An Outline of
Theosophy
by
C. W.
Leadbeater
Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar
WHAT IT IS
1.
For
many a year men have been discussing arguing, enquiring about certain great
basic truths – about the existence and the Nature of God, about His relation to
man, and about the past and future of humanity. So radically have they
differed on these points, and so bitterly have they assailed and ridiculed one
another’s beliefs, that there has come to be a firmly-rooted popular opinion
that with regard to all these matters there is no certainty available – nothing
but vague speculation amid a cloud of unsound deductions drawn from
ill-established premises. And this in spite of the very definite, though
frequently incredible, assertions made on these subjects on behalf of the
various religions.
2.
This
popular opinion, though not unnatural under the circumstances, is entirely
untrue. There are definite facts available – plenty of them. Theosophy gives
them to us; but it offers them not (as religions do) as matters of faith, but
as subjects for study. It is itself not a religion, but it bears to religions
the same relation as did the ancient philosophies. It does not contradict them,
but explains them. Whatever in any of them is unreasonable, it rejects as
necessarily unworthy of the Deity and derogatory to Him; whatever is reasonable
in each and all of them it takes up, explains and emphasizes, and thus combines
all into one harmonious whole.
3.
It
holds that truth on all these most important points is attainable – that there
is a great body of knowledge about them already existing. It considers all the
various religions as statements of that truth from different points of view;
since, though they differ much as to nomenclature and as to articles of belief,
they all agree as to the only matter which are of real importance – the kind of
life which a good man should lead, the qualities which he must develop, the
vices which he must avoid. On these practical points the teaching is identical
in Hinduism and Buddhism, in Zoroastrianism and Mohammedanism, in Judaism and
Christianity.
4.
Theosophy
may be described to the outside world as an intelligent theory of the universe.
Yet for those who have studied it, it is not theory, but fact; for it is a
definite science, capable of being studied, and its teachings are verifiable by
investigation and experiment for those who are willing to take the trouble to
qualify themselves for such enquiry. It is a statement of the great facts of
Nature so far as they are known – an outline of the scheme of our corner of the
universe.
5.
HOW
IS IT KNOWN
6.
How
did this scheme become known, some may ask; by whom was it discovered? We
cannot speak of it as discovered, for in truth it has always been known
to mankind, though sometimes temporarily forgotten in certain parts of
the world. There has always existed a certain body of highly developed men –
men not of any one nation, but of all the advanced nations – who have held it
in its fullness; and there has always been pupils of these men, who were
specially studying it, while its broad principles have always been known in the
outer world. This body of highly-developed men exists now, as in past ages, and
Theosophical teaching is published to the Western world at their instigation,
and through a few of their pupils.
7.
Those
who are ignorant have sometimes clamorously insisted that, if this be so, these
truths ought to have been published long ago; and most unjustly they accuse the
possessors of such knowledge of undue reticence in withholding them from the
world at large. They forget that all who really sought these truths have always
been able to find them, and that it is only now that we are in the Western
world are truly beginning to seek.
8.
For
many centuries Europe was content to live, for the most part, in the grossest
superstition; and when reaction at last set in from the absurdity and bigotry
of those beliefs, it brought a period of atheism, which was just as conceited
and bigoted in another direction. So that it is really only now that some of
the humbler and more reasonable of our people are beginning to admit that they
know nothing, and to enquire whether there is not real information available
somewhere.
9.
Though
these reasonable enquirers are as yet a small minority, the Theosophical
Society has been founded in order to draw them together, and its books are put
before the public so that those who will, may read, mark, learn, and inwardly
digest these great truths. Its mission is not to force its teaching upon
reluctant minds, but simply to offer it, so that those may take it who feel the
need for it. We are not in the least under the delusion of the poor arrogant
missionary, who dares to condemn to an unpleasant eternity every one who will
not pronounce his little provincial shibboleth; we are perfectly aware that all
will at last be well for those who cannot as yet see their way to accept the
truth, as well as for those who receive it with avidity.
10.
But
the knowledge of this truth has, for us and for thousands of others, made life
easier to bear and death easier to face; and it is simply the wish to share
these benefits with our fellow men that urges us to devote ourselves to writing
and lecturing on these subjects. The broad outlines of the great truths have
been widely known in the world for thousands of years, and are so known in the
present day. It is only we in the West who, in our incredible self-sufficiency
, have remained ignorant of them, and scoffed at any fragment of them which may
have come in our way.
11.
As in
the case of any other science, so in this science of the soul, full details are
known only to those who devote their lives to its pursuit. The men who fully know
– those who are called Adepts – have patiently developed within themselves the
powers necessary for perfect observation. For in this respect there is a
difference between the methods of occult investigation and those of the more
modern form of science; this latter devotes all its energy to the improvement
of its instruments, while the former aims rather at development of the
observer.
12.
THE
METHOD OF OBSERVATION
13.
The
detail of this development would take up more space than can be devoted to it
in a preliminary manual such as this. The whole scheme will be found fully
explained in other Theosophical works; for the moment let it suffice to say
that it is entirely a question of vibration. All information which reaches a
man from the world without, reaches him by means of vibration of some sort,
whether it be through the senses of sight, hearing or touch. Consequently, if a
man is able to make himself sensitive to additional vibrations he will acquire
additional information; he will become what is commonly called “clairvoyant”.
14.
This
word, as commonly used, means nothing more than a slight extension of normal
vision; but it is possible for a man to become more and more sensitive to the
subtler vibrations, until his consciousness, acting through many developed faculties,
functions freely in new and higher ways. He will then find new worlds of
subtler matter opening up before him, though in reality they are only new
portions of the world he already knows.
15.
He
learns in this way that a vast unseen universe exists round him during his
whole life, and that it is constantly affecting him in many ways, even though
he remains blindly unconscious of it. But when he develops faculties
whereby he can sense these other worlds, it becomes possible for him to observe
them scientifically, to repeat his observations many times, to compare them
with those of others, to tabulate them, and draw deductions from them.
16.
All
this has been done – not once, but thousands of times. The Adepts of whom I
spoke have done this to the fullest possible extent, but many efforts along the
same line have been made by our own Theosophical students. The result of our
investigations has been not only to verify much of the information given to us
at the outset by those Adepts, but also to explain and amplify it very
considerably.
17.
The
sight of this usually unseen portion of our world at once brings to our
knowledge a vast body of entirely new facts which are of the very deepest
interest. It gradually solves for us many of the most difficult problems of life;
it clears up for us many mysteries so that we now see them to have been
mysteries to us for so long, only because heretofore we saw so small a part of
the facts, because we were looking at the various matters from below, and as
isolated and unconnected fragments, instead of rising above them to a
standpoint whence they are comprehensible as parts of a mighty whole.
18.
It
settles in a moment many questions which have been much disputed – such, for
example, as that of the continued existence of man after death. It affords us
the true explanation of all the wildly impossible statements made by the
churches about heaven, hell and purgatory; it dispels our ignorance and removes
our fear of the unknown by supplying us with a rational and orderly scheme.
What this scheme is I will now endeavour to explain.
19.
GENERAL
PRINCIPLES
20.
It is
my desire to make this statement of Theosophy as clear and readily
comprehensible as possible, and for this reason I shall at every point give
broad principles only, referring those who wish for detailed information to
larger books, or to monographs upon particular subjects. I hope at the end of
each chapter of this little treatise to give a list of such books as should be
consulted by those who desire to go more deeply into this most fascinating
system.
21.
I
shall begin then, by a statement of the most striking of the broad general
principles which emerge as a result of Theosophical study. There may be those
who find here matter which is incredible to them, or matter which runs entirely
contrary to their preconceived ideas. If that be so, then I would ask
such men to remember that I am not putting this forward as a theory – as a
metaphysical speculation or a pious opinion of my own – but as a definite
scientific fact proved and examined over and over again, not only by myself,
but many others also.
22.
Furthermore,
I claim that it is a fact which may be verified at first hand by any person who
is willing to devote the time and trouble necessary to fit himself for the
investigation. I am not offering to the reader a creed to be swallowed like a
pill; I am trying to set before him a system to study, and above all, a life to
live. I ask no blind faith from him; I simply suggest to him the consideration
of the Theosophical teaching as a hypothesis, though to me it is no
hypothesis, but a living fact.
23.
