, but to be studied and investigated. Theosophy is such a
statement — a definite science [Page
2] the result of many centuries
of research and experiment, yet verified in our day by many of its students,
and verifiable by anyone who is willing to take the trouble to qualify himself
for such enquiry.
Theosophy is not a
religion, but it bears to the religions the same relation as did the ancient
philosophies; it does not contradict any of them, but it explains and harmonises
them all. It teaches that truth on all those important points of which we
have spoken is attainable, and that there is a great body of knowledge about
themalready existing. It considers
all the various religions as statements of that truth from different points
of view, and for evidence of this it points to the fact that however much
these faiths may seem to differ, its teachings explain them all. It shows
us also the relation between religion and science - that they are not hostile
to one another, as is usually supposed, but that, on the contrary, true religion
should welcome science, as affording the means of proof for its teachings,
while science may learn from religion the direction in which it may most
usefully push its investigations. Theosophy is itself a science, and the
greatest of all, for it is the Science of the Soul; it carries scientific
methods into higher realms and applies them to the consideration of a vast
field of facts which lie beyond the reach [Page
3] of the physical
senses. It solves for us many of the most difficult problems
of life, and explains for us many mysteries, bringing them all together as
parts of a connected scheme, and thus making them at once
intelligible and rational.
From the investigations that have been made, there emerge three
great basic truths, not metaphysical speculations, not pious opinions, but
definite scientific facts. proved and examined over and over again by many
students. These truths are:
1. God exists, and He is good. He is the great life-giver who
dwells within us and without us, and is undying and eternally
beneficent. He is not heard, nor seen, nor touched, yet is
perceived by the man who desires perception.
2. Man is immortal, and his future is one whose glory and splendour
have no limit.
3. A Divine law of absolute justice rules the world, so that each
man is in truth his own judge, the dispenser of glory or gloom
to himself, the decreer of his life, his reward, his
punishment.
Since the object of this paper is not to explain the scheme, but to describe
its results in daily life, I may refer the reader, for further exposition of it, to
An Outline of Theosophy.
When those three great basic truths and all the deductions which naturally
follow from them [Page 4] are
thoroughly comprehended, they introduce so radical a change into man's life
that it is not easy within reasonable compass to give any idea of its extent.
The best that can be done is to mention a few leading ideas, leaving the reader
to follow out the necessary ramifications for himself.
Finding that there
is a Supreme Power which is directing the course of evolution and that He
is all-wise and all-loving, we see that everything which exists within His
scheme must be intended to further its progress. We realise that all things
are working together for good, not only in the far distant future, but also
now and here. 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 towards
that 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 we may see that, terrible though this be, it
is only temporary and superficial, and is all being utilised as a factor
in the progress.
While we look at it from its own level it is almost impossible to see this, but
if we will [Page 5] raise ourselves above it and look upon it with, the eyes of
the spirit we shall regard it as a whole, and thus we shall comprehend it.
While we are looking from beneath at the underside of life, with our eyes
fixed all the time upon some apparent evil, we can never gain a true grasp
of its meaning; but if we rise above it to the higher planes of thought and of
consciousness we can look down and understand it in its entirety. So we
can see that in very truth all is well. Not only that all will be well in some
remote future, but that even now in this moment in the midst of incessant
strife and apparent evil, the mighty current of evolution is still flowing, and
so all is well because all is moving on in perfect order towards the final
goal.
Regard the roaring
rapids of some rolling river, such as Niagara, and picture to yourself some
tiny insect being swept down upon the surface of the water. Think how that
water boils and foams, and surges and rushes this way and that as it dashes
among the rugged rocks, and realise how impossible it would be for that tiny
insect to see anything beyond the strife and the stress and the foam and
the beating backwards and forwards; how to him, inevitably, that must seem
the whole world, nothing but a confusion and a struggle and a buffeting,
carrying him sometimes in one direction and sometimes in the other, without
any ordered [Page
6] progress or any
comprehensible object. Yet we have only to rise above all that confusion,
to stand upon the bank and look down upon it, and we observe that the whole
body of water is moving steadily onwards, and that though, here and there,
there are little eddies in which part of it, for the time, seems to be running
backwards, in reality the very eddies themselves are all the time sweeping
forwards with the rest.
