A FREE INTRO TO THEOSOPHY
The Seven Principles Of Man
By
Annie Besant
Published in 1909
Inquirers
attracted to Theosophy by its central doctrine of the brotherhood of man, and by
the hopes which it holds out of wider knowledge and of spiritual growth, are
apt to be repelled when they make their first attempt to come into closer
acquaintance with it, by the to them strange and puzzling names which flow
glibly from the lips of Theosophists in conference assembled.
They hear a
tangle of Âtma-Buddhi, Kâma-Manas, Triad, Devachan, and what not, and feel at once that for them Theosophy
is far too abstruse a study. Yet they might have become very good Theosophists,
had not their initial enthusiasm been
quenched with
the douche of Sanskrit terms. In the present manual the smoking flax shall be
more tenderly treated, and but few Sanskrit names shall be flung in the face of
the enquirer.
As a matter
of fact, the use of these terms has become general among Theosophists because
the English language has no equivalents for them, and a long and clumsy
sentence has to be used in their stead if the idea is to be conveyed at all.
The initial trouble of learning the names has been preferred to
the continued
trouble of using roundabout descriptive phrases – "Kâma," for
instance, being shorter and more precise than "the passional and emotional
part of our nature."
Man according
to the Theosophical teaching is a sevenfold being, or, in the usual phrase, has
a septenary constitution. Putting it in another way, man’s nature has seven
aspects, may be studied from seven different points of view, is composed of
seven principles. The clearest and best way of all in which to think of man is
to regard him as one, the Spirit or True Self ; this belongs to the highest
region of the universe, and is universal, the same for all ; it is a ray of
God, a spark from the divine fire. This is to become an individual, reflecting
the divine perfection, a son that grows into the likeness of his father.
For this
purpose the Spirit, or true Self, is clothed in garment after garment, each
garment belonging to a definite region of the universe, and enabling the Self
to come into contact with that region, gain knowledge of it, and work in it. It
thus gains experience, and all its latent potentialities are gradually drawn
out into active powers.
These
garments, or sheaths, are distinguishable from each other both theoretically
and practically.
If a man be
looked at clairvoyantly each is distinguishable by the eye, and they are
separable each from each either during physical life or at death, according to
the nature of any particular sheath. Whatever words may be used, the fact
remains the
same – that he is essentially sevenfold, an evolving being, part of whose
nature has already been manifested, part remaining latent at present, so far as
the vast majority of humankind is concerned. Man’s consciousness is able to
function through as many of these aspects as have been already evolved in him
into activity.
This
evolution, during the present cycle of human development, takes place on five
out of seven planes of nature. The two higher planes – the sixth and seventh –
will not be reached, save in the most exceptional cases, by men of this
humanity in the present cycle, and they may therefore be left out of sight for
our present purpose.
As, however,
some confusion has arisen as to the seven planes through differences of
nomenclature, two diagrams are given at the end of this treatise
showing the
seven planes as they exist in our division of the universe, in correspondence
with the vaster planes of the universe as a whole, and also the subdivision of
the five into seven, as they are represented in some of our literature.
A
"plane" is merely a condition, a stage, a state ; so that we might
describe man as fitted by his nature, when that nature is fully developed, to exist
consciously
in seven different conditions, or seven different stages, in seven different
states ; or technically, on seven different planes of being.
To take an
easily verified illustration: a man may be conscious on the physical plane,
that is, in his physical body, feeling hunger and thirst, and pain of a blow or
cut. But let the man be a soldier in the heat of battle, and his consciousness
will be centred in his passions and emotions, and he may suffer a
wound without
knowing it, his consciousness being away from the physical plane and acting on
the plane of passions and emotions: when the excitement is over, consciousness
will pass back to the physical, and he will "feel" the pain of his
wound.
Let the man
be a philosopher, and as he ponders over some knotty problem he will lose all
consciousness of bodily wants, of emotions, of love and hatred ; his
consciousness will have passed to the plane of intellect, he will be
"abstracted," i.e.., drawn away from considerations pertaining to his
bodily life, and fixed on the plane of thought.
Thus may a
man live on these several planes, in these several conditions, one part or
another of his nature being thrown into activity at any given time ; and an
understanding of what man is, of his nature, his powers, his possibilities,
will be reached more easily and assimilated more usefully if he is studied
along these clearly defined lines, that if he be left without analysis, a mere
confused bundle of qualities and states.
It has also
been found convenient, having regard to man’s mortal and immortal life, to put
these seven principles into two groups – one containing the three higher
principles and therefore called the Triad, the other containing the four lower,
and therefore called the Quaternary. The Triad is the deathless part of man’s
nature, the "spirit" and soul of Christian terminology ; the
Quaternary is
the mortal
part, the "body", of Christianity.
This division
into body, soul and spirit is used by
This
looseness is fatal to any clear view of the constitution of man, and the
Theosophist may well appeal to the Christian philosopher as against the causal
Christian non-thinker if it be urged that he is making distinctions difficult
to be grasped. No philosophy worthy of the name can be stated even in the most
elementary fashion without making some demand on the intelligence and the
attention of
the would be learner, and carefulness in the use of terms is a condition of all
knowledge.
PRINCIPLE I.
THE DENSE PHYSICAL BODY
The dense
physical body of man is called the first of his seven principles, as it is
certainly the most obvious. Built of material molecules, in the generally
accepted sense of the term –with its five organs of sensation - the five senses
-its organs of locomotion, its brain and nervous system, its apparatus for
carrying on the various functions necessary for its continued existence, there
is little to
be said about this physical body in so slight a sketch as this of the
constitution of man.
Western science
is almost ready to accept the Theosophical view that the human organism
consists of innumerable "lives," which build up the cells.
H
P Blavatsky says on this:
"Science has never yet gone so far as to assert with the Occult doctrine
that our bodies, as well as those of animals, plants, and stones, are
themselves altogether built up of such beings [bacteria, etc.]: which, with the
exception of the larger species, no microscope can detect ….
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 the 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 bodies of the
mountain and the daisy, of man and the ant, of the elephant and of the tree
which shelters him from the sun. Each particle – whether you call it organic or
inorganic –
is a life.
Every atom
and molecule in the universe is both life-giving and death-giving to such forms
(Secret Doctrine, vol. I, p. 281, new edition). The microbes thus "build
up the material body and its cells," under the constructive energy of
vitality – a phrase that will be explained when we come to deal with
"life," as the Third Principle, and with these microbes as part of
it. When the "life" is no longer supplied the microbes "are left
to run riot as destructive agents," and they break up and disintegrate the
cells which they built, and so the body goes to pieces.
The purely
physical consciousness is the consciousness of the cells and the molecules. The
selective action of the cells, taking from the blood what they need, rejecting
what they do not need, is an instance of this self consciousness. The process
goes on without the help of our consciousness or
volition.
Again that which is called by physiologists unconscious memory is the memory of
the physical consciousness, unconscious to us indeed, until we have learned to
transfer our brain consciousness there.
What we feel
is not what the cells feel. The pain of a wound is felt by the
brain-consciousness, acting, as before said, on the physical plane ; but the
consciousness
of the molecule, as of the aggregation of molecules we call cells, leads it to
hurry to the repair of the damaged tissues – actions of which the brain is
unconscious – and its memory makes it repeat the same act again and again, even
when it has become unnecessary.
Hence
cicatrices on wounds, scars, callosities, etc. The student may find many
details on this subject in physiological treatises. The death of the dense
physical body
occurs when the withdrawal of the controlling life-energy leaves the microbes
to go their own way, and the many lives, no longer co-ordinated, separate from
each other and scatter the particles of the cells of "the man of
dust," and what we call decay sets in.
The body
becomes a whirlpool of unrestrained, unregulated lives, and its form, which
resulted from their correlation, is destroyed by their exuberant individual
energy. Death is but an aspect of life, and the destruction of one material
form is but a prelude to building up of another.
PRINCIPLE II.
THE ETHERIC DOUBLE
The Linga
Sharira , the astral body, the ethereal body, the fluidic body, the double, the
wraith, the doppelganger, the astral man – such are a few of the many names
which have been given to the second principle in man’s constitution.
The best name
is the Etheric Double, because this term designates the second principle only,
suggesting its constitution and appearance: whereas the other names have been
used somewhat generally to describe bodies formed of some more
subtle matter
than that which affects our physical senses, without regard to the question
whether other principles were or were not involved in their
construction.
I shall therefore use this name throughout.
The etheric
double is formed of matter rarer or more subtle than that which is perceptible
to our five senses, but still matter belonging to the physical plane, to which
its functioning is confined.
It is the
state of physical matter which is just beyond our "solid , liquid and
gas," which form the dense portions of the physical plane.
This etheric
double is the exact double or counterpart of the dense physical body to which
it belongs, and is separable from it, although unable to go very far away
therefrom.
In normal healthy
human beings the separation is a matter of difficulty, but in persons known as
physical or materialising mediums, the ethereal double slips out without any
great effort. When separated from the dense body it is visible to the
clairvoyant as an exact replica thereof, united
to it by a
slender thread.
So close is
the physical union between the two that an injury inflicted on the etheric
double appears as a lesion on the dense body, a fact known under the
name of
repercussion. A. d’Assier, in his well known work – translated by Colonel
Olcott, the President-Founder of the Theosophical Society, under the title of
Posthumous Humanity – gives a number of cases (see p. 51-57) in which this
repercussion took place.
Separation of
the etheric double from the dense body is generally accompanied by a
considerable decrease in vitality in the latter, the double becoming more
vitalised as the energy in the dense body diminishes. Colonel Olcott says;
" When
the double is projected by a trained expert, even the body seems torpid, and
the mind in a ‘brown study’ or dazed state ; the eyes are lifeless in
expression, the heart and lung actions feeble, and often the temperature much
lowered. It is very dangerous to make any sudden noise or burst into the room,
under such circumstances ; for the double, being by instantaneous reaction
drawn
back into the
body, the heart convulsively contracts, and death may even be caused."
In the case
of Emilie Sagée, the girl was noticed to look pale and exhausted when the double
was visible:
"the
more distinct the double and more material in appearance,, the really material
person was effectively wearied, suffering and languid ; when on the contrary,
the appearance of the
double
weakened, the patient was seen to recover strength."
This
phenomenon is perfectly intelligible to the Theosophical student, who knows
that the etheric double is the vehicle of the life-principle, or vitality, in
the physical body, and that its partial withdrawal must therefore diminish the
energy, with
which this principle plays on the denser molecules.
Clairvoyants,
such as the Seeress of Prevorst, state that they can see the ethereal arm or
leg attached to a body from which the dense limb has been
amputated,
and D’Assier remarks on this:- "whilst
I was
absorbed in physiological studies, I was often arrested by a singular fact. It
sometimes happens that a person who has lost an arm or leg experiences certain
sensations at the extremities of the fingers and toes. Physiologists explain
this anomaly by postulating in the patient an inversion of sensitiveness or of
recollection, which makes him locate in the hand or the foot the sensation with
which the nerve of the stump is alone affected …I confess that these
explanations seemed
to me
laboured and have never satisfied me.
When I
studied the problem of the duplication of man, the question of amputations
recurred to my mind, and I asked myself if it was not more simple and logical
to attribute the anomaly of which I
have spoken
to the doubling of the human body, which by its fluid nature can escape
amputation".
The etheric
double plays a great part in spiritualistic phenomena. Here again the
clairvoyant can help us. A clairvoyant can see the etheric double oozing out of
the left side of the medium, and it is this which often appears as the
"materialised
spirit," easily moulded into various shapes by the thought-currents of the
sitters, and gaining strength and vitality as the medium
sinks into a
deep trance.
The Countess
Wachtmeister, who is clairvoyant, says she has seen the same "spirit"
recognised as that of a near relative or friend by different sitters, each of
whom saw it according to his expectations, while to her own eyes it was the
mere double of the medium.
So again, H
P Blavatsky told me that
when she was at the Eddy homestead, watching the remarkable series of phenomena
there produced, she deliberately moulded the "spirit" that appeared
into the likenesses of persons known to herself and to no one else present, and
the other sitters saw the types which she produced by her own willpower,
moulding the plastic matter of the medium’s
double.
Many of the
movements of objects that occur at such séances, and at other times, without
visible contact, are due to the action of the etheric double, and the student
can learn how to produce such phenomena at will. They are trivial enough: the
mere putting out of the etheric hand is no more important than the putting out
of the dense counterpart, and neither more or less miraculous.
Some persons
produce such phenomena unconsciously, mere aimless overturnings of
objects,
making of noises, and so on: they have no control over their etheric double,
and it just blunders about in their near neighbourhood, like a baby trying to
walk.
For the
etheric double, like the dense body, has only a diffused consciousness
belonging to its parts, and has no mentality. Nor does it readily serve as a
medium of
mentality, when disjoined from the dense counterpart.
This leads to
and interesting point. The centres of sensation are located in the fourth
principle, which may be said to form a bridge between the physical organs and
the mental perceptions ; impressions from the physical universe impinge on the
material molecules of the dense physical body, setting in vibration the
constituent cells of the organs of sensations, or our "senses".
These
vibrations, in their turn, set in motion the finer material molecules of the
etheric double, in the corresponding sense organs of its finer matter.
From these
vibrations pass to the astral body, or fourth principle, presently to be
considered, wherein are the corresponding centres of sensation.
From these
vibrations are again propagated into the yet rarer matter of the lower mental
plane, whence they are reflected back until, reaching the material molecules of
the cerebral hemispheres, they become our "brain consciousness."
This
correlated and unconscious succession is necessary for the normal action of
consciousness as we know it.
In sleep and
in trance, natural or induced, the first two and the last stages are generally
omitted, and the impressions start from and return to the astral
plane, and
thus make no trace on the brain memory ; but the natural or trained psychic,
the clairvoyant who does not need trance for the exercise of his powers, is
able to transfer his consciousness from the physical to the astral
plane without
losing grip thereof, and can impress the brain-memory with knowledge gained on
the astral plane, so retaining it for use.
