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Study in Consciousness
by
Annie Besant
Study in Consciousness
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE SCIENCE
OF PSYCHOLOGY.
BY
Annie Besant
SECOND EDITION
Theosophical Publishing Society
The
Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky
Reprinted
1915
FOREWORD.
THIS
book is intended as an aid to student in their study of the growth and
development of consciousness, offering hints and suggestions which may prove
serviceable to them. It does not pretend to be a complete exposition, but
rather, as its sub-title states, a contribution to the science of Psychology.
Far ampler materials than are within my reach are necessary for any complete
exposition of the far-reaching science which deals with the unfolding of
consciousness. These materials are slowly accumulating in the hands of earnest
and painstaking students, but no effort has yet been made to arrange and systematise them into a co-ordinated
whole. In this little volume I have only arranged a small part of this
material, in the hope that it may be useful now to some of the toilers in the
great field of the Evolution of Consciousness, and may serve, in the future, as
a stone in the complete building. It will need a great architect to plan that
temple of knowledge, and skilful master masons to direct the building; enough,
for the moment, to do the apprentice task, and prepare the rough stones for the
use of the more expert workmen.
ANNIE
BESANT
PART I
CONSCIOUSNESS
Introduction
Origins
Origination of Monads
CHAPTER I.
THE PREPARATION OF THE
FIELD.
1. The Formation of the Atom
2. Spirit-Matter
3. The Sub-Planes
4. The Five Planes
CHAPTER II.
CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. The Meaning of the Word
2. The Monads
CHAPTER III.
THE PEOPLING OF THE
FIELD.
1. The Coming
2. The Weaving
3. The Seven Streams
4. The Shining Ones
CHAPTER IV.
THE PERMANENT ATOM.
1. The Attaching of the Atoms
2. The Web of Life
3. The Choosing of the Permanent Atoms
4. The Use of the Permanent Atom
5. Monadic Action on the Permanent Atoms
CHAPTER V.
GROUP-SOULS.
1. The Meaning of the Term
2. The Division of the Group-Soul
CHAPTER VI.
UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. Consciousness a Unit
2. The Unity of Physical Consciousness
3. The Meaning of Physical Consciousness
-------
CHAPTER VII.
THE MECHANISM OF
CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. The Development of the Mechanism
2. The Astral or Desire Body
3. Correspondence in Root-Races
-------
CHAPTER VIII.
FIRST HUMAN STEPS.
1. The Third Life-Wave
2. Human Development
3. Incongruous Souls and Bodies
4.
Dawn of Consciousness on the Astral Plane
-------
CHAPTER IX.
CONSCIOUSNESS AND
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. Consciousness
2. Self-Consciousness
3. Real and Unreal
-------
CHAPTER X.
HUMAN STATES OF
CONSCIOUSNESS.
1. The Sub-Consciousness
2. The Waking Consciousness
3. The Super-Physical Consciousness
-------
CHAPTER XI.
THE MONAD AT WORK.
1. Building his Vehicles
2. An Evolving Man
3. The Pituitary Body and Pineal Gland
4. The Paths of Consciousness
-------
CHAPTER XII.
THE NATURE OF MEMORY.
1. The Great Self and the Little Selves
2. Changes in the Vehicles and in
Consciousness
3. Memories
4. What is Memory
5. Remembering and Forgetting
6. Attention
7. The One Consciousness
PART II
WILL, DESIRE AND EMOTION
CHAPTER I.
THE WILL TO LIVE
CHAPTER II.
DESIRE
1. The Nature of Desire
2. The Awakening of Desire
3. The Relation of Desire to Thought
4. Desire, Thought, Action
5. The Binding Nature of Desire
6. The Breaking of the Bonds
CHAPTER III.
DESIRE (Continued)
1. The Vehicle of Desire
2. The Conflict of Desire and Thought
3. The Value of an Ideal
4. The Purification of Desire
CHAPTER IV.
EMOTION
1. The Birth of Emotion
2. The Play of Emotion in the Family
3. The Birth of Virtues
4. Right and Wrong
5. Virtue and Bliss
6. The Transmutation of the Emotions into
Virtues and Vices
7. Application of the Theory to Conduct
8. The Uses of Emotion
CHAPTER V.
EMOTION (Continued)
1. The Training of Emotion
2. The Distorting Force of Emotion
3. Methods of Ruling the Emotions
4. The Using of Emotion
5. The Value of Emotion in Evolution
CHAPTER VI.
THE WILL
1. The Will winning its Freedom
2. Why so much Struggle
3. The Power of the Will
4. White and Black Magic
5. Entering into Peace
INTRODUCTION.
THE
subject of the unfolding of consciousness in the beings whose field of
evolution is a solar system is one of considerable difficulty; none of us may
at present hope to do more than master a small portion of its complexity, but
it may be possible to study it in such fashion as may fill up some of the gaps
in our thinking, and as may yield us a fairly clear outline to guide our future
work.
We
cannot, however, trace this outline in any way satisfactory to the intelligence,
without considering first our solar system as a whole, and endeavouring
to grasp some idea, however vague that idea may be, of "the
beginnings" in such a system.
1.
ORIGINS.
We
have learned that the matter in a solar system exists in seven great
modifications, [1] or planes; on three of these, the physical, emotional
(astral), and mental - often spoken of as "the three worlds", the
well-known Triloki, or Tribhuvanam,
of the Hindu cosmogony - is proceeding
the normal evolution of humanity. On the next two planes, the spiritual - those
of wisdom and power, the buddhic and the atmic - goes on the specific evolution of the Initiate,
after the first of the Great Initiations. These five planes form the field of
the evolution of consciousness, until the human merges in the divine. The two
planes beyond the five represent the sphere of divine activity, encircling and
enveloping all, out of which pour forth all the divine energies which vivify
and sustain the whole system. They are at present entirely beyond our
knowledge, and the few hints that have been given regarding them probably
convey as much information as our limited capacity is able to grasp. We are
taught that they are the planes of divine Consciousness, wherein the LOGOS, or
the divine Trinity of Logoi, is manifested, and wherefrom He shines forth as
the Creator, the Preserver, the [2] Dissolver, evolving a universe, maintaining
it during its life-period, withdrawing it into Himself at its ending. We have
been given the names of these two planes: the lower is the Anupadaka,
that wherein "no vehicle has yet been formed";[1]
the higher is the Adi, "the first", the
foundation of a universe, its support and the fount of its life. We have thus
the seven planes of a universe, a solar system, which, as we see by this brief
description, may be regarded as making up three groups:
[3]
The
two highest planes may be conceived of as existing before the solar system is
formed, and we may imagine the highest, the Adi, as
consisting of so much of the matter of space - symbolised
by points - as the LOGOS has marked out to form the material basis of the
system. He is about to produce. As a workman chooses out the material he is
going to shape into his product, so does the LOGOS choose the material and the
place for His universe. Similarly we may imagine the Anupadaka
- symbolised by lines - as consisting of this same
matter, modified by His individual life, coloured, to
use a significant metaphor, by His all-ensouling
Consciousness, and thus differing in some way from the corresponding plane in
another solar system. We are told that the supreme facts of this preparatory
work may be further imaged forth in symbols; of these we are given two [4]
sets, one of which images the triple manifestation of the Logic Consciousness,
the other the triple change in matter corresponding to the triple Life - the
life and form aspects of the three Logoi. We may place them side by side, as
simultaneous happenings:
We
have here, under Life, the primeval Point in the centre of the Circle, the
LOGOS as One within the self-imposed encircling sphere of subtlest matter, in
which He has enclosed Himself for the purpose of manifestation, of shining
forth from the Darkness. At once the question arises: Why three Logoi? Though
we touch here on the deepest question of metaphysics, to expound which even
inadequately requires a volume, we must indicate the answer, to be wrought out
by close thinking. In the analysis of all that exists, we come to the great generalisation: [5]
"All
is separable into 'I' and 'Not I', the 'SELF' and the 'Not-Self'. Every
separate thing is summed up under one or other of the headings, SELF or
Not-Self. There is nothing which cannot be placed under one of them. SELF is
Life, Consciousness; Not-Self is Matter, Form." Here, then, we have a
duality. But the Twain are not two separate things isolated and unrelated;
there is a continual Relation between them, a continual approach and
withdrawal; an identification and a repudiation; this inter-play shows itself
as the ever-changing universe. Thus we have a Trinity, not a Duality - the
SELF, the Not-Self, and the Relation between them. All is here summed up, all
things and all relations, actual and possible, and hence Three, neither more
nor less, is the foundation of all universes in their totality, and of each
universe in particular.[2] This fundamental fact imposes on a Locos a triplicity of manifestation in [6] a solar system, and
hence the One, the Point, going forth in three directions to the circumference
of the Circle of Matter and returning on Itself, manifests a different aspect
at each place of contact with the Circle-the three fundamental expressions of
Consciousness: or Will, Wisdom, and Activity - the divine Triad or Trinity.[3]
For the Universal SELF, the Pratyag-atma, the
"Inner-Self", thinking of the
Not-Self, identifies Himself with it, thereby sharing with it His Being; this
is the divine Activity, Sat, Existence lent to the Non-existent, the Universal
Mind. The SELF, realising Himself, is Wisdom, Chit,
the principle of preservation. The SELF, withdrawing Himself from the
Not-Self, in His own pure nature, is Bliss, [7] Ananda,
free from form. Every LOGOS of a universe repeats this universal
SELF-Consciousness: in His Activity, He is the creative Mind, Kriya - corresponding to the universal Sat - the Brahma of
the Hindu, the Holy Spirit of the Christian, the Chochmah
of the Kabbalist. In His Wisdom, He is the preserving
ordering Reason, Jnana - corresponding to the
universal Chit - the Vishnu of the Hindu, the Son of the Christian, the Binah of the Kabbalist. In His Bliss, He is the Dissolver of forms, the
Will, Ichchha - corresponding to the universal Ananda - the Shiva of the Hindu, the Father of the
Christian, the Kepher of the
Kabbalist. Thus appear in every universe the three
Logoi, the three Beings who create, preserve, and destroy Their universe, each
showing forth predominantly in His
function in the universe one ruling Aspect, to which the other two are
subordinate, though of course ever-present. Hence every manifested GOD is
spoken of as a Trinity. The joining of these three Aspects, or phases of
manifestation, at their outer points of contact with the [8] circle, gives the
basic Triangle of contact with Matter, which, with the three Triangles made
with the lines traced by the Point, thus yields the divine Tetractys,
sometimes called the Kosmic Quaternary, the three
divine Aspects in contact with Matter, ready to create. These, in their
totality, are the Oversoul[4] of the kosmos that is to be.
Under
Form we may first glance at the effects of these Aspects as responded to from
the side of Matter. These are not, of course, due to the LOGOS of a system, but
are the correspondences in universal Matter with the Aspects of the universal
SELF. The Aspect of Bliss, or Will, imposes on Matter the quality of Inertia - Tamas, the power of resistance, stability, quietude. The
Aspect of Activity gives to Matter its responsiveness to action - Rajas,
mobility. The Aspect of Wisdom gives it Rhythm - Satva,
vibration, harmony. It is by the aid of Matter thus prepared that the Aspects
of Logic Consciousness manifest themselves as Beings. [9]
The
LOGOS - not yet a first, since there is yet no second - is seen as a Point irradiating a sphere of Matter, drawn round
Him as the field of the future universe, flashing with unimaginable splendour, a true Mountain of Light, as Manu has it, but
Light invisible save on the spiritual planes. This great sphere has been spoken
of as primary Substance: it is the SELF-conditioned LOGOS, inseparate
at every point with the Matter He has appropriated for His universe, ere He
draws Himself a little apart from it in the second manifestation; it is the
sphere of SELF-conditioning Will, which is to lead to the creative Activity:
"I am This," when the "This," the Not-Self, is cognised. The Point, speaking symbolically - in order to
make the suggestion of Form as seen from the side of appearances vibrates
between centre and circumference, thus making the Line which marks the drawing
apart of Spirit and Matter[5], [10] rendering
cognition possible, and thus generating the Form for the second Aspect, the
Being we call the Second Logos, symbolically the Line, or Diameter of the
Circle. It is said of this in mystic phrase: "Thou art My Son; this day
have I begotten Thee"[6]; this relation of Father and Son within the unity
of the Divine Existence, of the first and Second Logoi, belongs, of course, to
the Day of Manifestation, the life-period of a universe. It is this begetting
of the Son, this appearance of the Second Logos, the Wisdom, which is marked in
the world of Form by the differentiation, the drawing apart, of Spirit and
Matter, the two poles between which is spun the web of a universe; the
separation, as it were, of the neutral inactive Electricity - which may symbolise the First Logos - into the dual form of positive
and negative - symbolising the Second - thus making
the unmanifest manifest. This separation [11] within
the First Logos is vividly imaged for us in the preparation for
cell-multiplication that we may study on the physical plane, wherein we see
the processes that lead up to the appearance of a dividing wall, whereby the
one cell becomes two. For all that happens down here is but the reflexion in gross matter of the happenings on higher
planes, and we may often find a crutch for our halting imagination in our
studies of physical development. "As above, so
below." The physical is the reflexion of
the spiritual.
Then
the Point, with Line revolving with it, vibrates at right angles to the former
vibration, and thus is formed the Cross, still within the Circle, the Cross
which thus "proceedeth from the Father and the
Son," the symbol of the Third Logos, the Creative Mind, the divine
Activity now ready to manifest as Creator. Then He manifests Himself as the
Active Cross, or Svastika, the first of the Logoi to
manifest outside the two highest planes, though the third stage of the divine
Unfolding. [12]
But
before considering the creative Activity of the Third Logos, we must note the
origination of the Monads, or Units of Consciousness, for whose evolution in
matter the field of a universe is to be prepared. We shall return to their
fuller consideration in Chapter II. The myriads of such Units who are to be
developed in that coming universe are generated within the divine Life, as
germ-cells in organisms, before the field for their evolution is formed. Of
this forthgiving it is written: "THAT willed: I
shall multiply and be born"[7]; and the Many arise in the One by that act
of Will. [13] Will has its two aspects of attraction and repulsion, of
in-breathing and out-breathing, and when the repulsion-aspect energises there is separation, driving apart.
This
multiplication within the One by the action of Will marks the place of origin -
the first Logos, the undivided Lord, the Eternal
Father. These are the sparks of the Supreme Fire, the "divine
Fragments"[8], named generally "Monads". A Monad is a fragment
of the divine Life, separated off as an individual entity by rarest film of
matter, matter so rare that, while it gives a separate form to each, it offers
no obstacle to the free inter-communication of a life thus incased with the
surrounding similar lives. The life of the Monads is thus of the First Logos,
and is therefore of triple aspect, Consciousness existing as Will, Wisdom,
and Activity; this life takes form on the plane of divine Manifestation, the
second, or Anupadaka,
Sons of the Father even as is the Second Logos, but younger Sons, with
[14] none of their divine powers capable of acting in matter denser than that
of their own planes; while He, with ages
of evolution behind Him, stands ready to exercise His divine powers,
"the First-born among many brethren"[9]. Fitly they dwell on the Anupadaka plane, the roots of their life in the Adi, as yet without vehicles in which they can express
themselves, awaiting the day of "manifestation of
the Sons of God"[10]. There they remain while the Third Logos begins the
external work of manifestation, the shaping of the objective universe. He is
going to put forth His life into matter, to fashion it into the materials
fitted for the building of the vehicles which the Monads need for their
evolution. But he will not be merged in His work; for, vast as that work seems
to us, to Him it is but a little thing: "Having pervaded this whole
universe with a portion of Myself, I remain"[11]." That marvellous
Individuality is not lost, and only a portion [15] thereof suffices for the life
of a kosmos. The LOGOS, the Oversoul,
remains, the God of His universe. [16]
STUDY
IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
-------
CHAPTER I.
THE PREPARATION OF THE FIELD.
1.
THE FORMATION OF THE ATOM.
THE
Third Logos, the Universal Mind, begins His creative Activity by working on the
matter drawn in from the infinite space on every side for the building of our
solar system. This matter exists in space in forms incognisable
by us, but is apparently already shaped to the needs of vaster systems. For we
have been told by H. P. Blavatsky that
the atomic sub-planes of our planes make up the first, or lowest, kosmic plane. If we think of the atoms of that kosmic plane as symbolised by
[17] a musical note. Our atoms, as formed by the Third Logos, may perhaps be symbolised by the overtones in such a note. What seems
clear is that they are in close relation to the "atoms of space",
correspond with them, but are not, in their present form, identical with them.
But the seven types of matter, that become our "atoms", are indicated
in the matter drawn from space to form the solar system, and are ultimately
reducible again to them. H. P. Blavatsky hints at the repeated seven-fold
division into atoms of lower and lower grade, when she writes: "The One Kosmic Atom becomes seven atoms on the plane of matter, and
each is transformed into a centre of energy. That same atom becomes seven rays
on the plane of spirit ... separate till the end of the kalpa
and yet in close embrace".[12]
Outside
the limits of a universe this matter is in a very peculiar state; the three
qualities of matter, inertia, mobility, and rhythm[13],
are balanced against each [18] other, and are in a state of equilibrium. They
might be thought of as existing as a closed circle, quiescent. In fact, in some
ancient books, matter in its totality is described in this state as inertia. It
is also spoken of as virgin; it is the celestial Virgin Mary, the ocean of
virgin matter, that is to become the Mother by the
action of the Third Logos. The beginning of creative Activity is the breaking
of that closed circle, throwing the qualities out of stable into unstable
equilibrium. Life is motion, and the life of the Solar LOGOS - His Breath, as
it is poetically called - touching this quiescent matter, threw the qualities
into a condition of unstable equilibrium, and therefore of continual motion in
relation to each other. During the life-period of a universe matter is ever in
a condition of incessant internal motion. H. P. Blavatsky says: "Fohat hardens and scatters the seven Brothers
. electrifies into life and separates
primordial stuff, or pregenetic matter, into
atoms"[14].
The
formation of the atom has three [19] stages. First, the fixing of the limit
within which the ensouling life - the Life of the
Logos in the atom - shall vibrate; this limiting and fixing of the wave-length
of the vibration is technically called "the divine measure"[15]; this
gives to the atoms of a plane their distinctive peculiarity. Secondly, the
Logos marks out, according to this divine measure, the lines which determine
the shape of the atom, the fundamental axes of growth, the angular relation of
these, which determines the form, being that of the corresponding kosmic atom[16]; the nearest analogy to these are the axes
of crystals. Thirdly, by the measure of the vibration and the angular relation
of the axes of growth with each other, the size and form of the surface, which
we may call the surface or wall of the atom, is determined. Thus in every atom
we have the measure of its ensouling life, its axes
of growth, and its enclosing surface or wall. [20]
Of
such atoms the Third Logos creates five different kinds, the five different
"measures" implying five different vibrations, and each kind forms
the basic material of a plane; each plane, however various the objects in it,
has its own fundamental type of atom, into which any of its objects may
ultimately be reduced.
2.
SPIRIT-MATTER.
The
epithet, spirit-matter, will perhaps be better appreciated if we pause for a moment
on the method of the formation of the atoms of the successive planes. For each
system the matter of space around it is its Root of Matter, Mulaprakriti,
as the Hindus graphically call it. The matter of each system has that
surrounding matter for its root, or base, and its own special matter grows out
of, is developed from, that. The LOGOS, the Oversoul,
of the system, drawing round Himself the necessary matter from space, ensouls it with His own life, and this life within this
[21] subtle matter, this Mulaprakriti, is the Atma,
the SELF, the Spirit, in every particle. Fohat, the
energy of the Locos, says H. P. B., "digs holes in space", and no
description could be finer and truer. That whirling energy forms innumerable
vortices, each shaped by the divine energy and the axes of growth, and each
shelled with the matter of space, Atma in a shell of Mulaprakriti,
spirit in a shell of matter, the "atoms" of the Adi,
or highest plane, the first. Some of these remain as "atoms"; others
join together and form "molecules"; "molecules" join
together and make more complex molecular combinations; and so on till six
sub-planes below the atomic are formed. [This by analogy with
what may be observed below, since these highest planes are incognisable.] Now comes the forming of the atoms of the
second plane. Their measure and axes of growth being fixed as above described
by the Third Logos, some of the atoms of the adi, or
first, pane draw round themselves a shell of the combinations of their own
lowest sub-plane; the Spirit plus its original shell of [22] kosmic matter (Mulaprakriti), or
the atom of the first plane, is the spirit of the second plane, and permeates
the new shell, formed out of the lowest-grade combinations of itself. These
shells, thus ensouled, are the atoms of the anupadaka, or second, plane. By the ever more complicated
aggregations of these the remaining six sub-planes are brought into being. Some
of the atoms of the anupadaka plane, in like manner,
become clothed with the aggregations of their own lowest sub-plane, and thus
become the atmic atoms, the Spirit now being clothed
with two shells, inside its atomic wall of aggregations of the lowest sub-plane
of the anupadaka, and the original Spirit, or Life,
plus its two shells, being called the spirit of the atmic
plane, while the wall of its atom is regarded as the matter. This atom, ensheathed once more in the aggregations of the lowest atmic sub-plane, becomes the atom of the buddhic plane, Spirit on the buddhic
plane having thus three enclosing films within its atomic shell of lowest atmic aggregations. On the mental plane the Spirit has a
fourfold sheath within the [23] atomic wall, on the astral plane a fivefold,
and on the physical a sixfold, with the atomic wall
in each case in addition. But the Spirit plus all its sheaths save the
outermost is ever regarded as Spirit, and the outermost sheath only as form or
body. It is this involution of Spirit which makes evolution possible, and
complicated as the description may sound, the principle is simple and can be
easily grasped. Truly, then, may we speak of
"spirit-matter" everywhere.
3.
THE SUB-PLANES.
Now
the ultimate atoms of the physical plane are not the "atoms" of the
modern chemist; the ultimate atoms are
aggregated into successive typical groups, forming "states of
matter", and the chemical atom may be in the fifth, sixth, or seventh of
these states, a gas, a liquid, or a solid.
Familiar are the gaseous, the liquid, and the solid states of matter,
or, as they are often called, the gaseous, liquid, and solid sub-planes; [24]
and above the gaseous are four less familiar conditions, the three etheric
states of matter, or sub-planes, and the true atomic. These true atoms are
aggregated into groups, which then act as units, and these groups are called
molecules; the atoms in a molecule are held together by magnetic attraction,
and the molecules on each sub-plane are arranged geometrically in relation to
each other on axes identical with the axes of growth of the atom of the
corresponding plane. By these successive aggregations of atoms into molecules,
and of simpler into more complex
molecules, the sub-planes of each plane are formed under the directive
Activity of the Third Logos, until the field of evolution, consisting of five
planes, each showing seven sub-planes - the first and second planes being
beyond this field - is completed. But it must not be supposed that these seven
sub-planes, as formed by the Third Logos, are at all identical with those which
are now existing. Taking the physical plane as an
illustration, they bear something of the same [25] relation to the present
sub-planes as that which the chemist calls proto-hydrogen bears to the chemical
element said to be built up out of it. The present conditions were not brought
about by the work of the Third Logos only, in whom Activity predominates; the
more strongly attractive or cohesive energies of the Second Logos, who is
Wisdom and therefore Love, were needed for the further integrations.
It
is important to remember that the planes are interpenetrating, and that corresponding sub-planes are directly related
to each other, and are not really separated from each other by intervening
layers of denser matter. Thus we must not think of the atomic sub-planes as
being separated from each other by six sub-planes of generally increasing
density, but as being in immediate connexion with
each other. We may figure this in a diagram as follows: [26]
It
must be understood that this is a diagram, not a picture i.e., it represents relations, not material
facts-the relations existing between the planes by virtue of their
intermingling, and not forty-nine separate bricks placed in seven rows, one an
the top of another.
Now
this relation is a most important one, for it implies that life can pass from
[27] plane to plane by the short road of the communicating atomic sub-planes,
and need not necessarily circle round through the six molecular sub-planes
before it can reach the next atomic sub-plane to continue its descent. As a
matter of fact we shall find presently that life-streams from the Monad do
follow this atomic road in their descent to the physical plane. If we now
consider a physical atom, looking at it as a whole, we see a vortex of life,
the life of the Third Logos, whirling with inconceivable rapidity. By the
attraction between these whirling vortices, molecules are built up, and the
plane with its sub-planes formed. But at the limiting surface of this whirling
vortex are the spirillae, whirling currents, each at right
angles to the one within it and the one without it. These whirling currents are
made by the life of the Monad, not by the life of the Third Logos, and are not
present at the early stage we are considering; they develop one after another
into full activity in the course of evolution, normally one in each Round;
their rudiments are indeed completed by the Fourth [28] Round by the action of
the Second Logos, but the life-stream of the Monad circulates in only four of
them, the other three being but faintly indicated. The atoms of the higher
planes are formed on the same general plan, as regards the Logic central vortex
and its enclosing currents, but all details are at present lacking to us. Many
of the practices of yoga are directed to bring about the more rapid evolution
of the atoms by quickening this spirillae vivifying
work of the Monad upon it. As these currents of the monadic life are added to
the Logic vortex, the note of life grows richer and richer in its quality. We
may compare the central vortex to the fundamental note, the whirling encircling
currents to the overtones; the addition of each overtone means an added
richness to the note. New forces, new beauties, are thus ever added to the
seven-fold chord of life.
4.
THE FIVE PLANES.
The
different responses which the matter of the planes will later give under [29]
the impulse of consciousness depend on the work of the Third Logos, on the
"measure" by which He limits the atom. The atom of each plane has its
own measure, as we have seen, and this limits its power of response, its
vibratory action, and gives it its specific character. As the eye is so
constituted that it is able to respond to vibrations of ether within a certain
range, so is each type of atom, by its constitution, able to respond to
vibrations within a certain range. One plane is called the plane made of
"mind-stuff", because the "measure" of its atoms makes
their dominant response that which answers to a certain range of the vibrations
of the Knowledge Aspect of the LOGOS, as modified by the Creative Activity.[17]
Another is called the plane of "desire-stuff", because the
"measure" of its atoms makes their dominant response that which
answers to a certain range of the vibrations of the Will[18] Aspect of the
LOGOS. Each type of atom has thus its own peculiar [30] power of response,
determined by its own measure of vibration. In each atom lie involved
numberless possibilities of response to the three aspects of consciousness,
and these possibilities within the atom will be brought out of the atom as
powers in the course of evolution. But the capacity of the matter to respond,
and the nature of the response, these are determined by the original action of
the triple Self on it, and by the measure imposed on the atoms by the Third
Logos; He, out of the infinite capacity of His own multitude of vibratory
powers, gives a certain portion to the matter of a particular system in a
particular cycle of evolution. This capacity is stamped on matter by the Third
Logos, and is ever maintained in matter by His life infolded in the atom. Thus
is formed the fivefold field of evolution in which consciousness is to develop.
This
work of the Third Logos is usually spoken of as the First Life Wave. [31]
-------
CHAPTER II.
CONSCIOUSNESS.
1.
THE MEANING OF THE WORD.
LET
us now consider what we mean by consciousness, and see if this consideration
will build for us the much longed -for "bridge", which is the despair
of modern thought, between consciousness and matter, will span for us the
"gulf" alleged to exist for ever between them.
To
begin with a definition of terms consciousness and life are identical, two
names for one thing as regarded from within and from without. There is no life
without consciousness; there is no consciousness without life. When we vaguely
separate them in thought and analyse what we have
done, we find that we have called consciousness turned inward by the name of
life, and life [32] turned outwards by the name of consciousness. When our
attention is fixed on unity we say life; when it is fixed upon multiplicity we
say consciousness; and we forget that the multiplicity is due to, is the
essence of, matter, the reflecting surface in which the One becomes the Many. When it is said that life is "more or less conscious", it
is not the abstraction life that is thought of, but "a living thing"
more or less aware of its surroundings. The more or less awareness
depends on the thickness, the density, of the enwrapping veil which makes it a
living thing, separate from its fellows. Annihilate in thought that veil and
you annihilate in thought also life, and are in THAT into which all opposites
are resolved, the ALL.
This
leads us to our next point: the existence of consciousness implies a separation
into two aspects of the fundamental all-underlying UNITY. The modern name of
consciousness, "awareness", equally implies this. For you cannot hang
up awareness in the void; awareness [33] implies something of which it is
aware, a duality at the least. Otherwise it exists not. In the highest
abstraction of consciousness, of awareness, this duality is implied;
consciousness ceases if the sense of limitation be withdrawn, is dependent on
limitation for existence. Awareness is essentially awareness of limitation, and
only secondarily awareness of others. Awareness of others comes into being with
what we call Self-consciousness, Self-awareness. This abstract Twain-in-One,
consciousness - limitation, spirit - matter, life - form, are ever
inseparable, they appear and disappear together; they exist only in relation
to each other; they resolve into a necessarily unmanifest
Unity, the supreme synthesis.
"As above, so below." Again let the
"below" help us; let us look at consciousness as it appears when
considered from the side of form, as we see it in a universe of conscious
things. Electricity manifests only as positive and negative; when these neutralise each other, electricity vanishes. In all things
electricity [34] exists, neutral, unmanifest; from
all things it can appear, but not as positive only, or as negative only; always
as balancing amounts of both, over against each other, and these ever tending
to re-enter together into apparent nothingness, which is not nothingness but
the source equally of both.
But
if this be so, what becomes of the "gulf "? what
need of the "bridge"? Consciousness and matter affect each other
because they are the two constituents of one whole, both appearing as they
draw apart, both disappearing as they unite, and as they draw apart a relation
exists ever between them.[19] There is no such thing
as a conscious unit which does not consist of this inseparate
duality, a magnet with two poles ever in relation to each other. We think of a
separate something we call consciousness, and ask how it works on another [35]
separate something we call matter. There are no such two separate somethings, but only two drawn-apart but inseparate aspects of THAT which, without both, is unmanifest, which cannot manifest in the one or the other
alone, and is equally in both. There are no fronts without backs, no aboves without belows, no
outsides without insides, no spirit without matter. They affect each other
because inseparable parts of a unity, manifesting as a duality in space and
time. The "gulf" appears when we think of a "spirit" wholly
immaterial, and a "body" wholly material - i.e., of two things
neither of which exists. There is no spirit which is not matter-enveloped:
there is no matter which is not spirit-ensouled. The
highest separated Self has its film of matter, and though such a Self is called
"a spirit" because the consciousness aspect is so predominant, none
the less is it true that it has its vibrating sheath of matter, and that from this sheath all
impulses come forth, which affect all other denser material sheaths in
succession. To say this is not to materialise
consciousness, [36] but only to recognise the fact
that the two primary opposites, consciousness and matter, are straitly bound together, are never apart, not even in the
highest Being. Matter is limitation, and without limitation consciousness is
not. So far from materialising consciousness, it puts
it as a concept in sharp antithesis to matter, but it recognises
the fact that in an entity the one is not found without the other. The densest
matter, the physical, has its core of consciousness; the gas, the stone, the
metal, is living, conscious, aware. Thus oxygen becomes aware of hydrogen at a
certain temperature, and rushes into combination with it.
Let
us now look out of consciousness from within, and see the meaning of the
phrase: "Matter is limitation". Consciousness is the one Reality, in
the fullest sense of that much-used phrase; it follows from this that any
reality found anywhere is drawn from consciousness. Hence, everything which is thought, is. That consciousness in which everything is,
everything literally, "possible" as well as "actual" -
actual being that which is [37] thought of as existent by a separated
consciousness in time and space, and possible all that which is not so being
thought of at any period in time and any point in space - we call Absolute
Consciousness. It is the ALL, the ETERNAL, the INFINITE, the CHANGELESS.
Consciousness, thinking time and space, and of all forms as existing in them in
succession and in places, is the Universal Consciousness, the ONE, called by
the Hindu the Saguna BRAHMAN - the ETERNAL with attributes - the PRATYAG-ATMA - the
INNER SELF; - by the Christian, God; by
the Parsi, HORMUZD; by the Mussulman, ALLAH. Consciousness dealing with a definite
time, however long or short, with a definite space, however vast or restricted,
is individual, that of a concrete Being, a Lord of many universes, or some
universes, or a universe, or of any so-called portion of a universe, his
portion and to him therefore a universe - these terms varying as to extent with the power of the
consciousness; so much of the universal thought as a separate consciousness
can completely think, i.e., on which he can [38] impose his own reality, can
think of as existing like himself, is his universe. To each universe, the Being
who is its Lord gives a share of his own indefeasible Reality; but is ever
himself limited and controlled by the thought of his superior, the Lord of the
universe in which he exists as a form. Thus we, who are human beings, existing
in a solar system, are surrounded by innumerable forms which are the
thought-forms of the LORD of our system, our ISHVARA, or RULER; the
"divine measure" and the "axes of growth", thought by the
Third Logos, govern the forms of our atoms, and the surface thought of by Him
as the limit of the atom and resistant, offers resistance to all similar atoms.
Thus we receive our matter, and cannot alter it, save by the employment of methods also made by His
thought; only so long as His thought continues can the atoms, with all composed
of them, continue to exist, since they have no Reality save that given by His
thought. So long as He retains them as His body by declaring: "I am this;
these atoms are My body; they share My life"; so [39] long they will
impose themselves as real on all the beings in this solar system, whose
consciousnesses are clothed in similar garments. When at the end of the Day of
Manifestation He declares: "I am not this; these atoms are no longer My body; they no longer share My life"; then shall they
vanish as the dream they are, and only that shall remain which is the
thought-form of the Monarch of a vaster system.
Thus,
as Spirits, we are inherently, indefensibly divine, with all the splendour and freedom implied in that word. But we are
clothed in matter which is not ours, which is the thought-forms of the RULER of
our system - controlled again by the RULERS of vaster systems in which ours is
included - and we are only slowly learning to master and use it. When we realise our oneness with our RULER, then the matter shall
have no longer power over us, and we shall see it as the unreality it is,
dependent on His will, which then we shall know as also ours. Then we can
"play" with it, as we cannot while it blinds us with its borrowed
Reality. [40]
Looking
thus out of consciousness from within, we see even more plainly than we saw looking at it from the world of forms,
that there is no "gulf", and no need for a "bridge".
Consciousness changes, and each change appears in the matter surrounding it as
a vibration, because the LOGOS has thought vibrations of matter as the
invariable concomitant of changes in consciousness; and as the matter is but
the resultant of consciousness and its
attributes are imposed upon it by active
thought, any change in the Logic Consciousness would change the
attributes of the matter of the system,
and any change in a consciousness derived from Him shows itself in that matter
as a change; this change in matter is a vibration, a rhythmical movement within the limits set by
Him for the mobility of masses of matter in that relation. "Change in
consciousness and vibration of the matter limiting it" is a "pair",
imposed by the thought of the Locos on all embodied consciousnesses in His
universe. That such a constant relation
exists is shown by the fact that a vibration in a material [41] sheath
accompanying a change in the ensouling consciousness,
and causing a similar vibration in the sheath ensouled
by another consciousness, is found to be accompanied by a change in that second
consciousness similar to the change in the
first.
In
matter far subtler than the physical - as mind-stuff - the creative power of
consciousness is more readily seen than in the dense material of the physical
plane. Matter becomes dense or rare, and changes its combinations and forms,
according to the thoughts of a consciousness active therein. While the
fundamental atoms - due to the Logic thought - remain unchanged, they can be
combined or dissociated at will. Such experiences open the mind to the
metaphysical conception of matter, and enable it to realise
at once the borrowed reality and the nonentity of matter.
A
word of warning may be useful with regard to the often repeated phrases of
"Consciousness in a body", "Consciousness ensouling
a body", and the like. The student is a little apt to figure consciousness
[42] as a kind of rarefied gas enclosed in a material receptacle, a kind of
bottle. If he will think carefully he will realise
that the resistant surface of the body is but a Logic thought-form, and it is
there because thought there. Consciousness appears as conscious entities,
because the LOGOS thinks such separations, thinks the enclosing walls, makes
such thought limitations. And these thoughts of the LOGOS are due to His unity
with the Universal SELF, and are but a repetition within the area of a
particular universe of the Will to multiply.
A
careful dwelling in mind on the distinctions above traced between Absolute
Consciousness, Universal Consciousness, and Individual Consciousness, will
prevent the student from asking the question so often heard: Why is there any
universe? Why does All-Consciousness limit itself? Why should the Perfect
become the imperfect, All-Power become the powerless, God become the mineral,
the brute, the man? In this form the question is unanswerable, for it is
founded on false premises. The Perfect is the All, the Totality, the Sum of
Being. Within [43] its infinity, as above said, is everything contained, every
potentiality, as well as actuality, of existence. All that
has been, is, will be, can be, ever is in that Fulness,
that ETERNAL. Only Itself knows Itself in its
infinite unimaginable wealth of Being. Because it contains all pairs of
opposites, and each pair, in affirming itself, to the eye of reason annihilates
itself and vanishes, It seems a Void. But endless
universes arising in It proclaim It a Plenum. This
Perfect never becomes the imperfect; it becomes nothing; It
as all Spirit and Matter, Strength and Weakness, Knowledge and Ignorance, Peace
and Strife, Bliss and Pain, Power and Impotence; the innumerable opposites of
manifestation merge into each other and vanish in non-manifestation. The All
includes manifestation and non-manifestation, the diastole and systole of the
Heart which is Being. The one no more requires
explanation than the other; the one cannot be without the other. The puzzle
arises because men assert separately one of the inseparate
pair of opposites - Spirit, Strength, Knowledge, [44] Peace, Bliss, Power - and
then ask: "Why should these become their opposites?" They do not. No
attribute exists without its opposite; a pair only can manifest; every front
has a back, spirit and matter arise together; it is not that spirit exists, and
then miraculously produces matter to limit and blind itself, but that spirit
and matter arise in the ETERNAL simultaneously as a mode of Its Being, a form
of Self-expression of the All, Pratyagatma and Mulaprakriti, expressing in time and space the Timeless
and Spaceless.
2.
THE MONADS.
We
have seen that by the action of the Third Logos a five-fold field has been
provided for the development of Units of Consciousness, and that a Unit of
Consciousness is a fragment, a portion of the Universal Consciousness, thought
into separation as an individual entity veiled in matter, a Unit of the
substance of the First Logos, to be sent forth on the second plane as a
separate Being. [45] Such Units are called technically Monads. These are the
Sons, abiding from everlasting, from the beginning of a creative age, in the
Bosom of the Father, who have not yet been "made perfect through sufferings";[20] each of them is truly
"equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, but inferior to the Father
as touching his manhood"[21], and each of them is to go forth into matter
in order to render all things subject to himself[22]; he is to be "sown in
weakness" that he may be "raised in power"[23]; from a static Logos
enfolding all divine potentialities, he is to become a dynamic Logos unfolding
all divine powers; omniscient, omnipresent, on his own second plane, but
unconscious, "senseless", on all the others,[24] he is to veil his
glory in matter that blinds him, in order that he may become omniscient,
omnipresent, on all planes, able to answer to all divine vibrations in the
universe instead of to those on the highest only. [46]
The
meaning of this feeble description of a great truth may be glimpsed by the
student by a consideration of the facts of embryonic life and birth. When an
Ego is re-incarnating, he broods over the human mother in whom his future body
is a building, the vehicle he will one day inhabit. That body is slowly built
up of the substance of the mother, and the Ego can do little as to its shaping:
it is an embryo, unconscious of its future, dimly conscious only of the flow of the maternal
life, impressed by maternal hopes and fears, thoughts and desires; nothing from
the Ego affects it, save a feeble influence coming through the permanent
physical atom, and it does not share, because it cannot answer to, the
wide-reaching thoughts, the aspiring emotions of the Ego, as expressed by him
in his causal body. That embryo must develop, must gradually assume a human
form, must enter on an independent life, separate from that of his mother, must
pass through seven years - as men count time - of such independent life, ere
the Ego can fully ensoul it. But during that slow
evolution, with [47] its infantile helplessness, its childish follies,
pleasures and pains, the Ego to whom it belongs is carrying on his own wider,
richer, life, and is gradually coming into nearer and nearer touch with this
body, in which alone he can work in the physical world, his touch being
manifested as the growth of the brain-consciousness.
The
condition of the Monad in relation to the evolution of his consciousness in a
universe resembles that of the Ego in relation to his new physical body. His
own world is that of the second, the anupadaka,
plane, and there he is fully conscious with the all-embracing
SELF-consciousness of his world, but not at first of selves, among whom he is
separate, of "others". Let us try to see the stages through which he
passes. He is first a spark in a flame: "I sense one Flame, O Gurudeva; I see countless undetached sparks shining in
it"[25]. The Flame is the First Logos, the undetached sparks the Monads.
His Will to manifest is also theirs, for they are the germ-cells in His [48]
body, that will presently have a separate life in His coming universe. Moved by
this Will, the sparks share the change called "the begetting of the
Son", and pass into the Second Logos and dwell in Him. Then, with the
"proceeding" of the Third, there comes to them from Him the "spiritual
individuality", that H. P. Blavatsky speaks of,
the dawning separateness. But still there is no sense of "others",
needed to re-act as the sense of "I". The three aspects of
consciousness, theirs as sharing the Logic life, are still, to use a figure of
speech, "turned inwards", playing on each other, asleep, unaware of a
"without", sharing the all-SELF-consciousness. The great Beings,
called the Creative Orders,[26] arouse them to "outer" life; Will,
Wisdom, Activity awake to awareness of the "without"; a dim sense of
"others" arises, so far as "others" may be in a world where
all "'forms' intermingle and interpenetrate," and each becomes
"an individual Dhyan Chohan, distinct from
others".[27] [49] At the first stage, spoken of above, when the Monads
are, in the fullest sense[28] of the term, undetached, as "germ-cells in
His body", the Will, Wisdom, and Activity in them are latent, not potent.
His Will to manifest is also their will, but theirs unconsciously; He,
Self-conscious, knows His object and His path; they, not yet Self-conscious,
have in them, as parts of His body, the moving energy of His Will, which will
presently be their own individual Will to Live, and which impels them into the
conditions wherein a separate-Self-conscious, instead of an all-Self-conscious,
life is possible. This leads them to the second stage in the life of the Second
Logos, and to the Third. Then, comparatively separate, the awakening by the
Creative Orders brings with it the "dim sense of 'others'" and of
"I", and with this a thrill of longing for a more clearly-defined
sense of "I" and of "others"; and this is the
"individual Will to Live", and this leads them forth [50] into the
denser worlds, wherein such sharper definition alone becomes possible.
It
is important to understand that the evolution of the individual "I"
is a Self-chosen activity. We are here because we Will to Live; "none else
compels". This aspect of consciousness, the Will, is dealt with in later
chapters of this book, and here we need only emphasise
the fact that the Monads are Self-moved, Self-determined, in their entry into
the lower planes of matter, the field of manifestation, the
five-fold universe. To their vehicles in it, they remain as the Ego to his
physical body, with their radiant divine life in loftier spheres, but brooding
over their lower vehicles and manifesting more and more in them as they become
more plastic. H. P. Blavatsky speaks of this, as the "Monad is cycling on
downwards into matter".[29]
Everywhere
in nature we see this same striving after fuller manifestation of life, this
constant Will to Live. The seed, buried in the ground, pushes its growing [51] point upwards to the light. The bud
fettered in its sheathing calyx bursts its prison and expands in the sunshine.
The chick within the egg splits its confining shell in twain. Everywhere life
seeks expression, powers press to exercise themselves. See the painter, the
sculptor, the poet, with creative genius struggling within him; to create
yields the subtlest pleasure, the keenest savour of
exquisite delight. Therein is but another instance of the omnipresent nature of
life, whether in the LOGOS, the genius, or in the ephemeral creature of a day;
all joy in the bliss of living, and feel most alive when they multiply
themselves by creation. To feel life expressing itself, flowing forth,
expanding, increasing, this is at once the result of the Will to Live, and its
fruition in the Bliss of living.