Just
so the philosopher who can raise his consciousness above the storm and
stress of worldly life looking down upon it from above recognises what
seems to us to be evil and notes how it is apparently pressing backward
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 sympathises deeply with all who
suffer, he yet realises 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 in truth
there is nothing left to worry [Page 7] 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 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 of 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 fellow-men.
Another most valuable
result of 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 [Page
8] a
condition of unrest. The major part of their fear is wholly unnecessary,
and most of the things feared never come to pass; but nevertheless the fact
remains that large numbers of people are constantly giving themselves a great
deal of unnecessary suffering in this way. Most serious of all for many is
the fear of death. Quite a large number of people seem to have it always
in their minds as an ever-haunting dread — a sword of Damocles ever hanging
over their heads, ready to fall upon them at any moment.
The whole of that feeling is entirely swept away for the man who
understands the Theosophical teaching. When we realise the great truth of
reincarnation, when we know that we have often before laid aside physical
bodies, then we shall see that death is no more to us than sleep; that just
as sleep comes in between our days of work and gives us rest and
refreshment, so between these days of labour here on earth which we call
lives, there comes the long night of astral and of 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 that bodily vesture as long as he can, to gain all the
experience he can; but when the time comes for him to lay it down, he will
do so thankfully, [Page 9] because he knows that the next stage will
be a very 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. See what a
difference that makes in a man's conception of life; the object
is not to earn so much money, not to obtain such and such
a position; the one important thing, when we really comprehend
it, is to carry out the Divine plan. For this we are here, and
everything else should give way to it. It needs only that we
shall understand the facts, and all fear at once ceases.
Another great point which we gain from our Theosophical teaching is that
we have no longer any religious fears or worries or troubles. Many of our
noblest and best people are constantly morbidly introspective, constantly
fearing whether at the last they may not somehow be cast away; whether
they may not fall short in some way, they scarcely understand how, of the
demands which their faith makes upon them.
All that is swept aside
when we see clearly that progress towards the highest is the Divine Will
for us; that we cannot escape from that progress; that whatever comes in
our way and whatever happens to us is meant to help us along that [Page
10] line; that we ourselves are
absolutely the only people that can delay our advance. When we really know
this, what a difference it makes in the aspect of life! No longer do we trouble
and fear about ourselves; we simply go on and do the duty which comes nearest,
in the best way that we can, confident that if we do this, all will be well
for us without our perpetually worrying.
True, we are told in
the wise Greek proverb: Know thyself.
True, it is our business to know ourselves, and to discover our own weak
points; but that also must be done according to reason and according to
common-sense, and we must not be like those tiny children who, when they
make a garden, are constantly pulling up their plants to see how much they
are growing. That is exactly what so many good people are always doing — they
are perpetually pulling themselves up by the roots to see how they are
getting on, instead of being satisfied quietly to do their duty, and trying
to help their fellows in the race, knowing that the great Divine Power
behind will press them onward slowly and steadily and do for them all that
can be done, so long as their faces are set steadfastly in the right direction,
so long as they do all that they reasonably can.
Since we are thus all
part of one great evolution and all very literally the children of one Father, [Page
11] we see 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; and that
is why the promotion, the realisation of that Universal Brotherhood is
the first object of the Theosophical Society. And the certainty
of this all-embracing fraternity gives us a wider outlook upon life and a
broad impersonal point of view from which to regard everything. The
ordinary man looks at everything from a personal point of view;
the first thing and often the only thing that he thinks about is how a certain
occurrence is going to affect him; if he thinks of its effect on
the community at large it is only as an after-thought. Theosophy teaches
us that the real interests of all are in truth identical, and that no
man can ever make a real gain for himself at the cost
of loss or suffering to someone else. Once more we must insist that
this also is not taught as a pious belief, but is proved
as a scientific fact.