If he
finds it more satisfactory than others which have been presented to him, if it
seems to him to solve more of the problems of life, to answer a greater number
of the questions which inevitably arise for thinking man, then he will
pursue its study further, and will find in it, I hope and believe, the same
ever-increasing satisfaction and joy that I have myself found.
24.
If on
the other hand, he thinks some other system preferable, no harm is done; he has
simply learnt something of the tenets of a body of men with whom he is as yet
unable to agree. I have sufficient faith in it myself to believe that, sooner
or later, a time will come when he will agree with them – when he also
will know what we know.
25.
THE
THREE GREAT TRUTHS
26.
In
one of our earliest Theosophical books it was written that there are three
truths which are absolute and cannot be lost, but yet may remain silent for
lack of speech. They are as great as life itself, and yet as simple as the
simplest mind of man. I can hardly do better than paraphrase these for the
greatest of my general principles.
27.
I
will then give some corollaries which follow naturally from them, and then,
thirdly, some of the more prominent of the advantageous results which necessarily
attend this definite knowledge. Having thus outlined the scheme in tabular
form, I will take it up point by point, and endeavour to offer such elementary
explanations as come within the scope of this little introductory book.
28.
God
exists, and He is good. He is the great life-giver who dwells within us and
without us, is undying and eternally beneficent. He is not heard, nor seen, nor
touched, yet is perceived by the man who desires perception.
29.
Man
is immortal, and his future is one whose glory and splendour have no limit.
30.
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.
31.
To
each of these great truths are attached certain others, subsidiary and
explanatory.
32.
From
the first of them it follows:-
33.
That,
in spite of appearance, all things are definitely and intelligently moving
together for good; that all circumstances, however untoward they may seem, are
in reality exactly what are needed; that everything around us tends, not to
hinder us, but to help us, if it is only understood.
34.
That
since the whole scheme thus tends to man’s benefit, clearly it is his duty to
learn to understand it.
35.
That
when he thus understands it, it is also his duty intelligently to co-operate in
this scheme.
36.
From
the second great truth it follows:-
37.
That
the true man is a soul, and that this body is only an appanage.
38.
That
he must therefore, regard everything from the standpoint of the soul, and that
in every case when an internal struggle takes place he must realise his
identity with the higher and not with the lower.
39.
That
what we commonly call his life is only one day in his true and larger life.
40.
That death
is a matter of far less importance than is usually supposed, since it is by no
means the end of life, but merely the passage from one stage of it to another.
41.
That
man has an immense evolution behind him, the study of which is most
fascinating, interesting and instructive.
42.
That
he has also a splendid evolution before him, the study of which will be even
more fascinating and instructive.
43.
That
there is an absolute certainty of final attainment for every human soul, no
matter how far he may have seemed to have strayed from the path of evolution.
44.
From
the third great truth it follows:-
45.
That
every thought, word, or action produces its definite result – not a reward or a
punishment imposed from without, but a result inherent in the action itself,
definitely connected with it in the relation of cause and effect, these being
really but two inseparable parts of one whole.
46.
That
it is both the duty and interest of man to study this divine law closely, so
that he will be able to adapt himself to it and to use it, as we use other
great laws of nature.
47.
That
it is necessary for man to attain perfect control over himself, so that he may
guide his life intelligently in accordance with this law.
48.
ADVANTAGES
GAINED FROM THIS KNOWLEDGE
49.
When
this knowledge is fully assimilated, it changes the aspect of life so
completely that it would be impossible for me to tabulate all the advantages
which flow from it. I can only mention a few of the principal lines along which
this change is produced, and the reader’s own thought will, no doubt, supply
some of the endless ramifications which are their necessary consequence.
50.
But
it must be understood that no vague knowledge will be sufficient. Such belief
as most men accord to the assertions of their religions will be quite useless,
since it produces no practical effect in their lives. But if we believe
in these truths as we do in the other laws of nature – as we believe that fire
burns and that water drowns – then the effect that they produce in our lives is
enormous.
51.
For
our belief in the laws of Nature is sufficiently real to induce us to order our
lives in accordance with it. Believing that fire burns, we take every
precaution to avoid fire; believing that water drowns, we avoid going
into water too deep for us unless we can swim.
52.
Now
these beliefs are so definite and real to us because they are founded on
knowledge and illustrated by daily experience; and the beliefs of the
Theosophical student are equally real and definite to him for exactly the same
reason. And that is why we find following from them the results now to be
described:
53.
We
gain a rational comprehension of life – we know how we should live and why, and
we learn that life is worth living when properly understood.
54.
We
learn how to govern ourselves, and therefore how to develop ourselves.
55.
We
learn how best to help those whom we love, how to make ourselves useful to all
with whom we come into contact, and ultimately to the whole human race.
56.
We
learn to view everything from the wider philosophical standpoint – never from
the petty and purely personal side.
57.
Consequently:
58.
The
troubles of life are no longer so large for us.
59.
We
have no sense of injustice in connection with our surroundings or our destiny.
60.
We
are altogether freed from the fear of death.
61.
Our
grief in connection with the death of those whom we love is very greatly
mitigated.
62.
We
gain a totally different view of life after death, and we understand its place
in our evolution.
63.
We
are altogether free from religious fears or worry, either for ourselves or for
our friends – fears as to the salvation of the soul, for example.
64.
We
are no longer troubled by uncertainty as to our future fate, but live in
perfect serenity and perfect fearlessness.
65.
Now
let us take these points in detail, and endeavour briefly to explain them.
66.
THE
DEITY
67.
When
we lay down the existence of God as the first and greatest of our principles,
it becomes necessary for us to define the sense in which we employ that much
abused, yet mighty word. We try to redeem it from the narrow limits imposed on
it by the ignorance of undeveloped men, and to restore to it the splendid
conception – splendid, though so infinitely below the reality – given to it by
the founders of religions. And we distinguish between God as the Infinite
Existence, and the manifestation of this Supreme Existence as a revealed God,
evolving and guiding a universe.
68.
Only
to this limited manifestation should the term “ a personal God” be applied. God
in Himself is beyond the bounds of the personality, is “in all and through
all”, and indeed is all; and of the Infinite, the Absolute, the All, we can
only say “He is”.
69.
For
all practical purposes we need not go further than that marvelous and glorious
manifestation of Him (a little less entirely beyond our comprehension) the
great Guiding Force or deity of our own solar system, whom philosophers have
called the Logos. Of Him is true all that we have ever heard predicted of God –
all that is good, that is – not the blasphemous conceptions sometimes put
forward, ascribing to Him human vices.
70.
But
all that has ever been said of the love, the wisdom, the power the patience and
compassion, the omniscience, the omnipresence, the omnipotence –all of this,
and much more, is true of the Logos of our system. Verily “in Him we live and
move and have our being”, not as a poetical expression, but (strange as it may
seem ) as a definite scientific fact; and so when we speak of the deity our
first thought is naturally of the Logos.
71.
We do
not vaguely hope that He may be; we do not even believe as a matter of faith
that He is; we simply know it as we know that the sun shines, for to the
trained and developed clairvoyant investigator this Mighty existence is a
definite certainty. Not that any merely human development can enable us
directly to see Him, but that unmistakable evidence of His action and His
purpose surrounds us on every side as we study the life of the unseen world,
which is in reality only the higher part of this.
72.
Here
we meet the explanation of a dogma which is common to all religions – that of
the Trinity. Incomprehensible as many of the statements made on this subject in
our creeds may seem to the ordinary reader, they become significant and
luminous when the truth is understood. As He shows Himself to us in His work,
the Solar Logos is undoubtedly triple – three yet one, as religion has long ago
told us; and as much of the explanation of this apparent mystery as the
intellect of man at its present stage can grasp will be found in the books
presently to be mentioned.
73.
That
He is within us as well as without us, or, in other words, that man himself is
in essence divine, is another great truth which, though those who are blind to
all but the outer and lower world may still argue about it, is an absolute
certainty to the student of the higher side of life. Of the constitution of
man’s soul and its various vehicles we shall speak under the heading of the
second of truths; suffice it for the moment to note that the inherent divinity
is a fact, and that in it resides the assurance of the ultimate return of every
human being to the divine level.
74.
THE
DIVINE SCHEME
75.