Death means
for the etheric double just what it means for the dense physical body, the
breaking up of its constituent parts, the dissipation of its
molecules. The
vehicle of the vitality that animates the bodily organism as a whole, it oozes
forth from the body when the death hour comes, and is seen by
the
clairvoyant as a violet light, or violet form, hovering over the dying person,
still attached to the physical body by the slender thread before spoken
of. When the
thread snaps, the last breath has quivered outwards, and the bystanders whisper
"He is dead."
The etheric
double, being of physical matter, remains in the neighbourhood of the corpse,
and is the "wraith," or "apparition," or
"phantom," sometimes seen at the moment of death and afterwards by
persons near the place where the death has occurred.
It
disintegrates slowly pari passu with its dense counterpart, and its remnants
are seen by sensitives in cemeteries and churchyards as violet lights hovering
over graves.
Here is one
of the reasons which render cremation preferable to burial as a mode of
disposing of the physical enveloped of man ; the fire dissipates in a few hours
the molecules which would otherwise be set free only in the slow course of
gradual putrefaction, and thus quickly restores to their own plane the dense
and etheric materials, ready for use once more in the building up of new forms.
PRINCIPLE
III. PRÂNA, THE LIFE
All universes,
all worlds, all men, all brutes, all vegetables, all minerals, all molecules
and atoms, all that is, are plunged in a great ocean of life, life eternal,
life infinite, life incapable of increase or diminution. The universe is only
life in manifestation, life made objective, life differentiated.
Now each
organism, whether minute as a molecule or vast as a universe, may be thought of
as appropriating to itself somewhat of life, of embodying, in itself as its own
life some of this universal life.
Figure a
living sponge, stretching itself out in the water which bathes it, envelops it,
permeates it ; there is water, still the ocean, circulating in
every
passage, filling every pore ; but we may think of the ocean outside the sponge,
or of part of the ocean, appropriated by the sponge, distinguishing them in
thought if we want to make statements about each severally.
So each
organism is a sponge bathed in the ocean of life universal, and containing
within itself some of that ocean as its own breath of life.
In Theosophy
we distinguish this appropriated life under the name Prâna, breath, and call it
the third principle in man’s constitution. To speak quite
accurately,
the "breath of life" – that which the Hebrews termed Nephesh, or the
breath of life breathed into the nostrils of Adam – is not Prâna only, but
Prâna and the fourth principle conjoined. It is these two together that make
the "vital spark" (Secret Doctrine, vol. i., p. 262), and that are
the "breath of life in man, as in beast or insect, or physical, material
life"
It is
"the breath of animal life in man – the breath of life instinctual in the
animal". But just now we are concerned with Prâna only, with vitality as
the animating principle in all animal and human bodies. Of this life the etheric
double is the vehicle, acting, so to say, as means of communication, as bridge,
between Prâna and the dense body.
Prâna is
explained in the Secret Doctrine as having for its lowest subdivision the
microbes of science ; these are the "invisible lives" that build up
the
physical
cells (se ante, p. 8,9) ; these are the "countless myriads of lives"
that build the "tabernacle of clay," the physical bodies (Secret
Doctrine vol. I, p. 245). "Science, dimly perceiving the truth, may find
bacteria and other infinitesimals in the human body, and see in them only,
occasional and abnormal visitors to which diseases are attributed.
Occultism –
which discerns a life in every atom and molecule, whether in a mineral or human
body, in air, fire, or water – affirms that our whole body is
built of such
lives; the smallest bacterium under the microscope being to them a comparative
size like an elephant to the tiniest infusoria. The"fiery lives" are
the controllers and directors of these microbes, these invisible lives, and
"indirectly" build, i.e.., build by controlling and directing the
microbes, the immediate builders, supplying the latter with what is necessary,
acting as the life of these lives; the "fiery lives" the synthesis,
the essence, of Prâna, are the "vital constructive energy" that
enables the microbes to build the physical cells.
One of the
archaic commentaries sums up the matter in stately and luminous phrases:
"The worlds, the profane, are built up of the known elements. To the
conception of an Arhat, these elements are themselves collectively a divine
life
;
distributively, on the plane of manifestations, the numberless and countless
crores – ( a crore is ten millions) – of lives.
Fire alone is
ONE, on the plane of the One Reality ; on that of manifested, hence illusive,
being, its particles are fiery lives which live and have their
being at the
expense of every other life that they consume. Therefore they are named the
Devourers….Every visible thing in this universe was built by such lives, from
conscious and divine primordial man, down to the unconscious agents
that
construct matter…..From the One Life, formless and uncreate, proceeds the
universe of lives (Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, page 269).
As in the
universe, so in man, and all these countless lives, all this constructive
vitality, all this is summed up by the Theosophist as Prâna .
PRINCIPLE IV.
THE DESIRE BODY
In building
up our man we have now reached the principle sometimes described as the animal
soul, in Theosophical parlance Kâma Rûpa, or the desire-body. It belongs to in
constitution, and functions on, the second or astral plane. It
includes the
whole body of appetites, passions, emotions, and desires which come under the
head of instincts, sensations, feelings and emotions, in our Western
psychological classification, and are dealt with as a subdivision of mind.
In Western
psychology mind is divided – by the modern school – into three main groups,
feelings, will, intellect. Feelings are again divided into sensations and emotions
, and these are divided and subdivided under numerous heads. Kâma,
or desire,
includes the whole group of "feelings," and might be described as our
passional and emotional nature.
All animal
needs, such as hunger, thirst, sexual desire, come under it; all passions, such
as love (in its lower sense), hatred, envy, jealousy. It is the
desire for
sentient experience, for experience of material joys – "the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life".
This
principle is the most material in our nature, it is the one that binds us fast
to earthly life. "It is not molecularly constituted matter, least of all
the human
body, Sthula Sharira, that is the grossest of all our ‘principles’ but verily
the middle principle, the real animal centre ; whereas our body is but its
shell, the irresponsible factor and medium through which the beast in us acts
all its life" ( Secret Doctrine, vol. I, p. 280-81).
United to the
lower part of Manas, the mind, as Kâma-Manas, it becomes the normal human brain-intelligence,
and that aspect of it will be dealt with
presently.
Considered by itself, it remains the brute in us, the "ape and tiger"
of Tennyson, the force which most avails to keep us bound to earth and to
stifle in us all higher longings by the illusions of sense.
Kâma joined
to Prâna is, as we have seen, the "breath of life," the vital
sentient principle spread over every particle of the body. It is, therefore,
the
seat of sensation,
that which enables the organs of sensation to function. We have already noted
that the physical organs of sense, the bodily instruments
that come
into immediate contact with the external world, are related to the organs of
sensation in the etheric double.
But these
organs would be incapable of functioning did not Prâna make them vibrant with
activity, and their vibrations would remain vibrations only, motion on the
material plane of the physical body, did not Kâma, the principle of sensation
translate the vibration into feeling. Feeling indeed, is consciousness on the
kâmic plane, and when a man is under the domination of a sensation or a
passion, the
Theosophist speaks of him as on the kâmic plane, meaning thereby that his
consciousness is functioning on that plane.
For instance,
a tree may reflect rays of light, that is ethereal vibrations, and these
vibrations striking on the outer eye will set up vibrations in the
physical
nerve-cells ; these will be propagated as vibrations to the physical and on to
the astral centres, but there is no sight of the tree until the seat of the
sensation is reached, and Kâma enables us to perceive.
Matter of the
astral plane – including that called elemental essence – is the material of
which the desire-body is composed, and it is the peculiar properties of this
matter which enable it to serve as the sheath in which the Self can gain
experience of sensation. (The constitution of the elemental essence would lead
us too far from an elementary treatise).
The desire –
body, or astral body, as it is often called, has the form of a mere cloudy mass
during the earlier stages of evolution, and is incapable of serving as an
independent vehicle of consciousness.
During deep
sleep it escapes from the physical body, but remains near it, and the mind
within it is almost as much asleep as the body. It is, however, liable to be
affected by forces of the astral plane akin to its own constitution, and gives
rise to dreams of a sensuous kind.
In a man of
average intellectual development the desire-body has become more highly
organised, and when separated from the physical body is seen to resemble it is
outline and features ; even then, however, it is not conscious of its
surroundings on the astral plane, but encloses the mind as a shell, within
which the mind may actively function, while not yet able to use it as an
independent vehicle of consciousness.
Only in the
highly evolved man does the desire-body become thoroughly organised and
vitalised, as much the vehicle of consciousness on the astral plane as the
physical body is on the physical plane.
After death,
the higher part of man dwells for awhile in the desire-body, the length of its
stay depending on the comparative grossness or delicacy of its constituents.
When the man escapes from it, it persists for a time as a "shell" and
when the departed entity is of a low type, and during earth life infused such
mentality as it possessed into the passional nature, some of this remains
entangled
with the shell.
It then possesses
consciousness of a very low order, has brute cunning, is without conscience –
an altogether objectionable entity, often spoken of as a
"spook."
It strays about, attracted to all places in which animal desires are encouraged
and satisfied, and is drawn into the currents of those whose animal passions
are strong and unbridled.
Mediums of
low type inevitably attract these eminently undesirable visitors, whose fading
vitality is reinforced in their séance rooms, who catch astral reflections, and
play the part of "disembodied spirits" of a low order. Nor is
this all; if
at such a séance there be present some man or woman of correspondingly low
development, the spook will be attracted to that person, and may attach itself
to him or to her, and thus may be set up currents between the
desire-body
of the living person and the dying desire-body of the dead person, generating
results of the most deplorable kind.
The longer or
shorter persistence of the desire-body as a shell or a spook depends on the greater
or less development of the animal and passional nature in the dying
personality. If during earth-life the animal nature was indulged and allowed to
run riot, if the intellectual and spiritual parts of man were neglected or
stifled, then, as the life-currents were set strongly in the direction of
passion, the desire-body will persist for a long period after the
body of the
person is dead.
Or again, if
earth-life has been suddenly cut short by accident or by suicide, the link
between Kâma and Prâna will not be easily broken, and the desire-body will be
strongly vivified. If, on the other hand, desire has been conquered and
bridled
during earth-life, if it has been purified and trained into subservience to
man’s higher nature, then there is but little to energise the desire-body and
it will quickly disintegrate and dissolve away.
There remains
one other fate, terrible in its possibilities, which may befall the fourth
principle, but it cannot be clearly understood until the fifth
principle has
been dealt with.
THE
QUATERNARY, OR FOUR LOWER PRINCIPLES
The etheric
double is here named the Linga Sharira, a name now discarded in consequence of
the confusion caused by employing a well-known term in Hindu Philosophy in an
entirely new sense.
Before her
departure H.P.B. urged her pupils to reform the terminology, which had been too
carelessly put together, and we are trying to carry out her wish.]
We have thus
studied man, as to his lower nature, and have reached the point in his path of
evolution to which he is accompanied by the brute. The quaternary, regarded
alone, ere it is affected by contact with the mind, is merely a lower animal ;
it awaits the coming of the mind to make it man.
Theosophy
teaches that through past ages man was thus slowly built up, stage by stage,
principle by principle, until he stood as a quaternary, brooded over but not in
contact with the Spirit, waiting for that mind which could alone enable him to
progress farther, and to come into conscious union with the Spirit, so fulfilling
the very object of his being.
This æonian
evolution, in its slow progression, is hurried through in the personal
evolution of each human being, each principle which was in the course of ages
successively evolved in man on earth, appearing as part of the constitution of
each man at the point of evolution reached at any given time, the remaining
principles being latent, awaiting their gradual manifestation.
The evolution
of the quaternary until it reached the point at which further progress was impossible
without mind, is told in eloquent sentences in the
archaic
stanzas on which the Secret Doctrine of H
P Blavatsky is based
(breath is, theSpirit, for which the human tabernacle is to be built ; the
gross body is the dense physical body ; the spirit of life is Prâna ; the
mirror of its body is the etheric double ; the vehicle of desires is Kâma): -
" The
Breath needed a form ; the Fathers gave it. The Breath needed a gross body ;
the Earth moulded it ; The Breath needed the Spirit of Life ; the Solar Lhas
breathed into it its form. The Breath needed a Mirror of its Body; ‘We gave it
our own,’
said the Dhyânis. The Breath needed a Vehicle of Desires ; ‘It has it,’ said
the Drainer of Waters. But Breath needs a Mind to embrace the
Universe; ‘We
cannot give that, ‘said the fathers, ‘I never had it, ‘ said the Spirit of the
Earth. ‘The form would be consumed were I to give it mine,’ said the Great Fire
….Man remained an empty senseless Bhûta" (phantom).
And so is the
personal man without mind. The quaternary alone is not man, the Thinker, and it
is as Thinker that man is really man. Yet at this point let the student pause,
and reflect over the human constitution, so far as he has gone.
For this
quaternary is the mortal part of man, and is distinguished by Theosophy as the
personality. It needs to be very clearly and definitely realised, if the
constitution of man is to be understood, and if the student is to read more
advanced treatises with intelligence.
True, to make
the personality human it has yet to come under the rays of mind, and to be
illuminated by it as the world by the rays of the sun. But even
without these
rays it is a clearly defined entity, with its dense body, its etheric double,
its life, and its desire body or animal soul. It has passions,
but no reason
; it has emotions, but no intellect ; it has desires, but no rationalised will
; it awaits the coming of its monarch, the mind, the touch
which shall
transform it into man.
PRINCIPLE V.
MANAS, THE THINKER, OR MIND
We have
reached the most complicated part of our study, and some thought and attention
are necessary from the reader to gain even an elementary idea of the relation
held by the fifth principle to the other principles in man.
The word
Manas comes from the Sanskrit word – man, the root of the verb to think ; it is
the Thinker in us, spoken of vaguely in the West as mind. I will ask the reader
to regard Manas as Thinker rather than as mind, because the word Thinker
suggests some one who thinks, i.e., an individual, an entity.