Many a man is under the delusion that he gains much for himself when he
cheats or injures another; he may even think that he can prove it by
showing the shillings and pence which he has amassed in this nefarious
manner. But in truth that man is taking a ludicrously partial view of the case
and is leaving out of account [Page 12] absolutely every factor which is of any
permanent value. For there is something higher and greater in a man
than the physical body, which is after all nothing but a vesture, and
that which is of importance is not the effect of any given transaction upon
the vesture, but upon the man who wears it; and it is found by
investigation that the effect of any such fraudulent action upon
the true man, the soul, is limiting and debasing to the last degree;
so that through his ignorance of the facts, such a man is
seriously hindering his own progress for the sake of a very small
apparent acquisition.
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
all those who are about him. So the student soon comes to know that there
is no such thing as a private gain at another man's cost and that the only
true advantage for him is that benefit which he shares with all. He sees
also that any advance which he makes in the way of spiritual progress or
development is something secured not for himself alone but for
others, as we shall see later when we come to write on
the subject of thepower of thought.
If he gains
knowledge and self-control he assuredly acquires much for himself, yet
he takes nothing away from anyone else, but on the [Page
13] contrary he helps and strengthens
others. Cognisant as he is of the absolute spiritual unity of humanity,
he knows that in this lower world also, in real truth, the interest of one
can never be opposed to the interest of all, so that no true profit can be
made by one man which is not made in the name and for the
sake of all humanity; that one man's progress must be
a lifting of the burden of all the others; that one man's advance in
spiritual things means a very slight yet not imperceptible
advance to humanity as a whole; and that everyone who bears
sorrow and suffering nobly in his struggle towards the light;
is lifting a little of the heavy load of the sorrow and suffering of his
brothers as well.
When he recognises
this brotherhood, not merely as a hope cherished by despairing men, but as
a definite fact following in scientific series from all other facts, when
he sees this as an absolute certainty, his attitude towards all those around
him naturally changes very greatly. It becomes a posture ever of helpfulness,
ever of the deepest sympathy, for he sees that nothing which clashes with
their higher interest can ever be the right thing for him to do or can ever
be good for him in any way. And so it naturally follows that he becomes filled
with the widest possible tolerance and charity. He cannot but be always tolerant,
because his philosophy shows him that it
[Page 14] matters
little what a 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 allowance
for many things which the ordinary man does not understand. The standard of
the Theosophical student 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 realises how the sin
appeared to the sinner at the moment of its commission, and
so he makes more allowance than could possibly be 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 ever-watchful helpfulness. The
child who deeply loves his mother is always watching for an opportunity
of doing some little thing for her, something that he knows will please
her or save her trouble. It is just that attitude of watching for an
opportunity to help which the Theosophist adopts towards his
fellows. He feels that every contact with others is for him an
opportunity, and Theosophy brings him so much additional
knowledge, that there is hardly any case in which it does not
enable him to give advice or help. [Page
15]
Not
that he is perpetually thrusting his opinions upon other people; on the
contrary he observes that just this is one of the commonest of mistakes
made by the uninstructed. If the ordinary man has a definite opinion of
his own, whether it be upon matters religious, political, or social, or
upon any of the other subjects of common discussion, he is for ever endeavouring
to force that opinion upon others and to make them think
exactly as he does. The Theosophist knows that all this is
a very 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 our fellow-men,
but also with regard to the vast animal kingdom which surrounds us. Units
of this kingdom are often brought into very close relation with us, and this
is for us an opportunity of doing something for them. We must remember that
these animals also are our brothers, even though they may be younger brothers.
It is the same great Divine Life which animates, them, even
though it be a later wave, a less developed outpouring of
that life. Still, they are our brothers, and we owe a fraternal duty to
them also — so to act and so to think that our [Page
16] relation with
them shall be always for their good and never for their harm.