Some
of the Monads, willing to live through the toils of the five-fold universe, in
order to master matter and in turn to create a universe therein, enter into it
to become a developed God therein, a Tree of Life, another Fount of Being. The
shaping of a universe is the Day of [52] Forth-going; living is becoming; life
knows itself by change. Those who will not to become masters of matter,
creators, remain in their static bliss, excluded from the five-fold universe,
unconscious of its activities. For it must be remembered that all the seven
planes are interpenetrating, and that Consciousness on any plane means the
power of answering to the vibrations of that particular plane. Just as a man
may be conscious on the physical plane because his physical body is organised to receive and transmit to him its vibrations,
but be totally unconscious of the higher planes though their vibrations are
playing on him, because he has not yet organised
sufficiently his higher bodies to receive and transmit to him their vibrations;
so is the Monad, the Unit of Consciousness, able to be conscious on the second
plane, but totally unconscious on the lower five.
He
will evolve his consciousness on these by taking from each plane some of its
matter, veiling himself in this matter and forming it into a sheath by which he
can come into contact with [53] that plane, gradually organising
this sheath of matter into a body capable of functioning on its own plane as an
expression of himself, receiving vibrations from the plane and transmitting
them to him, receiving vibrations from him and transmitting them to the plane.
As he veils himself in the matter of each successive plane he shuts away some
of his consciousness, that of it which is too subtle for receiving or setting
up vibrations in the matter of that plane. He has within him seven typical
vibratory powers - each capable of producing an indefinite number of
sub-vibrations of its own type - and these are shut off one by one as he endues
veil after veil of grosser matter. The powers in consciousness of expressing
itself in certain typical ways - using the word power in the mathematical
sense, consciousness "to the third", consciousness "to the
fourth", etc.- are seen in matter as what we call dimensions. The physical
power of consciousness has its expression in "three-dimensional
matter", while the astral, mental, and other powers of [54] consciousness
need for their expression other dimensions of matter.
Speaking
thus of Monads, we may feel as if we were dealing with something far away. Yet is the Monad very near to us, our SELF, the very root of our
being, the innermost source of our life, the one Reality. Hidden, unmanifest, wrapt in silence and
darkness is our Self, but our consciousness is the limited manifestation of
that Self, the manifested God in the kosmos of our
bodies, which are His garments. As the Unmanifest is
partially manifest in the LOGOS, as Divine Consciousness, and in the universe
as the Body of the LOGOS[30], so is our unmanifest
Self partially manifest in our consciousness, as the Logos of our
individual system, and in our body as
the kosmos which clothes the consciousness. As above, so below.
This
hidden SELF it is which is called the Monad, being verily the One. It is this
which gives the subtle sense of unity [55] that ever persists in us amid all
changes; the sense of identity has here its source, for this is the ETERNAL in
us. The three out-streaming rays which come from the Monad - to be dealt with
presently - are his three aspects, or modes of being, or hypostases,
reproducing the Logoi of a universe, the Will, Wisdom, and Activity which are
the three essential expressions of embodied consciousness, the familiar
Atma-Buddhi-Manas of the Theosophist.
This
consciousness ever works as a unit on the various planes, but shows out its triplicity on each. When we study consciousness working on
the mental plane, we see Will appearing as choice, Wisdom as discrimination, Activity as cognition. On the astral plane we see Will
appearing as desire, Wisdom as love, Activity as sensation. On the physical
plane, Will has for its instruments the motor organs (karmendriyas),
Wisdom the cerebral hemispheres, Activity the organs of sense (jnanendriyas).[31] [56]
The
full manifestation of these three aspects of consciousness in their highest
forms takes place in man in the same order as the manifestation of the triple
LOGOS in the universe. The third aspect, Activity, revealed as the creative
mind, as the gatherer of knowledge, is the first to perfect its vehicles, and
show forth its full energies. The second aspect, Wisdom, revealed as the Pure
and Compassionate Reason, is the second to shine forth, the
-------
CHAPTER III.
THE PEOPLING OF THE FIELD.
1.
THE COMING
WHEN
the five-fold field is ready, when the five planes, each with its seven
sub-planes, are completed, so far as their primary constitution is concerned,
then begins the activity of the Second Logos, the Builder and Preserver of
forms. His activity is spoken of as the Second Life Wave, the pouring out of
Wisdom and Love - the Wisdom, the directing force, needed for the organisation and evolution of forms, the Love, the
attractive force, needed for holding
them together as stable though complex wholes. When this great stream of Logic
life pours forth into the five-fold field of manifestation, it brings with it
into activity the Monads, the Units of Consciousness, ready to begin their [58]
work of evolution, to clothe themselves in matter.
Yet
the phrase that the Monads go forth is somewhat inaccurate; that they shine
forth, send out their rays of life, would be truer.
For they remain ever "in the bosom of the Father", while their
life-rays stream out into the ocean of matter, and therein appropriate the
materials needed for their energising in the
universe. The matter must be appropriated, rendered plastic, shaped into
fitting vehicles.
H.
P. Blavatsky has described their forth-shining in graphic allegorical terms,
using a symbolism more expressive than literal-meaning words: "The
primordial triangle, which - as soon as it has reflected itself in the
'Heavenly Man', the highest of the lower seven - disappears, returning into
'Silence and Darkness'; and the astral paradigmatic man, whose Monad (Atma) is
also represented by a triangle, as it has to become a ternary in conscious devachanic interludes"[32]. The primordial triangle,
or the three-faced Monad of Will, [59] Wisdom, and Activity, "reflects
itself" in the "Heavenly Man", as Atma-Buddhi Manas, and then
"returns into Silence and Darkness". Atma - often spoken of as the
Monad of the lower, or astral man - has to become a
ternary, a triple-faced unit, by assimilating Buddhi and Manas. The word "reflexion" demands explanation here. Speaking
generally, the term reflexion is used when a force
manifested on a higher plane shows itself again on a lower plane, and is
conditioned by a grosser kind of matter in that lower manifestation, so that
some of the effective energy of the force is lost, and it shows itself in a
feebler form. As now used in a special instance, it means that a stream of the
life of the Monad pours forth, taking as the vessel to contain it an atom from
each of the three higher planes of the five-fold field -the third, the fourth,
and the fifth - thus producing the "Heavenly Man", the "Living
Ruler, Immortal", the Pilgrim who is to evolve, for whose evolution the
system was brought into being.
"As
the mighty vibrations of the Sun throw matter into the vibrations we call [60]
his rays (which express his heat, electricity, and other energies), so does the
Monad cause the atomic matter of the atmic, buddhic, and manasic planes -
surrounding him as the ether of space surrounds the Sun - to vibrate, and thus
makes to himself a Ray, triple like his own three-fold nature. In this he is
aided by Devas from a previous universe who have
passed through a similar experience before; these guide the vibratory wave from
the Will aspect to the atmic atom, and the atmic atom, vibrating to the Will-aspect, is called Atma;
they guide the vibratory wave from the
Wisdom-aspect to the buddhic atom, and the buddhic atom, vibrating to the Wisdom-aspect, is called Buddhi;
also they guide the vibratory wave from the Activity-aspect to the manasic atom, and the manasic
atom, vibrating to the Activity-aspect, is called Manas. Thus
Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the Monad in the world of manifestation, is formed, the Ray
of the Monad, beyond the five-fold universe. Here is the mystery of the
Watcher, the Spectator, the action-less Atma, who
abides ever in his triple [61] nature on his own plane, and lives in the world
of men by his Ray, which animates his shadows, the fleeting lives on earth. .
The shadows do the work on the lower planes, and are moved by the Monad through
his Image or Ray; at first so feebly that his influence is well-nigh
imperceptible, later with ever-increasing power."[33]
Atma-Buddhi-Manas
is the Heavenly Man, the Spiritual Man, and he is the expression of the Monad,
whose reflected aspect of Will is Atma, whose reflected aspect of Wisdom is
Buddhi, whose reflected aspect of Activity is Manas. Hence we may regard the
human Atma as the Will-aspect of the Monad, ensouling
an akashic atom; the human Buddhi as the Wisdom-aspect of the Monad, ensouling an air (divine flame) atom; the human Manas as
the Activity-aspect of the Monad, ensouling a fiery
atom. Thus in Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the
spiritual Triad, or the Heavenly [62] Man, we have the three aspects, or
energies, of the Monad, embodied in atomic matter, and this is the
"Spirit" in man, the Jivatma or Life-Self,
the separated Self.[34] It is the
germinal Spirit, and in its third aspect the "baby Ego". It is identical
in nature with the Monad, is the Monad, but is lessened in force and activity
by the veils of matter round it. This lessening of power must not blind us to
the identity of nature. We must ever remember that the human consciousness is a
unit, and that though its manifestations vary, these variations are only due to
the predominance of one or other of its aspects and to the relative density of
the materials in which an aspect is working. Its manifestations, thus
conditioned, vary, but it is itself ever one.
Such
part, then, of the consciousness of the Monad as can express itself in a
fivefold universe enters at first thus into the higher matter of this
universe, embodying itself in an atom of each of the three [63] higher planes;
having thus shone forth and appropriated these atoms for his own use, the Monad
has begun his work; in his own subtle
nature he cannot as yet descend below the anupadaka
plane, and he is therefore said to be in "Silence and Darkness", unmanifest;
but he lives and works in and by means of these appropriated atoms, which form
the garment of his life on the planes nearest to his own. We may figure this
action thus:
[64]
This
spiritual Triad, as it is often called, Atma-Buddi-Manas,
the Jivatma, is described as a seed, a germ, of
divine Life, containing the potentialities of its own heavenly Father, its
Monad, to be unfolded into powers in the course of evolution. This is the
"manhood" of the divine Son of the First Logos, animated by the
"Godhead", the Monad - a mystery truly, but one which is repeated in
many forms around us.
And
now the nature, which was free in the subtle matter of his own plane, becomes
bound by the denser matter, and his powers of consciousness cannot as yet
function in this blinding veil. He is therein as a mere germ, an embryo,
powerless, senseless, helpless, while the Monad on his own plane is strong,
conscious, capable, so far as his internal life is concerned; the one is the
Monad in Eternity, the other is the Monad in time and space; the content of the
Monad eternal is to become the extent of the Monad temporal and spatial. This
at present embryonic life will evolve into a complex being, the expression of
the [65] Monad on each plane of the universe. All-powerful internally on his own
subtle plane, he is at first powerless, fettered, helpless, when enwrapped
externally in denser matter, unable to receive through it, or to give out
through it, vibrations. But he will gradually master the matter that at first
enslaves him; slowly, surely, he will mould it for Self-expression; he is aided
and watched over by the all-sustaining and preserving Second Logos, until he
can live in it fully as he lives above, and become in his turn a creative Logos
and bring forth out of himself a universe. The power of creating a universe is
only gained, according to THE WISDOM, by involving within the Self all that is
later to be put forth. A Logos does not create out of nothing, but evolves all
from Himself; and from the experiences we are now
passing through, we are gathering the materials out of which we may build a
system in the future.
But
this spiritual Triad, this Jivatma, which is the
Monad in the five-fold universe, cannot himself commence at [66] once any
separate self-directed activity. He cannot gather round himself any
aggregations of matter as yet, but can only abide in his atomic vesture. The
life of the Second Logos is to him as its mother's womb to the embryo, and
within this the building begins. We may, in very truth, regard this stage of evolution,
in which the Logos shapes, nourishes, and develops the germinating life, as
being, for the Heavenly Man, or truly the Heavenly Embryo, a period
corresponding to the ante-natal life of a human being, during which he is
slowly obtaining a body, which is nourished meanwhile by the life-currents of
the mother and formed out of her substance. Thus also with the Jivatma, enclosing the life of the Monad; he must await the
building of his body on the lower planes, and he cannot emerge from this
ante-natal life and be "born", until there is a body builded on the
lower planes. The "birth" takes place at the formation of the causal
body, when the Heavenly Man is manifested as an infant Ego, a true
Individuality, dwelling in a body on the physical plane. A little [67] careful
thought will show how close is the analogy between the evolution of the Pilgrim
and that of each successive rebirth; in the latter case the Jivatma
awaits the formation of the physical body which is building as his habitation;
in the former the spiritual Triads, as a Collectivity, await the, building of
the systemic Quaternary. Until the vehicle on the lowest plane is ready, all is
a preparation for evolution, rather than evolution itself - it is often termed
involution. The evolution of the consciousness must begin by contacts received
by its outermost vehicle; that is, it must begin on the physical plane. It can
only become aware of an outside by impacts on its own outside; until then it
dreams within itself, as the faint inner thrillings ever
outwelling from the Monad cause slight outward-tending pressures in the Jivatma, like a spring of water beneath the earth, seeking
are outlet.
2.
THE WEAVING.
Meanwhile
the preparation for the awakening, the giving of qualities to [68] matter, that
which may be likened to the formation of the tissues of the future body, is
done by the life-power of the Second Logos - the second life-wave, rolling
through plane after plane, imparting its own qualities to that seven-fold
proto-matter. The life-wave, as said above, carries the Jivatmas
with it as far as the atomic sub-plane of the fifth plane, the plane of Fire,
of individualised creative power, of mind. Here they
each have already an atom, the manasic, or mental
veil of the Monad, the Logos flooding these and the remaining atoms of the
plane with His life. All these atoms, forming the whole atomic sub-plane,
whether free or attached to Jivatmas, may rightly be
termed Monadic Essence; but as in the course of evolution, presently to be
explained, differences arise between the attached and the non-attached atoms,
the term Monadic Essence is usually employed for the non-attached, while the
attached are called, for reasons which will appear, "permanent
atoms". We may define Monadic Essence then as atomic matter ensouled by the life of the [69] Second Logos. It is His
clothing for the vivifying and holding together of forms; He is clad in atomic
matter. His own life as Logos, separate from the life of Atma-Buddhi-Manas in
the man, separate from any lives on the plane - though He supports, permeates, and includes them all -
is clothed only in atomic matter, and it is this which is connoted by the term
of Monadic Essence. The matter of that
plane, already by the nature of its atoms[35] capable of responding by
vibrations to active thought-changes, is thrown by the second life-wave into
combinations fit to express thoughts - abstract thoughts in the subtler matter,
concrete thoughts in the coarser. The combinations of the second and third
higher sub-planes constitute the
The
second life-wave then rolls on into the sixth plane, the plane of Water, or individualised sensation, of desire. The before-mentioned Devas link the Jivatma -
attached, or permanent, units of the fifth plane to a corresponding number of
atoms on the sixth plane, and the Second Logos floods these and the remaining
atoms with His own life - these atoms thus becoming Monadic Essence as explained
above. The life-wave passes onwards, forming on each sub-plane the combinations
fit to express sensations. These combinations constitute the
Elemental
Essence is thus seen to consist of aggregations of matter on each of the six
non-atomic sub-planes of the mental and desire planes, aggregations which do
not themselves serve as forms for any entity to inhabit, but as the [71]
materials out of which such forms may be built.
The
life-wave then rolls on into the seventh plane, the plane of Earth, of individualised activities, of actions. As before the Jivatma-attached, or permanent, atoms of the sixth plane
are linked to a corresponding number on the seventh plane, and the Second Logos
floods these and the remaining atoms with His own life - all these atoms thus
becoming Monadic Essence. The life-wave again passes onwards, forming on each
sub-plane combinations fitted to constitute physical bodies, the future
chemical elements, as they are called on the three lower sub-planes.
Looking
at this work of the second life wave as a whole, we see that its downward
sweep is concerned with what may fairly be called the making of primary
tissues, out of which hereafter subtle and dense bodies are to be formed. Well
has it been called in some ancient scriptures a "weaving", for such
it literally is. The materials prepared by the Third Logos
are woven by the Second Logos into threads [72] and into cloths of which future
garments the subtle and dense bodies - will be made. As a man may take
separate threads of flax, cotton, silk-themselves combinations of a simpler
kind - and weave these into linens, into cotton or silk cloth, these cloths in
turn to be shaped into garments by cutting and stitching, so does the second
Logos weave the matter-threads, weave these again into tissues, and then shape
them into forms. He is the Eternal Weaver, while we might think of the Third
Logos as the Eternal Chemist. The latter works in nature as
in a laboratory, the former as in a manufactory. These similes,
materialistic as they are, are not to be despised, for they are crutches to aid
our limping attempts to understand.
This
"weaving" gives to matter its characteristics, as the characteristics
of the thread differ from those of the raw material, as the characteristics of
the cloth differ from those of the threads. The Logos weaves the two kinds of
cloth of manasic matter, of mind-stuff, and out of
these will be made later the causal and the mental [73] bodies. He weaves the
cloth of astral matter, of desire-stuff, and out of this will be made later the
desire body. That is to say, that the combinations of matter formed and held
together by the second life-wave have the characteristics which will act on the
Monad when he comes into touch with others, and will enable him to act on them.
So will he be able to receive all kinds of vibrations, mental, sensory, etc.
The characteristics depend on the nature of the aggregations. There are seven
great types, fixed by the nature of the atom, and within these innumerable
sub-types. All this goes to the making of the materials of the mechanism of
consciousness, which will be conditioned by all these textures, colourings, densities.
In
this downward sweep of the life-wave through the fifth, sixth, and seventh
planes, downward till the densest matter is reached, and the wave turns at that
point to begin its sweep upwards, we must think, then, of its work as that of
forming combinations which show qualities, and so we sometimes speak of this
work as the giving of qualities. In the upward sweep we shall [74] find that
bodies are built out of the matter thus prepared. But before we study the
shaping of these, we must consider the seven-fold division of this life-wave in
its descent, and the coming forth of the "Shining Ones", the "Devas", the "Angels", the
"Elementals", that belong also to this downward sweep. These are the
"Minor Gods" of whom Plato speaks, from whom man derives his
perishable bodies.
3.
THE SEVEN STREAMS.
The
question is constantly asked: Why this continual play by Theosophists upon the
number seven? We speak of it as the "root-number of our system", and
there is one obvious reason why this number should play an active part in the
grouping of things, since we are concerned with the triplicities
previously mentioned and explained. A triad naturally produces a septenate by its own internal relations, since its three
factors can group themselves in seven ways and no more. We have spoken of [75]
matter, outside the limits of a universe, as having the three qualities of
matter - inertia, mobility, and rhythm - in a state of equilibrium. When the
life of the Logos causes motion, we have at once the possibility of seven
groups, for in any given atom, or group of atoms, one or other of these
qualities may be more strongly energised than the
others, and thus a predominant quality will be shown forth. We may thus have
three groups, in one of which inertia will predominate, in mobility, in a third
rhythm. Each of these, again, subdivides, according to the predominance in it
of one or other of the remaining two qualities: thus in one of the two inertia
groups, mobility may predominate over rhythm, and in
the other rhythm over mobility, and so with the other two groups of mobility
and rhythm. Hence arise the well-known types, classified according to the
predominant quality, usually designated by their Samskrit
terms, satvic, rajasic, and
tamasic, rhythmical, mobile, and inert, and we have satvic, rajasic, and tamasic foods, [76] animals, men, etc.. And we obtain seven
groups in all: six subdivisions of the three, and a seventh in which the three
qualities are equally active. [The varieties of type are simply intended to
mark in each triad the relative energies of the qualities.]
The
Life of the Logos, which is to flow into this matter, itself manifests in seven
streams, or rays.
These
arise similarly out of the three Aspects of Consciousness present in Him, as in
all consciousnesses, since all are manifestations of the Universal SELF. These are Bliss, or Ichchha, Will;
Cognition, or Jnanam, Wisdom; [77] Existence, or Kriya, Activity. So we have the seven streams or
rays, of Logic life:
All
things may be regarded as grouped under these seven headings, the seven streams
of Logic life composing the second life-wave, and we may think of it as flowing
through the planes, descending through them; so that, if we draw the planes
horizontally, the life-wave would sweep vertically downwards through them.
Moreover in each stream there will be
seven primary sub-divisions, according to the type of matter concerned,
and within these secondary sub-divisions, according to the proportions of the
qualities within each type, and so on and on in [78] innumerable variations.
Into these we need not enter. It is enough to notice the seven types of matter
and the seven types of consciousnesses. The seven streams of Logic life show
out as the seven types of consciousnesses, and within each of these the seven
types of matter-combinations are found. There are to be seen seven distinct
types in each of the three Elemental Kingdoms and on the physical plane. Mme.
Blavatsky, in The Secret Doctrine, dealing with man, quotes from the stanzas of
the Book of Dzyan, the fact that there were: "Seven of Them [Creators]
each on His lot", forming the seven types of men, and these subdivided: "Seven times seven shadows
of future men were born"[36]. Here is the root of the differing
temperaments of men.
4.
THE SHINING ONES.
We
have now to consider another result of the downward-sweeping Life-Wave. We have
seen that it gives qualities to [79] aggregations of matter on the fifth and
sixth planes, and that we have in the First Elemental Kingdom materials ready
to clothe abstract thoughts; in the Second Elemental Kingdom materials ready to
clothe concrete thoughts; in the Third
Elemental Kingdom materials ready to clothe desires. But in addition to
imparting qualities to aggregations of matter, the Second Logos gives forth,
during this stage of His descent, evolved beings, at various stages of
development, who form the normal and typical
inhabitants of these three kingdoms. These beings have been brought over by the
Logos from a preceding evolution, and are sent forth from the treasure-house
of His life, to inhabit the plane for which their development fits them; and to
cooperate with Him, and later with man, in the working-out of His scheme of
evolution. They have received various names in the various religions, but all
religions recognise the fact of their existence and
of their work. The Samskrit name Devas
- the Shining Ones - is the most general, and aptly describes the most marked
characteristic of their [80] appearance, a brilliant luminous radiance.[37] The
Hebrew, Christian, and Muhammadan religions call them
Archangels and Angels. The Theosophist - to avoid sectarian connotations -
names them, after their habitat, Elementals; and this title has the further
advantage that it reminds the student of their connection with the five
"Elements" of the ancient world: Ether, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth.
For there are similar beings of a higher type on the atmic
and buddhic planes, as well as the Fire and Water
Elementals of the mental and desire planes, and the ethereal Elementals of the
physical. These beings have bodies formed out of the elemental essence of the
kingdom to which they belong, flashing many-hued bodies, changing form at the
will of the indwelling entity. They form a vast host, ever actively at work, labouring at the elemental essence to improve its [81]
quality, taking it to form their own bodies, throwing it off and taking other
portions of it, to render it more responsive; they are also constantly busied
in the shaping of forms, in aiding human Egos on the way to re-incarnation in
building their new bodies, bringing materials of the needed kind and helping in
its arrangements. The less advanced the Ego the greater the directive work of
the Deva; with animals they do almost all the work,
and practically all with vegetables and minerals. They are the active agents in
the work of the Logos, carrying out all the details of His world-plan, and
aiding the countless evolving lives to find the materials they need for their
clothing. All antiquity recognised the indispensable
work they do in the worlds, and
At
the stage we are considering, however, all this work, except that of the
improvement of the elemental essence, lay in the far future, but the Shining
Ones laboured diligently at that improvement.
There
was thus a vast work of preparation accomplished before anything in the way of
physical forms, such as we should recognise, could
appear; a vast labour at the Form side of things before embodied
consciousnesses, save that of the Logos and His Shining Ones, could do
anything at all. That which was to be human consciousness at this point was a
seed, sown on the higher planes, unconscious of all without it. Under the
impelling warmth of the Logic life, it sends out [83] a tiny rootlet downwards,
which pushes its way into the lower planes, blindly, unconsciously, and this
rootlet must form cur next object of study. [84]
-------
CHAPTER I V.
THE PERMANENT ATOM.
1.
THE ATTACHING OF THE ATOMS.
LET
us consider the spiritual Triad, the tri-atomic Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the Jivatma, the seed of consciousness, within which the warmth
of the stream of Logic life, which surrounds it, is causing faint thrillings of responsive life. These are internal thrillings, preparatory to external activities. After long
preparation, a tiny thread, like a minute rootlet, appears, proceeding from
the tri-atomic molecule ensheathing consciousness, a
golden-coloured thread of life sheathed in buddhic matter; countless such threads appear from the
countless Jivatmas, waving vaguely at first in the
seven great streams of life, and then becoming anchored - if the expression may
be [85] permitted - by attachment to a single molecule or unit, on the fourth
mental sub-plane. This anchoring - like the previous one to the three higher
atoms, and like the later ones to the astral and physical atoms - is brought
about by the action of the Shining Ones. Round this attached unit gather
temporary aggregations of elemental essence of the
This
whole process is repeated, when the
Once
more is the process repeated, when the great wave has travelled
onwards into the physical plane. The tiny thread of
[88] buddhic-ensheathed life, with its attached
mental and desire units, pushes outwards once more, and annexes a physical
atom, adding this to itself as its stable centre on the physical plane. Round
this gather ethereal molecules, but the heavier physical matter is more
coherent than the subtler matter of the higher planes, and a much longer term
of life may be observed. Then - as are formed the ethereal types of the
proto-metals, and later proto-metals, metals, non-metallic elements, and
minerals - the Shining Ones of the Ethereal Physical Kingdom submerge these
attached atoms in their sheaths of ether into the one of the seven ethereal
types to which they respectively belong, and they begin their long physical
evolution. Before we can follow this further we must consider Group-Souls,
which on the atomic sub-plane receive their third enveloping layer. But it
will be well to pause for a while on the nature and the function of these
permanent atoms, the tri-units, or triads, which are as a reflexion
on the lower planes of the spiritual Triads on the higher, and each of which is
attached to [89] a spiritual Triad, its Jivatma. Each
triad consists of a physical atom, an astral atom, and a mental unit,
permanently attached by a thread of buddhic matter to
a spiritual Triad. That thread has sometimes been called the Sutratma, the Thread-Self, because the permanent particles
are threaded on it as "beads on a string".[39]
We
may again resort to a diagram, showing the relation.
[90]
2.
THE WEB OF LIFE.
It
has been said that the connexion with the spiritual
Triad is through buddhic matter, and this is
indicated in the diagram by the dotted line which connects the atoms coming
down from the line in the buddhic plane, and not from
the manasic atom. It is of buddhic
matter that is spun the marvellous web of life which supports and vivifies all
our bodies. If the bodies be looked at with buddhic
vision, they all disappear, and in their places is seen a shimmering golden web
of inconceivable fineness and delicate beauty, a tracery of all their parts, in
a network with minute meshes. This is formed of buddhic
matter, and within these meshes the coarser atoms are built together. Closer
inspection shows that the whole network is formed of a single thread, which is
a prolongation of the Sutratma. During the antenatal
life of the babe, this thread grows out from the permanent physical atom and
branches out in every direction, this growth continuing until the physical body
is full grown; during physical life the prana, the life-[91]breath, plays ever
along it, following all its branches and meshes; at death it is withdrawn,
leaving the particles of the body to scatter; it may be watched, slowly
disentangling itself from the dense physical matter, the life-breath
accompanying it, and drawing itself together in the heart round the permanent
atom; as it withdraws, the deserted limbs grow cold - its absence makes the
"death-chill"; the golden-violet flame of the life-breath is seen
shining around it in the heart, and the flame, and the golden life-web, and
the permanent atom rise along the
secondary Sushumna-nadi[40] to the head, into the
third ventricle of the brain; the eyes glaze, as the life-web draws itself
away, and the whole of it is collected round the permanent atom in the third
ventricle; then the whole rises slowly to the point of junction of the parietal and occipital
sutures, and leaves the physical body - [92] dead. It thus surrounds the
permanent atom like a golden shell - recalling the closely woven cocoon of the
silk-worm - to remain enshrouding it till the building of a new physical body
again demands its unfolding. The same procedure is
followed with the astral and mental particles, so that, when these bodies have
disintegrated, the lower triad may be seen as a brilliantly scintillating
nucleus within the causal body, an appearance which had been noted, long ere
closer observation revealed its significance.
3.
THE CHOOSING OF THE PERMANENT ATOMS.
Let
us return to the original appropriation by the Monad of the permanent atoms of
the three higher planes, and seek to understand something of their use, of the
object of their appropriation; the same principles apply to the permanent atoms
of each plane.
In
the first place, it will be remembered that the matter of each plane shows out
seven main types, varying according to the dominance of one or other of the
[93] three great attributes of matter: inertia, mobility, and rhythm. Hence the
permanent atoms may be chosen out of any one of these types, but it appears
that, by a single Monad, they are all chosen out of the same type. It appears,
further, that while the actual attachment of the permanent atoms to the
life-thread on the three higher planes is the work of the Hierarchies before
spoken of, the choice which directs the appropriation is made by the Monad
himself. He himself belongs to one or other of the seven groups of Life already
spoken of; at the head of each of these groups stands a Planetary Logos, who
"colours" the whole, and the Monads are grouped by these colourings, each "being coloured
by his 'Father-Star'".[41] This is the first
great determining characteristic of each of us, our fundamental
"colour", or "key-note", or "temperament". The
Monad may choose to use his new pilgrimage for the strengthening and
increasing of this special characteristic; if so, the Hierarchies will attach
to his life-thread atoms belonging [94] to the group in matter corresponding to
his life-group. This choice would result in the secondary "colour",
or "keynote", or "temperament", emphasising
and strengthening the first, and, in the later evolution, the powers and the
weaknesses of that doubled temperament would show themselves with great force.
Or, the Monad may choose to use his new pilgrimage for the unfolding of another
aspect of his nature; then the Hierarchies will attach to his life-thread atoms
belonging to the material group corresponding to another life-group, that in
which the aspect he wills to develop is predominant. This choice would result
in the secondary "colour", or "key-note", or
"temperament", modifying the first, with corresponding results in
the later evolution. This latter choice is obviously by far the more frequent,
and it tends to a greater complexity of character, especially in the final
stages of human evolution, when the influence of the Monad makes itself felt
more strongly.
As
said above, it appears that all the permanent atoms are taken from the same
[95] material group, so that those of the lower triad correspond with those of
the higher; but on the lower planes the influence of these atoms in determining
the type of materials used in the bodies of which they are the generating
centres - the question to which we must now turn our attention - is very much
limited and interfered with by other causes. On the higher planes the bodies
are relatively permanent, when once found, and reproduce definitely the keynote
of their permanent atoms, however enriched that note may be by overtones, ever
increasing in subtlety of harmony. But on the lower planes, while the keynote
of the permanent atoms will be the same, various other causes come in to
determine the choice of materials for the bodies, as will be better seen
presently.
4.
THE USE OF THE PERMANENT ATOMS.
To
put this use into a phrase: The use of the permanent atoms is to preserve
within themselves, as vibratory powers, the results of all the experiences
through [96] which they have passed. It will perhaps be best to take the
physical atom as an illustration, since this is susceptible of easier
explanation than those on higher planes.
A
physical impact of any kind will cause vibrations corresponding to its own in
the physical body it contacts; these may be local or general, according to the
nature and force of the impact. But whether local or general, they will reach
the permanent physical atom, transmitted by the web of life in all cases, and
in violent impacts by mere concussion also. This vibration, forced on the atom
from outside, becomes a vibratory power in the atom - a tendency therein to
repeat the vibration. Through the whole life of the body, innumerable impacts
strike it; not one but leaves its mark on the permanent atom; rot one but
leaves it with a new possibility of vibration. All the results of physical
experiences remain stored up in this permanent atom, as powers of vibrating. At
the end of a physical life, this permanent atom has thus stored up innumerable
vibratory powers; that is, has [97] learned to respond in countless ways to the
external world, to reproduce in itself the vibrations imposed upon it by
surrounding objects. The physical body disintegrates at death; its particles
scatter, all carrying with them the result of the experiences through which
they have passed - as indeed all particles of our bodies are ever doing day by
day, in their ceaseless dyings out of one body and
ceaseless birthings into another. But the physical
permanent atom remains; it is the only atom that has passed through all the
experiences of the ever-changing conglomerations we call our body, and it has
acquired all the results of all those experiences. Wrapped in its golden
cocoon, it sleeps through the long years during which the Jivatma
that owns it is living through other experiences in other worlds. By these it
remains unaffected, being incapable of responding to them, and it sleeps
through its long night in undisturbed repose.[42]
When
the time for reincarnation comes, [98] and the presence of the permanent atom
renders possible the fertilisation of the ovum from
which the new body is to grow,[43] its keynote sounds
out, and is one of the forces which guide the ethereal builder, the elemental
charged with the building of the physical body, to choose the materials
suitable for his work, for he can use none that cannot be to some extent
attuned to the permanent atom. But it is only one of the forces; the karma of
past lives, mental, emotional, and in relation to others, demands materials
capable of the most varied expressions; out of that karma, the Lords of Karma
have chosen such as is congruous, i.e., such as can be expressed through a body
of a particular material group; this
congruous mass of karma determines the material group, over-riding the
permanent atom, and out of that group are chosen by the elemental such
materials as can vibrate in [99] harmony with the permanent atom, or in
discords not disruptive in their violence. Hence, as said, the permanent atom
is only one of the forces in determining the third "colour", or
"keynote", or "temperament", which characterises
each of us. According to this temperament will be the time of the birth of the
body; it must be born into the world at a time when the physical planetary
influences are suitable to its third temperament, and it thus is born
"under its" astrological "Star". Needless to say, it is not
the Star that imposes the temperament, but the temperament that fixes the
epoch of birth under that Star. But herein lies the
explanation of the correspondences between Stars - Star-Angels, that is to say
- and characters, and the usefulness for educational purposes of a skilfully and carefully drawn horoscope, as a guide to the
personal temperament of a child.
That
such complicated results, capable of impressing their peculiarities on
surrounding matter, can exist in such minute space as an atom may, indeed,
appear inconceivable - yet so it is. And it is [100] worthy notice that
ordinary science countenances a similar idea, since the infinitesimal biophors in the germinal cell of Weismann
are supposed to thus carry on to the offspring the characteristics of his line
of progenitors. While the one brings to the body its physical peculiarities
from its ancestors, the other supplies those which have been acquired by the
evolving man during his own evolution. H. P. Blavatsky has put this very
clearly:
"The
German embryologist-philosopher - stepping over the heads of the Greek
Hippocrates and Aristotle, right back into the teachings of the old Aryans -
shows one infinitesimal cell, out of millions of others at work in the
formation of an organism, alone and unaided determining, by means of constant
segmentation and multiplication, the correct image of the future man, or
animal, in its physical, mental, and psychic characteristics.
Complete
the physical plasm, mentioned above, the 'germinal
cell' of man with all its material potentialities, with the 'spiritual plasm' so to say, or the fluid that contains the five lower
principles of [101] the six-principled Dhyani - and you have the secret, if you
are spiritual enough to understand it."[44]
A
little study of physical heredity in the light of Weismann's
teachings will be sufficient to convince the student of the possibilities of
such a body as the permanent atom. A man reproduces the features of a
long-past ancestor, shows out a physical peculiarity that characterised
a forbear several centuries ago. We can trace the Stuart nose through a long
series of portraits, and innumerable cases of such resemblances can be found.
Why then should there be anything extraordinary in the idea that an atom should
gather within itself not biophors, as in the germinal
cell, but tendencies to repeat innumerable vibrations already practised. No spatial difficulty arises, any more than in
the case of a string, from which numerous notes can be drawn by bowing it at
different points, each note containing numerous overtones. We must not think of
the minute space of an atom as crowded with innumerable vibrating bodies, but
of a [102] limited number of bodies, each capable of setting up innumerable
vibrations.
Truly,
however, even the spatial difficulty is illusory, for there are no limits to
the minute any more than to the great. Modern science now sees in the atom a
system of revolving worlds, each world in its own orbit, the whole resembling a
solar system. The master of illusion, Space, like his brother master, Time,
cannot here daunt us. There is no limit of the possibilities of sub-division
in thought, and hence none in the thought-expression we call matter.
The
normal number of spirillae at work in the permanent
atoms in this Round is four; as in the ordinary unattached atoms of matter in
general at this stage of evolution. But let us take the permanent atom in the
body of a very highly evolved man, a man far in advance of his fellows. In such
a case we may find the permanent atom showing five spirillae
at work, and may seek to learn the bearing of this fact on the general
materials of his body. In ante-natal life, the presence of this five-spirillae-permanent-atom would have [103] caused the
building elemental to select among his materials any similar atoms that were
available. For the most part, he would be reduced to the use of any he could
find, which had been in temporary connexion with any
body the centre of which was a five-spirillae-permanent-atom.
Its presence would have tended to arouse in them a corresponding activity,
especially - perhaps only - if they had formed part of the brain or nerves of
the highly developed tenant of the body. The fifth spirilla
would have become more or less active in them, and although it would have dropped back into inactivity after
leaving such a body, its temporary activity would have predisposed it to
respond more readily in the future to the current of monadic life. Such atoms,
then, would be secured by the elemental for his work, as far as possible. He
would also, should opportunity serve, appropriate from the paternal or maternal
bodies, if they were of a high order, any such atoms as he could secure, and
build them into his charge. After birth, and throughout life, such a body would
attract to itself any [104] similar atoms which came within its magnetic
field. Such a body, in the company of highly evolved persons, would profit to an
exceptional degree by the propinquity, appropriating any five-spirillae-atoms which were present in the shower of
particles flung off from their bodies, and thus gaining physically, as well as
mentally and morally, from their company.
The
permanent astral atom bears exactly the same relation to the astral body as
that borne by the physical permanent atom to the physical body. At the end of
the life in kamaloka - purgatory - the golden
life-web withdraws from the astral body, leaving it to disintegrate, as its
physical comrade had previously done, and enwraps the astral permanent atom for
its long sleep. A similar relation is borne to the mental body by the permanent
mental particle during physical, astral, and mental life; during the early
stages of human evolution little improvement is made in the mental permanent
unit by the brief devachanic lives, not only on
account of their brevity, but because the feeble thought-forms produced by the
[105] undeveloped intelligence affect very slightly the permanent unit. But
when thought-power is more highly evolved, the devachanic
life is a time of great improvement, and innumerable vibratory energies are
stored up, and show their value when the time arrives for the building of a new
mental body for the next cycle of reincarnation. At the close of the mental
life in devachan, the golden web withdraws from the
mental body, leaving it also to disintegrate, while it enwraps the mental
particle; and the lower triad of permanent atoms alone remains as the representative
of the three lower bodies. These are stored up, as before said, as a radiant
nucleus-like particle within the causal body. They are thus all that remains to
the Ego of his bodies in the lower worlds, when that cycle of experience is
completed, as they were his means of communication with the lower planes during
the life of those bodies.
When
comes the period for re-birth, a thrill of life from the Ego arouses the mental
unit; the life-web begins to unfold again, and, the vibrating unit acts as a [106]
magnet, drawing towards itself materials with vibratory powers resembling, or
accordant with, its own. The Shining Ones of the Second Elemental Kingdom bring
such materials within its reach; in the earlier stages of evolution they shape
the matter into a loose cloud around the permanent unit, but as evolution goes
on the Ego exercises over the shaping an ever-increasing influence. When the
mental body is partially formed, the life-thrill awakens the astral atom, and
the same procedure is followed. Finally the life-touch reaches the physical
atom, and it acts in the way already described on pp. 98-100.
A
questioner sometimes asks: How can these permanent atoms be
stored up within the causal body, without losing their physical, astral, and
mental natures, since the causal body exists on a higher plane, where the
physical, as physical, cannot be? Such a querent is
forgetting, for a moment, that all the planes are interpenetrating, and that
it is no more difficult for the causal body to encircle the triad of the lower
planes, than for it to encircle the [107] hundreds of millions of atoms that
form the mental, astral, and physical bodies belonging to it during a period of
earth-life. The triad forms a minute particle within the causal body; each
constituent part of it belongs to its own plane, but, as the planes have
meeting points everywhere, no difficulty arises in the necessary juxtaposition.
We are all on all planes at all times.
5.
MONADIC ACTION ON THE PERMANENT ATOMS.
We
may here enquire: Is there anything that can be properly termed monadic action
- the action of the Monad on the anupadaka plane - on
the permanent atom. Of direct action there is none, nor can there be until the
germinal spiritual Triad has reached a high stage of evolution; indirect
action, that is action on the spiritual Triad, which in turn acts on the lower,
there is continually. But for all practical purposes we may consider it as the
action of the spiritual Triad, which, as we have seen, is the Monad veiled [108]
in matter denser than that of his native plane.
The
spiritual Triad is drawing most of his energy, and all the directive capacity
of that energy, from the Second Logos, bathed as he is in that stream of Life.
What may be called his own special activity does not concern itself with all
the shaping and building activity of the Second Life-Wave, but is directed to
the evolution of the atom itself, in association with the Third Logos. This
energy from the spiritual Triad confines itself to the atomic sub-planes, and,
until the fourth Round, appears to spend itself chiefly on the permanent atoms.
It is directed first to the shaping and then to the vivifying of the spirillae which form the wall of the atom. The vortex,
which is the atom, is the life of the Third Logos; but the wall of the spirillae is gradually formed on the external surface of
this vortex during the descent of the Second Logos, not vivified by Him, but
faintly traced out over the surface of this revolving vortex of life. They
remain - so far as the Second Logos is concerned - merely as these [109] filmy
unused channels, but presently, as the life of the Monad flows down, it plays
into the first of these channels, vivifying that channel and turning it into a
working part of the atom. This goes on through the successive Rounds, and by
the time we reach the fourth Round we have four distinct streams of life from
each Monad, circulating through four sets of spirillae
in his own permanent atoms. Now as the Monad works in the permanent atom, and
it is put forward as the nucleus of a body, he begins to work similarly in the
atoms that are drawn round that permanent atom, and vivifies in turn their spirillae; but that is temporary vivification, and not
continuous as in the case of the permanent atom. He thus brings into activity
these faint shadowy films, formed by the Second Life-Wave, and, when the life
of the body is broken up, the atoms thus stimulated return to the great mass
of atomic matter, improved and worked upon by the life which, during their connexion with the permanent atom, has been vivifying
them. The channels, being thus [110] developed, are more capable of easily
receiving another such life-stream, as they enter another body, and therein
come into relation with a permanent atom belonging to some other Monad. Thus
this work continually goes on, on the physical and astral planes, and in the
particle of mental matter on the mental plane, improving the materials with
which the Monads are permanently or temporarily connected, and this evolution
of atoms is constantly going on under the influence of the Monads. The
permanent atoms evolve more rapidly, because of their continuity of connexion with the Monad, while the others profit by their
repeated temporary association with the permanent atoms.
During
the first Round of the terrene Chain, the first set of spirillae
of the physical plane atoms becomes thus vivified by the life of the Monad
flowing through the spiritual Triad. This is the set of spirillae
used by the pranic, or life-breath, currents
affecting the dense part of the physical body. Similarly in the second Round
the second set of spirillae becomes
active, and herein play [111] the pranic
currents connected with the etheric double. During these two Rounds nothing can
be found, in connexion with any form,
that can be called sensations of pleasure and pain. During the third
Round, the third set of spirillae becomes vivified,
and here first appears what is called sensibility; for, through these spirillae, kamic or desire energy
can affect the physical body, the kamic prana can
play in them, and thus bring the physical into direct communication with the
astral. During the fourth Round, the fourth set of spirillae
becomes vivified, and the kama-manasic prana plays in
them, and makes them fit to be used for the building of a brain which is to act
as the instrument for thought.
When
a person passes out of the normal, and takes up the abnormal human evolution
involved in preparing for and entering the Path which lies beyond normal evolution,
he has then, in connexion with his permanent atoms, a
task of exceeding difficulty. He must vivify more sets of spirillae
than are vivified in the humanity of his time. [112] Four sets are already at
his service, as a fourth Round man. He begins to vivify a fifth, and thus to
bring into manifestation the fifth Round atom while still working in a fourth
Round body. It is to this that allusion is made in some early theosophical
books, in which "Fifth Rounders" and
"Sixth Rounders" are
spoken of as appearing in our present humanity. Those thus designated have
evolved the fifth and sixth set of spirillae in their
permanent atoms, thus obtaining a better instrument for the use of their highly
developed consciousness. The change is brought about by certain yoga practices
in the use of which great caution is required, lest injury should be inflicted
on the brain in which this work is being carried on, and further progress along
that particular line stopped during the present incarnation. [113]
-------
CHAPTER V.