Perhaps
none of our postulates will present greater difficulty to the average mind than
the first corollary to the first great truth. Looking round us in daily life we
see so much of the storm and stress, the sorrow and suffering, so much that
looks like the triumph of evil over good, that it seems almost impossible to
suppose that all this apparent confusion is in reality part of an ordered
process. Yet this is the truth, and can be seen to be the truth so soon
as we escape from the dust-cloud raised by the struggle in the outer world, and
look upon it all from the vantage ground of the fuller knowledge and the inner
peace.
76.
Then
the real motion of the complex machinery becomes apparent. Then it is seen that
what have seemed to be countercurrents of evil prevailing against the stream of
progress are merely trifling eddies into which for the moment a little water
may turn aside, or tiny whirlpools on the surface, in which part of the water
appears for the moment to be running backwards.
77.
But
all the time the mighty river is sweeping steadily on its appointed course,
bearing the superficial whirlpools along with it. Just so the great stream of
evolution is moving evenly on its way, and what seems to us so terrible a
tempest is the merest ruffling of its surface. Another analogy, very
beautifully worked out is given in Mr. C. H. Hinton’s Scientific Romances, vol.
1, pp 18-24.
78.
Truly,
as our third great truth tells us, absolute justice is meted out to all, and
so, in whatever circumstances a man finds himself, he knows that he himself and
none other has provided them; but he may also know much more than this. He may
rest assured that under the action of evolutionary law matters are so arranged
as to give him the best possible opportunity for developing within himself
those qualities which he most needs.
79.
His
circumstances are by no means necessarily those that he would have chosen for
himself, but they are exactly what he deserved; and subject only to that
consideration of his deserts ( which frequently impose serious limitations),
they are those best adapted for his progress. They may provide him with all
sorts of difficulties, but these are offered only in order that he may learn to
surmount them, and thereby develop within himself courage, determination,
patience, perseverance, or whatever other quality he may lack. Men often speak
as though the forces of nature were conspiring against them, whereas as a
matter of fact, if they would but understand it, everything about them is carefully
calculated to assist them on their upward way.
80.
That,
since there is a Divine scheme, it is man’s part to try and understand it, is a
proposition which surely needs no argument. Even were it only from motives of
self-interest, those who have to live under a certain set of conditions would
do well to familiarize themselves with them; and when a man’s objects in life
become altruistic it is still more necessary for him to comprehend, in order
that he may help the more effectually.
81.
It is
undoubtedly part of this plan for man’s evolution that he himself should
intelligently co-operate in it as soon as he has developed sufficient
intelligence to grasp it and sufficient good feeling to wish to aid. But indeed
this Divine scheme is so wonderful and so beautiful that, when once a man sees
it, nothing else is possible for him than to throw all his energies into the
effort to become a worker in it, no matter how humble may be the part which he
has to sustain.
82.
For
fuller information on the subjects of this chapter the reader is referred to
Mrs. Besant’s Esoteric Christianity and Ancient Wisdom, and to my own little
book on The Christian Creed. Much light is also thrown on these
conceptions from the Greek standpoint in Mr. G. R. S. Mead’s Orpheus, and from
the Gnostic-Christian in his fragments Fragments of a Faith Forgotten.
83.
THE
CONSTITUTION OF MAN
84.
The
astounding practical materialism to which we have been reduced in this country
can hardly be more clearly shown than it is by the expressions that we employ
in common life. We speak quite ordinarily of man as having a soul, of “saving”
our souls, and so on, evidently regarding the physical body as the real man and
the soul as a mere appanage, a vague something to be considered as property of
the body.
85.
With
an idea so little defined as this, it can hardly be a matter of surprise that
many people go a little further along the same lines, and doubt whether this
vague something exists at all. So it would seem that the ordinary man is very
often quite uncertain whether he possesses a soul or not; still less does he
know that the soul is immortal. That he should remain in this pitiable
condition of ignorance seems strange, for there is a very great deal of
evidence available even in the outer world, to show that man has an existence
quite apart from his body, capable of being carried on at a distance from it
while it is living, and entirely without it when it is dead.
86.
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 immediately 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.
87.
Furthermore,
it shows that other and subtler types of matter exist – not only the ether
admitted by modern science as interpenetrating all known substances, but other
types of matter which interpenetrate ether in turn, and are as much finer than
ether as it is than solid matter. The question will naturally occur to the
reader as to how it will be possible for man to become conscious of the
existence of types of matter so wonderfully fine, so minutely subdivided. The
answer is that he can become conscious of them in the same way as he becomes
conscious of the lower matter – by receiving vibrations from them.
88.
And
he is enabled to receive vibrations from them by reason of the fact that he
possesses matter of these finer types as part of himself – that just as his
body of dense matter is his vehicle for perceiving and communicating with the
world of dense matter, so does the finer matter within him constitute for him a
vehicle by means of which he can perceive and communicate with the world of
finer matter which is imperceptible to the grosser physical senses.
89.
This
is by no means a new idea. It will be remembered that St. Paul remarks that
“there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body,” and that he
furthermore refers to both the soul and the spirit in man, by no means
employing the two synonymously, as is so often ignorantly done at the present
day. It speedily becomes evident that man is a far more complex being than is
ordinarily supposed; that not only is he a spirit within a soul but that this
soul has various vehicles of different degrees of density, the physical body
being only one, and the lowest of them.
90.
These
various vehicles may all be described as bodies in relation to their respective
levels of matter. It might be said that there exist around us a series of
worlds one within the other (by inter-penetration), and that man possesses a
body for each of these worlds, by means of which he may observe it and live in
it. He learns by degrees how to use these various bodies, and in that way gains
a much more complete idea of the great complex world in which he lives; for all
these other inner worlds are in reality still part of it.
91.
In
this way he comes to understand very many things which before seemed mysterious
to him; he ceases to identify himself with his bodies, and learns that they are
only vestures which he may put off and resume or change without being himself
in the least affected thereby. Once more we must repeat that all this by no
means metaphysical speculation or pious opinion, but definite scientific fact
thoroughly well known experimentally to those who have studied Theosophy.
92.
Strange
as it may seem to many to find precise statements taking the place of
hypothesis upon questions such as these, I am speaking here of nothing that is
not known by direct and constantly repeated observation to a large number of
students. Assuredly “we know whereof we speak”, not by faith but by experiment,
and therefore we speak with confidence. To these inner worlds or different levels
of nature we usually give the name of planes. We speak of the visible world as
“the physical plane”, though under that name we include also the gases and
various grades of ether.
93.
To
the next stage of materiality the name of “the astral plane” was given by the
medieval alchemists (who were well aware of its existence), and we have adopted
their title. Within this exists another world of still finer matter, of which
we speak as “the mental plane”, because of its matter is composed what is
commonly called the mind in man. There are other still higher planes, but I
need not trouble the reader with designations for them, since we are at present
dealing only with man’s manifestation in the lower worlds.
94.
It
must always be born in mind that all these worlds are in no way removed from us
in space. In fact, they all occupy exactly the same space, and are all equally
about us always. At the moment our consciousness is focused in and working
through our physical brain, and thus we are conscious only of the physical world,
and not even of the whole of that. But we have only to learn to focus that
consciousness in one of these higher vehicles, and at once the physical fades
from our view, and we see instead the world of matter which corresponds
to the vehicle used.
95.
Recollect
that all matter is in essence the same. Astral matter does not differ in its
nature from physical matter any more than ice differs in its nature from steam.
It is simply the same thing in a different condition. Physical matter may
become astral, or astral may become mental, if only it be sufficiently
subdivided, and caused to vibrate with the proper degree of rapidity.
96.
THE
TRUE MAN
97.
What,
then is the true man? He is in truth an emanation from the Logos, a spark of
the Divine fire. The spirit within him is of the very essence of the Deity, and
that spirit wears his soul as a vesture – a vesture which encloses and
individualizes it, and seems to our limited vision to separate it for a time
from the rest of the Divine Life. The story of the original formation of the
soul of man, and of the enfolding of the spirit within it, is a beautiful and
interesting one, but too long for inclusion in a merely elementary work like
this. It may be found in full detail in those of our books which deal with this
part of the doctrine.
98.
Suffice
it here to say that all three aspects of the Divine Life have their part in its
inception, and that its formation is the culmination of that mighty sacrifice
of the Logos in descending into matter, which has been called the Incarnation.
Thus the baby soul is born; and just as it is “made in the image of God” –
threefold in aspect, as He is, and threefold in manifestation, as He is also –
so is its method of evolution also a reflection of His descent into matter. The
Divine Spark contains within it all potentiality, but it is only through
long ages of evolution that all its possibilities can be realized.