Pre-eminently
and above all else, Theosophy is a doctrine of common-sense. It puts before
us, so far as we can know them, the facts about God and man and the relation
between them; and then it instructs us to take these facts into account,
and act in relation to them with ordinary reason and common-sense. This
is all that it asks from any man as regards life. It suggests to him to
regulate his life according to these laws of evolution which it has taught
him. That is all, yet it means a great deal; for it gives the man 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 may see at
once by this test whether it is one that he ought to encourage. If it is
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 reasoning holds good if he is called upon to
decide with regard to anything outside of himself. [Page
17] If
from that point of view the thing be a good thing, then he can
conscientiously support it; if not, then it is not for him.
For the man who sees
the truth in this way the question of personal interest does not come into
the case at all, and he thinks simply of the good of evolution as a whole.
This gives the man a definite foothold, a clear criterion, and removes from
him the pain of indecision and hesitation. The Will of God 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 of immemorial tradition.
It is true that all about us we see infringements of the Divine Law taking
place, yet we know that the law is far stronger than the petty wills of those
who ignorantly disobey it; we know that in working along with the law we
are certainly working for the future, and that, though at the passing moment
our efforts may not be appreciated, the future will assuredly do us justice.
Therefore we care little for the judgment of those who do not yet understand,
since our knowledge of the governing laws enables us to work in the right
direction.
Of no less importance
are the practical deductions which flow from the second of the [Page
18] great truths which we stated
at the beginning of this paper; for to understand that the true man is the
soul and not the body means an absolute revolution from the concepts of the
majority of men around us. Our common expressions in every-day life
show the most astounding practical materialism, for we constantly speak of
mysoul showing that we ordinarily regard the body as the self
and the supposed soul as part of its property. Until we have entirely rid
ourselves of this extraordinary delusion that the body is the man, it is
quite impossible that we should at all appreciate the real facts of the case.
A little investigation soon shows us that the body is only a vehicle by means
of which the man manifests himself in connection with this particular type
of gross matter out of which our visible world is built, and that the man
himself has an existence quite apart from his body, capable of being carried
on at a distance from it when it is living and entirely without it when ,
it is dead.
This being so, it becomes
evident at once that it is the life of the soul only which is really of moment,
and that everything connected with the body must unhesitatingly be subordinated
to those higher interests. The student knows that this earth-life is given
to him for the purpose of progress and that that progress is the one really
important [Page
19] thing. We shall
readily see what a difference this makes in his conception of life;
the objects which men ordinarily put before themselves at once fade into
the background, for he sees that whether he earns a certain
amount of money or whether he obtains some particular position
is a matter of comparatively little moment. The one vital thing, now
that he understands life, is to carry out the Divine Plan, since
it is for that reason that he is here, and everything else must give
way to that. The real purpose of his life is the unfoldment of
his powers as a soul, the development of his character. It is with this
object only that he descends into physical life, in order
that through the physical body he may gain experience which would
not be possible to him on a higher plane, and may thus develop within
himself permanent qualities.
Closer study will
show him that he possesses other vehicles besides the physical body, and
that through all of these he has lessons to learn; so that there must be
development not only of the physical body, but also of the emotional nature,
of the mind, and of the spiritual perceptions. The detailed method by which
all this can be done will be found in our Theosophical literature;
but half of the battle is already won when the man has realized the
necessity for this effort and is determined to make it. In
connection [Page
20] with this he discovers
three great points:
1. That nothing short
of absolute perfection is expected of him in regard to this development.
2. That all power
with regard to it is in his own hands.
3. That he has
all eternity before him in which to attain this perfection, but that the
sooner it is gained, the happier and more useful will he be.
He
sees that what he has been in the habit of calling his life is nothing
but a day at school, and that his physical body is merely a temporary vesture
assumed for the purpose of learning through it. He knows at once that this
purpose of learning the lesson 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
who thus grasps the truth, the life of the ordinary person 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 moments'
gratification of the lower part of man's nature. The student "sets
his affections on things above and not on things on the earth",
not only because he sees this to be the right course of action,
but because he realizes very clearly the valuelessness of these things of earth.
He always tries to take the [Page
21] 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 — the "law of the members warring
against the law of the mind as St. Paul puts it — 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
identifies himself never with the lower, but always with the higher; he stands
on its side, because he knows that the soul is the true man.