GROUP-SOULS.
1.
THE MEANING OF THE TERM.
SPEAKING
generally, a Group-Soul is a collection of permanent triads, in a triple
envelope of monadic essence. This description is true of all Group-Souls
functioning on the physical plane, but gives no idea of the extreme complexity
of the subject of Group-Souls. For they divide and sub-divide constantly, the
contents of each division and sub-division decreasing in number, as evolution
goes on, until at last a "Group-Soul" encloses but a single triad, to
which it may continue for many births to discharge the protective and nutrient
functions of a Group-Soul, while no longer technically describable as one, the
"Group" having separated off into its constituent parts. [114]
Seven
Group-Souls are to be seen, functioning on the physical plane, before any forms
appear. They first show themselves as vague, filmy forms, one in each stream
of the Second Life-Wave, on the mental plane, becoming more clearly outlined
on the astral plane, and yet more so on the physical.
They float in the great ocean of matter as balloons might float in the sea.
Observing them more closely, we see three separate layers of matter, forming an
envelope, which contains innumerable triads. Before any inmineralisation
has taken place, no golden life-web is, of course, visible around these; only
the radiant golden threads which connect them with their parent Jivatmas are to be seen, shining with that strange lustre which belongs to their birth-plane. The innermost
of these three layers consists of physical monadic essence; that is, the layer
is composed of atoms of the physical plane, ensouled
with the life of the Second Logos. At first sight, these innermost layers
appear to be identical in the seven Group-Souls; but closer observation reveals
that each layer is formed of atoms [115] from only one of the seven
Matter-groups before described. Each Group-Soul, therefore, differs in material
constitution from all the rest, and the contained
triads in each belong to the same matter-group. The second layer of the
Group-Soul envelope is composed of astral monadic essence, belonging to the
same matter-group as the first; and the third of units of the fourth sub-plane
of mental matter of the same type. This triple envelope is the protector and nourisher of the triads contained within it, veritable
embryos, incapable, as yet, of separate independent activity.
The
seven Group-Souls soon multiply, division going on continually with the
multiplication of distinct sub-types, as the immediate forerunners of the
chemical elements appear, to be followed by the elements themselves, and the
minerals formed from them. The laws of space, for instance - apart from the specialisation of the contents of the Group-Soul, the
permanent triads - may lead to a division of it.
Thus
a vein of gold in Australia may [116] lead to the inmineralisation
of many such triads within a single envelope, while the laying down of another
vein in a distant place, say the Rocky Mountains, may lead to the division of
this envelope, and the transfer of part of its contents to America in their own
envelope. But the more important causes which bring about sub-divisions will be
explained in the course of our study. The Group-Soul and its contents divide
by fission, like an ordinary cell - one becomes two, two four, and so on. All
the triads have to pass through the mineral kingdom, the place in which matter
reaches its grossest form, and the place where the great wave reaches the limit
of its descent, and turns to begin its upward climbing. Here it is that
physical consciousness must awaken; life must now turn definitely outwards, and
recognise contacts with other lives in an external
world.
Now
the evolution of each being in these early stages depends chiefly on the
cherishing life of the Logos, and partly on the co-operating guidance of the
Shining Ones, and partly on its own [117] blind pressure against the limits of
its enclosing form. I have compared the evolution through the mineral,
vegetable, and animal kingdoms to an ante-natal period, and the resemblance is
exact. As the child is nourished by the life-streams of the mother, so does
the protective envelope of the Group-Soul nourish the lives within it,
receiving and distributing the experiences gathered in. The circulating life is
the life of the parent; the young plants, the young animals, the young human
beings, are not ready for independent life as yet, but must draw nourishment
from the parent. And so these germinating lives in the mineral kingdom are nourished
by the Group-Souls, by the envelopes of monadic essence, thrilling with Logic
life. A very fair picture of this stage may be seen in the carpel of a plant,
in which the ovules gradually appear, becoming more and more independent.
For
the sake of a clear conception, we may glance rapidly forward over the changes
through which the Group-Soul passes, as its contents evolve, before going [118]
into details. During the mineral evolution, the habitat of the Group-Soul may
be said to be that of its densest envelope, the physical; its most active
working is on the physical plane. As its contents pass onwards into the
vegetable kingdom, and ascend through it, the physical envelope slowly
disappears - as though absorbed by the contents for the strengthening of their
own etheric bodies - and its activity is transferred to the astral plane, to
the nourishing of the astral bodies of the contained triads. As these develop
yet further and pass into the animal kingdom, the astral envelope is similarly
absorbed, and the activity of the Group-Soul is transferred to the mental
plane, and it nourishes the inchoate mental bodies and shapes them gradually
into less vagueness of outline. When the Group-Soul contains but a single
triad, and has nourished this into readiness for the reception of the third
outpouring, what is left of it disintegrates into matter of the third
sub-plane, and becomes a constituent part of the causal body formed by the downpouring from above meeting the upward-drawn column
[119] from below - to use the graphic waterspout simile. Then is the
re-incarnating Ego born into independent manifestation; the guarded ante-natal
life is over.
2.
THE DIVISION OF THE GROUP-SOUL.
It
is on the physical plane that consciousness must first evolve into
Self-consciousness, must become aware of an external world that makes impacts
upon it, and must learn to refer those impacts to an external world, and to realise as its own the changes which it undergoes in
consequence of those impacts. By prolonged experiences it will learn to
identify with itself the feeling of pleasure or pain that follows the impact,
and to regard as not itself that which touches its
external surface. It will thus make its first rough distinction of
"Not-I" and "I". As experience increases, the "I"
will retreat ever inwards, and one veil of matter after another will be
relegated outwards as belonging to the "Not-I"; but while its
connotations change, this fundamental distinction [120] between subject and
object will ever remain. "I" is the willing, thinking, acting
consciousness; while the "Not-I" is all as to which it wills, about
which it thinks, and on which it acts. We shall have to consider later the way
in which consciousness becomes Self-consciousness, but at present we are concerned
only with its expression in forms, and the part played by the forms.
This
consciousness awakens on the physical plane, and its expression is the
permanent atom. In this it lies sleeping: "It sleeps in the mineral";
and therein some awakening into lighter slumber must take place, so that it may
be roused out of this deep dreamless sleep, and become sufficiently active to
pass on into the next stage: "It dreams in the vegetable".
Now
the Second Logos, acting in the envelope of the Group-Souls, energises the permanent physical atoms and, by the
mediation of the Shining Ones, as we have seen, plunges them into the various
conditions offered by the mineral kingdom, where each attaches to itself many
mineral particles. At once here we see a large [121] variety of possible
impacts, leading to a variety of experiences, and so presently to lines of
cleavage in a Group-Soul. Some will be whirled high in air, to fall in torrents
of burning lava; some will be exposed to arctic cold, others to tropic heat;
some will be crushed and sheathed in molten metal in the bowels of the earth;
some will be in the sand tossed roughly by rushing billows. Infinite variety of
external impacts will shake and strike and burn and freeze, and in vague
answers of sympathetic vibrations will the deep-slumbering consciousness
respond. When any permanent atom has reached a certain responsiveness, or when
a mineral form, i.e., the particles to which a permanent atom has attached
itself, is broken up, the Group-Soul draws that atom from its encasement. All
the experiences acquired by that atom - and that means the vibrations it has
been forced to execute - remain as powers of vibrating in particular ways, or
as "vibratory powers". That is the outcome of its life in a form. The
permanent atom, losing its embodiment and remaining for a while naked, as it
[122] were, in its Group-Soul, and continuing to repeat these vibrations, to go
over within itself its life-experiences, sets up pulses which run through the
envelope of the Group-Soul and are thus conveyed to other permanent atoms; thus
each affects and helps all the others while remaining itself. The permanent
atoms which have had experiences similar in character will be more strongly
affected by each other than will be those whose experiences have been very
different, and thus there will be a certain segregation going on within the
Group-Soul, and presently a filmy
separating wall will grow inwards from the envelope, and divide these
segregated groups from each other; and so there will be an ever-increasing
number of Group-Souls with contents showing an ever-increasing distinction of
consciousness, while sharing fundamental characteristics.
Now
the responses of consciousness to external stimuli in the mineral kingdom are
far greater than many quite realise, and some of them
are of a nature which shows that there is a dawning of consciousness also in
the astral permanent atom. [123] For chemical elements
exhibit distinct mutual attractions, and chemical marital relationships are
continually disorganised by the intrusion of couples,
one or other of which has a stronger affinity for one of the partners in the
earlier marriage than the original mate. Thus a hitherto mutually faithful
couple, forming a silver salt, will suddenly prove faithless to each other if
another couple, hydro-chloric acid, enters their
peaceful household; and the silver will pounce upon the chlorine and take her
to wife, preferring her to his former mate, and set up a new household as
silver chloride, leaving the deserted hydrogen to mate with his own forsaken
partner. Wherever these active
interchanges go on there is a slight stir in the astral atom, in consequence of
the violent physical vibrations set up by the violent wrenching apart, and
formation, of intimate ties, and vague internal thrillings
appear. The astral must be roused from the physical, and consciousness on the
physical plane will long take the lead in evolution. Still, a little cloud of
astral matter is drawn round the permanent astral atom by these [124] slight thrillings, but it is very loosely
held, and seems to be quite unorganised. There does
not seem to be any vibration in the mental atom at this stage.
After
ages of experience in the mineral kingdom, some of the permanent atoms will be
ready to pass into the vegetable kingdom, and will be distributed by the
agency of the Shining Ones over the vegetable world. It is not to be supposed
that every blade of grass, every plant, has a permanent atom within it,
evolving to humanity during the life of this system. Just as in the mineral
kingdom, so here; the vegetable kingdom forms the field of evolution for these
permanent atoms, and the Shining Ones guide them to habitat after habitat, so
that they may experience the vibrations that affect the vegetable world, and
again store up these as vibratory powers in the same fashion as before. The
principles of interchange and of consequent segregation work out as before,
and the Group-Souls in each stream of evolution become more numerous, and more
different in their leading characteristics. [125]
At
our present stage of knowledge, the laws according to which permanent atoms in
a Group-Soul are plunged into the kingdoms of nature are by no means clear.
Many things seem to indicate that the evolution of the mineral, vegetable, and
the lowest part of the animal kingdom belong more to the evolution of the earth
itself than to that of the Jivatmas representing the
Monads who are evolving within the Solar System, and who come, in due course,
to this earth to pursue their own evolution by utilising
the conditions it affords. Grass and small plants of every kind seem to be
related to the earth as a man's hairs are related to his body, and not to be
connected with the Monads, represented by Jivatmas in
our five-fold universe. The life in them, holding them together as forms,
appears to be that of the Second Logos, and the life in the atoms and molecules
composing them to be that of the Third Logos, appropriated and modified by the
Planetary Logos of our system of Chains, and further appropriated and modified
by the Spirit of the Earth - [126] an entity wrapped in great obscurity. These
kingdoms offer a field for the evolution of the Jivatmas
truly, but do not exist, apparently, wholly for this purpose. We find permanent
atoms scattered through the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, but are unable to
pierce to the reasons which govern their distribution. A permanent atom may be
found in a pearl, in a ruby, in a diamond; many may be found scattered through
veins or ore, and so on. On the other hand much mineral does not seem to
contain any. So with short-lived plants. But in plants
of long continuance, such as trees, permanent atoms are constantly found. But
here again, the life of the tree seems to be more closely related to the Deva evolution than to the evolution of the consciousness
to which the permanent atom is attached. It is rather as though advantage were
taken of the evolution of life and consciousness in the tree for the benefit of
the permanent atom; it seems to live there more as a parasite, profiting by the
more highly evolved life in which it is bathed. The fact is that our [127]
knowledge on these points is extremely fragmentary so far.
There
is more activity perceptible in the astral permanent atom during the course of
the accumulation of vegetable experiences by the physical, and it attracts
round itself astral matter which is arranged by the Shining Ones in a rather
more definite way. In the long life of a forest tree, the growing aggregation
of astral matter develops itself in all directions as the astral form of the
tree, and the consciousness attached to the permanent atoms shares, to some
extent, that of its surroundings, experiencing through that astral form the
vibrations causing massive pleasure and discomfort, these vibrations being the
result of those set up in the physical tree by sunshine and storm, wind and
rain, cold and heat. With the perishing of such a tree, the permanent astral
atom retreats to its Group-Soul, now established on the astral plane, with a
rich store of experiences, shared in the manner before described.
Further,
as the consciousness becomes more responsive in the astral, it sends little
[128] thrills downwards to the physical plane, and these give rise to feelings
felt as though in the physical, but really derived from the astral. Where there
has been a long separate life, as in a tree, the permanent mental unit will
also begin to attract round itself a little cloud of mental matter, and on this
the recurrence of seasons will slowly impress itself as a faint memory, which
becomes inevitably a faint anticipation.[45]
At
last some of the permanent physical atoms are ready to pass on into the animal
kingdom, and once more the agency of the Shining Ones guides them into animal
forms. During the later stages of their evolution in the vegetable world, it
appears to be the rule that each triad - physical and astral atoms and mental
unit - shall have a prolonged experience in a single form, so that some thrills
of mental life may be experienced, and the triad may thus be prepared to profit
by the wandering life of the animal. But it also appears that in some cases the
passage into the animal [129] kingdom is made at an earlier stage, and that the
first thrill in the mental unit occurs in some of the stationary forms of
animal life, and in very lowly animal organisms.
In
the lowest types of animals conditions similar to those described as existing
in the mineral and vegetable kingdoms also appear to prevail. Microbes, amaebae, hydrae, etc., etc., only show a permanent atom as
a visitor, now and again, and obviously in no way depend upon it for life and
growth, nor do they break up when the permanent atom is withdrawn. They are
hosts, not bodies formed around a permanent atom. And it is noteworthy that, at
this stage, the golden life-web in no way represents the organisation
of the host's body, but merely acts as
rootlets act in the soil, attaching particles of soil to themselves and sucking
therefrom nourishment. The permanent atoms in the
animal kingdom have received and stored up many experiences, before they are
used by the Shining Ones as centres round which forms are to be built.
Needless
to say that in the animal [130] kingdom, the permanent atoms receive far more
varied vibrations than in the lower kingdoms, and consequently differentiate
more quickly, the number of triads in the Group-Souls diminishing rapidly as
this differentiation proceeds, and the multiplication of Group-Souls therefore
going on with increasing rapidity. As the period of individuality approaches,
each separate triad becomes possessed of its own envelope, obtained from the
Group-Soul, and takes on successive embodiments as a separate entity, though
still within the enveloping case of protecting and nourishing monadic essence.
Large
numbers of the higher animals in a state of domestication have reached this
stage, and have really become separate re-incarnating entities, although not as
yet possessing a causal body - the mark of what is usually called individualisation. The envelope derived from the Group-Soul serves the purpose of a
causal body, but consists only of the third layer, as previously indicated, and
is therefore composed of molecules derived from the fourth grade of mental
[131] matter, that which corresponds to the coarsest ether of the physical
plane. Following the analogy of human
ante-natal life, we see that this stage corresponds with its last two months.
A seven-months' babe may be born and may survive, but
it will be stronger, healthier, more vigorous, if it profits for yet another
two months by its mother's shielding and nourishing life. So is it better for
the normal development of the Ego that it should not too hastily burst the
envelope of the Group-Soul, but should still absorb life through it, and
strengthen from its constituents the finest part of its own mental body. When
that body has reached its limit of growth under these shielded conditions, the
envelope disintegrates into the finer molecules of the sub-plane above it, and
becomes, as above said, part of the causal body.
It
is the knowledge of these facts that has sometimes caused occultists to warn
people who are very fond of animals not to be exaggerated in their affection,
nor to show it in unwise ways. [132] The growth of the
animal may be unhealthily forced, and its birth into individuality be hastened
out of due time. Man, in order to fill rightly his place in the world, should
seek to understand nature and work with her laws, quickening indeed their
action by the co-operation of his intelligence, but not quickening it to the
point whereat growth is made unhealthy and its product frail and "out of
season". It is true that the Lord of Life seeks human co-operation in the
working out of evolution, but the co-operation should follow the lines which
His Wisdom has laid down. [133]
-------
CHAPTER VI.
UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
1.
CONSCIOUSNESS A UNIT.
IN
studying the very varied manifestations of consciousness, we are apt to forget
two important facts: first, that the
consciousness of each man is a Unit, however separate and different from each
other its manifestations may appear to be; secondly, that all these Units themselves are parts of the consciousness of
the Locos, and therefore re-act similarly under similar conditions. We cannot
too often remind ourselves that consciousness is one; that all apparently
separate consciousnesses are truly one, as one sea might pour through many
holes in an embankment. That sea-water might issue from the holes differently coloured, if the embankment were composed of [134]
differently coloured earths; but it would all be the same sea-water; analysed, it would all show the presence of the same
characteristic salts. So are all consciousnesses from the same ocean of
consciousness, and have many essential identities. Enveiled
in the same kind of matter, they will act in the same kind of way, and reveal
their fundamental identity of nature.
The
individual consciousness appears to be a complexity instead of a unity, when
its manifestations are concerned, and modern
psychology speaks of dual and treble and multiplex personality, losing sight of
the fundamental unity among the confusion of the manifold. Yet truly is our
consciousness a Unit, and the variety is due to the materials in which it is
working.
The
ordinary waking-consciousness of a man is the consciousness working through the
physical brain at a certain rate imposed by it, conditioned by all the
conditions of that brain, limited by all its limitations, baulked by the
varying obstructions it offers, checked by a clot [135] of blood, silenced by
the decay of tissue. At every moment the brain hinders its manifestations,
while at the same time it is, on the physical plane, its
only enabling instrument of manifestation.
When
the consciousness, turning its attention away from the external physical world,
ignores the denser part of the physical brain, and uses only the etheric
portions thereof, its manifestations at once change in character. The creative
imagination disports itself in etheric matter, and drawing on its accumulated
contents, obtained from the external world by its denser servant, it arranges
them, dissociates, and recombines them after its own fancies, and creates the
lower worlds of dream.
When
it casts aside for a while its ethereal garment, turning its attention away
completely from the physical world, and shedding its fetters of physical
matter, it roams through the astral world at will, or drifts through it
unconsciously, turning all its attention to its own contents, receiving many
impacts from that astral world, which it ignores or accepts according to its
stage [136] of evolution, or its humour of the
moment. If it should manifest itself to an outside
observer - as may happen in trance-conditions - it shows powers so superior to
those it manifested when imprisoned in the physical brain, that such an
observer, judging only by physical experiences, may well regard it as a
different consciousness.
Still
more is this the case when, the astral body being thrown into trance, the Bird
of Heaven shows itself soaring into loftier regions, and its splendid flight so
enchants the observer that he deems it a new being, and no longer the same
entity as crawled in the physical world. Yet truly is it ever one and the same;
the differences are in the materials with which it is connected, and through
which it works, and not in itself.
As
to the second important fact stated above, man is not yet sufficiently
developed to appreciate any evidence as to the unity of consciousness in its
workings above the physical plane, but its unity on the physical plane is being
demonstrated. [137]
2.
UNITY OF PHYSICAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
Amid
the immense varieties of the mineral, vegetable, animal, and human kingdoms,
the underlying unity of physical consciousness has been lost sight of, and
broad lines of cleavage have been set up
which do not, in reality, exist. Life has been wholly denied to the mineral,
grudged to the vegetable, and H. P. Blavatsky was ridiculed when she declared
that one Life, one Consciousness vivified and informed all.
"With
every day, the identity between the animal and the physical man, between the
plant and man, and even between the reptile and its nest, the rock, and man, is
more and more clearly shown, the physical and chemical constituents of all
being found to be identical. Chemical Science may well say that there is no
difference between the matter which composes the ox,
and that which forms man. But the occult doctrine is far more explicit. It
says: Not only the chemical compounds are the same, but the same infinitesimal
invisible Lives compose the atoms of the [138] bodies of the mountain and the
daisy, of man and the ant, of the elephant and of the tree which shelters it
from the sun. Each particle - whether you call it organic or inorganic - is a
Life."[46]
If
this be true, it should be possible to obtain from such living minerals,
vegetables, animals, and men, evidence of an identity of life, of sentiency, of
response to stimuli; and while we may freely admit that we should expect to
find gradations of sentiency, that as we ascend the ladder of life we should
expect the manifestations to become fuller and more complex, yet some definite
manifestations of sentiency should be found in all who share one life. The
evidence for this was lacking when H. P. Blavatsky wrote; it is available now;
and it is from an eastern scientist, whose rare ability has ensured his welcome
in the West, that the evidence appropriately comes.
Professor
Jagadish Chandra Bose, M.A., D.Sc.,
of
He
arranged apparatus to measure the stimulus applied, and to show in curves,
traced on a revolving cylinder, the response from the body receiving the
stimulus. He then compared the curves obtained in tin and in other metals with
those obtained from muscle, and found that the curves from tin were identical
with those from muscle, and that other metals gave
curves of like nature but varied in the period of recovery.
[140]
(a)
SERIES OF ELECTRIC RESPONSES TO SUCCESSIVE MECHANICAL STIMULI AT INTERVALS OF
HALF A MINUTE, IN TIN. (b) MECHANICAL RESPONSES IN MUSCLE.
Tetanus,
both complete and incomplete, due to repeated shocks, was caused, and similar
results accrued, in mineral as in muscle.
EFFECTS ANALOGOUS TO (a) INCOMPLETE AND (b)
COMPLETE TETANUS IN TIN. (a') INCOMPLETE AND (b') COMPLETE
TETANUS IN MUSCLE.
Fatigue
was shown by metals, least of all by tin. Chemical re-agents, such as drugs,
produced similar results on metals with those known to result with animals -
[141] exciting, depressing, and deadly. (By deadly is meant resulting in the
destruction of the power of response.)
A
poison will kill a metal, inducing a condition of immobility, so that no
response is obtainable. If the poisoned metal be taken in time, an antidote may
save its life.
(a)
NORMAL R&SPONSE; (b) EFFECT ON POISON; (c) REVIVAL BY ANTIDOTE.
A
stimulant will increase response, and as large and small doses of a drug have
been found to kill and stimulate respectively, so have they been found to act
on metals. "Among such phenomena," asks Professor Bose, "how can
we draw a line of demarcation and say: Here the physical process ends, and
there the physiological begins? No such barriers exist."[47] [142]
Professor
Bose has carried on a similar series of experiments on plants, and has obtained
similar results. A fresh piece of cabbage stalk, a fresh leaf, or other
vegetable body, can be stimulated and will show similar curves; it can be fatigued,
excited, depressed, poisoned. There is something
rather pathetic in seeing the way in which the tiny spot of light, which
records the pulses in the plant, travels, in ever weaker and weaker curves,
when the plant is under the influence of
poison, falls into a final despairing straight line, and - stops. The plant is
dead. One feels as though a murder had been committed - as indeed it has.[48]
These
admirable series of experiment have established, on a definite basis of
physical facts, the teaching of occult science on the universality of life.
Mr.
Marcus Reed has made microscopical observations
which show the [143] presence of consciousness in the vegetable kingdom. He has
observed symptoms as of fright when tissue is injured, and further he has seen
that male and female cells, floating in the sap, become aware of each other's
presence without contact; the circulation quickens, and they put out processes
towards each other.[49]
More
than three years after the publication of Professor Bose's experiments, some
interesting confirmation of his observations arose in the course of M. Jean
Becquerel's study of the N-rays, communicated by him to the Paris Academy of
Sciences. Animals under chloroform cease to emit these rays, and they are never
emitted by a corpse. Flowers normally emit them, but under chloroform the
emanation ceases. Metals also emit them, and under chloroform the emanation
again ceases. Thus animals, flowers, and metals alike give out these rays, and
alike cease to emanate them under the action of chloroform.[50]
[144]
3.
THE MEANING OF PHYSICAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
The
term "physical consciousness" is used in two distinct senses, and it
may be useful to pause a moment, in order to define these. It is often used to
indicate what is above termed "ordinary waking-consciousness", i.e.,
the consciousness of the man, of the Jivatma -or, if
the phrase be preferred, of the Monad working through the Jivatma,
and the lower triad of permanent atoms. It is also used in the sense in which
it is used here, as consciousness working in physical matter, receiving and
responding to physical impacts, unconcerned with any transmission of impulses
onward to the higher planes, or with any impulses sent to the physical body
from those planes.
In
this more restricted and accurate sense, it would include (a) any out-thrillings from the atoms and molecules ensouled by the life of the Third Logos; (b) any [145]
similar out-thrillings from organised
forms ensouled by the life of the Second Logos; and
(c) any similar out-thrillings from the life of the
Monad, proceeding from the permanent atoms, in which the spirillae
are not directly concerned. When the spirillae are
active, the "ordinary wakingconsciousness"
is affected. For instance ammonia sniffed up by the nose shows two results;
there is a rapid secretion; that is the response of the cells in the olfactory
tract; there is also a "smell"; that is the result of a vibration
running up to the sense-centres in the astral body, and there recognised in consciousness; the change in consciousness
affects the first set of spirillae in the atoms of
the olfactory tract, and thus reaches the "waking-consciousness" -
consciousness working in the physical brain. It is only through the spirillae that changes in consciousness on the higher
planes bring about changes in the "waking-consciousness".
It
must be remembered that as the Solar System is a field for the evolution of all
the developing consciousnesses [146] within it, so are there smaller areas within
it, serving as smaller fields. Man is the microcosm of the universe, and his
body serves as a field of evolution for myriads of consciousnesses less
evolved than his own. Thus the three activities mentioned above under (a),
(b), and (c) are all present in his body, and all enter into the physical
consciousness working therein; that in which the atomic spirillae
are concerned does not enter it; that belongs to the consciousness of the Jivatma. The workings of physical consciousness do not now
directly affect the "waking-consciousness" in the higher animals or
in man. They affected it in the earlier part of the embryonic life in the
Group-Soul, while the consciousness of the Second Logos was
"mothering" the dawning consciousnesses derived from it. But
physical consciousness has now sunk below the "threshold of
consciousness", while showing itself as "the memory of the
cell", as the selective action in glands and papillae, and generally in
the carrying on of functions necessary for the support [147] of bodies. It is
the lowest activity of consciousness, and as
consciousness functions more and more actively on the higher plane, its lowest
workings no longer attract its attention, and they become what we call
automatic.
Now
it is physical consciousness that is appealed to in Professor Bose's
experiments, and it is the response of this consciousness in the tin and in
the animal that is the same, and is shown in the pulse indicated by the curves;
the animal will feel the stimulus while the tin will not - that is the result
of the additional working of the consciousness in astral matter.
We
may thus allege that consciousness, working in physical matter, responds to
various kinds of stimulation, and that the response is the same, whether it be obtained from mineral, vegetable, or animal. The
consciousness shows the same characteristic workings, is the same.
The differences which, as already said, we observe as we ascend,
lie in the improvement of the physical apparatus, an apparatus which enables
astral and mental - not physical - activities of consciousness [148] to
manifest themselves on the physical plane. Men and animals feel and think
better than minerals and vegetables, because their more highly evolved
consciousness has shaped for itself on the physical plane this much improved
apparatus; but even so, our bodies answer as the lower bodies answer to the
same stimuli, and this purely physical consciousness is the same in all.
Now
in the mineral, the astral matter connected with the permanent astral atom is
so little active, and consciousness is sleeping so deeply therein, that there
is no perceptible working from the astral to the physical. In the higher plants
there seems to be a sort of forth-shadowing of a nervous system, but it is too
little developed and organised to serve anything but
the simplest purposes. The added activity on the astral plane improves the
astral sheath in connexion with the plant, and the
vibrations of the astral sheath affect the etheric portion of the plant, and
thus its denser matter. Hence the forth-shadowing of a nervous system above
alluded to. [149]
When
we come to the animal stage, the much greater activity of the consciousness on
the astral plane causes more powerful vibrations, which pass to the etheric double
of the animal, and by the etheric vibrations thus caused, the nervous system is
builded. The shaping of it is due to the Logos through the Group-Soul, and to
the active assistance of the Shining Ones of the
Consciousness
does not do much building on the astral plane at this stage, and works there in
an unorganised sheath; the organising
is done on the [150] physical plane by the efforts of consciousness to express
itself - dim and vaguely groping as these efforts are - aided and directed by
the Group-Soul and the Shining Ones. This work has to be completed to a great
extent before the Third Life-Wave pours down, for animal man has evolved, with
his brain and nervous systems, before that great outpouring comes which gives
the Jivatma a working body, and makes possible the
higher evolution of man. [151]
-------
CHAPTER VII.
THE MECHANISM OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
1.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MECHANISM.
IN
a very real sense the whole of the bodies of man form the mechanism of consciousness,
as organs for willing, thinking, and acting; but the nervous apparatus may be
called its special mechanism, as that whereby, in the physical body, it
controls and directs all. Every cell in
the body is composed of myriads of tiny lives, each with its own germinal
consciousness;[51] each cell has its [152] own dawning consciousness,
controlling and organising these; but the central
ruling consciousness which uses the whole body controls and organises
it, in turn, and the mechanism in which it functions for this purpose is the
nervous.
This
nervous mechanism is the outcome of astral impulses, and consciousness must be
active on the astral plane before it can be constructed. Impulses set up by the
consciousness - willing to experience and vaguely endeavouring
to give effect to this Will -cause vibrations in etheric matter, and these
vibrations, by the very nature of the matter[52],
become electric, magnetic, heat, and other energies. These are the masons which
work under the impulse of the master-builder, Consciousness. The impulse is
from him; the execution is by them. The directive intelligence, which as yet he
cannot furnish, is supplied by the Logic life in the Group-Soul, and by the
[153] Nature-Spirits working under the guidance, as already said, of the
Shining Ones of the Third Elemental Kingdom.
We
have then to understand that nervous matter is built up on the physical plane
under impulses from the astral, the directly constructive forces being indeed
physical, but the guidance and the setting in motion of them being astral,
i.e., proceeding from consciousness active on the astral plane. The
life-energy, the prana, which flows in rosy waves, pulsing along the etheric
matter in all nerves, not in their medullary sheaths
but in their substance, comes down immediately from the astral plane; it is
drawn from the great reservoir of life, the LOGOS, and is specialised
on the astral plane and sent down thence into the nervous system, blending
there with the magnetic, electrical, and other currents which form the purely physical prana, drawn from the same
reservoir, but through the Sun, His physical body; close examination shows that
the constituents of the prana of the mineral kingdom are fewer and less complex
in arrangement than those of the [154] prana in the higher vegetable kingdom,
and this again less so than that in the animal and human, and this difference
is due to the fact that the astral prana mingles in the latter and not in the
former - to any perceptible degree, at least. After the formation of the causal
body, this complexity of the prana circulating in the nervous systems of the
physical body much increases, and it appears to become yet more enriched in the
progress of human evolution. For as the consciousness becomes active on the
mental plane, the prana of that plane mingles also with the lower, and so on as
the activity of consciousness is carried on in higher regions.
We
may pause a moment on this word "prana", that I have translated as
"life-energy". Pran is a Samskrit root, meaning to breathe, to live, to blow, made
up of an, to breathe, move, live, and hence the Spirit, joined with the prefix pra, forth. Thus pra-an, pran, means to breathe forth, and life-breath, or
life-energy, is the nearest English equivalent to the Samskrit
term. As [155] according to Hindu thought there is but one Life, one
Consciousness, everywhere, the word Prana has been used for the Supreme Self,
the all-sustaining Breath. It is the forth-giving energy of the One; for us,
the Life of the LOGOS. Hence that Life on every plane may be spoken of as the
Prana of the plane; it becomes the life-breath in every creature. On the physical plane it is energy, appearing in
many forms, electricity, heat, light, magnetism, etc., transmutable into each
other, because fundamentally one; on other planes we have no names whereby to
designate it, but the idea is definite enough. Appropriated by a being, it is
prana in the narrower sense in which it is generally used in theosophical
literature, the individual's life-breath. It is the vital energy, the vital
force, of which all other energies, chemical, electrical, and the rest, are
merely derivatives and fractional parts; and it is a little quaint for the
occultist when he hears scientific men talking glibly of chemical or electrical
energy, and denouncing their parent, vital energy, as an "exploded [156]
superstition". These partial manifestations of vital energy are merely due
to the arrangements of matter in which it plays, cutting off one or another of
its characteristics, or perhaps all of them save one, as blue glass will shut
off all the rays except the blue ones, and red all except the red.
In
The Secret Doctrine H. P. Blavatsky speaks of the relation of prana to the
nervous system. She quotes, and partly endorses, partly corrects, the view of
"nervous ether", put forward by Dr. B. W. Richardson; the Sun-force
is "the primal cause of all life on earth"[53], and the Sun is
"the store-house of vital force, which is the noumenon
of electricity"[54]. The "'nervous ether' is the lowest principle of
the Primordial Essence which is Life. It is animal vitality diffused in all
Nature, and acting according to the conditions it finds for its activity. It is
not an 'animal product'; but the living animal, the living flower and plant,
are its products"[55].
On
the physical plane this prana, this [157] life-force, builds up all minerals,
and is the controlling agent in the chemico-physiological
changes in protoplasm, which lead to differentiation and the building of the
various tissues of the bodies of plants, animals, and men. They show its
presence by the power of responding to stimuli, but for a time this power is
not accompanied by distinct sentiency; consciousness has not unfolded enough to
feel pleasure and pain.
When
the current of prana from the astral plane, with its attribute of sentiency,
blends with that of the prana of the physical plane, it begins the building of
a new arrangement of matter - the nervous. This, nervous arrangement is
fundamentally a cell, details as to which
can be studied in any modern text-book dealing with the subject[56], and
the development consists of internal changes and of outgrowths of the matter of
the cell, these outgrowths becoming sheathed [158] in medullary
matter and then appearing a threads or fibres. Every
nervous system, however elaborate, consists of cells and their outgrowths,
these outgrowths becoming more numerous, and forming ever multiplying connexions between the cells, as consciousness demands, for
its expression, a more and more elaborated nervous system. This fundamental
simplicity at the root of such complexity of details is found even in man, the
possessor of the most highly evolved nervous organisation.
The many millions of neural ganglia[57] in the brain
and body are all produced by the end of the third month of ante-natal life, and
their development consists in expansion, and the outgrowth of their substance
into fibres. This development in later life results
from the activity of thought; as a man thinks strenuously and continuously, the
thought-vibrations cause chemical activity, and the dendrons[58] shoot out from
the [159] cells, making connexions and cross-connexions in every direction, literal pathways along which
prana pulsates - prana which is now composed of factors from the physical,
astral and mental planes - and thought-vibrations travel.
Returning
from this digression into the human kingdom, let us see how the building of the
nervous system, by vibratory impulses from the astral, begins and is carried
on. We find a minute group of nerve cells and tiny processes connecting them.
This is formed by the action of a centre which has previously appeared in the
astral body - of which something will presently be said - an aggregation of
astral matter arranged to form a centre for receiving and responding to
impulses from outside. From that astral centre vibrations pass into the etheric
body, causing little etheric whirlpools which draw into themselves particles
of denser physical matter, forming at last a nerve cell, and groups of nerve
cells. These physical centres, receiving vibrations from the outer world, send
impulses back to the astral centres, increasing their vibrations; thus the
[160] physical and the astral centres act and re-act on each other, and each
becomes more complicated and more effective. As we pass up the animal kingdom,
we find the physical nervous system constantly improving, and becoming a more
and more dominant factor in the body, and this first-formed system becomes, in
the vertebrates, the sympathetic system, controlling and energising
the vital organs - the heart, the lungs, the digestive tract; beside it slowly
develops the cerebro-spinal system, closely connected
in its lower workings with the sympathetic, and becoming gradually more and
more dominant, while it also becomes in its most important development the
normal organ for the expression of the "waking consciousness". This cerebro-spinal system is built up by impulses originating
in the mental, not in the astral plane, and is only indirectly related to the
astral through the sympathetic system, built up from the astral. We shall see
later the bearing of this on the astral sensitiveness of animals, and
lowly-developed human beings, the disappearance, of this sensitiveness with the
[161] development of intellect, and its reappearance in the higher human
evolution.
The
permanent atoms form the imperfect but only direct channel between the
consciousness manifesting as the spiritual Triad and the forms he is connected
with. In the case of the higher animals these atoms are exceedingly active, and
in the brief time between the physical lives considerable changes occur in
these. As evolution goes on the increasing flow of life from the Group-Soul and
through the permanent atom, as well as the increasing complexity of the
physical apparatus, rapidly augment the sensitiveness of the animal. There is
comparatively little sensitiveness in the lower animal lives, and little in
fishes, despite their cerebrospinal system. As evolution proceeds, the
sense-centres continue to develop in the astral sheath, and in the higher
animal these are well organised and the senses are
acute. But with this acuteness there is brevity of sensations, and except with
the highest animals little of the mental element mingles to lend increased and
longer continued sensitiveness to sensation. [162]
2.
THE ASTRAL OR DESIRE BODY.
The
evolution of the astral body must be studied in relation to the physical, for
while it plays the part of a creator on the physical plane, as we have seen,
its own further development largely depends on the impulses received through
the very organism it has created. It does not, for a long time, enjoy an
independent life of its own on its own plane, and the organisation
of the astral body in relation to the physical is quite a different matter, and much earlier in time, than its organisation in relation to the astral world. In the East
they speak of the astral and mental vehicles of consciousness, when acting in
relation to the physical, as koshas, or sheaths, and
use the term sharira, or body, for a form capable of
independent action in the visible and invisible worlds. This distinction may
serve us here.
The
astral sheath of the mineral is a mere cloud of appropriated astral matter, and
does not show any perceptible signs of organisation.
The same is the case with most vegetables, but in some there [163] seem to be
certain indications of aggregations and lines, which, in the light of later
evolution, appear to be the dawn of incipient organisation;
and in some old forest trees distinct
aggregations of astral matter are visible at certain points. In animals these
aggregations become clearly marked and definite, forming centres in the astral
sheath of a permanent and specialised kind.
These
aggregations in the astral sheath are the beginnings of the centres which will
build up the necessary organs in the physical body, and are not the often-named
chakras, or wheels, which belong to the organisation of the astral body itself, and fit it for
functioning on its own plane in connexion with the
mental sheath, as the lower type of the eastern sukshma
sharira, or subtle body. The astral chakras are connected with the astral senses, so that a
person in whom they are developed can see, hear, etc., on the astral plane;
they lie far ahead of the point in evolution that we are considering, a point
at which the perceptive powers of consciousness have not yet any organ, even
on the physical plane. [164]
As
these aggregations in the astral sheath appear, the impulses of consciousness
on the astral plane, guided as before explained, play on the etheric double,
forming the etheric whirlpools already mentioned, and corresponding centres
thus arise in the astral sheath and physical body, the sympathetic system being
thus built up. This system always remains thus directly connected with the
astral centres, even after the cerebro-spinal system
is evolved. But from the aggregations in the fore-part or the astral sheath,
ten important centres are formed, which become connected with the brain through
the sympathetic system, and gradually become the dominant organs for the
activities of the physical, or waking-consciousness - that is, for that part of
the consciousness which functions normally through the cerebro-spinal
system. Five out of the ten serve to receive special impressions from the
outside world, and are the centres through which consciousness uses its
perceptive powers; they are called in Samskrit, Jnanendriyas, literally "knowledge-senses", [165]
i.e., senses, or sense-centres, by which knowledge is obtained. These set up,
in the way before explained, five distinct etheric whirlpools, and thus
construct five centres in the physical brain; these, in turn, severally shape
and remain connected with their appropriate sense-organs. Thus arise the five
sense-organs: the eyes, ears, tongue, nose, skin, specialised
to receive impressions from the outer world, corresponding to the five
perceptive powers of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling.
These are specialised ways in the lower worlds by
which part of the perceptive ability of consciousness, its power of receiving
external contacts, is exercised. They belong to the lower worlds and to the
grosser forms of matter which shut consciousness in, and prevent it, thus
enwrapped, from knowing other lives; they are openings in this dense veil of
matter, permitting vibrations to enter in and reach the shrouded consciousness.
The
remaining five of these ten astral centres serve to convey vibrations from
consciousness to the outer word; they [166] are the avenues outwards, as the
knowledge-senses are the avenues inwards; they are named Karmendriyas,
literally action-senses, senses or sense-centres which cause action. These
develop like the others, forming etheric whirlpools, which make the
motor-centres in the physical brain; these, again, severally shape and remain
connected with their appropriate motor-organs, hands, feet, larynx, and organs
of generation and excretion.
We
have now an organised astral sheath, and the
continual action and re-action between this and the physical body
improve both, and these together act on the consciousness and it re-acts
on them, both again gaining by this mutual interaction. And as we have already
seen, these blind impulses of consciousness are guided in their play upon
matter by the Logic life in the Group-Soul and by the Nature-Spirits. Always it
is life, consciousness, seeking to realise itself in
matter, and matter responding in virtue of its own inherent qualities, vitalised by the action of the Third Logos. [167]
3.
CORRESPONDENCE IN ROOT-RACES.
A
similar succession in the present, the fourth, Round marks the evolution of
the kingdoms of Nature, the main
characteristics of the previous Rounds being, as it were, repeated in the
Root-Races, just as the history of evolution wrought out during long ages is
repeated during the embryonic life of each new body. During the existence of
the first two human Races there were conditions of temperature which would
render sensibility destructive of any life-manifestation, and those Races show
no sensibility to pleasure and pain on the physical plane. In the third Race
there is sensibility to violent impacts, causing coarse pleasures and pains,
but only some of the senses are evolved, those of hearing, touch, and sight,
and these but to a low stage, as we
shall presently see.
Now
in the first two Races there are visible the beginnings of aggregations in the
astral matter of the sheaths, arid if these could connect themselves with
appropriate physical matter there would be in the physical consciousness
sensations [168] of pleasure and pain. But the appropriate connexions
are lacking. The first Race shows a feeble sense of hearing, the second a vague
response to impacts, the dawning sense of touch.
The
spiritual Triad, at this stage or evolution, is so insensitive to vibrations
from external matter that it is only when he receives the tremendous vibrations
caused by impacts on the physical plane that he begins slowly to respond.
Everything begins for him on the physical plane. He does not respond directly,
but indirectly, through the mediation of the Logic life, and only as the
primary physical apparatus is built up do the subtler impulses come through
with sufficient force to cause pleasure and pain. The violent vibrations from
the physical plane cause corresponding vibration on the astral, and he becomes
dimly conscious of sensation. [169]
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society
in Wales-------
CHAPTER VIII.
FIRST HUMAN STEPS.
1.
THE THIRD LIFE-WAVE.
THE
middle of the Third Root-Race had been reached; the nervous apparatus of animal man had been built up to a point at
which it needed for its further improvement the more direct flow of thought
from the spiritual Triad to which it was attached; the Group-Soul had completed
its work for these, the higher products of evolution, as the medium by which
the life of the Second Logos protected and nourished His infant children; it
was now to form the foundation of the causal body, the vessel into which the
down-pouring life was, to be received; the term of the ante-natal life of the
Monad was touched, and the time was ripe for his birth into the [170] lower
world. The mother-life of the Logos had built for him the bodies in which he
could now live as a separate entity in the world of forms, and he was to come
into direct possession of his bodies and take up his human evolution.