And this is
exactly the Theosophical idea of Manas, for Manas is the immortal individual,
the real " I ," that clothes itself over and over again in transient
personalities, and itself endures for ever.
It is
described in the Voice of the Silence in the exhortation addressed to the
candidate for initiation: "Have perseverance as one who doth for evermore
endure. Thy shadows [personalities] live and vanish ; that which in thee shall
live for ever, that which in thee knows, for it is knowledge, is not of
fleeting life; it is the man that was, that is, and will be, for whom the hour
shall never strike".
H
P Blavatsky has described it very clearly in The Key to Theosophy:
"Try to imagine a ‘Spirit,’ a celestial being, whether we call it by one
name or another, divine in its essential nature, yet not pure enough to be one
with the ALL, and having, in order to achieve this, to so purify its nature as
finally to gain that goal.
It can do so
only be passing individually and personally, i.e., spiritually and physically, through
every experience and feeling that exists in the manifold or differentiated
universe. It has, therefore, after having gained such experience
in the lower
kingdoms, and having ascended higher and still higher with every rung on the
ladder of being, to pass through every experience on the human planes.
In its very
essence it is Thought, and is, therefore, called in its plurality Manasaputra,
‘the Sons of (universal) Mind.’ This individualised ‘Thought’ is
what we Theosophists call the real human Ego,
the thinking entity imprisoned in a case of flesh and bones. This is surely a
spiritual entity, not matter (that is, not matter as we know it, on the plane
of the objective universe) – and such entities are the incarnating Egos that
inform the bundle of animal matter called mankind, and whose names are Manasa
or minds" (The Key to Theosophy
, p.
183-184). This idea may be rendered yet clearer perhaps by a hurried glance
cast backward over man’s evolution in the past. When the quaternary had been
slowly built up, it was a fair house without a tenant, and stood empty awaiting
the coming of the one who was to dwell therein.
The name
Mânasaputra (the sons of mind) covers many grades of intelligence, ranging from
the mighty "Sons of the Flame" whose human evolution lies far behind
them, down to those entities who gained individualisation in the cycle
preceding our
own, and were ready to incarnate on this earth in order to accomplish their
human stage of evolution.
Some
superhuman intelligences incarnated as guides and teachers of our infant
humanity, and became founders and divine rulers of the ancient civilisations.
Large numbers
of the entities spoken of above, who had already evolved some mental faculties,
took up their abode in the human quaternary, in the mindless men. These are the
reincarnating Mânasaputra, who became the tenants of the
human frames
as then evolved on earth, and these same Mânasaputra, reincarnating age after
age, are the Reincarnating Egos, the Manas in us, the persistent individual,
the fifth principle in man.
The remainder
of mankind through successive ages received from the loftier Mânasaputra their
first spark of mind, a ray which stimulated into growth the germ of mind latent
within them, the human soul thus having its birth in time there. It is these
differences of age, as we may call them, in the beginning of the individual
life, of the specialisation of the eternal Divine Spirit into a
human soul,
which explain the enormous differences in mental capacity found in
our present
humanity.
The
multiplicity of names given to this fifth principle has probably tended to
increase the confusion surrounding it in the minds of many who are beginning to
study Theosophy.
Mânasaputra
is what we call the historical name, the name that suggests the entrance into
humanity of a class of already individualised souls at a certain point of
evolution ; Manas is the ordinary name, descriptive of the intellectual nature
of the principle ; the Individual or the " I ," or Ego, recalls the
fact that this principle is permanent, does not die, is the individualising
principle, separating itself in thought from all that is not itself, the
Subject in Western terminology as opposed to the Object ; the Higher Ego puts
it into
contrast with
the Personal Ego, of which something is to be presently said .
The
Reincarnating Ego lays stress on the fact that it is the principle that
reincarnates continually, and so unites in its own experience all the lives
passed
through on earth. There are various other names, but they will not be met with
in elementary treatises.
The above are
those most often encountered, and there is no real difficulty about them, but
when they are used interchangeably, without explanation, the unhappy student is
apt to tear his hair in anguish, wondering how many principles he has got hold
of, and what relation they bear to each other.
We must now
consider Manas during a single incarnation, which will serve as the type of
all, and we will start when the Ego has been drawn – by causes set a-going in
previous earth-lives – the family in which is to be born the human being who is
to serve as its next tabernacle. (I do not deal here with reincarnation, since
that great and most essential doctrine of Theosophy must be
expounded
separately).
The Thinker,
then, awaits the building of the "house of life" which he is to
occupy ; and now arises a difficulty ; himself a spiritual entity living on the
mental or third plane upwards, a plane far higher than that of the universe, he
cannot influence the molecules of gross matter of which his dwelling is built
by the direct play upon them of his own most subtle particles.
So, he
projects part of his own substance, which clothes itself with astral matter,
and then with the help of etheric matter permeates the whole nervous
system of the
yet unborn child, to form, as the physical apparatus matures, the thinking
principle in man. This projection from Manas, spoken of as its reflection, its
shadow, its ray, and by many another descriptive and allegorical name, is the
lower Manas, in contradistinction to the higher Manas – Manas, during every
period of incarnation, being dual.
On this, H
P Blavatsky says:
"Once imprisoned, or incarnate, their (the Manas) essence becomes dual;
that is to say the rays of the eternal divine Mind,
considered as
individual entities, assume a twofold attribute which is
(a) their
essential, inherent, characteristic, heaven-aspiring mind (higher Manas), and
(b) the human quality of thinking, or
animal cogitation, rationalised owing to the superiority of the human brain,
the Kâma-tending or lower Manas" (The Key to Theosophy,
p. 184).
We must now
turn our attention to this lower Manas alone, and see the part which it plays
in the human constitution.
It is
engulfed in the quaternary, and we may regard it as clasping Kâma with one
hand, while with the other it retains its hold on its father, the higher Manas.
Whether it
will be dragged down by Kâma altogether and be torn away from the triad to
which by its nature it belongs, or whether it will triumphantly carry back to
its source the purified experiences of its earth-life – that is the
life-problem set and solved in each successive incarnation.
During
earth-life, Kâma and the lower Manas are joined together, and are often spoken
of conveniently as Kâma-Manas. Kâma supplies, as we have seen, the animal and
passional elements ; the lower Manas rationalises these, and adds the
intellectual
faculties ; and so we have the brain-mind, the brain-intelligence, i.e..,
Kâma-Manas functioning in the brain and nervous system, using the physical
apparatus as its organ on the material plane.
In man these
two principles are interwoven during life, and rarely act separately, but the
student must realise that "Kâma-Manas " is not a new principle, but
the interweaving of the fourth with the lower part of the fifth.
As with a
flame we may light a wick, and the colour of the flame of the burning wick will
depend on the nature of the wick and of the liquid in which it is
soaked, so in
each human being the flame of Manas set alight the brain and Kâmic wick, and
the colour of the light from that wick will depend on the Kâmic nature and the
development of the brain-apparatus. If the Kâmic nature be strong and
undisciplined it will soil the pure manasic
light,
lending it a lurid tinge and fouling it with noisome smoke. If the
brain-apparatus be imperfect or undeveloped, it will dull the light and prevent
it from shining forth to the outer world.
As was clearly
stated by H
P Blavatsky in her
article on "Genius" ; "What we call ‘the manifestations of
genius’ in a person are only the more or less successful efforts of that Ego to
assert itself on the outward plane of its objective form – the man of clay – in
the matter-of-fact daily life of the latter.
The Egos of a
Newton, an Æschylus, or a Shakespeare are of the same essence and
substance as
the Egos of a yokel, an ignoramus, a fool, or even an idiot ; and the
self-assertion of their informing genii depends on the physiological and
material construction of the physical man.
No Ego
differs from another Ego in its primordial or original essence and nature. That
which makes one mortal a great man and of another a vulgar silly person is, as
said, the quality and make-up of the physical shell or casing, and the adequacy
or inadequacy of brain and body to transmit and give expression to the light of
the real inner man ; and this aptness or inaptness is, in its turn, the
result of
Karma.
Or, to use
another simile, physical man is the musical instrument, and the Ego the
performing artist. The potentiality of perfect melody of sound is in the former
– the instrument – and no skill of the latter can awaken a faultless harmony
out of a broken or badly made instrument.
This harmony
depends on the fidelity of transmission, by word and act, to the objective
plane, of the unspoken divine thought in the very depths of man’s subjective or
inner nature.
Physical man
may – to follow our simile – be a
priceless
Stradivarius, or a cheap and cracked fiddle, or again a mediocrity between the
two, in the hands of the Paganini who ensouls him" (Lucifer November, 1889,
p.228).
Bearing in
mind these limitations and idiosyncrasies ([Limitations and idiosyncrasies due
to the action of the Ego in previous earth-lives, be it remembered ] imposed on
the manifestations of the thinking principle by the organ through which it has
to function, we shall have little difficulty in
following the
workings of the lower Manas in man ; mental ability, intellectual strength,
acuteness, subtlety – all these are its manifestations ; these may reach as far
as what is often called genius, what H
P Blavatsky speaks of as
"artificial genius, the outcome of culture and of purely intellectual
acuteness."
Its nature is often demonstrated by the presence of Kâmic elements in it, of passion,
vanity and arrogance.
The higher
Manas can but rarely manifest itself at the present stage of human evolution.
Occasionally a flash from those loftier regions lightens the twilight in which
we dwell, and such flashes alone are what the Theosophist calls true genius ;
"Behold in every manifestation of genius, when combined with virtue, the
undeniable presence of the celestial exile, the divine Ego whose jailer thou
art, O man of
matter."
For theosophy
teaches "that the presence in man of various creative powers" –
called genius in their collectivity – is due to no blind chance, to no innate
qualities
through hereditary tendencies – though that which is known as atavism may often
intensify these faculties – but to an accumulation of individual antecedent
experiences of the Ego in its preceding life and lives. For, omniscient in its
essence and nature, it still requires experience, through
its
personalities, of the things of earth, earthly on the objective plane, in order
to apply the fruition of that abstract experience to them. And, adds our
philosophy,
the cultivation of certain aptitudes through out a long series of past
incarnations must finally culminate, in some one life, in a blooming forth as
genius, in one or another direction" – ( Lucifer November, 1889, p.
229-30).
For the
manifestation of true genius, purity of life is an essential condition.
Kâma-Manas is the personal self of man ; we have already seen that the
quaternary, as a whole, is the personality, "the shadow," and the
lower Manas gives the individualising touch that makes the personality
recognise itself as " I ". It becomes intellectual, it recognises
itself as separate from all other
selves ;
deluded by the separateness it feels, it does not realise a unity beyond all
that it is able to sense.
And the lower
Manas, attracted by the vividness of the material-life impressions, swayed by
the rush of the Kâmic emotions, passions and desires,
attracted to
all material things blinded and deafened by the storm voices among which it is
plunged – the lower Manas is apt to forget the pure and serene glory of its
birthplace, and to throw itself into the turbulence which gives rapture
in lieu of
peace.
And, be it
remembered, it is this very lower Manas that yields the last touch of delight
to the senses and to the animal nature ; for what is passion that can neither
anticipate nor remember, where is ecstasy without the subtle force of
imagination, the delicate colours of fancy and of dream?
But there may
be chains yet more strong and constraining, binding the lower Manas fast to the
earth. They are forged of ambition, of desire for fame, be it for that of the
statesman’s power, or of supreme intellectual achievement. So long as any work
is wrought for sake of love, or praise, or even recognition that the work is
"mine" and not another’s ; so long as in the heart’s remotest
chambers one
subtlest yearning remains to be recognised as separate from all ; so long,
however grand the ambition, however far reaching the charity, however lofty the
achievement, Manas is tainted with Kâma, and is not pure as its source.
MANAS IN
ACTIVITY
We have
already seen that the fifth principle is dual in its aspect during each period
of earth-life, and that the lower Manas united to Kâma, spoken of conveniently
as Kâma-Manas, functions in the brain and nervous system of man. We need to
carry our investigation a little further in order to distinguish clearly
between the activity of the higher and of the lower Manas, so that the working
in the mind
of man may become less obscure to us that it is at present to many.
Now the cells
of the brain and nervous system (like all other cells) are composed of minute
particles of matter, called molecules (literally, little heaps). These molecules
do not touch each other, but are held grouped together by that manifestation of
the Eternal Life which we call attraction. Not being in
contact with
each other they are able to vibrate to and fro if set in motion, and, as a
matter of fact, they are in a state of continual vibration.
H
P Blavatsky points out
(Lucifer, October, 1890, p. 92-93) that molecular motion is the lowest and most
material form of the One Eternal Life. Itself
motion as the
"Great Breath," and the source of all motion on every plane of the
universe. In the Sanskrit, the roots of the terms for spirit, breath, being and
motion are essentially the same, the Râma Prâsad says that "all these
roots have
for their origin
the sound produced by the breath of animals" –the sound of expiration and
inspiration.
Now, the
lower mind, or Kâma-Manas, acts on the molecules of the nervous cells by
motion, and set them vibrating, so starting mind-consciousness on the physical
plane. Manas itself could not affect these molecules ; but its ray, the lower
Manas, having clothed itself in astral matter and united itself to the kâmic
elements, is able to set the physical molecules in motion, and so give rise to
"brain consciousness," including the brain memory and all other
functions of the human mind, as we know it in its ordinary activity.
These
manifestations, "like all other phenomena on the material plane.. must be
related in their final analysis to the world of vibration," says H
P Blavatsky.
But, she goes
on to point out , "in their origin they belong to a different and higher
world of harmony." Their origin is in the manasic essence, in the ray ;
but on the material plane, acting on the molecules of the brain, they are
translated into vibrations.