The great law
of evolution is steadily pressing us on, sweeping us ever onward and upward
along the course that all must take sooner or later. But it is obvious that
the better we understand the Divine Law under which we are living, the easier
and the more rapid will be our progress. No doubt even with the
very best intentions and efforts we shall make many mistakes and
shall often fall by the way; but we need not for this reason
become the victims of despair. Although we may fail a thousand
times on the way towards our goal, our reason for trying to
reach it remains just as strong after the thousandth fall
as it was at the beginning, so that it would not only be useless but very
unwise and [Page
22] very wrong to give way to
despondency and hopelessness. The work has to be done, the goal has to be
attained, and each man must always start from where he individually stands:
it is futile for him to think that he will wait until he reaches some other
position. Therefore, however often he may fail, he must still get up and
go on again, for the road of progress has to be trodden.
The
sooner we begin it the better for us; not only because it is far easier
for us now than it will be if we leave the effort until later, but chiefly
because, if we make the endeavour now and succeed in achieving some progress,
if we rise thereby to some higher level, we are in a position to hold out
a helping hand to those who have not reached even that step of the ladder
which we have gained. In this way we may take a part, however humble it
may be, in the great Divine work of evolution, every one of us, because
each has his own position and his own opportunities. No matter how low
his present status may be, yet there is someone still lower to whom he
can hold out a helping hand, to whom he can be useful. The Theosophical
teaching shows him that he has arrived at his present position only by
a very slow process of growth, and so he cannot expect instantaneous attainment
of perfection; but it also shows him how inevitable is the great law of
cause and [Page
23]
effect, and he sees that when
he once grasps the working of that law he can use it intelligently in regard
to mental and moral development, just as on the physical plane we can employ
for our own assistance those laws of nature the working of which, we have
learned to understand.
One of the most
important practical results of a thorough comprehension of Theosophical
truth is the entire change which it necessarily brings about in our attitude
towards death. It is impossible to calculate the vast amount of utterly
unnecessary sorrow and misery which mankind in the aggregate has suffered
simply from its ignorance with regard to this one matter of death.
There is among us a mass of false and foolish belief along
this line which has worked untold evil in the past and is
causing indescribable affliction in the present, and its complete
eradication would be one of the greatest benefits that could be
conferred upon the human race. This benefit Theosophy at once
bestows upon those who, from their study of philosophy in past lives,
find themselves able to accept it. It robs death forthwith of all
its terror and much of its sorrow, and enables us to see it in its true
proportions and to understand its place in the scheme of our evolution.
The man who understands
what death is knows that there can be no need to fear it or to mourn over
it, whether it comes to himself or [Page
24] to those whom he loves. It
has come to them all often before, so that there is nothing unfamiliar about
it. He comprehends that life is continuous and that the loss of the physical
body is nothing more than the casting aside of an outworn garment, which
in no way changes the real man who is the wearer of the garment. He sees
that death is simply 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 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.
Further study shows
that even this supposed separation is in fact only apparent and not real,
for he learns 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. Consequently he has no feeling of nervousness
or strangeness in passing from one part of it to another, and no sort of
uncertainty as to what he will find on the other side of the veil. The whole
of the unseen world is so clearly and fully mapped-out [Page
25]
for him through the work of the Theosophical investigators that it is
almost as well known to him as the physical life, and thus he is
prepared to enter upon it without hesitation whenever it may be
best for his evolution.
For full details
of the various stages of this higher life we must refer our readers to the
books specially devoted to this subject; it is sufficient here to say that
the conditions into which the man passes are precisely those that he has
made for himself. He who is intelligent and helpful, who understands the
conditions of this non-physical existence, and takes the trouble to adapt
himself to them and to make the most of them, finds open before him a
splendid vista of opportunities both for acquiring fresh knowledge and
for doing useful work. He discovers that life away from this
dense body has a vividness and a brilliancy to which all earthly
enjoyment is as nothing, and that through his clear knowledge and
calm confidence the power of the endless life shines out upon
all those around him. We have already said that what the uninstructed
man usually calls his life is only one day in the teal and wider
life, and this brings us at once to the consideration of the great
Theosophical doctrine of Reincarnation.