We
have seen that the Monads derive their being from the First Logos, and dwell on
the anupadaka, the second, plane during the ages over
which we have glanced. We have also seen that they appropriated to themselves
with the help of different agents the three permanent atoms that represent them
as Jivatmas on the third, fourth, and fifth planes, and
also those which form the lower triad on the fifth, sixth, and seventh. All the
communication of the Monad with the planes below his own has been through the Sutratma, the life-thread, on which the atoms are strung,
that life-thread - of second plane matter - passing from the atmic atom to the buddhic, from
the buddhic to the manasic,
and from the manasic re-entering the atmic, thus making the "Triangle of Light" on the
higher planes. We have seen further [171] that from the line of this Triangle
on the buddhic plane comes forth a thread, the Sutratma of the lower planes, on which the lower triad is
strung.
The
time has now come for a fuller communication than is represented by this
delicate thread in its original form, and it, as it were, widens out. This is
but a clumsy way of picturing the fact that the Ray from the Monad glows and
increases, assuming more the form of a funnel: "The thread between the
Silent Watcher and his shadow becomes stronger an
radiant"[59]. This downflow of monadic life is
accompanied by much increased flow between the buddhic
and manasic permanent atoms, and the latter seems to
awaken, sending out thrills in every direction. Other manasic
atoms and molecules gather round it, and a whirling vortex is seen on the three
upper sub-planes of the mental plane. A similar whirling motion is seen in the
cloudy mass surrounding the attached mental unit below, enveloped in the
remaining layer of the Group-Soul, as already described. The layer is torn
[172] asunder, and caught up into the vortex above, where it is disintegrated,
and the causal body is formed, a delicate filmy envelope, as the whirlpool
subsides. This downflow of life, resulting in the
formation of the causal body, is called the Third Life-Wave, and is properly
ascribed to the First Logos, since the Monads came forth from Him and represent
His triune life.
The
causal body once formed, the spiritual Triad has a permanent vehicle for
further evolution, and when Consciousness becomes able to function freely in
this vehicle, the Triad will be able to control and direct, far more
effectively than ever before, the evolution of the lower vehicles.
The
earlier efforts to control are not, however, of a very intelligent description,
any more than the first movements of the body of the infant show they are
directed by any intelligence, although we know that an
intelligence is connected with it. The Monad is now, in a very real
sense, born on the physical plane, but still he must be regarded as a babe
there, and must pass through an immense period of time before [173] his power
over the physical body will be anything but infantile.
2.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT.
And
this is clearly seen if we look at man as he was in his early days. Those
long-perished Lemurians - if we except those entities who had already developed
consciousness to a considerable extent, and who took birth in the clumsy
Lemurian bodies in order to lead human evolution - were very poorly developed
as to their sense organs; those of smell and
taste were not developed, but were only in process of building. Their
sensitiveness to pleasure and pain was slight.
In
the Atlanteans the senses were much more active; sight was very keen and
hearing was acute; taste was more developed than among the Lemurians, but was
still not highly evolved; coarse and rank foods were found perfectly tolerable
and even agreeable, and very highly-flavoured
articles of diet, such as decaying meat, were preferred to more delicate
viands, which were considered [174] tasteless. The body was not very sensitive
to injuries, and severe wounds did not cause much pain, nor were followed by
prostration - even extensive lacerations failing to incapacitate the sufferer -
and healing very quickly. The remnants of the Lemurian Race now existing, as well
as the widely spread Atlantean, still show a relative insensitiveness to pain,
and undergo, with very partial disablement, lacerations that would utterly
prostrate a fifth Race man. A North American Indian has been reported as
fighting on after the side of the thigh
had been slashed away, and taking the field again after twelve or fifteen
hours. This characteristic of the fourth Race body enables a savage to bear
with composure, and to recover from, tortures that would prostrate a fifth Race
man from nervous shock.
These
differences derive largely from the varying developments of the permanent
atom, the nucleus of the physical body. There is, in the fifth Root-Race, a
fuller stream of life pouring down, causing the greater internal development of
the permanent atom, and increasing as [175] that development proceeds. As
evolution goes on, there is an increasing complexity of vibratory powers in the
physical permanent atom, a similar increase in the astral atom, and again in
the mental unit. As birth follows birth, and these permanent nuclei are put out
on each plane to gather round them the new mental, astral and physical
encasements, the more highly developed permanent atoms draw round them the more
highly developed atoms on the planes to which they belong, and thus build up a
better nervous apparatus through which the ever-increasing stream of
consciousness can flow. In this way is built up the delicately organised nervous apparatus of the fifth Race man.
In
the fifth Race man the internal differentiation of the nervous cells is much
increased, and the intercommunications are much more numerous. Speaking
generally, the consciousness of the fifth Race man is working on the astral
plane, and is withdrawn from the physical body except so far as the cerebro-spinal nervous system is concerned. The control of
the vital organs of the body is left to the [176] sympathetic system, trained
through long ages to perform this work, and now kept going by impulses from the
astral centres other than the ten, without deliberate attention from the
otherwise occupied consciousness, although of course sustained by it. It is,
however, as we shall presently see, quite possible to draw the attention of
consciousness again to this part of its mechanism, and to reassume intelligent
control of it. In the more highly evolved members of the fifth Race, the main
impulses of consciousness are sent down from the lower mental world; and work
down through the astral to the physical, and there stimulate the physical
nervous activity. This is the keen, subtle, intelligent consciousness, moved by
ideas more than by sensations, and showing itself more actively in the mental
and emotional brain-centres than in those concerned with sensory and motor
phenomena.
The
sense-organs of the fifth Race body are less active and acute than those of the
highest fourth Race in responding to purely physical impacts. The eye, the
[177] ear, the touch do not respond to vibrations which would affect the
fourth Race sense-organs. It is significant, also, that these organs are at
their keenest in early childhood, and diminish in sensitiveness from about the
sixth year onward. On the other hand, while less acute in receiving pure
sense-impacts, they become more sensitive to sensations intermingled with
emotions, and delicacies of colour and of sound, whether of nature or of art,
appeal to them more effectively. The higher and more intricate organisation of the sense-centres in the brain and in the
astral body seems to bring about increased sensitiveness to beauty of colour,
form, and sound, but diminished response to the sensations in which the
emotions play no part.
The
fifth Race body is also far more sensitive to shock than are the bodies of the
fourth and third Races, being more dependent upon consciousness for its upkeep.
A nervous shock is far more keenly felt, and entails far greater prostration.
A severe mutilation is no longer a question merely of lacerated muscle, of
[178] torn tissues, but of dangerous nervous shock; the highly organised nervous system carries the message of distress to
the brain centres, and it is sent on from them to the astral body, disturbing
and upsetting the astral consciousness. This is followed by disturbance on the
mental plane; imagination is aroused, memory stimulates anticipation, and the
rush of mental impulses intensifies and prolongs sensations. These again
stimulate and excite the nervous system, and its undue excitation acts on the
vital organs, causing organic disturbance; hence depression of vitality and slow
recovery.
So
also in the highly evolved fifth Race body, mental conditions largely rule
the physical, and intense anxiety,
mental suffering, and worry, producing nervous tension, readily disturb organic
processes and bring about weakness or disease. Hence mental strength and
serenity directly promote physical health, and when the consciousness is
definitely established on the astral or the mental plane, emotional and mental
disturbance are far more productive of ill-health than [179] any privations inflicted
on the physical body. The evolved fifth Race man lives physically literally in
his nervous system.
2.
INCONGRUOUS SOULS AND BODIES.
But
we should here notice a significant fact, bearing on the all-important question
of the relation of the nervous organisation to
consciousness. When a human consciousness has not yet grown beyond the later
Lemurian or earlier Atlantean type, but is born into a fifth Race body, it
presents a curious and interesting study. (The reasons for such a birth cannot
here be enlarged upon; briefly, as the
more advanced nations annex the lands occupied by little evolved tribes, and kill them off either directly or
indirectly, the people thus summarily
evicted from their bodies have to find new habitats; the suitable savage
conditions are becoming rarer and rarer,
under the ever-expanding flood of higher races, and they have to take birth
under the lowest available conditions, such as the slums of large cities, in
families of criminal types. They [180] are drawn to the conquering nation by
karmic necessity.) Such persons incarnate in fifth Race bodies of the worst
available material. They then show out in these fifth Race bodies the qualities
that belong to the earlier fourth or the third; and though they have the
physical outer nervous organisation, they have not
the internal differentiation in the nervous matter that only comes with the
play on physical matter of energies coming from
the astral and mental worlds. We observe in them the non-responsiveness
to impressions from outside, unless the impressions are of a violent order,
that marks the low grade of development of the individual consciousness. We
notice the falling back into inertia when a violent physical stimulus is
absent; the recurrent craving for such violent stimulus when roused by physical
necessities; the stirring into faint mental activity under vehement impact on
the sense-organs, and the blankness when the sense-organs are at rest; the
complete absence of any response to a thought or a high emotion - not a
rejection but an un-consciousness of it. Excitement or violence [181] in such a
person is caused as a rule by something outside - by something coming before
him physically which his dawning mind connects with the possibility of
gratifying some passion which he remembers, and desires again to feel. Such a
person may not be intent on robbery or murder at all, but may be stimulated
into either or both by the mere sight of
a well-dressed passer-by who seems likely to have money - money, that means
gratification by food, drink, or sex. The stimulus to attack the passer-by is
at once given, and will be followed at once by action, unless checked by a
physical and obvious danger, such as the sight of a policeman. It is the
embodied physical temptation which arouses the idea of committing the crime; a
man who plans a crime beforehand is more highly developed; the mere savage
commits a crime on the impulse of the moment, unless faced by another physical
embodiment, that of a force which he fears. And when the crime is committed, he
is impervious to all appeals to shame or remorse; he is susceptible only to
terror.
These
remarks do not, of course, apply [182] to the intelligent criminal, but only to
the congenital brutal and obtuse type, the third or fourth Race savage in a
fifth Race body.
As
the truths of the Ancient Wisdom more and more colour modern thought, they will
inevitably, among other things, modify the treatment of the criminal. Such
criminals as are here spoken of will not be punished brutally, but will be kept
permanently under strict discipline; and will be, as far as is practicable,
aided to progress more quickly than would have been possible under the
conditions of savage life. But the further consideration of this would lead us
too far from our main study, and we must now return to the workings of
consciousness on the astral plane, as they show themselves in the higher
animals and in the lower human types.
4.
DAWN OF CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE ASTRAL PLANE.
We
have seen that astral organisation precedes and
shapes the physical nervous [183] system, and we have now to consider how this
must affect the workings of consciousness. We should expect to find that
consciousness on the astral plane will become aware of impacts on its astral
sheath in a vague and un-precise way, just as, in the minerals and the plants
and the lowest animals, it became aware of impacts on its physical body. This
awareness of astral impacts will long precede any definite organisation
in the astral sheath, the bridge between the mental and the physical,
that will gradually evolve it into an astral body, the independent
vehicle of consciousness on the astral plane. And, as we have seen, the first organisation in the astral sheath is a response to impacts
received through the physical body, and is related to the physical body in its
evolution. This organisation has nothing to do
directly with the reception, co-ordination, and understanding of astral
impacts, but is engaged in being acted upon by, and re-acting on, the physical
nervous system. Consciousness everywhere precedes Self-consciousness and the
evolution of [184] consciousness on the astral plane proceeds
contemporaneously with the evolution of Self-consciousnesss
- to be dealt with presently - on the physical.
The
impacts on the astral sheath from the astral plane produce vibratory waves over
the whole astral sheath, and the ensheathed
consciousness gradually becomes dimly aware of these surgings, without
relating them to any external cause. It is groping after the much more violent
physical impacts, and such power of attention as it has evolved is turned on
them. The aggregations of astral matter, connected with the physical nervous
systems, naturally share in the general surgings of the astral sheath, and the
vibrations caused by these surgings mingle
with those coming from the physical body, and affect also the vibrations
sent down to it by the consciousness through these aggregations. Thus a connexion is established between astral impacts and the
sympathetic system, and they play a considerable part in its evolution. As the
consciousness working in the physical body begins slowly to recognise an external world, [185] these impacts from the
astral - gradually classified under the five senses as are the impacts from the
physical - mingle with those from the physical plane and are not distinguished
as being different from them in origin. This recognition is the lower
clairvoyance, that which precedes the great evolution of mind. So long as the
sympathetic system is acting as the dominant apparatus of consciousness, so
long will the origin, astral or physical, of impacts remain as the same to
consciousness. Even the higher animals - in whom the cerebro-spinal
system is well developed, but in whom it is not yet, save in its sense-centres,
the chief mechanism of consciousness - fail to distinguish between physical and
astral sights, sounds, etc. A horse will leap over an astral body as though it
were a physical one; a cat will rub herself against the legs of an astral
figure; a dog will growl at a similar appearance. In the dog and the horse
there is the dawning of an uneasy sense of some difference, shown by the fear
of such appearances often manifested by the dog, and by the timidity of the horse. [186] The nervousness of the horse - despite which he
can be trained to face the dangers of a battle-field, and even, as with Arab
mares, learn to pick up and carry away his fallen rider through all the
alarming surroundings - seems chiefly due to his confusion and bewilderment as
to his environment, and his inability to distinguish between what later he will
learnedly call "objective realities", against which he can injure his
body, and "delusions", or "hallucinations", through which
his body can pass unscathed. To him they are all "real", and the
difference of their behaviour alarms him; in the case
of an exceptionally intelligent horse
the nervousness is often greater, as he evolves a dawning sense of
difference in the phenomena themselves, and this at first, not being
understood, is yet more disquieting.
The
savage, living more in the cerebro-spinal system,
distinguishes between the physical and the astral phenomena, though the latter
to him are as "real" as the physical: he relates them to another
world, to which he relegates [187] all things that do not behave in the way he
considers normal. He does not know that, with regard to these, he is conscious
through the sympathetic and not through the cerebro-spinal
system; he is conscious of them - that is all. The Lemurians and early
Atlanteans were almost more conscious astrally than
they were physically. Astral impacts, throwing the whole astral sheath into
waves, came through the sense-centres of the astral to the sympathetic centres
in the physical body, and they were vividly aware of them. Their lives were
dominated by sensations and passions more than by intellect, and the special
apparatus of the astral sheath, the sympathetic system, was then the dominant
mechanism of consciousness.
As
the cerebro-spinal system became elaborated, and more
and more assumed its peculiar position as the chief apparatus of consciousness
on the physical plane, the attention of consciousness was fixed more and more
on the external physical world, and its aspect of activity, as the concrete
mind, was brought into greater [188] and greater prominence. The sympathetic
system became subordinate, and its indications were less and less regarded,
submerged under the flood of the coarser and heavier physical impacts from without.
Hence a lessening of astral consciousness and an increase of intelligence,
though there still remains in almost every one a vague sense of non-understood
impressions received from time to time.
At
the present stage of evolution this lower form of clairvoyance is still found
among human beings, but in persons of very limited intellect; they have little
idea as to its rationale, and little control over its exercise. Attempts to
increase it are apt to cause nervous disturbances of a very refractory kind,
and these attempts are against the law of evolution, which works ever forward
towards a higher end, and does not move backwards. As the law cannot be
changed, attempts to work against it only cause disturbance and disease. We
cannot revert to the condition in which the sympathetic system was dominant,
save at the cost of health, and of the higher intellectual evolution. [189]
Hence the serious danger of following many of the directions now published
broadcast, to meditate on the solar plexus, and other sympathetic centres.
The
practices, a few of which have come over to the West, are systematised
into Hatha Yoga in
When
the cerebro-spinal system is thrown temporarily into
abeyance, the impulses from the astral sheath through the sympathetic system
make themselves felt in consciousness. Hence "lucidity" in trance,
self-induced or imposed, the power of reading in the astral by the use of
crystals, and other similar devices. The partial or complete suspension of the
action of consciousness in the higher vehicle causes it to direct attention on the
lower.
It
may be well to add here, to prevent misconception, that the higher
clairvoyance follows, instead of preceding, the growth of mind, and cannot
appear until the organisation of the astral body, in
contradistinction to the astral sheath, has been carried to a considerable
height. When this is effected by the play of intellect
and the perfecting of the physical intellectual apparatus, then the true astral
senses [191] before mentioned, called the chakras, or
wheels, from their whirling appearance, are gradually evolved. These develop on
the astral plane, as astral senses and organs, and are built and controlled
from the mental plane, as were the brain-centres from the astral. Consciousness
is then working on the mental plane and building its astral mechanism, as
before it worked on the astral plane, building its physical mechanism. But now
it works with far greater power and greater understanding, having unfolded so
many of its powers. Further, it shapes centres in the physical body from the sympathetic
and cerebrospinal systems, to act as physical plane apparatus for bringing
into the brain-consciousness the vibrations from the higher planes. As these
centres are vivified, knowledge is "brought through", i.e., is
available for the use of consciousness working in the physical nervous system.
This, as said, is the higher clairvoyance, the intelligent and self-directed
exercise of the powers of consciousness in the astral body.
In
this upward-climbing, then, the [192] powers of consciousness are awakened on
the physical plane, and are then severally awakened on the astral and the
mental. The astral and mental sheaths must be highly evolved ere they can be
farther developed into the subtle body, acting independently on the higher
planes, and then building for itself the necessary apparatus for the exercise
of these higher powers in the physical world. And even here when the apparatus
is ready, built by pure thought and pure desire, it must be vivified on the
physical plane by the fire of Kundalini, aroused and directed by the
consciousness working in the physical brain. [193]
-------
CHAPTER IX.
CONSCIOUSNESS AND SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.
1.
CONSCIOUSNESS.
For
an immense period of time - throughout the later vegetable and the animal
evolution, and throughout the evolution of normal humanity up to the present
time - the astral, or desire, sheath is, as we have seen, subordinate to the
physical, so far as the workings of consciousness are concerned. We have now
to trace the unfolding of the consciousness, of the life becoming aware of its
surroundings. While the nervous system is truly said to be created from the
astral plane, it is none the less created for the expression of consciousness
on the physical plane, and for its effective working thereon. It is there that
consciousness is first to become Self-consciousness. [194]
When
the vibrations of the outer world play on the physical sheath of the
infolded infant Self, the Jivatma, the Ray of the Monad, they at first cause
responsive thrills within that Self, a dawning consciousness within itself, a
feeling, unrelated by that Self to anything outside, though caused by impacts
from outside. It is a change outside the enveloping film of the Self, clothed
in sheaths of denser matter, which outside change causes a change within that
envelope, and this change causes an act of consciousness - consciousness of
change, of a changed condition. It may be an attraction, a drawing towards,
exerted by an external object over the sheaths, reaching to the envelope of the
Self, causing a slight expansion in the envelope, following an expansion in the
sheaths, towards the attractive object; and this expansion is a change of
condition, and causes a feeling, an act of consciousness. Or it may be a
repulsion, a driving away, again exerted by an external object against the
sheaths, reaching to the envelope of the Self, causing a slight shrinking in
the envelope, following the shrinking [195] away of the sheaths from the
repellent object; and this shrinking is also a change of condition, and causes
a corresponding change in consciousness.
When
we examine the conditions of the enveloping sheaths under an attraction and a repulsion, we find they are entirely different. When the
impact of an external object causes a rhythmical vibration in these envelopes -
that is, when their materials are made to arrange themselves in undulating
regular lines of rarefaction and densification - this arrangement of the
enclosing matter permits an interchange of life between the two objects that
have come into contact, and in proportion to the correspondence of the
rarefactions and densifications in the two is the fulness
of the interchange. This interchange, this partial union of two separated Lives
through the separating sheaths of matter, is "pleasure", and the
going out of the Lives towards each other is "attraction"; however
complicated pleasure may become, herein lies its essence; it is a sense of
"moreness", of increased, expanded life.
The more fully developed the Life, the [196] greater the pleasure in the realisation of this moreness, in
the expansion into the other Life, and each of the Lives thus uniting gains the
moreness by union with the other. As rhythmical
vibrations and corresponding rarefactions and densifications make this
interchange of life possible, it is truly said that "harmonious vibrations
are pleasurable". When, on the contrary, the impact of an external object
causes a jangle of vibrations in the envelopes of the impacted object - that
is, when the materials are made to arrange themselves irregularly, moving in
conflicting directions, striking themselves against each other - the contained
Life is shut in, isolated, its normal out-flowing rays are checked,
intercepted, even turned back on themselves. This check to normal action is
"pain", increasing with the energy of the in-driving, and the result
of the driving-in process is "repulsion". Here, also, the more fully
developed the Life, the greater the pain in this violent reversal of its normal
action, and in the sense of frustration that accompanies the reversal. Hence,
again, "inharmonious vibrations are [197] painful". Be it observed
that this is true of all the sheaths, although the astral sheath becomes specialised as the recipient of the class of sensations
later called pleasurable and painful. Constantly, in the course of evolution, a
general life-function thus becomes specialised, and a
particular organ is normally used for its exercise. The astral body being the
vehicle of desires, the need for its special susceptibility to pleasure and
pain is obvious.
To
return from this brief digression into the state of the envelopes to the germ
of consciousness itself; we shall find
it important to notice that there is herein no "awareness" of an
external object, no such awareness as is ordinarily conveyed by the use of the
word. Consciousness, as yet, knows nothing of an outer and an inner, of an
object and a subject; the divine germ is now becoming conscious. It becomes
consciousness with this change of conditions, with this movement in the
sheaths, this expanding and contracting, for consciousness exists only in, and
by, change. Here, then, for the separated divine germ is the birth of
consciousness; [198] it is born of change, of motion; where and when this first
change occurs, there, consciousness, for that separated germ, is born.
The
mere clothing of this germ with successive envelopes of matter on successive
planes gives rise to these first vague changes within the germ that are the
birthing of consciousness; and none of us may count the ages which roll on as
these changes become more defined, and as the envelopes become more definitely
shaped by the ceaseless impacts from without, and the no less ceaseless
responsive thrillings from within. The state of
consciousness at this stage can only be described as one of
"feeling", feeling becoming slowly more and more definite, and
assuming two phases, pleasure and pain - pleasure with expansion, pain with contraction. And, be it
noted, this primary state of consciousness does not manifest the three
well-known aspects of Will, Wisdom, and Activity, even in the most germinal
stage; "feeling" precedes these, and belongs to consciousness as a
whole, though in later stages of evolution it shows itself so much in connexion with the Will-Desire aspect [199] as to become
almost identified with it; in the plural, as feelings, indeed, it belongs to
that aspect, which is the first to arise as a differentiation within
consciousness.
As
the states of pleasure and pain become more definitely established in
consciousness, they give rise to the three aspects: with the fading away of
pleasure there is a continuance of the attraction in consciousness, a memory,
and this becomes a dim groping after it, a vague following of the vanishing
feeling, a movement - too indefinite to be called an effort - to hold it, to
retain it; similarly with the fading away of pain there is a continuance of the repulsion in consciousness, again a
memory, and this becomes an equally vague
movement to push it away. These states give birth to: Memory of past
pleasure and pain, indicating the germination o the Thought-aspect; longing to
experience again pleasure, or avoid pain, the germination of the Desire-aspect;
this stimulating a movement, the germination of the Activity-aspect. Thus
Consciousness is differentiated into its three aspects from its primary unity
of Feeling, repeating [200] in miniature the kosmic
process in which the triple Divinity ever arises from the One Existence. The
Hermetic axiom is here, as always, exemplified: "As above, so below".
2.
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.
Desire,
thus germinated, gropes after pleasure, not, as yet, after the pleasure giving
object; for consciousness is as yet limited within its own kingdom, is
conscious only in the within, is conscious only of changes in that within. It
has not yet turned its attention outwards, is not yet conscious even that there
is an outwards. Meanwhile that outwards of which it is not aware is continually
hammering at its vehicles, and most vehemently at its physical vehicle, the
vehicle most easily affected from outside, and with most difficulty from
within. Gradually the persistent and violent shocks from outside draw its
attention in their direction; their irregularity, their unexpectedness, their
constant assaults, their unrelatedness to its slow,
groping [201] movements, their unexplained appearances and disappearances, are
in opposition to its dim sense of regularity, continuity, of being always
there, of slow surges of change rising and falling within what is not yet to it
"himself"; there is a consciousness of difference, and this grows
into a sense of a something that remains within a changing hurly-burly, a sense
of a "within" and a "without", or, to speak more
accurately, of a "without" and
a "within", since it is the hammering outside that causes the
difference of "without" and "within" to arise in consciousness.
"Without" comes first, if only by a fraction of time, because its
recognition alone makes possible and inevitable the recognition of
"within". So long as there is nothing else, we cannot speak of
"within"; it is everything. But when "without" forces
itself on consciousness, "within" rises up as its inevitable
opposite. This sense of a "without" arises necessarily at the points
of contact between the continuing consciousness and the changing hurly-burly;
that is, in its physical vehicle, its physical [202] body. Herein is slowly
established the awareness of "others", and
with the establishment of this "others" comes the establishment also
of "I", over against them. He becomes conscious of things outside
instead of being conscious only of changes, and then he comes to know that the
changes are in "himself", and that the
things are outside himself. Self-consciousness is born.
This
process of perceiving objects is a complex one. It must be remembered that
objects contact the body in various ways, and the body receives some of their
vibrations by the parts differentiated to receive such vibrations. The eye, the ear, the skin, the tongue, the nose, receive
various vibratory waves, and certain cells in the organs affected vibrate
similarly in response. The waves set up pass to the sense-centres in the brain,
and thence to the knowledge-senses in the astral sheath; there the changes in
consciousness take place which correspond with them, as explained in Chapter
II., and they are sent on as these changes, the sensations of colour, [203]
outline, sound, form, taste, smell, etc., still as separate sensations, to
consciousness working in the mental sheath, and are there combined by it into a
single image, unified into a single perception of an object. This blending of
the various streams into one, this synthesis of sensations, is a specialty of
the mind. Hence, in Indian psychology, the mind is often called "the sixth
sense", "the senses, of which mind is the sixth".[60] When we
consider the five organs of action in relation to the mind, we find a reverse process going on; the mind pictures a certain
act as a whole, and thereby brings about a corresponding set of vibrations in
the mental sheath; these vibrations are reproduced in the motor senses in the
astral sheath; they break it up, analyse it into its
constituent parts, and these are accompanied with vibrations in the matter of
the motor centres; these, in turn, are
repeated in the motor centres in the brain as separate waves; the motor
centres distribute these waves through the nervous system to the various
muscles that [204] must co-operate to produce the action. Regarded in this
double relation the mind becomes the eleventh sense, "the ten senses and
the one"[61].
3.
REAL AND UNREAL.
With
the change of consciousness into Self-consciousness comes the recognition of a
difference which later, in the more evolved Self-consciousness, becomes the
difference between the objective or "real" -
in the ordinary western sense of the word - and the subjective or
"unreal", and "imaginary". To the jelly-fish, the sea
anemone, the hydra, waves and currents, sunshine and blast, food and sand
touching the periphery or the tentacles, are not "real", are
registered only as changes in consciousness, as in truth they are also to the
body of the human infant; I say registered, not recognised,
since no mental observation, analysis, and judgment are possible in the lower
stages of evolution. These creatures are not yet sufficiently conscious of
"others", to be conscious of [205] "themselves";
and they only feel changes as occurring within the circle of their own
ill-defined consciousness. The external world grows into "reality" as
the consciousness, separating itself from it, realises
its own separateness, changes from a vague "am" into a definite
"I am".
As
this self-conscious "I" gradually gains in clearness of
self-identification, of separateness, and distinguishes between changes within
himself and the impact of external objects, he is ready to take the next step
of relating the changes within himself to the varying impacts from outside. Then
follows the development of Desire for pleasure into definite desires for
pleasure-giving objects, followed by
thoughts as to how to obtain them ;
these lead to efforts to move after them when in sight, to search for them when
absent, and the consequent slow
evolution of the outer vehicle into a body well-organised
for movement, for pursuit, for capture. The desire for the absent, the search,
the success or failure, all impress on the developing consciousness the
difference [206] between his desires and thoughts, of which he is, or can be,
always conscious, and the external objects which come and go without any
reference to himself; and with disconcerting irrelevance to his feelings. He
distinguishes these as "real", as having an existence which he does not
control, and which affects him without any regard to his likings or objections.
And this sense of "reality" is first established in the physical
world, as being the one in which these contacts between the "others"
and the "I" are first recognised by consciousness.
Self-consciousness begins its evolution in and through the physical body, and
has its earliest centre in the brain.
The
normal man, at the present stage of evolution, still identifies himself with
this brain-centre of Self-consciousness, and is hence restricted to the waking
consciousness, or consciousness working in the cerebro-spinal
system, knowing himself as "I", distinctly and consecutively, only on
the physical plane, that is, in the waking state. On this plane he is
definitely self-conscious, distinguishing [207] between himself and the outer
world, between his own thoughts and outside appearances, without hesitation;
hence on this plane, and on this plane only, external things are to him
"real", "objective", "outside himself".
On
other planes, the astral and the mental, he is, as yet, conscious but not
self-conscious; he recognises changes within himself,
but does not yet distinguish between the self-initiated changes and those
caused by impacts from without on his astral and mental vehicles. To him they
are all alike changes within himself. Hence all
phenomena of consciousness occurring on super-physical planes - planes on which
Self-consciousness is not yet definitely established - the normal, average man
calls "unreal", "subjective", "inside himself",
just as the jellyfish, if he were a philosopher, would designate the phenomena
of the physical plane. He regards astral or mental phenomena as the result of
his "imagination", i.e., as forms of his own creating, and not as the
results of impacts upon his astral or mental vehicle from external worlds,
subtler [208] indeed, but as "real" and "objective" as the
external physical world. That is, he is not yet sufficiently evolved to have
reached self-realisation on those planes, and thus to
have become capable of objectivising there the
external worlds. He is only conscious there of the changes in himself, the changes in consciousness, and the external
world is consequently to him merely the play of his own desires and thoughts.
He is, in fact, an infant on the astral and mental planes. [209]
-------
CHAPTER X.
HUMAN
STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS.[62]
1.
THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS.
WE
have already noticed the fact that many activities of consciousness, once
purposive, have become automatic, and have gradually sunk below the
"threshold of consciousness". The processes which maintain the life
of the body - such as the beating of the heart, the expansion and contraction
of the heart, the processes of digestion, etc. - have all fallen into a region
of consciousness on which the attention of consciousness is not fixed. And there are innumerable phenomena, not
directly connected with the [210] maintenance of bodily life, which also
inhabit this dim region. The sympathetic system is a storehouse of traces left
by long-past events - events not belonging to our present life at all, but
events that passed hundreds of centuries
ago, that occurred in long-past lives, when the Jivatma
which is our Self was abiding in savage
human bodies, and even in the bodies of animals. Many a causeless terror, many
a
Another
part of the sub-conscious in us is composed of the contents of all the
consciousnesses that use our bodies as fields of evolution - atoms, molecules,
cells of many grades. Some of the queer spectres and dainty
figures that arise from the sub-conscious in us do not belong to us at all, but
are the dim gropings, and foolish fears, and pretty
fancies, of the Units of consciousness at a lower stage of evolution than our
own, that are our guests, inhabiting our body as a lodging-house.
In
this part of the sub-conscious go on the wars, waged by one set of creatures in
our blood against another set, which do not enter our consciousness, save when
their results appear as diseases.
Human
sub-consciousness, working on the physical plane, is thus composed of very
varied elements, and it is necessary [213] thus to analyse
and to understand it, in order to distinguish its workings from those of the
true human super-consciousness, which resembles the instincts in its sudden
irruptions into consciousness, but differs entirely from them in its nature and
place in evolution, belonging to the future while they belong to the past.
These two differ as atrophied vestigial organs, recording the history of the
past, differ from germinal rudimentary organs, indicating the progress of the
future.
We
have also seen that consciousness, working on the astral plane, built up and is
still building the nervous system for its instrument on the physical plane; but
this also does not form part of what is called the normal waking consciousness
at this stage of evolution. In the average man, consciousness, working on the
mental plane, is now building up and organising the
astral body as its instrument in the future on the astral plane; but this again
does not form part of the waking-consciousness. What then is the human
waking-consciousness? [214]
2.
THE WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS.
The
waking-consciousness is consciousness working on the mental plane and on the
astral, using mental and astral matter as its vehicle, seated in the physical
brain as Self-consciousness[63], and using that brain
with its connected nervous system as its instrument for willing, knowing, and
acting on the physical plane. In waking-consciousness the brain is always
active, always vibrating; its activity may be stimulated as a transmitting
organ from outside through the senses,
or it may be stimulated by the consciousness from the inner planes; but it is
ceaselessly active, responding to the without and the within. In the average
man, the brain is the only part in which consciousness has definitely become
Self-consciousness, the only part in which he feels himself as "I",
and asserts himself [215] as a separate individual unit. In all the rest of him
consciousness is still vaguely groping about, answering to external impacts but
not yet defining them, conscious as to changes in its own conditions, but not
yet conscious of "others" and "myself". In the more
advanced members of the human family, consciousness, working on the astral and
mental planes, is very rich and active, but its attention is not yet turned
outwards to the astral and mental worlds in which it is living, and its
activities find their outer expression in Self-consciousness on the physical
plane, to which all the outer attention in consciousness is turned, and into
which is poured as much of the higher workings as it is capable of receiving.
From time to time, powerful impacts on the astral or mental plane create so
violent a vibration in consciousness, that a wave of thought or emotion surges
outwards into the waking consciousness and throws it into such furious motion,
that its normal activities are swept away, submerged, and the man is hurried
into action which is not directed or [216] controlled by Self-consciousness.
We shall consider this further when we come to the super-physical
consciousness.
Waking-consciousness
may then be defined as that part of the total consciousness which is
functioning in the brain and nervous system, and which is definitely
Self-conscious. We may conceive of consciousness as symbolised
by a great light, which shines through a glass globe inserted in a ceiling,
illuminating the room below, while the light itself fills the room above, and
sheds its radiance freely in every direction. Consciousness is as a great egg
of light, of which only one end is inserted into the brain, and that end is the
waking-consciousness. As consciousness becomes Self-consciousness on the
astral plane, and the brain develops sufficiently to answer to its vibrations,
astral consciousness will become part of the waking-consciousness. Later still,
when consciousness becomes Self-consciousness on the mental plane, and the
brain develops sufficiently to answer to its vibrations, the
waking-consciousness will include mental consciousness. And [217] so on, until
all the consciousness on our five planes has evolved to waking-consciousness.
This
enlarging of waking-consciousness is accompanied with development in the atoms
of the brain, as well as with the development of certain organs in the brain,
and of the connexions between cells. For the
inclusion of the astral Self-consciousness, it is necessary that the pituitary
body should be evolved beyond its present condition, and that the fourth set of
spirillae in the atoms should be perfected. For the
inclusion of the mental, the pineal gland must be rendered active, and the
fifth set of spirillae brought into thorough working
order. So long as these physical development remain
unaccomplished, Self-consciousness may be evolved on the astral and mental
planes, but it remains super-consciousness and its workings do not express
themselves through the brain, and thus become part of the waking-consciousness.
Waking-consciousness
is limited and conditioned by the brain so long as a man [218] possesses a
physical body, and any injury to the brain, any lesion, any disturbance, at
once interferes with its manifestation. However highly developed may be a man's
consciousness, he is limited by his brain so far as its manifestations on the
physical plane are concerned, and if that brain be ill-formed or ill-developed,
his waking-consciousness will be poor and restricted.
With
the loss of the physical body, the connotation of waking-consciousness changes, and that which is here said of the physical
conditions is transferred to the astral. We may therefore enlarge our original
definition to the general statement: waking-consciousness is that part of the
total consciousness which is working through its outermost vehicle, that is,
which is manifesting on the lowest plane then touched by that consciousness.
In
the earlier stages of human evolution, there is little activity in
consciousness on the inner planes except as stimulated from the outer; but as
Self-consciousness grows more vivid on the physical plane, it enriches with
ever-increasing rapidity the [219] content of consciousness on the inner;
consciousness, working upon its content, rapidly evolves, until its internal
powers far outstrip the possibilities of their manifestation through the
brain, and the latter becomes a
limitation and a hindrance instead of feeder and a stimulator. Then the
pressure of consciousness on its physical instrument becomes at times
perilously great, causing a nervous tension which endangers the equilibrium of
the brain, unable to adapt itself with sufficient rapidity to the powerful
waves beating upon it. Hence the truth of the saying "Great wits to
madness near allied". Only the highly and delicately organised
brain can enable the "great wits" to manifest themselves on the
physical plane; but such a brain is the one most easily thrown off its balance
by the strong waves of these same "great wits", and this is
"madness". Madness - the incapacity of the brain to respond regularly
to vibrations - may indeed be due to lack or arrest of development, lack or
arrest of brain organisation, and such madness is not
allied to "great wits"; but it is a [220] significant and pregnant
fact that a brain in advance of normal evolution, developing new and delicately
balanced combinations for the enriched expression of consciousness on the
physical plane, is the brain of all others that may most easily be disabled by
the throwing out of gear of some part of its mechanism not yet sufficiently
established to resist a strain. To this again we must return in considering the
super-physical consciousness.
3.
THE SUPER-PHYSICAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
Psychologists
in the West have lately betaken themselves to the study of states of
consciousness other than the waking; these are variously designated as
"abnormal", "sub-conscious", "inconscient",
and often as "dream-consciousness" - because the dream is the most
generally recognised and universal form of
other-consciousness. At first there was a tendency to regard these states as
the result of disordered brain conditions, and this view is still largely held;
but the more advanced psychologists are out-growing this narrow [221] idea, and
are beginning to study such states as definite manifestations of consciousness
under conditions not yet understood, but not necessarily disorderly; some
definitely recognise a "larger
consciousness", a part only of which can find expression in the brain as
at present evolved. In the East, this state of other consciousness has for
long ages been regarded as higher than the waking state, as that of the
consciousness set free from the narrow limits of the physical brain, and acting
in a subtler and more plastic and congenial medium. Dream has been regarded as
one phase of this superphysical activity, and as a
touch with higher worlds; and means have been taken to arouse
Self-consciousness in the dream-world, to set Self-consciousness, clothed in
its higher vestures, free from the physical body at will; so that, instead of
the vague and confused answers to impacts from higher worlds in undeveloped
dream states, Self-consciousness may be established therein with clear and
definite vision. To effect this, Self-consciousness in its higher vehicles must
be at first [222] removed from the physical body and made active on the astral
plane; for until it knows itself out of the dense body, it cannot separate out
in the "dream", the extra-physical experiences from the chaotic
fragments of physical experiences mixed up with them in the brain. As clear
water poured into a muddy bucket becomes mixed up with the mud, so does an
astral experience, poured down into a brain full of fragments of past physical
happenings, become blurred, confused, incongruous[64]. Eastern psychology hence
sought after methods of separating the Self-consciousness from its physical
vehicle, and it is interesting to observe that these methods, wholly different
as they are from those used in the West, and directed to the intensifying of
consciousness, reduce the body to the same state of quiescence as that induced
by physical methods in the West, when the western psychologist betakes himself
to the study of other-consciousness.
Super-consciousness
includes the whole [223] of the consciousness above the waking-consciousness;
that is, all on the higher planes that does not express itself on the physical
plane as Self-consciousness working through the brain. It is therefore a great
complexity, and covers a large number of phenomena. Dream, as said, is part of
it; so are all the workings of the astral consciousness asserting themselves as
premonitions, warnings, visions of happenings distant in space or time, vague
touches from other worlds, sudden intuitions as regards character or events;
also all the workings of the mental consciousness, lower or higher, that
appear as intuitive grasp of truths, sudden insight into causal connexions, inspirations - mental or moral - flashes of
genius, visions of high artistic beauty, etc., etc. These irruptions of the
super-consciousness into the physical plane have the character of
unexpectedness, of conviction, of imperious authority, of lack of apparent
cause. They are unrelated, or only indirectly related, to the contents of the
waking-consciousness, and do not justify themselves to it, but simply impose
themselves on it. [224]
To
bring the super-consciousness into manifestation on the physical plane, it is
necessary - in the early stages - to reduce the brain to inactivity, to render
the sense-organs unresponsive to physical impacts, and, by expelling the
conscious entity from the body, reduce that body to the state called trance.
Trance is but the sleep-state, artificially or abnormally induced; whether
produced by mesmeric, hypnotic, medicinal, or other means, the result is the
same, so far as the physical body is concerned. But the result on the other
planes will depend entirely on the evolution of consciousness on those planes,
and a highly evolved consciousness would not permit the use of hypnotic or
medicinal means - unless, perhaps, of an anaesthetic
for an operation - though such a one might allow, under exceptional
circumstances, the use of mesmerism in producing the trance state. Trance may
also be produced by action from the higher planes, as by intense concentration
of thought, or by rapt contemplation of an object of devotion, inducing exstasy. These are the means [225] used from time
immemorial by the Raja Yogis of the East, and the exstasy
of the Saint in the West is produced by this rapt contemplation; the trance is
indistinguishable from that produced by the means above referred to in the Salpetriere and elsewhere. The Hatha
Yogis also reach this same trance condition, but by means much resembling the
last named, - by staring at a black spot on a white ground, at the point of the
nose, and other similar practices.
But
when other than physical vision and physical tests are used, how great is the
difference between the super-physical conditions of consciousness in the hypnotised subject and in the Yogi. H. P. Blavatsky has
well described this difference: "In the trance state the Aura changes
entirely, the seven prismatic colours being no longer discernible. In sleep
also they are not all 'at home'. For those which belong to the spiritual
elements in the man, viz., yellow, Buddhi; indigo, Higher Manas; and the blue
of the Auric Envelope, will be either hardly
discernible or altogether missing. The Spiritual Man is free during sleep,
[226] and though his physical memory may not become aware of it, lives, robed
in his highest essence, in realms on other planes, in realms which are the land
of reality, called dreams on our plane of illusion. A good clairvoyant,
moreover, if he had an opportunity of seeing a Yogi in the trance state and a mesmerised subject side by side, would learn an important
lesson in Occultism. He would learn to know the difference between self-induced
trance and a hypnotic state resulting from extraneous influence In the Yogi,
the 'principles' of the lower quaternary disappear entirely. Neither red,
green, red-violet, nor the auric blue of the body are
to be seen; nothing but hardly perceptible vibrations of the golden-hued Prana
principle, and a violet flame streaked with gold rushing upwards from the head,
in the region where the Third Eye rests, and culminating in a point. If the
student remembers that the true violet, or the extreme end of the spectrum, is
no compound colour of red and blue, but a homogeneous colour with vibrations
seven times more rapid than those of the red, and that the golden [227] hue is
the essence of the three yellow lines from orange-red to yellow-orange and
yellow, he will understand the reason why; he [the Yogi] lives in his own Auric Body, now become the vehicle of Buddhi-Manas. On the
other hand, in a subject in an artificially produced hypnotic or mesmeric
trance, an effect of unconscious when not of conscious Black Magic, unless
produced by a high Adept, the whole set of the principles will be present, with
the Higher Manas paralysed, Buddhi severed from it
through that paralysis, and the red-violet Astral Body entirely subjected to
the Lower Manas and Kama Rupa"[65].
This
difference in the appearance of the entranced person, as seen by the
clear-seeing eye, is connected with a difference of immense importance in the
after outcome of the trance. The Yogi, who thus leaves the body, leaves it in
full Self-consciousness, visits the higher worlds in full possession of his
faculties, and, on returning to the dense body, imprints
on the evolved brain the memory of his experiences. The little evolved person,
[228] entranced, "loses consciousness"; when his Self-consciousness
is not developed on the higher planes, his awareness is not there turned
outwards; he is practically as much asleep there, in the astral and mental
worlds, as he is in the physical plane, and on awaking from the trance he knows
nothing of what has occurred during its continuance, either here or elsewhere.