99.
The
appointed method for the evolution of the man’s latent qualities seems to be by
learning to vibrate in response to the impacts from without. But at the level
where he finds himself (that of the higher mental plane) the vibrations are far
too fine to awaken this response at present; he must begin with those that are
coarser and stronger, and having awakened his dormant sensibilities by their
means he will gradually grow more and more sensitive until he is capable of
perfect response at all levels to all possible rates of vibration.
100.
That
is the material aspect of his progress; but regarded subjectively, to be able
to respond to all vibrations means to be perfect in sympathy and compassion.
And that is exactly the condition of the developed man –the adept, the
spiritual teacher, the Christ. It needs the development within him of all
the qualities which go to make up the perfect man; and this is the real work of
his long life in matter. In this chapter we have brushed the surface of many
subjects of extreme importance. Thos who wish to study them further will find
many Theosophical books to help them.
101.
On
the constitution of man, we would refer readers to Mrs. Besant’s works,
Man and His Bodies, The Self And Its Sheaths, and The Seven Principles Of
Man, and, also my own book, Man, Visible And Invisible, in which will be found
many illustrations of the different vehicles of man as they appear to the
clairvoyant sight. On the use of the inner faculties refer to Clairvoyance.
102.
On
the formation and evolution of the soul to Mrs. Besant’s Birth and Evolution of
the Soul, Mr. Sinnett’s Growth of the Soul, and my own Christian Creed and Man,
Visible and Invisible.
103.
On
the spiritual evolution of man, Mrs. Besant’s In the Outer Court and The Path
of Discipleship, and the concluding chapters of my own little book, Invisible
Helpers.
104.
REINCARNATION
105.
Since
the finer movements cannot at first affect the soul, he has to draw round him
vestures of grosser matter through which the heavier vibrations can play; and
so he takes upon himself successively the mental body, the astral body, and the
physical body. This is a birth or incarnation –the commencement of a physical
life. During that life all kinds of experiences come to him through his
physical body, and from them he should learn some lessons and develop some
qualities in himself.
106.
After
a time he begins to withdraw into himself, and puts off by degrees the vestures
which he has assumed. The first of these to drop is the physical body, and his
withdrawal from that is what we call death. It is not the end of his
activities, as we so ignorantly suppose; nothing could be further from the
fact. He is simply withdrawing from one effort, bearing back with him its
results; and after a certain period of comparative repose he will make another
effort of the same kind.
107.
Thus,
as has been said, what we ordinarily call his life is only one day in the real
and wider life – a day at school, during which he learns certain lessons. But
inasmuch as one short life of seventy or eighty years at most is not enough to
give him an opportunity of learning all the lessons which this wonderful and
beautiful world has to teach, and inasmuch as God means him to learn them all
in His own good time, it is necessary that he should come back again many
times, and live through many of these schooldays that we call lives, in
different classes and under different circumstances, until all the lessons are
learned; and then this lower schoolwork will be over, and he will pass to
something higher and more glorious – the true divine lifework for which all
this earthly school-life is fitting him.
108.
That
is what is called the doctrine of reincarnation or rebirth – a doctrine which
was widely known in the ancient civilizations, and is even today held by the
majority of the human race.
109.
Of it
Hume has written:-
110.
“What
is incorruptible must also be ungenerable. The soul, therefore, if immortal,
existed before our birth…..The metempsychosis is, therefore, the only system of
this kind that Philosophy can hearken to.” * (* Hume. “Essay on
Immortality,” London, 1875).
111.
Writing
of the theories of metempsychosis in India and Greece, Max Muller says:- “There
is something underlying them all which, if expressed in less mythological
language, may stand the severest test of philosophical examination.” # (#
Max Muller, ‘Theosophy or Psychological Religion,’ p. 22, 1895 ed.)
112.
In
his last and posthumous work this great Orientalist again refers to this
doctrine, and expresses his personal belief in it.
113.
And
Huxley writes: - “Like the doctrine of evolution itself, that of transmigration
has its roots in the world of reality; and it may claim such support as the
great argument from analogy is capable of supplying.” ^ ( ^ Huxley, “Evolution
and Ethics,” p. 61, 1895 ed.)
114.
So it
will be seen that modern as well as ancient writers recognize this hypothesis
as one deserving of the most serious consideration.
115.
It
must not for a moment be confounded with a theory held by the ignorant, that it
was possible for a soul which had reached humanity in its evolution to
re-become that of an animal. No such retrogression is within the limits of
possibility; when once man comes into existence – a human soul, inhabiting what
we call in our books a causal body – he can never again fall back into what is
in truth a lower kingdom of nature, whatever mistakes he may make or however he
may fail to take advantage of his opportunities. If he 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. A few years ago the essence of this doctrine was prettily
put thus in one of the magazines: -
116.
“A
boy went to school. He was very little. All that he knew he had drawn in with
his mother’s milk. His teacher (who was God) placed him in the lowest class,
and gave him these lessons to learn: Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt do no hurt
to any living thing. Thou shalt not steal. So the man did not kill; but he was
cruel, and he stole, - At the end of the day (when his beard was grey – when
the night was come) his teacher (who was God) said – Thou hast learned not to
kill. But the other lessons thou hast not learned. Come back tomorrow.”
117.
“On
the morrow he came back, a little boy, and his teacher (who was God) put him in
a class a little higher, and gave him these lessons to learn: Thou
shalt do no hurt to any living thing. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not
cheat. So the man did no hurt to any living thing; but he stole and he cheated.
And at the end of the day – when his beard was grey – when the night was come –
his teacher (who was god) said: Thou hast learned to be merciful. But the other
lessons thou hast not learned. Come back tomorrow.”
118.
“Again,
on the morrow, he came back, a little boy. And his teacher (who was God) put
him in a class yet a little higher, and gave these lessons to learn: Thou shalt
not steal. Thou shalt not cheat. Thou shalt not covet. So the man did not
steal; but he cheated, and he coveted. And at the end of the day – (when
his beard was grey –when night was come) his teacher (who was God) said:
Thou hast learned not to steal. But the other lessons thou hast not
learned. Come back, my child, tomorrow.”
119.
“This
is what I have read in the faces of men and women, in the book of the world,
and in the scroll of the heavens, which is writ in the stars.” (Berry Benson,
in The Century Magazine, May 1894).
120.
I
must not fill my pages with the many unanswerable arguments in favour of this
doctrine of reincarnation; they are set forth very fully in our literature by a
far abler pen than mine. Here I will say only this. Life presents us with many
problems which, on any other hypothesis than this of reincarnation, seem
utterly insoluble; this great truth does explain them, and therefore holds the
field until another more satisfactory hypothesis can be found. Like the rest of
the teaching, this is not a Hypothesis, but a matter of direct knowledge
for many of us; but naturally our knowledge is not proof to others.
121.
Yet
good men and true have been sorrowfully forced to admit that they were unable
to reconcile the state of affairs which exists in the world around us with the
theory that God was both almighty and all-loving. They felt, when they looked
upon all the heartbreaking sorrow and suffering, that either He was not
almighty, and could not prevent it, or He was not all-loving, and did not care.
In Theosophy we hold with determined conviction that He is both almighty and
all-loving, and we reconcile with that certainty the existing facts of life by
means of this basic doctrine of reincarnation. Surely the only hypothesis which
allows us reasonably to recognize the perfection of power and love in the Deity
is one which is worthy of careful examination.
122.
For
we understand that our present life is not our first, but that each have behind
us a long line of lives, by means of which we have evolved from the condition
of primitive man to our present position. Assuredly in these past lives we
shall have done both good and evil, and from every one of our actions a
definite proportion of result must have followed under the inexorable law of
justice. From the good follows always happiness and further opportunity; from
the evil follows always sorrow and limitation.
123.
So,
if we find ourselves limited in any way, the limitation is of our own making,
or is merely due to the youth of the soul; if we have sorrow and suffering to endure,
we ourselves alone are responsible. The manifold and complex destinies of men
answer with rigid exactitude to the balance between the good and evil of their
previous actions; and all is moving onward under the divine order towards the
final consummation of glory.
124.