This action
of the Kâma-Manas is spoken of by Theosophists as psychic. All mental and
passional activities are due to this psychic energy, and its
manifestations
are necessarily conditioned by the physical apparatus through which it acts. We
have already seen this broadly stated ( ante, p. 29-30), and the rationale of
the statement will now be apparent.
If the
molecular constitution of the brain be fine, and if the working of the
specifically kâmic organs (liver, spleen, etc.) be healthy and pure – so as not
to injure the
molecular constitution of the nerves which put them into communication with the
brain – then the psychic breath, as it sweeps through the
instrument,
awakens in this true Æolian harp harmonious and exquisite melodies ; whereas if
the molecular constitution be gross or poor, if it be disordered by the
emanations of alcohol, if the blood be poisoned by gross living or sexual
excesses, the
strings of the Æolian harp become too loose or too tense, clogged with dirt or
frayed with harsh usage, and when the psychic breath passes over them they
remain dumb or give out harsh discordant notes, not because the breath is
absent, but because the strings are in evil case.
It will now,
I think, be clearly understood that what we call mind, or intellect, is in
H
P Blavatsky’s words,
"a pale and too often distorted reflection" of Manas itself, or our fifth
principle ; Kâma-Manas is "the rational, but earthly or physical intellect
of man, incased in, and bound by, matter, therefore subject to the influence of
the latter" ; it is the "lower self, or that which manifesting
through our organic system, acting on this plane of illusion, imagines itself
the Ego sum, and thus falls into what Buddhist philosophy brands as the ‘heresy
of separateness.’ It is the human personality, from which proceeds "the
psychic, i.e., ‘terrestrial wisdom’ at best, as it is
influenced by
all the chaotic stimuli of the human or rather animal passions of the living
body" (Lucifer, October, 1890, p.179).
A clear
understanding of the fact that Kâma-Manas belongs to the human personality,
that it functions in and through the physical brain, that it acts on the
molecules of the brain, setting them into vibration, will very much facilitate
the comprehension by the student of the doctrine of reincarnation.
That great
subject will be dealt with in another volume of this series, and I do not
propose to dwell upon it here, more than to remind the student to take careful
note of the fact that the lower Manas is a ray from the immortal Thinker,
illuminating a personality, and that all the functions which are
brought into
activity in the brain-consciousness are functions correlated to the particular
brain, to the particular personality, in which they occur.
The
brain-molecules that are set vibrating are material organs in the man of flesh
; they did not exist as brain molecules before his conception, nor do they
persist as brain molecules after his disintegration. Their functional activity
is limited by
the limits of his personal life, the life of the body, the life of the
transient personality.
Now the
faulty of which we speak as memory on the physical plane depends on the
response of these very brain-molecules to the impulse of the lower Manas, and
there is no link between the brains of successive personalities except through
the higher Manas, that sends out its ray to inform and enlighten them
successively.
It follows,
then, inevitably, that unless the consciousness of man can rise from the
physical and Kâma-manasic planes to the plane of the higher Manas, no memory of
one personality can reach over to another. The memory of the personality
belongs to the transitory part of man’s complex nature, and those only can
recover the memory of their past lives who can raise their consciousness to the
plane of the immortal Thinker, and can, so to speak, travel in consciousness up
and down the ray which is the bridge between the personal man that perishes and
the immortal
man that endures.
If, while we
are cased in the human flesh, we can raise our consciousness along the ray that
connects our lower with our true Self, and so reach the higher Manas, we find
there stored in the memory of that eternal Ego the whole of our past lives on
earth, and we can bring back those records to our brain-memory by way of that
same ray, through which we can climb upwards to our "Father."
But this is
an achievement that belongs to a late stage of human evolution, and until this
is reached the successive personalities informed by the manasic rays are
separated from each other, and no memory bridges over the gulf between. The
fact is
obvious enough to any one who thinks the matter out, but as the difference
between the personality and the immortal individuality is somewhat unfamiliar
in the West, it may be well to remove a possible stumbling-block from
the student’s
path.
Now the lower
Manas may do one of three things ; It may rise towards its source, and by
unremitting and strenuous efforts become one with its "Father in
heaven," or the higher Manas – Manas uncontaminated with earthly elements,
unsoiled and pure. Or it may partially aspire and partially tend downwards, as
indeed is mostly the case with the average man. Or saddest fate of all, it may
become so clogged with the kâmic elements as to become one with them, and be
finally
wrenched away
from its parent and perish.
Before
considering these three fates, there are a few more words to be said touching
the activity of the lower Manas. As the lower Manas frees itself from Kâma, it
becomes the sovereign of the lower
part of man,
and manifests more and more of its true and essential nature. In Kâma is desire,
moved by bodily needs, and Will, which is the outgoing energy of the Self in
Manas, is often led captive by the turbulent physical impulses. But
the lower
Manas, "whenever it disconnects itself, for the time being, from Kâma, becomes
the guide of the highest mental faculties, and is the organ of the free will in
physical man" (Lucifer, October 1890, page 94).
But the
condition of this freedom is that Kâma shall be subdued, shall lie prostrate
beneath the feet of the conqueror ; if the maiden Will is to be set free, the
manasic St. George must slay the kâmic dragon that holds her captive ; for
while Kâma is unconquered, Desire will be master of the Will.
Again, as the
lower Manas frees itself from Kâma, it becomes more and more capable of
transmitting to the human personality with which it is connected the impulses
that reach it from its source. It is then, as we have seen, that genius flashes
forth, the light from the higher Ego streaming through the lower Manas to the
brain, and manifesting itself to the world. So also, as H
P Blavatsky points out,
such action may raise a man above the normal level of human power.
"The
higher Ego," she says, "cannot act directly on the body, as its
consciousness belongs to quite another plane and planes of ideation ; the lower
self does ;
and its action and behaviour depend on its freewill and choice as to whether it
will gravitate more towards its parent (‘the Father in heaven’) or the ‘animal’
which it informs, the man of flesh. The higher Ego, as part of the essence of
the Universal Mind, is unconditionally omniscient on its own plane, and only
potentially so in our terrestrial sphere, as it has to act solely through its
alter ego the personal self.
Now …the
former is the vehicle of all knowledge of the past, the present and the future,
and …it is from this fountain head that its ‘double’ catches occasional
glimpses of that which is beyond the senses of man, and transmits them to
certain brain-cells (unknown to science in their functions), thus making of man
a seer, a soothsayer and a prophet" (Lucifer, November, 1890, p. 179).
This is the
real seership, and on it a few words must be said presently. It is, naturally,
extremely rare, and precious as it is rare. A "faint and distorted
reflection" of it is found in what is called mediumship, and of this H
P Blavatsky says:
"Now what is a medium? The term medium, when not applied to things and
objects, is supposed to be a person through whom the action of another person
or being is either manifested or transmitted.
Spiritualists
believing in communications with disembodied spirits, and that these can
manifest through, or impress sensitives to transmit messages from them, regard
mediumship as a blessing and a great privilege. We Theosophists, on the other
hand, who do not believe in the ‘communion of spirits’, as Spiritualists do,
regard the gift as one of the most dangerous of abnormal nervous diseases.
A medium is
simply one in whose personal Ego, or terrestrial mind, the percentage of the
astral light so preponderates as to impregnate with it his
whole
physical constitution. Every organ and cell thereby is attuned, so to speak,
and subject to an enormous and abnormal tension" (Lucifer, November 1890,
page 183).
To return to
the three fates spoken of above, any one of which may befall the lower Manas.
It may rise towards its source and become one with the Father in heaven. This
triumph can only be gained by many successive incarnations, all consciously
directed towards this end. As life succeeds life, the physical frame becomes
more and more delicately attuned to vibrations responsive to the manasic
impulses, so
that gradually the manasic ray needs less and less of the coarser astral matter
as its vehicle.
"It is
part of the mission of the manasic ray to get gradually rid of the blind
deceptive element which, though it makes of it an actual spiritual entity on
this plane,
still brings it into so close contact with matter as to entirely becloud its
divine nature and stultify its intuitions" (Lucifer, November, 1890,
p. 182).
Life after
life it rids itself of this "blind deceptive element," until at
least, master of Kâma, and with body responsive to mind, the ray becomes one
with its
radiant source, the lower nature is wholly attuned to the higher, and the Adept
stands forth complete, the "Father and the Son," having become one on
all planes, as they have been always "one in heaven."
For him the
wheel of incarnation is over, the cycle of necessity is trodden. Henceforth he
can incarnate at will, to do any special service to mankind; or he can dwell in
the planes round the earth without the physical body, helping in
the further
evolution of the globe and of the race.
It may
partially aspire and partially tend downwards.
This is the
normal experience of the average man. All life is a battlefield, and the battle
rages in the lower manasic region, where Manas wrestles with Kâma for empire
over man. Anon aspiration conquers, the chains of sense are broken, and the
lower Manas, with the radiance of its birthplace on it, soars upwards on strong
wings, spurning the soil of earth.
But alas! too
soon the pinions tire, they flag, they flutter, they cease to beat the air ;
and downwards falls the royal bird whose true realm is that of the
higher air,
and he flutters heavily to the bog of earth once more, and Kâma chains him
down.
When the
period of incarnation is over, and the gateway of death closes the road of
earthly life, what becomes of the lower Manas in the case we are considering?
Soon after
the death of the physical body, Kâma-Manas is set free, and dwells for a while
on the astral plane clothed with a body of astral matter. From this all of the
manasic ray that is pure and unsoiled gradually disentangles itself, and, after
a lengthy period spent on the lower levels of Devachan, it returns to its source, carrying with it such
of its life-experiences as are of a nature fit
for
assimilation with the Higher Ego.
Manas thus
again becomes one during the latter part of the period which intervenes between
two incarnations. The manasic Ego, brooded over by
Âtma-Buddhi –
the two highest principles in the human constitution, not yet considered by us
– passes into the devachanic state of consciousness, resting from the weariness
of the life-struggle through which it has passed.
The
experiences of the earth-life just closed are carried into the manasic
consciousness by the lower ray withdrawn into its source. They make the
devachanic
state a continuation of earth-life, shorn of its sorrows, a completion of the
wishes and desires of earth-life, so far as those were pure
and noble.
The poetic
phrase that "the mind creates its own heaven" is truer than many may
have imagined, for everywhere man is what he thinks, and in the devachanic
state the mind is unfettered by the gross physical matter through which it
works on
the objective
plane.
The devachanic
period is the time
for the assimilation of life experiences, the regaining of equilibrium, ere a
new journey is commenced. It is the day that succeeds the night of earth-life,
the alternative of the objective manifestation. Periodicity is here, as
everywhere else in nature, ebb and flow, throb and rest, the rhythm of the
Universal Life.
This
devachanic state of consciousness lasts for a period of varying length,
proportioned to the stage reached in evolution, the Devachan of the average man being said to extend over
some fifteen-hundred years.
Meanwhile,
that portion of the impure garment of the lower Manas which remains entangled
with Kâma gives to the desire-body a somewhat confused consciousness, a broken
memory of the events of the life just closed.
If the
emotions and passions were strong and the manasic element weak during the
period of
incarnation,
the desire-body will be strongly energised, and will persist in its activity
for a considerable length of time after the death of the physical body.
It will also
show a considerable amount of consciousness, as much of the manasic ray will have
been overpowered by the vigorous kâmic elements, and will have remained
entangled in them. If, on the other hand, the earth-life just closed was
characterised my mentality and purity rather than by passion, the desire-body,
being but poorly energised, will be a pale simulacrum of the person to whom it
belonged, and will fade away, disintegrate and perish before any long period
has elapsed.
The
"spook" already mentioned (ante, p. 20-21) will now be understood. It
may show very considerable intelligence, if the manasic element be still
largely present, and this will be the case with the desire-body of persons of
strong animal nature and forcible though coarse intellect.
For
intelligence working in a very powerful kâmic personality will be exceedingly
strong and energetic, though not subtle or delicate, and the spook of such a
person, still further vitalised by the magnetic currents of persons yet living
in the body, may show much intellectual ability of a low type.
But such a
spook is conscienceless, devoid of good impulses, tending towards
disintegration, and communications with it can work for evil only, whether we
regard them as prolonging its vitality by the currents which it sucks up from
the bodies and kâmic elements of the living, or as exhausting the vitality of
these living persons and polluting them with astral connections of an
altogether
undesirable
kind.
Nor should it
be forgotten that, without attending séance-rooms at all, living persons may
come into objectionable contact with these kâmic spooks. As already mentioned,
they are attracted to places in which the animal part of man is chiefly catered
for ; drinking houses, gambling saloons, brothels – all these places are full
of the vilest magnetism, are very whirlpools of magnetic currents of the
foulest type.
These attract
the spooks magnetically, and they drift to such psychic maëlstroms of all that
is earthly and sensual. Vivified by currents so congenial to their own, the
desire-bodies become more active and potent; impregnated with the
emanations of
passions and desires which they can no longer physically satisfy, their
magnetic current reinforce the similar currents in the live persons,
action and
reaction continually going on, and the animal natures of the living become more
potent and less controlled by the will as they are played on by these forces of
the kâmic world.
Kâma-loka
(from loka, a place, and so the place for Kâma) is a name often used to
designate that plane of the astral world to which these spooks belong, and from
this ray forth magnetic currents of poisonous character, as from a pest-house
float out germs of disease which may take root and grow in the congenial soil
of some poorly vitalised physical body.
It is very
possible that many will say, on reading these statements, that Theosophy is a
revival of mediaeval superstitions and will lead to imaginary
terrors.
Theosophy explains mediaeval superstitions, and shows the natural facts on
which they were founded and from which they drew their vitality.
If there are
planes in nature other than the physical, no amount of reasoning will get rid
of them and belief in their existence will constantly reappear ; but knowledge
will give them their intelligible place in the universal order, and will
prevent superstition by an accurate understanding of their nature, and of the
laws under which they function.
And let it be
remembered that persons whose consciousness is normally on the physical plane
can protect themselves from undesirable influences by keeping their minds clean
and their wills strong.