This is one which
is very frequently misunderstood, and one of the most ordinary misconceptions [Page
26] in connection with it is
to confound it with the theory of the transmigration of human souls into
animal bodies. Suffice it to say that no such retrogression is within the
limits of possibility. Though it is true that the physical form of man has
evolved from a lower kingdom, when once a human soul has come into existence
he can never again fall back into that lower kingdom of nature, whatever
mistakes he may make or however he may fail to take advantage of his opportunities.
Since this day of life is a day at school, if a man is idle in the school
of life he may need to take the same lesson over and over again before he
has really learned it, but still on the whole progress is steady even though
it may often be slow.
Those
who have not studied it, and therefore do not know all that it means, often
feel great objection to this doctrine of rebirth. I have no space here
to set forth the many unanswerable arguments in its favour, but they are
fully set , forth in the second of our Theosophical Manuals by a far abler
pen than mine. It should also be remembered that, like the rest of the
teaching, this is not a hypothesis but a matter of direct knowledge for
many of us.
Man gains very greatly,
also, from obtaining an accurate idea of his place in the universe; his inherent
self-conceit is wholesomely curbed [Page
27] by
the realization of other and far grander evolutions, while at the same time
he receives the very greatest encouragement from a definite certainty of
the future that lies before him and the splendour of the goal which he will
assuredly one day attain.
In what has already
been written we have constantly had to take into consideration the existence
of the third of our great truths, the mighty law of cause and effect, of
action and reaction, or of the readjustment of equilibrium. If we wish to
understand this great fundamental law, we must wholly dissever it from the
old ecclesiastical idea of reward or chastisement, and we must apprehend
that in nature the punishment fits the crime with absolute accuracy and perfection
because it is in fact part of it, because the result which follows the cause
is itself part of that cause, although it is the unseen side of it. Under
the operation of this far-seeing law man is what he has made himself and
his surrounding circumstances are those which he himself has provided.
Novel though this idea
has been to many, it should not be difficult of comprehension. We are all
familiar with the suggestion that as we sow so shall we reap; it is merely
a slight extension of that thought to suppose that as we are now reaping,
whether it be in circumstance or in disposition, so have we sown in the remote
past [Page
28] of earlier lives. Indeed
there is no other rational hypothesis by which the many inequalities
which we see on all sides of us can be explained.
For not only do surroundings and opportunities differ, but it is
painfully obvious that men differ greatly in themselves and
that some are in every conceivable way less evolved than others. It is
impossible reasonably to account for this on any of the ordinary
theories, without impugning the Divine justice, but if we
once admit that souls are of different ages and therefore need different
training we shall see that a flood of light is at once poured on
the subject, and that its difficulties one by one disappear.
The
gross and brutish man is simply a child-soul; where he stands now we ourselves
stood once many ages ago; where we are now, there he will also stand after
many more of these school-days which we call lives. And just as by looking
back on the savage we may realize that which we were in the past, so
by looking to the greatest and wisest of mankind may we
realize what we shall be in the future. There have been
and there yet are among men those who tower head and shoulders above
their fellow-creatures in spiritual development; the Buddhas and the
Christs, the great teachers and the philosophers — all these show
us what one day we shall be, and so we see an unbroken chain of
development, a [Page
29] ladder
of perfection rising steadily before us, and yet with human beings upon every
step of it, so that we know that those steps are possible for us to climb;
and it is just because of the unchangeableness of this great law of cause
and effect that we are able to climb that ladder — because, since the
law works always in the same way, we can depend upon it and we can use it,
just as we use the laws of nature on the physical plane.
If physical laws were
subject to capricious variation, it would be impossible for us to utilize
them, since at any moment our machinery might fail us and we could have no
certainty of any kind in connection with its work; but just because we can
invariably rely upon the action of gravity or upon the expansion of a gas
we feel reasonably certain in our employment of these natural forces. Just
in the same way when we know with absolute assurance that the qualities which
we possess now are the products of our own thought and desire in the past,
we have also indubitable evidence that our thought and desire in the present
must inevitably build for us new qualities in the future, and therefore that
we can make ourselves precisely what we will.