If,
however, the subject be sufficiently evolved, as most people are at this stage
of evolution, to be Self-conscious on the astral plane, then others may be
profited by questioning him while entranced. For in the artificially induced
trance state, wherein the brain is cut off from the normal action and reaction
between itself and its environment, it becomes an instrument, however
inadequate, of the super-physical consciousness. Isolated from its physical
environment, rendered incapable of responding to its accustomed stimuli from
outside, cut off from its lower attachments while remaining united to its
higher, it continues to answer to the impacts from above, and can do this the
[229] more effectively since none of its energies are running out into the
physical plane. This is the essence of the trance state. In the forcible
closure of the avenues of the senses, through which its forces pour out into
the external world, these forces remain available as servants of the superphysical consciousness. In the silence thus imposed
on the physical plane, the voices of the other planes can make themselves
heard.
In
the hypnotic trance, a quickening of the mental faculties is observed: memory
is found to embrace a far larger area, for the faint pulsings
left by far-off events become audible when the stronger pulsings
from the recent are temporarily stilled; people forgotten in the waking state
are remembered in the trance; languages known in childhood, but since lost,
reappear; trivial events re-arise. Sometimes the perceptive powers range over a
larger area; distant occurrences are seen, vision pierces through physical
barriers, far-off speech becomes audible. Fragments of other planes are also
occasionally glimpsed, much mixed up with the thought-forms [230] of waking
hours. A whole literature exists on this subject, and can be studied by the
investigator.
It
has also been found that the results of deeper trance are not identical with
those of the more superficial. As the trance deepens, higher strata of the
super-physical consciousness manifest themselves in the brain. The famous case of
In
the mesmeric trance, the higher phenomena are more easily obtained than in the
hypnotic, and, in this, very clear statements may be had of the phenomena of
the astral and even of the mental plane - where the "subject" is
well-developed - and sometimes glimpses are gained of past lives.
When
we see that the exclusion of [231] the physical plane is the condition for
these manifestations of the super-physical consciousness, we begin to
understand the rationale of the methods of Yoga, practised
in the East. When the methods are physical, as in Hatha
Yoga, the ordinary hypnotic trance is most often obtained, and the subject, on
re-awakening, remembers nothing of his experiences. The method of the Raja
Yoga, in which the consciousness is withdrawn from the brain by intense
concentration, leads the student to continuity of consciousness on the
successive planes, and he remembers his super-physical experiences on his return
to the waking state. Both in the West and in the East, the same cessation of
waking-consciousness is aimed at, in order to obtain traces of the
super-physical consciousness, or as the western psychologist would say, from
the unconscious in man. The eastern method, however, with thousands of years
of experience behind it, yields results incomparably greater in the realms of
the super-physical consciousness, and establishes, on the sure basis of
reiterated [232] experiences, the independence of consciousness as regards its
physical vehicle.
The
exstasy and the visions of Saints, in all ages and in
all creeds, afford another example of the irruptions from the
"unconscious". In these, prolonged and absorbing prayer, or
contemplation, is the means for producing the necessary brain-condition. The
avenues of the senses become closed by the intensity of the inner
concentration, and the same state is reached spasmodically and involuntarily
which the practiser of Raja Yoga seeks deliberately
to attain. Hence we find that devotees of all faiths ascribe their visions to
the favour of the Deity worshipped, and not to the fact that they have produced
in themselves a passive brain-condition, which enables the super-physical
consciousness to imprint on that brain the sights and sounds of the higher
worlds.
Prof.
William James, in his Varieties of Religious Experience, points out that some
of the most striking of these irruptions from the "unconscious" are
cases of "sudden conversions", in which [233] a sudden thought, or
vision, or voice, has changed at once and completely the whole course of a
man's waking life. He rightly argues that a force, sufficiently powerful to
produce such effects, cannot be lightly waved aside,
or contemptuously ignored, by any serious student of human consciousness. This
whole class of psychical phenomena demands careful and scientific study, and
promises a rich harvest of results, as to the super-physical consciousness, to
repay the serious investigator.
As
against this view, however, it is urged that these facts are observed in connexion with morbid nervous states, and that the subjects
are hysterical, over-excited persons, whose experiences are vitiated by their
condition. In the first place, this is not always true; the eastern Raja Yogis
are persons distinguished for their calmness and serenity, and some of the
cases of conversion have been those of worldly and capable men. Let it be
granted, however, that in the majority of cases the nervous condition is
morbid, and the brain [234] overstrained, what then? The normal brain is
admittedly evolved to the point of responding to the vibrations of the physical
world, and of transmitting these upwards, and of transmitting downwards mental
and astral vibrations connected with these, from the higher vehicles. It is not
yet evolved to the point of receiving without disturbance very violent
vibrations from the higher planes, nor of responding
at all to the vibrations set up in the subtler vehicles by the external
phenomena of their own planes. Very violent emotions of joy, pain, grief,
terror, often prove too much for the normal brain, causing severe headache,
hysteria, and even nervous collapse. It is, therefore, no wonder that the very
violent emotion which causes what is called a conversion should often be
accompanied by similar nervous distress. The important point is,
that when the nervous upset has passed, the effect - the changed attitude
towards life - remains. The nervous disturbance is due to the inadequacy of the
physical brain to bear the violent and rapid vibrations dashing down upon it;
the [235] permanently changed attitude is due to the steady pressure of the
super-physical consciousness, continuously exerted. Where
the super-physical consciousness is not sufficiently developed to exert this
continuous pressure, the converted person "falls from grace" as the
surge of emotion ebbs away.
In
cases of visions, and like phenomena, we have already seen that they may occur
when a form of trance has been produced. But without this, such phenomena may
occur, in cases where the brain is in a state of tension, either from some
temporary cause, or from the fact that its evolution has gone beyond the
normal. Strong emotion may increase the nervous tension to the point where
response to direct astral vibrations becomes possible, and thus an astral
happening becomes visible or audible. The reaction from the strain will
probably show itself as nervous disturbance. When the brain is more highly
evolved than the ordinary brain, has
become more complicated and more sensitive, astral happenings may be felt
constantly, and this strain may well be [236] somewhat greater than the nervous
system is quite fitted to bear, in addition to bearing the ordinary wear and
tear of modern civilisation. Hence, again, hysteria
and other forms of nervous distress are likely to accompany the visions.
But
these facts do not take away from the importance of the experiences, as facts
in consciousness. Rather, perhaps, do they increase their importance, as
showing the way in which evolution works in the action of the environment on an
organism. The reiterated impacts of external forces stimulate the growing
organism, and very often temporarily overstrain it; but the very strain forces
forward its evolution. The crest of the evolutionary wave must always consist
of abnormal organisms; the steady, normal, safe, average organisms follow on
behind; they are most respectable, but perhaps not so
interesting as the pioneers, and most certainly not so instructive as regards
the future. As a matter of fact, the forces of the astral plane are constantly
playing vigorously on the human brain, in order that it may develop as a fuller
[237] vehicle of consciousness, and a sensitive brain, in the transitional
state, is apt to be thereby thrown a little out of gear with the world of its
past. It is probable that a good many
activities to which thought is at present directed will, in the future, be
carried on automatically, and will gradually sink below the threshold of the
waking consciousness, as have done various functions, once performed purposively.
As
these changes go on, the subtler vibrations must inevitably show themselves in
an increasing number in the most delicately equilibrated brains, those which
are not normal, inasmuch as these - on the crest of evolution - will be those
most capable of responding. Dr. Maudsley writes:
"What right have we to believe Nature under any
obligation to do her work by means of complete minds only? She
may find an incomplete mind a more suitable instrument for a particular
purpose"[66]. And Prof. James himself remarks: "If there were
such a thing as inspiration [238] from a higher realm, it might well be that
the neurotic temperament would furnish the chief condition of the requisite receptivity"[67].
When
we once recognise that forces subtler than the
physical must necessitate for their expression a more refined vehicle than the
brain organised for the reception of the physical, we
shall cease to be troubled or distressed when we find that the super-physical
forces often find their readiest expression through brains that are more or
less out of gear with the physical plane. And we shall understand that the
abnormal physical symptoms accompanying their manifestations in no way derogate from the value of these energies, nor from the
importance of the part they will play in the future of humanity. At the same
time the wish must naturally arise to find out some method whereby these forces
may be enabled to manifest themselves without risking the destruction of their
physical instrument.
This
way has been found in the East in the practice of Raja Yoga, whereby the [239]
safe exercise of the higher consciousness is sought by intense concentration.
This concentration, in itself, develops the brain as an instrument for the
subtler forces, working in the brain-cells in the manner already described in connexion with thought.[68] Moreover, it slowly opens up
the set of spirillae of the atom, next in order to
those now in activity, and thus adds a new organ for the higher functioning.
This process is necessarily a slow one, but it is the only safe way of
development; and, if its slowness be resented, it may be suggested as a reason
for patience that the student is endeavouring to
ante-date the atomic development of the next Round, and he can hardly expect
to accomplish this with rapidity. It is, however, this slowness of the Raja
Yogic practices which renders them somewhat unacceptable to the hurrying West; and yet there is no other way to secure a balanced
development. The choice lies between this and the morbid nervous disturbances
which accompany the irruptions of the super-[240]physical
consciousness into an unprepared vehicle. We cannot transcend the laws of
Nature; we can only try to understand, and then to utilise
them. [241]
-------
CHAPTER XI.
THE MONAD AT WORK.
1.
BUILDING HIS VEHICLES.
LET
us now consider the work of the Monad in the shaping of his vehicles, when he
has, as his representatives - as himself on the third, fourth, and fifth planes
- Atma-Buddhi-Manas, with the causal body as the receptacle, the
treasure-house, of the experiences of each incarnation.
At
the close of each period of life, that is to say, at the end of each devachanic existence, he must stimulate into renewed
activity the three successive nuclei of the bodies he is to wear during his
next life-period. First, he arouses the mental nucleus. This arousing consists
in increasing the flow of life through the spirillae.
It will be remembered that when the permanent units "went to [242]
sleep", the normal flow of life in the spirillae
lessened, and, during the whole period of repose, this flow is small and slow.[69] When the time for reincarnation arrives, this flow is
increased, the spirillae thrill with life, and the
permanent units, one after another, behave as magnets, attracting round
themselves appropriate matter. Thus when the mental unit is stimulated, it
begins to vibrate strongly, according to the vibratory powers - the results of
past experiences - stored up therein, drawing towards and arranging round
itself appropriate matter from the mental plane. Just as a bar of soft
iron becomes a magnet when a current is
sent through a wire encircling it, and as matter within its magnetic field will
at once arrange itself round that magnet, so is it with the permanent mental
unit. When the life-current encircles it, it becomes a magnet, and matter
within the field of its forces arranges itself round it and forms a new mental
body. The matter attracted will be according to the complexity of the permanent
unit. Not only will finer or [244] coarser matter be attracted, but the matter
must also vary in the development of the atoms which enter into the formation
of its aggregations. The molecules attracted will be composed of atoms the
vibratory energies of which are identical with, or approach nearly to, or are
in tune with, those of the attracting unit. Hence, according to the stage of
evolution reached by the man, will be the development of the matter of his new
mental vehicle. In this way, incarnation after incarnation, a suitable mental
body is built up.
Exactly
the same process is repeated on the astral plane in the building of the new
astral body. The astral nucleus - the astral permanent atom - is similarly
vivified, and acts in a similar way.
The
man is thus clothed with new mental and astral bodies which express his stage
of evolution, and enable whatever powers and faculties he possesses to express
themselves duly in their own worlds.
But
when we come to the shaping of the body on the physical plane a new [245]
element appears. So far as the Monad is concerned, the work is the same. He
vivifies the physical nucleus - the physical permanent atom - and it acts as a
magnet like its fellows. But now it is as though a man interfered with the
attraction and arrangement of matter within a magnetic field; the Elemental,
charged with the duty of shaping the etheric double after the model given by
the Lords of Karma, steps in and takes control of the work. The materials;
indeed, may be gathered together, as a workman might carry bricks for the
building of a house, but the builder takes the bricks, accepts or rejects, and
sets them according to the plan of the architect.
The
question arises: Why this difference? Why, on reaching the physical plane,
where we might expect a repetition of the previous processes, should an alien
power take the control of the building out of the hands of the owner of the
house? The answer lies in the working of the law of karma. On the higher
planes, the sheaths express as much of the man as is developed, and he is not
there working [245] out the results of his past relations with others. Each
centre of Consciousness, on those planes, is working within its own circle; its
energies are directed towards its own vehicles, and only so much of them as is finally expressed through the physical vehicle acts
directly upon others. These relations with others complicate his karma on the
physical plane, and the particular physical form that he wears during a
particular life - period must be suitable for the working out of this
complicated karma. Hence the need for the adjusting
interference of the Lords of Karma. Were he at a point of evolution at
which he entered into similarly direct relations with others on other planes,
similar limitations of his power to shape his vehicles on those planes would
appear. In the sphere of his external activities, whatever it may be, these
limitations must present themselves.
Hence
the shaping of the physical body is done by an authority higher than his own;
he must accept the conditions of race, nation, family,
circumstances, demanded by his past activities. This [246] limiting action of
karma necessitates the building of a vehicle which is but a partial expression of the working
consciousness - partial, not only because of the shutting off of power by the
coarseness of the material itself, but also because of the external
limitations above referred to. Much of his consciousness, even though ready for
expression on the physical plane, may thus be excluded, and only a small part
of it may appear on the physical plane as waking-consciousness.
The
next point in connexion with this building that we
must consider is the special work of organising the
vehicles as expressions of consciousness, leaving apart the general building by
desire and thought, with which we are so familiar. We are concerned here with
details, rather than with broad outlines.
We
know that while qualities are imparted to matter during the descent of the
Second Logos, the arrangement of these specialised
materials into relatively permanent forms belongs to His ascent. When the
Monad, through his reflexion [247] as the Spiritual
Man, assumes some directive power over his vehicles, he finds himself in
possession of a form in which the sympathetic nervous system is playing a very
large part, and in which the cerebro-spinal has not
yet assumed predominance. He will have to work up a number of connecting links
between this sympathetic system which he inherits and the centres which he must
organise in his astral body, for his future
independent functioning therein. But before any independent functioning in any
higher vehicle is possible, it is necessary to carry it to a fairly high point
as a transmitting vehicle, that is a
vehicle through which he works down to
his body on the physical plane. We must distinguish between the primary work of
the organisation of the mental and astral vehicles
that fits them to be transmitters of part of the consciousness of the Spiritual
Man, and the later work of developing these same vehicles into independent
bodies, in which the Spiritual Man will be able to function on their respective
planes. Hence there are two [248] tasks to be performed: first the organisation of the mental and astral vehicles as
transmitters of consciousness to the physical body; secondly, the organisation of these vehicles into independent bodies, in
which consciousness can function without the help of the physical body.
The
astral and mental vehicles, then, must be organised
in order that the Spiritual Man may use the physical brain and nervous system
as his organ of consciousness on the physical plane. The impulse to such use
comes from the physical world by impacts upon the various nerve-ends, causing
waves of nervous energy to pass along the fibres to
the brain: these waves pass from the dense brain to the etheric, thence to the
astral, thence to the mental vehicle, arousing a response from the
consciousness in the causal body on the mental plane. That consciousness, thus
roused by impacts from without, gives rise to vibrations, which flow down in
answer from the causal body to the mental, from the mental to the astral, from
the astral to the etheric and dense physical; [249] the waves set up electric
currents in the etheric brain, and these act on the dense matter of the nervous
cells.
All
these vibratory actions gradually organise the first
inchoate clouds of astral and mental matter into vehicles which serve as
effective fields for these constant actions and reactions. This process goes on
during hundreds of births, started, as we have seen, from below, but gradually
coming more and more under the control of the Spiritual Man; he begins to
direct his activities by his memories of past sensations, and starts each
activity under the impulse of these memories stimulated by desire. As the
process continues, more and more forcible direction comes from within, and less
and less directive power is exercised by the attractions and repulsions of
external objects, and thus the control of the building up of the vehicles is
largely withdrawn from the without and is centred in
the within.
As
the vehicle becomes more organised, certain
aggregations of matter appear within it, at first cloudy and vague, then [250]
more and more definitely outlined. These are the future chakras,
or wheels, the sense-centres of the astral body, as distinguished from the
astral sense-centres connected with the sense-organs and centres of the
physical body.[70] But nothing is done to vivify these slowly growing centres
for immense periods of time, and the connexion of
them with the physical body is often delayed, even after they are functioning
on the astral plane; for this connexion can only be
made from the physical vehicle, wherein the fiery force of Kundalini resides.
Before Kundalini can reach them, so that they can pass their observations on to
the physical body, they must be linked to the sympathetic nervous system, the
large ganglionic cells in that system being the
points of contact. When these links are made, the fiery current can flow
through, and observations of astral events can be transmitted fully to the
physical brain. While they can only be thus linked with the physical vehicle,
the building of them as centres and the gradual organisation
[251] of them into wheels, can be begun from any vehicle, and will be begun in
any individual from that vehicle which represents the special type of
temperament to which he belongs. According as a man belongs to one typical
temperament or another, so will be the place of the greatest activity in the
building up of all the vehicles, in the gradual making of them into effective
instruments of consciousness to be expressed on the physical plane. This centre
of activity may be in the physical, astral, lower, or higher mental body. In
any of these, or even higher still, according to the temperamental type, this
centre will be found in the principle which marks out the temperamental type,
and from that it works "upwards" or "downwards", shaping
the vehicles so as to make them suitable
for the expression of that temperament.
2.
AN EVOLVING MAN.
A
special case may be taken to facilitate the understanding of this process - a
[252] temperament in which the concrete mind predominates. We will trace the
Spiritual Man through the third, fourth, and fifth Root Races. When we look at
him at work in the third Race, we find him very infantile mentally, even though
the mind is the predominant note of his type. The surging life around him, that he can neither understand nor master, works
strongly upon him from outside, and powerfully affects his astral vehicle. This
astral vehicle will be retentive of impressions, in consequence of the
temperament, and the desires will stimulate the infantile mind to efforts
directed to their satisfaction. His physical constitution differs from that of
the fifth Race man; the sympathetic system is still dominant, and the cerebro-spinal system subordinate, but parts of the
sympathetic system are beginning to lose much of their effectiveness as
instruments of consciousness, belonging, as such instruments, to the stage
below the human. There are two bodies in the brain especially connected with
the sympathetic system in their inception, although now forming part of [253]
the cerebro-spinal - the pineal gland and the
pituitary body. They illustrate the way in which a part of the body may
function in one manner at an early stage, may then lose its special use and
function little, if at all, and at a later stage of evolution may again be
stimulated by a higher kind of life, which will give it a new use and function
at a higher stage of evolution.
The
development of these bodies belongs to the invertebrate rather than to the
vertebrate kingdom, and the "third eye" is spoken of by biologists as
the "invertebrate eye". It is, however, still found, as an eye among
vertebrates, for a snake was lately found in
The
growth of the cerebro-spinal system would be more
rapid in this Atlantean than in those of other temperaments, because the main
activity would be in the concrete mind, and would thus stimulate and fashion
it; the astral body would lose its predominance sooner, and would become more
rapidly a transmitter of mental impulses to the brain. Hence, when our man
passed on into the fifth Race, he would be peculiarly ready to take advantage
of its characteristics; he would build a large and well-proportioned brain; he
would utilise, his astral chiefly [255] as a
transmitter, and would build his chakras from the
mental plane.
3.
THE PITUITARY BODY AND PINEAL GLAND.
To return to the second of the two bodies
mentioned above - the pituitary body. This is regarded as developed from a primeval
mouth, in direct continuity with the alimentary canal of the invertebrates. It
ceased to function as a mouth in the vertebrates, and became a rudimentary
organ; but it has retained a peculiar function in connexion
with the growth of the body. It is active during the normal period of physical
growth, and the more actively it functions, the greater the growth of the body.
In giants it has been found that this organ is peculiarly active. Moreover, the
pituitary body sometimes again begins to function in later life, when the bony
framework of the body is set, and then causes abnormal and monstrous growth at
the free points of the body, hands, feet, nose, etc., giving rise to
disfigurement of a most distressing kind. [256]
As
the cerebro-spinal system became dominant, the
earlier function of these two bodies disappeared; but these organs have a
future as well as a past. The past was connected with the sympathetic system;
the future is connected with the cerebrospinal system. As evolution goes on,
and the chakras in the astral body are vivified, the
pituitary body becomes the physical organ for astral, and later, for mental
clairvoyance. Where too great a strain is made upon the astral faculty of
sight, while in the physical body, inflammation of the pituitary body sometimes
results. This organ is the one through which the knowledge gained by astral
vision is transmitted to the brain; and it is also used in vivifying the
points of contact between the sympathetic system and the astral body, whereby a
continuity of consciousness is
established between the astral and physical planes.
The
pineal gland becomes connected with one of the chakras
in the astral body, and through that with the mental body, and serves as a
physical organ for the transmission of thought from one brain [257] to another.
In thought transmission the thought may be flashed from mind to mind, mental
matter being used as the medium for transmission; or it may be sent down to the
physical brain, and by means of the pineal gland may be sent, via the physical
ether, to the pineal gland in another brain, and thus to the receiving
consciousness.
While
the centre of activity lies in the dominant principle of the man, the connexion of the chakras with
the physical body must be made, as said, from the physical plane. The object of
this connexion is not to make the astral vehicle a
more efficient transmitter to the physical body of the energies of the
Spiritual Man, but to enable the astral vehicle to be in full touch with the
physical. There may be different centres of activity for the building up of
transmitting vehicles, but it is necessary to start from the physical plane in
order to bring the results of the activities of bodies functioning on other
planes within the waking-consciousness. Hence the high
importance of physical purity in diet and other matters. [258]
People
often ask: How does knowledge gained on higher planes reach the brain, and why
is it not accompanied by a memory of the circumstances under which it was
acquired? Anyone who practises meditation regularly
knows that much knowledge that he has not gained by study on the physical plane
appears in the brain. Whence comes it? It comes from
the astral or mental plane, where it was acquired, and reaches the brain in the
ordinary way above described; the consciousness has assimilated it on the
mental plane directly, or it has reached it from the astral, and sends down
thought-waves as usual. It may have been communicated by some entity on the
higher plane, who has acted directly on the mental body. But the circumstances
of the communication may not be remembered, for one of two reasons, or for
both. Most people are not what is technically called
"awake" on the astral and mental planes; that is their faculties are
turned inwards, are occupied with mental processes and emotions, and are not
engaged in the observation of the external phenomena of, those planes. [259] They may be very receptive, and their astral and mental
bodies may easily be thrown into vibration, and the vibrations convey the
knowledge which is thus given, but their attention is not turned to the person
making the communication. As evolution goes on, people become more and more
receptive on the astral and mental planes, but do not therefore become aware of
their surroundings.
The
other reason for the lack of memory is the absence of the connecting links with
the sympathetic system before mentioned. A person may be "awake" on
the astral plane and functioning actively thereon, and he may be vividly
conscious of his surroundings. But if the connecting links between the astral
and physical systems have not been made, or are not vivified, there is a break
in consciousness. However vivid may be the consciousness on the astral plane,
it cannot, until these links are functioning, bring through and impress on the
physical brain the memory of astral experiences. In addition to these links,
there must be the active functioning of the pituitary body, [260] which focusses the astral vibrations much as a burning glass focusses the rays of the sun. A number of the astral
vibrations are drawn together and made to fall on a particular point, and
vibrations being thus set up in dense physical matter, the further propagation
of these is easy. All this is necessary for "remembering".
4.
THE PATHS OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
The
question arises: Does consciousness always travel along the same path to reach
its physical vehicle? Transits, we know, are sometimes made directly through
the atomic sub-planes from plane to plane, and sometimes by passing through
each sub-plane from the seventh to the first before reaching the atomic
sub-plane next below. Which of these paths
does consciousness follow In its
normal working, in the ordinary process of thinking, the wave comes steadily
down through each successive sub-plane, from the mental through the seven
astral sub-planes to the physical etheric, and so to the dense nervous matter.
This wave sets up electrical [261] currents in the etheric matter,
and these affect the protoplasm of the grey cells. But when the peculiar
flashes of consciousness occur, as in flashes of genius, or as in sudden
illuminative ideas which flash into the mind - such a flash as comes to the scientific
man when out of a great mass of facts there suddenly springs forth the unifying
underlying law - then the consciousness pours downward through the atomic
sub-planes only, and thus reaches the brain. This is the illuminative idea
which justifies itself by its mere appearance, like the sunlight, and does not
gain in compelling power by any process of reasoning. Thus reasoning comes to
the brain by the successive sub-planes; authoritative illumination by the
atomic sub-planes only. [262]
-------
CHAPTER XII.
THE NATURE OF MEMORY.
1.
THE GREAT SELF AND THE LITTLE SELVES.
WHAT
is memory? and how does it work? by
what means do we recover the past,
whether near or remote? For, after all, whether the past be near or
remote, belonging to this or to any anterior life, the means which govern its
recovery must be similar, and we require a theory which will include all cases
of memory, and at the same time will enable us to
understand each particular case.
The
first step towards obtaining a definite and intelligible theory is a
comprehension of our own composition, of the Self with its sheaths, and their
interrelation; and we may here briefly restate the main facts in the foregoing
chapters [263] which directly bear on the problem of Memory. We must bear
constantly in mind the facts that our consciousness is a unit, and that this
unit of consciousness works through various sheaths, which impose upon it a
false appearance of multiplicity. The innermost, or most tenuous, of these
sheaths is inseparable from the unit of consciousness; in fact, it is this
sheath which makes it a unit. This unit is the Monad, dwelling on the anupadaka plane; but for all practical purposes we may take
it as the familiar Inner Man, the Tri-Atom, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, thought of as apart from the atmic,
buddhic, and manasic
sheaths. This unit of consciousness manifests through,
abides in, sheaths belonging to the five planes of its activity, and we call it
the Self working in its sheaths.
We
must think, then, of a conscious Self dwelling in vehicles that vibrate. The
vibrations of these vehicles correspond, on the side of matter, with the
changes in consciousness on the side of the Self. We cannot accurately speak of
vibrations of consciousness, because [264] vibrations can only belong to the
material side of things, the form side, and only loosely can we speak of a
vibrating consciousness. We have changes in consciousness corresponding with
vibrations in sheaths.
The
question of the vehicles, or bodies, in which consciousness, the Self, is
working, is all-important as regards Memory. The whole process of recovering
more or less remote events is a question of picturing them in the particular
sheath - of shaping part of the matter of the sheath into their likeness - in
which consciousness is working at the time. In the Self, as a fragment of the
Universal Self - which for our purpose we can take to be the LOGOS, although in
verity the LOGOS is but a portion of the Universal Self - is present
everything; for in the Universal Self is present all which has taken place, is
taking place, and will take place in the universe; all this, and an illimitable
more, is present in the Universal Consciousness. Let us think only of a
universe and its LOGOS. We speak of Him as omnipresent and omniscient. Now,
fundamentally, that [265] omnipresence and omniscience are in the individualised Self, as being one with the LOGOS, but - we
must put in here a but - with a difference; the difference consisting in this,
that while in the separated Self as Self, apart from all vehicles, that
omnipresence and omniscience reside by virtue of his unity with the One Self,
the vehicles in which he dwells have not yet learned to vibrate in answer to
his changes of consciousness, as he turns his attention to one or another part
of his contents. Hence we say that all exists in him potentially, and not as in
the LOGOS actually: all the changes
which go on in the consciousness of the LOGOS are reproducible in this
separated Self, which is an indivisible part of His life, but the vehicles are
not yet ready as media of manifestation. Because of the separation of form,
because of this closing in of the separate, or individualised, Self, these possibilities which are within it
as part of the Universal Self are latent, not manifest, are possibilities, not
actualities. As in every atom which goes to the making up of a vehicle, there
are illimitable possibilities of vibration, so in every [266] separated Self there are illimitable possibilities of changes of
consciousness.
We
do not find in the atom, at the beginning of a solar system, an illimitable
variety of vibrations; but we learn that it possesses a capacity to acquire an
illimitable variety of vibrations; it acquires these in the course of its evolution,
as it responds continually to vibrations playing upon its surface; at the end of a solar
system, an immense number of the atoms in it have reached the stage of
evolution in which they can vibrate in answer to any vibration touching them that arises within
the system; then, for that system, these atoms are said to be perfected. The
same thing is true for the separated, or individualised,
Selves. All the changes taking place in the consciousness of the LOGOS which
are represented in that universe, and take shape as forms in that universe, all
these are also within the perfected consciousnesses in that universe, and any
of these changes can be reproduced in any one of them. Here is Memory: the
reappearance, the reincarnation in matter, of anything that has been within
that [267] universe, and therefore ever is, in the consciousness of its LOGOS,
and in the consciousnesses which are parts of His consciousness. Although we
think of the Self as separate as regards all other Selves, we must ever remember
it is inseparate as regards the ONE SELF the LOGOS.
His life is not shut out from any part of His universe, and in Him we live and
move and have our being, open ever to Him, filled with
His life.
As
the self puts on vehicle after vehicle of matter, its powers of gaining
knowledge become, with each additional
vehicle, more circumscribed but also more definite. Arrived on the physical
plane, consciousness is narrowed down to the experiences which can be received
through the physical body, and chiefly through those openings which we call the
sense-organs; these are avenues through which knowledge can reach the
imprisoned Self, though we often speak of them as shutting out knowledge when
we think of the capacities of the subtler vehicles. The physical body renders
perception definitive and clear much as a screen [268] with a minute hole in it
allows a picture of the outside world to appear on a wall that would otherwise
show a blank surface; rays of light are truly shut off from the wall, but, by
that very shutting off, those allowed to enter form a clearly defined picture.
2.
CHANGES IN THE VEHICLES AND IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
Let
us now see what happens as regards the physical vehicle in the reception of an
impression and in the subsequent recall of that impression, i.e., in the memory
of it.
A
vibration from outside strikes on an organ of sense, and is transmitted to the
appropriate centre in the brain. A group of cells in the brain vibrates, and
that vibration leaves the cells in a state somewhat different from the one in
which they were previous to its reception, The trace of that response is a
possibility for the group of cells; it has once vibrated in a particular way,
and it retains for the rest of its existence as a group of cells the [269]
possibility of again vibrating in that same way without again receiving a
stimulus from the outside world. Each repetition of an identical vibration
strengthens this possibility, each leaving its own trace, but many such
repetitions will be required to establish a self-initiated repetition; the
cells come nearer to this possibility of a self-initiated vibration by each
repetition compelled from outside. But this vibration has not stopped with the
physical cells; it has been transmitted inwards to the corresponding cell, or
group of cells, in the subtler vehicles, and has ultimately produced a change
in consciousness. This change, in its turn, re-acts on the cells, and a
repetition of the vibrations is initiated from within by the change in
consciousness, and this repetition is a memory of the object which started the
series of vibrations. The response of the cells to the vibration from outside,
a response compelled by the laws of the physical universe, gives to the cells
the power of responding to a similar impulse, though feebler, coming from
within. A little power is exhausted in each moving [270] of matter in a new
vehicle, and hence a gradual diminution of the energy in the vibration. Less
and less is exhausted as the cells repeat similar vibrations in response to new
impacts from without, the cells answering more readily with each repetition.
Therein
lies the value of the "without"; it wakes up in the matter, more
easily than by any other way, the possibility of response, being more closely
akin to the vehicles than the "within".
The
change caused in consciousness, also, leaves the consciousness more ready to
repeat that change than it was first to yield it, and each such change brings
the consciousness nearer to the power to initiate a similar change. Looking
back into the dawnings of consciousness, we see that
the imprisoned Selves go through innumerable experiences before a
Self-initiated change in consciousness occurs; but bearing this in mind, as a
fact, we can leave these early stages, and study the workings of consciousness
at a more advanced point. We must also remember that every impact, reaching the
innermost [271] sheath, and giving rise to a change in consciousness, is
followed by a reaction, the change in consciousness causing a new series of
vibrations from within outwards; there is the going inwards to the Self,
followed by the rippling outwards from the Self, the first due to the object,
and giving rise to what we call a perception, and the second due to the
reaction of the Self, causing what we call a memory.
A
number of sense-impressions, coming through sight, hearing, touch, taste, and
smell run up from the physical vehicle through the astral to the mental. There
they are coordinated into a complex unity, as a musical chord is composed of
many notes. This is the special work of the mental body: it receives many
streams and synthesises them into one; it builds many
impressions into a perception, a thought, a complex
unity.
3.
MEMORIES.
Let
us try to catch this complex thing, after it has gone inwards and has caused a
change in consciousness, an idea; the [272] change it has caused gives rise to
new vibrations in the vehicles, reproducing those it had caused on its inward
way, and in each vehicle it reappears in a fainter form. It is not strong,
vigorous, and vivid, as when its component parts flashed from the physical to
the astral, and from the astral to the mental; it reappears in the mental in a
fainter form, the copy of that which the mental sent inwards, but the
vibrations feebler; as the Self receives
from it a reaction - for the impact of a vibration on touching each vehicle
must cause a reaction - that reaction is far feebler than the original action,
and will therefore seem less "real" than that action; it makes a
lesser change in consciousness, and that lessening represents inevitably a
less "reality".
So
long as the consciousness is too little responsive to be aware of any impacts
that do not come through with the impulsive vigour of
the physical, it is literally more in touch with the physical than with any
other sheath, and there will be no memories of ideas, but only memories of
perceptions, i.e., of pictures of [273] outside objects, caused by vibrations
of the nervous matter of the brain, reproducing themselves in the related
astral and mental matter. These are literally pictures in the mental matter, as
are the pictures on the retina of the eye. And the consciousness perceives
these pictures, "sees" them, as we may truly say, since the seeing of
the eye is only a limited expression of its perceptive power. As the
consciousness draws a little away from the physical, turning attention more to
the modifications in its inner sheaths, it sees these pictures reproduced in
the brain from the astral sheath by its own reaction passing outwards, and
there is the memory of sensations, The picture arises in the brain by the
reaction of the change in consciousness, and is recognised
there. This recognition implies that the consciousness has withdrawn largely
from the physical to the astral vehicle, and is working therein. The human
consciousness is thus working at the present time, and is, therefore, full of
memories, these memories being reproductions in the physical brain of past
pictures, caused [274] by reactions from consciousness. In a lowly evolved
human type, these pictures are pictures of past events in which the physical
body was concerned, memories of hunger and thirst and of their gratification,
of sexual pleasures, and so on, things in which the physical body took an
active part. In a higher type, in which the consciousness is working more in
the mental vehicle, the pictures in the astral body will draw more of its
attention; these pictures are shaped in the astral body by the vibrations
coming outwards from the mental, and are perceived as pictures by the
consciousness as it withdraws itself more into the mental body as its
immediate vehicle. As this process goes on, and the more awakened consciousness
responds to vibrations initiated from outside on the astral plane by
astral objects, these objects grow
"real", and become distinguishable from the memories, the pictures in
the astral body caused by the reactions from consciousness.
Let
us note, in passing, that with the memory of an object goes hand
in hand a picture of the renewal of the keener [275] experience of the object
by physical contact, and this we call anticipation; and the more complete the
memory of an event the more complete is this anticipation. So that the
memory will sometimes even cause in the physical body the reactions which
normally accompany the contact with the external object, and we may savour in anticipation pleasures which are not within
present reach of the body. Thus the anticipation of savoury
food will cause "the mouth to water". This fact will again appear,
when we reach the completion of our theory of Memory.
4.
WHAT IS MEMORY?
Now,
having noted the changes in the vehicles which arise from impacts from the external world, the response to these as changes
of consciousness, the feebler vibrations produced in the vehicles by the
reaction of consciousness, and the recognition of these again by consciousness
as memories, let us come to the crux of, the question: What is Memory? The
breaking up of the bodies between death [276] and reincarnation puts an end to
their automatism, to their power of
responding to vibrations similar to those already experienced; the responsive
groups are disintegrated, and all that remains as a seed for future responses
is stored within the permanent atoms; how feeble this is, as compared with the
new automatisms imposed on the mass of the bodies by new experiences of the
external, may be judged by the absence of any memory of past lives initiated in
the vehicles themselves. In fact, all the permanent atoms can do is to answer
more readily to vibrations of a kind similar to those previously experienced
than to those that come to them for the first time. The memory of the cells, or
of groups of cells, perishes at death, and cannot be said to be recoverable,
as such. Where then is Memory preserved?
The
brief answer is: Memory is not a faculty, and is not preserved it does not
inhere in consciousness as a capacity, nor is any memory of events stored up in
the individual consciousness Every event is a present fact in the
universe-consciousness, [278] in the consciousness of the LOGOS; everything
that occurs in His universe, past, present, and future, is ever there in His
all-embracing consciousness, in His "eternal NOW". From the beginning
of the universe to its ending, from its dawn to its sunset, all is there,
ever-present, existent. In that ocean of ideas, all is; we, wandering in the
ocean, touch fragments of its contents, and our response to the contact is our
knowledge; having known, we can more readily again contact, and this repetition
- when falling short of the contact of the outside sheath of the moment with
the fragments occupying its own plane - is Memory. All "memories" are
recoverable, because all possibilities of image-producing vibrations are within
the consciousness of the LOGOS, and we can share in that consciousness the
more easily as we have previously shared
more often similar vibrations; hence, the vibrations which have formed parts of
our experience are more readily repeated by us than those we have never known,
and here comes in the value of the [278] permanent atoms; they thrill out
again, on being stimulated, the
vibrations previously performed, and out of all the possibilities of vibrations
of the atoms and molecules of our bodies those sound out which answer to the
note struck by the permanent atoms. The fact that we have been affected vibrationally and by changes of consciousness during the
present life makes it easier for us to take out of the universal consciousness
that of which we have already had experience in our own. Whether it be a memory
in the present life, or one in a life long past, the
method of recovery is the same. There is no memory save the ever-present
consciousness of the LOGOS, in whom we literally live and move and have our
being; and our memory is merely putting ourselves into touch with such parts of His consciousness
as we have previously shared.
Hence,
according to Pythagoras, all learning is remembrance, for it is the drawing
from the consciousness of the LOGOS into that of the separated Self that which
in our essential unity with [279] Him is eternally ours. On the plane where the
unity overpowers the separateness, we share His consciousness of our universe;
on the lower planes, where the separateness veils the unity, we are shut out therefrom by our unevolved
vehicles. It is the lack of responsiveness in these which hinders us, for we
can only know the planes through them. Therefore we cannot directly improve our
memory; we can only improve our general receptivity and power to reproduce, by
rendering our bodies more sensitive, while being careful not to go beyond their
limit of elasticity. Also we can "pay attention"; i.e., we can turn
the awareness of consciousness, we can concentrate consciousness, on that
special part of the consciousness of the LOGOS to which we desire to attune
ourselves. We need not thus distress ourselves with calculations as to
"how many angels can stand on the point of a needle", how we can
preserve in a limited space the illimitable number of vibrations experienced in
many lives; for the whole of the form-producing vibrations in the universe
[280] are ever-present, and are available to be drawn upon by any individual
unit, and can be reached as, by evolution, such a one experiences ever more and
more.
5.
REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING.
Let
us apply this to an event in our past life: Some of the circumstances
"remain in our memory", others are "forgotten". Really, the
event exists with all its surrounding circumstances, "remembered" and
"forgotten" alike, in but one state, the memory of the LOGOS, the
Universal Memory. Anyone who is able to place himself in touch with that memory
can recover the whole circumstance as much as we can; the events through which
we have passed are not ours, but form part of the contents of His
consciousness; and our sense of property in them is only due to the fact that
we have previously vibrated to them, and therefore vibrate again to them more
readily than if we contacted them for the first time.
We
may, however, contact them with different sheaths at different times, living
[281] as we do under time and space conditions which vary with each sheath. The
part of the consciousness of the LOGOS that we move through in our physical
bodies is far more restricted than that we move through in our astral and
mental bodies, and the contacts through a well-organised
body are far more vivid than those through a less-organised
one. Moreover, it must be remembered
that the restriction of area is due to our vehicles only; faced by the complete
event, physical, astral, mental, spiritual, our consciousness of it is limited
within the range of the vehicles able to respond to it. We feel ourselves to be
among the circumstances which surround the grossest vehicle we are acting in,
and which thus touch it from "outside"; whereas we
"remember" the circumstances which we contact with the finer
vehicles, these transmitting the vibrations to the grosser vehicle, which is
thus touched from "within".
The
test of objectivity that we apply to circumstances "present" or
"remembered" is that of the "common sense". If others
around us see as we see, hear as we hear, [282] we regard the circumstances as
objective; if they do not, if they are unconscious of that of which we are
conscious, we regard the circumstances as subjective. But this test of
objectivity is only valid for those who are active in the same sheaths; if one
person is working in the physical body and another in the physical and the
astral, the things objective to the man in the astral body cannot affect the
man in the physical body, and he will declare them to be subjective
hallucinations. The "common sense" can only work in similar bodies;
it will give similar results when all are in physical bodies, all in astral, or
all in mental. For the "common sense" is merely the thought-forms of
the LOGOS on each plane, conditioning each embodied consciousness, and enabling it to respond by
certain changes to certain vibrations in its vehicles. It is by no means
confined to the physical plane, but the average humanity at the present stage
of evolution has not sufficiently unfolded the indwelling consciousness for
them to exercise any "common sense" on the astral and mental planes.
"Common sense" is an eloquent [283] testimony to the oneness of our
indwelling lives; we see all things around us on the physical plane in the same
way, because our apparently separate consciousnesses are all really part of the
One Consciousness ensouling all forms. We all respond
in the same general way, according to the stage of our evolution, because we
share the same consciousness; and we are affected similarly by the same things
because the action and reaction between them and ourselves is the interplay of the
One Life in varied forms.
Recovery
of anything by memory, then, is due to the ever-existence of everything in the
consciousness of the LOGOS, and He has imposed upon us the limitations of time
and space in order that we may, by practice, be able to respond swiftly by
changes of consciousness to the vibrations caused in our vehicles by vibrations
coming from other vehicles similarly ensouled by
consciousness; thus only can we gradually learn to distinguish precisely and
clearly; contacting things successively - that is, being in time - and
contacting them in relative directions
in regard to [284] ourselves and to each other - that is, being in space - we
are gradually unfolded to the state in which we can recognise
all simultaneously and each everywhere - that is, out of time and space.
As
we pass through countless happenings in life, we find that we do not keep in
touch with all through which we have passed; there is a very limited power of
response in our physical vehicle, and hence numerous experiences drop out of
its purview. In trance, we can recover these, and they are said to emerge from
the sub-conscious. Truly they remain ever unchanging in the Universal
Consciousness, and as we pass by them we become aware of them, because the
very limited light of our consciousness, shrouded in the physical vehicle,
falls upon them, and they disappear as we pass on; but as the area covered by
that same light shining through the astral vehicle is larger, they again appear
when we are in trance - that is, in the astral vehicle, free from the physical;
they have not come and gone and come back again, but the light of our
consciousness in the physical [285] vehicle had passed on, and so we saw them not, and the more extended light in the
astral vehicle enables us to see them again. As Bhagavan
Das has well said:
"If
a spectator wandered unrestingly through the halls of
a vast museum, a great art-gallery, at the dead of night, with a single small
lamp in one hand, each of the natural objects, the pictured scenes, the
statues, the portraits, would be illumined by that lamp, in succession, for a
single moment, while all the rest were in darkness, and after that single
moment, would itself fall into darkness again. Let there now be not one but
countless such spectators, as many in endless number as the objects of sight
within the place, each spectator meandering in and out incessantly through the
great crowd of all the others, each lamp bringing momentarily into light one object and for only that
spectator who holds that lamp. This immense and unmoving building is the
rock-bound ideation of the changeless Absolute. Each lamp-carrying spectator
out of the countless crowd is one line of [286] consciousness out of the
pseudo-infinite lines of such, that make up the totality of the one universal
consciousness. Each coming into light of each object is its potency, is an
experience of the Jiva; each falling into darkness is
its lapse into the latent. From the standpoint of the objects themselves, or of
the universal consciousness, there is no latency, nor potency. From that of the
lines of consciousness, there is."[71]
As
vehicle after vehicle comes into fuller working, the area of light extends, and
the consciousness can turn its attention to any one part of the area and
observe closely the objects therein included. Thus, when the consciousness can
function freely on the astral plane, and is aware of its surroundings there, it
can see much that on the physical plane is "past" - or
"future", if they be things to which in the "past" it has
learned to respond. Things outside the area of light coming through the vehicle
of the astral body will be within the area of that which streams from the
subtler mental vehicle. When the causal [287] body is the vehicle, the
"memory of past lives" is recoverable, the causal body vibrating more
readily to events to which it has before vibrated, and the light shining
through it embracing a far larger area and illuminating scenes long
"past" - those scenes being really no more past than the scenes of
the present, but occupying a different spot in time and space. The lower
vehicles, which have not previously vibrated to these events, cannot readily
directly contact them and answer to them; that belongs
to the causal body, the relatively permanent vehicle. But when this body
answers to them, the vibrations from it readily run downwards, and may be
reproduced in the mental, astral, and physical bodies.