We protect
ourselves best against disease by maintaining our bodies in vigorous health ;
we cannot guard ourselves against invisible germs, but we can prevent our
bodies from becoming suitable
soil for the
growth and development of the germs.
Nor need we
deliberately throw ourselves in the way infection. So also as regards these
malign germs from the astral plane. We can prevent the formation of Kâma- manasic
soil in which they can germinate and develop, and we need not go into evil
places, nor deliberately encourage receptivity and mediumistic tendencies.
A strong
active will and a pure heart are our best protection. There remains the third
possibility for Kâma-Manas, to which we must now turn our attention, the fate
spoken of earlier as "terrible in its consequences, which may befall the
kâmic principle." It may break away from its source made one with Kâma
instead of with the higher Manas.
This is
fortunately, a rare event, as rare at one pole of human life as the complete
re-union with the
higher Manas
is rare at the other. But still the possibility remains and must be stated.
The
personality may be so strongly controlled by Kâma that, in the struggle between
the kâmic and manasic elements, the victory may remain wholly with the former.
The lower Manas may become so enslaved that its essence may be frayed and
thinner and thinner by the constant rub and strain, until at last persistent
yielding to the promptings of desire bears its inevitable fruit, and the
slender link which unites the higher to the lower Manas, the "silver
thread that binds it to the Master," snaps in two. Then, during
earth-life, the lower quaternary is wrenched away from the Triad to
which it was
linked, and the higher nature is
severed
wholly from the lower. The human being is rent in twain, the brute has broken
itself free, and it goes forth unbridled, carrying with it the reflections of
that manasic light which should have been its guide through the desert of life.
A more
dangerous brute it is than its fellows of the unevolved animal world, just
because of these fragments in it of the higher mentality of man. Such a being,
human in form but brute in nature, human in appearance but without human truth,
or love or justice – such a one may now and then be met with in the haunts of
men, putrescent while still living, a thing to shudder at with deepest, if
hopeless compassion. What is its fate after the funeral knell has tolled?
Ultimately,
there is the perishing of the personality that has thus broken away from the
principles that can alone give it immortality. But a period of
persistence
lies before it. The desire-body of such a one is an entity of terrible potency,
and it has this unique peculiarity, that it is able under certain rare
circumstances to reincarnate in the world of men.
It is not a
mere "spook" on the way to disintegration; it has retained, entangled
in its coils , too much of the manasic element to permit of such
natural
dissipation in space. It is sufficiently an independent entity, lurid instead
of radiant, with manasic flame rendered foul instead of purifying, as to be
able to take to itself a garment of flesh once more and dwell as man with men.
Such a man –
if the word may indeed be applied to the mere human shell with brute interior –
passes through a period of earth-life the natural foe of all
who are still
normal in their humanity. With no instincts save those of the animal, driven
only by passion, never even by emotion, with a cunning that no brute can rival,
a deliberate wickedness that plans evil in fashion unknown to the mere frankly
natural impulses of the animal world, the reincarnated entity touches ideal
vileness.
Such soil the
page of human history has; the monsters of iniquity that startle us now and
again into a wondering cry, "Is this a human being?" Sinking lower
with each successive incarnation, the evil force gradually wears itself out,
and such a personality perishes separated from the source of life.
It finally
disintegrates, to be worked up into other forms of living things, but as a
separate existence, it is lost. It is a bead broken off the thread of life,
and the
immortal Ego that incarnated in that personality has lost the experience of
that incarnation, has reaped no harvest from that life-sowing. Its ray has
brought nothing back, its lifework for that birth has been a total and complete
failure, whereof nothing remains to weave into the fabric of its own eternal
Self.
SUBTLE FORMS
OF THE FOURTH AND FIFTH PRINCIPLE
The student
will already have fully realised that "an astral body" is a loose
term that may cover a variety of different forms. It may be well at this stage to
sum up the subtle types sometimes inaccurately called the astral that belong to
the fourth and fifth principles.
During life a
true astral body may be projected – formed, as its name implies, of astral
matter – but, unlike the etheric double, dowered with intelligence, and able to
travel to a considerable distance from the physical body to which it
belongs. This
is the desire-body, and it is, as we have seen, a vehicle of consciousness. It
is projected by mediums and sensitives
unconsciously,
and by trained students consciously.
It can travel
with the speed of thought to a distant place, can there gather impressions from
surrounding objects, can bring back those impressions to the physical body. In
the case of a medium it can convey them to others by means of
the physical
body still entranced, but as a rule when the sensitive comes out of trance, the
brain does not retain the impressions thus made upon it, and no trace is left
in the memory of the experiences thus acquired.
Sometimes,
but this is rare, the desire-body is able sufficiently to affect the brain by
the vibrations it set up, to leave a lasting impression thereon, and
then the
sensitive is able to recall the knowledge acquired during trance. The student
learns to impress on his brain the knowledge gained in the desire-body, his
will being active while that of the medium is passive.
This
desire-body is the agent unconsciously used by clairvoyants when their vision
is not merely the seeing in the astral light. This astral form does then really
travel to distant places, and may appear there to persons who are sensitive or
who chance for the time to be in an abnormal nervous condition.
Sometimes it
appears to them – when very faintly informed by consciousness – as a vaguely
outlined form, not noticing its surroundings. Such a body has appeared near the
time of death at places distant from the dying person, to those who
were closely
united to the dying by ties of the blood, of affection, or of hatred. More
highly energised, it will show intelligence and emotion, as in some
cases on
record, in which dying mothers have visited their children residing at a
distance, and have spoken in their last moments of what they had seen and done.
The
desire-body is also set free in many cases of disease – as is the etheric
double – as well as in sleep and in trance. Inactivity of the physical body is
a condition of such astral voyagings. The desire-body seems also occasionally
to appear in séance-rooms, giving rise to some of the more intellectual phenomena
that takes place.
It must not
be confounded with the "spook" already sufficiently familiar to the
reader, the latter being always the kâmic or Kâma-Manasic remains of some dead
person, whereas the body we are now dealing with is the projection of an astral
double from a
living person.
A higher form
of subtle body, belonging to Manas, is that known as the Mâyâvi Rûpa, or
"body of illusion." The Mâyâvi Rûpa is a subtle body formed by the
consciously directed will of the Adept or disciple; it may, or may not,
resemble
the physical
body, the form given to it being suitable to the purpose for which it is
projected.
In this body
the full consciousness dwells, for it is merely the mental body rearranged. The
Adept or disciple can thus travel at will, without the burden of the physical
body, in the full exercise of every faculty, in perfect self-consciousness. He
makes the Mâyâvi Rûpa visible of invisible at will – on
the physical
plane – and the phrase often used by chelâs and others as to seeing an Adept
"in his astral," means that he was visited by them in his Mâyâvi
Rûpa.
If he so
chose, he can make it, indistinguishable from a physical body, warm and firm to
the touch as well as visible, able to carry on a conversation, at all points
like a physical human being. But the power thus to form the true Mâyâvi Rûpa is
confined to Adepts and chelâs; it cannot be done by the untrained student,
however psychic he may naturally be, for it is a manasic and not a psychic
creation, and it is only under the instruction of his Guru that the chelâ
learns to form and use the "body of illusion."
THE HIGHER
MANAS
The immortal
Thinker itself, as will by this time have become clear to the reader, can
manifest itself but little on the physical plane at the present
stage of
human evolution. Yet we are able to catch some glimpses of the powers resident
in it, the more as in the lower Manas we find those powers "cribbed,
cabined and confined" indeed, but yet existing.
Thus we have
seen that the lower Manas "is the organ of the freewill in physical
man." Freewill resides in Manas itself, in Manas the
representative
of Mahat, the Universal Mind. From Manas comes the feeling of liberty, the
knowledge that we can rule ourselves – really the knowledge that the higher nature
in us can
rule the
lower, let that lower nature rebel and struggle as it may.
Once let our
consciousness identify itself with Manas instead of with Kâma, and the lower
nature becomes the animal we bestride, it is no longer the "I." All
its plungings, its struggles, its fights for mastery, are then outside us, not
within us, and we rein it in and hold it as we rein in a plunging steed and
subdue it to our will.
On this
question of freewill I venture to quote from an article of my own that appeared
in the Path – "Unconditioned will, alone can be absolutely free: the
unconditioned and the absolute are one: all that is conditioned must, by virtue
of that conditioning, be relative and therefore partially bound. As that will
evolves the universe, it becomes conditioned by the laws of its own
manifestation.
The manasic
entities are differentiations of that will, each conditioned by the nature of
its manifesting potency, but, while conditioned without, it is free within its
own sphere of activity, so being the image in its own world of the
universal
will in the universe. Now as this will, acting on each successive plane,
crystalises itself more and more densely as matter, the
manifestation
is conditioned by the material in which it works, while, relatively to the
material, it is itself free.
So at each
stage the inner freedom appears in consciousness, while yet investigation shows
that, that freedom works within the limits of the plane of
manifestation
on which it is acting, free to work upon the lower, yet hindered as to
manifestation by the unresponsiveness of the lower to its impulse.
Thus the
higher Manas, in whom reside free will, so far as the lower quaternary is
concerned – being the offspring of Mahat, the third Logos, the Word, i.e., the
Will in manifestation – is limited in its manifestation in our lower nature by
the sluggishness of the response of the personality to its impulses.
In the lower
Manas itself – as immersed in that personality - resides the will with which we
are familiar, swayed by passions, by appetites, by desires, by impressions
coming from without, yet able to assert itself among them all, by virtue of its
essential nature, one with that higher Ego of which it is the ray.
It is free,
as regards all below it, able to act on Kâma and on the physical body, however
much its full expression may be thwarted and hindered by the crudeness of the
material in which it is working. Were the will the mere outcome of the physical
body, of the desires and passions, whence could arise the sense of the " I
" that can judge, can desire, can overcome?
It acts from
a higher plane, is royal as touching the lower whenever it claims the royalty
of birthright, and the very struggle of its self-assertion is the
best testimony
to the fact that in its nature it is free. And so, passing to lower planes, we
find in each grade this freedom of the higher as ruling the
lower, yet,
on the plane of the lower, hindered in manifestation.
Reversing the
process and starting from the lower, the same truth becomes manifest. Let a
man’s limbs be loaded with fetters, and crude material iron will prevent the
manifestation of the muscular and nervous force with which they are instinct:
none the less is that force present, though hindered for the moment in its
activity. Its strength may be shown in its very efforts to break the chains
that bind it:
there is no power in the iron to prevent the free giving out of the muscular
energy, though the phenomena of motion may be hindered.
But while
this energy cannot be ruled by the physical nature below, its expenditure is
determined by the kâmic principle ; passions and desires can set it going, can
direct and control it. The muscular and nervous energy cannot rule
the passions
and desires, they are free as regards it, it is determined by their
interposition.
Yet again
Kâma may be ruled, controlled, determined by the will ; as touching the manasic
principle it is bound, not free, and hence the sense of freedom in choosing
which desire shall be gratified, which act performed. As the lower
Manas rules
Kâma, the lower quaternary takes its rightful position of subserviency to the
higher triad, and is determined by a will it recognises as
above itself,
and, as it regards itself, a will that is free.
Here in many
a mind will spring the question, ‘And what of the will of the higher Manas ; is
that in turn determined by what is above it, while it is free
to all below?
But we have reached a point where the intellect fails us, and where language may
not easily utter that which the Spirit senses in those higher realms.
Dimly only
can we feel that there , as everywhere else, "the truest freedom must be
in harmony with law, and that voluntary acceptance of the function of acting as
channel of the Universal Will must unite into one perfect liberty and perfect
obedience."
This is truly
an obscure and difficult problem, but the student will find much light fall on
it by following the lines of thought thus traced.
Another power
resident in the higher Manas and manifested on the lower planes by those in
whom the higher Manas is consciously master, is that of creation of forms by
the will. The Secret Doctrine says: "Kriyashakti". The mysterious
power
of thought
which enables it to produce external, perceptible, phenomenal results by its
own inherent energy. The ancient held that any idea will manifest itself
externally if one’s attention is deeply concentrated upon it.
Similarly and
intense volition will be followed by the desired results" (vol. I, p. 312).
Here is the secret of true "magic," and as the subject is an
important one, and as Western science is beginning to touch its fringe, a
separate section is devoted to its consideration farther on, in order not to
break the connected outline here given on principles.
Again we have
learned from H
P Blavatsky that Manas,
or the higher Ego, as "part of the essence of the Universal Mind, is
unconditionally omniscient on its own plane," when it has fully developed
self-consciousness by its evolutionary
experiences,
and "is the vehicle of all knowledge of the past and present, and the
future."
When this
immortal entity is able through its ray, the lower Manas, to impress the brain
of a man, that man is one who manifests abnormal qualities, is a genius or
seer. The conditions of seership are thus laid down: -
"The
former [the visions of the true seer] can be obtained by one of two means:
(a) on the condition
of paralysing at will the memory and the instinctual independent action of all
the material organs and even cells in the body of flesh, an act which, when
once the light of the higher Ego has consumed and subjected for ever the
passional nature of the personal lower Ego, is easy, but requires an adept;
(b) of being
a reincarnation of one who, in a previous birth, had attained through extreme
purity of life and efforts in the right direction
almost to a
Yogi-state of holiness and saintship.
There is also
a third possibility of reaching in mystic visions the plane of the higher Manas
; but it is only occasional, and does not depend on the will of the seer, but
on the extreme weakness and exhaustion of the material body through
illness and
suffering. The Seeress of Prevorst was an instance of the latter case ; and
Jacob Boehme of our second category" (Lucifer, November, 1890, p. 183).