Not immediately, for
growth is slow and evil habits take long to eradicate; nevertheless, with
utter certainty. When we see clearly that our present circumstances are the
results of our actions [Page
30] in
the past we see also at the same time that we can so arrange our actions
in the present as to mould our circumstances in the future, and thus
we see that the whole of that future is entirely in our hands,
subject only to unexhausted effects of what we have already
done in the past. For neither thought nor action necessarily produces all
its effects immediately. Sometimes it may be many years or even many lives
before the full results become apparent; yet never does the slightest of
them fail of final fulfilment. As the poet Longfellow has said: —
Though the mills
of God grind slowly, yet they grind
exceeding small;
Though with patience
stands He waiting, withexactness grinds
He all.
From this great
Law flow many things. If once one gains this idea of perfect justice, the
troubles and sorrows of life take on quite a new aspect. In the case of
the ordinary person quite a small trouble will often, because it is so close
to him, loom up so large as to obscure the entire horizon for him, so that
he is unable to see that the very sun is shining. Everything is altered
for him; all life takes on a gloomy look, and he believes that
he is the victim of some especial persecution, when all the time
the trouble in reality may be a very small matter. Such an attitude is
not in the least possible for [Page
31] the student of Theosophy,
for his knowledge brings to him a sense of perspective, and shows
him that if suffering comes to him it comes because
he has deserved it, as a consequence of actions which he has
committed, of words which he has spoken, of thoughts to
which he has given harbor in previous days or perhaps in earlier lives;
and thus the whole idea of injustice as connected with misery is absolutely
removed for him.
He comprehends
that all affliction is of the nature of the payment of a debt, and therefore
when he has to meet the troubles of life he takes them and uses them as a
lesson because he understands why they have come, and is in reality glad
of the opportunity which they give him to pay off something of his
obligations, even though they may cause him much sorrow in the
paying. Again and in yet another way does he take them as an
opportunity, for he sees that there is, as it were, another side to
them if he meets them in the right way. Far too often the ordinary man
makes the most of his troubles; he anticipates them with fear, he
intensifies them by grumbling, and he looks back upon them with regret
and indignation.
The wise man spends
no time in bearing prospective burdens, for he knows that nine-tenths of
those things which people fear never come to them, and that even the few
fears which are realized are never so serious in fact as they [Page
32] appeared beforehand in fancy;
and so 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
with fortitude. Not that he submits himself to it as a fatalist might, for
he takes adverse circumstance always as an incentive to such self-development
as may enable him to transcend it; and thus out of the result of long-past
evil he brings forth the seed of future good. 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.
Though it is true,
as we have already said, that the student of Theosophy should be distinguishable
from the rest of the world by his perennial cheerfulness, his undaunted courage
under difficulties, and his ready sympathy and helpfulness, yet he will be
at the same time emphatically a man who takes life seriously, who realizes
that there is much for every one to do in the world, that there is no time
to waste. Since he knows with such utter certainty that he not only makes
his own destiny but may also gravely affect that of others around him, he
perceives how weighty a responsibility attends the use of this power. He
knows, for example, that thoughts are things, and that it is very easily
possible to do [Page
33] 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 emotional nature are reproducing themselves in
the minds and the emotional natures of other men, and 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 discovers that it is demanded of him to 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 expression on the
physical plane. For example, one of the commonest vices in this
age of overwork and overstrain is irritability. Very many people
are suffering from this, and many are aware of the failing and are
struggling against it. Every time that a man yields himself
to this feeling and gives way to an outburst of anger, he habituates
himself to the vibrations which express this feeling, and so makes it a
little easier to repeat them next time and a little harder to resist
the next force from without which may impel him in that direction.
But he also radiates
these vibrations all around him and they impinge upon the emotional natures
of other men and tend, like all other vibrations, [Page
34] to reproduce themselves.