6.
ATTENTION.
The
phrase is used above, as to consciousness, that "it can turn its
attention to any one part of the area, and observe closely the objects therein
included". This "turning of the attention" corresponds very
closely in consciousness to what we should call focussing
the eye in the physical [288] body. If we watch the action taking place in the
muscles of the eye when we look first at
a near and then at a distant object, or vice versa, we shall be conscious of
a slight movement, and this constriction
or relaxation causes a slight compression or the reverse in the lenses of the
eye. It is an automatic action now, quite instinctive, but it has only become
so by practice; a baby does not focus his eye, nor
judge distance. He grasps as readily at a candle on the other side of the room
as at one within his reach, and only slowly learns to know what is beyond his
reach. The effort to see clearly leads to the focussing
of the eye, and presently it becomes automatic. The objects for which the eye
is focussed are within the field of clear vision, and
the rest are vaguely seen. So, also, the consciousness is clearly aware of that
to which its attention is turned; other things remain vague, "out of
focus".
A
man gradually learns to thus turn his attention to things long past, as we
measure time. The causal body is put into touch with them, and the vibrations
are then transmitted to the lower bodies. The [289] presence of a more advanced
student will help a less advanced, because when the astral body of the former
has been made to vibrate responsively to long past events, thus creating an
astral picture of them, the astral body of the younger student can more readily
reproduce these vibrations and thus also "see". But even when a man
has learned to put himself into touch with his past, and through his own with
that of others connected with it, he will find it more difficult to turn his
attention effectively to scenes with which he has had no connexion;
and when that is mastered, he will still find it difficult to put himself into
touch with scenes outside the experiences of his recent past; for instance, if
he wishes to visit the moon, and by his accustomed methods launches himself in
that direction, he will find himself bombarded by a hail of unaccustomed
vibrations to which he cannot instinctively respond, and will need to fall back
on his inherent divine power to answer to anything which can affect his vehicles. If he seeks to go
yet further, to another planetary system, he will find a barrier he cannot
overleap, [290] the Ring Pass-not of his own Planetary Logos.
6.
THE ONE CONSCIOUSNESS.
We
thus begin to understand what is meant by the statements that people at a
certain grade of evolution can reach this or that part of the kosmos; they can put themselves into touch with the
consciousness of the LOGOS outside the limitations imposed by their material
vehicles on the less evolved. These vehicles, being composed of matter
modified by the action of the Planetary Logos of the Chain to which they
belong, cannot respond to the vibrations of matter differently modified; and
the student must be able to use his atmic body before
he can contact the Universal Memory beyond the limits of his own Chain.
Such
is the theory of Memory which I present for the consideration of theosophical
students. It applies equally to the small memories and forgettings
of everyday life as to the vast reaches alluded to in the above paragraph. For
there is nothing small or great to the LOGOS, and [291] when we are performing
the smallest act of memory, we are as much putting ourselves into touch with
the omnipresence and omniscience of the LOGOS, as when we are recalling a
far-off past. There is no "far-off", and no
"near". All are equally present at all times and in all spaces; the
difficulty is with our vehicles, and not with that all-embracing changeless
Life. All becomes more and more intelligible and more peace-giving as we think
of that Consciousness, in which is no "before" and no
"after", no "past" and no "future". We begin to
feel that these things are but the illusions, the limitations, imposed upon us
by our own sheaths, necessary until our powers are evolved and at our service.
We live unconsciously in this mighty Consciousness in which everything is
eternally present, and we dimly feel that if we could live consciously in that
Eternal there were peace. I know of nothing that can
more give to the events of a life their true proportion than this idea of a
Consciousness in which everything is present from the beginning, in which
indeed there is no beginning and no ending. We learn that [292] there is
nothing terrible and nothing which is more that relatively sorrowful; and in
that lesson is the beginning of a true peace, which in due course shall
brighten into joy. [293]
Part
II.
WILL, DESIRE, AND EMOTION.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
-------
CHAPTER I.
THE WILL TO LIVE
299
-------
CHAPTER II.
DESIRE
1. The Nature of Desire
305
2. The Awakening of Desire
310
3. The Relation of Desire to Thought
314
4. Desire, Thought, Action
318
5. The Binding Nature of Desire
319
6. The Breaking of the Bonds
322
-------
CHAPTER III.
DESIRE (Continued)
1. The Vehicle of Desire
327
2. The Conflict of Desire and Thought
333
3. The Value of an Ideal
338
4. The Purification of Desire
342
-------
CHAPTER IV.
EMOTION
1. The Birth of Emotion
348
2. The Play of Emotion in the Family
354
3. The Birth of Virtues
361
4.
Right and Wrong
363
5. Virtue and Bliss
365
6. The Transmutation of the Emotions into
Virtues and Vices
367
7. Application of the Theory to Conduct
371
8. The Uses of Emotion
273
-------
CHAPTER V.
EMOTION (Continued)
1. The Training of Emotion
381
2. The Distorting Force of Emotion
387
3. Methods of Ruling the Emotions
390
4. The Using of Emotion
399
5. The Value of Emotion in Evolution
405
-------
CHAPTER VI.
THE WILL
1. The Will winning its Freedom
409
2. Why so much Struggle
423
3. The Power of the Will
429
4. White and Black Magic
439
5. Entering into Peace
441
WILL, DESIRE, AND EMOTION.
-------
CHAPTER I.
THE WILL TO LIVE.
IN
the brief study of Origins which forms [points] 1., 2., of the Introduction to
this book, we saw that the Monad, coming forth from the First Logos, showed in
his own nature the tri-unity of his
Source, the aspects of Will, Wisdom, and Activity.
It
is to the study of Will - showing itself as Will on the higher plane and as
Desire on the lower - that we are now to turn our attention; and the study of
Desire leads us to the study of Emotion, indissolubly attached to it. We have
already seen that we are here because we have willed to live in the lower
worlds, that the Will determines our stay here. [299] But the nature and power
and work of the Will are for the most part but little realised,
for in the earlier stages of evolution it is not manifest on the lower planes
save as Desire, and it must be studied as Desire before it can be understood as
Will.
It
is the Power aspect of consciousness, ever veiled within the Self, hiding as it
were behind Wisdom and Activity, but prompting both to manifestation. So hidden
is its nature that many regard it as one with Activity, and refuse to it the
dignity of an aspect of consciousness. Yet Activity is the action of the Self
on the Not-Self, that which gives to the Not-Self its temporary Reality, that
which creates; but Will hides ever within, impelling to Activity, attracting, repelling, the core
of the Heart of Being.
Will
is the Power which stands behind Cognition, and stimulates Activity; Thought is
the creative activity, but Will the motive power. Our bodies are as they are,
because the Self has for countless ages set his Will that matter should be
shaped into forms whereby he may [300] cognise and energise on all outside himself. It is written in an
ancient Scripture: "Of a truth this body is mortal, O Maghavan,
it is subject to death. Yet is it a resting-place of the immortal and bodiless
Atma. The eyes are intended as organs of observation for the Being who dwelleth within the eyes. He who willeth, 'I shall smell', is the Atma, wishing to
experience fragrance. He who willeth,
'I shall speak', is the Atma wishing to utter words. He
who willeth, 'I shall hear', is the Atma wishing to
listen to sounds. He who willeth,
'I shall think', is the Atma. The mind is the celestial eye, observing all
desirable objects. By means of the mental celestial eye, Atma
enjoyeth all"[72].
This
is the secret, the motive power, of evolution. True, the great Will traces the
high road of evolution. True, spiritual Intelligences of many grades guide the
evolving entities along that high road. But too little attention has been paid
to the countless experiments, failures, successes, the little bye-ways and
[301] twists and curls, due to the gropings of the
separate Wills, each Will to Live trying to find Self-expression. The contacts
from the outer world arouse in each Atma, the Will to know what touches. He
knows but little in the jellyfish, but the Will to know shapes, in form after
form, an ever-improving eye, that hinders less his power of perception. As we
study evolution, we become more and more conscious of Wills
which shape matter, but shape it by groping experiments, not by clear vision.
The presence of these many Wills makes the constant branching of the
evolutionary tree. There is a real truth in Professor Clifford's playful story
to the children about the great Saurians of an early
age: "Some chose to fly and became birds; others chose to crawl, and
became reptiles". Often we see an
attempt foiled, and then the attempt is made in another direction. Often we see
the most clumsy contrivances side by side with the
most exquisite adaptations. The latter are the results of Intelligences knowing
their aims and constantly chiselling the matter into
[302] appropriate forms; the others are the outcome of the strivings from
within, still blind and groping, but steadfastly set to Self-expression. If
there were only outside designers, seeing the end from the beginning, Nature
would present us with insoluble puzzles in her building, so many are the
inadequate attempts, the ineffective designs. But when we realise
the presence of the Will to Live in each form, seeking Self-expression, shaping
his vehicles for his own purposes, then we can see alike the creative plan
which underlies all-the plan of the LOGOS; the admirable adaptations which work
out His plan - the labour of the building Intelligences; and the inapt
contrivances and clumsy expedients - due to the efforts of the Selves that
will, but have not yet the knowledge or the power to perform perfectly.
It
is this groping, striving, struggling divine Self, which, as evolution goes on,
becomes in ever-increasing measure the true Ruler, the inner Ruler, the
Immortal. Anyone who grasps that he is himself that Immortal Ruler, seated
within his Self-created vehicles of expression, gains a [303] sense of dignity
and power which grows ever stronger, and more compelling on the lower nature.
The knowledge of the truth make us inly
free. The inner Ruler may still be hampered by the very forms he has shaped for
self-expression, but knowing himself as the Ruler, he can work steadfastly to
bring his realm into complete subjection. He knows that he has come into the
world for a certain purpose, to make himself fit to be a co-worker with the
Supreme Will, and he can do and suffer all which is necessary to that end. He
knows himself divine, and that his Self-realisation
is only a question of time. Inwardly the divinity is felt, though outwardly it
is not yet expressed, and there remains to become in manifestation what he is
in essence. He is king de jure, not yet de facto.
As a Prince, born to a crown, patiently submits
to the discipline which is fitting him to wear it, so the sovereign Will in us
is evolving to the age when royal powers will pass into its grasp, and may
patiently submit to the necessary discipline of life. [304]
-------
CHAPTER II.
DESIRE.
1.
THE NATURE OF DESIRE.
WHEN
the Monad sends forth his rays into the matter of the third, fourth, and fifth
planes, and appropriates to himself an atom of each of these planes,[73] he creates what is often called his "reflexion in matter", the human "Spirit",
and the Will-aspect of the Monad is mirrored in the human Atma, whose home is
on the third or atmic plane. That first
hypostasis is indeed lessened in powers
by the veils of matter thus endued, but it is in no way distorted; as a
well-made mirror produces a perfect image of an object, so is the human Spirit,
Atma-Buddhi-Manas, a perfect image of the Monad, is, indeed, [305] the Monad
himself veiled in denser matter. But as
a concave or convex mirror yields a distorted image of an object placed before
it, so do the further reflections of the Spirit in, or involutions into, yet
denser matter show but distorted images thereof.
Thus,
when the Will, in its downward progress, veiling itself farther on each
plane, reaches the world immediately
above the physical, the astral world, it appears therein as Desire. Desire
shows the energy, the concentration, the impelling characteristics of Will, but
matter has wrenched away its control its direction, from the Spirit, and has
usurped dominion over it. Desire is Will discrowned,
the captive, the slave of matter. It is no longer Self-determined, but is
determined by the attractions around it.
This
is the distinction between Will and Desire. The innermost nature of both is the
same, for they are verily but one determination, the Self-determination of the
Atma, the one motor-power of man, that which impels to Activity, to action on
the external world, on the Not-[306]Self. When the
Self determines the activity, uninfluenced by attractions or repulsions towards
surrounding objects, then Will is manifested. When outer attractions and
repulsions determine the activity, and the man is drawn hither and thither by
these, deaf to the voice of the Self, unconscious of
the Inner Ruler, then Desire is seen.
Desire
is Will clothed in astral matter, in the matter which by the second life-wave
was formed into combinations, the reaction between which and consciousness
would cause sensations in the latter. Clothed in this matter, the vibrations of
which are accompanied with sensations in consciousness, Will is modified into
Desire. Its essential nature of giving motor-impulses, surrounded by matter
which arouses sensations, answers by impelling energy, and this energy,
aroused through and acting through astral matter, is Desire.
As
in the higher nature Will is the impelling power, so in the lower nature Desire
is the impelling power. When it is feeble the whole nature is feeble in its
[307] reaction on the world. The effective force of a nature is measured by its
Will-power or its Desire-power, according to the stage
of evolution. There is a truth underlying the popular phrase, "The greater
the sinner the greater the saint". The mediocre person can be neither
greatly good nor greatly bad; there is not enough of him for more than petty
virtues or petty vices. The strength of the Desire-nature in a man is the
measure of his capacity for progress, the measure of the motor-energy whereby
that man can press onwards along the way. The strength in a man that impels to
reaction on his environment is the measure of his power to modify, to change, to conquer it. In the struggle, with the Desire-nature which
marks the higher evolution, the motor-energy is not to be destroyed but
transferred; lower Desires are to be transmuted into higher, energy is to be
refined while losing nought of its power; and finally
the Desire-nature is to vanish into Will, all the energies being gathered up
and merged into the Will-aspect of the Spirit, the Power of the Self. [308]
No
aspirant, therefore, should be discouraged by the storming and raging of
desires in him, any more than a horse-breaker is displeased with the rearings and plungings of the
unbroken colt. The wildness of the young untrained creature, and his rebellion
against all efforts to control and restrain, are the promise of his future
usefulness when disciplined aid trained. And even thus are the strainings of Desire against the curb imposed by the
Intelligence, the promise of the future strength of Will, of the Power-aspect
of the Self.
Rather
does difficulty arise where desires are feeble, ere yet the Will has freed
itself from the trammels of astral matter; for in such case the Will to Live is
expressing itself but feebly, and there is little effective force available for
evolution. There is some obstacle, some barrier, in the vehicles, checking the
forthgoing energy of the Monad, and obstructing its free passage, and until
that barrier is removed there is little progress to be hoped for. In the storm
the ship drives onward, though there be peril of wreck, [309] but in the dead
calm she remains helpless and unmoving, answering neither to sail nor helm. And
since, in this voyage, no final wreck is possible, but only temporary damage,
and the storm works for progress rather than the calm, those who find
themselves storm-tossed may look forward with sure conviction to the day when
the storm-gusts of Desire will be changed into the steady wind of Will.
2.
THE AWAKENING OF DESIRE.
To
the astral world we refer all our sensations. The centres by which we feel lie
in the astral body, and the reactions of these to contacts give rise to
feelings of pleasure and pain in consciousness. The ordinary physiologist
traces sensation of pleasure and pain from the point of contact to the
brain-centre, recognising only nervous vibrations
between periphery and centre, and in the centre the reaction of consciousness
as sensation. We follow the vibrations further, finding only vibrations in the
brain-centre and in the ether permeating it, and
seeing in the astral [310] centre the point at which the reaction of
consciousness takes place. When a dislocation between the
physical and astral bodies occurs, whether by the action of chloroform, ether,
laughing-gas, or other drugs, the physical body, despite all its nervous
apparatus, feels no more than if bereft of nerves. The links between the
physical body and the body of sensation are thrown out of gear, and consciousness
does not respond to any stimulus applied.
The
awakening of Desire takes place in this body of sensation, and follows the
first dim sensings of pleasure and pain. As before
pointed out[74] pleasure "is a sense of 'moreness', of increased, expanded life", while pain is
a shutting in or lessening of life, and these belong to the whole
consciousness. "This primary state of consciousness does not manifest
the three well-known aspects of Will,
Wisdom, and Activity, even in the most germinal stage; 'feeling' precedes
these, and belongs to consciousness as a whole, though in later stages of
evolution it shows itself so much [311] in connexion
with the Will-Desire aspect as to become almost identified with it".
"As the states of pleasure and pain become more definitely established in
consciousness, they give rise to another; with the fading away of pleasure
there is a continuation of the attraction in consciousness, and this becomes a
dim groping after it" - a groping, be it noted, not after any pleasure-giving
object, but after a continuance of the feeling of pleasure - "a vague
following of the vanishing feeling, a movement - too indefinite to be called an
effort - to hold it, to retain it; similarly with the fading away of pain there
is a continuation of the repulsion in
consciousness, and this becomes an equally vague movement to push it away. These stages give
birth to Desire".
This
arising of Desire is a feeble reaching out of the life in search of pleasure,
a movement of the life, undirected, vague, groping.
Beyond this it cannot go, until Thought has developed to a certain extent, and
has recognised an outer world, a Not-Self, and has
learned to relate various objects in the Not-Self to the pleasure or [312] pain
arising in consciousness on contacting them.
But
the results of these contacts, long before the objects are recognised,
have caused, as above indicated, a division in, a forking of, Desire. We may
take as one of the simplest illustrations the craving for food in a lowly
organism; as the physical body wastes, becomes less, a sense of pain arises in
the astral body, a want, a craving, vague and indeterminate; the body, by its
wasting, has become a less effective vehicle of the life pouring down through
the astral, and this check causes pain. A current in the water that bathes the
organism brings food up against the body; it is absorbed, the waste is
repaired, the life flows on unobstructed; there is pleasure. At a little
higher stage, when pain arises, there is the desire to escape from it, the
sense of repulsion arises, the contrary to the sense of attraction, caused by
pleasure. There results from this that Desire is cloven in twain. From the Will
to Live arose the longing to experience, and in the lower vehicle this longing,
appearing as Desire, becomes on the one [313] hand a longing for experiences
that make the feeling of life more vivid, and on the other a shrinking from all
that weakens and depresses. This attraction and repulsion are equally of the
nature of Desire. Just as a magnet attracts or repels certain metals, so does
the embodied Self attract and repel. Both attraction
and repulsion are Desire, and these are the two great motor-energies in life,
into which all desires are ultimately resolvable. The Self comes under the
bondage of Desire, of Attraction-Repulsion, and is attracted hither and
thither, repelled from this or that, hurried about among pleasure and
pain-giving objects, as a helmless ship
amid the currents of air and sea.
3.
THE RELATION OF DESIRE TO THOUGHT.
We
have now to consider the relation that Desire bears to Thought, and see how it
first rules and then is ruled by the latter.
The
Pure Reason is the reflexion of the Wisdom-aspect of
the Monad, and appears in the human Spirit as Buddhi. But it is not the
relation of Desire to the Pure Reason [314] with which eve are concerned, for
it cannot, in fact, be said to be directly related to Wisdom, but to Love, the
manifestation of Wisdom on the astral plane. We are to seek rather its relation
to the Activity-aspect of the Monad, showing itself on the astral plane as
sensation and on the mental as thought. Nor are we even concerned with the
Higher Mind, which is creative Activity, Manas, in its purity; but with the
distorted reflexion of this, the lower mind. It is
this lower mind which is immediately related to Desire, and is inextricably
intermingled with it in human evolution; so closely joined, indeed, are they,
that we often speak of Kama-Manas, Desire-Mind, as of a single thing, so rare
is it, in the lower consciousness, to find a single thought which is uninfluenced by a desire.
"Manas verily is declared to be twofold, pure and
impure; the impure is determined by desire, the pure is desire-free."[75]
This
lower mind is "thought" on the mental plane; its characteristic
property is that it asserts and denies; it knows by difference; it perceives
and remembers. [315] On the astral plane, as we have
seen, the same aspect that on the mental plane is thought appears as sensation,
and is aroused by contact with the external world.
When
a pleasure has been experienced, and has passed away, Desire arises to
experience it again, as we have seen. And this fact implies memory, which is a
function of the mind. Here, as ever, are we reminded that consciousness is ever
acting in its threefold nature, though one or other aspect may predominate, for
even the most germinal desire cannot arise without memory being present. The
sensation caused by an external impact must have been many times aroused, before
the mind will establish a relation between the sensation of which it is
conscious, and the external object which has caused the sensation. At last the
mind "perceives" the object, i.e., relates it to one of its own
changes, recognises a modification in itself caused
by the external object. Repetitions of this perception will establish a
definite link in memory between the object and the [316] pleasurable or painful
sensation, and when Desire presses for the repetition of pleasure, the mind
recalls the object which supplied that pleasure. Thus the mingling of Thought
with Desire gives birth to a particular desire, the desire to find and
appropriate the pleasure-giving object.
This
desire impels the mind to exert its inherent activity. Discomfort being caused
by the unsatisfied craving, effort is made to escape the discomfort by
supplying the object wanted. The mind plans, schemes, drives the body into
action, in order to satisfy the cravings of Desire. And similarly, equally
prompted by Desire, the mind plans, schemes, drives the body into action in
order to avoid the recurrence of pain from an object recognised
as pain-giving.
Such
is the relation of Desire to Thought. It rouses, stimulates, urges
on, mental efforts. The mind is, in its early stages, the slave of Desire, and
the rapidity of its growth is in proportion to the fierce urgings of Desire. We
desire, and thus are forced to think. [317]
4.
DESIRE, THOUGHT, ACTION.
The
third stage of the contact of the Self with the Not-Self is Action. The mind
having perceived the object of desire, leads to, guides and shapes the action.
Action is often said to arise from Desire, but Desire alone could only arouse
movement, or chaotic action. The force of Desire is propulsive, not directive.
Thought it is that adds the element of direction, and shapes the action
purposively.
This
is the ever-recurring cycle in consciousness - Desire, Thought, Action. The propulsive power of Desire arouses Thought; the
directive power of Thought guides Action. This sequence is invariable, and the
clear understanding thereof is of the profoundest importance, for the
effective control of conduct depends on this understanding, and on its
application in practice. The shaping of karma can only be achieved when this sequence
is understood, for evitable and inevitable action can only thus be
discriminated.
It
is by Thought that we can change Desire, and thereby change Action. When [318]
the mind sees that certain desires have impelled to thoughts that have directed
actions which were productive of unhappiness, it can resist the future
promptings of Desire in a similar direction, and refuse to guide actions to a
result already known as disastrous. It can picture the painful results, and
thus arouse the repellent energy of Desire, and can image the blissful outcome
of desires of the opposite kind. The creative activity of Thought can be
exerted in the moulding of Desire, and its propulsive
energy can be turned into a better direction. In this way Thought can be used
to master Desire, and it may become the ruler instead of the slave. And as it
thus asserts control over its unruly companion, it begins the transmutation of
Desire into Will, changing the governance of the outgoing energy from the outer
to the inner, from the external objects that attract or repel to the Spirit,
the inner Ruler.
5.
THE BINDING NATURE OF DESIRE.
Since
the Will to Live is the cause of the forthgoing, of the life seeking [319]
embodiment and appropriating to itself that which is necessary for its
manifestation and persistence in form, Desire, being Will on a lower plane,
will show similar characteristics, seeking to appropriate, to draw into itself,
to make part of itself that whereby its life in form may be maintained and
strengthened. When we desire an object, we seek to make it part of ourselves,
part of the "I", so that it may form part of the embodiment of the
"I". Desire is the putting forth of the power of attraction; it draws
the desired object to itself. Whatever we desire, we attach to ourselves. By
the desire to possess it, a bond is established between the object and the
desirer. We tie to the Self this portion of the Not-Self, and the bond exists
until the object is possessed, or until the Self has
broken off the bond and repudiated the object. These are "the bonds of the
heart"[76], and tie the Self to the wheel of births and deaths.
These
bonds between the desiror and the objects of desire
are like ropes that draw the Self to the place where the [320] objects of desire
are found, and thus determine its birth into one or another world. "On
this runs the verse: He also who is attached ever obtains by action that on
which his mind has set its mark. Having obtained the object of action he here
performs, he comes again therefore from that world to this world for the sake
of action. Thus is it with the desiring mind."[77] If a man desires the
objects of another world more than the objects of this, then into that world
will he be born. There is a continuing tension in the
bond of Desire until the Self and the object are united.
The one great determining energy, the Will to
Live, which holds the planets in their path around the sun, which prevents the
matter of the globes from scattering, which holds our own bodies together, that
is the energy of Desire. That which rules all is in us as Desire, and it must draw
to us, or draw us to, everything into which it has fixed its hooks. The hook of
Desire fixes itself in an object, as a harpoon in the whale at which it is
flung [321] by the harpooner. When Desire has fixed its harpoon in an object,
the Self is attached to that object, has appropriated it in Will, and presently
must appropriate it in action. Hence a great Teacher has said: "If thy
right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee .
if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it
from thee"[78]. The thing desired becomes part of the body of the Self,
and, if it be evil, it should be torn out, at whatever cost of anguish.
Otherwise it will only be worn away by the slow attrition of time and of
weariness. "Only the strong can kill it out. The weak must wait for its
growth, its fruition, its death."[79]
6.
THE BREAKING OF THE BONDS.
For
the breaking of the bonds of Desire, recourse must be had to the mind. Therein lies the power which shall first purify and then transmute
Desire.
The
mind records the results which follow the appropriation of each object of [322]
Desire, and marks whether happiness or pain has resulted from the union of that
object with the embodied Self. And when, after many appropriations of an
attractive object, it has found the result to be pain, it registers that object
as one which should be avoided in the future. "The delights that are
contact-born, they are verily wombs of pain."[80]
Then
arises strife. When that attractive object again
presents itself, Desire throws out its harpoon and seizes it, and begins to
draw it in. The mind, remembering the painful results of previous similar
captures, endeavours to check Desire, to cut, with
the sword of knowledge, the attaching bond. Fierce conflict rages within the
man: he is dragged forward by Desire, held back by Thought; many and many a
time Desire will triumph and the object will be appropriated; but the resulting
pain is ever repeated, and each success of Desire arrays against it another
enemy in the forces of the mind. Inevitably, however slowly, Thought proves
stronger, until, at last, victory [323] inclines to its side, and a day comes
when the desire is weaker than the mind, and the attractive object is loosed,
the attaching cord is cut. For that object, the bond is broken.
In
this conflict, Thought seeks to utilise against
Desire the strength of Desire. It selects objects of Desire that give a
relatively lasting happiness, and seeks to utilise
these against the desires that swiftly result in pain. Thus it will set
artistic against sensual pleasure; it will use fame and political or social
power against enjoyments of the flesh; it will stimulate the desire to please
the good, to strengthen abstention from vicious delights; it will finally make
the desire for eternal peace conquer the desires for temporal joys. By the one
great attraction the lower attractions are slain, and cease to be any longer
the objects of desire: "Even taste (for them) turneth
away from him after the Supreme is see"[81]. The very energy of Desire can
tear it away from that which brings pain, and fix it on that which brings
bliss. The same force that bound is made [324] to serve as an instrument of
freedom. Wrenching itself away from objects, it will turn upwards and inwards,
attaching the man to the Life whence he came forth, and in union with which
consists his highest bliss.
Herein
lies the value of devotion as a liberator. Love,
turning to the Supreme, sees Him as eminently desirable, as an Object for
intense desire, and this burns up attachments to objects that keep the heart in
bondage.
Only
by the Self as Thought can be mastered the Self as Desire; the Self, realising itself as the life, overcomes the Self embodied
and thinking itself to be the form. The man must learn to separate himself from the vehicles in which he
desires, thinks, and acts, to know them as part of the Not-Self, as material external
to the life. Thus the energy that went out to objects in the lower desires
becomes the higher desire guided by the mind, and is prepared to be transmuted
into Will.
As
the lower mind merges itself in the higher, and the higher into that which is
Wisdom, the aspect of pure Will emerges [325] as the Power of the Spirit,
Self-determined, Self-ruled, in perfect harmony with the Supreme Will, and
therefore free. Then only are all bonds broken, and the Spirit is unconstrained
by aught outside himself. Then, and then only, can the Will be said to be free.
[326]
-------
CHAPTER III.
DESIRE
(continued).
1.
THE VEHICLE OF DESIRE.
WE
shall have to return to the struggle in the Desire-nature, in order to add some
useful details to that which has been already said; but it is first necessary
to study the Vehicle of Desire, the Desire-Body or Astral Body, as this study
will enable us to understand the precise method in which we may work to subdue
and get rid of the lower desires.
The
Vehicle of Desire is made up of what is called astral matter, the matter of the
plane above the physical. This matter, like the physical, exists in seven
modifications, which relatively to each other are like the solid, liquid,
gaseous, etc., sub-states of matter on the physical plane. As the physical body
contains [327] within itself these various sub-states of physical matter, so
does the astral body contain within itself the various sub-states of astral
matter. Each of these sub-states has in it coarser and finer
aggregations, and the work of astral, as of physical purification, consists
in the substitution of the finer for the coarser.
Moreover,
the lower sub-states of astral matter serve chiefly for the manifestation of
the lower desires, while the higher sub-states vibrate in answer to the
desires which have changed, by the intermixture of mind, into emotions. The
lower desires, grasping after objects of pleasure, find that the lower
sub-states serve as medium for their attractive force, and the coarser and
baser the desires, the coarser are the aggregations of matter that fitly
express them. As the desire causes the corresponding material in the astral
body to vibrate, that matter becomes strongly vitalised
and attracts fresh similar matter from outside to itself,
and thus increases the amount of such matter in the constitution of the astral
body. When the desires are gradually refined into emotions, [328] intellectual
elements entering into them, and selfishness diminishing, the amount of finer
matter similarly increases in the astral body, while the coarser matter, left
un-vitalised, loses energy and decreases in amount.
These
facts, applied to practice, help us to weaken the enemy which is enthroned
within us, for we can deprive him of his instruments. A traitor within the
gates is more dangerous than a foe outside, and the desire-body acts as such a
traitor, so long as it is composed of elements that answer to the temptations
from without.
Desire,
as it builds in the coarser materials, must be checked by the mind, the mind
refusing to picture the passing pleasure which the possession of the object
would entail, and picturing to itself the more lasting sorrow it would cause.
As we get rid of the coarser matter which vibrates in answer to the baser
attractions, those attractions lose all power to disturb us.
This
vehicle of desire, then, must be taken in hand; according to its building will
be the attractions that reach us from [329] without. We can work upon the form,
change the elements of which the form is composed, and thus turn the enemy into
a defender.
When
a man is evolving in character, he is, however, confronted with a difficulty
which often alarms and depresses him. He finds himself shaken by desires from
which he shrinks, of which he is ashamed, and despite his strenuous efforts to
shake them off, they none the less cling to and torment him. They are
discordant with his efforts, his hopes, his aspirations, and yet, in some way,
they seem to be his. This painful experience is due to the fact that the
consciousness evolves more rapidly than the form can change, and the two are to
some extent in conflict with each other. There is a considerable amount of the
coarser aggregations still present in the astral body; but as the desires have
become more refined, they no longer vivify these materials. Some of the old
vitality none the less persists therein, and although these aggregations are
decaying they are not wholly gone.
Now
although the man's Desire-nature [330] is no longer using these materials for
self-expression, they may yet be thrown into temporary activity from outside, and thus take on a semblance of vitality as a galvanised corpse might do. The desires of other people -
desire-elementals of an evil kind - may attach themselves to these disused
elements in his astral body, and they may thus be stimulated and revivified,
and cause him to feel as his own the
promptings of desires he abhors. Where such experiences are undergone,
let the bewildered combatant take courage; even in the inrush of these desires,
let him repudiate them as none of his, and know that the elements in him they utilise are of the past, and are dying,
and that the day of their death and of his freedom is at hand.
We
may take an example from dream, to show this working of effete matter in the
astral body. A man, in a former life, was a drunkard, and his after-death
experiences had impressed deeply on him a repulsion for drink; on rebirth, the
Ego in the new physical and astral bodies impressed on them this repulsion, but
[331] there was none the less in the astral body some matter drawn thereinto by the vibrations caused in the permanent atom by
the former drunkenness. This matter is not vivified in the present life by any
craving for drink, nor any yielding to the
drink-habit; on the contrary, in the waking life, the man is sober. But in
dream, this matter in the astral body is stimulated into activity from without,
and the control of the Ego being weak over the astral body[82],
this matter responds to the drink-craving vibrations that reach it, and the man
dreams that he drinks. Moreover, if there still be in the man a latent desire
for drink, too weak to assert itself during waking consciousness, it may come
up in the dream-state. For physical matter being comparatively heavy and hard
to move, a weak desire has not energy enough to cause vibrations therein; but
that same desire may move the much lighter astral matter, and so a man may be
carried away in a dream by a desire [332] which has no power over him in his
waking consciousness. Such dreams cause much distress, because not understood.
The man should understand that the dream shows that the temptation is
conquered so far as he is concerned, and that he is only troubled by the
corpse of past desires, vivified from outside on the astral plane, or if from
within, then by a dying desire too weak
to move him in his waking moments. The dream is a sign of a victory well-nigh
complete. At the same time it is a warning; for it tells the man that there is
still in his astral body some matter apt to be vivified by vibrations of the
drink-craving, and that therefore he should not place himself during waking
life under conditions where such vibrations may abound. Until such dreams have
entirely ceased, the astral body is not free from matter that is a source of
danger.
2.
THE CONFLICT OF DESIRE AND THOUGHT,
We
must now return to the struggle in the Desire-nature, to which reference [333]
has already been made, in order to add some necessary details.
This
conflict belongs to what may be called the middle stage of evolution, that long
stage which intervenes between the state of the man entirely ruled by Desire,
grasping all he wants, unchecked by conscience, undisturbed by remorse, and the
state of the highly evolved spiritual
man, in whom Will, Wisdom and Activity work in co-ordinated
harmony. The conflict arises between Desire and Thought - Thought beginning to
understand the relation of itself to the Not-Self and to other separated
selves, and Desire, influenced by the objects
around it, moving by attractions and repulsions, drawn hither and
thither by objects that allure.
We
must study the stage of evolution in which the accumulated memories of past
experiences, stored in the mind, set themselves against the gratification of
desires which have been proved to lead to pain; or, to speak more accurately,
in which the conclusion drawn by the Thinker from these accumulated [334]
experiences asserts itself in face of a demand from the Desire-nature for the
object which has been stamped as dangerous.
The
habit of grasping and enjoying has been established for hundreds of lives, and
is strong, while the habit of resisting a present pleasure in order to avoid a
future pain is only in course of establishment, and is consequently very weak.
Hence the conflicts between the Thinker and the Desire-nature end for a long
time in a series of defeats. The young Mind struggling with the mature
Desire-body finds itself constantly vanquished. But every victory of the
Desire-nature, being followed by a brief pleasure and a long pain, gives birth
to a new force hostile to itself that recruits the strength of its opponent.
Each defeat of the Thinker thus sows the seeds of his future victory, and his
strength daily grows while the strength of the Desire-nature diminishes.
When
this is clearly understood, we grieve no longer over our own falls and the
falls of those we love; for we know that these falls are making sure the secure
footing of the future, and that in [335] the womb of pain is maturing the future
conqueror.
Our
knowledge of right and wrong grows out of experience, and is elaborated only
by trial. The sense of right and wrong, now innate in the civilised
man, has been developed by innumerable experiences. In the early days of the
separated Self all experiences were useful in his evolution, and brought him
the lessons needful for his growth. Gradually he learned that the yielding to
desires which, in the course of their gratification injured others,
brought him pain out of proportion to the temporary pleasure derived from their
satisfaction. He began to attach the
word "wrong" to the desires the yielding to which brought a
predominance of pain, and this the more quickly because the Teachers who guided
his early growth placed on the objects which attracted such desires the ban of
Their disapproval. When he had disobeyed Them and
suffering followed, the impression made on the Thinker was the more powerful
for the previous foretelling, and conscience - the Will to do [336] the right
and abstain from the wrong - was proportionately strengthened.
In
this connexion we can readily see the value of
admonition, reproof, and good counsel. All these are stored up in the mind, and
are forces added to the accumulating memories which oppose the gratification of
wrong desire. Granted that the person warned may again yield when the
temptation assails him; that only means that the balance of strength is still in the wrong desire; when the
foretold suffering arrives, the mind will recall all the memories of warnings
and admonitions, and will engrave the more deeply in its substance the
decision: "This desire is wrong". The doing of the wrong act merely
means that the memory of past pain is not yet sufficiently strong to overbear
the attraction of eagerly anticipated and immediate pleasure. The lesson needs
to be repeated yet a few times more, to strengthen the memory of the past, and
when that is done, victory is sure. The suffering is a necessary element in the
growth of the soul, and has the promise of that growth within it. Everywhere
[337] around us, if we see aright, is growing good; nowhere is there hopeless
evil.
This
struggle is expressed in the sad cry: "What I would, that I do not; what I
would not, that I do". "When I would do good, evil is present with
me." The wrong that we do, when the wish is against the doing, is done by
the habit of the past. The weak Will is overpowered by the strong desire.
Now
the Thinker in his conflict with the Desire-nature calls to his aid that very
nature, and strives to awaken in it a desire which shall be opposed to the
desires against which he is waging war. As the attraction of a weak magnet may
be overpowered by that of a stronger one, so may one
desire be strengthened for the overcoming of another, a right desire may be
aroused to combat a wrong one. Hence the value of an ideal.
3.
THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL.
An
ideal is a fixed mental concept of an inspiring character, framed for the
guidance of conduct, and the formation of an ideal [338] is one of the most
effective means of influencing desire. The ideal may, or may not, find
embodiment in an individual, according to the temperament of the man who frames
it, and it must ever be remembered that the value of an ideal depends largely
on its attractiveness, and that that which attracts one temperament by no means
necessarily attracts another. An abstract ideal and a personal one are equally
good, regarded from a general standpoint, and that should be selected which
has, on the individual choosing it, the most attractive influence. A person of
the intellectual temperament will usually find an abstract ideal the more
satisfactory; whereas one of the emotional temperament
will demand a concrete embodiment of his thought. The disadvantage of the
abstract ideal is that it is apt to fail in compelling inspiration; the
disadvantage of the concrete embodiment is that the embodiment is apt to fall
below the ideal.
The
mind, of course, creates the ideal, and either retains it as an abstraction, or
embodies it in a person. The time chosen [339] for the creation of an ideal
should be a time when the mind is calm and steady and luminous, when the
Desire-nature is asleep. Then the Thinker should consider the purpose of his
life, the goal at which he aims, and with this to guide his choice, he should
select the qualities necessary to enable him to reach that goal. These
qualities he should combine into a single concept, imagining as strongly as he
can this integration of the qualities he needs. Daily he should repeat this
integrating process, until his ideal stands out clearly in the mind, dowered
with all beauty of high thought and noble character, a figure of compelling
attractiveness. The man of intellect will keep this ideal as a pure concept.
The man of emotional nature will embody it in a person, such as the Buddha, the
Christ, Shri Krishna, or some other divine Teacher.
In this latter case he will, if possible, study His life, His teachings, His
actions, and the ideal will thus become more and more strongly vivified, more
and more real to the Thinker. Intense love will spring up in the heart [340]
for this embodied ideal, and Desire will stretch out longing arms to embrace
it. And when temptation assails, and the lower desires clamour
for satisfaction, then the attractive power of the ideal asserts itself, the
loftier desire combats the baser, and the Thinker finds himself reinforced by
right desire, the negative strength of memory which says: "Abstain from
the base", being fortified by the
positive strength of the ideal which says: "Achieve the heroic".
The
man who lives habitually in the presence of a great ideal is armed against
wrong desires by love of his ideal, by shame of being base in its presence, by
the longing to resemble that which he adores, and also by the general set and
trend of his mind along lines of noble thinking. Wrong desires become more and
more incongruous. They perish naturally, unable to breathe in that pure clear
air.
It
may be worth while to remark here, in view of the destructive results of
historical criticism, in the minds of many, that the value of the ideal Christ,
the ideal Buddha, the ideal Krishna, is in no way [341] injured by any lack of
historical data, by any defects in the proofs of the authenticity of a
manuscript. Many of the stories related may not be historically true, but they
are ethically and vitally true. Whether this incident happened in the physical
life of this Teacher or not is a matter of small import; the re-action of such
an ideal character on his environment is ever profoundly true. The world
Scriptures represent spiritual facts, whether the physical incidents be or be
not historically true.
Thus
Thought may shape and direct Desire, and turn it from an enemy into an ally. By
changing the direction of Desire, it becomes a lifting and quickening instead
of a retarding force, and where desires for objects held us fast in the mire of
earth, desire for the ideal lifts us on strong wings to heaven.
4.
THE PURIFICATION OF DESIRE.
We
have already seen how much may be done in the purification of the vehicle of
Desire, and the contemplation and worship [342] of the ideal, which has just
been described, is a most potent means for the purification of Desire. Evil
desires die away, as good desires are encouraged and fostered - die away merely
from want of nourishment.
The
effort to reject all wrong desires is accompanied by the firm refusal of
thought to allow them to pass on into actions. Will begins to restrain action,
even when Desire clamours for gratification. And this
refusal to permit the action instigated by wrong desire gradually deprives of
all attractive power the objects which erstwhile aroused it. "The objects
of sense . turn away from an
abstemious dweller in the body."[83] The desires fade away, starved by
lack of satisfaction. Abstention from gratification is a potent means of
purification.
There
is another means of purification in which the repulsive force of Desire is utilised, as in the contemplation of the ideal the
attractive force was evoked. It is useful in extreme cases, in which the lowest
desires are tumultuous and insurgent, such desires as lead to the vices [343]
of gluttony, drunkenness and profligacy. Sometimes a man finds it impossible to
get rid of evil desires, and despite all his efforts his mind yields to their
strong impulse, and evil imaginations riot in his brain. He may conquer by
apparent yielding, carrying on the evil imaginations to their inevitable
results. He pictures himself yielding to the temptations that assail him, and
sinking more and more into the grip of the evil that masters him. He follows
himself, as he falls deeper and deeper, becoming the helpless slave of his
passions. He traces with vivid imagination the stages of his descent, sees his
body becoming coarser and coarser, then bloated and diseased. He contemplates
the shattered nerves, the loathsome sores, the hideous decay and ruin of the
once strong and healthy frame. He fixes his eyes on the dishonoured
death, the sad legacy of shameful memory left to relatives and friends. He
faces in thought the other side of death, and sees the soil and distortion of
his vices pictured in the suffering astral body, and
the agony of the craving of desires that may no longer be [344] fulfilled.
Resolutely he forces his shrinking thoughts to dwell on this miserable
panorama of the triumph of wrong desires, until there rises
within him a strong repulsion against them, an intolerable fear and loathing of
the result of present yielding.