The reader
will now be in a position to grasp the difference between the workings of the
higher Ego and of its ray. Genius, which sees instead of
arguing, is
of the higher Ego; true intuition is one of its faculties. Reason, the weighing
and balancing quality which arranges the facts gathered by
observation,
balances them one against the other, argues from them, draws conclusions from
them – this is the exercise of the lower Manas through the
brain
apparatus; its instrument is ratiocination; by induction it ascends from the
known to the unknown, building up a hypothesis; by deduction it descends again
to the known, verifying its hypothesis by fresh experiment.
Intuition, as
we see by its derivation, is simply insight – a process as direct and swift as
bodily vision. It is the exercise of the eyes of the intelligence, the unerring
recognition of a truth presented on the mental plane. It sees with
certainty,
its vision is unclouded, its report unfaltering. No proof can add to the
certitude of its recognition, for it is beyond and above the reason.
Often our
instincts, blinded and confused by passions and desires, are miscalled
intuitions, and a mere kâmic impulse is accepted as the sublime voice of the
higher Manas. Careful and prolonged self-training is necessary, ere the voice
can be recognised with certainty, but of one thing we may feel very sure: so
long as we are in the vortex of the personality, so long as the storms of
desires and appetites howl around us, so long as the waves of emotion toss us
to and fro, so long the voice of the higher Manas cannot reach our ears.
Not in the
fire or the whirlwind, not in the thunderclap of the storm, comes the mandate
of the higher Ego: only when there has fallen the stillness of a silence that
can be felt, only when the very air is motionless and the calm is profound,
only when the man wraps his face in a mantle which closes his ears even to the
silence that is of earth, then only sounds the voice that is stiller than the
silence, the voice of his true Self.
On this H
P Blavatsky has written
in Isis Unveiled: "Allied to the physical half of man’s nature is reason,
which enables him to maintain his supremacy over the lower animals, and to
subjugate nature to his uses. Allied to his spiritual
part is his
conscience, which will serve as his unerring guide through the besetment of the
senses; for conscience is that instantaneous perception between right and wrong
which can only be exercised by the spirit, which, being a portion of the divine
wisdom and purity, is absolutely pure and wise.
Its
promptings are independent of reason, and it can only manifest itself clearly
when unhampered by the baser attractions of our dual nature. Reason
being a
faculty of our physical brain, one which is justly defined as that of deducing
inferences from premises, and being wholly dependent on the evidence of other
senses, cannot be a quality pertaining directly to our divine spirit.
The latter
knows – hence all reasoning, which implies discussion and argument, would be
useless. So an entity which, if it must be considered as a direct emanation
from the eternal Spirit of wisdom, has to be vied as possessed of the
same
attributes as the essence of the whole of which it is part.
Therefore it
is with a certain degree of logic that the ancient Theurgists maintained that the
rational part of a man’s soul (spirit) never entered wholly into the man’s
body, but only overshadowed him more or less through the irrational or astral
soul, which serves as an intermediary agent, or a medium between spirit and
body.
The man who
has conquered matter sufficiently to receive the direct light from his shining
Augoeides, feels truth intuitionally; he could not err in his
judgement,
notwithstanding all the sophisms suggested by cold reason, for he is
illuminated. Hence prophesy, vaticination, and the so-called divine
inspiration, are simply the effects of this illumination from above by our own
immortal
spirit"
(Volume I, page 305-306).
This
Augoeides, according to the belief of the Neo-Platonists, as according to the
Theosophical teachings, "sheds more or less its radiance on the inner man,
the astral soul" (Volume, page 315) i.e.., in the now accepted
terminology, on
the
Kâma-Manasic personality or lower Ego.
(In reading
Isis Unveiled, the student has to bear in mind the fact that when the book was
written, the terminology was by no means even as fixed as it is now ; in Isis
Unveiled is the first modern attempt to translate into Western language the
complicated Eastern ideas, and further experience has shown that many of the
terms used to cover two or three conceptions may with advantage be restricted
to one and thus rendered precise. Thus the "astral soul" must be
understood in the sense given above.)
Only as this
lower Ego becomes pure from all breath of passion, as the lower Manas frees
itself from Kâma, can the "shining one" impress it ; H
P Blavatsky tells how
initiates meet this higher Ego face to face. Having spoken of the trinity in
man, Âtma-Buddhi-Manas, she goes on: "It is when this trinity, in
anticipation of the final triumphant reunion beyond the gates of corporeal
death, became for a few seconds a unity, that the candidate is allowed, at the
moment of the initiation, to behold his future self.
Thus we read
in the Persian Desatir of the ‘resplendent one’ ; in the Greek
philosopher-initiates of the Augoeides – the self-shining ‘blessed vision
resident in the pure light’ ; in Porphyry, that Plotinus was united to his
‘god’ six times during his lifetime, and so on" (Isis Unveiled, Volume II,
pages 114-115).
This trinity
made into unity, again, is the "Christ" of all mystics. When in the
final initiation, the candidate has been outstretched on the floor or altar
stone and has thus typified the crucifixion of the flesh, or lower nature, and
when from this "death" he has "risen again" as the
triumphant conqueror over sin and death, he then, in the supreme moment, sees
before him the glorious presence and becomes "one with Christ," is himself
the Christ.
Thenceforth he
may live in the body, but it has become his obedient instrument ; he is united
with his true Self, Manas made one with Âtma-Buddhi, and through the
personality which he inhabits he wields his full powers as an immortal
spiritual intelligence. While he was still struggling in the toils of the lower
nature, Christ, the spiritual Ego, was daily crucified in him ; but in the full
Adept Christ has arisen triumphant, lord of himself and of nature.
The long
pilgrimage of Manas is over, the cycle of necessity is trodden, the wheel of
rebirth cease to turn, the Son of man has been made perfect by suffering.
So long as
this point has not been reached, "the Christ" is the object of
aspiration. The ray is ever struggling to return to its source, the lower Manas
ever aspiring
to re-become one with the higher. While this duality persists the continual
yearning towards reunion felt by the noblest and purest natures is one of the
most salient facts of the inner life, and it is this which clothes itself as
prayer, as inspiration, as "seeking after God," as the longing for
union with the divine.
"My soul
is athirst for God, for the living God," cries the eager Christian, and to
tell him that this intense longing is a fancy and is futile to make him turn
aside from you as one who cannot understand, but whose insensibility does not
alter the fact. The Occultist recognises in this cry the inextinguishable
impulse
upwards of the lower Self to the higher from which it is separated, but the
attraction of which it vividly feels.
Whether the
person pray to the Buddha, to Vishnu, to Christ, to the Virgin, to the Father,
it matters not at all ; these are questions of mere dialect, not of essential
fact. In all the Manas united to Âtma-Buddhi is the real object , veiled under
what name the changing time or race may give ; at once the ideal humanity and
the "personal God," the "God Man" found in all religions,
"God incarnate," the "Word made flesh," "the Christ
who must be born in " each, with whom the believer must be made one.
And this
leads us on to the last planes with which we are concerned, the planes of
Spirit, using that much abused word merely as the opposite pole to matter ;
here only very general ideas can be grasped by us, but it is necessary none the
less to try to grasp these ideas if we are to complete, however poorly our
conception of man.
PRINCIPLES VI
& VII - ÂTMA – BUDDHI, THE SPIRIT
As the
completion of the thought of the last section, we will look at Âtma-Buddhi
first in its connection with Manas, and will then proceed to a somewhat more
general view of it as the "Monad." The clearest and best description
of the human trinity, Âtma-Buddhi-Manas, will be found in the Key to
Theosophy, in
which H.P.Blavatsky gives the following definitions:-
THE HIGHER
SELF is Atma, the inseparable ray of the Universal and ONE SELF. It is the God
above, more than within us. Happy the man who succeeds in saturating his inner
Ego with it
THE SPIRITUAL
divine EGO is the spiritual soul, or Buddhi, in close union with Manas, the
mind-principle, without which it is no EGO at all, but only the Atmic Vehicle.
THE INNER or
HIGHER EGO is Manas, the fifth principle, so called, independently of Buddhi.
The mind-principle is only the Spiritual Ego when merged into one with Buddhi...
It is the permanent individuality or the reincarnating Ego. (Page
175-176 Âtmâ
must then be regarded as the most abstract part of man’s nature, the
"breath" which needs a body for its manifestation. It is the one
reality, that which manifests on all planes, the essence of which all our
principles are but aspects.
The one
Eternal Existence, wherefrom are all things, which embodies one of its aspects
in the universe, that which we speak of as the One Life – this Eternal
Existence rays forth as Âtmâ, the very Self alike of the universe and of man ;
their innermost core, their very heart, that in which all things inhere.
In itself
incapable of direct manifestation on lower planes, yet That without which no
lower planes could come into existence, It clothes itself in Buddhi, as Its
vehicle, or medium of further manifestation. "Buddhi is the faculty of
cognising,
the channel through which divine knowledge reaches the Ego, the discernment of
good and evil, also divine conscience, and the spiritual Soul, which is the
vehicle of Âtmâ"( Secret Doctrine, Volume I, p. 2).
It is often
spoken of as the principle of spiritual discernment. But Âtma-Buddhi, a
universal principle, needs individualising ere experience can be gathered and
self-consciousness attained. So the mind-principle is united to Âtma-Buddhi,
and the human trinity is complete. Manas becomes the spiritual Ego only when
merged in Buddhi ; Buddhi becomes the spiritual Ego only when united
to Manas; in
the union of the two lies the evolution of the Spirit, self-conscious on all
planes.
Hence Manas
strives upward to Âtma-Buddhi, as the lower Manas strives upward to the higher,
and hence, in relation to the higher Manas, Âtma-Buddhi, or Âtma, is often
spoken of as "the Father in Heaven," as the higher Manas is itself
thus
described in
relation to the lower. (See ante page 40)
The lower
Manas gathers experience to carry it back to its source ; the higher Manas
accumulates the store throughout the cycle of reincarnation; Buddhi becomes
assimilated with the higher Manas; and these, permeated with the Âtmic
light, one
with that True Self, the trinity becomes a unity, the Spirit is self-conscious
on all planes, and the object of the manifested universe is attained.
But no words
of mine can avail to explain or to describe that which is beyond explanation
and beyond description. Words can but blunder along on such a theme, dwarfing
and distorting it. Only by long and patient meditation can the student
hope vaguely to
sense something greater than himself, yet something which stirs at the
innermost core of his being.
As to the
steady gaze directed at the pale evening sky, there appears after while,
faintly and far away, the soft glimmer of a star, so to the patient gaze of the
inner vision there may come the tender beam of the spiritual star, if but as a
mere suggestion of a far off world.
Only to a
patient and persevering purity will that light arise, and blessed beyond all
earthly blessedness is he who sees but the palest shimmer of that transcendent
radiance.
With such
ideas as to "Spirit," the horror with which Theosophists shrink from
ascribing the trivial phenomena of the séance-room to "spirits" will
be readily understood. Playing on musical boxes, talking through trumpets,
tapping people
on the head,
carrying accordions round the room – these things may be all very well for
astrals, spooks and elementals, but who can assign them to "spirits"
who has any conception of Spirit worthy of the name?
Such vulgarisation
and degradation of the most sublime conceptions as yet evolved by man are
surely subjects for the keenest regret, and it may well be hoped that ere long
these phenomena will be put in their true place, as evidence that the
materialistic views of the universe are inadequate, instead of being exalted to
a place they cannot fill as proofs of Spirit.
No physical,
no intellectual phenomena are proofs of the existence of Spirit. Only to the
spirit can Spirit be demonstrated. You cannot prove a proposition in Euclid to
a dog ; you cannot prove Âtma-Buddhi to Kâma and the lower Manas. As
we climb, our
view will widen, and when we stand on the summit of the Holy Mount the planes
of Spirit shall lie before our opened vision.
THE MONAD IN
EVOLUTION
Perhaps a
slightly more definite conception of Âtma-Buddhi may be obtained by the
student, if he considers its work in evolution as the Monad. Now Âtma-Buddhi is
identical with the universal Oversoul, "itself an aspect of the Unknown
Root,"
the One Existence. When manifestation begins the Monad is "thrown
downwards into matter," to propel forwards and force evolution (see Secret
Doctrine, vol. II,p.115); it is the mainspring, so to speak, of all evolution,
the impelling force at the root of all things.
All the
principles we have been studying are mere "variously differentiated
aspects" of Âtma, the One Reality manifesting in our universe; it is in
every atom, "the root of every atom individually and of every form
collectively," and all the principles are fundamentally Âtma on different
planes.
The stages of
its evolution are very clearly laid down in Five years of Theosophy, page 273
et seq. There we are shown how it passes through the stages termed elemental,
"nascent centres of forces," and reaches the mineral stage; from this
it passes up through vegetable, animal, to man, vivifying every form.
As we are
taught in the Secret Doctrine: "The well known Kabbalistic aphorism runs:
"A stone
becomes a plant; the plant a beast; the beast, a man; the man, a spirit; and
the spirit, a god."
The ‘spark’
animates all the kingdoms in turn before it enters into and informs divine man,
between whom and his predecessor, animal man, there is all the difference in
the world….The Monad…is first of all, shot down by the law of evolution into
the lowest form of matter – the mineral.
After a
sevenfold gyration incased in the stone, or that which will become mineral and
stone in the Fourth Round, it creeps out of it, say as a lichen.
Passing thence,
through all the forms of vegetable matter, into what is termed animal matter,
it has now reached the point in which it has become the germ, so to speak, of
the animal, that will become the physical man" (Vol. I, pages 266-267).
It is the
Monad, Âtma-Buddhi, that thus vivifies every part and kingdom of nature, making
all instinct with life and consciousness, one throbbing whole.
"Occultism
does not accept anything inorganic in the Kosmos. The expression employed by
science, ‘ inorganic substance,’ means simply that the latent life, slumbering
in the molecules of so-called ‘inert matter,’ is incognisable.
All is life
and every atom of even mineral dust is a life, though beyond our comprehension
and perception, because it is outside the range of the laws known to those who
reject Occultism "(Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, pages 268-69). And again:
"Everything in the universe, throughout all its kingdoms, is conscious,
i.e.., endowed with a consciousness of its own kind and on its own plane of
perception.