There
is perhaps, no Theosophical teaching to which more violent objection is made
than this great truth of reincarnation; yet it is in reality a most comforting
doctrine. For it gives us time for the progress which lies before – time and opportunity
to become “perfect”. Objectors chiefly found their protest on the fact that
they have had so much trouble and sorrow in this life that they will not listen
to any suggestion that it may be necessary to go through it all again. But this
is obviously not argument; we are in search of truth, and when it is found we
must not shrink from it, whether it be pleasant or unpleasant, though, as a
matter of fact, as said above, reincarnation rightly understood is profoundly
comforting.
125.
Again,
people often enquire why, if we have had so many previous lives, we do not
remember any of them. Put briefly, the answer to this is that some people do
remember them; and the reason why the majority do not is because their
consciousness is still focused in one or other of the lower sheaths. That
sheath cannot be expected to recollect previous incarnations, because it has
not had any; and the soul, which has, is not yet fully conscious on its own
plane. But the memory of all the past is stored within the soul, and expresses
itself here in the innate qualities with which the child is born; and when the
man has evolved sufficiently to be able to focus his consciousness there
instead of only in lower vehicles the entire history of that real and wider
life will be open before him like a book.
126.
The
whole of this question is fully and beautifully worked out in Mrs. Besant’s
manual on Reincarnation, Dr, Jerome Anderson’s Reincarnation and in the
chapters on that subject in The Ancient Wisdom, to which the attention of
the reader is specially directed.
127.
THE
WIDER OUTLOOK
128.
A
little thought will soon show us what a radical change is introduced into the
life of the man who realizes that his physical 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 sees at once that this purpose of
“learning the lesson” is the only one of any importance, and that the man who
allows himself to be diverted from that purpose by any consideration is acting
with inconceivable stupidity.
129.
To
him who knows the truth, the life of the ordinary person devoted exclusively to
physical objects, to the pursuit of wealth and fame, appears the merest child’s
play – a senseless sacrifice of all that is really worth having for a few
moments gratification of the lower parts of man’s nature. The student “sets his
affection on things above, and not on things of the earth”, not only because he
sees this to be a right course of action, but because he realizes very clearly
the valuelessness of these things of earth. He always tries to take the higher
point of view, for he sees 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.
130.
Yet
even when he is thoroughly convinced that the higher course is always the right
one, and when he is fully determined to follow it, he will nevertheless
sometimes encounter very strong temptations to take the lower course, and will
be sensible of a great struggle within him. He will discover that there is “a
law of the members warring against the law of the mind”, as St. Paul says, so
that “those things that I would, I do not, and the thing which I would not,
that I do”.
131.
Now
good religious people often make the most serious mistakes about this interior
struggle which we have all felt to a greater or less extent. They usually
accept one or two theories on the subject. Either they suppose that the lower
promptings come from exterior tempting demons, or else they mourn over the
terrible wickedness and blackness of their hearts, in that such fathomless evil
still exists within them. Indeed, many of the best men and women go through a
vast amount of totally unnecessary suffering on this account.
132.
The
first point to have clearly in mind if one wishes to understand this matter is
that the lower desire is not in truth our desire at all. Nor is it the
work of some demon trying to destroy our souls. It is true that there sometimes
are evil entities which are attracted by the base thought in man, and intensify
it by their action; but such entities are man-made, everyone of them, and
impermanent. They are merely artificial forms called into existence by
the thought of other evil men, and they have a period of what seems almost like
life, proportioned to the strength of the thought that created them.
133.
But
the undesirable prompting within us usually comes from quite another source. It
has been mentioned how man draws round him vestures of matter at different
levels, in order that he may descend into incarnation. But this matter is not
dead matter (indeed, occult science teaches us that there is no such thing as
dead matter anywhere), but it is instinct with life; though it is life at a
stage of evolution much earlier than our own – so much earlier that it is still
moving on a downward course into lower matter, instead of rising again out of
lower matter into higher.
134.
Consequently
its tendency is always to press downwards towards the grosser material and the coarser
vibrations which mean progress for it, but retrogression for us; and so it
happens that the interest of the true man sometimes comes into collision with
that of the living matter in some of his vehicles.
135.
That
is a very rough outline of the explanation of the curious internal strife that
we sometimes feel – a strife which has suggested to the poetic minds the idea
of good and evil angels in conflict over the soul of man. A more detailed
account will be found in The Astral Plane, p. 40. But in the meantime it
is important that the man should realise that he is the higher force, always
moving towards and battling for good, while this lower force is not he at all,
but only an uncontrolled fragment of one of his lower vehicles. He must learn
to control it, to dominate it absolutely, and to keep it in order; but he
should not therefore, think of it as evil, but as an outpouring of the Divine
power moving on its orderly course, though that course in this instance happens
to be downwards into matter, instead of upwards and away from it, as ours is.
136.
DEATH
137.
One
of the most important practical results of a thorough comprehension of
Theosophical truth is the entire change which is necessary brings about in our
attitude towards death. It is impossible for us to calculate the vast amount of
utterly unnecessary sorrow and terror and misery which mankind in the aggregate
has suffered simply from its ignorance and superstition 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
suffering in the present, and its eradication would be one of the greatest
benefits that could be conferred upon the human race.
138.
This
benefit the Theosophical teaching at once confers on those who, from their
study of philosophy in past lives, now 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.
139.
While
death is considered as the end of life, as the gateway into a dim but fearful
unknown country, it is not unnaturally regarded with much misgiving, if not
with positive terror. Since, in spite of all religious teaching to the contrary
this has been the view universally taken in the western world, many grisly
horrors have sprung up around it, and have become matters of custom,
thoughtlessly obeyed by many who should know better.
140.
All
the ghastly paraphernalia of woe – the mutes, the plumes, the black velvet, the
crape, the mourning garments, the black-edged note paper –all these are nothing
more than advertisements of ignorance on the part of those who employ them. The
man who begins to understand what death is at once puts aside all this
masquerade as childish folly, seeing that to mourn over the good fortune of his
friend merely because it involves for himself the pain of apparent separation
from that friend, becomes, as soon as it is recognized, a display of selfishness.
141.
He
cannot avoid feeling the wrench of the temporary separation, but he can avoid
allowing his own pain to become a hindrance to the friend who has passed on. He
knows that there can be no need to fear or to mourn over death, whether it
comes to himself or to those whom he loves. It has come to them all often
before, so that there is nothing unfamiliar about it. Instead of representing
it as a ghastly king of terrors, it would be more accurate and more sensible to
symbolize it as an angel bearing a golden key to admit us to the glorious
realms of the higher life.
142.
He
realizes very definitely that life is continuous, and that the loss of the
physical body is nothing more than the casting aside of a 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 astral, and therefore very much superior. So, for himself he
unfeignedly welcomes it, and when it comes to those whom he loves, he
recognizes at once the great advantage for them, even though he cannot feel a
certain amount of selfish regret that he should be temporarily separated from
them.
143.
But
he knows also that this separation is in fact only apparent, and not real. He
knows that the so-called dead are near him still, and that he has only to cast
off temporarily his physical body in sleep, in order to stand side by side with
them and commune 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 the physical sight. Consequently he has no feeling of
nervousness or strangeness in passing from one part of it to the other, and no
sort of uncertainty as to what he will find on the other side of the veil.
144.
The
whole of the unseen world is so clearly and fully mapped out for him through
the work of the Theosophical investigators that it is 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 the reader 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 which the man passes are precisely
those which he has made for himself. The thoughts and desires which he has
encouraged within himself during earth-life take form as definite living
entities hovering round him and reacting upon him until the energy which he
poured into them is exhausted.
145.
When
such thoughts and desires have been powerful and persistently evil, the
companions so created may indeed be terrible; but happily such cases form a
very small minority among the dwellers in the astral world. The worst that the
ordinary man of the world usually provides for himself after death is a useless
and unutterably wearisome existence, void of all rational interests – the
natural sequence of a life wasted in self-indulgence, triviality, and gossip
here on earth.
146.
To
this weariness active suffering may under certain conditions be added. If a man
during earth-life has allowed strong physical desire to obtain a mastery over
him – if, for example, he has become a slave to such a vice as avarice,
sensuality, or drunkenness – he has laid up for himself much purgatorial
suffering after death. For in losing the physical body he in no way loses these
desires and passions; they remain as vivid as ever – nay, they are even more
active when they have no longer the heavy particles of dense matter to set in
motion. What he does lose is the power to gratify these passions; so that they
remain as torturing, gnawing desires, unsatisfied and insatiable. It will be
seen that this makes a very real hell for the unfortunate man, though of course
only a temporary one, since in process of time such desires must burn
themselves out, expending their energy in the very suffering which they
produce.