Such
a method of purification is like the surgeon's knife, cutting out a cancer
which menaces the life, and, like all surgical operations, is to be avoided
unless no other means of cure remain. It is better to conquer wrong desire by
the attractive force of an ideal, than by the repulsive force of a spectacle of
ruin. But where attraction fails to conquer, repulsion may perhaps prevail.
There
is also a danger in this latter method, since the coarser matter in the vehicle
of Desire is increased by this dwelling in thought on evil, and the struggle is
thereby rendered longer than when it is possible to throw the life into good
desires and high aspirations. Therefore it is the worse method of the two, only
to be accepted when the other is unattainable. [345]
By
higher attraction, by repulsion, or by the slow teaching of suffering, Desire
must be purified. The "must" is not so much a necessity imposed by an
outside Deity, as the imperial command of the Deity within, who will not be
denied. With this true Will of the Divinity, who is our Self, all divine forces
in nature work, and that divine Self who wills the
highest must inevitably in the end subdue all things to himself.
With
this triumph comes the ceasing of Desire. For then external objects no longer
either attract or repel the outgoing energies of Atma, and these energies are
entirely directed by Self-determined Wisdom; that is, Will has taken the place
of Desire. Good and evil are seen as the divine forces that work for evolution,
the one as necessary as the other, the one the
complement of the other. The good is the force that is to be worked with; the
evil is the force that is to be worked against; by the right using of both the
powers of the Self are evolved into manifestation.
When
the Self has developed the aspect [346] of Wisdom, he looks on the righteous
and the wicked, the saint and the sinner, with equal eyes, and is therefore
equally ready to help both, to reach out strong hand to either. Desire, which
regarded them with attraction and repulsion, as pleasure-giving and
pain-giving, has ceased, and Will, which is energy directed by Wisdom, brings
fitting aid to both. Thus man rises above the tyranny of the pairs of
opposites, and dwells in the Eternal Peace. [347]
-------
CHAPTER IV.
EMOTION.
1.
THE BIRTH OF EMOTION.
EMOTION
is riot a simple or primary state of consciousness, but is a compound made up
by the interaction of two of the aspects of the Self-Desire and Intellect. The
play of Intellect on Desire gives birth to Emotion; it is the child of both,
and shows some of the characteristics of its father, Intellect, as well as of
its mother, Desire.
In
the developed condition Emotion seems so different from Desire that their fundamental identity is somewhat veiled; but
we can see this identity either by tracing the development of a desire into an
emotion, or by studying both side by side, and finding that both have the same
characteristics, the same divisions, that the [348] one is, in fact, an
elaborated form of the other, the elaboration being due to the presence in the
later of a number of intellectual
elements absent from, or less markedly prominent in, the earlier.
Let
us trace the development of a desire into an emotion in one of the commonest of
human relations, the relation of sex. Here is desire in one of its simplest
forms; desire for food, desire for sexual union, are the two fundamental
desires of all living things - desire for food to maintain life, desire for
sexual union to increase life. In both the sense of "moreness"
is experienced, or, otherwise stated, pleasure is felt. The desire for food
remains a desire; the food is appropriated, assimilated, loses its separate
identity, becomes part of the "Me". There is no continued relation
between the eater and the food which gives scope for the elaboration of an
emotion. It is otherwise in the sex-relation, which tends to become more and
more permanent with the evolution of the individuality.
Two
savages are drawn towards each other by the attraction of sex; a passion [349]
to possess the other arises in each; each desires the other. The desire is as
simple as the desire for food. But it cannot be satisfied to the same extent,
for neither can wholly appropriate and assimilate the other; each to some
extent maintains his or her separate identity, and each only partially becomes
the "Me" of the other. There is indeed an extension of the
"Me", but it is by way of inclusion and not by way of
self-identification. The presence of this persisting barrier is necessary for
the transformation of a desire into an emotion. This makes possible the
attachment of memory and anticipation to the same object,
and not to another object similar in kind - as in the case of food. A
continuing desire for union with the same object becomes an emotion, thoughts
thus mingling with the primary desire to possess. The barrier which keeps the
mutually attracted objects as two not one, which prevents their fusion, while
it seems to frustrate really immortalises; were it
swept away, desire and emotion alike would vanish, and the Twain-become-One
must then seek another external [350] object for the further self-expansion of
pleasure.
To return to our savages, desire-united. The woman falls sick,
and ceases, for the time, to be an object of sex-gratification. But the man
remembers past, and anticipates future, delight, and a feeling of sympathy
with her suffering, of compassion for her weakness, arises within him. The
persisting attraction towards her, due to memory and anticipation, changes desire
into emotion, passion into love, and sympathy and compassion are its earliest
manifestations. These, in turn, will lead to his sacrificing himself to her,
waking to nurse her when he would sleep, exerting himself for her when he would
rest. These spontaneous moods of the love-emotion in him will later solidify
into virtues, i.e., will become permanent moods
in his character, showing themselves in response to the calls of human
need to all persons with whom he comes into contact, whether they attract him or
not. We shall see later that virtues are simply permanent moods of right
emotion.
Before,
however, dealing with the [351] relation of ethics and emotion, we must further
realise the fundamental identity of Desire and
Emotion by noting their characteristics and divisions. As this is done, we
shall find that emotions do not form a mere jungle, but that all spring from
one root, dividing into two main stems, each of these again subdividing into
branches, on which grow the leaves of virtues and of vices. This fruitful idea,
making possible a science of the emotions, and hence an intelligible and
rational system of ethics, is due to an Indian author, Bhagavan
Das, who has for the first time introduced order into
this hitherto confused region of
consciousness. Students of psychology will find in his Science of the Emotions
a lucid treatise, setting forth this scheme, which reduces the chaos of the
emotions into a cosmos, and shapes therein an ordered morality. The broad lines
of exposition followed here are drawn from that work, to which readers are
referred for fuller details.
We
have seen that Desire has two main expressions: desire to attract, in order to
possess, or again to come into contact [352] with, any object which has
previously afforded pleasure; desire to repel, in order to drive far away, or
to avoid contact with, any object which has previously inflicted pain. We have
seen that Attraction and Repulsion are the two forms of Desire, swaying the
Self.
Emotion,
being Desire infused with Intellect, inevitably shows the same division into
two. The Emotion which is of the nature of Attraction, attracting objects to
each other by pleasure, the integrating energy in the universe, is called Love.
The Emotion which is of the nature of Repulsion, driving objects apart from
each other by pain, the disintegrating energy in the universe, is called Hate.
These are the two stems from the root of Desire, and all the branches of the
emotions may be traced back to one of these twain.
Hence
the identity of the characteristics of Desire and Emotion; Love seeks to draw
to itself the attractive object, or to go after it, in order to unite with it,
to possess, or be possessed by, it. It binds by pleasure, by happiness, as
Desire binds. [353] Its ties are indeed more lasting,
more complicated, are composed of more numerous and more delicate threads
interwoven into greater complexity, but the essence of Desire-Attraction, the
binding of two objects together, is the essence of Emotion-Attraction, of Love.
And so also does Hate seek to drive away from itself the repellent object, or to flee from it, in order to be apart from it, to
repulse, or be repulsed by, it. It separates by pain, by unhappiness. And thus
the essence of Desire-Repulsion, the driving apart of two objects, is the
essence of Emotion-Repulsion, of Hate. Love and Hate are the elaborated and
thought-infused forms of the simple Desires to possess and to shun.
2.
THE PLAY OF EMOTION IN THE FAMIILY,
Man
has been described as "a social animal" - the biological way of
saying that he develops best in contact with, not in isolation from, his
fellows. His distinctively intellectual characteristics need, for their
evolution, a social medium, and [354] his keenest
pleasures - and hence necessarily his keenest pains - arise in his relations
with others of his own species. They
alone can evoke from him the responses on which his further growth depends. All
evolution, all the calling out of latent powers, is in response to stimuli from
without, and, when the human stage is reached, the most poignant and effective
stimuli can only come from contacts with human beings.
Sex-attraction
is the first social bond, and the children born to the husband and wife form,
with them, the first social unit, the family. The prolonged helplessness and
dependence of the human infant give time for the physical passion of parentage
to ripen into the emotion of maternal and paternal love, and thus give
stability to the family, while the family itself forms a field in which the
various emotions inevitably play. Herein are first established definite and permanent relations between
human beings, and on the harmony of these relations, on the benefits bestowed
by these relations on each member of the family, does the happiness of each
depend. [355]
We
can advantageously study the play of Emotion in the family, since here we have
a comparatively simple social unit, which yet affords a picture in miniature of
society at large. We can find here the origin and evolution of virtues and
vices, and see the meaning and object of morality.
We
have already seen how sex-passion evolves, under stress of circumstances,
into the emotion of love, and how this
love shows itself as tenderness and compassion when the wife, instead of being
the equal mate, becomes helpless and dependent, in the temporary physical
inferiority caused, say, by child-bearing. Similarly, should sickness or
accident reduce the husband to the temporary physical inferiority, tenderness
and compassion will flow out to him from the wife. But these manifestations of
love cannot be shown by the stronger without evoking from the weaker answering
love-manifestations; these in the condition of weakness will have as their
natural characteristics trust, confidence, gratitude, all equally
love-emotions coloured by weakness and dependence.
[356] In the relation of parents to children and of
children to parents, where physical superiority and inferiority are far more
strongly marked and persist for a considerable period of time, these love
emotions will be continually manifested on both sides. Tenderness, compassion,
protection, will be constantly shown by the parents to the children, and trust,
confidence, gratitude, will be the constant answer of the children. Variations
in the expression of the love-emotion will be caused by variety of
circumstances, which will call out generosity, forgiveness, patience, etc., on
the part of the parents, and obedience, dutifulness, serviceableness, etc., on
the part of the children. Taking these two classes of love-emotions, we see
that the common essence in the one class is benevolence, and in the other
reverence; the first is love looking downwards on those weaker, inferior to
itself; the other love looking upwards on those stronger, superior to itself.
And we can then generalise and say: Love looking
downwards is Benevolence; Love looking upwards is Reverence; and these are the
[357] several common characteristics of Love from superiors to inferiors, and
Love from inferiors to superiors universally.
The
normal relations between husband and wife, and those between brothers and
sisters, afford us the field for studying the manifestations of love between
equals. We see love showing itself as mutual tenderness and mutual
trustfulness, as consideration, respect, and desire to please, as quick
insight into and endeavour to fulfil
the wishes of the other, as magnanimity, forbearance. The elements present in
the love-emotions of superior to inferior are found here, but mutuality is
impressed on all of them. So we may say that the common characteristic of Love
between equals is Desire for Mutual Help.
Thus
we have Benevolence, Desire for Mutual Help, and Reverence as the three main
divisions of the Love-Emotion, and under these all love emotions may be
classified. For all human relations are summed up under the three classes: the
relations of superiors to inferiors, of equals to equals, of inferiors to
superiors.
A
similar study of the Hate-Emotion in [358] the family will yield us similar fruits.
Where there is hate between husband and wife, the temporary superior will show
harshness, cruelty, oppression to the temporary inferior, and these will be
answered by the inferior with hate-manifestations characteristic of weakness,
such as vindictiveness, fear, and treachery. These will be even more apparent
in the relations between parents and children, when both are dominated by the
Hate-Emotion, since the disparity is here greater, and tyranny breeds a whole
crop of evil emotions - deceit, servility, cowardice, while the child is
helpless, and disobedience, revolt and
revenge as it grows older. Here again we seek a common characteristic, and find
that Hate looking downwards is Scorn, and looking upwards is Fear.
Similarly,
Hate between equals will show itself in anger, combativeness, disrespect,
violence, aggressiveness, jealousy, insolence, etc.- all the emotions which
repel man from man when they stand as rivals, face to face, not hand in hand.
The common characteristic of Hate [359] between equals will thus be Mutual
Injury. And the three main characteristics of the Hate-Emotion are Scorn,
Desire for Mutual Injury, and Fear.
Love
is characterised in all its manifestations by
sympathy, self-sacrifice, the desire to give; these are its essential factors,
whether as Benevolence, as Desire for Mutual Help, as Reverence. For all these
directly serve Attraction, bring about union, are of the very nature of Love.
Hence Love is of the Spirit; for sympathy is the feeling for another as one would
feel for oneself; self-sacrifice is the recognition of the claim of the other,
as oneself; giving is the condition of spiritual life. Thus Love is seen to
belong to the Spirit, to the life-side of the universe.
Hate,
on the other hand, is characterised in all its
manifestations by antipathy, self-aggrandisement, the
desire to take; these are its essential factors, whether as Scorn, Desire for
Mutual Injury, or Fear. All these directly serve Repulsion, driving one apart
from another. Hence, Hate is of Matter, emphasises
manifoldness and differences, is essentially separateness, [360] belongs to the
form-side of the universe.
We
have thus far dealt with the play of Emotion in the family, because the family
serves as a miniature of society. Society is only the integration of numerous
family units, but the absence of the blood-tie between these units, the
absence of recognised common interests and common
objects, makes it necessary to find some bond which will supply the place of
the natural bonds in the family. The family units in a Society appear on the
surface as rivals, rather than as brothers and sisters; hence the Hate-Emotion
is more likely to rise than the Love-Emotion, and it is necessary to find some
way of maintaining harmony; this is done by the transmutation of Love-Emotions
into virtues.
3.
THE BIRTH OF VIRTUES.
We
have seen that when members of a family pass beyond the small circle of
relatives, and meet people whose interests are either indifferent or opposed to
them, there is not between them and the others the mutual interplay of Love.
Rather does [361] Hate show itself, ranging from the watchful attitude of
suspicion to the destroying fury of war. How then is a society to be composed
of the separate family units?
It
can only be done by making permanent all the emotional moods which spring from
Love, and by eradicating those which spring from Hate. A permanent mood of a
love-emotion directed towards a living being is a Virtue; a permanent mood of a
hate-emotion directed against a living being is a Vice. This change is wrought
by the Intellect, which bestows on the emotion a permanent character, seeking
harmony in all relations in order that happiness may result. That
which conduces to harmony and therefore to happiness in the family, springing
spontaneously from Love, is Virtue when practised
towards all in every relation of life. Virtue springs from Love and its
result is happiness. So also that which conduces to disharmony and therefore to
misery in the family, springing spontaneously from Hate, is Vice
when practised towards all in all relations of life.
[362]
An
objection is raised to this theory, that the permanent mood of a love-emotion
is a virtue, by pointing out that adultery, theft, and other vices may spring
from the love-emotion. Here analysis of the elements entering into, the mental
attitude is necessary. It is complex, not simple. The act of adultery is motived by love, but not by love alone. There enter into it
also contempt of the honour of another, indifference to the happiness of
another, the selfish grasping at personal pleasure at the cost of social
stability, social honour, social decency. All these spring from hate-emotions.
The love is the one redeeming feature in the whole transaction, the one virtue
in the bundle of sordid vices. Similar analysis will always show that when the
exercise of a love-emotion is wrong, the wrongness lies in the vices bound up
with its exercise, and not in the love-emotion itself.
4.
RIGHT AND WRONG.
Let
us now turn, for a moment, to the question of Right and Wrong, and see the
[363] relation they bear to bliss and misery. For there is an
idea widely current that there is something low and materialistic in the view
that virtue is the means to bliss. Many thinly that
this idea degrades virtue, giving it the second place where it should hold the
first, and making it a means instead of an end. Let us then see why
virtue must be the path to bliss, and how this inheres in the nature of things.
When
the Intellect studies the world, and sees the innumerable relations
established therein, and observes that harmonious relations bring about
happiness, and that jarring relations bring about misery, it sets to work to
find out the way of establishing universal harmony and hence universal bliss.
Further, it discovers that the world is moving along a path which it is
compelled to tread - the path of evolution, and it finds out the law of
evolution. For a part, a unit, to set itself with the law of the whole to which
it belongs means peace, harmony, and therefore happiness, while for it to set
itself against that law means friction, [364] disharmony, and therefore misery.
Hence the Right is that which, being in harmony with the great law, brings
bliss, and the Wrong is that which, being in conflict with the great law,
brings misery. When the intellect, illuminated by the Spirit, sees nature as an
expression of divine Thought, the law of evolution as an expression of the
divine Will, the goal as an expression of divine Bliss, then for harmony with
the law of evolution we may substitute harmony with the divine Will, and the
Right becomes that which is in harmony with the Will of God, and morality
becomes permeated with religion.
5.
VIRTUE AND BLISS.
Perfection,
harmony with the divine Will, cannot be separated from bliss. Virtue is the
road to bliss, and if anything does not lead there it is not virtue. The
perfection of the divine nature expresses itself in harmony, and when the
scattered "divine fragments" come into harmony they taste bliss.
This
fact is sometimes veiled by [365] another, i.e., that the practice of a virtue
under certain circumstances brings about misery. That is true, but the misery
is temporary and superficial, and the balance between that outer misery and the
inner bliss arising from the virtuous conduct, is in favour of the latter; and
further, the misery is not due to the virtue but to the circumstances which
oppose its practice, to the friction between the good organism and the evil environment.
So when you strike a harmonious chord amid a mass of discords, for a moment it
increases the discord. The virtuous man is thrown into conflict with evil, but
this should not blind us to the fact that bliss is ever wedded indissolubly to
Right and misery to Wrong. Even though the righteous may suffer temporarily,
nothing but righteousness can lead to bliss. And if we examine the
consciousness of the righteous, we find that he is happier in doing the right
though superficial pain may result, than in doing the wrong which would ruffle
the inner peace. The commission of a wrong act would cause him inner anguish
outweighing the external pleasure. Even in [366] the case where righteousness
leads to external suffering, the suffering is less than would be caused by
unrighteousness. Miss Helen Taylor has well said that for the man who dies for
the sake of truth, death is easier than life with falsehood. It is easier and
pleasanter for the righteous man to die as a martyr, than to live as a
hypocrite.
Since
the nature of the Self is bliss, and that bliss is only hindered in
manifestation by resisting circumstances, that which removes the friction
between itself and these circumstances and opens its onward way must lead to
its Self-realisation, i.e., to the realisation of bliss. Virtue does this, and therefore
virtue is a means to bliss. Where the inner nature of things is peace and joy,
the harmony which permits that nature to unveil itself must bring peace and
joy, and to bring about this harmony is the work of virtue.
6.
THE TRANSMUTATION OF EMOTIONS INTO VIRTUES AND VICES.
We
have now to see more fully the truth of what was said above, that virtue [367]
grows out of emotion, and how far it is true that a virtue or a vice is merely
a permanent mood of an emotion. Our definition is that virtue is a permanent
mood of the love-emotion, and vice a permanent mood of the hate-emotion.
The
emotions belonging to love are the constructive energies which, drawing people
together, build up the family, the tribe, the nation.
Love is a manifestation of attraction, and hence holds objects together. This
process of integration begins with the family; and the relations established
between its members in the common life of the family entail, if there is to be
happiness, the acting towards each other in a helpful and kindly way. The
obligations necessary for the establishment of happiness in these relations
are called duties, that which is due from one to the other. If these duties are
not discharged the family relations become a source of misery, since the close
contacts of the family make the happiness of each dependent on the treatment of
him by the others. No relation can be entered into between human beings which does not [368] establish an obligation between them, a
duty of each towards the other. The husband loves the wife, the wife the
husband, and nothing more is needed to lead each to seek the other's happiness
than the intense spontaneous wish to make the beloved happy. This leads the one
who can give to supply what the other needs. In the fullest sense, "love
is the fulfilling of the law"[84]; there is no need for the feeling of an
obligation, for love seeks ever to help and to bless, and there is no need for
"thou shalt", or "thou shalt not".
But
when a person, moved by love to discharge all the duties of his relation with
another, comes into relation with those he does not love, how is a harmonious
relation with them to be established? By recognising
the obligations of the relation into which he has entered, and discharging
them. The doings which grew out of love in the one case present themselves as
obligations, as duties, in the other, where love is not present. Right reason
works the [369] spontaneous actions of love into permanent obligations, or
duties, and the love-emotion, made a permanent element of conduct, is called a virtue. This is the justification of the
statement that a virtue is the permanent mood of a love-emotion. A permanent
state of emotion is established which will show itself when a relation is made;
the man discharges the duties of that relation; he is a virtuous man. He is
moved by emotions made permanent by the intellect, which recognises
that happiness depends on the establishment of harmony in all relations. Love,
rationalised and fixed by the intellect, is virtue.
In
this way may be built up a science of ethics, of which the laws are as much an
inevitable sequence as those on which any other science is built.
So
also between the hate-emotion and vices there is a similar relation. The
permanent mood of a hate-emotion is a vice. One person injures another, and the
second returns the injury; the relation between these two is inharmonious,
productive of misery. And as each expects [370] injury from the other, each
tries to weaken the other's power to inflict injury, and this is the
spontaneous action of hate. When this mood becomes permanent, and a man shows
it in any relation into which he enters wherein the
opportunity for its manifestation arises, then it is called a vice. A man of
uncontrolled passions and undeveloped nature strikes a blow, a spontaneous
expression of hate. He repeats this often, and it becomes habitual when he is
angry. He inflicts pain and takes pleasure in the infliction. The vice of cruelty
is developed, and if he meets a child or a person weaker than himself, he will
show cruelty merely because he comes into relation with them. As the
love-emotion, guided and fixed by right reason, is virtue, so the hate-emotion,
guided and fixed by distorted and blinded reason, is
vice.
7.
APPLICATION OF THE THEORY TO CONDUCT.
When
the nature of virtue and vice is thus seen, it is clear that the shortest way
of strengthening the virtues and [372] eliminating the vices is to work
directly on the emotional side of the character. We can strive to develop the
love-emotion, thus affording the material which the reason will elaborate into
its characteristic virtues. The development of the love-emotion is the most
effective way of evolving the moral character, virtues being but the blossoms
and the fruits which spring from the root of love.
The
value of this clear view of the transmutation of emotions into virtues and
vices lies in the fact that it gives us a definite theory on which we can work;
it is as though we were seeking a distant place, and a map were placed before
our eyes; we trace thereon the road which leads from our present position to
our goal. So many really good and earnest people spend years in vague
aspirations after goodness, and yet make but little
progress; they are good in purpose but weak in attainment; this is chiefly
because they do not understand the nature in which they are working, and the
best methods for its culture. They are like a [372] child in a garden, a child eager
to see his garden brilliant with flowers, but without the knowledge to plant
and cultivate them, and to exterminate the weeds which overgrow his plot. Like
the child, they long for the sweetness of the virtue-flowers, and find their
garden overrun with the rank growth of the weeds of vice.
8.
THE USES OF EMOTION.
The
uses of the love-emotion are so obvious that it seems scarcely necessary to
dwell upon them, and yet too much stress cannot be laid on the fact that love
is the constructive force in the universe. Having drawn together the family
units, it welds these into larger tribal and national units, and these it will
build in the future into the Brotherhood of Man. Nor must we omit to note the
fact that the smaller units draw out the love-power and prepare it for fuller
expression. Their use is to call into manifestation the hidden divine power of
love within the Spirit, by giving to it objects close at hand that attract it.
The love is not to be confined [373] within these narrow limits, but, as it
gains strength by practice, it is to spread outwards until it embraces all
sentient beings. We may formulate the law of love: Regard every aged person as
your father or mother; regard every person of similar age as your brother or
sister; regard every younger person as your child. This sums up human
relations. The fulfilment of this law would render
earth a paradise, and it is in order that the earth may become such a paradise
that the family exists.
A
man who would widen his love-relations should begin to regard the welfare of
his community as he regards the welfare of his own family. He should try to
work for the public good of his community with the energy and interest with
which he works for his family. Later, he will extend his loving interest and
labour to his nation. Then appears the great virtue of public
spirit, the sure precursor of national prosperity. Later still, he will
love and labour for humanity, and finally he will embrace within his loving care all sentient beings, and will become "the friend
of every creature". [374]
Few,
at the present stage of evolution, are really able to love humanity, and too
many speak of loving humanity who are not ready to
make any sacrifice to help a suffering brother or sister close at hand. The
servant of humanity must not overlook the human beings at his door, nor in
imagination water with sentimental sympathy the distant garden, while the
plants round his doorway are dying from drought.
The
uses of hate are not at first so obvious, but are none the less important. At
first, when we study hate and see that its essence is disintegration,
destruction, it may seem all evil; "He who hateth
his brother is a murderer," saith a great Teacher[85], because murder is but an expression of hate;
and even when hate does not go so far as murder, it is still a destroying
force; it breaks up the family, the nation, and wherever it goes it tears
people apart. Of what use, then, is hate?
First,
it drives apart incongruous elements, unfit to combine together, and thus
prevents continuing friction. Where incongruous undeveloped people are [375]
concerned, it is better for them to be driven far apart to pursue their several
paths in evolution, than to be kept within reach of one another, stimulating
each other to increased bad emotions. Secondly, the repulsion felt by the
average soul for an evil person is beneficial, so long as that evil person has
the power of leading him astray; for that repulsion, although it be hate,
guards him from an influence under which he might otherwise succumb. Contempt
for the liar, the hypocrite, the worker of cruelty on the weak, is an emotion
useful to the one who feels it, and also to the one against whom it is
directed; for it tends to preserve the one from falling into similar vices, and
it tends to arouse in the despised person a feeling of shame that may lift him
from the mire in which he is plunged. So long as a person has any tendency to a
sin, so long is hatred against those who practise the
sin protective and useful. Presently, as he evolves, he will distinguish
between the evildoer and the evil, and will pity the [376] evil-doer and
confine his hatred to the evil. Later still, secure in virtue, he will hate
neither the evil-doer nor his evil, but will see tranquilly a low stage of
evolution, out of which he will strive to lift his younger brother by fitting
means. "Righteous indignation", "noble scorn", "just
wrath", all are phrases which recognise the usefulness of these emotions, while seeking
to veil the fact that they are essentially forms of hate - a veiling which is
due to the feeling that hate is an evil thing. None the less are they
essentially forms of hate, whatever they may be called, though they play a
useful part in evolution, and their storms purify the social atmosphere.
Intolerance, of evil is far better than indifference to it, and until a man is
beyond the reach of temptation to any given sin, intolerance of those who practise it is for him a necessary safeguard.
Let
us take the case of a man little evolved; he desires to avoid gross sins, but
yet feels tempted to them. The desire to avoid them will show itself as hatred
of those in whom he sees them; to check this hatred would be to plunge him into
temptations he is not yet strong enough to resist. As he evolves further and
further [377] from the danger of yielding to temptation, he will hate the sins,
but will pityingly sympathise with the sinner. Not
till he has become a saint can he afford not to hate the evil.
When
in ourselves we feel repulsion from a person we may be sure that we have in us
some lingering traces of that which we dislike in him. The Ego, seeing a
danger, drags his vehicles away. A man, perfectly temperate, feels less
repulsion towards the drunkard than a temperate man who occasionally exceeds.
A woman, utterly pure, feels no repulsion from a fallen sister, from whose
contact the less pure would withdraw their skirts. When we reach perfection, we
shall love the sinner as well as the saint, and perchance may show the love
more to the sinner, since the saint can stand alone, but the sinner will fall
if he be not loved.
When
the man has risen to the point where he hates neither sinner nor sin, then the
disintegrating force - which is hate among human beings - becomes simply an energy to be used for destroying the obstacles which
embarrass the path of evolution. When perfected wisdom guides [378] the
constructive and destructive energies, and perfected
love is the motive power, then only can the destructive force be used without
incurring the root-sin of the feeling of separateness. To feel ourselves
different from others is the "great heresy", for separateness, when
the whole is evolving towards unity, is opposition to the Law. The feeling of
separateness is definitely wrong, whether it leads to one's thinking oneself
more righteous or more sinful. The perfect saint identifies himself with the
criminal as much as with another saint, for the criminal and the saint are
alike divine, although in different stages of evolution. When a man can feel thus, he touches the life
of the Christ in man. He does not think of himself as separate, but as one with
all. To him his own holiness is the holiness of humanity, and the sin of any is
his sin. He builds no barrier between himself and the sinner, but pulls down
any barrier made by the sinner, and shares the sinner's evil while sharing with
him his good.
Those
who can feel the truth of this "counsel of perfection" should, in
their [379] daily lives, seek to practise it, however
imperfectly. In dealing with the less advanced, they should ever seek to level
the dividing wall. For the sense of separateness is subtle, and endures till we
achieve Christhood. Yet by this effort we may gradually lessen it, and to
strive to identify ourselves with the lowest is to exercise the constructive
energy which holds the worlds together, and to become channels for the divine
love. [380]
-------
CHAPTER V.
EMOTION
(continued).
1.
THE TRAINING OF EMOTION.
EMOTION
is, we have seen, the motive power in man: it stimulates thought; it impels to
action; it is as steam to the engine; without it man would be inert, passive.
But there are many who are the continual prey of their emotions; who are
hurried hither and thither by emotions, as a rudderless ship by stormy winds
upon the ocean; who are tossed high and dragged low by surges of joyous and
painful feelings; who alternate between exaltation and
despair. Such a person is swayed, subjugated by emotions, continually harassed
by their conflict. He is more or less a chaos within, and is erratic in his
outward actions, moved by the impulse of the moment, without due consideration
for surrounding [381] circumstances, such consideration as would make his
actions well-directed. He is often what is called a good person, inspired by
generous motives, stirred into kindly actions, full of sympathy with suffering
and eager to bring relief, plunging quickly into action intended to aid the
sufferer. We have not here to do with the indifferent or the cruel, but with
one whose emotions hurry him into action, before he has considered the
conditions or forecast the results of his activity, beyond the immediate relief
of the pain before his view. Such a person - though moved by a desire to help,
though the stimulating emotion is sympathy and desire to relieve suffering
-often does more harm than good in consequence of the inconsiderateness of his
action. The emotion which impels him springs from the love-side of his nature,
from the side which draws people together, and which is the root of the
constructive and preserving virtues; and in this very fact lies
the danger of such a person. If the emotion had its root in evil, he would be
the first to eradicate it; but just because it is rooted in that love-emotion
whence spring all the [382] social virtues, he does not suspect it, he does not
endeavour to control it. "I am so sympathetic; I
am so much moved by suffering; I cannot bear the sight of misery." In all
such phrases, a certain self-praise is implied, though the tone may be one of
deprecation. Truly, sympathy is admirable, Qua
sympathy, but its ill-directed exercise is often provocative of mischief.
Sometimes it injures the very object of sympathy, and leaves him finally in
worse case than at first. Too often unwise forms of relief are adopted, more to remove the pain of the sympathiser
than to cure the ill of the sufferer, and a momentary pang is stopped at the
cost of a lasting injury, really, though not avowedly, to relieve the pain of
the onlooker. The re-action of sympathy on the sympathetic person is good,
deepening the love-emotion; but the action on others is too often bad, owing
to the lack of balanced thought. It is easy, at the sight of pain, to fill
earth and sky with our shrieks, till all the air is throbbing; it is hard to
pause, to measure the cause of pain and
the cure, and then to apply a remedy which heals [383] instead of perpetuating.
Right season must govern and direct emotion, if good is to result from its
exercise. Emotion should be the impulse to action, but not its director;
direction belongs to the intelligence, and its guiding prerogative should
never be wrenched away from it. Where the consciousness thus works, having
strong emotion as the impulse, and right reason as
director, there is the sympathetic and wise man who is useful to his
generation.
Desires
have been well compared to horses harnessed to the chariot of the body, and
desires are rooted in emotions. Where the emotions are uncontrolled they are
like plunging, unbroken horses that imperil the safety of the chariot and
threaten the life of the charioteer. The reins have been compared to the mind,
the reins that guide the horses, restraining or loosening as is needed. There
is well imaged the relationship between emotion, intelligence, and action.
Emotion gives the movement, intelligence controls and guides, and then the Self
will, use activity to the best advantage, as becomes the ruler of the emotions,
not their victim. [384]
With
the development of that aspect of consciousness which will show itself as
Buddhi in the sixth sub-race, and more completely in the sixth Root-Race, the
emotional nature rapidly evolves in some of the advanced fifth Race, and often,
for a time, offers many troublesome and even distressing symptoms. As evolution
proceeds, these will be outgrown, and the nature will become balanced as well
as strong, wise as well as generous; meanwhile the rapidly developing nature
will be stormy and often distressful, and will suffer keenly and long. Yet in
those very sufferings lies its future strength as its present purification, and in proportion to the sharpness of the
sufferings will be the greatness of the result. It is in these powerful natures
that Buddhi is struggling to birth, and the anguish of the travail is upon
them. Presently Buddhi, the Christ, the "little child", will be born,
Wisdom and Love in one, and this, united to high intelligence, is the
spiritual Ego, the true Inner Man, the Ruler Immortal.
The
student, who is studying his own nature in order to take his own evolution
[385] in hand and direct its future course, must carefully observe his own
strength and his own weakness, in order to regulate the one and correct the
other. In unevenly developed persons intellect and emotion are apt to vary in
inverse ratio to each other; strong emotions go with weak intelligence, and
strong intelligence with weak emotions; in one case the directing power is
weak, in the other the motive. The student, then, in his self-analysis, must
see whether his intelligence is well-developed, if he finds his emotions to be
strong; he must test himself to discover whether he is unwilling to look at
things in "the clear dry light of intellect"; if he feels repelled
when a subject is presented to him in this light, he may rest assured that the
emotional side of his nature is over-developed in proportion to the
intellectual side. For the well-balanced man would resent neither the clear
light of the directive intelligence, nor the strong force of the motive
emotion. If, in the past, one side has been over-cultivated, if the emotions
have been fostered to the detriment of the intelligence, then the efforts
[386] should be turned to the strengthening of the intellect, and the
resentment which arises against a coldly intellectual presentation should be
sternly curbed, the difference between intelligence and sympathy being recognised.
2.
THE DISTORTING FORCE OF EMOTION.
One
of the things most apt to be overlooked by the emotional person is the way in
which emotion fills his surrounding atmosphere with its vibrations, and thereby
biasses the intelligence; everything is seen through
this atmosphere, and is coloured and distorted by it,
so that things do not reach the intelligence in their true form and colour, but
arrive twisted and discoloured. Our aura surrounds
us, and should be a pellucid medium through which all in the outer world should
reach us in its own form and colour; but when the aura is vibrating with
emotion it cannot act as such a medium, and all is refracted that passes into
it, and reaches us quite other than it is. If a person is under water and a
stick is put near him [387] in the air, and he tries to touch it, his hand will
be wrongly directed, for he will put his hand to the place at which he sees the
stick, and as the rays coming from it are refracted on entering the water, the
stick will be, for him, displaced. Similarly when an impression from the outer
world reaches us through an aura over-charged with emotion, its proportions are
distorted, and its position misjudged; hence the data supplied to the
intelligence are erroneous, and the judgment founded upon them will therefore
necessarily be wrong, however accurately the intelligence may work.
Even
the most careful self-analysis will not entirely protect us against this
emotional disturbance. The intellect ever tends to judge favourably
that which we like, unfavourably that which we
dislike, owing to the "refraction" above-named. The arguments in
favour of a certain course are thrown into a strong light by our desire to
follow it, and the arguments against it are thrown into the shade. The one
seems so clear and forcible, the other so dubious and feeble. And to our [388]
mind, seeing through the emotion, it is so sure that we are right, and that anyone,
who does not see as we do, is biassed by prejudice or
is wilfully perverse. Against this ever-present
danger, we can only guard by care and persistent effort, but we cannot finally
escape it until we transcend the emotions, and become absolutely their ruler.
One way remains in which we can aid ourselves to
a right judgment, and that is by studying the workings of consciousness in
others, and in weighing their decisions under circumstances similar to our own. The judgments which
most repel us are those most likely to be useful to us, because made through an
emotional medium very different from our own. We can compare their decisions
with ours, and by noting the points that affect them most and ourselves least,
and that weigh most heavily with us and most lightly with them, we may
disentangle the emotional from the intellectual elements in the judgments. And
even where our conclusions are mistaken, the effort to arrive at them is
corrective and illuminative; it [389] aids in the mastery of the emotions, and
strengthens the intellectual element. Such studies should of course be made
when there is no emotional disturbance, and its fruits should be stored up for
use at the times when the emotions are strong.
3.
METHODS OF RULING THE EMOTIONS.
The
first and most powerful method for obtaining mastery of the emotions is - as in
all that touches consciousness - Meditation. Before contact with the world has
disturbed the emotions, meditation should be resorted to. Coming back into the
body after the period of physical sleep, from a world subtler than the
physical, the Ego will find his tenement quiet, and can take possession calmly
of the rested brain and nerves. Meditation later in the day, when the emotions
have been disturbed, and when they are in full activity, is not as efficacious.
The quiet time which is available after sleep is the right season for effective
meditation, the desire-body, the emotional nature, being more tranquil than
after it has [390] plunged into the bustle of the world. From that peaceful
morning hour will stream out the influence which will guard during the day, and
the emotions, soothed and stilled, will be more amenable to control.
Where
it is possible, it is well to forecast the questions which may arise during the
day, and to come to conclusions as to the view to be taken, the conduct to be
pursued. If we know that we shall be placed under certain conditions that will
arouse our emotions, we can decide beforehand on our mental attitude, and even
come to a, decision on our action. Supposing such a decision has been reached,
then when the circumstances arise, that decision should be recalled and acted
upon, even though the swell of the emotions may impel towards a different
course. For instance, we are going to meet a person for whom we have a strong
affection, and we decide in our meditation on the course that it is wisest to
pursue, deciding in the clear light of calm intelligence what is best for all
concerned. To this decision we should adhere, even [391] though there is the
inclination to feel: "I had not given the proper weight to that
view". As a matter of fact, under these conditions, overweight is given,
the proper weight having been given in the calmer thought; and it is the wisest
plan to follow the path previously chalked out despite the emotional promptings
of the moment. There may be a blunder of judgment, but if the blunder be not
seen during meditation it is not likely to be seen during a swirl of emotions.
Another
method of curbing the emotions is to think over what is going to be said,
before speaking, to put a bridle on the tongue. The man
who has learned to control his speech has conquered everything, says an
ancient eastern law-giver. The person who never speaks a sharp or
ill-considered word is well on the way to control emotion. To rule speech is to
rule the whole nature. It is a good plan not to speak - to deliberately check
speech - until one is clear as to what one is going to say, is sure that the
speech is true, that it is adapted to the person to whom it is to be addressed,
and that it is such as ought to [392] be spoken. Truth comes first and
foremost, and nothing can excuse falsity of speech; many a speech uttered under
stress of emotion is false, either from exaggeration or distortion. Then, the
appropriateness of the speech to the person addressed is too often forgotten,
in the hurry of emotion, or the eagerness of strong feeling. A quite wrong idea
of a great truth may be presented, if the point of view of the person addressed
is not borne in mind; sympathy is needed, the seeing as he sees, for only then
can the truth be useful and helpful. One is not trying to help oneself, but to
help another, in putting the truth before him. Perhaps the conception of law as
changeless, inviolable, absolutely impartial, may, to
the speaker, be inspiring, strengthening, uplifting; whereas that conception
is ruthless and crushing to an undeveloped person, and injures instead of
helps. Truth is not meant to crush, but to elevate, and we misuse truth when we
give it to one that is not ready. There is plenty to suit the needs of each,
but discretion is needed to choose wisely, and enthusiasm must not force a
premature enlightenment. [393] Many a young Theosophist does more harm than
good by his over-eager pressing on others of the treasures he prizes so highly.
Lastly, the form of the speech, the necessity or the usefulness of its
utterance, should be considered. A truth that might help may be changed into a
truth that hinders by the way in which it is put. "Never speak what is
untrue, never speak what is unpleasant", is a golden rule of speech. All
speech should be truthful, sweet and agreeable.
This agreeableness of speech is too often forgotten by well-meaning
people, who even pride themselves on their candour,
when they are merely rude and indifferent to the feelings of those whom they
address. But that is neither good breeding nor religion, for the unmannerly is
not the religious. Religion combines perfect truth with perfect courtesy.
Moreover, the superfluous, the useless, is mischievous, and there is much
injury done by the continual bubbling over of frivolous emotions in chatter and
small talk. People who cannot bear silence, and are ever chattering, fritter
away their intellectual and moral forces, as well as give utterance to a
hundred follies, [394] better left unsaid. To be afraid of silence is a sign of
mental weakness, and calm silence is better than foolish speech. In silence the
emotions grow and strengthen, while remaining controlled, and
thus the motive power of the nature increases and is also brought into
subjection. The power of being silent is great, and often exercises a most
soothing effect; on the other hand, he who has learned to be silent must be
careful that his silence does not trench on his courtesy, that he does not, by
inappropriate silence among others, make them feel chilled and uncomfortable.
Some
may fear that such a consideration before speech as is outlined may so hinder
exchange of thought as to paralyse conversation; but
all who have practised such control will bear witness
that, after a brief practice, no noticeable interval is caused before the reply
is uttered. Swifter than lightning is the movement of the intelligence, and it
will flash over the points to be considered while a breath is being drawn. It
is true, that at first there will be slight hesitation, but in a few weeks no
pause will be required, and the review of [395] the proposed utterance will be
made too swiftly to cause any obstruction. Many an orator can testify that, in
the rapid torrent of a declamatory period, the mind will sit at ease, turning
about alternative sentences and weighing their respective merits ere one is
chosen and the rest are cast aside; and yet none in the rapt audience will know
aught of this by-play, or dream that behind the swift utterance there is any
such selective action going on.
A
third method of mastering emotion is by refraining from acting on impulse. The
hurry to act is characteristic of the modern mind, and is the excess of the
promptitude which is its virtue. When we consider life calmly we realise that there is never any need for hurry; there is
always time enough, and action, however swift, should be well considered and
unhurried. When an impulse comes from some strong emotion, and we spring
forward in obedience, without consideration, we act unwisely. If we train
ourselves to think, before we act in all ordinary affairs, then if an accident
or anything else should happen in which prompt action is [396] necessary, the
swift mind will balance up the demands of the moment and direct swift action,
but there will be no hurry, no inconsiderate unwise blundering.
"But
should I not follow my intuition?" some one may ask. Impulse and intuition
are too often confused, though radically different in origin and
characteristics. Impulse springs from the desire-nature, from the consciousness
working through the astral body, and is an energy flung outwards in response
to a stimulus from outside, an energy undirected by
the intelligence, hasty, unconsidered, headlong. Intuition springs from the
spiritual Ego, and is an energy flowing outwards to meet a demand from outside,
an energy directed by the spiritual Ego, strong, calm, purposeful. For
distinguishing between the two, until the nature is thoroughly balanced, calm
consideration is necessary, and delay is essential; an impulse dies away under
such consideration and delay; an intuition grows clearer and stronger under
such conditions; calmness enables the lower mind to hear it, and to feel its
serene imperiousness. Moreover, if what [397] seems to be an intuition is
really a suggestion from some higher Being, that suggestion will sound the
louder for our quiet meditation, and will lose nothing of force by such calm delay.
It
is true that there is a certain pleasure in the abandonment to the headlong
impulse, and that the imposed restraint is painful for a time. But the effort
to lead the higher life is full of these renounceals
of pleasure and acceptances of pain, and gradually we come to feel that there
is a higher joy in the quiet considerate action than in the yielding to the
tumultuous impulse, and that we have eliminated a constant source of regret.
For constantly does such yielding prove a source of sorrow, and the impulse is
found to be a mistake. If the proposed action be good, the purpose to perform
it will be made stronger, not weaker, by careful thought. And
if the purpose grows weaker with the thinking, then is it sure that it comes
from the lower source, not from the higher.
Daily
meditation, careful consideration before speech, the refusal to yield to
impulse, these are the chief methods of [398] turning the emotions into useful
servants instead of dangerous masters.
4.
THE USING OF EMOTION.