We men must
remember that simply because we do not perceive any signs of consciousness
which we can recognise, say in stones, we have no right to say
that no
consciousness exists there. There is no such thing as either ‘dead’ or ‘blind’
matter, as there is no ‘blind’ or ‘unconscious’ law" (page 295).
How many of
the great poets, with the sublime intuition of genius, have sensed this great
truth! To them all nature pulses with life; they see life and love every where,
in suns and planets as in the grains of dust, in rustling leaves and opening
blossoms, in dancing gnats and gliding snakes.
Each form
manifests as much of the One Life as it is capable of expressing, and what is
man that he should despise the more limited manifestations, when he compares himself
as a life-expression, not with the forms below him, but with the possibilities
of expression that soar above him in infinite heights of being, which he can
estimate still less than the stone can estimate him?
The student
will readily see that we must regard this force at the centre of evolution as
essentially one. There is but one Âtma-Buddhi in our universe, the universal
Soul, everywhere present, immanent in all, the One Supreme Energy
whereof all
varying energies or forces are only differing forms.
As the
sunbeam is light or heat or electricity according to its conditioning
environment, so is Âtma all-energy, differentiating on different planes.
"As an abstraction, we will call it the One Life; as an objective and
evident reality, we speak of a septenary scale of manifestation, which begins
at the upper rung with the one unknowable causality, and ends as Omnipresent
Mind and Life
immanent in
every atom of matter" (Secret Doctrine, Volume I, page 163).
Its
evolutionary course is very plainly outlined in a quotation given in the Secret
Doctrine, and as students are very often puzzled over this unity of the Monad,
I subjoin the statement. The subject is difficult, but it could not, I think,
be more clearly put than it is in these sentences:-
"Now the
monadic or cosmic essence (if such a term be permitted) in the mineral,
vegetable, and animal, though the same throughout the series of cycles from the
lowest elemental up to the Deva kingdom, yet differs in the scale of
progression.
It would be
very misleading to imagine a Monad as a separate entity trailing its slow way
in a distinct path through the lower kingdoms, and after incalculable series of
transformations flowering into a human being; in short, that the Monad
of a Humboldt
dates back to the Monad of an atom of hornblende.
Instead of
saying a ‘Mineral Monad,’ the more correct phraseology in physical science,
which differentiates every atom, would of course have been to call it ‘the
Monad manifesting in that form of Prakriti called the mineral kingdom.’ The
atom, as
represented in the ordinary scientific hypothesis, is not a particle of
something, animated by a psychic something, destined after æons to blossom as a
man. But it is a concrete manifestation of the universal energy which itself
has not yet become individualised ; a sequential manifestation of the one
universal Monas.
The ocean of
matter does not divide into its potential and constituent drops until the sweep
of the life impulse reaches the stage of man birth. The tendency towards
segregation into individual Monads is gradual, and in the higher animals
comes almost
to the point. The Peripatetics applied the word Monas to the whole Kosmos in
the pantheistic sense; and the Occultists, while accepting this thought for
convenience sake, distinguish the progressive stages of the evolution of the
concrete from the abstract by terms of which the ‘mineral, vegetable, animal,
Monad,’ etc., are examples. The term merely means that the
tidal wave of
spiritual evolution is passing through that arc of its circuit.
The ‘Monadic
Essence’ begins imperfectly to differentiate towards individual consciousness
in the vegetable kingdom. As the Monads are un-compounded things, as correctly
defined by Leibnitz, it is the spiritual essence which vivifies
them in their
degrees of differentiation, which properly constitutes the Monad – not the
atomic aggregation, which is only the vehicle and the substance through which
thrill the lower and the higher degrees of intelligence" (vol. I, p. 201).
The student
who reads and weighs this passage will, at the cost of a little present
trouble, save himself from much confusion in days to come. Let him first
realise clearly that the Monad – "the spiritual essence" to which
alone in strict accuracy the term Monad should be applied – is one all the
universe over, that Âtma-Buddhi is not his, nor mine, nor the property of
anybody in particular, but the spiritual essence energising in all.
So is
electricity one all the world over ; though it may be active in his machine or
in mine, neither he nor I can call it distinctly our electricity. But
– and here
arise confusion – when Âtma-Buddhi energises in man, in whom Manas is active as
an individualising force, it is often spoken of as though the "atomic
aggregation" were a separate Monad, and then we have "Monads,"
as in the above passage.
This loose
way of using the word will not lead to error if the student will remember that
the individualising process is not on the spiritual plane, but Âtma-Buddhi as
seen through Manas seems to share in the individuality of the
latter. So if
you hold pieces of variously coloured glass in your hand you may see through
them a red sun, a blue sun, a yellow sun, and so on. None the less there is
only the one sun shining down upon you, altered by the media through which you
look at it.
So we often
meet the phrase "human Monads" ; it should be "the Monad
manifesting in the human kingdom"; but this somewhat pedantic accuracy
would be likely only to puzzle a large number of people, and the looser popular
phrase will not
mislead when
the principle of the unity on the spiritual plane is grasped, any more than we
mislead by speaking of the rising of the sun.
"The Spiritual
Monad is one, universal, boundless, and impartite, whose rays, nevertheless,
form what we, in our ignorance, call the ‘ individual Monads’ of men"
(Secret Doctrine, Vol. I ,p. 200).
Very
beautifully and poetically is this unity in diversity put in one of the Occult
Catechisms in which the Guru questions the Chela:- "Lift thy head, O
Lanoo; dost thou see one or countless lights above thee, burning in the dark
midnight sky?" "I sense one Flame, O Gurudeva ; I see countless
undetached sparks burning in it."
"Thou
sayest well. And now look around and into thyself. That light which burns
inside thee, dost thou feel it different in any wise from the light that shines
in thy brother-men?"
"It is
in no way different, though the prisoner is held in bondage by Karma, and
though its outer garments delude the ignorant into saying, ‘thy soul’ and ‘my
soul’" (Secret Doctrine, vol., I, p.145).
There ought
not to be any serious difficulty now in grasping the stages of human evolution;
the Monad, which has been working its way as we have seen, reaches the point at
which the human form can be built up on earth ; an etheric body and
its physical
counterpart are then developed, Prâna specialised from the great ocean of life,
and Kâma evolved, all these principles, the lower quaternary,
being brooded
over by the Monad, energised by it, impelled by it, forced onward by it towards
continually increasing perfection of form and capacity for manifesting the
higher energies in Nature.
This was
animal, or physical man, evolved through two and a half Races. But the Monad
and the lower quaternary could not come into sufficiently close relation with
each other ; a link was yet wanting. "The Double Dragon [the Monad] has no
hold upon the mere form. It is like the breeze where there is no tree or branch
to receive and harbour it. It cannot affect the form where there is no agent of
transmission, and the form knows it not" – (Secret Doctrine, vol. II, p.
60).
Then, at the
middle point just reached, in the middle, that is, of the Third race, the lower
Mânasaputra stepped in to inhabit the dwellings thus prepared for them, and to
form the bridge between animal man and the Spirit, between the
evolved
quaternary and the brooding Âtma-Buddhi, to begin the long cycle of
reincarnation which is to issue in the perfect man.
The
"monadic inflow," or the evolution of the Monad, from the animal into
the human kingdom, continued through the Third Race on to the middle of the
Fourth, the human population thus continually receiving fresh recruits, the
birth of
souls thus
continuing through the second half of the Third race and the first half of the
Fourth.
After this,
the "central turning point" of the cycle of evolution, "no more
Monads can enter the human kingdom. The door is closed for this cycle"
(Secret Doctrine, vol. I, p. 205). Since then reincarnation has been the method
of evolution, this individual reincarnation of the immortal
Thinker in
conjunction with Âtma-Buddhi replacing the collective indwelling of Âtma-Buddhi
in lower forms of matter.
According to
Theosophical teachings, humanity has now reached the Fifth Race, and we are in
the fifth sub-race thereof, mankind on this globe in the present stage having
before it the completion of the Fifth race, and the rise, maturity and decay of
the Sixth and Seventh Races.
But during
all the ages necessary for this evolution, there is no increase in the total
number of reincarnating Egos ; only a small proportion of these are
reincarnated at any special time on the globe, so that the population may ebb
and flow within very wide limits, and it will have been noticed that there is a
rush of birth after a local depopulation has been caused by exceptional
mortality.
There is room
and to spare for all such fluctuations, having in view the difference between
the total number of reincarnating Egos and the number actually incarnated at a
given period.
LINES OF
PROOF FOR AN UNTRAINED ENQUIRER
It is natural
and right that any thoughtful person brought face to face with assertions such
as those put forth in the preceding pages, should demand what proof is
forthcoming to substantiate the propositions laid down. A reasonable person
will not demand full and complete proof available to all comers, without study
and without painstaking.
He will admit
that the advanced theories of a science cannot be demonstrated to one ignorant
of its first principles, and he will be prepared to find that very much will
have been alleged which can only be proved to those who have made some
progress in
their study. An essay on the higher mathematics, on the correlation of forces,
on the atomic theory, on the molecular constitution of chemical compounds,
would contain many statements the proofs of which would only be
available for
those who had devoted time and thought to the study of the elements of the
science concerned.
And so an
unprejudiced person, confronted with the Theosophical view of the constitution
of man, would readily admit that he could not expect complete demonstration
until he had mastered the elements of the Theosophical science.
None the less
are there general proofs available in every science which suffice to justify
its existence and to encourage study of its more recondite truths; and in
Theosophy it is possible to indicate lines of proof which can be followed by
the untrained enquirer, and which justify him in devoting time and pains to a
study which gives promise of a wider and deeper knowledge of himself and of
external nature than is otherwise attainable.
It is well to
say at the outset that there is no proof available to the average enquirer of
the existence of the three higher planes of which we have spoken.
The realms of
Spirit, and of the higher mind are closed to all save those who have evolved
the faculties necessary for their investigation.
Those who
have evolved these faculties need no proof of the existence of those realms; to
those who have not, no proof of their existence can be given. That there is
something above the astral and the lower levels of the mental plane may indeed
be proved by the flashes of genius, the lofty intuitions, that from time to
time lighten the darkness of our lower world.
But what that
something is, only those can say whose inner eyes have been opened, who see
where the race as a whole is still blind. But the lower planes are susceptible
to proof, and fresh proofs are accumulating day be day. The Masters of Wisdom
are using the investigators and thinkers of the Western world to make
"discoveries" which tend to substantiate the outposts of the
Theosophical position, and the lines which they are following are exactly those
which are needed for the finding of natural laws which will justify the
assertions of
Theosophists with regard to the elementary "powers" and
"phenomena" to which such exaggerated importance has been given.
If it is
found that we have undeniable facts which establish the existence of planes
other than the physical on which consciousness can work ; which establish the
existence of senses and powers of perception other than those with which we
are familiar
in daily life ; which establish the existence of powers of communication
between intelligences without the use of mechanical apparatus, surely, under
these circumstances, the Theosophist may claim that he has made out a prima
facie case for further investigation of his doctrines.
Let us then,
confine ourselves to the lower planes of which we have spoken in the preceding
pages, and the four lower principles in man which are correlated with these
planes. Of these four, we may dismiss one, that of Prâna, as none will
challenge the fact of the existence of the energy we call "life" ;
the need of isolating it for purposes of study may be challenged, and in very
truth the plane of Prâna, or the principle of Prâna, runs through all other
planes, all other principles, interpenetrating all and binding all in one.
There remain
for our study the physical plane, the astral plane, the lower levels of the manasic
plane. Can we substitute these by proofs which will be
accepted by
those who are not yet Theosophists? I think we can.
First, as
regards the physical plane. We need here to notice how the senses of man are
correlated with the physical universe outside him, and how his knowledge of
that universe is bounded by the power of his organs of sense to vibrate in
response to
vibrations set up outside him. He can hear when the air is thrown into
vibrations into which the drum of his ear can also be thrown; if the vibration
be so slow that the drum cannot vibrate in answer, the person does not hear any
sound.
If the
vibration be so rapid that the drum cannot vibrate in answer, the person does
not hear any sound. So true is this, that the limit of hearing in different
persons varies with this power of vibration of the drums of their respective
ears ; one
person is plunged in silence, while another is deafened by the keen shrilling
that is throwing into tumult the air around both.
The same
principle holds good for sight ; we see so long as the light waves are of a
length to which our organs of sight can respond ; below and beyond this length
we are in darkness, let the ether vibrate as it may. The ant can see where we
are blind, because its eye can receive and respond to etheric
vibrations
more rapid than we can sense.
All this
suggests to any thoughtful person the idea that if our senses could be evolved
to more responsiveness, new avenues of knowledge would be opened up even on the
physical plane ; this realised, it is not difficult to go a step farther,
and to
conceive that keener and subtler senses might exist which would open up, as it
were, a new universe on a plane other than the physical.
Now this conception
is true, and with the evolution of the astral senses the astral plane unfolds
itself, and may be studied as really, as scientifically, as
the physical
universe can be. These astral senses exist in all men, but are latent in most,
and generally need to be artificially forced, if they are to be used in the
present stage of evolution. In a few persons they are normally present and
become active without any artificial impulse.
In very many
persons they can be artificially awakened and developed. The condition, in all
cases, of the activity of the astral senses is the passivity of the physical,
and the more complete passivity on the physical plane the greater the
possibility of activity on the astral.
It is
noteworthy that Western psychologists have found it necessary to investigate
what is termed the "dream consciousness," in order to understand the
workings of
consciousness as a whole. It is impossible to ignore the strange phenomena
which characterise the workings of consciousness when it is removed from the
limitations of the physical plane, and some of the most able and advanced of
our psychologists do not think these workings to be in any way unworthy of the
most careful and scientific investigation.
All such
workings are, in Theosophical language, on the astral plane, and the student
who seeks for proof there is an astral plane may here find enough and to spare.