147.
A
terrible fate, truly; yet there are two points which we should bear in mind
with regard to it. First, that the man has not only brought it on himself, but
has determined its intensity and it duration for himself. He has allowed this
desire to reach a certain strength during earth-life, and now he has to meet it
and control it. If during physical life he has made efforts to repress or check
it, he will have just so much the less difficulty in conquering it now. He has
created for himself the monster with which now he has to struggle; whatever
strength his antagonist possesses is just what he has given it. Therefore, his
fate is not imposed upon him from without, but is simply of his own making.
148.
Secondly,
the suffering which he thus brings upon himself is the only way of escape for
him. If it were possible for him to avoid it, and to pass through the astral
life without this gradual wearing away of the lower desires, what would be the
result? Obviously that he would enter upon his next physical life entirely
under the domination of these passions. He would be a born drunkard, a
sensualist, a miser; and long before it would be possible to teach him that he
ought to try to control such passions they would have grown far too strong for
control – they would have enslaved him, body and soul, and so another life
would be thrown away, another opportunity would be lost. He would enter thus
upon a vicious circle from which there appears no escape, and his evolution
would be indefinitely delayed.
149.
The
Divine scheme is not thus defective. The passion exhausts itself during
the astral life, and the man returns to physical existence without it. True,
the weakness of mind which allowed passion to dominate him is still there; true
also, he has made for himself for this new life an astral body capable of
expressing exactly the same passions as before, so that it would not be
difficult for him to resume his old evil life. But the ego, the real man, has
had a terrible lesson, and assuredly he will make every effort to prevent his
lower manifestation from repeating that mistake, from falling again under the
sway of that passion.
150.
He
has still the germs of it within him, but if he has deserved good and wise
parents they will help to develop the good in him and check the evil, the germs
will remain unfructified and will atrophy, and so in the next life after that
they will not appear at all. So by slow degrees man conquers his evil
qualities, and evolves virtues to replace them.
151.
On
the other hand, the man who is intelligent and helpful, who understands the conditions
of this non-physical existence and takes the trouble to adapt himself to them
and make the most of them, opening 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 brilliancy to which all
earthly enjoyment is as moonlight unto sunlight, and that through his clear
knowledge and calm confidence the power of the endless life shines out upon all
those around him.
152.
He
may become a centre of peace and joy unspeakable to hundreds of his fellow men,
and may do more good in a few years of that astral existence than ever he could
have done in the longest physical life. He is well aware too, that there
lies before him another and still grander stage of this wonderful post-mortem
life. Just as by his desires and his lower thoughts he has made for himself the
surroundings of his astral life, so has he by his higher thought and his nobler
aspirations made for himself a life in the heaven-world.
153.
For
heaven is not a dream, but a living and glorious reality. Not a city far away
beyond the stars, with gates of pearl and streets of gold, reserved for the
habitation of a favored few, but a state of consciousness into which every man
will pass during the interval between lives on earth. Not an eternal
abiding-place truly, but a condition of bliss indescribable lasting
through many centuries. Not even that alone. For although it contains the
reality which underlies all the best and most spiritual ideas of heaven which
have been propounded in various religions, yet it must by no means be
considered from that view only.
154.
It is
a realm of nature which is of exceeding importance to us – a vast and splendid
world of vivid life in which we are living now, as well as in the periods
intervening between physical incarnations. It is only our lack of development ,
only the limitation imposed upon us by this robe of flesh, that prevents us
from fully realizing that all glory of the brightest heaven is about us here
and now, and that influences flowing from that world are ever playing upon us,
if we will only understand and receive them.
155.
Impossible
as this may seem to the man of the world, it is the plainest of realities
to the occultist; and to those who have not yet grasped this fundamental truth
we can but repeat the advice given by the Buddhist teacher: - “Do not complain
and cry and pray, but open your eyes and see.” The light is all about you, if
you would only cast the bandage from your eyes and look. It is so wonderful, so
beautiful, so far beyond what any man has dreamt of or prayed for, and it is
for ever and ever.” (“The Soul of the People “, p. 163).
156.
When
the astral body, which is the vehicle of the lower thought and desire, has
gradually been worn away and left behind, the man finds himself inhabiting that
higher vehicle of finer matter which we have called the mental body. In this
vehicle he is able to respond to the vibrations which reach him from the
corresponding matter in the external world – the matter of the mental
plane. His time of purgatory is over, the lower part of his nature has
burnt itself away, and now there remain only the higher thoughts and
aspirations which he has poured forth during earth-life.
157.
These
cluster round him, through the medium of which he is able to respond to certain
types of vibration in this refined matter. These thoughts which surround
him are the powers by which he draws upon the wealth of the heaven world. This
mental plane is a reflection of the Divine Mind – a storehouse of infinite
extent from which the person enjoying heaven is able to draw just according to
the power of his own thoughts and aspirations generated during the physical and
astral life.
158.
All
religions have spoken of the bliss of Heaven, yet few of them have put before
us with sufficient clearness this leading idea which alone explains rationally
how for all alike such bliss is possible – which is, the keynote of the
conception – the fact that each man makes his own heaven by selection from the
ineffable splendors of the Thought of God Himself. A man decides for himself
both the length and the character of his heaven-life by the causes which he
himself generates during his earth-life; therefore, he cannot but have exactly
the amount which he has deserved and exactly the quality of joy which is
best suited to his idiosyncrasies.
159.
This
is a world in which every being must, from the very fact of his consciousness
there, be enjoying the highest spiritual bliss of which he is capable – a world
whose power of response to his aspirations is limited only by his capacity to
aspire. Further details as to the astral life will be found in the Astral
Plane; the heaven life is described in The Devachanic Plane, and information
about both is also given in Death and After, and in The Other Side
of Death.
160.
MAN’S
PAST AND FUTURE
161.
When
we have once grasped the fact that man has reached his present position through
a long and varied series of lives, a question naturally arises in our minds as to
how far we can obtain any information about this earlier evolution, which would
obviously be of absorbing interest to us. Fortunately such information is
available, not only by tradition, but also in another and much more certain
way. I have so space here to dilate upon the marvels of psychometry, but must
simply say that there is abundant evidence to show that nothing can happen
without indelibly recording itself – that there exists a kind of memory of
Nature from which can be recovered with absolute accuracy a true, full, and
perfect picture of any scene or event since the world began.
162.
Those
to whom this subject is entirely new, and who consequently seek for evidence,
should consult Dr. Buchanan’s Psychometry or Professor Denton’s Soul of Thins;
but all occult students are familiar with the possibility, and most of
them with the method, of reading these records of the past. In essence
this memory of Nature must be the Divine Memory, far away beyond human reach;
but it is assuredly reflected into the lower planes so that, as far as events
on these lower planes are concerned, it is recoverable by the trained
intelligence of man.
163.
All
that passes before a mirror, for instance, is reflected on its surface, and to
our dim eyes it seems that the images make no impression on that surface, but
that each passes away and leaves no trace. Yet that may not be so; it is not
difficult to imagine that an impression may be left, somewhat as the impression
of every sound is left upon the sensitive cylinder of a phonograph; and it may
be possible to recover the impression from the mirror just as it is recoverable
from the phonograph.
164.
The
higher psychometry shows us that this not only may be so, but is so; and that
not a mirror only, but any physical object, retains the impression of all that
has happened within its sight, as it were. We have thus at our disposal a
faultlessly accurate method of arriving at the earlier history of our world and
of mankind, and in this way much that is of the most entrancing interest can be
observed in every detail, as though the scenes were being specially
rehearsed for our benefit. (See Clairvoyance, p 88).
165.
Investigations
into the past conducted by these methods show how a long process of gradual
evolution, slow but never-ceasing. They show the development of man under the
action of two great laws – first the law of evolution, which steadily presses
him onward and upward, and secondly – the law of divine justice, or cause and
effect, which brings him inevitably the result of his every action, and thus
gradually teaches him to live intelligently in harmony with the first law.
166.
This
long process of evolution has been carried out not only on this earth, but on
other globes connected with it; but the subject is much to vast to be fully
treated in an elementary book such as this. Students are advised to read the
chapters on this subject in Mrs. Besant’s Ancient Wisdom and Mr. Sinnett’s
Growth of the Soul.
167.