So that if some of those others be striving against this vice of irritability,
his vibrations will stir them towards that emotion, and so make the task
of control more difficult; and in this way by his own carelessness he adds
to the burden which his brother has to bear. If on the other hand he makes
a heroic effort and controls his own emotion, he sends out a vibration of
serenity, of peace, and of harmony, which also tends to reproduce itself
among his fellow-men, and makes it easier for every one of them to control
himself in turn. Thus, even when a man is not in the least thinking of others,
he inevitably affects them for good or for evil.
But in addition to
this unconscious action of his thought upon others he may also employ it
consciously for good; currents may be set in motion which will carry mental
help and comfort to many a suffering friend, and in this way a whole new
world of usefulness opens before the student. In this case, as in every other,
knowledge is power and those who understand the law can use the law. Knowing
what effects upon themselves and others will be produced by certain thoughts
they can deliberately arrange that the results shall be good and not evil,
for all who can think can help others, and all who can help others ought
to help. Thus not only from selfish but from the far higher unselfish reasons
the student [Page
35] sees the necessity for
gaining perfect control of the various parts of his nature, because only
in that way can he progress and only in that way can he be thoroughly fitted
to help others when the opportunity comes to him.
Thus
he will range himself ever on the side of the higher rather than the lower
thought, the nobler rather than the baser; his toleration will be perfect
because he sees the good in all. He will deliberately take the optimistic
rather than the pessimistic view of everything, the hopeful rather than
the cynical, because he knows that to be fundamentally the true view, the
evil in everything being, as we have said before, necessarily the impermanent
part, since in the end only the good can endure. In this way by looking
ever for the good in everything; that he may endeavour to strengthen it,
by striving always to help and never to hinder, he will become ever of
greater use to his fellow-men end thus will become in his small way a co-worker
with the splendid stream of evolution.
From what has already
been written it will be seen that Theosophy is in no way unpractical or indefinite,
but that on the contrary it has information to give which is of the greatest
value to every human being, whether it be to the child or the parent, to
the man of business or the artist, to the scientist, the poet, or the [Page
36] philosopher. Wherever it
has spread its uplifting force has been felt, and already it has done much
noble work towards the realization of the idea of Universal Brotherhood.
An examination of its
principles will at once show that if they were generally accepted war between
nation and nation or strife between class and class would become a ridiculous
impossibility, and that its thorough comprehension could not but raise man's
actions and thoughts to a plane far higher than at present. For this knowledge
means not only power, but progress and unfoldment, and the spreading of the
truth means the advancement of the world; and even if we take only the few
leading points which have been mentioned in this little treatise we shall
see that that must be so.
Surely all mankind
would be better for the development of that serenity and joyousness which
comes from the knowledge that all things are working together for good; for
the entire absence of fear and worry; for the attainment of that wider outlook
which shows us that no man can ever gain at the cost of another; for the
widest tolerance and the deepest sympathy; for the attitude of universal
helpfulness, towards the lower kingdoms as well as towards men; for the possession
of a criterion by which all actions and all thoughts may be tried; for the
knowledge that man is a [Page
37] soul
and not a body, and that therefore the life of the soul is
his life, and that his work here is its development; that death is
something not to be feared but to be understood; that there is no
injustice in the world, since people are what they have made
themselves in previous lives, and have what they have deserved to have;
that therefore they are absolutely the makers of their own destiny,
and that every word or thought or action is a stone in that edifice of the
future; hence that they are responsible for their thoughts, and it
is their duty to purify and to enrich them, not only in order that
they may themselves approach perfection, but also that they may be
more useful to their fellow-men.
Those who will study
this Theosophical teaching will find, as we have found who are older students,
that year after year it will grow more interesting and more fascinating,
giving them more and more satisfaction for their reason as well as more perfect
fulfilment and realization of their higher aspirations. Those who examine
it will never regret it; through all their future lives they will find reason
to be thankful that they undertook the study of the magnificent and all-embracing
Wisdom-Religion which in these modern days we call Theosophy.