Only
he can use an emotion who has become its master, and
who knows that the emotions are not himself but are playing in the vehicles in
which he dwells, and are due to the interaction between the Self and the
Not-Self. Their ever-changing nature marks them as belonging to the vehicles;
they are stirred into activity by things without, answered to by the
consciousness within. The attribute of consciousness that gives rise to
emotions is Bliss, and pleasure and pain are the motions in the desire-vehicle
caused by the contacts of the outer world, and by the response through it to
these of the Self as Bliss; just as thoughts are the motions due to similar
contacts and to the response to them of the Self as Knowledge. As the Self
knows itself, and distinguishes itself from its vehicles, it becomes ruler of
the emotions, and pleasure and pain become equally modes of Bliss. [399]
As
progress is made, it will be found that greater equilibrium is attained under
stress of pleasure and pain, and that the emotions no longer upset the balance
of the mind. So long as pleasure elates, and pain paralyses, so that the
performance of duty is hindered and hampered, so long is a man the slave, and
not the ruler, of his emotions. When he has learned to rule them, the greatest wave
of pleasure, the keenest sting of pain, can be felt, and yet the mind will
remain steady and address itself calmly to the work in hand. Then whatever
comes is turned into use. Out of pain is gained power, as out of pleasure are
gained vitality and courage. All become forces to help, instead of obstacles to
hinder.
Of
these uses oratory may serve as an illustration. You hear a man fired by
passion, his words tumbling over each other, his gestures violent; he is
possessed by, carried away by, emotion, but he does not sway his audience. The
orator who sways is the master of his emotions and uses them to affect his
audience; his words are deliberate and well-chosen even in the [400] rush of
his speech, his gestures appropriate and dignified. He is not feeling the
emotions, but he has felt them, and he now uses his past to shape the present.
In proportion as a speaker has felt and has risen above his emotions will be
his power to use them. No one without strong emotions can be a great speaker;
but the greatness grows as the emotions are brought under control. A more
effective explosion results from a careful arrangement of the explosives and a
deliberate application of the match, than by flinging them down anyhow, and the
match after them, in the hope that something may catch.
So
long as anyone is stirred by the emotions, the clear vision needed for helpful
service is blurred. The valuable helper is the man who is calm and balanced,
while full of sympathy. What sort of a doctor would he be who, in the midst of
performing an operation, should burst into tears? Yet many people are so
distressed by the sight of suffering that their whole being is shaken by it,
and they thus increase the suffering instead [401] of relieving it. All emotion
causes strong vibrations, and these pass from one to another. The effective
helper must be calm and steady, remaining unshaken and radiating peace. One who
stands on a rock above the waves can help another to gain that vantage-ground
better than if he were himself battling with the waves.
Another
use of the emotions when they are thoroughly in hand is to call up and use the
appropriate one to rouse in another person an emotion beneficial to him. If a
person be angry, the natural answer to his vibrations is anger in the one he
meets, for all vibrations tend to be sympathetically reproduced. As we all have
emotion-bodies, any body vibrating near us in a particular way tends to cause
similar vibrations in us, if we have in our bodies the appropriate matter.
Anger awakens anger, love awakens love, gentleness
awakens gentleness. When we are masters of our emotions, and feel the surge of
anger rising in response to the vibrations of anger in another, we shall at
once check this answer, and shall let [402] the waves of anger dash up against
us, while we remain unmoved. The man who can hold his own emotion-body quiet,
while those of others are vibrating strongly around him, has learned well the
lesson of self-control. When this is done, he is ready to take the next step,
to meet the vibration of an evil emotion with the vibration of the
corresponding good emotion, and thus he not only withholds himself from anger,
but sends out vibrations that tend to quiet the anger vibrations of the
other. He answers anger by love, wrath by gentleness.
At
first, this answer must be deliberate, of set purpose, and angry people can be
taken to practise on. When one comes in our way, we utilise him. The attempt will be, doubtless, cold and dry
in the beginning, with only the will to love in it and none of the emotion;
but after a while, the will to love will produce a little emotion, and at last
a habit will be established, and kindness will be the spontaneous answer to
unkindness. The steady, deliberate practice of answering thus the vibrations of
wrong emotions reaching us from outside [403] will establish a habit in the
emotion-body, and it will respond rightly automatically.
The
teaching of all the great Masters of Ethics is the same: "Return good for
evil". And the teaching is based on this interchange of vibrations, caused
by love and hate-emotions. The return of evil intensifies it, while the return
of good neutralises the evil. To stir love-emotions
in others by sending to them a stream of such emotions, so as to stimulate all
that is good in them and to weaken all that is bad, is the highest use to which
we can put our emotions in daily human service. It is a good plan to bear in
mind a list of correspondences in emotions, and to practise
accordingly, answering pride by humility, discourtesy by compassion, arrogance
by submission, harshness by gentleness, irritability by calmness. Thus is a
nature built up which answers all evil emotions by the corresponding good ones,
and which acts as a benediction on all around, lessening the evil in them and
strengthening the good. [404]
5.
THE VALUE OF EMOTION IN EVOLUTION.
We
have seen that emotion is the motive power in man, and to turn it into a helper
in evolution we must utilise it to lift and not allow
it to degrade. The Ego, in his evolution, needs "points to draw him"
upwards, as says the Voice of the Silence, for the upward way is steep, and an
attractive object above us, towards which we can strive, is an aid impossible
to over-estimate. Only too often we lag on the way, and feel no desire to
proceed; aspiration is inert, the longing to rise has fled. Then may we summon
emotion to our aid, by twining it around some object of devotion, and thus gain
the impetus we need, the lifting force we crave.
This
form of emotion is what is often called hero-worship, the power to admire and
love greatly one who is nobler than oneself, and to be able thus to love and
admire is to have at disposal one of the great lifting forces in human
evolution. Hero-worship is often decried because a perfect ideal is not
possible to find among men living in the world, but a partial ideal [405] that
can be loved and emulated is a help in quickening evolution. It is true that
there will be weaknesses in such a partial
ideal, and it is necessary to distinguish between the heroic qualities and the
weaknesses found in conjunction with them; but the attention should be fixed on
the heroic qualities that stimulate, and not on the blemishes that mar everyone
who has not as yet transcended humanity. To recognise
that the weaknesses are of the Not-Self and are passing, while the nobility is
of the Self that endures, to love what is great, and to be able to pass over
what is small, that is the spirit that leads to discipleship of the Great Ones.
Only good is gained by the hero-worshipper from his ideal, if
he honour the greatness and disregard the weakness, and on the hero himself
will fall the karma of his own shortcomings.
But
it is said: if we thus recognise the nobility of the
Self in the midst of human weaknesses, we are only doing what we should do with
all, and why make a hero out of anyone in whom there is still any human
weakness? Because of the help [406] our hero gives us as an inspiration and a
measure of our own achievement. No ordinary person can be turned into a hero;
it is only when the Self shines out with more than ordinary lustre
that the inclination to hero-worship arises. The man is a hero, though not yet
super-human, and his weaknesses are but as spots in the sun. There is a proverb
which says: "No man is a hero to his valet-de-chambre,"
and the cynic reads this as meaning that the most heroic man owes his greatness
to distance. But is not the meaning rather that the valet-soul, intent on the
shine of a boot and the set of a necktie, cannot appreciate that which makes
the hero, having naught in him that can sound sympathetically with the notes
the hero strikes? For to be able to admire means to be able
to achieve, and love and reverence for the great is a sign that a man is
growing like them.
When
emotion is thus aroused, we should judge ourselves by our ideal, and be ashamed
to do or think aught that would bring a shade of sorrow over the eyes of him we
revere. His presence should be with us, as an up-lifter, until, judging [407]
ourselves in the light of the greater achievement, we find ourselves also
beginning to achieve.
That
the pure light of the Self shines through none who walk the miry paths of earth
is true, but there are some through whom enough light shines to lighten the
darkness, and to help us to see where to plant our feet. It is better to thank
and honour these, to rejoice and be glad in them, than to belittle them because
they are not wholly of heaven, because some touches of human weakness still
entangle their feet. Blessed indeed are they who have in themselves the
hero-nature and hence recognise their elder kin; for
them waits the open gate to the upper reaches, and the more they love, the more
they honour, the swifter will be their approach to that gateway. No better karma
comes to a man than to find the hero who may bear him company to the entering;
no sadder karma than to have seen him, in an illuminated moment, and then to
have cast him aside, blinded by an imperfection he is out-growing. [408]
-------
CHAPTER VI.
THE WILL.
1.
THE WILL WINNING ITS FREEDOM.
WE
return now to the consideration of that power in man with which we started -
the Will. The student will remember that it was stated that it was the Will of
the Self, of the individualised Self - individualised though as yet unconscious of its individualisation - which drew him into manifestation. Not
by compulsion, not by external necessity, not by anything opposed to him from outside, but by the great
Will of which his own Will is part - his Will individualised
as a centre but not yet cut off by circumference of matter - pulsing in him as
the life-blood of the mother pulses in the yet unborn child, he reaches forth
towards manifestation, dimly longing for the rich thrill of life enveiled in [409] matter, for the exercise of powers
yearning for activity, for the experience of worlds tumultuously full of
movement. That which consciously the LOGOS wills - the LOGOS willing to become
incarnate in a universe - all the
centres of individualised life within Him also will,
though as it were blindly and groping towards a fuller life. It is the Will to
live, to know, and that forth-going Will sets to manifestation.
We
have seen that this Will, the Power of the Self, becomes what we call Desire on the denser planes of matter, and that,
blinded by matter and unable to see its way, its direction is determined by the
attractions and repulsions playing upon it from external objects. Hence we
cannot say of the Self at this period that he is Self-directed; he is directed
by attractions and repulsions that touch him at his periphery. We have further
seen that as Desire came into touch with Intelligence, and these two aspects of
the Self played upon each other, emotions evolved,
showing traces of their parentage, of their Desire-mother and of their
Intelligence-father. And we, have studied the methods
by [410] which emotion may be controlled, put to its true uses, and thus
rendered serviceable instead of dangerous in human evolution.
We
have now to consider how this Will, the hidden Power which has ever moved to
activity though not yet controlling activity, slowly wins to freedom, that is
to Self-determination. In a moment we shall consider what is meant by this word
"freedom".
Essentially
and fundamentally free, in its origin as the Power of the Self, Will has become
bound and limited in its attempts to master the matter into which the Self has
entered. We need not shrink from saying that matter masters the Self, not the
Self matter, and this it does by virtue of the Self regarding matter as
himself, identifying himself with it; as he wills through it, thinks through
it, acts through it, it becomes to him verily himself, and deluded he cries:
"I am this!" and while it limits him and binds him, he, feeling it to
be himself, cries: "I am free." Yet is this mastering of the Self by
matter but a temporary thing, for the matter is ever changing, coming and
going, impermanent, [411] and is ever being shaped and unconsciously drawn round and rejected by the unfolding
forces of the Self, permanent amid the impermanent.
Let
us come to the stage in human evolution in which memory has grown stronger than
the instinctive outgoing to the pleasant and withdrawing from the painful; in
which Intelligence rules Desire, and reason has triumphed over impulse. The
result of the age-long evolution is to be reaped, and part of that result is
freedom.
While
the Will is expressing itself as Desire, determined in its direction by
outside attractions, it is obviously not free, but very distinctly bound. Just
as any living creature might be dragged by a force greater than its own force
in a direction unchosen by it, so is the Will dragged
away by the attraction of objects, pulled along the path which promises
pleasure, which is agreeable to pursue; it is not active as a Self-determined
force, but on the contrary the Self is being dragged away by an external and
compelling attraction. [412]
No
more vivid picture of the Self, under these conditions, can be given than that before
quoted from an ancient Hindu Scripture, in which the Self is limned as the
rider in a chariot, and the senses, attracted by pleasure-giving objects, are
the ungovernable horses that carry away the chariot of the body and the
helpless rider within it. Although the Will be the very Power of the Self, so long as the Self
is being carried away by these unruly horses, he is emphatically bound and not
free. It is idle to speak of a free Will in a man who is the slave of the
objects around him. He is ever in bondage, he can
exercise no choice; for though we may think of such a one as choosing to follow
the path along which attractions draw him, there is, in truth, no choice nor
thought of choice. So long as attractions and repulsions determine the path,
all talk of freedom is empty and foolish. Even though a man feels himself as
choosing the desirable object, the feeling of freedom is illusory, for he is
dragged by the attractiveness of the object and the longing for pleasure in
himself. He is as much, or as [413] little, free as the iron is free to move to
the magnet. The movement is determined by the strength of the magnet and the
nature of the iron answering to its attraction.
To
understand what we mean by freedom of the Will, we must clear away a preliminary
difficulty which faces us in the word "choice". When we appear to be
free to choose, does that so-called freedom of choice mean freedom of Will? Or
is it not true to say that freedom of choice only means that no external force
compels us to elect one or another of alternatives? But the important question
that lies behind this is: "What makes us choose?" Whether we are free
to act when we have chosen is a very different thing from whether we are
"free" to choose, or whether the choice is determined by something
that lies behind.
How
often we hear it said as a proof of the freedom of the Will: "I am free to
choose whether I will leave the room or not; I am free to choose whether I will
drop this weight or not". But such argument is beside the question. No one
denies the power of a person, physically unconstrained, to leave a room or to
stay [414] in it, to drop a weight or to uphold it. The interesting question
is: "Why do I choose?" When we analyse the
choice, we see that it is determined by motive, and the determinist argues:
"Your muscles can uphold or drop the weight, but if there is a valuable
and fragile article underneath, you will not choose to drop it. That which determines your choice not to drop it is the presence of
that fragile object. Your choice is determined by motives, and the
strongest motive directs it". The question is not: "Am I free to
act"" but: "Am I free to will?" And we see clearly that the
Will is determined by the strongest motive, and that, so far as that goes, the
determinist is right.
In
truth, this fact that the Will is determined by the strongest motive is the
basis of all organised Society, of all law, of all penalty, of all responsibility, of all education. The man
whose will is not thus determined is irresponsible, insane. He is a creature
who cannot be appealed to, cannot be reasoned with, cannot
be relied on, a person without reason, logic, or memory, without the attributes
we [415] regard as human. I n law, a man is regarded as irresponsible when no
motive sways him, when no ordinary reasons affect him; he is insane, and is not
amenable to legal penalties. A Will which is an energy pointing in any
direction, pushing to action without motive, without reason, without sense,
might perhaps be called "free", but this is not what is meant by
"freedom of the Will". That Will is determined by the strongest
motive must be taken for granted in any sane discussion of the freedom of the
Will.
What
then is meant by the freedom of the Will? It can be but a conditioned, a relative,
freedom at most, for the separated Self is a part of a whole, and the whole
must be greater than, must compel, all its parts. And this is true alike of the
Self and of the bodies in which he is ensheathed.
None questions that the bodies are in a realm of law, and move within law, can
move but by law, and the freedom with which they move is but in relation to
each other, and by virtue of the interplay of the countless forces which
balance each other variously and endlessly, [416] and in this variety and
endlessness offer innumerable possibilities and thus a freedom of movement
within a rigidity of bondage. And the Self also is in a realm of law, nay is himself the very law, as being part of that
nature which is the Being of all beings. No separated Self may escape from the
Self which is all, and, however freely he may move with regard to other
separated Selves, he may not, cannot, move outside the life which informs him,
which is his nature and his law, in which he lives and moves. The parts
constrain not the parts, the separated Selves constrain not the separated
Selves; but the whole constrains and controls the parts, the Self constrains
and controls the Selves. Yet even here, since the Selves are the Self, freedom
starts up from amid apparent bondage, and "none else compels".
This
freedom of a part as regards other parts while in bondage to the whole may be
seen clearly in physical nature. We are parts of a world whirling through space
and revolving also on its own axis, turning eastwards ever .
Of this we know naught, [417] since its motion carries us with it, and all moves together and at once, and in one
direction. Eastwards we turn with our world, and naught we can do will change
our direction. Yet with regard to each other and to the places about us, we can
move freely and change our relative positions. I may go to the west of a person
or a place, though we are both whirling eastwards ceaselessly. And of the motion of a part with regard to a part I
shall be conscious, small and slow as it is, while of the vast swift whirling
that carries all parts eastwards and onwards ever, I shall be utterly
unconscious, and shall say in my ignorance: "Behold, I have moved
westwards". And the high Gods might laugh contemptuously at the ignorance
of the fragment that speaks of the direction of its motion, were it not that They, being wise, know of the movements within the motion,
and of the truth which is false and yet true.
And
yet again may we see how the great Will works onwards undeviatingly along the
path of evolution, and compels all to travel along that path, and still leaves
[418] to each to choose his method of going, and the fashion of his unconscious
working. For the carrying out of that Will needs every fashion of working and
every method of going, and takes up and utilises
all. A man shapes himself to a noble
character, and nourishes lofty aspirations, and seeks ever to do loyal and
faithful service to his fellows; then shall he be brought to birth where great
opportunities cry aloud for workers, and the Will shall be wrought out by him
in a nation that needs such helping, and he shall fill a hero's part. The part
is written by the great Author: the ability to fill it is of the man's own
making. Or a man yields to every temptation and
becomes apt to evil, and he uses ill such power as he has, and
disregards mercy, justice and truth in petty ways and in daily life; then shall
he be brought to birth where oppression is needed, and cruelty, and ill ways,
and the Will shall be wrought out by him also in a nation that is working out
the results of an evil past, and he shall be of the weaklings that tyrannise cruelly
and meanly and shame the nation that bears them. Again is the part written
[419] by the great Author, and the ability to fill it is of the man's own
making. So work the little Wills within the great Will.
Seeing, then, that the Will is determined by
motive, conditioned by the limits of the matter that enveils
the separated Self, and by the Self whereof the Self exercising the Will is part
- what mean we by the freedom of the Will? We mean, surely, that freedom is to
be determined from within, bondage is to be determined from without; the Will
is free, when the Self, willing to act, draws his motive for that volition from
sources that lie within himself, and has not the motive acting upon him from
sources outside.
And
truly this is freedom, for the greater Self in which he moves is one with him: "I am That"; and the
vaster Self in which moves that greater Self is one with that vaster, and says
also: "I am That"; and so on and on, in huger and huger sweeps, if
world-systems and universe-systems be
thought of; yet may the lowliest "I" that knows himself turn inwards
and not outwards, and know himself as one with the Inner Self, the [420] Pratyagatma, the One, and therefore truly free. Looking
outwards he is ever bound, though the limits of his bondage recede endlessly,
unlimitedly; looking inwards he is ever free, for he is BRAHMAN, the ETERNAL.
When
a man is Self-determined, then, we may say that the man is free, in every sense
in which the word freedom is valuable, and his Self-determination is not
bondage, in any harassing sense of that word. That which in my innermost Self I
will to do, that to which none other forces me, that bears the mark which
distinguishes between the free and the
bound. How far in us, in this sense of the word freedom, can we say that
our Will is free? For the most part, but few of us can claim
this freedom in any more than a small portion. Apart from the previously-mentioned
bondage to attractions and repulsions, we are bound within the channels made
by our past thinkings, by our habits - most of all by
our habits of thought -by the qualities and the absence of qualities brought
over from past lives, by the strengths and the [421] weaknesses that were born
with us, by our education and our surroundings, by the imperious compulsions of
our stage in evolution, our physical heredity, and our national and racial
traditions. Hence only a narrow path is left to us in which our Will can run;
it strikes itself ever against the past, which appears as walls in the present.
To
all intents and purposes the Will of us is not free. It is only in process
of becoming free, and it will only be
free when the Self has utterly mastered his vehicles and uses them for his own
purposes, when every vehicle is only a vehicle, completely responsive to his
every impulse, and not a struggling animal, ill-broken, with desires of its
own.[86] When the Self has transcended
ignorance, vanquishing the habits that are the marks of past ignorance, then
is the Self free, and then will be realised the
meaning of the [422] paradox, "in whose service is perfect freedom".
For then will it be realised that separation is not,
that the separated Will is not, that, by virtue of our inherent Divinity, our
Will is part of the Divine Will, and that it is which has given us throughout
our long evolution the strength to carry on that evolution, and that the realisation of the unity of Will is the realisation
of freedom.
Along
these lines of thought it is that some have found the ending of the age-long
controversy between the "freedom" of the Will and determinism, and,
while recognising the truth battled for by
determinism, have also preserved and justified the inherent feeling: "I am
free, I am not bound". That idea of spontaneous energy, of forth-going
power from the inner recesses of our being, is based on the very essence of
consciousness, on the "I" which is the Self, that Self which, because
divine, is free.
2.
WHY SO MUCH STRUGGLE?
As
we survey the long course of evolution, the slow process of the development
[423] of the Will, the question inevitably rises in the mind: "Why should
there be all this struggle and difficulty? Why should there be so many mistakes
and so many falls? Why this long bondage before freedom can be attained?"
Before replying to this, a general position must be laid down. In answering any
question, the limits of that question must be borne in mind, and the answer
must not be judged to be inadequate, because it does not answer another
question that is all the time present in the background. An answer to a
question may be adequate, without being a final answer to all questions; and
its adequacy is not rightly gauged if it be thrown aside as not answering a
further question which may be propounded. Half the dissatisfaction of many
students arises from a restless impatience that will not deal in any kind of
order with the questions that come thronging to the mind, but demands that they
should all be answered at once, and that the answer to one question should
cover all the others. The adequacy of means must be judged in relation to the
end which those means are [424] designed to bring about. In all cases the
answer must be judged by its relevancy to the question asked, and not by its not replying to some other allied question lying at the
back of the mind. Thus, the relevancy of any means found to exist in a
universe must be decided by an end found to be aimed at in that universe, and
they must not be judged as though offered as an answer to the further question:
"Why should there be any universe at all?" That question may indeed
be asked and answered, but the proof of the adequacy of a means in a universe to
an end, seen to be aimed at in that universe, will not be that answer. And it
is no evidence that the answer to the original question is inadequate, if the
questioner replies: "Yes, but why should there be a universe?" In
replying to the question: "Why should there be all these mistakes and
falls in treading the path of evolution?" we must take the universe as
existing, as a fact to start with, and must study it in order to discover the
end, or, at least, one of the ends, towards which it is tending. Why it should
tend thither-ward is, as said, [425] a further question, and one of profoundest
interest; but it is by the discovered end that we must judge the means employed
to reach it.
Even
a cursory study of the part of the universe in which we find ourselves shows us
that one at least of its ends - if not its end - is to produce living beings of
high intelligence and strong will, capable of taking an active part in carrying
on and guiding the activities of nature and of co-operating in the general
scheme of evolution. Further study, carried on by the unfolding of the inner
qualities and endorsed by ancient writings, shows us that this world is not
alone, but forms one of a series, that it has been aided in the evolution of
its humanity by men of elder growth, and is to yield men of its own growing for
the aiding of younger worlds in ages yet unborn. Moreover, it shows also a vast
hierarchy of superhuman beings, directing and guiding evolution, and as the
centre of the universe the threefold LOGOS, Ruler and Lord of His system; and
it tells that the fruitage of a system is not only a great hierarchy of mighty
[426] Intelligences, with ranks of ever-lessening splendour
stretching below them, but also this supreme perfection of a LOGOS, as the
crown of all. And it unveils vista after vista of increasing splendour, universes where each system is but as a world,
and so on and on, in ever-widening range of illimitable glorious fulness of life unending. And then the question rises:
"By what means shall be evolved these mighty Ones, who climb from the dust
to the stars, and from those stars that are the dust of vaster systems to the
stars that are to them as our mire to our sun?"
Thus
studied, imagination fails to find a path by which these self-poised,
self-determined Beings can reach that perfect equilibrium and steadfast
inerrancy of wisdom that fits them to be the "nature" of a system,
save just that path of struggle and of experience along which we strive today.
For could there be an extra-kosmic God, with nature
other than that of the Self we see unfolding around us in harmonious certainty
of linked sequence, with nature irregular and fitful, changing and arbitrary,
incalculable, then it might [427] be that out of that chaos might be flung up a
being called "perfect", but truly most imperfect, since most limited,
who, having no experience behind him, and therefore without reason and without
judgment, might, as a machine, act "rightly" in, i.e., in accordance
with, any given scheme of things, and grind out, as does a machine, the
sequence of movements arranged for it. But such a being would only fit his
scheme, and outside it would be useless, incompetent. Nor would there here be
life, which is the changing self-adaptation to changing conditions, without the
loss, the disintegration of its centre. By the troublous path along which we
are climbing, we are being prepared for all emergencies in the universes in the
future with which we may have to do, and that is a result well worth the trials
to which we are exposed.
Nor
must we forget that we are here because we have willed to unfold our powers
through the experiences of life on the lower planes; that our lot is
self-chosen, not imposed; that we are in the world as the result of our own
"Will to [428] Live"; that if that Will changed -though truly it is
not so changeful - we should cease to live here and return to the Peace,
without gathering the harvest for which we came. "None else compels."
3.
THE POWER OF THE WILL.
This
power - which has ever been recognised in Occultism
as the spiritual energy in man, one in kind with that which sends forth,
supports and calls in the worlds - is now being groped after in the outer
world, and is being almost unconsciously used by many as a means of bringing
about results otherwise unattainable. The schools of Christian Science, Mental
Science, Mind-Cure, etc., are all dependent for their results on the
out-flowing power of the Will. Diseases yield to that flow of energy, and not
only nervous disorders, as some imagine.
Nervous disorders yield the most readily, because the nervous system has
been shaped for the expression of spiritual powers on the physical plane. The
results are the most rapid where the sympathetic [429] system is first worked
upon, for that is the more directly related to the aspect of Will, in the form
of Desire, as the cerebro-spinal is more directly
related to the aspects of Cognition and of pure Will. The dispersion of tumours, cancers, etc., and the destruction of their
causes, the curing of lesions and bone-fractures, imply
for the most part considerable knowledge on the part of the healer. I say
"for the most part", because it is possible that the Will may be
guided from the higher plane even where physical plane knowledge is lacking, in
the case of an operator at an advanced stage of evolution. The method of cure,
where knowledge is present, would be as follows: the operator would form a
mental picture of the affected organ in a state of perfect health, creating
that part in mental stuff by the imagination: he would then build into it
astral matter, thus densifying the image, and would
then use the force of magnetism to densify it further
by etheric matter, building the denser materials of gases, liquids and solids
into this mould, utilising the materials available in
the body and supplying from outside any deficiencies. [430] In
all this the Will is the guiding energy, and such manipulation of matter is
merely a question of knowledge, whether on this or on the higher planes. There
is not the danger in cures wrought by this method, that accompanies those
wrought by an easier, and therefore commoner, system, by the working on the
sympathetic system alluded to above.
People
are advised, in some of the methods now popularised,
to concentrate their thoughts on the solar plexus, and to "live under its
control". The sympathetic system governs the vital processes - the
functioning of the heart, lungs, digestive apparatus - and the solar plexus
forms its most important centre. Now the carrying on of these vital processes
has, as before explained[87], passed under the control of the sympathetic
system in the course of evolution, as
the cerebro-spinal system has become more and more
dominant. And the reviving of the control of this system by the Will, by a
process of concentration of thought, is a retrograde and not a forward step,
even though it often brings [431] about a certain degree of clairvoyance. This
method, as already said, is much followed in
Moreover,
the concentration of thought on a centre of the sympathetic system, and, most
of all, on the solar plexus, means a serious physical danger, unless the learner
be under the physical observation of his teacher, or be able to receive and
bring through to the physical brain the instructions that may be given to him
on a higher [432] plane. Concentration on the solar plexus is apt to bring on
disease of a peculiarly intractable kind. It issues in a profound melancholy,
almost impossible to remove, in fits of terrible depression, and sometimes in a
form of paralysis. Not along these lines should travel the serious student,
intent on the knowledge of the Self. When that knowledge is obtained, the body
becomes the instrument on which the Self can play, and all that is needed
meanwhile is to purify and refine it, so that it may come into harmony with the
higher bodies, and be prepared to vibrate rhythmically with them. The brain
will thus be rendered more responsive, and by industrious thinking and the
action of meditation - not on the brain, but on lofty ideas - it will be
gradually improved. The brain becomes a better organ as it is exercised, and
this is on the road of evolution. But to work directly on the sympathetic
plexuses is on the road of retrogression. Many a one comes, asking for
deliverance from the results of these practices, and one can only sadly answer:
"To undo the mischief will take dears". Results may be gained quickly
[433] by going backwards, but it is better to face the upward climbing, and
then utilise the physical instrument from above, not
from below.
There
is another matter to be considered in healing diseases by Will - the danger of
driving the disease into a higher vehicle, in driving it out of the physical
body. Disease is often the final working out of evil that existed previously on
the higher planes, and it is then far better to let it thus work out than to
forcibly check it, and throw it back into the subtler vehicle. It is the last
working out of an evil desire or an evil thought, and in such a case the use of
physical means of cure is safer than the use of mental means, for the former
cannot cast it back into the higher planes, whereas the latter may do so.
Curative mesmerism does not run this danger, belonging as it does to the
physical plane; that may be used by any one whose life, thoughts and desires
are pure. But the moment Will forces are poured down into the physical, there is
a danger of reaction, and of the driving of the disease back into the subtler
vehicles from which it came forth. [434]
If
mental curing is done by the purification of thought and desire, and the
natural quiet working of the purified thoughts and desires on the physical
body, no harm can result; to restore physical harmony by making harmonious the
mental and astral vehicles is a true method of mental healing, but it is not as
rapid as the Will-cure and is far harder. Purity of mind means health of body;
and it is this idea - that where the mind is pure the body should be healthy -
that has led many to adopt these mental methods of healing.
A
person whose mind is perfectly pure and balanced will not generate fresh bodily
disease, though he may have some unexhausted karma to work off, or he may take
on himself some of the disharmonies caused by others. Purity and health truly
go together. When, as is and has been the case, some saint is found to be
suffering physically, then such a one is either working out the effect of bad
thinking in the past, or is bearing in himself something of the world's
disharmony, turning on to himself the forces of disharmony, harmonising
them within his own vehicles [435] and sending them forth again as currents of
peace and goodwill. Many have been puzzled by seeing that the greatest and the
purest suffer, both mentally and physically. They suffer for others, not for
themselves, and they are truly White Magicians, transmuting by spiritual
alchemy, in the crucible of their own suffering bodies, the base metals of
human passions into the pure gold of love and peace.
Apart
from the question of the ways of working on the body by the Will, another
question arises in the thoughtful mind: Is it well to use the Will in this
fashion for our own helping? Is there not certain degradation in using the
highest power of the Divine within us in the service of our body, to bring
about merely a good condition of physical health? Is it well that the Divine
should thus turn stones into bread, and so fall under the very temptation
resisted by the Christ? The story may be taken historically or mythically, it
matters not; it contains a profound spiritual truth, and an instance of
obedience to an occult law. Still remains true the answer of the [436] tempted:
"Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God". This ethic seems
to be on a higher plane than that which yokes the Divine to the service of the
physical body. One of the dangers of the present is the worship of the body,
the putting of the body on too high a pinnacle - a reaction from exaggerated
asceticism. By using the Will to serve the body, we make the Will its slave,
and the practice of continually removing little aches and pains by willing them
to go saps the higher quality of endurance. A person thus acting is apt to be
irritable under small physical discomforts which the Will cannot remove, and
the higher power of the Will, which can control the body and support it in its
work, even though it be suffering, is undermined. Hesitancy to use the power of
the Will for relief of one's body need not arise from any doubt as to the
soundness of the thought, the reality of the law, on which such action is
based; but from a fear that men may fall under the temptation of using that
which should lift them to realms spiritual as the minister of the [437]
physical, and may thus become slaves of the body, and be helpless when the body
fails them in the hour of need.
It
is an occult law, binding on every Initiate, that he may not use an occult
power for his own helping; if he do, he loses the
power to help others, and it is not worth while to forfeit the great for the
small. That already referred-to story of the temptation of the Christ has a
further-reaching significance than most understand. Had He used His occult
power to turn stones into bread for the relief of His hunger, instead of
waiting in patient strength for the food brought by the Shining Ones, He would
not later have been able to endure the mystic sacrifice of the Cross. The taunt
then flung at Him contained an occult truth: "He saved others; Himself He
cannot save". He could not use, to spare Himself one pang, the powers that
had opened the eyes of the blind and made the leper clean. Those who would save
themselves must give up the divine mission of being Saviours
of the world. They must choose between the one and the other as they evolve. If
in their [438] evolution they choose the lower, and use the great powers they
have won for the service of themselves and of the body, then must they give up
the higher mission of using them for the redemption of the race. There is such an immense activity of mind at
the present time that the need is all the greater for the employment of its
powers to the highest ends.
4.
WHITE AND BLACK MAGIC.
Magic
is the use of the Will to guide the powers of external nature, and is truly, as
its name implies, the great science. The human Will, being the power of the
Divine in man, can subjugate and control the inferior energies, and thus bring
about the results desired. The difference between White and Black Magic lies in
the motive which determines the Will; when that Will is set to benefit others,
to help and bless all who come within its scope, then is the man a White
Magician, and the results which he brings about by the exercise of his trained
Will are beneficial, and aid the course of human evolution. [439] He is ever
expanding by such exercise, becoming less and less separate from his kind, and
is a centre of far-reaching help. But when the Will is exercised for the
advantage of the lower self, when it is employed for personal ends and aims,
then is the man a Black Magician, a danger to the race, and his results
obstruct and delay human evolution. He is ever contracting by such exercise,
becoming more and more separate from his kind, shutting himself within a shell
which isolates him, and which grows ever thicker and denser with the exercise
of his trained powers. The Will of the Magician is ever strong, but the Will of
the White Magician is strong with the strength of life, flexible at need, rigid
at need, ever assimilating to the great Will, the Law of the universe. The Will
of the Black Magician has the strength of iron, pointing ever to the personal
end, and it strikes against the great Will, and sooner or later must shiver
itself into pieces against it. It is the peril of Black Magic against which the
student of occultism is guarded by the law which forbids him to use his occult
powers for [440] himself; for though no man is a Black Magician who does not
deliberately erect his personal Will against the great Law, it is well to recognise the essence of Black Magic, and to check the very
beginnings of evil. Just as it was said above that the saint harmonising the forces of disharmony within himself is
truly the White Magician, so is he the Black Magician who uses for his own gain
all the forces he has acquired by knowledge, turns them to the service of his
own separateness, and increases the disharmony of the world by his selfish graspings, while seeking to preserve harmony in his own
vehicles.
5.
ENTERING INTO PEACE.
When
the Self has grown so indifferent to the vehicles in which he dwells that their
vibrations can no longer affect him; when he can use them for any purpose; when
his vision has become perfectly clear; when the vehicles offer no opposition,
since the elemental life has left them, and only the life flowing from himself
animates them; then the Peace enfolds [441] him and the object of the long
struggle is attained. Such a one, Self-centred, no
longer confuses himself with his vehicles. They are instruments to work with,
tools to manipulate at his will. He has then realised
the peace of the Master, the one who is utterly master of his vehicles, and
therefore master of life and death. Capable of receiving into them the tumult
of the world and of reducing it to harmony; capable of feeling through them the
sufferings of others, but not sufferings of his own; he stands apart from,
beyond, all storms. Yet is he able ever to bend down into the storm to lift
another above it, without losing his own foothold on the rock of the Divine,
consciously recognised as himself.
Such are truly Masters, and Their peace may now and
then be felt, for a time at least, by those who are striving to tread the same
path, but who have not yet reached that same rock of the Self-conscious
Divine.
That
union of the separate Will with the one Will for the
helping of the world is the goal which seems to be more worthy of reaching
after than aught the world can [442] offer. Not to be separate from men, but
one with them; not to win peace and bliss alone, but to say with the Chinese
Blessed One: "Never will I enter into final peace alone, but always and
everywhere will I suffer and strive until all enter with me" - that is
the crown of humanity. In proportion as we can realise
that the suffering and the striving are the more efficacious as we suffer only
in the sufferings of others and feel not suffering for ourselves, we shall rise
into the Divine, shall tread the "razor path" that the Great Ones
have trodden, and shall find that the Will, which has guided us along that
path, and which has realised itself in the treading
of that path, is strong enough still to suffer and to strive, until the
suffering and the strife for all are over, and all together enter into Peace.
[443]
PEACE
TO ALL BEINGS.
--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1]
From the Pranava-vada, an unpublished Samskrit MS.
[2]
The student should carefully study Bhagavan Das' Science of Peace, in which the metaphysical questions
involved are expounded with rare acumen and felicity.
[3]
"Power, Wisdom, and Love" is another favourite
way of expressing this triplicity; but this leaves
out Activity, and duplicates Love, unless Love be taken as its equivalent,
since Love is essentially active. Wisdom and Love seem to me to be the same
aspect of consciousness; that which manifests above as Wisdom, the realisation of Unity, manifests in the world of forms as
Love, the attractive force which brings about Unity in a world of separated
beings.
[4]
Emerson.
[5]
It is well to remember here that this "drawing apart" is in
consciousness only; the idea of Spirit is separated from the idea of matter. In
the universe of phenomena, there is no Spirit unconditioned by matter, no
smallest particle of matter uninformed by Spirit. All forms are conscious; all
consciousness have forms.
[6]
Psalms, ii. 7.
[7]
Chhandogyopanishat. VI, ii.
3.
[8]
Light on the Path.
[9]
Romans. viii. 29.
[10]
Ibid. 19.
[11]
Bhagavad-Gita, x. 42.
[12]
The Secret Doctrine. i. 696.
[13]
Tamas, Rajas, and Satva.
[14]
The Secret Doctrine, i. 105.
[15]
Tanmatra, the measure of That
- "That" being the Divine Spirit.
[16]
Collectively, a Tattva.
[17]
Chit working on Kriya, i.e., Wisdom working on
Activity, yields Manas, mind.
[18]
Ichchha.
[19]
That relation is magnetic, but of magnetism of the subtlest kind, called Fohat, or Daiviprakriti,
"The Light of the Logos". It is of Substance, and in it the essence
of consciousness and essence of matter exist, polarised
but not drawn apart.
[20]
Hebrews, ii. 10.
[21]
Athanasian Creed.
[22]
I Corinthians, xv. 28.
[23]
Ibid. 43.
[24]
H. P. Blavatsky. Key to Theosophy. See p. 53. for the principle, though applied to a lower stage.
[25]
Occult Catechism, quoted in The Secret Doctrine, i.
145.
[26]
See The Pedigree of
[27]
The Secret Doctrine, i. 285.
[28]
"The fullest sense", i.e., with no separate individuality;
undetached, in truth, they ever remain above, ever shining in the Flame.
[29]
The Secret Doctrine, i. 267.
[30]
In the roaring loom of Time I ply,
And weave for God the garment thou seest Him by. GOETHE.
[31]
This assignment is tentative only. As matter is the feminine side, Sarasvati, belonging to Brahma, seems to indicate the jnanendriyas, and Durga the karmendriyas.
[32]
The Secret Doctrine, iii. P. 444.
[33]
The Pedigree of Man, Pp. 25, 27; slightly modified, as in the book the passage
refers to the fourth chain only.
[34]
The term Jivatma is of course equally applicable to
the Monad, but is more often applied to its reflexion.
[35]
By the Tanmatras, the divine Measures.
[36]
Loc. cit. ii. 18, 81, 95.
[37]
The translation of this descriptive term as "Gods" has led to much
misapprehension of Eastern thought. The "thirty-three crores
of Gods" are not Gods in the Western sense of the term, which is the
equivalent of the Universal SELF, and secondarily of the Logoi, but are Devas, Shining Ones.
[38]
See Evolution of Life and Form. Pp. 132, 133.
[39]
This term is used to denote various things, but always in the same sense, as
the thread connecting separate particles. It is applied to the re-incarnating
Ego, as the thread on which many separate lives are strung; to the Second
Logos, as the Thread on which the beings in His universe are strung; and so on.
It denotes a function, rather than a special entity, or class of entities.
[40]
There is no English name for this passage; it is a vessel, or canal, running
from the heart to the third ventricle, and will be familiar under the above
name to all students of yoga. The primary Sushumna is
the spinal canal.
[41]
See The Pedigree of
[42]
H. P. Blavatsky throws out a hint as to these "sleeping atoms". See
The Secret Doctrine. ii. 709.
[43]
H. P. Blavatsky calls the permanent nucleus of the lower 2 1/2 planes "the
life-atoms"; she says: "The life-atoms of our (prana) life-principle
are never entirely lost when a man dies"; they are "transmitted from
father to son". The Secret Doctrine. ii, 710.
[44]
The Secret Doctrine. i. 243, 244.
[45]
See Thought-Power, its Control and Culture. Pp. 59-62.
[46]
The Secret Doctrine, i. 281.
[47]
These details are taken from a paper given by Professor Bose at the Royal
Institution,
[48]
The Professor has not published this lecture, but the facts are in his book
Response in the Living and Non-Living. I had the good fortune to see the
experiments repeated at his own house, where one could watch them closely.
[49]
"Consciousness in Vegetable Matter".
[50]
The N-rays are due to vibrations in the etheric double, causing waves in the
surrounding ether. Chloroform expels the etheric double, and hence the waves
cease. At death, the etheric double leaves the body, and the rays consequently
can no longer be observed.
[51]
The term "lives" signifies Units of Consciousness, but does not
denote the kind of consciousness thus separated, nor
necessarily imply the presence of a Jivatma.
It means a cognisable "drop" from the ocean
of consciousness, an atom or collection of atoms ensouled
by consciousness, and acting as a unit. An atom is a "life", the
consciousness being that of the Third Logos. A microbe is a "life",
the consciousness being that of the Second Logos, appropriated and modified,
as before said, by the Planetary Logos, and the Spirit of the Earth.
[52]
The tanmatra and tattva of
the plane, with its six sub-tanmatras and sub-tattvas.
[53]
Loc. cit. i. 577.
[54]
Ibid. 579.
[55]
Ibid. 586.
[56]
Such as Schafer's "Histology" in Quain's
Anatomy, tenth edition. Halliburton's Handbook of Physiology.
1901.
[57]
Groups of nerve cells.
[58]
Nerve processes, or prolongations, or outgrowths, consisting of the matter of
the cell enclosed in a medullary sheath.
[59]
The Secret Doctrine. 285.
[60]
Bhagavad-Gita. xv. 7.
[61]
Ibid. xiii. 5.
[62]
Much on these states will be found in the writer's published lectures on
Theosophy and the New Psychology.
[63]
See Chapter IX., 1,
2, for the difference between consciousness and Self-consciousness; and Chapter
VI., 3, for the exposition of the physical consciousness, which must not be
confused with waking-consciousness.
[64]
The student will do well to read carefully Mr. C. W. Leadbeater's
useful book on Dreams.
[65]
The Secret Doctrine. iii, 479, 480.
[66]
Quoted in Prof. James's book, mentioned above, p. 19. For "mind" read
"brain".
[67]
Ibid. p. 25.
[68]
See Chapter VII. 1.
[69]
See Chapter iv. 4, 5.
[70]
See Chapter vii. 2.
[71]
The Science of Peace.
[72]
Chhandogyopanishat. VIII. xii.
I; 4, 5.
[73]
[74]
[75]
Bindopanishat. I.
[76]
Kathopanishat. vi. 15.
[77]
Brihadaranyakopanishat. IV. iv.
6.
[78]
Matt. v. 29, 30.
[79]
Light on the Path. 4.
[80]
Bhagavad-Gita. v. 22.
[81]
Bhagavad-Gita, ii. 59.
[82]
The Ego turns his attention inward during sleep, until he is able to use his
astral body independently; hence his control over it is weak.
[83]
' Bhagavad-Gita. ii. 59.
[84]
Rom, xiii. 10.
[85]
S. John.
[86]
This is only accomplished when the life of the Self informs the matter of his
vehicles, instead of the downward-striving elemental essence, i.e., when the
law of the Spirit of Life replaces the law of sin and death.
[87]
Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales
Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24 – 1DL
Searchable Full Text of A Study in Consciousness by Annie Besant