The
book just mentioned will afford the fullest available information not only as
to man’s past, but as to his future; and thought he glory that awaits him is
such as no tongue can tell, something at least may be understood of the earlier
stages which lead to it. That man is divine even now, and that he will
presently unfold within himself the potentialities of divinity, is an idea
which appears to shock some good people, and to be considered by them to savor
of blasphemy. Why it should not be so is not easy to see, for Jesus himself
reminds the Jews around Him of the saying in their Scriptures, “I said, ye are
Gods,” and the doctrine of the deification of man was quite commonly held by
the Fathers of the Church. But in these later days much of the earlier and
purer doctrine has been forgotten and misunderstood; and the truth now seems to
be held in its fullness only by the student of occultism.
168.
Sometimes
men ask why, if man was at the first a spark of the Divine, it should be
necessary for him to go through all these æons of evolution, involving so much
sorrow and suffering, only in order to be still Divine at the end of it all.
But those who make this objection have not yet comprehended the scheme. That
which came forth from the Divine was not yet man – not yet even a spark, for
there was no developed individualization in it. It was simply a great cloud of
Divine essence, though capable of condensing eventually into many sparks.
169.
The
difference between its condition when issuing forth and when returning is
exactly like that between a great mass of shining nebulous matter, and the
solar system which is eventually formed out of it. Its condition when issuing
forth and when returning is exactly like that between a great mass of shining
nebulous matter, and the solar system which is eventually formed out it. The
nebula is beautiful, no doubt, but vague and useless; the suns formed from it
by slow evolution pour life and heat and light upon many worlds and their
inhabitants.
170.
Or we
may take another analogy. The human body is composed of countless millions of
tiny particles, and some of them are constantly being thrown off from it.
Suppose that it were possible for each of these particles to go through some
kind of evolution by means of which it would in time become a human
being, we should not say that because it had been in a certain sense human at
the beginning of that evolution it had, therefore , not gained anything when it
reached its end. The essence comes forth as a mere outpouring of force, even
tough it be Divine force; it returns in the form of thousands of millions of
mighty adepts, each capable of himself developing into a Logos.
171.
Thus
it will be seen that we are abundantly justified in the statement that the
future of man is a future to whose glory and splendour there is no
limit. And a most important point to remember is that this magnificent future
is for all without exception. He whom we call the good man – that is, the man
whose will moves with the Divine Will, whose actions are such as to help the
march of evolution – makes rapid progress on the upward path; while the man who
unintelligently opposes himself to the great current by striving to pursue
selfish aims instead of working for the good of the whole, will be able to
progress only very slowly and erratically.
172.
But
the Divine Will is infinitely stronger than any human will, and the working of
the great scheme is perfect. The man who does not learn his lesson first time
has simply to try over and over and over until he does learn it; the Divine
patience is infinite, and sooner or later every human being attains the goal
appointed for him. There is no fear and no uncertainty, but only perfect peace
for those who know the Law and the Will.
173.
CAUSE
AND EFFECT
174.
In
previous chapters we have constantly had to take into consideration this mighty
law of action and reaction under which every man necessarily receives his just
deserts; for without this law the rest of the Divine scheme would be
incomprehensible to us. It is well worth our while to try to obtain a true
appreciation of this law, and the first step towards doing that is to disabuse
our minds entirely of the ecclesiastical idea of reward and punishment as
following upon human action.
175.
It is
inevitable that we should connect with that idea the thought of a judge
administering such reward or punishment, and then at once follows the further
possibility that the judge may be more lenient in one case than in another,
that he may be swayed by circumstances, that an appeal may be made to him, and
that in that way the incidence of the law may be modified or even escaped
altogether. Every one of these suggestions is in the highest degree misleading,
and the whole body of thought to which they belong must be exorcised and
utterly cast out before we can arrive at any real understanding of facts.
176.
If a
man put his hand on a bar of red-hot iron, under ordinary circumstances he
would be badly burnt; yet it would not occur to him to say that God had
punished him for putting his hand on the bar. He would realise that what had
happened was precisely what might have been expected under the action of
the laws of Nature, and that one who understood what heat is and how it acts
could explain exactly the production of the burn.
177.
It is
to be observed that the man’s intention in no way affects the physical result;
whether he seized that bar in order to do some harm with it or in order to save
someone else from injury, he would be burnt just the same. Of course, in other
and higher ways the results would be quite different; in the one case he
would have done a noble deed, and would have the approval of his conscience, while
in the other he could feel only remorse. But the physical burn would be there
in one case just as much as in the other.
178.
To
obtain a true conception of the working of this law of cause and effect we must
think of it as acting automatically in exactly the same way. If we have a heavy
weight hanging from the ceiling by a rope, and I exert a certain amount of
force in pushing against that weight, we know by the laws of mechanics that the
weight will press back against my hand with exactly the same amount of force;
and this reaction will operate without the slightest reference to my disturbing
its equilibrium. Similarly the man who commits an evil action disturbs the
equilibrium of the great current of evolution; and that mighty current
invariably adjusts that equilibrium at his expense.
179.
It
must not be therefore supposed for a moment that the intention of the action
makes no difference; on the contrary it is the most important factor connected
with it, even though it does not affect the result upon the physical plane.
We are apt to forget that the intention is itself a force, and a force acting
upon the mental plane, where the matter is so much finer and vibrates so much
more rapidly than on our lower level, that the same amount of energy will
produce enormously greater effect.
180.
The
physical action will produce its result on the physical plane, but the mental
energy of the intention will work out its own result simultaneously in the
matter of the mental plane, totally irrespective of the other; and its effect
is certain to be very much the more important of the two. In this way it will
be seen that an absolutely perfect adjustment is always achieved; for however
mixed the motives may be, and however good and evil may be mingled in the
physical results, the equilibrium will always be perfectly readjusted, and
along every line perfect justice must be done.
181.
We
must not forget, that it is the man himself and no other who builds his future
character as well as produces his future circumstances. Speaking very
generally, it may be said that, while his actions in one life produce his
environment in the next, his thoughts in the one life are the chief factors in
the evolution of his character in the next. The method by which all this works
is an exceedingly interesting study, but it would take far too long to detail
it here; it maybe found very fully elaborated in Mrs. Besant’s manual on Karma,
and also in the chapter referring to this subject in her Ancient Wisdom, and in
Mr. Sinnett’s Esoteric Buddhism, to which the reader may be referred.
182.
It is
obvious that all these facts furnish us with exceedingly good reason for many
of our ethical precepts. If thought be a mighty power capable of producing upon
its own plane results far more important than any that can be achieved in physical
life, then the necessity that man should control that force immediately becomes
apparent. Not only is the man building his own future character by means of his
thought, but he is also constantly and inevitably affecting those around him by
its means.
183.
Hence
there lies upon him a very serious responsibility as to the use which he makes
of this power. If the feeling of annoyance or hatred arises in the heart of the
ordinary man, his natural impulse is to express it in some way either in word
or in action. The ordinary rules of civilized society, however, forbid him to
do that, and dictate that he should as far as possible repress all outward sign
of his feelings.
184.
If he
succeeds in doing this he is apt to congratulate himself, and to consider that
he has done the whole of his duty. The occult student, however, knows that it
is necessary for him to carry his self-control a great deal further than that,
and that he must absolutely repress the thought of irritation as well as its
outward expression. For he knows that his feelings set in motion tremendous
forces upon the astral plane, that these will act against the object of his
irritation just as surely as a blow struck upon the physical plane, and that in
many cases the results produced will be far more serious and lasting.
185.
It is
true in a very real sense that thoughts are things. To clairvoyant sight
thoughts take definite form and colour, the latter, of course depending upon
the rate of vibration connected with them. The study of these forms and colors
is of great interest. A description of them illustrated with coloured drawings
will be found in the book entitled Thought Forms.
186.
These
considerations open up to us possibilities in various directions. Since
it is easily possible to do harm by thought, it is also possible to do good by
it. 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 us. Many a grateful soul has been oppressed by a feeling that for want
of physical wealth he was unable to do anything in return for the kindness
lavished upon him by another; but here is the method by which he can be of the
greatest service to him in a realm where physical wealth or its absence makes
no difference.
187.
All
who can think can help others: and all who can help others ought to help. 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 upon others will be produced by certain thoughts, they can deliberately
arrange to produce these results. In this way a man can not only steadily mould
his character in his present life, but can decide exactly what it shall be in
the next.