He will speedily discover that the laws under which consciousness works on the
physical plane have no existence on the astral. E.g., the laws of space and
time, which are here the very conditions of thought, do not exist
forconsciousness when its activity is transferred to the astral world.
Mozart hears
a whole symphony as a single impression, "as in a fine and strong
dream" (Philosophy of Mysticism, Du Prel, vol. I, p. 106), but has to work
it out in successive details when he brings it back with him to the physical
plane.
The dream of
the moment contains a mass of events that would take years to pass in
succession in our world of space and time. The drowning man sees his life
history in a few seconds. But it is needless to multiply instances.
The astral
plane may be reached in sleep or in trance, natural or induced, i.e.., in any
case in which the body is reduced to a condition of lethargy. It is in trance
that it can best be studied, and here our enquirer will soon find proof that
consciousness can work apart from the physical organism, unfettered by the laws
that bind it while it works on the physical plane.
Clairvoyance
and clairaudience are among the most interesting of the phenomena that here lie
for investigation. It is not necessary here to give a large number of cases of
clairvoyance, for I am supposing that the enquirer intends to study
for himself.
But I may mention the case of Jane Rider, observed by Dr. Belden, her medical
attendant, a girl who could read and write with her eyes carefully covered with
wads of cotton wool, coming down from to the middle of the cheek
(Isis
Revelata, vol. I, p. 37).
Of a
clairvoyant observed by Schelling who announced the death of a relative at a
distance of 150 leagues, and stated that the letter containing the news of the
death was on its way (ibid., vol. II,p, 89-92); of Madame Lagrandré, who
diagnosed the internal state of her mother, giving a description that was
proved to be correct by the post-mortem examination (Somnolism and Psychism,
Dr. Haddock,p. 54-56); of Emma, Dr. Haddock’s somnambule, who constantly
diagnosed
diseases for
him (ibid., chap. vii.).
Speaking
generally, the clairvoyant can see and describe events which are taking place
at a distance, or under circumstances that render physical sight impossible.
How is this done? The facts are beyond dispute. They require explanation. We
say that consciousness can work through senses other than the physical, senses
unfettered by the limitations of space which exist for our bodily senses, and
cannot by them be transcended.
Those who
deny the possibility of such working on what we call the astral plane should at
least endeavour to present a hypothesis more reasonable than ours.
Facts are
stubborn things, and we have here a mass of facts proving the existence of
conscious activity on a superphysical plane, of sight without eyes, hearing
without ears, obtaining knowledge without physical apparatus. In default
of any other
explanation, the Theosophical hypothesis holds the field.
There is
another class of facts: that of etheric and astral appearances, whether of living
or dead persons, wraiths, apparitions, doubles, ghosts, etc., etc. Of course
the omniscient person of the end of the nineteenth century will sniff with
lofty disdain at the mention of such silly superstitions. But sniffs do not
abolish facts, and it is a question of evidence.
The weight of
evidence is enormously on the side of such appearances, and in all ages of the
world human testimony has borne witness to their reality. The enquirer whose
demand for proof I have in view may well set to work to gather first hand
evidence on this head. Of course if he is afraid of being laughed at he had
better leave the matter alone, but if he is robust enough to face the ridicule
of the superior person he will be amazed at the evidence which he will collect
from persons who have themselves come into contact with astral forms.
"Illusions!
hallucinations! " the superior person will say. But calling names settles
nothing. Illusions to which the vast majority of the human race bears
witness are
at least worthy of study, if human testimony is to be taken as of any worth.
There must be something which gives rise to this unanimity of testimony in all
ages of the world, testimony which is found today among civilised people, amid
railways and electric lights, as well as among barbarous races.
The testimony
of millions of Spiritualists to the reality of etheric and astral forms cannot
be left out of consideration. When all cases of fraud and imposture are
discounted there remain phenomena that cannot be dismissed as fraudulent, and
that can be examined by any persons who care to give time and trouble to the
investigation.
There is no
necessity to employ a professional medium ; a few friends well know to each
other, can carry on their search together; and it is not too much to say that
any half-dozen persons, with a little patience and perseverance, may convince
themselves of the existence of forces and of intelligences other than those of
the physical plane.
There is
danger in this research to any emotional, nervous, and easily influenced
natures, and it is well not to carry the investigations too far, for
the reasons
given on the previous pages. But there is no readier way of breaking down the
unbelief in the existence of anything outside the physical plane than trying a
few experiments, and it is worth while to run some risk in order to effect this
breaking down.
These are but
hints as to lines that the enquirer may follow, so as to convince himself that
there is a state of consciousness such as we label "astral." When he
has collected evidence enough to make such a state probable to him, it will be
time for him to be put in the way of serious study.
For real
investigation of the astral plane, the student must develop in himself the
necessary senses, and to make his knowledge available while he is in the body,
he must learn to transfer his consciousness to the astral plane without losing
grip of the physical organism, so that he may impress on the physical brain the
knowledge acquired during his astral voyagings.
But for this
he will need to be not a mere enquirer but a student, and he will require the
aid and guidance of a teacher. As to finding that teacher, "when the pupil
is ready the teacher is always there." Further proofs of the existence of
the astral plane are, at the present time, most easily found in the study of
mesmeric and hypnotic phenomena. And here, ere passing to these, I am bound to
put in a word
of warning.
The use of
mesmerism and hypnotism is surrounded by danger. The publicity which
attends on
all scientific discoveries in the West has scattered broadcast knowledge which
places within the reach of the criminally disposed powers of the
most terrible
character, which may be used for the most damnable purposes.
No good man
or woman will use these powers, if he finds that he possesses them, save when
he utilises them purely for human service, without personal end in view, and
when he is very sure that he is not by their means usurping control over the
will and the actions of another human being. Unhappily the use of these forces
is as open to the bad as to the good, and they may be, and are being, used to
most nefarious ends.
In view of
these new dangers menacing individuals and society, each will do well to
strengthen the habits of self-control and of concentration of thought and will,
so as to encourage the positive mental attitude as opposed to the negative, and
thus to oppose a sustained resistance to all influences coming from without.
Our loose
habits of thought, our lack of distinct and conscious purpose, lay us open to
the attacks of the evil-minded hypnotiser, and that this is a real, not a
fancied, danger has been already proved by cases that have brought the victims
within grasp of the criminal law. It may be hoped that ere long such hypnotic
malpractices may be brought within the criminal code.
While thus in
the attitude of caution and of self-defence, we may yet wisely study the
experiments made public to the world, in our search for preliminary proofs of the
existence of the astral plane. For here Western science is on the
very verge of
discovering some of those "powers" of which Theosophists have said so
much, and we have the right to use in justification of our teachings all the
facts with which that science may supply us.
Now, one of
the most important classes of these facts is that of thoughts rendered visible
as forms. A hypnotised person, after being awakened from trance and being
apparently in normal possession of his senses, can be made to see any form
conceived by the hypnotiser. No word need be spoken, no touch given ; it
suffices that the hypnotiser should clearly image to himself some idea, and
that idea becomes a visible and tangible object to the person under his
control.
This
experiment may be tried in various ways ; while the patient is in trance,
"suggestion" may be used; that is, the operator may tell him that a
bird is on his knee, and on awaking from the trance he will see the bird and
will stroke it (Etudes Cliniques sur la Grand Hystérie, Richet, p. 645); or
that he has a lampshade between his hands, and on awaking he will press his
hands against it,
feeling
resistance in the empty air (Animal Magnetism, translated from. Binet and
Féré,p. 213).
Scores of
these experiments may be read in Richet or in Binet and Féré. Similar results
may be effected without "suggestion," by pure concentration of the
thought; I have seen a patient thus made to remove a ring from a person’s
finger,
without word spoken or touch passing between hypnotiser and hypnotised.
The
literature of mesmerism and hypnotism in English, French, and German is now
very extensive, and it is open to every one. There may be sought the evidence
of this creation of forms by thought and will, forms which, on the astral plane,
are real and
objective. Mesmerism and hypnotism set the intelligence free on this plane, and
it works thereon without the hindrance normally imposed by the physical
apparatus ; it can see and hear on that plane, and sees thoughts as things.
Here, again,
for real study, it is necessary to learn how thus to transfer the consciousness
while retaining hold of the physical organism ; but for
preliminary
inquiry it suffices to study others whose consciousness is artificially
liberated without their own volition. This reality of thought
images on a
superphysical plane is a fact of the very highest importance, especially in its
bearing on reincarnation; but it is enough here to point to it as one of the
facts which go to show the prima facie probability of the existence of such a
plane.
Another class
of facts deserving study is that which includes the phenomena of
thought-transference, and here we reach the lower levels of the mental, or
manasic,
plane. The Transactions of the Psychical Research Society contain a large
number of interesting experiments on this subject, and the possibility of the
transference of thought from brain to brain without the use of words, or of
any means of
ordinary physical communication, is on the verge of general acceptance.
And two
persons, gifted with patience, may convince themselves of this possibility, if
they care to devote to the effort sufficient time and perseverance. Let them
agree to give, say, ten minutes daily to their experiment, and fixing on the
time, let each shut himself up alone, secure from interruption of any kind. Let
one be the thought projector, the other the thought-receiver, and it is safer
to alternate these positions, in order to avoid risk of one becoming
permanently abnormally passive.
Let the thought
projector concentrate himself on a definite thought and the will to impress it
on his friend ; no other idea than the one must enter his mind ; his thought
must be concentrated on the one thing, "one–pointed" in the graphic
language of Patanjali. The thought receiver, on the other hand, must render his
mind a blank, and must merely note the thoughts that drift into it. These he
should put
down as they appear, his only care being to remain passive, to reject nothing,
to encourage nothing.
The thought-projector,
on his side, should keep a record of the ideas he tries to send, and at the end
of six months the two records should be compared. Unless the persons are
abnormally deficient in thought and will, some power of communication will by
that time have been established between them: and if they are at all psychic
they will probably also have developed the power of see in
each other in
the astral light.
It may be
objected that such an experiment would be wearisome and monotonous. Granted.
All first hand investigations into natural laws and forces are wearisome and
monotonous. That is why nearly every one prefers second-hand to
firsthand
knowledge ; the "sublime patience of the investigator" is one of the
rarest gifts. Darwin would perform an apparently trivial experiment hundreds of
times to substantiate one small fact .
The
supersensuous domains certainly do not need for their conquest less patience
and less effort than the sensuous. Impatience never yet accomplished anything
in the questioning of nature, and the would-be student must, at the very
outset,
show the
tireless perseverance which can perish but cannot relinquish its hold.
Finally, let
me advise the inquirer to keep his eyes open for new discoveries, especially in
the sciences of electricity, physics, and chemistry. Let him read Professor
Lodge’s address to the British Association at Cardiff in the autumn of 1891 and
Professor Crookes’ address to the Society of Electrical Engineers in London the
following November.
He will there
find pregnant hints of the lines along which Western science is preparing to
advance, and he will perchance begin to feel that there may be something in
H.P.Blavatsky’s statement that the Masters of Wisdom are preparing to give
proofs that will substantiate the Secret Doctrine.
The Seven
Planes and the principles functioning thereon
7 x
6 x
5 Atma.
Spirit Spiritual
4 Buddhi.
Spiritual Soul
3 Manas.
Human Soul. Mental
2 Kâma.
Astral or Desire-Body Astral
1 Prâna. Etheric
Double. Dense Physical Body Physical
Another
Division according to the Principles
7 Atma
Spiritual
6 Buddhi
5 Higher
Manas Mental
Principles
closely interwoven during earth life.
Sometimes
called high Psychic Plane
4 Lower
Manas
3 Kâma Astral
2 Prâna.
Etheric Double Physical
1 Dense
Physical Body
Another
Division also according the Principles
7 Atmâ
Spiritual
6 Buddhi
5 Manas
Mental
4 Kâma
Astral
3 Prâna
Physical
2 Etheric
Double
1 Dense
Physical Body
These two
latter divisions are matters of convenience in classification. The first
diagram gives the planes themselves as they exist in nature.
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Concerns about the fate of the
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Concerns are raised about the fate of
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wildlife as The Spiritual Retreat,
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Tekels Park is a 50 acre woodland
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Classic
Introductory Theosophy Text
A Text Book of
Theosophy By C W Leadbeater
What Theosophy Is From the Absolute to Man
The Formation of a Solar System The Evolution of Life
The Constitution of Man After Death Reincarnation
The Purpose of Life The Planetary Chains
The Result of Theosophical Study
An Outstanding
Introduction to Theosophy
By a student of
Katherine Tingley
Elementary Theosophy Who is the Man? Body and Soul
Body, Soul and Spirit Reincarnation Karma
Preface to the American Edition Introduction
Occultism and its Adepts The Theosophical Society
First Occult Experiences Teachings of Occult Philosophy
Later Occult Phenomena Appendix
Preface
Theosophy and the Masters General Principles
The Earth Chain Body and Astral Body Kama – Desire
Manas Of Reincarnation Reincarnation Continued
Karma Kama Loka
Devachan
Cycles
Arguments Supporting Reincarnation
Differentiation Of Species Missing Links
Psychic Laws, Forces, and Phenomena
Psychic Phenomena and Spiritualism
Karma Fundamental Principles Laws: Natural and Man-Made The Law of Laws
The Eternal Now
Succession
Causation The Laws of Nature A Lesson of The Law
Karma Does Not Crush Apply This Law
Man in The Three Worlds Understand The Truth
Man and His Surroundings The Three Fates
The Pair of Triplets Thought, The Builder
Practical Meditation Will and Desire
The Mastery of Desire Two Other Points
The Third Thread Perfect Justice
Our Environment
Our Kith and Kin Our Nation
The Light for a Good Man Knowledge of Law The Opposing Schools
The More Modern View Self-Examination Out of the Past
Old Friendships
We Grow By Giving Collective Karma Family Karma
National Karma
India’s Karma
National Disasters
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