188.
For a
thought is a vibrations in the matter of the mental body, and the same thought
persistently repeated evokes corresponding vibrations (an octave higher, as it
were) in the matter of the causal body. In this way qualities are gradually
built into the soul itself, and they will certainly reappear as part of the
stock-in-trade with which he commences his next incarnation.
189.
It is
in this way, by working from below upwards, that the faculties and qualities of
the soul are gradually evolved, and thus man takes his evolution largely into
his own hands and begins to co-operate intelligently in the great scheme of the
Deity. For further information on this subject the best book to study is Mrs.
Besant’s Thought Power, its Control and Culture.
190.
WHAT
THEOSOPHY DOES FOR US
191.
It
must already be obvious to the careful reader how utterly these Theosophical
conceptions change the man’s entire view of life when he once becomes fully
convinced of them ; and the direction of many of these changes, and the
reasons on which they are based, will have been seen from what has already been
written.
192.
We
gain from Theosophy a rational comprehension of that life which was before for
so many of us a mere unsolved problem – a riddle without an answer. From it we
know why we are here, what we are expected to do, and how we ought to set to
work to do it. We see that, however little life may seem worth living for the
sake of any pleasures or profits belonging exclusively to the physical plane,
it is very emphatically worth living when regarded merely as a school to
prepare us for the indescribable glories and the infinite possibilities of the
higher planes.
193.
In
the light of the information which we acquire, we see not only how to evolve
ourselves, but also how to help others to evolve – how by thought and action to
make ourselves most useful, first of all to the small circle of those most
closely associated with us or those whom we especially love, and then gradually
by degrees, as our power increases, to the entire human race.
194.
By
feelings and thoughts such as these we find ourselves lifted altogether to a
higher platform, and we see how narrow and despicable is the petty and personal
thought which has so often occupied us in the past. We inevitably begin
to regard everything not merely as it affects our infinitesimal selves, but
from the wider standpoint of its influence upon humanity as a whole.
195.
The
various troubles and sorrows which come to us are so often seen out of all
proportion because they are so near to us; they seem to obscure the whole
horizon, as a plate held near the eyes will shut out the sun, so that we often
forget that “the heart of being is celestial rest.” But Theosophical
teachings brings all these things into due perspective, and enables us to rise
above these clouds, to look down and see things as they are, and not merely
as they appear when looked at from below by very limited vision.
196.
We
learn to sink altogether the lower personality, with its mass of delusions and
prejudices and its inability to see anything truly; we learn to rise to an
impersonal and unselfish standpoint, where to do right for right’s sake seems
to us the only rule of life, and to help our fellowman the greatest of joys.
For it is a life of joy that now opens before us. As the man evolves, his
sympathy and compassion increase, so that he becomes more and more
sensitive to the sin and sorrow and suffering of the world.
197.
Yet
at the same time he sees more and more clearly the cause of that suffering, and
understands ever more and more fully that, in spite of it all, all things are
working together for the final good of all. And so there comes to him not
only the deep content and absolute security which is born of the certainty that
all is well, but also the definite and radiant joy derived from the
contemplation of the magnificent plan of the Logos, and of the steady and
unfailing success with which that mighty scheme moves to its appointed end.
198.
He
learns that God means us to be happy, and that it is definitely our duty to be
so, in order that we may spread around us vibrations of happiness upon others,
since that is one of the methods by which we may lighten the sorrow of the
world. In ordinary life a great part of the annoyance which men feel in
connection with their various troubles is often caused by a feeling that they
come to them unjustly. A man will say: “Why should all this come to me? There
is my neighbor, who is in no way a better man than I, yet he does not suffer
from sickness, from loss of friends, or loss of wealth? ; why then should I?”
199.
Theosophy
saves its students from this mistake, since it makes it absolutely clear to
them that no undeserved suffering can ever come to any man. Whatever trouble we
may encounter is simply of the nature of a debt that we have incurred; since it
has to be paid, the sooner it is cleared off the better. Nor is this all; for
every trouble is an opportunity for development. If we bear it patiently and
bravely, not allowing it to crush us, but meeting it and making the best of it,
we thereby evolve within ourselves the valuable qualities of courage,
perseverance, determination; and so out of the result of our sins of long ago
we bring good instead of evil.
200.
As
has before been stated, all fear of death is entirely removed for the
Theosophical student, because he understands fully what death is. He no longer
mourns for those who have gone before, because they are still present with him,
and he knows that to give way to selfish grief would be to cause sadness and
depression to them. Since they are very near to him, and since the sympathy
between them and himself is closer than ever before, he is well aware that
uncontrolled grief in him will assuredly reflect itself upon them.
201.
Not
that Theosophy counsels him to forget the dead; on the contrary, it encourages
him to remember them as often as possible, but never with selfish sorrow, never
with a longing to bring them back to earth, never with thought of his apparent
loss, but only of their great gain. It assures him that a strong loving
thought will be a potent factor in their evolution, and that if he will but think
rightly and reasonably about them he may render them the greatest assistance in
their upward progress.
202.
A
careful study of the life of man in the period between his incarnations shows
how small a proportion this physical life bears to the whole. In the case of
the average educated and cultured man of any of the higher races, the period of
one life – that is to say of one day in the real life – would average about
fifteen hundred years. Of this period perhaps seventy or eighty years would be
spent in physical life, some fifteen or twenty upon the astral plane, and all
the rest in the heaven-world, which is therefore by very far the most important
part of man’s existence.
203.
Naturally
these proportions vary considerably for different types of men, and when we
come to consider the younger souls, born either in inferior races or in the
lower ranks of our own, we find that these proportions are entirely changed,
for the astral life is likely to be much longer and the heaven-life much
shorter. In the case of the absolute savage there is scarcely any heaven-life
at all, because he has not yet developed within himself the qualities which
alone enable the man to attain that life.
204.
The
knowledge of all these facts gives a clearness and certainty to our
anticipations of the future which is a welcome relief from the vagueness and
indecision of ordinary thought on these subjects. It would be impossible for a
Theosophist to have any fears about his “salvation”, for he knows that there is
nothing for man to be saved from except his own ignorance, and he would
consider it the grossest blasphemy to doubt that the will of the Logos
will assuredly be fulfilled in the case of every one of his children.
205.
No
vague “eternal hope” is his, but utter certainty, born of his knowledge of the
eternal law. He cannot fear the future, because he knows the future; so his
only anxiety is to make himself worthy to bear his part in the mighty work of
evolution. It may well be that there is very little that he can do as yet; yet
there is none but can do something, just where he stands, in the circle around
him, however lowly it may be.
206.
Every
man has his opportunities, for every connection is an opportunity . Every one
with whom we are brought into contact is a soul who may be helped – whether it
be a child born into the family, a friend who comes into our circle, a servant
who joins our household – everyone gives in some way or other an opportunity.
It is not for a moment suggested that we should make ourselves nuisances by
thrusting our opinions and ideas upon every one with whom we come in contact,
as the more ignorant and tactless of our religious friends sometimes do;
but we should be in an attitude of continual readiness to help.
207.
Indeed,
we should ever be eagerly watching for an opportunity to help, either with
material aid, so far as that may be within our power, or with the benefit of
our advice or our knowledge, whenever those may be asked for. Often cases arise
in which help by word or deed is impossible for us; but there can never be a
case in which friendly and helpful thought cannot be poured forth, and none who
understands the power of thought will doubt as to its result, even though it
may not be immediately visible upon the physical plane.
208.
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. Assuredly, in spite of his cheerfulness he will
be one who takes life seriously – one who realizes that there is much for each
to do in the world, and no time to waste. He will see the necessity for gaining
perfect control of himself and his various vehicles, because only in that way
can he be thoroughly fitted to help others when the opportunity comes to him.
209.
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 always fundamentally the
true view – the evil in everything being necessarily the impermanent part,
since in the end only the good can endure.
210.
Thus
he will look ever for the good in everything, that he may endeavour to
strengthen it; he will watch for the working of the great law of evolution, in
order that he may range himself on its side, and contribute to its energy his tiny
stream of force. In this way, by striving always to help, and never
to hinder, he will become, in his small sphere of influence, one of the
beneficent powers of Nature; in however lowly a manner, at however unthinkable
a distance, he is yet a fellow worker together with God – and that is the
highest honour and the greatest privilege that can ever fall to the lot of man.
---------------------
|